#got a lot more but these are the only two decent ones so We're posting

[dreambranding]

SHE JUST WANTS TO BE AN HUMAN!!!! AND DO TRAPEZE!!!!!!!!!!

#got a lot more but these are the only two decent ones so We're posting #GOD I MISS PAINTING FOR HOURSSSS #sylvee fanart #sylvee #myart

[genericpuff]

The Mishandling of LO’s S3 Mi(n)season Hiatus - Part 3 1/2

Here we go, Part 3 of my analysis of the current FP episodes - a three-parter episode set leading up to the midseason finale of LO.

Part 1

Part 2

Truth is, I had actually forgotten a lot of the weird (and very stupid) shit that happened in this episode, that I thought Episodes 251 and 252 had already offered up the worst that this three parter set could dish out. Boy, was I wrong, because when I went back to check out Episode 253, I was reminded of a reality that my brain had wiped out in an attempt to protect my withering psyche-

I also forgot just how long this episode is. It's so long that I frankly can't even fit it all into this post, so this is gonna be part 3 1/2.

Anyways, let's just get on with it. This is the final stop on our trip into absolute nonsense.

CAUTION: THIS IS PART 3 OF A 3 PART SERIES IN WHICH I WILL BE SPOILING MUCH OF EPISODES 251-253. THIS WILL BE A LONG POST. BRACE YOURSELF.

Well, it's the midseason finale, and what better way to open it up than with the final title card-

Typo and all. It wouldn't be an LO episode without one. Granted, IIRC this typo has been edited out, but the version of the screenshots I have from it feature it in all its original unedited glory. So enjoy that.

And yes, just like the last two times, the title itself only applies to the final cliffhanger, which is an absolute doozy especially for those who were there to experience it in real time.

This is already a bit of a wild opening compared to the last two episodes, but it's quickly revealed that this is laying the foundation for the prophecy that Psyche gave to Apollo back in Episode 252. In true LO fashion, the story can't actually be linear in any regard, we're always segmented from pieces of information at a time. Loyal fans will call this a "writing style", I call it Rachel just trying to get another 70 cents out of me.

That said, I will say the art here is fairly decent, but I think that just goes to show that LO's one of worst features these days - ironically enough - is its coloring. What began as its strongest feature has now become one of its biggest weaknesses due to the sheer laziness in its rendering and the colors become more and more saturated into the grotesque over time. So at this point, you pretty much have to rob these characters of their colors to make them look decent, and of course at that point it just further highlights Rachel's same-face problems. She definitely tried to make them look distinguishable here, at least, with Hestia and Poseidon being the most unique.

Now, this isn't the first time that we've heard of this herb being referenced - it was stated by Hades that Hera was the one to originally poison Kronos with the herb after gaining his trust - but to see it suddenly just pop up and play a role again out of nowhere already gives me a bad feeling in my stomach. It feels like yet another plot device - especially when presented in this type of format - that Rachel is suddenly using to try and seem "unique" in her writing, much like the strange narration we got back during the "Run For Your Life" sequence. It's just once again LO lacking any specific identity, it's always trying to be a million other things at once.

I will say, much of this in and of itself is panel filler. Why? Because the location of the herb doesn't matter. You'll see what I mean in a moment, but the mentioning of Anthedon plays no role here, it's just yet another obligatory "see, I know how to Google things!" lip service moment from Rachel "self-proclaimed folklorist" Smythe.

Anyways, Eros is perplexed by this but Psyche immediately catches on, knowing right away that Apollo is going for Zeus. And this is where we get yet another one of the dumbest sequences in this comic.

(see what I mean that the location of the herb doesn't matter? Because Apollo already got it and laced it into the cupcake).

Now, first of all, the fact that Eros and Psyche believe Kassandra's prophecy is already hilarious in and of itself, because ... well, because it literally defeats the point of her establishing it as a curse in the previous episode. Unless it only works on mortals? It never stated as such, so we literally just have to go with it and pretend not to notice that.

But most of all, of course LO had to play this off as some joke. Like, "hahaha how awkward! I've already eaten the cupcake!" and he still doesn't seem to really be in shock. Zeus has seen what this herb has done to gods before him, and yet his reaction to this is akin to a dad getting upset that he stepped LEGO's that he asked his kid 20 times to pick up off the floor. The whole "record scratch" style formatting of this followed by Zeus' lack of reaction just really makes me not care about any of this, because clearly the story doesn't care either.

But we don't see who he makes these calls to because the comic, of course, can't spend any longer than 10 panels on a single scene, so we cut to Hades and Persephone.

Again, I don't know what the point was of having Hera relay this information to Persephone for her to relay to Hades, aside from the fact that Rachel needed to act smart with Therapy Speak that didn't even apply to Hera's situation (as we talked about in the last part). They gotta make Persephone the center of everyone's world though, so it's Persephone who's delivering this info and trying to come up with the solution.

Hades, though, wants to focus on his wife's birthday the commemoration of spring.

SIR. THE WOMAN YOU WERE IN AN AFFAIR WITH SINCE BEFORE YOUR WIFE WAS BORN IS CURRENTLY GRAPPLING WITH YOUR FATHER WHO ABUSED HER AND IS NOW HAUNTING HER. THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR FLUFFY ROMANCE TIME. THERE IS A CHILD BEING HELD CAPTIVE IN TARTARUS AND LITERALLY NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE.

Anyways, apparently (for some reason) Hades is the one who has to go meet Demeter out front. Even though Hades has literally NOTHING to do with this ceremony, it's not his domain, but Persephone literally says "yep, that's correct" when he asks if he needs to go out to meet Demeter.

This just feels like such a pointless conversation and I don't get what the point of this exact exchange is. Again, this isn't Hades' domain, so I don't see why he needs to be the one to go meet with Demeter.

But then, of course, to make matters worse, this man has the absolute audacity to pretend like he's never done anything wrong to Demeter. As if she should be obligated to be cool with sharing a bench with this man who literally terrorized her for years and then essentially groomed her daughter.

I hate him so fucking much and I can't believe we're supposed to be rooting for him. He has not undergone ANY of the character development necessary for me to want to care about him.

Anyways, Hades has a seat with Demeter, and the conversation is very brief before Hades says that he has a gift for her. And what is it, exactly?

Oh great, Hades. Sure wish you would have had this consideration hundreds of years ago. I fail to see what good this does for her now because it doesn't change the fact that he still cost her the role of Queen of the Mortal Realm and treated her like shit for hundreds of years. This comes across as such a shallow and empty "apology" because it's barely even a "gift", rather something she was OWED back then that he didn't want to hand over for his own selfish reasons. He still comes out the winner here because he's gotten to spend thousands of years being a rich slave-driving oligarch while Demeter has had to maintain the Mortal Realm on her own even without the glory of having a title.

I especially detest this "twist" because it's less of a twist and Rachel finally accepting the fact she couldn't come up with anything better than what her fans had to come up with for her. If this had been the fact the whole time, we would have seen it established back when we first got those flashbacks showing Hades being a total prick to her over the volcanoes. Instead, Rachel dragged it out for weeks and weeks until finally dumping this "twist" that her fans had been talking about all that time. This is yet another one of those "Rachel used her fanbase to come up with her ideas" moments. I know that that seems a little mean and presumptuous, but the fact of the matter is that the writing in this story is such an absolute mess that you just know Rachel's writing by the seat of her pants and has to rely on her audience's headcanons to actually fill in the gaps of her story. Most of the time when people commend her for the "great storytelling" in LO, what they're referring to are things they came up with entirely on their own because of how easy it is to just make assumptions about LO's storyline. Rachel benefits off the story being as vague as possible because then her fanbase will fill in the gaps with their own assumptions and give her all the credit for an idea they came up with.

By the way, to the "self-proclaimed folklorist" who wrote this, the volcanoes were really just entrances into the Underworld. Hades did not own them. They were owned by Hephaestus. And I would argue that the volcanoes were only seen as "entrances" into the Underworld because, fun fact - if you jump into a volcano, you die!

Hades frames his reasoning as feeling like Demeter was pushing him out of the Mortal Realm, but this makes no sense because none of that is on her. He claims that he felt like an "outsider" but the reality is that he made himself that way. He resigned himself to being King of the Underworld, he ate the pomegranate and made the deal with Erebus, and even he stated that he could still actually leave the Underworld, just not for long periods of time. So he was the only one keeping himself away from the Mortal Realm, not Demeter. We even see that in the VHS tape flashbacks where Hades stumbles onto Demeter's property and she lets him sleep it off in her home. So this whole sob story about how he felt "pushed out" by Demeter is such a bad take from someone who's routinely known to make himself out to be the victim. Because Hades can't have an actual reputation for a reason, no, this is a "retelling" told by someone who got all their Greek myth info off Tumblr circa 2016 and the front page of Google, so Hades has to be the misunderstood uwu sad underdog. Even though he routinely does things that reinforce the reputation he has within the comic, like being a slave driver, abusing lower class nymphs, and grooming teenagers.

Minthe showing up for a split second in the background is the best this comic has been since S2. We stan our girl Minthe, fucking run girl, do what Persephone couldn't do. She's the real hero of this story (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ

And honestly, I'm sorry, but Demeter really SHOULDN'T be taking the high ground on this. She has more than enough reason to be upset. For a comic that tries to celebrate feminism and holding abusive men accountable, it sure is willing to make the women - often victims of the men - the real villains who have to "do better". Except for Persephone of course. Persephone is married into the system now, she doesn't have to "do better", she's a "boss babe" for being abusive and petty and undeserving of her status because she's the self-insert Y/N character.

So the ceremony for commencing Spring begins. I gotta say, for the final major scene of the mi(n)season finale, the art is severely underwhelming. You can really tell the difference between S3 and S1 art here, there's barely anything extra done to make this scene even half as impactful as the most basic of scenes from S1.

Like, it's fine, but it still feels so half-baked and rushed to attempt to replicate the kind of art that's been gone from the series for years now. The full sequence itself is actually quite lengthy, with a lot of nymph hands just moving around and playing instruments, but it's about as bland as any other panel, so it makes the sequence itself feel dragged out and boring.

This is about as pretty as the sequence gets and it's still not even as good as the original Dread Queen transformation. There's barely any rendering in the skin, and they couldn't even be bothered to make the hands look normal. It's like it's trying so hard to be "original LO" but is fundamentally missing the point of what made the original LO so captivating.

But oh noooo, looks like Persephone did a bad!

Are they actually gonna give her some kind of flaw? Are we gonna FINALLY gonna find out what she traded to Erebus?

No. We're just gonna make her the cause of winter.

Spaghettios.

And that's where I'm leaving this review for now because, as mentioned in the beginning, this episode is a LOT longer than I remember it being. There's still a whole ass segment with Apollo that we need to cover and I don't want to leave it out but I also don't want to do it entirely in text format and I've hit that pesky image limit. So I'll be posting that second part as soon as I can!

That said, I really can't stand this "subversion" by making Persephone the reason for winter.

First of all, because this is a common problem in a lot of H x P "retellings", as many of them fundamentally miss the point of why Persephone is the "Goddess of Spring".

Persephone was not born the "Goddess of Spring". She was born Kore (Κόρη), a maiden born from Demeter. It wasn't until after she was taken by Hades that Demeter, in her grief, took away the harvest and created winter. It was the return of Persephone every six months that brought about the spring, hence, she earned the name, "Goddess of Spring". What these retellings COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTAND is that the gods aren't 'born' with their titles, they're granted these titles by the mortals who comprehend them and write of them as harbingers of their respective elements, stories, and messages. Zeus wasn't "born" the God of the Sky and Heavens, he was granted that title after he overthrew Kronos and took the Heavens for himself. Hades wasn't "born" the God of the Underworld and the Dead, he was granted that title after he became the ruler of the domain of death.

Where these retellings really fuck up is constantly trying to "subvert" the H x P myth in an attempt to romanticize it, thus undoing the point of why Persephone is called "The Goddess of Spring". A Touch of Darkness also made this mistake by putting a "twist" on Persephone's character by having her start out as someone who couldn't make things grow. But if she sucks at making things grow, then why is she still referred to as The Goddess of Spring? In LO, Hades is referred to as "Grandpa Winter" and the seasons already seem to exist as we saw in this episode through the ceremony, so why has she been called "The Goddess of Spring" this whole time?

But I also can't stand this "subversion" because it fundamentally misunderstands the very myth it's trying to "retell". By giving Persephone the "curse" of creating winter, it further robs Demeter of her own agency in this story, more than it already has. It wasn't enough to make Demeter a helicopter mom, it wasn't enough to drive an actual rift between her and her daughter, they had to take away Demeter's entire role in the story and the creation of the seasons and give it to Persephone.

