#as well as my rings of power fan project

[rings-of-power-realm]

Critics Choice Awards Nominee Ismael Cruz Cordova ‘Arondir’ The Rings of Power season one 🏹

Get yoursELF an elf who can do it all

#ismael cruz córdova #the rings of power #arondir #season one #various #this was SO HARD #I literally love every second of his performance #from emotional to action he is up there with my very fave LOTR characters #Im excited to make more content #Im just focusing a bit on Merlin 10th anniversary of the finale this December #and thats very special to me #and next year I wanna do a LOTR event to celebrate 20 years since the last movie release #as well as my rings of power fan project #phew lol #but I love this rop fandom y'all so funny and talented and sweet #and Im glad we're building a safe positive community :) #ropedit

[bengiyo]

Cherry Magic TH Ep 12 (Finale) Stray Thoughts

Last week, Achi went to a different city to help set up a new office. There, he had to work on his social skills to bond with the new staff, and succeeded through the power of his good nature and soccer. Karan and Achi stayed in touch the entire time they were separated, and Karan visited twice. Achi hesitated about coming out, but was rewarded when the new team was completely supportive and only asked about his partner so they knew who to contact. Meanwhile, Jinta talked Min into not giving up on an audition, and Min said he loved Jinta. We left on Achi losing his powers in a very satisfying bed scene and afterglow.

Achi really lucked out with Karan.

I'm so proud of Achi for managing to complete this project and earn the confidence of this team.

Ah yes, a finale. It's time to meet the parents.

Boss, don't remind me of the no dating rule.

Pai is such a supportive friend.

NOT THE BALLOONS SOUNDING LIKE GUNSHOTS

Damn, Mom, why you gotta dunk on your own son??

It's fine, she's definitely cool with it. She already put them to work and doled out advice.

I love Karan so much. This man recorded Achi expressing love in the Northern dialect, and Achi agreed so he wouldn't have to say it often.

It couldn't all be cherries on tablecloths. Looks like Karan is maintaining continuity with his Japanese counterpart's family.

Achi's mom hugging Karan is something that can be so personal.

I will never get over Jinta wearing sunglasses over his glasses.

Yes, let's model good fan behavior with the artist. They only jumped because they thought Jinta was trying to kidnap Min and then calmed down. They're even fans of Jinta's book!

Absolutely love that Karan is not withholding his feelings from Achi about how his mom might be homophobic.

AN 8 HOUR DRIVE? Are we going to Dallas???

Give that man his reward, Achi!

Welp, I knew it was too simple with Karan's mom. She very smoothly shoved them into a closet.

I'm glad it's the sister having this conversation with the mom.

She said her piece and counted to three!!!

Karan being a little brother makes so much sense every time.

Look at Tay Tawan acting. I know the mom and dad turning around so quickly is a bit unrealistic, but I like the aspirational nature of it. It could be this easy if we tried hard enough for each other.

Of course he proposed. I love this man.

You know he's had that ring ready for a while!

COME THROUGH, ACHI!! MUTUAL GAY PROPOSAL!!!

Wow, that was everything I hoped for and more out of the family stuff.

Whoa, did Jinta reveal he popped that cherry?

Oh, it's also the symbol for Min's group.

Aww, Rock has a fan!!

Pai is definitely shipping Rock and the fan.

Save the date!!

Well well well, Cherry Magic Thailand. Good job being explicit about marriage equality.

Okay, I like the reference to the pens.

I'm okay with Rock and Pai getting to date.

These two are very good at the aesthetics of an onscreen kiss.

Final Verdict: 9.5, This is Now My Default Version. I did not expect to come out on the other end of this liking the Thai version more than the Japanese live action, but here we are. Minus episode 8 (which I will pretend doesn't exist), this was perfect execution of the core premise and strong regard for the character dynamics. This show earned every moment, and managed to deliver a satisfying finale for the whole cast. It's been a long week of finales, and I like how good so many were. TayNew getting back together was not something I expected, and I'm so thrilled that they delivered such a strong outing. What a time to be a Cherry Magic fan. I'm excited to keep reporting on the anime and then talk about all three shows.

#Ben watches #cherry magic #cherry magic th #cherry magic thailand #cherry magic! thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?! #30 sai made doutei dato mahoutsukai ni nareru rashii #thai bl #bl series

[the-ninjago-historian]

Ninjago: Into The Deep (Master Post, Summary, and Q and A!)

Hello everyone! Thanks for stopping by! If you've been on my blog, you probably know about this upcoming project. But for those of you who don't, what is Ninjago: Into The Deep? I'll tell you! Ninjago: Into The Deep is a fully fleshed out Ninjago fan season inspired by legendary fantasy works such as Narnia, Lord of The Rings, and even classic Disney films and more modern adventure stories like Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Here's the summary!

Things are looking up for the Ninja since their battle with the Crystal King! Jay and Nya have gotten married, Lloyd is now training to become a sensei, and Ninjago City hasn't had a major disaster in over a month! (A new record!) Everything seems to be going well, until the team receives a mysterious letter from Queen Vania, requesting their presence.

Once they arrive, they discover an evil plot, orchestrated by former king Vangelis, to overthrow Vania and take the throne again! And having a taste of conquest while on the Crystal Council, the disgraced monarch has his sights set on the rest of Ninjago as well! Powered by a new energy source, Vangelis is now far too powerful for the Ninja to defeat with their current abilities. They must find a new way to defeat him!

This takes the Ninja on a quest to a new world! The magical and beautiful subterranean kingdom of The Deep Lands! There, they must find the Elemental Beasts. Seven creatures created by the FSM and imbued with elemental powers, to teach the first Elemental Masters how to use their abilities. And who control the very balance of nature itself! From these magical beings, the Ninja will learn new powers and skills that are beyond their wildest dreams, and take down Vangelis once and for all! So join us, as we meet new friends, experience new powers, and journey Into The Deep.🍃🌊🔥🪨❄️🐲⚡

So that's it! I also have some cool concept art that should be finished soon!

Now here's some Q and A to answer all your questions! Some are from one of followers, and others I added in just to give general information. 😁 If you don't see a question being answered that you would like to see answered, please feel free to send it in!

(Under the cut because this is LOOOOOONG.)

First some general info.

Q: How will the episodes be released?

A: Each episode is three chapters long. Therefore, split into three parts. (Kinda like how you would have two commercial breaks in a real episode of Ninjago!) One episode will be released every week! Via a released chapter every Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Q: How many episodes will there be?

A: 16-20. About as many a regular season of Ninjago would have!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Q: What is this series rating?

A: G - PG! I don't do adult humor or gore. So it will be about as kid friendly as a usual Ninjago Season!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Q: Will there be exclusive characters?

A: Yes! Several! Some including the Elemental Beasts, and even Cole's Grandfather Rocky! More will be released as the series goes on.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Q: Will the season ever be animated?

A: If I aquire the time, resources, and skills, absolutely!

Now, let's answer some questions from one of my followers and awesome friend @dexter-the-dog!

A: Probably the only thing that makes it an Alternate Universe is that Dragons Rising isn't canon to this story. Other than that, it should fit nicely with the canon.

A: YES! The Elemental Beasts! They are so cool! I can't even put it into words! Currently, there are six Elemental Beasts. One for Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Lightning, and Air. The Air Beast will have a very important role to play in this story! I'm also partial to Cole's Grandfather Rocky, who will also be making an appearance! He's a very interesting guy. And super powerful too! After all, he fought the Serpentine and the Time Twins! So he has quite a few tricks up his sleeve!

A: As Doc would say, #NoSpoilers! Lol! But there is a really cool scene were Nya uses her powers in a new way! It should be EPIC. So cool in fact, I just might animate it!

A: Ah! I can answer both of these! Since Into The Deep is a fan season, it will try to fit into the canon as closely as possible. That being said, the characters are exactly as you would see them in the canon show. No backgrounds or roles changed. But whether they will gain new abilities or new roles? Well that I can't say without spoiling things.

A: It's definitely the Cole x Vania story I have planned. Lol. Yeah, I ship them. I think they're cute. And they'll have plenty of cute moments in this story!

A: Into The Deep happens about a month or two after Crystalized. :)

A: I've been waiting to answer this one! The Elemental Beasts take on a mentor role for each of their appointed ninja. They will help them learn new abilities and fight their inner demons to truly become their most powerful selves. They're also are basically Nature Spirits. Each one controls a certain element in nature from their base kingdoms in the Deep Lands. Because of this, they can never leave to go up to the surface, or the balance would be offset. This factor is important, so make sure you remember it while reading.

And that's all the questions I got! That was fun!

Before I end this post, I'm gonna tag a few people I remember being interested in this thing! (@rinkunokoisuru @shatteredhope123 @miraculous-stud @nocturnal-nexu @dexter-the-dog) Hope you guys enjoy all this info! And thank you for all your love and support. It's really kept me going.😁🫶

Well, that's all for now! Keep an eye out for updates! And I'll see you around! Bye! - ✒️🐉

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago lego #Ninjago: Into The Deep #ink dragon #My art #cole x vania #vania x cole #ninjago oc #ocs #jay x nya #nya x jay #jaya #cole brookestone #cole ninjago #cole brookstone #ninjago cole #vania ninjago #ninjago vania #vangelis ninjago #ninjago vangelis #princess vania #king vangelis #jay ninjago #ninjago jay #jay walker #nya ninjago #ninjago nya #nya smith #vanillacakeshipping

[immortalarizona]

“They say looks can kill, and I might try.” — Taylor Swift, “Vigilante Shit”

an outfit for my beloved Wanda if she ends up going to the 2024 Hellfire Gala (if there is one at all tbh)!! I wasn't personally a fan of her 2023 look, so I decided to try my hand at designing a look of my own despite knowing jack shit about fashion. design breakdown, inspiration photos, and just general rambling under the cut :)

main inspo:

top row: left by REEM ACRA, right by unknown

middle row: sketches by Kevin Wada

bottom row: garments by Zita Moldovan (website)

--

hehe, this is the part where I ramble about my design process!! I will confess, it took me four full sketches before I finally managed to purge the "high fantasy fairy queen dress" brainrot from my mind and arrive at a concept that actually felt like Wanda. given that as of her 2023 solo run, she's a self-employed business owner, a twist on a suit felt appropriate!! it's elegant, it's dramatic, it's sexy, it's powerful, and it's also a garment that, like, real people could wear?? which, I know this is a comic book and she also has magic, but, like. girl deserves a fit that's also reasonably comfortable. girl deserves pockets (I didn't showcase them, but the pants absolutely have humongous magic pockets.) talking fabric, I will confess that I really don't know much, but I picture the red fabric being pretty thick silk and the black fabric possibly being velvet? the shoes are beaded pretty much all over with the same crystal material as the crown.

as I continued to refine my concept, I looked to Kevin Wada's 2015 redesign for Wanda's last solo run for more inspiration. that's how I arrived at concepts such as the use of beaded accessories, floral embroidery, and especially the plunging neckline. I also knew I wanted to pay homage to Wanda's heritage without being stereotypical, so I decided to look to Zita Moldovan, a Romani designer whose site is linked above, to see how she incorporated her culture into her work. (as an aside, there's this other dress from her Romany Dreams collection that I would LOVE to draw Wanda in at some point, but that was not this project. maybe soon.) the dress I included in my (very, very trimmed down) inspo board was my primary reference as I drew the pattern for the pant part of the pantsuit. (I attempted multiple versions where the pattern was in color, but it wound up looking really muddy, so I opted for the slightly more subtle version you see here.) the pose for the final piece doesn't showcase the epaulette well (or the crown pin, which was another reference to the Kevin Wada design), so here's a bonus sketch that came out of the "design" part of this whole project that shows them both better:

anyone who has followed my art knows that I generally draw my Wanda with a high ponytail, but I decided to spice things up and draw her with a half-up like she has circa Uncanny Avengers #27 (this is when she and Jericho are being so very sweet together). the golden hoop earrings are another thing I carried over from my general Wanda design, and the makeup is just a quick thing I came up with on the fly. it's not the spiciest, I know, but I decided there was enough going on elsewhere that she didn't need a crazy makeup look as well. the full-finger ring is specifically a reference to her very first appearance in X-Men #4, where she calls upon her power by pointing her right index finger. I thought it would be cool to accentuate that finger as a result!!

and there you have it--a tribute to Kevin Wada and Zita Moldovan from an artist who knows nothing about fashion but does have severe enough blorbo brainrot to attempt to design an outfit regardless :D

shoutout to @jookpubstock for once again enabling my shenanigans :)

#ari does art #marvel #scarlet witch #wanda maximoff #romani wanda maximoff #jewish wanda maximoff #alba flores as wanda maximoff #marvel fanart #hellfire gala #digital art #artists on tumblr

[maylorscardigan]

Has matty said anything about his new "t" tattoo?