And this is, surprisingly enough, NOT the first time the comic has done this. There are many traits associated with different gods that have been given to Persephone and Hades. The volcanoes belong to Hades rather than Hephaestus, Persephone is "more beautiful than Aphrodite", Thanatos' and Psyche's butterfly symbolism is given to both Hades and Persephone, Aphrodite's symbolism of roses is given to Persephone, the list goes on. Every single plotline has to involve Persephone as the hero, and every single attribute that's commonly associated with other gods has to be granted to H x P in some way to make them better and more interesting than every other cast member in the comic, and yet they still come across as vapid and boring protagonists with nothing to show for themselves.

So to give the ONE thing from the source material that made LO what it is, it comes across as so unbearably cruel.

But then again, we should have seen this coming. After all, Rachel does not cite this as a retelling of The Hymn to Demeter. She simply refers to it as its more unofficial name: The Taking of Persephone.

Look, I get it, the story is meant to be told from Persephone's POV (or at least through the lens of her being the main character) so I can understand why Rachel may have chosen to reword this to make it more clear. But it's really depressing that she went to such an extent with making it about Persephone that she had to rob one of the most integral character of her moment and retribution. Especially when one of the only books in her cited "research" that's primarily about Persephone is, shocked, The Hymn to Demeter, which is listed at the very bottom of every "research" list you can find in LO's history.

LO should have just stayed as self-indulgent fluff. This isn't "subversion", this isn't a "twist", it's just yet another item on the list of making Persephone the most Important One of all. Even when it attempts to be a 'flaw', it fails tremendously by acting as yet another aspect of her being a Mary Sue, because her 'flaw' has come at the cost of another character's story, identity, and strengths. What was originally a tale of grief, retribution, and standing up against a patriarchal system, has now been warped into a consequence of a muddied plot that doesn't have anywhere left to go. For a story that claims to be "feminist", it has ironically missed the original point of its source material entirely, and completely robbed itself of the feminine strength it could have had if it hadn't tried to be "subversive".

I don't really have anything much more to say than that. I could leave it here for good, but we do still have that extra segment to talk about that covers the actual final cliffhanger in this episode, so... we'll see you on the other side.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus

[venbetta]

I'm not sure if anyone's ever thought about this or has made a post about it, but I figured I'd add my own two cents if someone did talk about this.

// Ruin spoilers ahead

mostly about Freddy

So, seeing that headless Freddy has prototype written on the bottom of his foot, it's suggested or even theorized that our Freddy (the one we're with in SB) was a prototype this entire time.

Of course, like many others, I was very skeptical and in denial about the idea because why the hell would that be a thing? How is he a prototype? It wasn't there on his foot in the base game, so why this sudden change?

I kinda hated it, and as a way to cope, I theorized that maybe it wasn't the same Freddy and FazEnt just replaced him with another copy and then abandoned him... don't ask me how that particular Freddy became headless either. Also I was wobbling between the "True Ending" being the Canon one, I was back and forth and just trying to figure out what would've made sense.

My logic for the True Ending being canon was, maybe Freddy and Gregory both got out (alongside Vanessa) with glamdaddy intact, and they're just living life. Meanwhile, Faz Ent just made a new Freddy while fixing the plex but gave up and left everything to rot. Of course I know now that makes no sense or explains why/how the 2nd Freddy lost his head, but it's what I came up with. The PQ Ending is technically canon... so that was a waste of a braincell, hah...

Since fnaf has the tendency to rewrite/add things to the story, I think our Glamrock Freddy being a prototype is something I've accepted. Now, there are a few things I thought of that might add to the idea of him being a prototype (not confirmed but more speculative).

He's a high-tech, sentient AI robot, he can clearly experience human emotion (like the other glamrocks) and has decent mobility. What most likely seperates him from the other glams is the fact that he experiences existentialism. I know we don't see much from the other glams, what they think of their current situation (not even from Roxy in Ruin), they aren't fully aware of what they are or what they're doing (as far as we know). Their programming is focused on being entertainers and birthdays.

I'm not gonna say that the other glams aren't able to express deeper thoughts, but I think this is where I might be stretching this idea just a bit.

If you're going to make AI bots who can adapt and be flexible with their environment, there's gotta be some kind of limit of what they can say/think/do. Freddy is the prime example of not having that limitation since we see/hear him express concern about not being the only Glamrock Freddy that's walking around:

"Have I always been a Freddy? Am I Monty with a different shell? What if I am not the first Glamrock Freddy? ... Do we all feel the same? Am I special? If I am mass-produced, am I still art?" (Endo Warehouse)

This motherfucker literally commits arson:

"You sure collected a lot of toys! Perhaps we can do something to stop whatever is going on here." (Fire escape Ending)

When he goes to the basement and encounters the blob, he goes on this monologue:

"I know what this is. I have been here before. She brought me here. I found myself for the first time when I cleared the path. I did not want to, but I had no choice. Now I have a choice. I have changed. My friends are here. They are so angry, confused. But I can protect you. I am not me." (True Ending)

He ultimately goes against some of his programming to help a child in need-- even lie to a security guard-- which if he were set to do as he's told, he would've sent Gregory straight to Vanessa, even with Gregory adamantly telling him not to.

If he were programmed to be strict and not break any protocols, he'd would've gotten Gregory killed immediately.

I'm saying this because if we're being realistic (realistic in terms of how we usually program robots and things), there are barriers in what a robot/ai can really say/do that doesn't break its programming. If he's a prototype, Freddy wouldn't have those barriers to stop him from saying/doing most of the things he did in SB. I know there's another factor to him behaving kindly to Gregory and that's him being in safe mode, but even still... you would think he would follow the rules and not let Gregory do certain things and perhaps unintentionally get the boy killed.

I'm going back to the existential crisis Freddy has, because for something that's meant to be an animatronic mascot for kids, you wouldn't want him to make the children around him question the meaning of being alive and sentient. There would have to be some sort of guard against having those kind of thoughts and ideas. It makes Freddy more interesting, especially if he could've been easily replaced with a finalized version of him that did what he was suppose to.

Also, I know it's probably more widely accepted that either Vanny or Gregory hacked into Freddy, causing his collapse during the opening. With him being a prototype, maybe his systems couldn't handle that type of an advanced hack, unlike the other glams, making him unable to be properly hacked into in the beginning.

Not only that, there are some issues he has with performing, who knows, maybe he's had collapses before. We don't know.

Him being unable to enter the West Arcade:

"When I step onto the West Arcade dance floor I cannot stop myself! It is a programming bug." (West Arcade)

I'm aware him being in safe mode meant he's disconnected from the main network as well keeps him docile. While the "Afton" fight isn't technically canon, with the other upgrades on Freddy, those parts might have made him more susceptible to the virus attack. There's not much evidence pointing to the other glams not being prototypes but seeing how they each have upgrades while Freddy doesn't, that might hint that the others were mostly finalized, meaning their systems were properly functioning (aside from the virus of course).

Sorry if this was super long, but it's something I thought about and I had to put it in words. Nothing about Glamrock Freddy is normal, like he's not possessed (I use to believe in the glammike theory but I don't anymore eh...), but he's a prototype! He's gonna act all funky because he's not polished yet... and I think that's very interesting and endearing (in an odd way).

#fnaf security breach #glamrock freddy #prototype glamrock freddy #ruin spoilers #text post #fnaf theory #fnaf headcanon(?) #idk its between a theory and a headcanon honestly #take what i say with the smallest pinch of salt. #honestly this feels more headcanony #anyways... worth spending an hour writing this out #lemme know what yall think #i went harder than i did any of my argumentative essays... damn. #late night thoughts teehee

[sirfrogsworth]

My First "Viral" Post

Like, 20 people told me to submit my Brady Bunch GIFset to @world-heritage-posts and hundreds more tagged it #worldheritagepost.

So I was like, "OKAY OKAY, I'll submit it!"

And they never posted it.

Which is completely fine!

WHP, it's cool. We're cool. I don't need World Heritage Post reblogs.

I have reblogs at home.

(my reblogs at home)

I am definitely *NOT* going to do the "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM???" thing.

I only do cool and funny "Don't you know who I am?" interactions like Tony Hawk.

But when I submitted the post it reminded me of an even earlier time on Tumblr when there were only a few people who could make a post go viral.

The main one was called @thedailywhat. If something got posted there, it could get HUNDREDS of notes.

HUNDREDS!!!!

Oh, that's another funny thing. Several people commented "Why does this only have 20K notes!!???"

There are currently 135 million active users on Tumblr and the site got roughly 2.4 billion visits in 2023.

In all of 2010 the entire site got 50 million visitors. Not users. Just people who went to a Tumblr address during that entire year.

In any case, if you thought you created something cool and you wanted more than 10 people to see it, you had to submit your cool thing to The Daily What. It was the first Tumblr to reach 100,000 followers which was more than the actual founder of Tumblr had at the time.

It was run by a single person but he was very private and never revealed his name.

His emails were very cryptic.

I'm pretty sure he sold the site and went to live on a beach or something. But whoever bought it did not understand how to run the blog and the final post was in 2013.

I'm not surprised the new owner crashed and burned. Johnny Internets was irreplaceable. He really understood what would connect with people. Nearly everything he posted would gain decent popularity. I'm not sure people realize how much of a skill curating content can be and how hard it is to post popular things with consistency.

He would reject a lot of content outright and was very picky about what went on his Tumblr. But when he actually posted something you made, it was almost guaranteed to go viral.

Well, viral relative to the time period.

I suspect I submitted nearly a hundred things before he finally agreed to reblog me. And I still remember the first thing I submitted that he liked.

I posted this in 2010. How many notes do you think it got?

Probably a million, right?

No less than 100K.

I mean, look at how cute that panda is!

SONOFABITCH!

Back then, that was enough.

But that was just me putting words on something. My ultimate goal was to get him to post one of my original photoshops.

And do you see how he gave proper attribution? That meant a lot during a time when other curators were cropping my watermarks and claiming things as their own.

A real mensch, this Mysterious Stranger was.

These two posts got me enough traction to grow my following and before I knew it, I was The Daily What for other people. I was able to help other artists and content creators get traction and grow their following.

It was a beautiful Tumblr version of paying it forward. Only not as awkward as those weirdos who do it in drive-thru lines.

I ONLY GOT A SODA AND NOW I GOTTA PAY FOR 40 MCNUGGETS?

It's fine.

Enjoy your nugs.

#tumblr history with Froggie

[oneatlatime]

Atla season two predictions

We're halfway through season 2! I did a post on my thoughts on the show and its characters when I reached the halfway point of season one. My thoughts are mostly the same, and there's only one new character of note (all hail Toph!), so I thought this time I'd mark the halfway point by taking wild stabs at predicting where the rest of the season is going to go. I'm going to try to do at least one prediction per character. This is entirely guesswork. Once the season is done I'll come back to this post and see how prescient/stupid I was. Without further ado...

The season finale will have Azula as the Big Bad and introduce the Fire Lord as the Big Bad for season three. This is exactly what happened in the finale of season one: Zhao was big bad and Azula was introduced. So less prediction, more extrapolating based on existing data. It was a winning formula in season one, so I'm hoping the writers will do it again. I'm also hoping that Azula will follow Zhao's fate because quite frankly I don't like her very much. Tl;dr, Azula and her crew will get swallowed by a giant badger mole spirit.

Toph is getting a subplot. She feels like a character with nothing left to work on, and now that Aang can earthbend, her purpose is accomplished. So she needs another purpose in the story. That, or they're going to leave her behind at some point. I wonder if she's in season three? She'd better be. So either Toph is going to remain a character with no need of an arc, in which case her subplot will revolve around something she already excels at, or the writers are going to throw a curve ball and reveal a heretofore unknown weakness that she's going to have to work around. If it's the former, my money is on one of the idiots from the pro-bending tournament hunting her down to avenge their humiliating defeat at her hands. If it's the latter, my guess would be something intellectual that plays on her high society background. Political intrigue? Spy work? A cult? Maybe she finds out that her parents are colluding with the fire nation? Tl;dr SuperToph, somehow.

Appa comes back. This is not a prediction, this is a DEMAND. He breaks free of his captors (seriously, he went down way too easy), runs away into the wilds of the earth kingdom, and following some innate air bison sense, stumbles upon a lost colony of his fellow bison who escaped Sozin's genocide. (and have somehow remained entirely undiscovered for a century despite being each the size of a house and able to fly to boot well the earth kingdom's got a lot of empty spaces just go with it) They spend a few weeks chilling until Appa gets found. Season three can end with Appa's Air Bison Hunny showing up with a baby sky bison. Tl;dr Papa Appa.

Project Make Zuko Decent gets a new CEO. The current one sucks. Some new character is going to be introduced to provide Zuko with both the motivation and the guidance to become a decent person. Iroh's had a season and a half and made pretty much no progress; Zuko's spent all of season two trying, and has made himself somehow worse. Maybe not worse, but certainly more worn out. Time for new blood. I'd like to think that this show is above cliche, but let's be honest, it's going to be a love interest. They tried it with a kid brother in Zuko Alone and it didn't work. So some nice earth kingdom girl. Like Song, but with more backbone. Maybe she's really good at swords. They can bond over that. I feel like Zuko would be easier to connect with over something he knows he's good at. It would be less fraught than bonding over bending. She also lost her mother to the fire nation; they can bond over that too. The writers laid the groundwork in Zuko Alone, might as well use it. The more Zuko can empathise, the faster he'll get decent. I hate to see a character who exists solely for 'Man Pain' or 'Man Growth,' but let's be honest, Zuko is not self-aware enough to grow without some major hand-holding, and Iroh isn't volunteering. I know that Zuko is on the cover of my season three DVD so his 'get decent' arc has to be complete by the end of season two. Tl;dr Zuko gets schooled.

Sokka has been underutilised this season (as has Katara), so he's going to get something major. The Library set him up to lead the gang to that Earth Kingdom town who's name I forget so they can share the date of the eclipse with the king, but you know Aang isn't budging until they get Appa back. So for the next few episodes, Sokka will be in Master Tracker Mode, using all the skills he learned at the South Pole and more to rescue Appa. There can be flashbacks to him learning the skill from his dad/grandfather/uncles/Bato, then flash forward to see him applying that skill successfully, adapting it to a different climate and incorporating insights he's gained since the show started. We had Zuko Alone, now I want Sokka Alone with the ghosts of his family. Although I don't think Aang would be willing to sit out on Appa retrieval, so Aang's going to have to be urgently needed for Avatar reasons right when Sokka stumbles on the clue that is the key to finding Appa. The group splits and reunites to see the earth kingdom king, Sokka triumphant and Appa in tow. Tl;dr Sokka channels Liam Neeson with probably a lower body count.

Momo is going along with Sokka for aerial reconnaissance.

Katara needs something juicy too. She's mastered waterbending, so her growth has to be personal rather than skills-based. Maybe she gets her world view challenged? Maybe she meets an evil earth kingdom or water tribe person? Evil to the core; she's already met bunches from both nations who are stupid/malicious. Hang on - I forgot about Jet. So she meets an evil water tribe person. In the earth Kindgom. Somehow. Maybe she meets a good fire nation person? How about a fire nation healer/doctor/army medic? Someone who can show her that firebending isn't all bad. Can you heal with any element other than water? I have no idea, but it would be cool if you could. If you really want to challenge her, a fire nation firebending healer who is genuinely compassionate to people of all nations, but who is also proud to be a fire nation citizen and fond of their nation. That would REALLY confuse her. Doubly so if there's some healing technique that she desperately needs to learn from this person. Katara seems like the type to think that one person = one opinion, and that there is only one right opinion, ever, in all things, and that is hers. Show her someone complex, hypocritical, layered, but still a force for overall good. Tl;dr let's torture Katara.

Aang! It's been a while since his duties as Avatar have conflicted with his personal convictions. Actually, it's been a while since his duties as Avatar have come up at all, apart from training and getting chased for being the Avatar. Aang is going to encounter some problem that can only be fixed by an Avatar, likely something like the giant panda from season one. Maybe pissing off the Owl spirit causes unrest in the spirit world? Maybe Aang's going to have to fight a war on two fronts: fire nation v. other nations and spirit world v. physical world? Or maybe Aang's going to have to mediate in a spirit world civil war? Aang's got enough friends in the spirit world that maybe the giant panda and his friends take offence to the owl mouthing off about the avatar and it snowballs from there? It seems to me that pissing off a spirit is the kind of mistake that should have consequences beyond that spirit's episode. And this need for the Avatar comes up just when there's a solid lead on Appa, so Aang has to learn to delegate the Appa-finding to his friends while he's off saving the world. Tl;dr Aang has to do some Avataring.

Iroh needs to get his act together and come up with a better plan than following Zuko at a safe distance. This is more of a wish than a prediction, because Iroh's still very much a big old question mark to me. It's easier to predict what the child/teenage characters are going to do, because apart from maybe Toph, they have limited and already defined means. But Iroh's lived decades. He could very easily have resources, skills, connections, knowledge etc. that viewers haven't seen yet that he could call on at any time. He could pull anything out of the blue and I'd believe it, because that's how the world works when you're a sociable person who knows how to talk your way into things and has spent decades doing so. There have to be some earth kingdom collaborators around from his invading days who could be blackmailed/flattered into helping Iroh and Zuko get back on their feet. Tl;dr Iroh phones a friend. I can see the plot for the rest of the season ending in three ways:

A)Sokka's news about the eclipse causes the earth king to arrange a direct strike on the fire nation capital, killing Azula in the finale. The fire lord escapes, Azula gets promoted to fire nation martyr, and the war enters a new, worse, heightened, far more scorched earth/bloodthirsty state at the start of season three.

B) The Earth King says "yeah kid, we've had star charts for millennia, we know about the eclipse, they know about the eclipse, it'll be the one time their defences are at their absolute highest, this plan is dumb as hell, go away." This is the one I think is most likely.

C) News of the eclipse never reaches the earth king, because it turns out that unless the local king is your nonagenarian former best friend, getting a royal audience is hard if you're a water tribe nobody, and maybe his friend is the Avatar, but he's also twelve, and even in a kid's cartoon letting twelve year olds have a say in national policy is a bit of a stretch. The eclipse nonsense remains a one-episode occurrence that was just the set up required for Appa's Appa-napping, and the rest of the season is spent de-Appa-napping Appa, until a surprise appearance by Zuko jr. and her girlies in the finale.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #season 2

[soopersara]

For reasons that have everything and nothing to do with the most recent chapters of I&S, I've been thinking a lot about a time travel AU that I will absolutely never write.

Specifically, I want a time travel AU where little-kid!Zuko (age 9-10) travels forward in time and meets angry-teen!Zuko (we're talking like... the Book 1 egghead version of angry-teen!Zuko here). I know that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but the way I envision this playing out is:

Teen!Zuko and kid!Zuko meet, and after a healthy amount of confusion, figure out that they're two different versions of the same person. Kid!Zuko is... not thrilled to be stuck on a rickety old ship with a much grumpier version of himself, but hey! Uncle Iroh is here, and he's got lots of board games and even more free time, so it could be worse. Teen!Zuko, meanwhile, is having a bit of a crisis as he gets slapped in the face with several realizations all at once.

Realization #1: A warship is not a good place for a 9-10 year old boy to live, but there's literally nowhere else in the world where kid!Zuko will be safe. For as long as kid!Zuko is stuck in this timeline, teen!Zuko has to look after him.

Realization #2: Oh, shit. No one has seriously fucked up kid!Zuko yet. His life obviously hasn't been perfect, but this is pretty much the peak of kid!Zuko's sweet-and-innocent phase.

Realization #3: ... as fucked up as teen!Zuko's life has been, he desperately doesn't want to be the person who fucks up kid!Zuko's life.

Cue teen!Zuko scrambling to get his shit together so that he can be a reasonably healthy and stable guardian/big brother figure for his younger self. He starts working on his temper and trying to take Iroh's advice more seriously, and while things don't always go smoothly (kid!Zuko definitely picks up some vigilante tendencies from teen!Zuko. There may or may not be sightings of a tiny Blue Spirit causing trouble up and down the Earth Kingdom coast), teen!Zuko eventually figures out what he's doing. He puts in the work to become a decent role model, he deals with some of his own shit (and his outlook on life improves), he grows to see kid!Zuko as the little brother he never had, and he generally doesn't fuck anything up too badly.

Basically, looking after kid!Zuko teaches teen!Zuko self love (but with extra steps! I don't think grumpy-teen!Zuko could ever learn anything the simple way 😂)

All of that growth makes it harder and harder for teen!Zuko to ever envision himself returning to the Fire Nation. After all, if he wouldn't put his younger self through the pain of going back there and dealing with Ozai, why should he put his present self through that? And on a related note, kid!Zuko definitely has questions about teen!Zuko's scar and banishment. When teen!Zuko reaches a point where he's able to think about the Agni Kai, he can't imagine anything that kid!Zuko could ever do to deserve that kind of treatment, which leads teen!Zuko to question whether he deserved it. And as teen!Zuko starts to come to grips with the fact that he's probably never going back home - certainly not if it would mean putting kid!Zuko through the same pain that teen!Zuko experienced there - he has to start considering what other options he has for the future.

Kid!Zuko may or may not accelerate teen!Zuko's redemption arc even more by befriending various members of the Gaang and dragging his 'big brother' along to meet his new friends/disappearing for a few hours with his new friends only to be 'rescued' by teen!Zuko who is... very surprised and very awkward about it when he realizes who kid!Zuko is hanging out with.

There are obviously lots of time travel AUs out there already, but apparently this one is just going to live in my brain for the forseeable future 😂 As much as I love the standard "post-redemption!Zuko meets Book 1 Zuko and mentors his younger self to accelerate his own redemption/drags himself kicking and screaming toward redemption" time travel AUs that I see around the fandom, I think I'm just hungry for a time travel AU where pre-redemption!Zuko doesn't know what his future could look like. To me, there's just something really appealing about the idea of a time travel AU where his redemption gets accelerated not because he knows his life will get better if he becomes a better person, but because he wants to be someone who his younger self can be proud of.

#atla headcanons #zuko #zuko headcanons #time travel au #now it's time for me to go back to daydreaming #about the Zutara variant of this AU #where either Katara finds kid!Zuko first and has to find him a permanent guardian #which can only be teen!Zuko or Iroh #and since she's bonded with kid!Zuko by the time that she finds teen!Zuko and Iroh #she can't get herself to just drop off kid!Zuko and run #so they all strike an uneasy alliance #OR the other version #where kid!Zuko and teen!Zuko are traveling together from the beginning #and when Katara comes into the Ba Sing Se teashop #kid!Zuko starts playing with Momo #then teen!Zuko tries to get his 'little brother' to stop bothering the customers #Katara sees teen!Zuko #and Zutara-flavored teashop shenanigans ensue #zutara

[sweet-little-goldfish-stede]

We don't see much of the Bonnet children in s1, but I think what we do see is extremely telling of Stede’s relationship with his kids.

In the episode 4 flashback, things are...pretty good? Mary has to nudge Stede to play with the kids, yeah, but everyone is pretty on board once he does; it's not super awkward.They're playing, they're smiling, they're having a good time. Alma reaches for his hair, and she and Louis are giggling when she does, so there's no suggestion of physical distance although we don't see anything more (Stede’s not a physical guy, anyway). In fact, this little bit of contact shows how comfortable the kids are with Stede and vice versa. He's the fun parent; he's not gonna be any use if you want to talk about your feelings or need help with homework or make you dinner, but the kids have absolutely no problem kidding around with him.

Furthermore, the only time Stede EVER directly says "I love you" to someone, it's to his kids. And they're asleep! So he definitely doesn't have to say anything! But his family is the center of his guilt, and the fact that he wanted to tell his kids he loved them one last time when all Mary got was "fond regards" not only suggests they might be the only two people he really loved before Ed, but that there was also a decent relationship between the 3 of them.

In fact, the only direct instances of anger and distance are A. When Stede’s sitting far away from the rest of the fam in his memory and they give him weird looks (although later all 3 of them are laughing at something Stede says in the same memory, and I've seen other post suggest Stede’s memories should be taken with a grain of salt) and B. After he un-abandons them ("I don't want your old food"/"Who are you again? I thought Doug was my father").

Personally, I think he's closest with Alma, since she shows up in his fever nightmare and is actually angry with him when he returns to Barbados, unlike Louis who straight up forgot him (validly). In fact, Stede and Louis barely interact even when they ARE interacting. Alma has all the lines and touches his hair when they're playing pirates; Alma gets mad at him at dinner; Alma cuts the orange in half to share. The fact that she wanted something to remember her father by and share with him is huge, imo. I think we're meant to see, not in as many words, how upset Alma is at Stede leaving. She's older and had more time with Stede; she missed him and is mad at being left behind; she's not HAPPY he's leaving again, but she gets why and could see that things were a lot better when he was gone for all of them. Plus, the way she delivers "Any last words, dog?"? That is STEDE BONNET’S DAUGHTER RIGHT THERE.

Stede has a decent relationship with and loves his kids/Stede was totally fucked for abandoning them are two things which can coexist, and I will die on this hill.

#ofmd #stede bonnet #alma bonnet #louis bonnet #our flag means death

[abrisaber]

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss Rant Again Again Again

It's about time I made another unnecessarily long post about HB!

It's been a few months since the release of Hazbin Hotel and I've watched it a couple of times alongside Helluva Boss. With the newest episode of HB right around the corner, I thought I'd make a post so I can rant about things that I like and dislike about both shows. This is technically a criticism and it will definitely be negative at some points, but let it be known that I love both Hazbin and Helluva and even though I have my preferences, I still appreciate and enjoy the effort and soul put into both shows regardless.

The World building.

World Building is my favorite thing about any creative media. All of my favorite shows put a lot of dedication into fleshing out the environments for which their characters live in. And, in my opinion, any fantasy media should put some emphasis on World Building for it to be worthwhile.