What's your thoughts on it?

Okay. My thoughts.

I think this is one of those dual meaning tattoos. Hear me out.

First and foremost - it’s a cross with the lines and it is found on the back of the LP version of GY!BE’s debut “F#A#♾️”

Two versions of this record were made. One was an independent project coming from Canada and the other was after they signed to a record company. The LP is the indie version.

Side A is in F# and is regret. Side B is in A# and is desire.

It’s described as: “human beings are in a constant loop of regretting and desiring, preventing us from moving forward” and “we’re trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death”

The song “dead flag blues” is described as a post apocalyptic wasteland that is slowly being illuminated by the sun rising

The LP as a whole is like a post-rock orchestral piece. It’s also shorter by the CD release by half. The cross on his arm is on the back of the LP. Only 500 or so were ever printed.

When you consider Matty… constant loop of regretting and desiring… feeling like you can’t move forward….

Anyone who has ever had an addiction or knows someone who has had an addiction- you know how that is an endless cycle they feel like they’re in. The analogy of the being trapped in the belly of the machine and the machine is bleeding to death is a good way of describing not only his addictions but his personal experiences with the media and fandom. When combining both meanings… think of it as a symbol of Matty wanting to break that endless cycle and move towards a better future for himself (throwing out the Truman Black jacket, or how his stage persona has changed etc) and finding his way out of the belly of the machine and away from the public perception of who he is.

Then include the meaning behind the first song.

A post apocalyptic wasteland that is slowly being illuminated by by the rising Sun.

The cross is a symbol of that and he is working his way out of his personal apocalypse.

Now - look at the symbol itself. What is it? It’s a cross that is illuminated. The cross itself doesn’t need to be described when it comes to the apocalypse but the illumination is a sign of hope. Of better things. (As Sam said in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers… “when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer”.) Another way to consider the power of the meaning… for those of us who were alive then… 2001. 9/11. I was in 9th grade and I remember getting the newspaper every day after the attacks to keep informed on it all and one day, on the cover, there was a picture of a cross that was made from the steel beams. The sun was shining down on it. That image has stayed with me my entire life. I’m not religious in any way but it was still a symbolic thing. It now sits at the memory, acting as a symbol. Those at ground zero described it as a symbol of hope and that it gave them a sense of peace.

That whole idea fits into the themes of the LP.

Now all of that - that’s my primary explanation of the tattoo. But I did say that this could be a dual meaning tattoo.

And this is where you enter the garden gates with me.

Like a song… the meaning of it may not always be what it seems at the surface level. As fans of Taylor and the 1975… we know this is the case.

The cross is on his left arm. When you have a heart attack… your left arm often hurts. Why?

The nerves that branch from the heart and those coming from the arm send signals to the same brain cells. Your brain cannot tell the difference between the two so it’s a deferred pain. I got my sons name on my left arm for the reason that it was the arm directly connected to my heart.

But Matty isn’t religious. Why would he have a cross that is connected to his heart. An illuminated one at that? Well - the symbolism is enough of an explanation. He’s got a connection to the album and it has meaning to his life. But this is the garden so we don’t always look at the most obvious.

The fandom went crazy when it was first seen because, like you, we all thought it was a lower case t. I agree that it does - especially since the T is visible facing him. I have another tattoo on my left arm which reads towards me because it’s significant to me. On my other arm I have text written with it going out towards the reader because that’s how it’s meant to be read.

The cross looking like a t facing him is a symbol of the thing in his life that illuminates his life and helps lead him from the personal apocalypse.

Think about how he said “I can’t kiss you in front of Taylor Swift!” And how his behaviour started to shift after things formed more and more between them… how he said things happen in eras and his asshole era was over? How he filmed the announcement for the USA tour not far from where he was staying with Taylor (and rumoured to have moved in) and it was there he threw out the jacket with “Truman Black” on it? Think about how the whole “Still… at their very best” was described.

ATVB was Matty in his single man era. It was meant to tell a story of who he was then but it’s no longer who he is now… and again that video…. The bejeweled Easter eggs… etc etc etc.

Just think about it. It makes sense and is actually one of the sweetest things I can think about.

#that cross tattoo man #rabbit hole #matty healy #the 1975 #maylor #tatty #anon #deeper meanings #tattoos are powerful

[periodiccompletionist]

so anyway

the 10 new elements i added on top of the original 118 (as well as their periodic symbols that i made up on the spot) are:

A - Adamant(ine) - From Greek Mythology, known for being incredibly durable and difficult to break

Ad - Netherite - From Minecraft (symbol is short for Ancient Debris), a tough and fire-resistant material

Cy - Chlorophyte - From Terraria, capable of harnessing powers of plant life

Hd - Hedonium - Philosophical element, "optimal for generating pleasure" (idk i got all these from wikipedia)

My - Mithril/Mythril - From Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Maple Story, Terraria, etc.

Nv - Ninovium - A fake element "discovered" by Victor Ninov

Or - Orichalcum - From Atlantis mythology, a pink/red metal mined in the mountains of Atlantis

Sp - Surprise - From the phrase "The element of surprise;" this was requested multiple times

Uo - Unobtainium - A catch-all term for a fictional element or mineral; used in James Cameron's Avatar and also as an aerospace term

Wa - Wishalloy - Another catch-all term for a fictional element or mineral; used in the Pokemon fan-made project Pokefarm Q and is also an aerospace term

#not a tally #Periodic Table Tournament #there wasnt a lot of reception to the idea but i decided that i wanted to do it anyway #ill start posting the polls soonish after ive given people some time to look over this

[somebirdortheother]

Writing Patterns

Tagged by @iamstartraveller776. Thank you so much! I have never actually analyzed my writing patterns in this way, so we are about to learn together!

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

(I'm going to add both my original and fan fiction, from most to least recent.)

Original and still unnamed sci-fi novel WIP: The anomaly began as a mere flicker—a staticky blur across visual displays, rhythmically dimming and brightening over the span of nearly a minute.

Twin Primes - Foundation TV - Hari Seldon/Gaal Dornick: Gaal didn’t remember the act of actually getting aboard the ship after the last-minute rescue. 

See You How You Really Are - Foundation TV - Cleon XIII/Demerzel: It was the imperial year 12,100, or exactly five hundred years since Cleon the First had begun the ill-fated Star Bridge project, the remnants of which no longer shrouded the sky of Trantor with a bitter reminder of the empire’s string of recent failures.

Electric Tonight - Foundation TV - Demerzel & Shadowmaster Obrecht, Cleon XIII/Demerzel: It was on the hundredth day on the surface of the Maiden that Demerzel found herself having to concede her ill-suited nature for the role of a construction supervisor.

Hunt You Down - Foundation TV - Demerzel/Zephyr Halima, Cleon XIII/Demerzel: Walking the Spiral would take Brother Day approximately two days. 

The Middle Throne - Foundation TV - Cleon XIII/Demerzel: “...My deepest apologies for the intrusion -”

Day by Day - Foundation TV - Cleon XIII/Demerzel: Serves me right for taunting her over her Palace position for all these centuries. 

Barbarus - Rings of Power - Galadriel/Halbrand: Ever since the shocking news hit that Professor Sauron had accepted a teaching position at Cambridge, his classes have been a steady hit.

The Adventures of the Low Man - Rings of Power - Galadriel/Halbrand: The eruption of Orodruin had been fortuitous.

To Smith or Not to Smith - Rings of Power - Celebrimbor was one of the best smiths and craftsmen ever.

Well... I have to say, I do not believe I have a pattern, friends! I have to admit that I'm happy with that, because every time I write, I try to have a distinct project, a distinct universe with distinct goals.

Tagging, with no pressure and much curiosity: @coraleethroughthelookingglass @lady-of-imladris @lapestelareste @brotherdusk @thelettersfromnoone

#writer asks #writing patterns #original fiction #fanfiction

[sunwukongssuccessor]

You have a very good understanding of Sun Wukong and Macaque, I can tell by how amazing your writing is! Have your ever thought about doing a character analysis of those two? I’m asking because I have ideas for LMK fics and wanted to try and keep them as in character as possible and something like that would help me and a lot of other writers out there!

Anonymous asked: Sorry for not being specific! If my request is too intimidating please don’t push yourself to do it! As for specifics in the character analysis of the monkeys I guess maybe a dive into their surface level personality versus true personalities, their relationship with each other and MK, and their moral compasses? I hope that helps! You can take those as you will. If you don’t want to do all of that just do what you do want to do. Thank you!

It's no problem, I'm sorry that I took so long to answer and even then it still feels kind of vague.

I think the first way of getting to understand a character is getting a grasp of how they speak, both Wukong and Macaque speak pretty casually (one of the first things that Macaque says is "Your staff kind of gives you away, dude."), as well as clear and confident. I think it helps that I can memorize and hear voices in my head so that helps in me finding a way for them to stay in character and pick what sounds most accurate, but I know that doesn't apply to everyone.

Wukong, despite how he tries to play the role of retired goofball in the beginning, being somewhat indifferent about stuff like MK's training, but he actually cares to the point it's almost self-destructive. He doesn't want MK to worry about the Lady Bone Demon, so he lies about searching for a way to defeat her as a vacation of all things. He doesn't want people to get hurt from his mistakes and such so he wants to take the brunt of it but because he didn't try asking for help/support it kind of blows up in his face and makes it worse in the long run.

Macaque is opportunistic, something of a snark about it too. ("Also, side-note: How did you not know it was me? Shadows, kinda my gimmick isn't it?") He's not just dramatic, he's downright theatrical given the shadow play episode, he didn't have to keep doing more than one show after capturing MK's friends and even points out that MK went to multiple shows with saying "Ah, you again. You must be my biggest fan." but he still took it as a chance for the attention as well as be heard in his past as indirectly as he tried to play it off before the reveal. He craves the acknowledgement and probably more.

An interesting thing I noticed with Wukong in his interactions with MK is that he's the one usually initiating physical contact with him. (Sure, some of it is a bit of invading his space but that's just kind of how he is considering he's a monkey.)

Anyone else is kind of unwelcomed(?) in the space if he doesn't really like them or know them that well, he's even surprised by the affection from MK in the episode "Destiny Fulfilled" for a hot second until it settles.

With Macaque and his interactions with people from conversation to touch, something I noticed in the split second he meets MK, he sees him up close with admiration of all things as is shocked by it for before settle back. After agreeing to mentor MK, he's starts initiating physical contact as a way to seem all buddy-buddy with him, almost like they're on equal ground despite the newly formed mentorship.