In the Helleverse or the Vivzieverse or whatever the fuck you call the two shows, the WB is kinda mixed. I will admit that my bais towards WB over something like character development and theme, which are both things that HB and HH emphasize, does cause my opinion of the two shows to skew, but there are flaws that exist within both shows that can't go ignored outside of my own personal bias.

Despite my own preferences, there are things that should be addressed in both shows in terms of the world building that isn't, and I don't think it ever will because of the fact that Hazbin and Helluva are character driven. But when you have Hazbin focusing on something that would drastically change the climate and culture of hell (the exterminations), it's only logical that those things would ripple into Helluva. For example; the potential conflict between Heaven and Helluva Boss.

Maybe this will happen in the future, but I doubt it since Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel seem to exist entirely separate from each other. If that is the case then IMP's existence should would directly conflict with Heaven's desire to protect humans.

If IMP is popular enough for demons in other rings to know about their existence, and for Sinners to be lining up down the block looking for a good deal, then why wouldn't Heaven know about it? And if they do know about it, why wouldn't they have done anything? If Heaven wants to keep demons at controllable and suppressed numbers, then how would some demons have access to the living world at all?

Stolas says in "Oops" That Asmodeus's demons (Succubi and Incubi I suppose) are able to access Earth freely and *legally.* Why would someone like Asmodeus, a person who exists one rank underneath Lucifer and is one of Hell's main sovereigns, be able to let his demons do anything on Earth? Succubi are literally bread to intice humans to sin. They have mating calls that make humans want to fuck them. Why would Heaven allow that, if they even know about that. Because if they do then the idea of Heaven wanting to suppress hell is complete bullshit, and if they don't then Heaven sucks at their job.

The Good and The Bad

Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are both decent shows, but Hazbin Hotel severely outdoes Helluva in several areas. I don't want to be that guy and say "Hazbin is soo much better than Helluva" because I don't really think they're unequal in terms of quality overall, but there are things that can't be ignored about both shows.

For starters, Helluva Boss has no idea what kind of show it wants to be. It started out fairly comedic and lighthearted with some elements of drama, specifically with Blitzo and his relationships, and then it slowly tried to push more and more drama into it to please the overwhelming number of people who are obsessed with the relationships of these characters. The episodes got longer and suddenly we're giving characters arcs that have only had 2 major episodes total (Yes I'm talking about Fizzarolli).

I don't hate the drama in Helluva Boss. In fact I think Truth Seekers, Ozzie's, and Loo Loo Land are the best episodes in the show because they can balance the comedy and the drama well.

For example, I'll compare Loo Loo Land and the S2 Mid-Special.

In Loo Loo Land the relationship between Octavia and her parents is introduced. Even though this is only the second episode in the series and the first time we're seeing Octavia, the episode is capable of being comedic while also showcasing; A) How much of a failure Stolas is as a father despite his best efforts, B) How his blatant, obvious flirting with Blitzo despite being married to Octavia's mother bothers Octavia, and C) How my Stolas cares about his daughter and how the relationship between him and Stella has never been positive despite Octavia's perspective.

In comparison, Oops has Fizzarolli, a character who only had one major episode that was directly before this one. Even though it does the same "starting and finishing a conflict within one episode" thing that Loo Loo Land did, Loo Loo Land never tried to be a full on character arc. The Mid-Musical tries to have this big spectical moment where Fizzarolli is getting rid of his shitty boss and coming out as Asmodeus's partner, but we hardly know Fizzarolli and Asmodeus. We're seeing all these feelings of inadequacy and the need to feel good enough for Asmodeus but we barely even know Fizzarolli as a character. Outside of being the funny jester, the cute Imp boyfriend of the demon king Asmodeus, and one of Blitzo's childhood friends turned enemies, we don't know anything about him. We don't know his hobbies, what his life was like after the fire and before he met Asmodeus, we don't know anything.

The previous episode showed NO effort in showcasing that Fizzarolli feels "inadequate" and wants to prove himself to Asmodeus. Their relationship was seen as the most healthy in all of Hell. Yet come the VERY next episode, suddenly he feels like he's not good enough?

I like this episode and I like Fizzarolli, but in the previous episode he did not feel THIS important. Blitzo was really the one I found paying the most attention to because he's the main character and he's the one who's being accused of maliciously disfiguring Fizz out of jealousy. This episode revealed how he got his scars and what happened to his mother.

Why is Fizzarolli the one getting so much focus when he's a glorified tertiary antagonist?

Hazbin Hotel is capable of doing drama well because that's what it's trying to be. In the first episode they outline the conflict and showcase both sides of the series firsthand. Angel Dust is set up to be a tragic character within the context of the show. His abusive relationship with Valentino doesn't come out of nowhere because they show Valentino's toxic behavior towards Angel Dust as early as Episode 2.

Angel Dust is just one example. There are plenty of others.

It's not like Hazbin Hotel isn't guilty of doing the same thing either. Characters like Carmila Carmine get important emotional episodes despite no previous showcase of this character conflict existing.

In Conclusion,

I like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, but now that both shows are being developed at the same time, I hope that Vivziepop takes more into account since both shows exist in the same universe. There's more I want to say but this post is already ridiculously long. I want to know other people's thoughts as well. Please reply or reblog with anything else you'd like to add or like to counteract! I like to discuss things!

#helluva boss #Hazbin Hotel #vivziepop #discussion #helluva boss critical

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Intermission: Robots in Disguise Season 1 Retrospective (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my More than Meets the Eye retrospective. Kinda. For those of you just joining us for the past two years i've been doing a retrospective of the Transformers comic More than Meets the Eye, one of my faviorite comics ever. While it is as a patreon review i've been more than happy to and in december we hit the end of season 1.

So now.. we're in a weird in between place, as season 1 for MTMTE is over.. but we still have a big crossover event left. And to judge said event fairly.... I realzied I had to go back and re-read Robots in Disguise to properly gage said event.

Yeah i've never been a huge fan of the 2012 comic Robots in Disguise. See I first read RiD AFTER More than Meets the Eye, having loved what I could read of MTMTE and wanting more. This... wasn't the right mindset in hindsight as the two works are completely diffrent beasts: MTMTE is about a found family of disfunctional robots trying to move on from war, making quips, and dealing with their trauma. It is a LOT of things I love in fiction: a bunch of misfits who don't really fit into the society their a part of, clever jokes, spectacular world building, and minor characters given their day in the sun. It feels at times like the book was made for me, down to repadeatly homaging one of my faviorite covers of all time. It was easy to love it and it only grows as I dig into it.

RID in contrast.. is an attempt at a morally grey prestige drama that on paper is about the sacrifices and compromises the autobtos make trying to rebuild cybertron, and in practice is about a weak willed useless jackass, his jackbooted best friend, a well meaning non combatant who means well but also is judgey as fuck, and Starscream, who easily outmanuvers them because a sock full of quarters with googly eyes on it could out manuver them. Wheeljack and Blur are also there and they are delightful but not used nearly enough . I gave the book an honest chance and was badly disapointed, and I gave it a second chance despite utterly dreading this.. and was once again disapointed. RiD is just not very good.

Now i'll give some caveats: the book DOES get better in season 2, with a fresh cast and premise that work decently. It's not on MTMTE"s level.. but I respect writer John Barber and IDW for seeing what they fucked up and course correcting. Barber's work isn't my forte, but the guy isn't terrible an does have his fans for a reason, I just prefer More than Meets the Eye and Windblade more, with Windblade being a second, much more succesful stab at IDW doing an intrigue on cybertron book, one i'll defintely cover at some point. It helps Windblade got most of the standouts from this book as supporting cast, but it's genuinely good and worth your time. None of this makes season 1 GOOD, by any stretch, but I wanted to get it out of the way that YES the series gets better. But you can also largely skip season 1 or read the wiki without loosing much for either RiD Season 2 or Windblade.

That being said.. Season 1 is a mess. It wasn't that pleasant to re read despite it's bright spots and it took a while to get through, an utter chore to slog through this one. One of the only bright sides is it taught me I CAN review a whole series in one post again.. just probably in smaller doses than my last attempt with new teen titans, which was great but just about killed me. So other series I dislike like All New All Diffrent X-Men, Dan Slott's fantastic four or Jason Aaron's avengers are now more within my grasp to actually tear apart at some point.

For now though let's focus on THIS disapointing series, see why it is and also talk a lot about how much this version of Bumblbee sucks and this version of Starscream fucking slaps.

Do You Have Any Clue What Happens Now?

Like more than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise kicks off with the Death of Optimus Prime, a one shot setting up both series and dealing with the aftermath of Chaos, the big event that ended the previous era of IDW and allowed a soft reset for this one.

So as a quick recap since it's been a long time since I tackled this issue: The War is Over. At long lost the Autobots defeated the evil forces of the decpitcons after all of them were combined by an elder god into one giant deciptigod and Megatron disappeared after hyjacking it.

The problem is what comes next which is a great hook and part of what makes MTMTE works: the war is over.. but unlike most transformers stories that get to end the war, we see what happens now everyones free.

The Autobots take command.. but it's not going wella s Optimus Prime finds out: the planet has reverted to a primal state and thousands of civlians, dubbed nails by the autobots and something the nails aren't fond of, have arrived and the vast majority of them want the Autobots to fuck off their planet.

The Nails.. are one of the biggest wasted opportunities of Robots in Disguise. The IDEA is good: a bunch of bots who either fled one of the two sides or managed to opt out entirely return and aren't happy with the planet or military leadership. It's a concept with a lot of depth as on the one hand the autobots have a point

While the Nails had every right to nope out of a war they were tired of, the Autobots fought long hard and lost a lot to get to this point and blaming them for something that's objectively not their fault, the planet going bonkers, isn't remotely fair. On the other.. the nails have every right ot want the planet back and to want a part in it, and to want leadership that isn't just the autobots.

The problem is the conflict is handeled with the subtley of a sledgehammer and thus BOTH sides come off as assholes: The Autobots make up an embarassing faction name for them, push them around and Prowl goes into a creepy tirade about how this isn't "Their" planet and they didn't fight in the war and later sics the deciptcons on them afte rthey agree to get explosives put in their brains.

The Nails Meanwhile spend the start of the sreies, especially the death of optimus prime bitching at the autobots, treating them as facists, and treating them all like they were complicit in the senates corruption, which only gets more galling after season 1 of MTMTE as most were fully against it.. they just couldn't do anything about it. Neither could you guys. It dosen't help they HANG OPTIMUS PRIME IN EFFIGY for the crime of STAYING AROUND ON A PLANET HE JUST SAVED.

The lack of nuance makes me just.. not care about most of both sides: The Autobots come off like their trying to consolidate power and remain in charge because they feel owed it, while the Nails blame them for everything. We COULD have had a good story abotu trying to perserve the past while acknowldging it's flaws and making a better present, but instead it's just the nails either whining or making entirely valid points that the autobots, mostly prowl, try to police brutality away because they can't accept they shoudlnt' be running things.

In the middle of all this Perciptor examines the matrix and finds a map, with Drift seeing it as a map to the mythical knights of cybertron and wanting to go on a quest to find it. Rodimus agrees, while Bee wants them to stay here and be miserable dammit because he is. While on paper Rodimus is running away from his problems in practice.. he defintely is but makes a valid point: Why SHOULD he stay on a planet that doesn't want him. And when Ultra Magnus joins with them, he makes a valid point: finding the knights could find something to fix cybertron. While Rodimus' hopes finding the knights will fix everything is a pipe dream, those are Rodders faviorite kind, their not wrong to want to find a solution that isn't just "Try and make this work" and forcing people who genuinely dont' WANT to help you to do what you say isn't healthy. This isn't a war for all time: it's just a disagremeent about what you want to do now your free of the war.

Optimus ends their squabble by giving them each half the matrix and fucking off, deciding to shed his former mane and his planet. The Lost Light leave despite Bumblebee's bitch crying.. and then seemingly blow up.

And this is where RiD begins, our cast is barely holding Cybertron together, aren't adressing their problem and now they assume the lost light is dead. So what does this add up to?

Okay TECHNICALLY this isn't true: Bumblebee sets up a state funeral for the bots, which is Starscream's first big platform to worm his way into high command, and Wheeljack brings him up once... but really you could take this subplot out and replace the big shindig with something else and nothing would change.

In contrast the messy takeoff... is VITAL to More Than Meets The Eye: the explosion it causes sends a good chunk of lost lighters to the planet bellow, brings skids on board when they investigate the planet, and brings the sparkeater on board to set those up for much later. And that's not even getting into how the opening arc of season 2 follows up on it, which i'll save for when we get there. Here.. they just sorta assume their friends are dead, don't bother investigating or thinking that MAYBE a ship with a quantum engine did some weird shit. It's to the point that when Optimus is told during his sub plot, his response... is to not remotely buy Rodimus could be killed that easy and assume they'll find them eventually. Which.. they do.

There's also just.. legistics. I know this is a pair of comics about giant robots, science isn't strictly followed nor should it be. But if the lost light exploded.. there would be debris. And they HAVE plenty of ships. Someone could investigate. If the Nails think the autobots REALLY commited this sort of execution, as their said to outright suspect including their rep in the main cast metalhawk, then .. why would NONE of the thousands of bots with functioning space ships look into it. Or the deciptcons once their brain explode chips are turned off. It feels like an excuse to just have the two not interact.. which they already had being out of range and with Blaster spending the season getting coms up and running again.

Anyways the series proper mostly follows Autobot high command as they try to run this planet/prevent anyone else from doing so. Like the lost light exploision this is a possibly intresting hook... that's utterly bungled. They do do things with it.. but they don't do them well. And the best way to get into that is with the characters starting with their supreme leader

Bumblebee: He's Tried Nothing and He's All Out of Ideas

The idea of Bumblebee being forced to take charge of the autobots is a great one. Tranformers has gone to this well three times i'm aware of, and it's a concept worth exploring taking what's essentially the team's kid brother and forcing him to take the throne and see if he can make it.

IDW's last attempt before this wasn't great, with Bee making a deal with the goverment that backfired horribly, and generally acomplishing nothing. So trying AGAIN.. was a smart move. It was worth a second try.

Unfortunately... Barber entirely bungled that second attempt. Bumblebee is TECHNICALLY leader of cybertron.. but really dosen't try to lead. He lets prowl do whatever he wants and whatever prowl wants is usually some form of police brutality, he argues with metal hawk but tends not to have an argument other than "the autobots aren't all bad mkay" or "All decipticons deciptisuck", and he overworks poor sweet Wheeljack, fostering all their super science shit on him and being mad when the guy is doing work of his own. It's VERY transparent in every scene he's in Bumblebee wants peace with the Nails not because it's the right thing.. but simply so the autobots can hold onto the planet. While the Nails are often written as overreacting assholes, as the book goes on they mellow out and most of their actions are entirely... justifable. Their horrified Prowl put bombs in the decipticons brains, they don't want police brutality, they want to actually elect a leader.

Every move Bee makes is to keep himself in charge despite not having a single fucking idea what he's doing. I could buy him as a leader if he tried.. leading: Tried finding homes for the Nails, making actual negotations with the decpticons, send out a party to go tame the primal planet so they can expand iacon , actually hammer out a government. There's a LOT to building a whole new world after a war, it's the reason Hamilton got an entire, incredibly gripping act out of all the nation building. But instead RiD just ignores the intresting idea of rebuilding cybertron's goverment and how it governs itself from scratch and just focuses on Bee whining or various things that happen for the plot. And by doing so it makes Bumblbee and those loyal to him come off like power grabbing assholes who care more about being appricated for fighting the war and less about making a better world to live in or even making the world LIVEABLE.

What makes this so galling though is how the narrative treats bee: characters talk about his "great vision" failed or say he might win the election. That last part is Prowl/Bombshell playing Bee, more on that in a minute, but most of the cast talks his ass up when really he's just a guy way in over his head, which could be intresting to explore.. but they just.. DON'T. Instead we just follow a bland dithering jackass as he fucks up till eventually someone smarter, with more charisma and an actual plan takes his place. But before we can get to them.. let's talk about the most punchable face in Autobot high command

Fuck Prowl

Yeah I tried to make a clever title here, I really did.. but most attempts lead to a storm of profanity as I genuinely detest this version of Prowl. And as a reminder like bumblebee it's JUST the IDW comics version. Animated Prowl slaps. Prowl's G1 deisgn is great. I'm sure there are other prowls who don't suck all joy out of a page when they show up or are the poster boy for why we need police reform despite doing a police on a whole other planet. I"d like to meet them. But this prowl is one of my least faviorite characters in fiction. In fact I can't bleivei I didn't add him to my jjall before now.

Welcome Home Prick!

Now I will give one caveat to this character: Part of the problem is the multitude of writers: James Roberts, who wanted Prowl for his cast, wrote prowl as a giant asshole who could never let the war go and got two people killed with his overlord scheme. Nick Roche wrote prowl as a scheming asshole who paranoidly plots. And tha'ts not even getting into his asshole characterization in books BEFORE this era.

John Barber.. dosen't walk either of these back, but wants Prowl to be a complex symapthetic figure, someone who is a calculating draconian asshole.. but who was driven there by his betryal by spike in the previous ongoing, and who badly WANTS to do the right thing. The problem is rather than make prowl a layered intresting character.. he instead comes off as an asshat who constantly tries to justify the horrible shit he does as "for the greater good"

It's not helped that Prowl's first scenes in this era leave a truly terrible first impression: The first things we see from prowl are

Him bitching about the nails and being absolutely LIVID at their suggestion the autobots leave the planet, not because it's a stupid unfair suggestion, but because he feels OWED the planet and was also once nearly one himself.

Conscripting the Decipticons into his own private army he uses to try and supress a riot from the Nails, instead making it ten times worse and only not getting anyone killed because Optimus steps in.

In MTMTE, trying to convince Chromedome to stay so he can use his ex boyfriend to do mnemosurgery, something Chromedome VERY much dosen't want to do, mocking his current boyfriend and then flipping a table like a petulant teenager when Chromedome walks out on his ass.

Using Arcee as his own personal hit squad , having her assitnate ratbat then trying to act like he didn't ask her to do that.

It's.. nigh impossible to come back form all of that and Prowl really dosen't. He spends the season brainwashed by Bombshell, in part thanks to trying to blackmail Chromedome and forgetting "oh yeah he can do mind things to me".. and NO ONE notices. He's horrified by that fact, but it's VERY telling that the only action of his that was hintingly out of character.. was telling bumblebee he could win the election. GENUINELY supporting his friend instead of trying to talk over him... is something that was a HINT he was brainwashed and the only thing people felt off. Said brainwashing also feels like it came out of nowhere, with not the slightest hint, and feels like a way to soft reset the character... which then fails as he spends season 2 once again out of his head... and once again in a way that isn't remotely out of character. I don't blame prowl for what he did under bombshell for most of the sries, he was brainwashed. But it's DAMMING that he did enough in ONE VOLUME before being hypnotized to earn my ire. More than Meets the Eye dosen't HELP nad IS a diffrent writer.. but even under Barber he's just the worst and I don't look forward to seeing more of him during Dark Cybertron and beyond. I DO look forward to seeing him hurled off a cliff.

All Hail Starscream:

Taking a break from pure, unyielding rage for a second, let's talk about something the book does right. I may be giving John Barber a LOT of crap this review.. but I can't deny he writes the best Starscream. There are other great starscreams from the hilarously over the top unsubtle 84 version, to the compitent but still hilarously shady animated verison and i'm sure i'll only find more as I watch more shows. Starscream rocks. But this one takes all that and asks a question: What happens when you take Starscream out of war and put him where his lying and scheming are an asset and his bad past is a non factor if he can lie hard enough: Politics.

While the autobots drown post war, trying to find their place.. Star scream swims like a majestic dolphin. Granted he's a Majestic Dolphin who still gets shit on a lot as it's starscream and everyone knows not to trust him and he has to work hard for his schemes for the most part... but he's still FAR more at home here than he ever was trying to usurp megatron. With the Decpticons, might made right: Megatron was on top because he was a great tactician, sure, but he was also capable of kicking anyone's ass who dared defy him, and had a death squad just for making a gruesome example out of anyone who betrays or tries to leave the cause. While Starscream was strong he couldn't muslce out megs or the various destructive douchebags he hired.

In contrast on Cybertron post war... he simply has to outthink and outspeak his opponents, who even if they weren't mostly fuck ups, still aren't really public speakers. Starscream first weasles his way into command with a few simple moves: He goes to the autobots in good faith, which they rightfully don't buy, tells them about a planned false flag attack by ratbat.. then once he's foiled, steps onto the stage at the funeral the attack was taking place at and boldly offer shimself as a formerish decipticon representive. While Bee never trusts the guy, for good damn reason, from that point on it simply dosen't matter: he's in the room where it happens. And often.. he's somehow the voice of reason. He's always got an angle... but it dosen't change the fact he's right or he gives Metalhawk someone to back him up. Not only that some of the bonds he forms are genuine. Metalhawk genuinely warms up to screamer and Wheeljack is the only one to try and make amends, to the point that after my boy gets horribly injured, Starscream makes sure he's getting healed and genuinely feels bad the poor guy got hurt.

On top of that once the media is restored for iacon, Starscream plays to the cameras, with his biggest play since stepping on stage coming in the annual: The Autobots find a titan in the desert while looking for lost comrades, trying to keep starscream out of it as Bee is deathly aware finding them would be some very easy bipartisan points for Screamer. Screamer shows up anyway... and when Prowl's croney keeps a gun traind on him and metalhawk, Screamer easily turns the situation on them: He invites a TON of Nails to watch and essentially make it so if he gets shot, it's over for the autobots, then goes down himself. It's here he gets a stroke of pure luck: The titan they've found... deems Starscream as some kind of chosen one. This isn't necessarily a good thing long term... but it does mean a lot especailly to the religious. Now normally this would mean nothing or months of trying to find proof.. but because Screamer's crowd crawled down to witness the titan once it was safe.. they all heard it.

At this point.. Starscream's basically won. The only genuine compettion he'd have in an open election is metalhawk, but either way the Autobots have basically lost control and all that's left is to wait for the elections. Sadly for Screamer he soon has a no good very bad day as Megatron comes back and Starscream spends the next arc as a hostage after going to rant at his former boss, with Megatron not remotely interested in compromise.

That said Starscream has survivied being humilaited plenty and while the Autobots are autobusy dealing with Megatron and the decpeticons, not to mention prowl combining with devestator, Starscream reminds us who he is: He kills Metalhawk, later being genuinely regretful.. but acknowledging Metalhawk was, genuinely, the only thing in his way. He was the only oponent in his rise to power left: Megatron was dealt with, the autobots had shot themselves in the foot 87 times, he feels terrible about what he did.. but killing Metalhawk looses him a friend and someone who belivied in him.. but gains him a Martyr. In the aftermath Screamer basically declares himself LEADER OF THE DECPTEICONS.. ER CYBERTRON, everyone backs him and he gets rid of most of his major opposition by casting out anyone who won't revoke their faction. A few autobots like Blurr stay behind... but msot of the cast we know are cast into the wildnerness and it's their own damn fault.

We get one last issue with Screamer , a spotlight that shows this job will be hard as while speeching got him INTO the job, he has to solve actual problems. Three Monologues is the best issue of season 1 as Starscream rants at megatron in stasis, reflects to Metalhawk's corpse and genuinely opens up to an injured in stasis wheeljack. Not only that Starscream also gets his own starscream, Beast Wars Faviorite rattrap. I'm mixed on this version of him: the character is very well written, being a slimy weasel whose looking for an angle and who gets rid of a local altruist for star scream by framing the guy. It creates an intresting relationship too as Starscream recognizes the behavior of his own.. and takes Rattrap into his administration. As Screamer perfectly puts it the guy Rattrap framed.. was a liablity. He liked star scream, genuinely belivied in the titans... but as Starscream brilliantly puts it altrusim.. is unpredictable. Rattrap on the other hand is who Screamer used to be before he became god emperor of cybertron starscream the first: he can not only deal with that, but it gives him a minon.

Before we leave Screamer I also just want to say.. I fucking love that he put on the crown from transformers the movie. I've always loed that he just... had to have a little crown for himself and that even if this version is less of a joke, he's still starscream enough to need a crown. It's also a striking visual in this context: Starscream is in control of cybertron. Primus help us.

Metalhawk: Don't Let him Be Misunderstood

For any longtime fans of this series or MTMTE, this section is probably going to be controversial but on second read.. I didn't hate Metalhawk. He's still obnoxious at first, he is the one saying "oh well you should piss off the planet you just fought hard to save from a giant Decipticon monster god man". It's easy to hate him as he's constantly telling our heroes they shoudl fuck off.

Yet on reread.. him doing that is WHY he's entertaining. See when I first read the books it was a few years ago. When I can't remember, my memory catches a lot of things but some things are lost to the enternal bog that is the back of my head, but it was before 2020.. and thus before George Floyd's untimely murder. As a result a lot of what the autobots do read diffrentlY: what they did ALWAYS came off as awful: even when the protestors are slamming the doors down, sending out jackbooted thugs is NEVER a good look, and the way Prowl talks about nails and treats them as second class citzens for simply wanting a voice is ... all kinds of chilling. Prowl sees himself as a police officer, and he certainly is.. but the worst kind, the kind most are who will gladly do shady shit to persue what they think is justice and oppress civlians because their "above them. "

So while said realizations about policing and the various police beatings of innocnet protestors made Prowl somehow even worse.. they made Metalhawk better as a LOT of what he's asking.. comes off more resonable. His wanting the decpticons free was kinda bonkers to me when i first raed it.. but now I entirely get that maybe putting bombs in defeated enemy combatants is you know.. a war crime. If you really want to put decitpcons who are dangerous away.. use a jail. Give them a trial. It's not great but putting them int what's basically a gheto that also oused to be a gun is horrible.