After what's probably a few weeks into the training, the physical contact is less soft, almost holding MK down instead of being a support to pushing MK into a losing battle until literally punching the Monkey King's powers out of him. Physical touch was used on his terms and for his gain.

When he does a similar arm hold on Tang in "Benched" when trying to appeal to Tang in giving up and letting him get a Ring of Samadhi, he even projects his relationship with Wukong onto the whole group before acting out when it doesn't work.

Their moral compasses are pretty different, Wukong trying hard in helping MK as well as the world with it, Macaque being that he looks out for himself since that's all he has. Wukong has many enemies but that doesn't mean the world is and tries to act sweet with Ao Guang like he's a bud and totally didn't steal the pillar to his palace and made it a staff.

Macaque has to look out for himself, sees himself as the only one he can trust, all others be damned. ("Look out for number one, because if you don't, no one will.") Even if Macaque has a soft spot for someone (see MK) ("This is the thanks I get for checking in on my favorite student?" and "Hey kiddo, ya miss me?") he doesn't even see him as a potential ally, closer to amusement at best and enemy at worst. Macaque has far more enemies than allies (probably since he doesn't have any) and that reflects in how he practically hisses at the Mayor for giving him off vibes before even getting caught in the Lady Bone Demon's lackey's hold then taken hostage.

I'm sorry if this isn't the best analysis since it feels kind of all over the place but I hope it helps you in someway.

#LEGO Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid #Monkeying Around #Analysis #Asks

[teddywesworl]

if you're still doing the wip thing... The last mile? your mass effect au makes me feral

I just tried to answer this and tumblr fucking ATE my response but yeah i'm working on it, it's set half at the beginning and half at the end of the Reaper War with the Hawkins assigned to Project Crucible (part 1) and the London assault (part 2). tonally it's very me3 so im gonna be kinda nervous about posting it, especially as it may require a MCD tag lmaoooooo (not them though. never them)

i have no idea when it's going to be completed, though, so here's a sizeable chunk of the opening, complete with epistolary-ish framing device to match DTA:

EDDIE 1

Fig. 1: Perspectives on Tayseri Ward, an award-winning photograph of the Citadel by acclaimed asari photographer Lidilya Ranis, ca. 2182. Note the near-atmospheric effect of the gas and dust of the Serpent Nebula creating depth of field between the camera’s lens and the Presidium Ring.

*

The Citadel is different than he remembers, but it’s also the same.

He and Steve see it differently. Steve thanks air traffic control in person on their way through security and comments on the Sur’Kesh native trees freshly planted in the commercial district. Eddie marks the C-Sec man tailing them while they eat tacos from a super gimmicky Thessia-Earth fusion restaurant and spots a pickpocket watching them from an alley. It’s a human girl, maybe thirteen. No visible tattoos or marks, but that doesn’t mean much when the kid is wearing a beanie and a scarf and a bulky jacket that’ll hide plenty of take. Eddie angles himself so the cop can’t see his face, makes eye contact with the girl, and shakes his head.

They’re in the Mid-Ward, a part of Zakera that Eddie should know intimately. It feels strange not to recognize the large majority of the storefronts, replaced as so many were in the aftermath of the geth attack in ‘83, but the longer he looks, the clearer it becomes that the bones are the same. Eddie rebuilds the map in his head from the position of keeper ports, maintenance panels, walkways—and vents.

He falls behind Steve just staring at a vent tucked between an Armax vendor and a pop-up shop selling the elcor equivalent of beer. Steve walks another dozen feet, maybe, before he notices Eddie’s not beside him and doubles back.

“You okay?” Steve says, fingertips brushing Eddie’s elbow.

Eddie shakes himself off and nods. “Yeah, sorry,” he says. “Um. I used to sleep in there, I think. I’m pretty sure that’s the one.”

Steve frowns, his eyes moving from storefront to storefront, gliding over the vent like it isn’t there until he remembers. “Oh,” he says. His hand slides down Eddie’s forearm, and he laces their fingers together.

Eddie feels oddly disconnected from his own body. He doesn’t think he would fit in that vent, now, but that’s sort of the point, isn’t it? That’s what a duct rat is. You stop being a duct rat when you can’t fit anymore. Or when the wrong fan powers up and chews you to pieces.

Eddie unfocuses his eyes and doesn’t quite look at the C-Sec man still pretending not to follow them. It’s a turian, hanging around some fifty paces behind them, and he’s obvious in a way that’s kind of aggravating, because turians make up something like half a percent of the Mid-Ward’s population, and the real residents don’t dress business casual. There’s a tension welling up, raw from the vents and the cops and the collision between memory and immediate reality. He bounces on the balls of his feet, indecisive. Then he squeezes Steve’s hand, locks eyes with the turian, and crooks his finger at the guy, beckoning.

There’s a strange hanging moment where the cop looks like he’s gonna try to disappear into the crowd, but then he accepts that he’s been made and approaches. Steve looks surprised to see him; his posture gets a little guarded, so Eddie squeezes his hand again.

“That’s close enough,” Eddie says at a distance of ten or so paces. He’s not in the mood for this, doesn’t feel like playing a game, so he just says: “Why?”

Steve stays quiet, apparently satisfied to let Eddie handle this.

The turian’s mandibles twitch. “I’m,” he says. “I don’t…”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “Why’d they send you?” he says.

“They didn’t say,” says the cop. Eddie’s not sure he believes him, but at least he’s not playing completely dumb.

“Get out of here,” Eddie says. “Tell them you were made. Also tell them the Alliance doesn’t appreciate C-Sec harassing its N7s on shore leave.”

The mandibles twitch again. Turian hearts aren’t quite like human hearts, but the rhythm of this one changes enough to confirm Eddie’s suspicions that the guy at least didn’t know who Steve was. “Right,” he says. Leaving is an awkward thing, but he manages it, walking off in a straight line.

Eddie sighs when he’s gone.

“How long’s he been there?” Steve asks.

“Since security,” Eddie replies. “Fuckin’ amateur hour, sending a turian. Especially since there’s a ton of human cops now.”

Steve hums thoughtfully. “You ready?” he says.

“Yeah,” Eddie says, and it’s the truth. He wasn’t sure it would be, when Hop offered to call in a favor, when the message hit his inbox, or even when he stepped out of the Hawkins airlock and onto an Alliance dock this morning. He just kept saying yes and moving forward because he knew he’d regret it if he didn’t.

He keeps holding onto Steve’s hand as they move through and past the crowds toward Oji Way Warehouses, a row of storage units guarded by sectional doors and the occasional krogan hired gun. One such krogan, a scarred old brute with a cracked green frontal plate, approaches to grunt at them about what they’re doing down here, to move along if they don’t have business.

“We do,” says Steve. “We’re looking for somebody.”

“That so, soldier boy?” says the krogan. Eddie ducks his chin to hide a smile, because yeah, even in civvies, Steve sticks out like a sore thumb.

“Munson,” says Steve. “That’s the name.”

The krogan turns his head to get a better look at them out of a single eye. “What d’you want with Wayne?”

#fic wip #the last mile #ask

[leohtttbriar]

i sort of think one of the reasons ds9 does fail in the particular (democracy, maybe?) Thematic is because it stopped caring about the other star-trek theme laid out for us in the intro to the original series: "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." ds9 is more about exploring said alien civilizations than about discovery. which is its weak point. when there were episodes about science and discovery and whatnot, they were great and interesting and pushed questions that sci-fi as a genre tends to push. odo discovering his kind, sisko and jake building the star-sailor, julian curing that disease with a vaccine, lenara building a wormhole, jadzia wanting to examine a planet closer and causing everyone to be stuck in a weird colony of pre-determined ancestors, etc. but the war plot overshadowed stuff like this and suddenly it was like watching the conclusion to lord of the rings, where evil defeats itself and the gods knew it all along and now our hero must stay in their realm (with none of the richness of the actual lord of the rings).

but the "discovery" element is important bc it carries themes about choice and questions about self and the essentiality of bodies and so on. to be constantly confronted with something alien, something new, is a process of de-familiarization with one's own world and culture. people don't notice their own accents until they're somewhere else, hearing another accent. but this element is so often linked in fan spaces with things like "colonization" or "imperialism" where the institution of starfleet is an instrument of colonizing and the infrastructure of the federation is that of an empire, much like america is today. my issue with that argument is not so much that i think it's necessarily wrong, or that it's missing "the point" (i mean, how much can a multi-authored, half-century-long story have a single "point")--it's that words like "colonizing" have moral significance and suddenly the things that we see in the shows that the star-explorers do most of the time, i.e., exploring, are colored with this implication: that scientific discovery is inherently a colonial project.

that science has contributed to colonialism, that colonialism has funded scientific exploration, that full knowledge-systems that have aided in establishing some of the most well-established scientific theories have also been rhetorically used to promote violent hate and slavery and dehumanization--there is no question. "exploration" has a history of chugging right along-side actual genocide and violent exploitation. but "exploration" is not colonialism. it's also been a tool for activists, champions of human rights, champions of non-human lives and rights, and, while not a moral tool, an avenue for expanding and encouraging human compassion.

the thing is, the challenge of scientific discovery is not only a challenge of establishing empircal fact but of knowing the boudaries of certainty. and this confrontation with human limits of knowledge, limits of consciousness, limits of Thought and Feeling at their most fundamental, is the sort of stuff a speculative world thrives in. the star-sail-ship that sisko builds is such a prime example because it's quite literally an archaeological and engineering discovery that de-colonizes. "far beyond the stars" is about how the imaginative reality is powerful, as it makes an argument that there will be a future and that future will belong to everyone, even as the world now does not; the imaginative yet exists and can be real if thought is allowed to expand to newness and newness is allowed power to shape what some might call "nature." interrogating "what is" forces out "narratives" and forces in complexity and sincerity and self-definition.

and, like. choice. what it takes to choose.

(and yeah, the colonizing aesthetic is there and i wouldn't blame anyone for being too uncomfortable with what's being presented (in TOS especially). some things have to be earned and words like "final frontier" and the design of some of those "alien" cultures can be hard to see past. at the same time the show is about enfolding new planets into a federation of planets (which, like, from a purely civics/government argument, is not colonialism), it is also enfolding new knowledge into an existing academy. which i think is good. (even if there could stand to be more stories about advanced civilizations that don't actually want to share their knowledge, which is ultimately respected.))

ds9 as whole annoyed me, though, with the thru-line theme being so weak and nonsensical, as it is concluded in the final episode. the institutions and the infrastructure are already there, within the world of the story, to force characters into decisions about power and governing and what it takes for a people to recover from fascist occupation while repelling a second fascist invasion. yet not a single character makes an actual argument against it. or voices a support for said institutions in a way that makes it clear why anyone would repel the invasion to begin with. the changelings are simply morally wrong and must be stopped (and they will definitely be bc the wormhole aliens See All ugh)

julian has one episode in which he learns to let go of his despair because, despite how intensely smart he is, he cannot know the future. and that is the best thing ds9 said about anti-fascism. not everything can be wholly known and wholly controlled. which is why choice has a value. why odo's pithy statement about people choosing "wrong" had to be answered (sucks that it was not). and it's julian, one of the characters most allowed to do scientific work throughout the series, who voices this and voices, in another episode, that some things cannot be simple cures, but only ongoing vaccines, projects that one has to re-invest in time and time again. in spite of uncertainty, in spite of how easy it would be to schedule a death before the pain sets in.

and i just think an established multicultural, liberal, exploration-based institution deserves to be championed in this speculative future. and that sci-fi as a whole could stand to be more focused on infrastructure. because it represents a collective owning of what is to come, so long as the state is owned by the people. i know trekkies on this website as a whole are kind of anti-establishment or anti-state, but my (probably unpopular opinion) is that state-ordained exploration can be a good thing. and someone in ds9 should have said something about why federal democracy is better than the changelings taking over.