Metalhawk simply wants a voice and change for his people. He grows out of throwing the autobots out, being far more willing to work with them than they are with him and making plenty of valid points. He evolves as a character from a whiny asshole who disrpescts the autobots to seeing them as fuckups.. but ones who, prowl aside, are GENUINELY trying, with Bee planning to basically let Metalhawk takeover after the big fight at the end of season 1 before Starscream put some holes in that plan and also metalhawk. He's often the only person speaking up for a bunch of people who greatly outnumber the people in charge yet have to listen to thir bullshit, something that's become more and mor erelevant as congress fucks up more and more . It's hard to boo him when he's right: the autobots probably SHOUDLN'T be running the planet. They shoudln't leave, but they shoudln't be in charge. They shoudlnt be using deciptcons as easy soldiers and shoudln't keep the bombs in their heads now their vastly outnumbered. He's the voice of reason in a calvlcade of jackasses and a schemeing asshole. He's still annoying at times.. but it's really hard to hate a guy who grows out of his most annoying traits and ends the comic betrayed by the most obvious cantidate, something he only didn't see coming.. because he genuinely thought his friend had changed.

Wheeljack and the Rest: Robots in Disguise has a large cast, but most of the best players are off to the side, Starscream excluded. So let's talk about them.

My easy faviorite is one I wish Roberts had gotten like he wanted, the man the myth, Wheeljack. now I like Wheeljack in general due to his design, a nice faceplate, a unique head, it helps him stand out among the standard faces most autobots have.

Wheeljack seems to be one of the few Autobots genuinely trying for a better tommorow: he tries to make peace with starscream, and is frequently working on other projects before bee yells at him for not being avaliable to put out all his fires. He's kind, considerate and also a genuius, getting a nice moment in the sun when he sneaks into a decipticon ship and fidns out their up to some shit, then escapes the horde. I mean Metalhawk DOES save him in the end, but the fact he did most of this himself and gets both of them out himself is impressive. Wheeljack sadly just dosen't appear a ton and ends the season getting his head crushed by megatron. He does come back during season 2 and quickly becomes besties with Windblade, something we'll get to eventually, so good for him.

Blurr is a close third in the characters I like and is the only one of the autobots to really explore the ideas MTMTE was, the idea of "what do you do with your life next". Blurr does help out at first but his mounting frustration with prowl leads to him noping out, only helping out to try and find Ironhide. He decides to open a bar, much like Swerve , and his is a nicely diffrent joint: while Swerves is basically the cheers of transformer,s a place to forget your worries, hang with pals and get into hyjinks, Macadams, a regular location in most transformers place is that.. but also a melting pot, as Blurr soon makes a bunch of former decepticon friends including Sky Byte, a nail who has a great outfit, with him gladly defending his patrons with his good buddy jazz, whose barely in this comic for some reason despite, as always, being fucking great.

Next up is Ironhide. Ironhide does get a pretty meaty roll, as his recent ressurection has convinced him he's immortal and he's getting flashes of a possible future.. .one where the autobots are gon by cybertron thrives. Naturally everyone assumes he needs help instead of you know.. remembering that they followed the matrix for so long because it had robot magic or the giant stygian being made out of a dark god and 80 decepticons they just fought a month ago. What i'm saying is "I can see the fuuuuuuttttttreeee" isn't that farfetched at this point. So Ironhide goes to explore the wilderness with my boys the dinobots who sadly are all kinda douchey here.. but they still kick plenty of ass. The group disappears for a while after a signal drives my dino boys mad... but naturally they show up just in time to be the calvary in the finale. Ironhide is great.. they just don't really focus on him and I wish they did. Same with the dinobots.

Finally out of the ones who actually do stuff we have Arcee. Arcee... is a lot to unpack despite her short screentime. If you'll recall, and if you don't i'm so sorry for reminding you, Simon Furman's approach to the most prominent female transformer.. was to make it so she was FORCED to become female by a mad scientest, a tonedeaf, transphobic take brought about because Simon Furman hates the very idea Cybertronians have a concept of gender.. despite writing male prounouns into this continuity, thus showing they do just .. all male.

So how did Barber tackle this transphobic mess Simon Furman had saddled him and other writers with?

Yeah he just straight up ignored tha tpart for the first 21 issues. Arcee does mention killing Jhiaxus, the mad scientest in question, again, and again and again, but otherwise as far as RiD is concerned, Arcee is just an autobot who was tortured a lot by Jihaxius and who Prowl uses as his hit squad. She gleefully agrees to this... but it's clear she has no real sense of purpose. She DOES get a well done spotlight issue after the Autobots are cast out, with her wondering if the endless violence is worth it and deciding to join the autobots, wether they want her or not. It's a BETTER characterizfation than Furman's, a person with clear trauma trying to find out "what now"... but that big black cloud of "I done a transphobia because I hate them girl robots" hangs over it. It's an elephant in the room no one wants to talk about. I don't FULLY fault barber for it as IDW could've wanted him not to and it was a subject that would need a through, out in the open exploration. IDW was clearly willing as they supported Chromedome and Rewind and would continue to support out and out queerness in this franchise, Barber just wasn't ready yet and thus kept Arcee out of focus. He'd TRY to deal with this later at least but it's still super uncomfortable for now.

Decepticon wise.. they don't really get to do much till the season finale of sorts: they mostly stand around in a gun barrel and plot. Ratbat, one of my faviorite casettes of Soundwaves, is very prominent, trying to weasle his way into power early on.. but then Prowl goes and kills him and i'm sad. Soundwave , my boy, does fuck all till the build up to dark cybertron while Shockwave is in the shadows preparing said event , mostly done in optimus primes subplot. It's a real waste too as having more deciptcons actually try to reform or at least integrate into society would be neat, instead their just mostly canon fodder after a whil ewith a subplot about one seeing what prowl did going nowhere.

So speaking of Prime

The Thrilling Tales of Orion Pax

I haven't mentiond it till now but RiD has it's own isolated subplot ala the scavengers, just one that only lasts this season. Optimus left after the one shot and while he calls himself orion pax as does this segment... i'm just calling him Optimus like everyone else: Optimus goes on his own thrilling space adventures with his crew of Garnak, an ork like alien, Wheelie, who met garnak while stuck on a planet where time was constantly in flux and is still traumatized from it and Hardhead, a minor character turned Optimus buddy.

The trio had captured Jhiaxus, the mad science guy but got some criptic info. Jhiaxus quickly breaks free and while Optimus intended to just soft retire, he can't deny the danger he or his apprentice turned master Shockwave presents, and thus teams up with this motely crew. The adventures are only across three issue but each is fun, the characterrs ar eintresting if underdevleoped and i'ts neat to see Optimus like this: Grappling with his past, unsure of his future, and unwilling to be Optimus again despite everything pulling him toward it. His characterization also takes a nice turn as he was a minor prick in the return of optimus, calling the circle of light a cult. Douchebags yes, cult no.

There's really.. not much to say here anyalis wwise: these adventures are well done and I wish they were the main focus, and clearly Barber agreed as Optimus takes over next season, if sadly not bringin most of these guys with him.

THey are vital for the build up to Dark Cybertron, with Jhiaxus and his goons being Shockwaves main minons and hinting at his mission.. which Shockwave happily outlines in a spotlight later.. well happy isn't an emotion he experinces but he still outlines it: He's been seeding 13 powerful ores, tying in previous things like super energon and such, and the final and 13th one.. is ressurection, bringing people back under his control. His plans feel vauge in theis build up, but involve jhiaxus taking a titan right to cybertron, the ores, and beating up soundwave, with Prime persuing.

The only complaint I really have is the art, which isn't bad, it's just dark, cold , and muted, and not really my forte, working better to represent the dark universe during the crossover. It's not bad it's just hard to make out the visuals at times is all.

So with that we have one last bit of pre-crossover buisnes sto attend to

THe Old Man's Back Again

I did mention Megatron came back right? Because he did. And since he has a big roll to play in the crossover and in MTMTE season 2, let's talk about where Megs has been. Megs was left half dead after becoming a giant pile of decpticons, coming back towards the end of season 1, having what's essnetially the season finale early and the rest of the issues are spotlights dealing with the aftermath.

Bumblebee's reaction is exactly what you'd expect

I mean it's not unwaranted: it's megatron. He was a walking death machine and a brilliant strategist. It's not wrong to expect that even shambling and half dead he's plotting something.. because that's EXACTLY what he was doing. Bee DOES decide to spare him for a trial after being talked into it, but reluctantly and with Megatron guarded to hell. Unfortuantely.. the person in charge of his security is prowl who has a bit of a brain bug at the moment, having taken out omega supreme.

Yeah turns out a LOT of the seasons events were Megatron

The field driving people into rages was him, bombshell was working for megs the whole time, and Shockwave was working with him.. if only till it was convient enough to bail and go work on his own scheme. It's a MILD stretch and I wish it'd been se tup better.. but like Starscream it's hard NOT to enjoy Meg's presence: he brings a genuine threat and meanace, pinning our heroess to the wall and barely being beaten. He's not as layered as he was about to become... but he's still a clever villian who scoffs at Starscream's bitch crying, not WANTING a compromised cybertron but an empire. He ends up loosing but barely does, having still caused a ton of damage and left enough of a gaping woom for Screamer to take the crown. While this Megs is pretty simplistic, he still serves as a good foundation for what's next: a man who genuinely THINKS he's doing the right thing and that peace really is possible if you throw away those pesky civil liberties and his plan and near victory underline HOW dangeorus he is, why the lost light needs to nerf him to put him on board... and why Cybertron will BADLY need his help in the mess to come.

So that was Robots in Disguise and this review.. was difficult to say the least. It's not a great book but it has flecks of greatness in it and later seasons of this side of transformers and other series would pick up on that

Next Time in March: DARK CYBERTRON BEGINS. Bumlbee and the Bumblefucks try to protect a cyberton that hates and fears them, Rodimus goes into a stygian hole in space time, and Shockwave's plan hopefully makes sense.

#transformers #optimus prime #idw #robots in disguise #prowl #bumblebee #wheeljack #megatron #starscream #meatalhawk #blurr #arcee

[lanaevyssmoved]

do u have any game recommendations that have character creation? besides bg3 ofc

gonna be real i wouldnt recommend bg3 for a character creation game because you can only use preset faces ...... bro but if you mean it in an oc way......

i would recommend.............

heavily modded skyrim, if you don't wanna do it yourself use wabbajack, some of the modlists on there are designed for graphics or high end systems and have very pretty characters. there's also ones not like that with rougher characters or more vanilla characters. lots of choice! do not get into the community though, this is a warning

following on from that, any elder scrolls game - morrowind is the best and one of my all time favourite games

you can follow on from that with fallout if you like the setting. i recommend fallout 1 and 2 the most as i'm not the hugest fan of bethesdas fallout but that is not a common opinion that be a hot take

heavily modded final fantasy xiv, you can fully mod on the free trial version as far as i know - be warned this is an extremely slippery slope because it has a modding community to rival skyrim and many customisation mods are paid for however there are ways around that. anyway you can get mods from here, here and here as well as the nexus

elden ring, dark souls 3 - the other dark souls but those character creations look like dogshit ass but still fun to make ocs in imo.. demon souls if you own a ps5....... i do not

pillars of eternity, tyranny, while visually quite limiting the character creators are still very neat from a roleplay pov - tyrannys has a lil "post character creation" game you get to play where you make "post game" choices and i uh, used to play that all the time for fun without intent to keep playing.....

a good follow up to that would be dragon age, all three of them but specially origins, i used to play the origins and not continue the rest of the game for fun! now be warned all of these games suck terrible dick in terms of modding because it's awkward and annoying and easily broken! i recently replayed dao and dai and so much of that time was spent troubleshooting...... joyous

have to kind of mention mass effect after? but ur kind of always making the same character..... ive always struggled with mass effect personally. maybe its the setting?

you can also look at starfield since that's got actually a pretty decent cc but i did find it quite limiting. but i've not really played it for more than an hour cuz bg3 exists so i can't say much

back to crpgs, the two pathfinder games! again limiting on the character side but roleplay side very very strong. i've not played wotr but i have mutuals who act like it is gods gift to gaming and i believe them. i really liked the first!

the outer worlds could be a good choice, i really like that games aesthetic but it's another space game and i think we're seeing a pattern that i'm just not that into those. hm. it was bethesda style gaming in space before starfield exists with the personality of fallout, kind of ?

this ones going far out there but crusader kings iii has an insane character creation and my favourite ruler ever was this old witch woman cannibal who slowly but surely turned her whole corner of the globe into a witch worshipping cannibal cult. i miss her

age of wonders 4 has a really cool cc, you can even make dragons with the dlc like Actual dragons.... i have made so many characters in there and gave them their funny little lores.. age of wonders has real cool lore and it is Completely ignored by tumblr afaik and that sucks

encased is a really cool rpg it's another sci-fi-y one.. it isn't as polished as you might expect cuz it's a very ambitious game but a small indie studio but i would say if you enjoy fallout 1 + 2 you will enjoy encased

dragons dogma! you get to make two people in this just like in bg3! i made a lil girl and her big brother and i was so fucking emotional over them that i was crying constantly even when nothing was going on. i played dragons dogma to fucking death on the ps3 and i think its interesting and rich enough to sink ur teeth into

i have to mention greedfall as the owner of the greedfall url.... greedfall is very interesting as its a double A title akin to a dragon age game.. it might make one feel a tad uncomfortable because it comes across as colonialism the rpg but it does get very interesting and it has neat as hell characters and magic and big monsters who fuck hard

wasteland 3! kinda again has the fallout type of vibe it is violent and full of dark themes and twisted themes but its also extremely comical its true black humour at times and you get to make two characters again and you can even make TWO MORE CHARACTERS so i had a bunch of custom characters.. u can get really wild in the cc as well and builds are SUPER fun....... v good game

spellforce 3!!!!! i love this game, the cc is again like another crpg one but spellforce 3 has very deep lore spanning many games .. its not typical crpg in that its also like a strategy war game too but i think it does the mixture very well and i LOVEEEEEEEE the lore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

uh i forgot to mention divinity original sin 1/2 because .. bg3 should lead you right there but uh. play them both! the first is so good in coop i feel cuz of the natural banter between the protagonists. if you don't have friend the second is very good single player just. be warned i don't think it has good endings but the ride is worth it!! and divinity lore fucks hard. i also recommend divinity dragon commander because its so much fun

can i say stardew valley? mayhaps sun haven too? if ur crazy like me you can turn these into prime oc generators. also mods

oh, monster hunter world and by extension wild hearts. monster hunter world lets you make a cat and while ur character themselves doesn't get to do much story wise i did get very obsessed with my character and wanting them fight cool monsters. wild hearts is similar though your character does feel a bit more special- be warned this game is known for running like ass on most systems, its pretty good for me but be warned all the same

TEEHEES.... KENSHI!!!!!!!!!!!! i was holding back on mentioning kenshi but i can't. you can make a whole fucked up lil squad if u want. u got weird alien races. u got a billion fucking mods. u can have ur buddies limps removed and give them robot ones. u can make an army of weirdos. bro i got so invested in my kenshi squad i was writing FANFIC. i was dreaming of them. i was unable to sleep about them. i miss them so fucking much dude!! kenshi doesnt really have a story beyond what u make it. that shit is a SANDBOX.. and i love it so much. everyone should play kenshi. its kinda like rimworld if u want a comparison. i think its Perfect. the best game to exist ever (lie) its so wonderful....... man........its also broken as shit cuz its the most ambitious game to exist ever and it was made by 1 dude so

oh if u like anime games i have to mention code vein (souls like) and god eater (monster hunter like ?) they have very good ccs and i know people super into the lore and stuff. i only played code vein and i liked it a lot honestly

uhhh i mentioned 1 mmo so i should probably mention guild wars 2, the cc is very good, the whole games end game is about fashion and looking amazing. the lore is also super duper neat! i haven't played it for a long time now but i did play it on launch and i had a blast for a few years

if you like d&d i would recommend solasta! it has a very good cc i think honestly and it feels the most like this is d&d in a video game out of every game i've ever played, and it translates the system very and faithfully (as opposed to say bg3 who changed things for game reasons). solasta is also best with friends because its so in that vibe of this is a silly lil d&d party. its much fun

lol i got the block text limit popup

kotor 1 and 2, it might be hard to get into the lore and characters if you're not into star wars but i found it pretty ok to as not a huge star wars fan. i also think they deserve to be played despite that as well because they are fantastic rpgs and some of the best bioware ever made

vampire the masquerade bloodlines!!! i am not a vampire fan really, a small one, but this game captivated me.... very easy to get into making a character i feel and ur given enough to make characters that align different ways easily. the combat did not age well..... but the story and roleplay absolutely did

ok.. im gonna stop here.. but i will say give games like icewind dale and arcanum a chance.. look at old as hell crpgs and try them. this includes bg1+2 which i still need to play myself but will be soon! they are classics because their stories are fantastic, and shouldn't be missed out on!!!!!

#ask #Anonymous #THIS GETS REALLY LONG AND WORDY BTW.. #i wanted to actually talk about games not just list off some #i hope this is helpful dlfgkdfgd

[givehimthemedicine]

WTF is with the locks on El's door in the lab?

Season 1.

best screens I can recall of both sides of El's door.

this door locks with a deadbolt. bit fuzzy to say with 100% certainty that that's a turn lever on the inside, but it looks like a lever to me. meaning El can lock her door if she wants to. but that's a cruel illusion of security, given that all the people she'd want to keep out are the ones with the keys.

the only keyless people this might protect El from are her brothers and sisters. ah, but this is post-massacre. she has none.

the only scenario I can imagine El's deadbolt lever being for is when Brenner feels like manipulatively playing nice and honoring a locked door that she knows he could open. she probably never bothers locking it though. it's just like the illusion of choice when he asks "is that okay?" about going in the bath, and she says yes.

there's also a barrel slide lock. that's this type of thing. it's on the outside of the door.

"it's an extra layer of security" is it though? if you're scared the kid's gonna undo the deadbolt with telekinesis, the little slide lock is much more easily undone.

this must be in place for some imagined scenario when staff needs to lock El in but doesn't have the key in hand?

no wait this gets stranger

Season 4. now WTF is going on here:

again, there's a barrel slide lock. but this time it's on the inside of the door, for El's use. the door swings inward, so a decent shove could break this off, but it's still actually kind of a more honest lock being afforded to El than the s1 deadbolt.

scenario: staff wants the door open, El doesn't. but again, she would probably be too afraid of the consequences to ever actually try this.

and then again, we've also got a deadbolt. but it's a double cylinder deadbolt. what's that?

quick lesson on deadbolts: you've got your single cylinder and your double cylinder types.

single is the kind you're familiar with. you unlock it with a key from the outside, and on the inside is a lever you lock it with. this is the kind I think El has in s1.

double means it's just key holes on both sides, no lever. so basically the door is deadbolted independently from both sides. in order to open the door, both must be unlocked. unlocking it from just one side or the other doesn't work - it has to be unlocked, with keys, from both sides. two-man concept mandatory.

so I ask you. why are there double cylinder deadbolts on the lab kids' doors.

the kids don't have keys.

that dinky little toilet stall barrel lock, that's for El. not the deadbolt. the deadbolt is for staff.

lemme say that again. these doors are able to be locked by a staff member who is inside the room.

lemme make sure we're all getting this. these double deadbolts were installed, at greater expense, to ENSURE at least one of the following scenarios could happen:

a staff member can be inside the room with the kid and lock the inner lock to prevent the door being opened from the outside, even by other staff.

staff on the outside can prevent someone on the inside from opening the door, even if the inside person has a key.

"it's the latter, this must just be a security measure to prevent the kids from getting out even if they were to steal a key from staff" I mean sure, but why not just not have a plain old lock-from-the-outside-only style door? that's a lot cheaper and simpler.

like this, the isolation room - no latch, no keyhole, no nothing.

if the the kids' room doors aren't designed like this, (and they aren't,) it's because Brenner wants to be able to go in their rooms with them and lock the door.

"it doesn't have to be so nefarious - they probably only ever kept one side at a time locked, so when staff goes inside they can lock the inside one instead of the outside one, that way the door is always secure so the kid can't escape even if they incapacitate the guy" but if the kid incapacitates the guy, then all they have to do is take the key off his belt. that's just a one-way lock with extra steps.

like. if somebody can think of a scenario that doesn't involve Brenner wanting the ability to lock himself in a bedroom with a kid. I'm all ears. I'm begging you.

to put this chronologically:

sometime after the massacre, HNL:

took away El's ability to barrel-lock her door from the inside

gave staff the ability to barrel-lock El's door from the outside

took away staff's ability to deadbolt El's door from the inside

gave El the ability to latch her own deadbolt (uselessly)

note that El's s1 and s4 lab rooms aren't the exact same room with the locks changed, they're different rooms in different hallways, maybe on a different floor, maybe in a different timeline. but regardless, Brenner is the boss and those locks are however he wants them to be.

how about other locks in the lab?

infirmary has double deadbolt with a barrel on the inside. same with the test room where Henry gets zapped. same with the broom closet.

same, I think, with the Rainbow Room's single doors.

but then the double doors into the Rainbow Room don't have deadbolts at all. on either side. plain pull handles on the inside, blank push plates on the outside.

the thing at the top middle on the outside must be an electronic lock.

because that's the only thing I see that could be a locking mechanism on the double doors where El swipes Henry's keycard. however the RR doors don't have a swipe next to them. so the RR double doorway is controlled electronically, but from elsewhere. why?

(so it's possible the kids' doors may also be remotely, electronically locked, as they have no individual swipes either)

why does the lab use electronic keycards for some doorways and deadbolts for others?

"something must have happened to the power," that one kid says. maybe the deadbolts are just manual security in case power is lost. k so then why don't the double doors have deadbolts as well as electronic locks?

the kids' deadbolts appear to be retracted at the time of the massacre. why would someone need to blow the doors off their hinges if they're unlocked?

Eighteen(?)'s deadbolt being retracted is consistent with El being able to leave her room the first time she wakes up in NINA, and indicates that the kids' doors are, at least sometimes, kept completely unlocked. "look who finally decided to join us" suggests this is commonplace.

but then Two is like "you shouldn't be wandering the halls, it's against the rules". so maybe they're allowed to travel as they please between their rooms and the RR. at least at some times of day.

and this is all only if NINA is an accurate representation of everyday lab operations. which it might not be.

now on to keys: I think they gave orderlies keys after the massacre?

pre-massacre orderlies all carry keycards, but I can't find metal keys on any of them. pre-massacre Brenner carries both keycard and metal keys (the only time I see them is when he locks the door they drag Henry out of, it's not very screenshottable).

post-massacre orderlies carry both keycards and metal keys.

also do we wanna talk about the move to short sleeves? is the building warmer now?

Henry analysts, yall have been over every frame of this, am I forgetting any keys on s4 orderlies?

anyway here's El defeating every kind of lock that was ever on her door. so the only lock that really ever kept those kids in was fear of Brenner.

#benafflecksmoking.jpg #Idontlikethischrissy.wav #analysis #mine #random observations #lab stuff #El is a locksmith #it's like half her power uses #tw csa #not that I'm really talking about it. you can continue speculating on your own #long post

[beaker1636]

The Scavenger Hunt Pt. 2 - Confessions

AN: was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but I’m really into this story and may or may not have written almost all of it, because I think it’s absolutely adorable so you all can have a double update of it today!

“So which park are we going to, you can’t just tell me that we are going to ‘the park’,” your sister teases you, she knows which park you mean because she remembers you coming back from that walk the two of you took with a smile, telling her that he somehow liked you too, that you were going on a date together the next week.

“Backbone, we intended to go for a walk but we spent a couple hours sitting on the beach instead, watching the sun set that night. We got some weird looks, being the only people in all black on the beach, but we had a lot of fun. Wound up renting one of those paddle boat things and messing around in the lake. At some point I lost one of my sandals in the water, remember the look on your face when I came home barefoot?” you ask, looking at her in the driver's seat with a smile.

“Oh yeah, I asked you if you lost your sandals when you beat him with them. You thought I was nuts,” she laughs at the memory, continuing the drive.

“You are nuts, but yeah I did. You questioned me so hard that night, asking me if I was sure he was worth my time and everything,” you say, thinking about that night.

“To be fair, the guys before Rick we're all duds, you never were much good at picking a decent man. I didn’t want you getting hurt by an idiot again,” she admits. “Luckily he hasn’t.”

“Okay, you said that you have to guess the beach part? We are almost to that part of the park, you ready to figure out your next puzzle?” She asks you, pulling into the parking lot before she stops.

“Of course, but I have no clue where it would be…. Wait, is that Chris?” You ask her, noticing the tall man at the other end of the beach sitting there.

“Looks like it, maybe he has your next puzzle?” She asks you, both of you starting to walk across the sand towards him. Luckily with it being early spring and not the warmest there isn’t anyone else here, only the two of you.

“Hey, about time the two of you showed up. You look beautiful as always, are you ready for your next puzzle y/n?” He asks you, pulling you into a tight hug as you approach him.

“Yes, and thank you by the way, for helping with whatever the hell this is,” you say with a smile, appreciating him taking his time out of his day to do this for you.

“Of course, I am always happy to help with things, but that is all you are getting out of me. Anyways, there are 12 hidden orange shells on this beach that you have to find and bring back to me, once you do I will have your next letter and rose. You better start searching!” He says, his eyes meeting yours while he smiles.