#maybe season 7 just left me annoyed. #ds9 #star trek

[the-sky-queen]

Aha! Shadouge babies time! I made my favorite ship some fan children and it's finally time to post them. The picture quality wasn't that good so I tried to adjust the filter. Didn't really work out, but oh well.

Anyway, introducing the Robotnik kids! Ember, Spark, and Dawn!

Ember

- Age: 16

- Male

- Adopted

- A quiet, reserved, and socially awkward little dork. He will stare at you silently to get your attention because he’s too scared to interrupt whatever you’re doing.

- Definitely traumatized by GUN.

- Never wears gloves or shoes when he can get away with it.

- Ember was created by GUN in an attempt to make a perfect version of Project Shadow, one GUN could control completely and use as their personal weapon. Ember shares none of Shadow’s DNA and is a full hedgehog. He possesses Chaos Abilities and they are much more stable than Shadow’s powers, so he doesn’t need inhibitors. Ember was raised by GUN until he was roughly seven years old. At that point, he was discovered by Rouge and Shadow. After spending several months with him, they discovered the terrible way GUN treated Ember. Outraged, the couple took the organization to court. In the end, they won the battle and Ember’s custody. They adopted him into their family.

Spark

- Age: 6 and a half

- Male

- A bouncy, happy kid with a bit of a stubborn streak.

- He never keeps secrets and even if you don’t tell him, there’s a good chance he’ll hear anyway with his big bat ears.

- Has Chaos Abilities, and needs inhibitor rings to keep them in check.

- Shadow and Rouge thought they’d never have biological children. The last time they tried was before they adopted Ember and it . . . didn’t go so well. Needless to say, Spark was very much a surprise. He ended up being born early and needed to be put in the NICU. But after a week, Spark was ready to come home, thanks to the accelerated healing he inherited from Shadow. Ember was initially worried that Spark would replace him, as he was Shadow and Rouge’s biological firstborn. Luckily, he soon came to adore his little brother.

Dawn

- Age: 4

- Female

- A mischievous, cunning, smart little girl who gets into anything and everything. She loves shiny stuff, making things, and getting into her mama’s makeup.

- She’s drawn on the ceiling before.

- She’s in her ‘I can get myself dressed, and I don’t care if these clothes go together’ phase right now.

- She doesn’t have Chaos Abilities

- Shadow and Rouge were reluctant to test their luck again after Spark. But somehow, Dawn came along. There were no complications this time, and the Robotnik family was gifted with a happy, healthy baby girl. Spark loves to mess with her while Ember is a protective older brother.

#I love them so much #Sky Queen #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic AU #Sky's Sonic-verse #Future AU #Sonic OCs #Shadouge fan kids #Robotnik Family #Ember Robotnik #Spark Robotnik #Dawn Robotnik #art #traditional art #my art #Future Families AU

[yournextflame]

Are outer gods really evil?

It amuses me how Elden Ring community by default made villains from the outer gods without any attempt to udnerstand them or their motives. Typical american/western audiences.

外なる神 is used in Japanese culture for lovecraftian beings, sometimes used interchangeably with "cosmic horror.” Nyarlathotep is a good example of an outer god. However, in Elden Ring deities with the obvious connection to the space - Dark, Full, Black Moons (celestial objects) and the Greater Will (nebula-like design of Elden Beast) are never described as such. Confirmed outer gods (Rot, Twinbird’s outer god of Death, Formless Mother) represent natural elements or processes: decay, bloom, birth, bleed and death.

On a different note, in the most Lovecraft inspired game made by Miyazaki, Bloodborne, the local equivalent of the outer gods, Great Ones weren’t evil. They were pitiful beings, who craved for children because they couldn’t have their own.

From Miyazaki’s Interview:In the world of Bloodborne, babies that are treated as “special” in one way or the other are offered as lures to the Great Ones. The Great Ones have all lost their children because of their positions, and as a result, they’re attracted to these ‘special’ babies.  This story setup was something I came up with pretty readily in my mind. When it comes to living creatures, the stronger or more advanced you are, the fewer offspring you produce in your life. Even with human beings, the birth rates in more advanced countries lower, right? Looking back, I wonder if facts like that were at the root of the idea

(this theme of advanced beings having fertility issues continues in Elden Ring)

GRRM is also not a fan of good vs evil stories and gods being active participants in human wars.

What I’m trying to say with my poor English is that how come a collective project of two authors, who are notorious for subverting good vs evil tropes and aren’t using deities as major political players, is viewed like a Hollywood-esque story about good guy Tarnished, who saves the world from Ancient Evil and marries stunning and brave rebellious Queen or cute anime doll, both are holier than Jesus and saving the world from influence of the evil alien outer gods?

After all, who decided that people of the Lands Between need protection from the “evil” outer/ancient gods, when there are several occurrences of ostracized and wronged members of society asking for their help? Mohg, who was rejected by his biliogical mother, is coping with Formless Mother. Nomadic merchants summoned Flame of Frenzy after they were genocided by the same woman. Sage Gowry wanted to estabilish Order of Rot. The people of the Lands Between aren’t showing any particular concerns about outer gods, all intention to reduce their influence comes from Empyreans and gods, meanwhile, even the Greater Will accepts outer gods as a part of Order system.

But let’s return to the nature and motives of the outer gods. It’s a mystery. The most well documented outer god, Formless Mother, likes to be wounded. 

The mother of truth craves wounds. When Mohg stood before her, deep underground, his accursed blood erupted with fire, and he was besotted with the defilement that he was born into  

Sure, Mohg uses power of Formless Mother to estabilish his dynasty, but he is a raving lunatic after all. It’s never stated that Formless Mother herself wants to enslave humanity or influence it in any way. It’s a masochist god.

What about Rot? Or the outer god of Twinbirds? 

Nothing.

Same goes for other entities. I can speculate that the Greater Will is about Order and evolution and the Frenzied Flame represents Chaos and want to melt influence of the Greater Will. But I can’t say anything about Moons or Fell God. There is not enough info. 

My key point is that reducing outer gods to LE BAD aliens is not quite right. Or using them as a scapegoat to vilify hello, Malenia or whitewash certain characters looking at you Ranni and Marika simps. I have no idea why in Bloodborne, a game where lovecraftian gods were actively involved in the story and gameplay, community wasn’t so obsessed with painting them as evil alien invaders. Suddenly, in Elden Ring entities that a mentioned a few times in armor descriptions are the root of all evil because people are desperately craving for someone to redirect responsibilities from corrupted humans and gods.

#elden ring #Ranni #miquella #malenia #outer gods #lore theories #longread

[popculturebuffet]

Beetlemania: Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle Volume 7 #1-7 review) (Patreon Review/comissoin for Brotoman.exe)

Welcome back all you happy beetlemaniacas to beetlemania, my look at the three men to wear the mask.. and at last we've come to the breakout of the bunch, the latest and co-greatest, the one whose movie debut inspired this whole project, Mr. Jaime Reyes.

Out of the three Beetles, Jaime has gotten the most appearnces in other media. His two biggest roles were in Batman Brave and the Bold, where he was one of the most featured guest stars, eventually joining that shows version of the Justice League International, with Ted also getting some apperances. More on that next week. He was the centerpiece of Young Justice's second season, with the reach, the beings behind his armor, being the driving force of that season's plot and from what I can tell he's still been decently featured in later seasons. He's also shown up on smallville , justice league actions and in dc's direct to video teen titans movie before they killed off that universe and yes it still bothers me.

But before we can get into who Jaime is, we have to ask whatever happened to ted kord? Short answer...

But when have I EVER taken the short route when I can ramble a bit?

So around the mid point of his solo book, Ted joined the Justice League International. This is where I met my boy and where most people met ted, Ted being thrown in there, along with the later addition of Captain Atom, to show off DC's charlton cast.

JLI was a diffrent sort of justice league book. Most of the big 7 weren't avaliable, with Wonder Woman and Superman busy being rebooted, flash now being Wally West who wasn't ready for it, and Hal Jordan and Aquaman

So with just Batman and Martian Manhunter representing the old guard, writers Keith Giffen and JM Dematis decided to go in a diffrent direction; Make it funny. The comic would be both a sitcom and superhero action with real stakes and status quo changes.. but also batman punching the team's green lantern and ronald regan loving macho dumbass Guy Gardner in the face after Guy challenged the goddamn batman to a one on one fist fight, sans ring.

Have I mentioned JLI is one of my faviorite comics of all time and something i'm LONG OVEDUE covering in some form? Well I have now.

The book was a hit for most of it's run and a fan faviorite for years and had both a great legacy for ted.. and some cruddy after effects. The good was that it kept him in the public eye for some time: Ted was on the team from the beginning to the end of Giffen and Dematis run and into the 90's, including Death of Superman. He also gained his best friend and comedic other half Booster Gold out of the deal, a janitor who traveled back in time with some future tech to make himself a superhero and promote the shit out of himself and whoever paid him to promote the shit out of them. It left ted a fan faviorite for generations and guaranteed he woudln't be forgotten.

The problem was a LOT of people were idiots about the bok and assumed because it was jokey the characters within were jokes. I mean the team wasn't immune to some pretty.. bleh characterizations: Power Girl was an angry man hating sterotype of a feminist as opposed to being an actual feminist now a days, Animal Man was routinely mocked despite Grant Morrision working wonders and ole billy batson was routinely but of the joke as he was well. a 12 year old in a childs body to us but a childish man to everyone else.

As a result many didn't really think to use ted after. There was an attempt at using the charlton characters that fell flat, but otherwise Ted's only real big run I can think of post justice league was in the pages of Birds of Prey, where he showed up having retired and nursing a massive crush on barbra gordon, so do most people attracted to women , can't blame him. The two had good chemistry but ultimately with the spectre of dick "King of all tush's" grayson looming, Ted never had a shot.

So ted was left off to the side, showing up for jli reunions but otherwise unused... until Infinite Crisis. In a fit of irony that had to be intetional, while it's predecessor brought ted into this world.. the leadup to it's sequel would take him out of it.

And thus we come to countdown to infinite crisis, a one shot leading into four mini series that lead into the event comic infinite crisis. CTIC is infamous to some: it portrays ted as a joke in the superhero community and pretty gruseomly kills off an infinite character. And as someone who hates killing off a b or c list character for the shock.. I think his death absoltuely works and is one of the most tragic and well written deaths in the dc canon and lets Ted go out on a high note.

The diffrence between this and say the slaughter of the freedom fighters or the various titans c-list deaths in the book proper is simple: Weight. Ted's death is given a lot of build up, weight, tragedy and is something that is never forgotten afterwords and has a serious impact on several characters.

So ted finds a conspiracy involving Maxwell Lord, formerlly the comically money hungry benefactor behind the jli now a megalomanical supervillian bent on killing all metahumans and superheroes except himself using the OMACs, a last resort batman built after he found out the justice league mindwiped him.

The takeaway is ted found out and with booster injured, Babs busy with a lot of shit, and no one taking him seriously, Ted was left to his own.. and sadly as seen above Max beat the shit out of him, tried to flip him and then shot him in the head. But again part of what makes it work.. is that Ted goes out on his own terms. He could've just given up, he knew going in he had no real chance of winning , no idea what he was facing when he did, and no one to back him up.. but he didn't. He didn't give up because that's not who he is. that's not the man who put on this mask. That's not the man dan asked to put on the mask. He began his career trying to stop a threat only one othe rperson knew about.. and ended it the same way. And it was THANKS to his tragic death everyone else was able to unravel things in time. As a result wonder Woman was able to snap the bastards neck before he killed superman, see above gif, and Lord was stopped.

Problem was Brother Eye, the AI Batman built to create and control the omacs was still mostly loose and the omacs copoted by the big bad of infinite crisis, Alexander Luthor, relelated to exactly who you think's.. alternate good counterpart from a mirror universe. Thankfully Ted's devistating loss inspired Booster to do something, so he went back to the future, grabbed as much info as he could, declared "never again" and found the scarab, which had ended up in el paso on the back of one Jaime Reyes and recutied him since he was invisible to brother eye. With a team of other heroes they saved the world from batman's greatest blunder.

The questions remained though. Who WAS this kid wearing the armor? What happened to him after? And how did he feel about the weight now on his shoulders? All important questions abou tot be answered as we dig into the first arc of Jaime's Solo, Shellshocked.

This comic comes from us from Writers John Rogers and Jm. Demattis. JMD of course co wrote jli, while Rogers is a screenwriter whose written a few comics and later would take sole writing credit here for this run and is part of the reason it slaps so much.

We begin with our hero landing in the desert, having no idea what's going on as he's attacked by captain punched in the face himself Guy Gardner, whose response to Jaime putting up a shield to defend himself after Guy shouts at him "WHAT ARE YOU" is

So an average first meeting with Guy all things considered. We flash back to Jaime's life before he got super armor and had a guy trying to kill him while he looks like he just.. badly wants to go home. The art here by Cully Hamner is fucking awesome and hamner also designed jaime's now iconic outfit, complete with having his mask look similar to a luchadors. It's gorgeous stuff and while Ted had the cool bug eyed goggles and giant ship, Jaime really looks insectoid. while still giving his mask enoough expression.

So in the flashback we meet one of the best parts of the book, Jaime's best friends Paco and Brenda. Paco is a boisterious loudmouth with a heart of gold while Brenda is a type a trying to encourage the other two to study more. Paco has shown up in the brave and the bold but the two don't get adapted much.. including, disapoitningly , for the film , with other characters seeming to take up their rolls instead, paticually Jaime's sister taking paco's roll as she was aged up for the film. I don't hold it against the film makers hard: as much as I miss them I get them trying to both do their own thing and not having room for them, focusing more on his family. Their might be room in sequels, one can hope.

For the comics though I like the two a lot and through every attempted revivival creators have been smart to keep them in it. They both provide a nice shoulder for jamie, Paco being his more fun and games type buddy, while Brenda keeps him grounded. While this type of trio, moderate voice of reason who has to pay referree to a smarty pants and a loudmouth isn't new in fiction, Paco and Brenda feel like real people. Their conversation feels like two real friends arguging with Jamie understandably tired of being their refree.

Things take a turn when Paco is judo throwingly dickish, sniping at Brenda she "thinks she can become a lawyer".. and rightly gets tossed on his ass for it. Brenda also takes akkido.. though the why is heartbreaking as she let's it slip her dad hits her. I also like the diffrence in where the two want to go" Paco dosen't care about school becaues he knows he can't afford college and has to make his own way, while Brenda desperatley hopes to because she has no other option to escape her abuser.. or so she thinks but we'll table that for now. For now Jamie finds the scarab. If your curious HOW Dan's scarab got here, he had it for a while, it seemingly blew up when it reinamainted dan from the dead to fight Ted , and then it somehow ended up on the rock of eternity. Then gods vengance got horny and then got angry and blew it up, and here we are.

We cut back to guy breifly and .. it's more of Jamie getting beaten up as his armor reacts on it's own to pull out canon to defend itself. Then we cut back.. but before we do.. I have to comment on how jarring this is. The scenes themselves aren't bad: the past stuff provides valuable info on who jamie is , his family, his friends, lots of ogod setup and the fight with guy IS necessary: not only is his over the top reaction to the scarab foreshadowing, but it leads to one of the best scenes in the entire series later on when he comes back about a year later.

It just feels a bit jarring here: even having read infinite crisis it feels incredibly abrubt and entirely unfriendly to anyone who didn't.. and trust me as someone back then who , while not reading this series monthly (that came years later when I finally got the chance via comixology unlimited) was picking up books week to week as a high school dork, not everyone could afford the big event series. I'm not doubting most comic book fans had read this.. but to someone just picking up the trade without knowing what an infinite crisis is, it's a bit of a head flip. They DO explain jamie's time in infinite crisis and fill us in on that stuff, it's just a lot to take in getting into the book wether you know the event or not.

Jamie banters with his kid sister milagro, in the comics as I hinted at earlier only about 4 or 5 versus slightly younger than jamie in the movie. The two banter, his mom tells them not to fight (And she knows because it's tuesday), and he goes to help his dad. It's a nice little scene that helps establish the dynamics: he and his sister fight but in a very natural sibling way (Jamie was annoyed she asked him to help with the remote for the 80th time) and his mom is.. well see above: she's tough but entirely fair.

He then goes to see his dad, and we see a scene tha'ts new to us but feels like ti's happened a thousand times: Jamie's dad's car shop isn't doing well but he refuses to let his son eithe rdrop out to work shifts or even do more with school, just wanting him to be a kid longer. I'ts.. heartbreaking and well done.

We then cut back to the fight. Guy is winning.. but breaks the face of jamie's armor so he sees it's just a kid and REFUSES to keep fighting despite his ring's recommendation. This is a REALLY awesome character moment that shows the duo really get guy. Not a suprise form Dematis obviously, but it still shows h'es not the same asshole he used to be. He's still.. well guy, seen here leaving earth for a tour of duty on oa with his usual grace and dignity

That comment tells me Batman''s seen that ass before Batman knows an ass that needs a shaving for he is the night.

Guy explains why he went nuts.. for once with an actual reason: the ring went fucking crazy, and wanted to kill the shit out of Jamie, but Guy isn't a killer.. which is a bold faced lie but hey you try telling a kid. Guy says he'll be back.. and isn't seen for a year in publishing time and months in story. Look he has a lot of people to moon and not a lot of time before he was due back on oa, cut him some slack. The one important bombshell though is contrary to previous lore up to this point, the Scarab.. isn't magic. Which isn't a shock to anyone whose seen jamie in anything else, but is still a nice way to drop that bit of retcon. And I do like it: it dosen't horribly contridcit previous stories and if anything Lewis Lovhag made a VERY good case in his blue beetle retrospective for how it all ties together.

So the scarab retracts, Jamie is left naked and in pain and we cut back to the past. The scarab bonds with him and he speaks it's language breifly.

Jamie then walks with Paco and brenda and runs into a strange girl.. a strange girl who turns out to hav eno eyes. While his friends pass it off as jamie starring at .. something else, it's clear he saw something. It's part of the scarabs power set naturally.

So we end the issue with Jamie naked and having no idea what to do next. We pick up exactly from there next issue: jamie is naked and wondering through the desert wondering how the hell he'll explain this to his parents, when we flash back to the past again. Their at school and Jamie once again sees thigns that arne't there. We find out why as it turns out Probe, the girl from earlier's friend has a power that allows him to make people undedticable. Curious about his own powers they want to invite him to join.. but the scarab attacks probe some how and, not knowing it wasn't Jamie's idea, her friend vows revenge. Back in the present, we get a neat scene as Jamie , with no other options rifles through a guys trunk only for a guy to point a rifle at him. The guy in question being white and having a sweet trucker hat, you'd assume he's going to be a dick.. but in a nice subversion and an even nicer random act of kindness.. the guy simply gives Jamie some clothes, offers to call his folks and is just in general a sweetheart. Given the series takes place in texas, el paso to be specific it's just a nice show that not all people are ignorant monsters. Some people will just.. help someone because it's the right thing as they should.

We get one last flashback, as Jamie gets targeted by Probe's friends we get another breif superhero fight with the scarab activating on it's own. Gain it's a bit.. chatoic, but on second read.. it feels a lot more deliberate than it did. The fight not only shows just how dangerous this thing is when left to it's own devices, but even the posse's leader is starting to tell that whatever Jamie is he isn't a baseline metahuman.

Back in the present day, the friendly trucker man who I genuinely wish we see again some day, such a peach talks to Jamie and tries to convince him his parents will be fine. Jamie insists on sneaking in.. and finds a freaked out Milagro in his bed... and sadly for our boy and his poor family.. that isn't the ONLY suprise awaiting our hero.

It's a hell of a reveal and one that's entirely well done and set up.

To properly explain it I have to get into DC's linewide status quo at the time. Blue Beetle came out in the aftermath of the big event I mentioned, infinite crisis. Heroes lived, a LOT of heroes died, and in the aftermath Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all stepped away for a bit: Superman was depowered in the final fight of the series, Wonder Woman wanted to reconnect with humanity despite being perfectly connected under any writer who wasn't Geoff Johns, and Batman, after all his paranoid antics leading up to it, decided to take a year off with his adopted sons Dick and Tim. Damien didn't exist yet if you were curious. And so every dc book jumped ahead

Complete with this nifty Sticker. Every book shifted it's status quo with a year having passed and like any good time skip left questions as to WHY things changed while we weren't looking. One Year Later was my first time skip and to this day is one of the best i've seen in comics. At the time I was reading Teen Titans, which shifted to a whole new roster in the wake of superboys death and a lot of turnover off screen, adding in two of my faviorite titans Ravenger and my boy eddie aka Kid Devil, who I'm bound to cover one of these days. It was really good stuff. Other books had roster changes, massive status quo shifts and all sorts of good stuff and most used it beautifully. It's what gave me a love of time skips and what you can do with that.

Given Jamie didn't come in till Infinite Crisis he wasn't obligated to use the gimmick and looking at his first two issues, they cleverly DIDN'T plaster the sticker on there, as to not give away the twist. There was no way a reader would know this had a one way time jump going in and no way a modern reader will know reading the trade. It also means they didn't HAVE to use it.. but i'm glad they did: Jamie being gone and his family and friends dealing without him leaves a massive gap and seeing how it was before allows us to discover how it is now alongside our boy. Some truly magificent storytelling.

We open issue 3 with..

I'm not kidding... we open with Peacemaker, complete with tatoo's. .talks about dreaming 'Blue dreams".. while casually beating up some guys holding up a convience store. He has a friend in the area he just dosen't know it.. god help him.

Back with Jamie, his mom.. dosen't belivie a word and neither does his dad, thinking it was drugs or something. His mom even calls it "this fairy tale". Now in MOST stories i'd get it: it's a LOT to take in and a lot to believe.

The problem is in the details: when Jamie disappeared.. the world was in danger: robots were swarming the sky, an army of supervillians escaped. There was mass destruction all over the world and an army of superheroes engaged in a massive battle for the fate of it. All of this happening around the EXACT same time Jamie disappears in a world where superheroes are entirely common and have been a fact of life since world war II. It dosen't wreck the story for me, Jamie's mom is fairly practical she probably didn't want to kid herself, I get her not thinking that till now.. but it's still VERY weird that none of them think MAYBE this is true.

So with really no other choice.. Jamie armors up. Which solves the "she thinks you were on drugs problem: but the result.. is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in comics and the one thing I was least looking forward to re-reading this story, a scene that's gotten me EVERY time.

It hurt to even put that on there. And in a lesser book Bianca's thought wouldn't have any nuance... but as Alberto explains and somehow makes this hurt even MORE

It's a beautifully heartbreaking segment and part of what makes this time jump work so well: Jamie's disappearnce had a tangible, painful effect. It's an exploration of what just taking ONE person out of the world for that long would do. I also love the end of what I showed you. Alberto explains to his son why Bianca's doing this.. but assures him he's still his boy and this will pass. I also like that they don't just have bianca be evil .. it's simply the SHOCK of all this getting to her, of having to come to the grips with the fact that Jamie is a person.

So he has Jamie go out for a bit, let his mom work through stuff.. though he pointedly dodges Jamie's question about him now walking with a cane. For now Jamie still hasn't gotten a grip on what the suit can do, and tests it, using arm blades and the canon from earlier before popping back naked again. Thankfully this time the Scarab shows it can make him some clothes.

So Jamie goes looking for his friends.. but both places he tries sputter out: Brenda's moved during the year and Paco isn't at school. Turns out though the Scarab can track anyone Jamie's met, and he acknowledges how creepy that is before heading for the border.

So turns out Paco is WORKING with Damper of the posse, the guy who makes the invisible stuff happen.. but just as their on the bridge here come the men in black, and the MIBS are working for someone named la dama and have cable sized laser rifles. Thankfully before they can blow a hole in paco and damper, Jamie swoops in just in time and blocks it. The MIBs decide "Fuck it this guy wants it big willie style" and attack jamie who struggles to get the scarab NOT to murder them, but manages to take them out then swoops off with Hector since homeland security are you know.. homeland security.

Jamie explains things to hector before stopping on a roof with him.

It's a touching and MUCH needed bit of cahtarsis. After going through a LOT of shit in the past three issues.. Jamie's finally given a proper welcome home.

Paco also helps with Brenda... turns out things got even WORSE with her dad and the bastard put her in the ICU. As paco brilliantly put it, there apparently really IS a god as a week later he died, and Brenda's beloved great aunt took her in. Paco's still visiting but hasn't told her about the posse. Jamie's reunion with brenda is just as sweet if a bit .. less huggy.

Yup.

So we open issue 2 and Jamie is doing his homework. He finds ted doing this without powers cool.. until he gets to the bullet in the brain part. Clearly a bit unnerved he moves on to dan, who at least gives him a clue, the scarab gave dan powers.. but he wonders why it skipped over ted. That's when he gets a visitor on the web: Oracle.

For those who haven't seen this version of her, Oracle is barbra gordon. During the killing joke the joker , wanting to drive Comissioner Gordon to madness, shot barbara. That wouldve been the end in many cases but not liking this one bit, writer John Ostrander turned her into oracle, who works as most superheroes go to help line, paticuarlly the bat family and her own operatives the birds of prey. She TRIES to recruit Jamie: Ted was her friend and this makes it her buisness... but instead of opening with "Ted Kord was my friend I just want to help" or something like that which might not have worked but at least would've softballed you know, hyjacking his monitor, Jamie instead blows up at her, mad the other heroes didn't find him (In her defense they had no way of knowing he was missing as Booster never told them and isn't around due to his fate, revealed in the series covering the missing year 52, not being known at the time this comic was published),. Jamie blasts the screen and tells her to go to hell while Black Canary, who is both barbra's best friend na dmain field operative needles her a bit. She likes Jamie though and it's clear she gets it: to Jamie the superhero community abandoned him, and heroes don't do that, and he simply needs time to process the fact their humans and they fuck up.. and that guy DOSEN'T represent them. Though Babs didn't HELP with that one by saying "if he wanted you dead you'd be dead" which is factually true but dosen't exactly calm down the scared teenager babs.

Anyways Jamie's mom takes him to the doctor where they find nothing. Jamie points out that's a good thing: if he HAD found the scarab, which can retreat into Jamie, there would've been a LOT of questions and possibly the government on their asses. We do see Bianca's come around a bit: after jamie apologizes Bianca tells him he has no need to: it's not her fault and she has to stop thinking that.

We cut to La Dama's place. While Brenda leaves for school, La Dama talks with her minon Diviner... and given he oggles brenda a bit before La Dama just bluntly tells him if he does it again he dies, no metaphors either she just straight up says she'll have him killed. Direct. I like that. But Diviner is an ass, but he's a useful ass so La Dama wants him to test the new beetle, try and break him. See if he's of any use since as far as she knows, the Scarab is still magic.

And reinforcing my point from earlier, Jamie getting back into school.. was incredibly easy. A lot of weird shit happened around the crisis so he just had to fill out a form. It's a great gag and makes perfect since. All Bianca had to do was say he disappeared in a beam of light. Brenda shows up , getting out a half our earlier as naturally having a rich aunt means she can get a nicer school and the three riff like nothing happened. Diviner finds Jamie easily.. but realizes Brenda being there complicates things, so he decides to stage a false flag attack: test jamie with a monster and save her to score points with his boss at the same time.

They go to their old hangout spot we haven't seen before but fair enough, we just met these guys. Jamie asks them point blank: what happened to his dad. Both are shocked no one told him and while Jamie got the cliff notes version, he got hurt at the garage, he knows their not telling him the whole truth.

And shockity shock, they weren't. His dad got shot. Turns out the unreliable guy Jamie was trying to fill in for... was in with drugs and Alberto got shot. Jamie.. blames himself. He was going to get to work summer hours. Thankfully Brenda says fuck that noise..well more don't blame yourself, this isn't a mature readers book.. and in a nice moment Paco.. agrees for once.

It's not hard to see why Jamie's connecting those dots as he lays them out: he disappeared, the cops questioned paco and brenda, her dad nearly beat her to death as a result, Paco joined the posse... but Paco makes it VERY clear it's not his fault.

It's a brilliant moment that shows for all his bravado.. paco is very EMOTIONALLY intelligent.

Then some groots attack. Well ents but they look grooty enough. Jamie tries to fight them but the scarab won't damage nature. Foreshadowing for later. For now Jamie takes command and points out when it complains there are plenty of trees, tracking where the magic is coming from.

Jamie is able to stop it and it foils Diviner's attempt to seem like a hero.. that and Brenda KNOWING him, knowing he always hits on her aunt, and not trusting him whatsoever. The fact he uses the word "ruffians" to describe jamie and paco dosen't help.

And with this Jamie's full circle knows. It was one of the big word of mouth things I heard in wizard magazine and other places back in the day... and rightfully so. While most teen super hero works have the hero hide it, especially during the 2000's cartoon teen superhero boom that was going on at the time, Blue Beetle.. has everyone find out within issues 3 and 4. Jamie HAS to reveal it to his parents as a result of his missing year and Paco and Brenda learn organically as he has to save both of them in ways that don't feel contrived: Paco was already working with some metahumans and the attack on him introduces la dama.. and makes it a big reveal that this crime boss is Brenda's aunt and guardian, while Diviner was attacking Jamie anyway. It allows jamie's FAMILY to deal with this situation with him instead of him having to hide it and the books better for it.

Am I saying EVERY hero needs to tell their loved ones? no, if you have a godo reason for them to hide it in your story your good. But if there isn't they should know. It's why most 2000's superhero animated shows, while not telling the parents in most, had the friends know at a minimum. It's more intresting to explore how this effects those around them rather than just having them have to hide it.

So the issue ends with Jamie having Paco call on the posse for a meeting.

Issue 5 begins with Jamie waiting for the posse. He ends up instead meeting the Phantom Stranger. For those curious the Phantom Stranger is.. the phantom stranger is...

I TRIED looking it up but he has no concrete origin. He's a mysteroius man in a trenchcoat and fedora who appears related to magic stuff or to help someone with a critical turning point. For instance brave and the bold had he and the spectre, the horny ghost of god's vengance, wager over wether batman would kill Joe Chill or not. Golly this review is giving me a LOT of ideas for OTHER reviews.

At any rate he says Jamie's not what he thought he was, and then bounces. The posse's rep, Damper the invisible guy from the flashback with probe is ycordial: as long as Jamie dosen't try anything their cool. Turns out Paco is actually really close to him: As he revealed to jamie earlier they aren't into drugs or anything, and as it turns out blocker dude was so upset because one of the other posse members he hurt was his girlfriend who since then has had a baby . And since Paco explained it wasn't a concious decision on Jamie's part, there square for now. He also finds out the stranger was invisible to everyone else and asks the scarab to tell him next time.. and finds out they can't hear the scarab either. Though i'm sure the voices thing went down better as Jamie HAS explained at this point the thing has a mind of it's own. It turns out though a guy working for Diviner is following them.

While that's going on Brenda has lunch with her aunt, who asks her about the boys. She also knows about the Posse though Brenda vouches for Paco, telling them he just hangs out with them. La Dama also wrongly assumes Brenda has a crush on jamie and I like changing this dynamic up: normally in this sort of trio the main character and the girl of the group have the unreseloved romantic tension. Here.. well..

I love the art here too. It communciates very well that no , Brenda's not denying she has feelings.. she's just utterly mortified anyone remotely thinks she has feelings that aren't there.

So while the Posse gives jamie ten minutes to talk, Divinier begins his plan, summoning a religious hunchback to do his bidding

Said hunchback uses harlot a lot and is easily tricked into stealing Damper (Shield guy) and Bonita's baby... and i'm suddenly wishing firefist would come back stupid outfit and all.

It turns out Probe is missing and we find out why while also finding out more about La Damia and the Posse: La Damia was originally just a coyote, someone who helps people from the border in exchange for cash or drug trafficing. Some are more benevloent than others, and ran a whole orginzation of them but has gone up in the world over the time skip.

She's also decided after the crisis she has to step it up hence gathering magical artifacts and metas, collecting them for her own team. And it also turns out Paco was ENTIRELY correct about the posse being good guys and harmless: they run stuff like bingo, smuggling and getting people across the border, but as Paco vouched no drugs or anything serious. They do crime.. but it's only because with no real superhero presence down El Paso way, no one on either side of the border is looking out for the little guy. Paco is one of their non meta guys, used for the more day to day stuff. They also figure Beetle's already being "tested".. before bonita rushes in talking about the hunchback taking her baby and accusing Jamie

We cut back to lunch: La Dama continues to grill Brenda, but Brenda both admits everyone likes jamie and gives the beam of light story: while La Dama dosen't buy it Brenda gives good reason for her loyalty: jamie was there for her when she showed up brused at school from her dad, took her lying about it in stride and simply offered genuine support... and with that La Dama clearly realizes she has an issue as she's targeting her adopted daughter's best friend.

Everyone else gets her calmed down.. and Jamie offers to get her back. It's a nice chekovs gun: since he met them earlier, that means he can track the baby using their combined dna. While one of the posse questions if Jamie's a superhero now Jamie dosen't know about that but says "It's a baby, I can't let anyone hurt a baby". While jamie may not WANT to be a hero and given all the shit it's brought down on his life, no one can possibly blame him... it's moments like this and the stuff mentoind by brenda that show WHY he's a hero. Without a moments hestiation he helps two people using something he really dosen't like simply because a child is in danger and he's the best bug for the job. It's jamie's core feature: his heart> he's just a good kid who loves his family ,friends and tries to do the right thing. That's it. It's why his friends and family are so key to his character: they show off he's human, he jokes, he fights with his sister, he's a normal teen.. but also show he's an honest good kid who does wheaver he can to help them, letting Brenda have an escape from her abusive home, helping his parents however he can, just being there. Jamie Reyes is one of the purest, most lovable heroes in the dc universe and this one moment encpasulates.. all of that.

Jamie fights the hunchback of notre slut shaming but has a problem since you know, he has to also rescue the baby then hold it. He traps the guy under a truck but it barely slows him down. thankfully help arrives: Peacemaker shows up on motorcycle and grabs the baby. Which is badass. but he calls jamie the blue monster.

Jamie is able to easily beat quasimodick though ,as the guy WANTS to die and the scarab drains it clean, despite jamie's wishes.. and as it turns out the news was watching. The whole world now knows there's a new blue beetle.. for better or worse. Something I want to note before we wrap up the arc proper next issue: ther'es a runner that while jamie has great power.. he has NO idea to fight. And I like that. He gets by with his gadgets and such but it creates a nice contrast between the previous two beetles: As we've seen while Dan Garret had powers, he was a brawler, while Ted was an acrobat and used movement as his primary weapon. It creates a nice contrast that jamie really only has his brain, much like ted, and brute force at first: no finnese simply because he hasn't had TIME to learn it yet.

So we come to the finale of our introductory arc, and yes ther'es still another issue to cover after, i'll explain when we get there.

We cut to some time after last issue with Jamie having found La Dama's compound. Turns out he didn't know he could do the tracker thing himself, it's why he had to ask the posse about probe int he first place but now he can it was easy enough. He has Paco stay behind though.. not out of malice or anything but as Jamie rightly points out he's can fly ONE person out if things get dicey. They need an exit stratgey. And when paco worries if Jamie's just trying to protect him..

Our heroes sneak in.. but turns out La Dama naturally ha senors and their soon spotted. The place itself is.. paradise. A really nice garden, plenty of testing. It's clear while La Dama has been taking kids in.. she isn't stupid enough. I mean she still has grunka lunka dunkity darmed guards, but when the guy in charge talks to them he not only tells them they could've got vistors passes. A fight quickly breaks out as our heroes naturally don't assume the best of these guys and one of them spinner, who can swap powers being a dick to the posse dosen't help. A full fight breaks out whlie outside Paco is chasaed. We cut to La Dama who.. handles things well, simply wanting it calmed down and notably giving Spinner an infraction... more on her later as we cut to her other problem, said car chase as Paco tries not to die, while Jamie takes the head guy out of the dome.. and thus the Phantom Stranger finds what he was looking for. it's a lot at once. All good stuff though.

La Dama arrives and ends this nonsese. She also brings out Probe, who turns out is staying of her own free will. As Stranger, whose now visable to all puts it , it's the finest prison.. one of their own will. He's also here BECAUSE La Dama's been hiding magic people, but she counters it dosen't break rules as she's doing it to keep them safe. Which given every the majority of supervillians are still unionized under the society at this point and the goverment's track records includes "send a guy who was used for experiments because he had a rape and murder charge to deal with the new green lantern and hope he dosen't do somethign serial killery to her girlfriend and oh look what's in kyle rayner's fridge".

So Damper makes an offer; since la dama offers saftey, he promises they'll be safe now El Paso has it's own here: Jamie. and Since jamie has no intent to go anywhere and is a good kid he agrees despite just being volunteered for this. La Dama also agrees: they can come and go as they please

As you can probably guess, La Dama isn't pleased and has a one on one with Jamie, who recognized her as Brenda's aunt. She knows who he is as like Ted jamie isn't the best at keeping secrets.. in this case the fact the Blue Beetle showed up right after jamie disappeared with a very flimsy explination.. it's too obvious and it's clear earlier she was just trying to get Brenda to tell her. As for why she put in the effort he's a threat.. and she's not wrong: he upended a massive operation of hers simply by doing the right thing and so far dosen't have any idea what the hell he's doing.

But as you can tell by this point La Dama's smart and it's part of why I love this character so much: she's a crime boss and she's defintely doing some shady shit.. but she's not a horrible person. She genuinely cares from brenda and sh'es far from stupid when doing her dealings. She was kind to the various metas instead of imprsoning them and when faced with a superhero.. she simply makes an offer. And not "you need to work for me or else" like say the kingpin would a simple one: keep doing what your doing but don't fuck with my operations in a major way, which also neatly dosen't stop jamie from say stopping a dealer or a robbery or something if it's on her dime and he didn't know it, just stops him from dismantling them, which with his powers he likely could. She's still antagonistic, offering to paint him as a villian in the media if he does.. but Jamie shows he's not afraid: she does this, he'll tell brenda. He's clearly bluffing, La Dama can see it.. but the risk is too great not to agree. Also in case you were wondering if things were a bhit TOO concidental with Brenda's new happy life.. Jamie had the same thought...

Honestly I like that the crime boss in Jamie's life ISN'T some big kingpin style villian. And I love me some kingpin and his dc equivlent blockbuster. No question. But I like that La Dama.. isn't evil. Ruthless, a criminal and someone more than willing to kill yes, but she's complex: she loves her niece, and while she did kill her dad and it's mildly fucked up she did so given the son of bitch hit her regularly then beat her so bad she had to be hospitlized, I have absolutely no sympathy for him. She did what she had to and the complexites of that including what Brenda will think once she finds out, all nicely add some Drama. La Dama says Jamie won't be able to figure out the scarab without her resouces.. when Peacemaker enters and drops the bombshell.

And this is PART of why I wanted to cover issue 7: it ends on less of a cliffhanger. That and it ties up some necessary EMOTIONAL loose ends too.

So we open our last issue. Jamie recaps his landing to earth and has taken the Reyes Family, Paco and Brenda to the crater it left, with Alberto having them gather some soil samples his cousin can look at. I .. genuinely dont' think this comes up again.

MIlagro suggests retracing his steps.. but still recoils when her brother tries to touch her. It's painful to see. Peacemaker joins the group and understandably Alberto wonders what the strange man wants with his son. Turns out he got the scarabs database, i.e. the instruction manual and more, beamed into his head on a tour of duty. We get our first flashback to inifnite crisis. We also get a few nice bits: Jamie wonders what monster built brother eye with Bruce deflecting it onto Green Arrow. He also later tells them to say they met superman, it'll go down better.. and when we cut back he has. Well most of them take it okay

Speaking of Peacemaker , Alberto dosen't trust the strange tatooted man and isn't comforted by Peacemaker casually talking about working off the books during the dominon and qurac wars, both wars Alberto served in. It's both some nice character to find out alberto served, and something that leads to one of the series best moments later, and both of Alberto's tours are some nice dc continuity nods: The Dominon War was the DC crossover event Invasion! , where the earth was invaded by the dominators. It didn't have a ton of impact and I mostly know it for two reasons: there were tie ins at the time in most books , in paticular Wonder Woman, JLI, and Suicide Squad for me personally, and Doom Patrol's next relaunch came out of the event and it'd later be the origin story for Crazy Jane. god I also have to do some doom patrol content at some point. Not enough hours in the day I swear.

We also get Paco and Jamie's thoughts on the la dama thing: While Paco is worried she's Jamie's "nemesis" jamie.. is fine upholding the truce. La Dama has stopped the worst of her actions, could easily have him ground into paste if she wanted as she likely knows someone as powerful at him but with more experince, and is being good to brenda. There's no REASON to shake that hornet's nest for now.

We get the rest of what happened on Brother Eye: Dinah suggests blowing up the bitch, I forgot she'd already met Jamie at this point, and they blow it up.. and as we see it REALLY was accidental: the scarab cloaked itself upon seeing Jon Stewart and then Hal Jordan.. and thus our hearts get broken one last time ... this arc.

It's one of the best scenes in the whole run and one of the most powerful.. and as I hinted at the main reason WHY I wanted to do this issue. At last, Jamie fully has his family back with him.

As for why he went forward in time it's simple: Brother Eye was already out of synch with time, its's how the scarab could track him since it used similar technology as it's creators, but with Brother Eye busy exploding and everything chaotic Jamie got shifted out of time and phase and thus wound up a year later.

So everything's good right.. except.. peacemaker raises a VERY valuable point as we end on a cliffhanger I CAN live with.

And we'll get to that some other day as I intend to cover the rest of this series sometime on my own time.

For now though when I finally got to read this run last year.. Blue Beetle became one of my faviorite comics of all time. It was probably easy to tell given i heaped almost nothing but praise on it. It has SOME small growing pains but once we're firmly in the present and everything set the book just keeps going and tells a magnifcent coming of age story. It's not hard to see why DC keeps going back to Jamie or why they thought he could anchor his own movie: He's a wonderful, loveable character with a rich and fleshed out supporting cast. While Ted's death was tragic it paved the way for a book about family, legacy, duty and being who you are versus who people expect you to be. Blue Beetle is a masterpiece and there are trades collecting both halves of John Rogers run out now thanks to the film. Snap them up. This is good stuff and it only gets better. For now though that concludes the main portion of beetlemania, but tune in next week for more beetle as we focus on both boys as they get brave and the bold and we wrap up this retrospective. Thanks for reading.

#jaime reyes #blue beetle #ted kord #peacemaker #barbra gordon #guy gardner #batman #milagro reyes #alberto reyes #bianca reyes #paco #brenda del vecchio #the posse #la dama

[westofessos]

About Me:

I’ve had quite a few new followers these past few weeks, so I thought I would make a little about me post, just so you all know what you’re getting into.

First off, hello! My name is Madison (she/her), I’m 19 (will be 20 in January which is. . . something I’m not thinking about at the moment), I’m bisexual, extremely liberal (racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes, etc. can fuck off and die), and I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. My favourite thing in the world to do is write, and I love to read as well.

Here are some of my favourite things, sorted by category:

Star Wars

Favourite characters: Leia Organa, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben Solo, Hera Syndulla, Ahsoka Tano, Din Djarin, Captain Rex, Poe Dameron, Rey Skywalker, Satine Kryze, Luke Skywalker, Asajj Ventress, Luminara Unduli, and many, many more

I love every movie, and every TV show (I was admittedly not a fan of Andor, but I’m so happy that so many people loved it so much!), and I’m working through some of the canon novels

This is my first fandom, one of my first loves. No matter how deeply I fall in love with other things I will never love them like I love Star Wars

Marvel

Favourite Characters: Natasha Romanoff, Loki Laufeyson, Bucky Barnes, Wanda Maximoff, Kate Bishop, Jennifer Walters, Steve Rogers, Carol Danvers, Sylvie, Marc Spector, Valkyrie, Peggy Carter, Yelena Belova, and many, many more.

I love every movie and TV show (to varying degrees, but nonetheless) but my favourite movies are Endgame, Infinity War, No Way Home, Eternals, Winter Soldier, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Ragnarok (not necessarily in that order), and my favourite shows are Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Loki, Werewolf by Night, Hawkeye (not necessarily in that order)

I also very casually read Marvel comics (just a few here and there whenever I find some that pique my interest)

DC

Admittedly, not nearly as much as Marvel. There isn’t a lot of emotional attachment. Honestly it’s bordering on contempt at this point, especially after spending money to go see The Flash in theatres

But I love The Batman, Wonder Woman, The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, the Dark Knight trilogy, Harley Quinn, and Batman (1989). I am cautiously excited for many of their upcoming projects under James Gunn’s leadership

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is my all-time favourite comic book and honestly just one of my favourite books of all time. It’s truly a beautiful work of art.

Lord of the Rings

I’ve seen all three movies and 2/3 Hobbit movies, and I’ve read Fellowship of the Ring (planning on getting to the other two soon). I also watched and absolutely adored The Rings of Power.

My favourite characters are Éowyn and Aragorn, but I love Merry, Pippin, Legolas, and Gimli too. And Galadriel, Elrond, Durin, Elendil, Miriel, and Halbrand in TRoP

I’m admittedly not the most well-versed in LOTR, but I do really enjoy it.

A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones:

Don’t even get me started on those goddamn shows. Seasons 7 and 8 of GoT and HoTD infuriate me on a daily basis but goddamn it I love this world so much. Westeros is so important to me

Favourite characters: Daenerys, Jaime, Cersei, Jon, Arianne, Brienne, Robb, and more

Favourite Targaryens (it’s the best house, fight me): Visenya, Aegon I, Rhaenyra, Daemon, Rhaena the Queen in the East/West, Alysanne, Daena the Defiant, Aegon V, Rhaegar, and probably more I’m forgetting

Movies:

Almost Famous (my favourite of all time)

Good Will Hunting

Memento

The Usual Suspects

Frances Ha, Mistress America, Lady Bird, Little Women, Barbie (anything with Greta Gerwig involved)

Dazed and Confused

Tombstone

Tick, Tick . . . BOOM!

Father of the Bride 1 & 2

You’ve Got Mail

When Harry Met Sally

Palm Springs

Before Sunrise

The Princess Diaries

Dogma (anything Kevin Smith, really)

Anything John Hughes

Garden State

His Girl Friday

10 Things I Hate About You

The Princess Bride

Disney movies (I grew up on those princesses and damn it, I still love ‘em)

Scooby-Doo (it’s just so dumb and comforting after a long day)

Also just 80s/90s movies, particularly comedies

TV Shows:

Lost (my favourite of all time. I could talk about it for hours on end)

Roseanne (my favourite sitcom. Roseanne Barr might be a piece of shit but Roseanne and Dan Conner raised me)

The Walking Dead (very close second favourite show)

The Sandman

Good Omens

Community

Gilmore Girls

That 70’s Show

Daisy Jones and the Six

Friends

Seinfeld

Once Upon A Time

Ted Lasso (even though they fucked it at the end)

Superstore

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

The Good Place

Sons of Anarchy

Peaky Blinders

Scrubs

Bridgerton

Golden Girls

Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley

The Umbrella Academy

Schitt’s Creek

Only Murders in the Building

The Last of Us

Band of Brothers

Succession

Bojack Horseman

Grace & Frankie

Way, way more I can’t think of. I watch way too much TV. Just ask, I’ve probably seen it.

Music:

The Beatles (my all-time favourite band. I saw Paul McCartney in 2018 and almost died)

Pearl Jam

Phoebe Bridgers & boygenius

Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots

Anything from the 50’s and 60’s pretty much (i.e. The Beach Boys, Petula Clark, Jay and the Americans, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, Simon & Garfunkel, Herman’s Hermits, The Zombies. Just ask, I probably love it.

Fleetwood Mac

Taylor Swift (I’m not a full Swiftie, but I’m getting there)

Olivia Rodrigo

The Chicks

Elton John

Billy Joel

Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child

ABBA

KISS

The Cranberries

Led Zeppelin

The Mountain Goats

Honestly it would probably be quicker to say who I don’t listen to in some capacity

Musicals:

Hamilton

Hadestown

Heathers

Wicked

In the Heights

Six

Grease, The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia, and other movie musicals

Books:

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - never before has a book seemed like it was written just for me. And it’s so beautiful. Schwab is just my favourite author of all time, I’ll read anything of hers

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - I read these as the last few were coming out and I still have such an attachment to them

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - my favourite movie is Almost Famous so naturally, this was perfect for me. Goddamn did I love it.

A Song of Ice and Fire, of course

Classics: A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, The Handmaid’s Tale, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The entire Grishaverse series by Leigh Bardugo

That’s just off the top of my head. There are many, many more, and I’ll always take recommendations!

Basically just fantasy. I love fantasy books more than anything

All Elite Wrestling:

My most recent obsession

I’m watching it through from the beginning so I haven’t seen everything just yet

Favourite wrestlers: CM Punk, MJF, Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander, all the Best Friends honestly, Adam Cole, Cody Rhodes, Danhausen, Thunder Rosa, Juice Robinson, Toni Storm, Sting, Christian Cage, Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, Hangman Adam Page, Willow Nightingale, Hikaru Shida (not necessarily in that order other than the first 5, and there are more)

(I would love to have more women on that list but the women don’t get any good storylines or promo time or character development so I don’t form as many emotional attachments with as many of them. Book. The. Women’s. Division. Better.)

Favourite storylines/feuds: AdaMJF, Punk/MJF, Cody/MJF, Orange Cassidy/Chris Jericho, anything involving the Best Friends, everything with Hangman (from the very beginning all the way to where I am now, where he has just won the championship), probably more but that’s just off the top of my head

And that’s me, essentially. If you made it this far, I salute you. If there’s anything you want to know, feel free to ask! My asks and dms are always open, whether you’re a mutual or a complete stranger. Never be afraid to say hi!

#aew #all elite wrestling #game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #star wars #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #dc #lord of the rings #lost #roseanne #the walking dead #community #gilmore girls #that 70s show #seinfeld #once upon a time #daisy jones and the six #the beatles #pearl jam #phoebe bridgers #boygenius #fleetwood mac #beyonce #the chicks #billy joel #elton john #led zeppelin

[st-just]

thoughts on 40k tau?

So the whole joke at the core of the Tau is that in any other setting they'd be the bad guys, right? Alien imperialists with a hereditary caste system and a sense of manifest destiny, who talk in a bunch of slogans about mutual cooperation and uplift but fundamentally want you as imperial subjects and would never dream of giving any of their auxiliaries real equality, led by a mysterious ruling elite who legitimize themselves with spirituality? They're basically the Covenant from Halo.

But in 40k they're so much less evil than other factions that everyone wouldn't shut up complaining about how twee they were.

It's a really good joke, imo. Worth preserving.

Anyway I adore the aesthetic (I mean, the Crisis suits are the ugliest part, but the whole fire warrior mechanized infantry and armor support with the fish-hovertanks build looks really cool and the broadsides aren't bad either) - the whole clean sleek lines futurism has always appealed to me.

Very annoying when people call them communist when they're absolutely not in any way. I blame the American public education system.

On a thematic level they work well as a presenting a young near-peer rival to the Imperium, one of the states starting to eat at it from the edges (the game reasons are obvious but I do wish GW had come up with another two or three in similar niches), and being willing to integrate alien populations instead of jumping straight to genocide does the job of making them a good ideological threat - rpg-wise they're an excellent source of contraband for xenophile smuggling rings and an actually plausible foreign power to have illegal-but-tolerated diplomatic relations with and get up to intrigue on imperial worlds/ someone they really could plausibly defect to/rebels could be sponsored by.

So I'm a fan! (Also there are exactly 3 Warhammer 40k modeling projects that actually stuck in my head, and one is someone who did up their Tau in urban digital camo and it looked amazing)

#reply #anon #warhammer 40k

[kaz-identified]

houseofmcallister presents...

The Kaz-Identified Master Post / McAllister Introduction

A definitive breakdown of all of my fics, as well as my important links and some information about me.

some of these are on my main account, houseofmcallister. some of these are on my ko-fi. they're all my work though. not every work of mine is on here cause some of them deserve to rot.

five bells are ringing (oh, birds have been singing) - five bells, coco and the butter fields ^ kaz's favorite song of all time

kazzy's requests are: OPEN! find rules here!

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go. I wanna be sedated.

Series Masterlists

A Wolf Walks Into An Apartment Masterlist In which five or so highly powerful Guardians are forced to adapt to their new friend, the Young Wolf. Genre - Comedy Rating: 13+ (Swearing, mentions of drug use, sexual humor, inappropriate language, existential ponderings) Created by houseofmcallister media with the aid of friends

Said to the devil, devil do you like drums?

Drabbles Recommended Work:

Field Patch Uldren x Young Wolf (Canon Divergent Timeline - House of Wolves) In which wounds, and bad attitudes, are treated. Genre - Fluff Rating: 13+ (Inappropriate language, mention of injury) notes: ko-fi exclusive!

No grave can hold my body down, I'll crawl home to her.

One Shots

Recommended Work:

Do or Drown Crow x Young Wolf In which confessions are shared. Genre - Fluff Rating: 13+ notes: Author's personal favorite.

I'm the ruler of everything, in the end.

OC Lorebooks

Recommend Entry:

Mine and Mine Alone Young Wolf Howling

For he has cast down Leviathan, the tyrant, and horse and rider

Original Works

Risky Gamble Sunset Chasers The Gambler, Last Outrider Arcadian of the Dawn Riders' introduction In which a fool opens her mouth and it almost gets her killed Genre - Fantasy Rating: 16+ (Inappropriate language, references to sexual content) notes: the first piece in my original series, Sunset Chasers

What's cooler than being cool? ICE COLD!

About the author!

Hi! I'm the guy writing those pretty words for all of you!

I'm Shepard, or Kaz on here I suppose. Why the difference? Uh... I don't know. Blog name I guess. Kaz is a nickname a dear friend gave me. Short for Kazzymandias. Or, if you aren't sure, just call me McAllister!

At time of writng, I'm 18 years old. I'm a freshman at Xavier University, studying film! I like writing, as you can tell... and when I grow up, I'm gonna work at Bungie!

I like media in general but a highlight of the hits (my favorites) TV Shows: Pysch, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Frazier, King of the Hill, and a lot of old Nickelodeon stuff... Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Exorcist, Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun... Movies: Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver, Mission: Impossible, Man From U.N.C.LE., A lot of action movies I can't remember... Music: Coco and the Butterfields, My Chemical Romance, Powerwolf, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Twisted Sister, Sabaton, Hozier, Johnny Cage, Insane Clown Posse, Tally Hall, Eazy-E, Eminem... Games: Destiny, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Assassin's Creed, Persona 5, Tomb Raider...

Now here's some rapid fire funfacts.

My favorite president is Ulysses S. Grant cause I did a project on him in second grade! My designated technology color is white! My favorite color is green, pink is a close second! My favorite sport is football! I love the Cowboys, I'm from Dallas, sue me. And I'm a big Bengals fan! I fence! Not well, but still! I was a Girl Scout! My favorite subject is history! I'm actually not a very good English student!

I wish I was a little bit taller. I wish I was a baller. I wish had a girl who looked good, I would call her.

Questions I get asked about my work.

Q: Do you take requests? A: I do! On my ko-fi for speedier answers and here on tumblr to be answered when I have time!

Q: Who's your Guardian? A: Faolan! She's the Young Wolf I default to in most fics.

Q: How do you write so well? A: It's partially natural talent, I've been writing since, and I am not joking here, I was three years old and first learned to speak. But mostly it's just a lot of reading and watching to find out things I like and then using those skills. And it's also a lot of practice! I write all the time, on my notes app, in my friend's DMs, on tumblr, whenever, wherever. Persistence is the key to any skill!

Q: Do you write for other fandoms? A: Not at the moment! But eventually.

When they lay me down to die, going up to the spirit in the sky!

Questions I get asked about me as a person.

Q: Do you have a partner in real life? A: No! Believe it or not, I've never even had a crush in real life! I'm not really big on romance. Ironic, I know. Q: Who's your favorite character? A: In all of fiction? Eli Monpress. But my like, number one hehehoo <3 character is Dante Sparda. I like my men very cocky and a little stupid.

Q: Favorite song? A: Five Bells by Coco and the Butterfields!

Q: Favorite trope? A: Friends to lovers is my bread and butter.

Q: Favorite game? A: Destiny. But besides that, I like Ghostwire Toyko!

Q: Favorite book? A: The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell!

Q: Favorite genre? A: Action-adventure! Especially the funny ones!

Q: Favorite TV show? A: Pysch! It totally influenced how I write comedy and talk.

Q: Favorite author? A: Can I be boring and say Shakespeare and Tolkien? They're the reason I write like I do.

Q: Favorite musical artist? A: Coco and the Butterfields! But Powerwolf is a close second.

Q: What's your username mean? A: Kaz-Identified was just a whim, there's no real meaning behind it. Houseofmcallister is a joke on my last name and old nobility.

Q: Any advice for writers? A: Practice! It's the only way to improve.

Give me a shot to remember! And you can take all the pain away from me!

And that's it! Wow, that's a lot of words!

So now you know me! Yay!

ao3: houseofmcallister main account: houseofmcallister buy me a coffee!

Don’t repost my work or I’ll eat your shoulder blades! I do not consent to my works being used for AI training purposes.

#intro post #long post #oh my god this took forever.