“I know you probably can’t help, but do you want to walk with us? That way you aren’t just sitting here watching me and bored?” You ask him, a slight giggle emerging as you think of him just sitting there by himself, watching you.

“Of course, after you,” he says, starting to follow you as you begin to walk around the beach, finding a couple shells easily as you start but quickly realizing that some are going to be harder to find.

You notice a bucket laying upside down on the beach and walk over to pick it up, smiling when you find one underneath it and hand it to Chris, who has agreed to carry them all for you.

“That’s 3, only 9 more to go,” he says.

“Just because I am curious, did he hide them or did you when you came here to do this for me?” You ask Chris, continuing to walk through the sand as you keep looking. Finding another one by a tree trunk that you hand to him.

“He did, I just showed up with what he told me to bring and waited for you. All of this was set up by him, each puzzle is one he came up with for you and got together, we are just helping him with them. He did send me a list of where they all are so if you take hours to find them I can help you but so far it doesn’t seem like you are going to need my help.” He teases you, nudging your side as you pick up your fifth shell, this one was was next to a pair of sandals, the same color as the ones that you lost when you two came here the first time.

When you laugh they both look at you like you are crazy, wanting the story of why you are laughing at where the shell was.

“Okay, so what is this laugh about,” your sister asks, an amused smile on her face as she watches the joy that spreads across yours.

“Remember how I lost a sandal that day, it was a pink one. I’ve given him shit ever since that he owes me a new pair of pink flip flops, I guess he replaced them for me today,” you say with a smile. “I lost it down in the water, we had to take a couple steps to get into the paddle boat and I sank into the mud, we couldn’t find it after that.”

“I remember that, you came home with mud all over your legs that night, I didn’t know that was why. That is funny,” your sister says, taking a sip of her coffee.

You find number six quickly, having made your way to the paddle boats after reliving that memory and finding one sitting on the seat of the number that the two of you had rented that day. Number 7 was right on the edge of the beach, where you had fallen in the mud that time.

“Nice try Rick, not gonna fall in it this time,” you mumble, making Chris and Kayla laugh behind you at your words. Both of them mostly letting you do your thing while they chat behind you.

You see number 8 and let out a groan. “Ugh that little fucker, Chris, can you reach that one up in the tree? We both know that I can’t,” you ask, giving Chris a sweet smile and hoping that he will just help you with it.

“I guess, not sure if that breaks the rules or not but I can,” he says, laughing and reaching it for you, quickly adding it to the bag that he has with him to put them all in. You give him a playful shove before starting back on your mission again.

Number 9 is underneath a towel that you find down the beach a little more.

“3 left, you are getting so close y/n!” Your sister exclaims, her hand giving one of yours a squeeze, encouraging you.

Number 10 is on a log that is halfway in the water, number 11 underneath it where the log sticks up. You let out a sigh, hoping that you find number 12 soon. As much as you are enjoying this you just want to move on to the next thing, want to get this show on the road. You have never been much of a patient person so having to do a task like this, that takes a lot of time and patience is starting to annoy you.

About 15 minutes later you finally notice a sandcastle in the middle of the beach, letting out a groan as you make your way over to it and notice that the last shell is sitting on the top of it, almost like it was mocking you.

“Thank fucking god, here Chris, your final shell. Can I have my letter now?” You ask, making both of them laugh at how quick you were to ask for it, ready to read what to do next and what Ricky has to say.

Baby,

You have finished the second puzzle, you are getting closer. I know this one tested your patience a bit, but I wanted it to. That day seemed to test your patience, nothing was going how we wanted it to. Both of us leaving covered in mud, you missing a shoe, me not having the guts to ask you on that date until we made it back to your house when I was dropping you off. That day really tested both of our patience.

But when we did ride that stupid swan paddle boat I remember how much you smiled, how beautiful you looked with the smile on your face as we watched the sunset from the beach that night. How well we seemed to get along despite the challenges of the day, that despite the fact most people would have been upset about the mud, about losing a sandal, you took it in stride and still enjoyed the day, that smile never leaving your face. In fact you laughed when you fell into the mud before me trying to find your sandal, the laugh that is still my favorite sound in the world.

That night showed me who you are, how positive you are, and gave me the courage to admit I liked you finally, and breathed a breath of fresh air when you said you felt the same way.

To figure out where you are to go next the shells spell it out, arrange them into words and you will know where you are to go next. When you are done let Chris keep them, he will make sure they get back to us but you have enough to carry and worry about today.

I love you, and can’t wait for you to see what else is in store.

Rick

You look at Chris, who is handing you the bag of shells after you have read the letter out loud before you take a seat on the beach. Lay them all out in front of you as you start to move shells around, figure out different words they could possibly spell before it hits you and you move them.

“Our First Date,” you say softly, looking up at your sister and Chris who are watching you as you solve this.

“Well, tell me where we need to go,” your sister says, helping you off the beach while you brush your sand off your dress.

You turn, pulling Chris into another hug and thanking him again for his part in this while he hands you your third rose.

The tag on this one reads “I love that you love me, accept me despite all my flaws and baggage.”

#fanfiction #bree sucks at fanfiction #the scavenger hunt #ricky olson fluff #ricky olson imagine #Ricky Olson fic #ricky olson x reader #ricky olson fanfiction #ricky olson fanfic

[hrokkall]

Saw the little nightmares 3 trailer got released and wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Is there anything in particular that you're excited for or just generally hyped about?

Also sorry if this question comes across weird I have no clue about the series but remembered you enjoyed it and drew some stuff for it so I thought it'd be fun to talk about it if that makes sense?

- 🥊

Oh I have so many thoughts on it. So many that I'm going to put them below the cut so this post doesn't take up anyone's entire dash.

First of all, damn my copious amounts of coursework for the fact that I couldn't sit down and start drawing fanart immediately the moment I finished watching the trailer once… or twice… maybe three times. Mark my words though these kids WILL be getting some day 2 (actual) art, even if it's just a little sketch.

…Point being, I was pretty excited right out of the gate. Admittedly, I was a little nervous that the studio changeover would mean that any (potential) future Little Nightmares content would mean a massive tonal shift, but based on the trailer alone + the additional guides related to the game, it nails the atmosphere of the previous games pretty damn well. Hell, the giant baby enemy even resembles some of the concept art from the flesh walls!

Already, Nowhere is combining some of my favorite things (notably locations that seem/are "alive", steampunk motifs, and copious amounts of birds… also reminds me a little bit of Zone 3 from OFF, but that's probably just me), but most notably is the fact that it actually seems to resemble some of the locations seen in the (tragically cancelled) 2017 comics. This is particularly notable in the first issue, which features two children taking shelter in a barn from a monster known as the North Wind (who is made of/"sees through" the eyes of black birds, presumably crows), but the second issue is about a monster that lives within mirrors, which are shown a lot in the trailer as well. Either way, I'm cautiously hoping for some references to the comics, especially because we never got to learn what happened to the rest of the Maw kids there (the answer is probably "they died horribly" but I mean hey. You never know).

The designs of the two protagonists are, of course, adorable. I love the plague doctor/gas mask duo (especially because having face coverings makes sense in such a dusty place) and the bit where they both glide down using feather umbrellas is genuinely so fun—absolutely no complaints there.

…Actually, one complaint: I have no idea which one is Low and which one is Alone. None of the official sources have clarified that. Please LN3… I need to know the names of my new kids before they get put into the meat grinder like every other protagonist in these games. (Given the series' track record, I'm not too optimistic about their fates—sorry little guys! I'll be rooting for you anyway). EDIT: It seems like Low is the bird mask kid and Alone is the hazard suit kid

Mechanically… I don't think we've seen enough of the game for me to make any hasty judgements. I know everyone wanted LN2 to be multiplayer (and LN3 appears to have a singleplayer option), but I'm unsure of how that will work. Will it be Spiritfarer style multiplayer where only one player has to own LN3? Will it be online? Will it be splitscreen? Will me inevitably ditching the main campaign to screw around with my friend ruin the atmosphere? No idea. The way I see it, it's too soon to tell.

While we're on the topic though, I did also listen to the first episode of the audio drama! Without spoiling anything… yeah I can definitely recommend it. It's very reminiscent of The Magnus Archives and/or The Bright Sessions, so if you like either of those podcasts you'll probably like The Sounds of Nightmares. Even if you know absolutely nothing about Little Nightmares, I'd honestly recommend it. Voice mixing is a little off in places (though there's a decent chance it was just my headphones being fucky), but the podcast MORE than makes up for it in terms of imagery and phenomenal sound design. No word on the lore implications though; I'll listen to episode 2 when I get the time and THEN deliver the verdict there. I also hope they release an official transcript for it—there isn't one right now afaik, but that would be really helpful for a multitude of reasons.

But yeah, that's about it! TL;DR hell yeah I'm excited for this game, but I'm trying not to fill in the blanks with too much supposition while there's still so little info available

#Also I can promise this isn't a weird question at all; I was freaking out over it on main #And I've drawn/talked about loving the LN series here too! Point being no worries :] #Re: Inbox #🥊 anon #Little Nightmares 3 #<- For indexing. Apologies to the maintag

[magicalqueennightmare]

Sins & Amends Chapter 3

Gif not mine. (We're gonna pretend it's Billy for the sake of this chapter tho)

Billy Russo x Female Reader (60 part story)

This follows pre- the punisher into the storyline of daredevil, punisher season 1 and beyond

This is NOT Canon Billy. This is decent human being Billy left with bad options over worse decisions

This was also posted to A03 under: WaywardGaPeach. That account and this one is the only place you'll see me post this. If you see it on any other platform/account know it's not me.

Chapter Summary: During Billy and Frank's time stateside you and Billy start to form an actual friendship

It took a little while for you and Billy to really start to warm up to each other. The fact of your best friends being married meant the two of you were thrown together quite a lot. Somewhere along the way he'd dropped the flirtatious banter and really started to be at ease around you. While it was true he was gorgeous and charming as hell you knew you were probably far from his type from the start so it was easy to shove him into a friend category.

It didn't take you long to pick up on the fact that Billy used his god given features to hide behind at times. He was a lot more than his looks. When it came to the kids you could see how much they loved him just watching them with him. His bond with Frank was just as strong as the one you had with Maria and the two of them with Curtis? Sounded like three brothers hanging out.

Before the guys left on their next deployment all of you were having dinner at the Castle house. All meaning Frank,Maria,Frank Jr, Lisa,Billy and you considering Curtis was having dinner with his aunt. Lisa was sitting between you and Billy and kept tapping his arm then when he'd lean down she'd whisper something in his ear and the both of them would crack smiles that made you question what exactly they were hatching up "Easy there aunt Y/N I don't try to stop your fun with the kiddos, don't try to stop mine" Billy replied with a wink before turning his attention back to something Frank had said. It'd only been a little under two months since they'd been home but you'd gotten to know Billy pretty well during that time.

When dinner was over and you were headed out to the cab you'd call to take you home Billy stopped you at the door "Y/N can I split that cab with you so I don't have to wait on another one?" You nodded "Yea sure" since the kids were already in bed you both called out goodbyes to Maria and Frank before stepping out into the cool night air.

--------------------

The cab ride was silent until you got to your place and Billy climbed out behind you. "You aren't going home Russo?" You asked and he shrugged "I can walk from here plus this way I make sure you get home ok" You narrowed your eyes for a moment as you stared at him until he grinned "Frankie might have asked me to make sure you got home since it's so late"

You couldn't help the smile. Frank was always going to be overly protective but you loved him for it. "Well c'mon then might as well walk me to my door" He fell in step next to you until you opened the door leading into your apartment building. You hesitated before stepping inside and bit your bottom lip in thought before finally letting the thought that had playing around in your head spill out "Does anyone write you when you're gone?"

He actually looked stunned for a moment which made you shrink down in humiliation. You knew enough about his past to know he didn't have any birth family. Why the hell had you asked something so personal? You started to attempt to back track but he'd already schooled his features back in place to respond "No. Are you offering?" You knew him well enough to tell he was being sarcastic so when you answered "Actually, yes" you watched as a few different emotions flickered across his face.

He was silent for a moment then licked his lips before nodding "I'd like that" "Good. Now good night. I'll see you tomorrow for the farewell dinner?" "I'll see you tomorrow" He smiled then turned to walk away after making sure you'd gotten in the building safely.

The day Frank and Billy were to leave again you'd just got off a eighteen hour shift and wanted nothing more than to crash for a few hours but when Maria called to ask if you'd go to the airport with her and the kids you instead grabbed a quick shower and tried to see just how much coffee you could manage to pour down your throat before she called to call she was outside your apartment building.

When she called to say she was downstairs you grabbed your to go cup of coffee off the counter and headed down willing yourself to seem lively enough to give Frank a good send off and to be there for her and the kids. You hadn't expected to open the side door of her van to find Billy's long legged ass sitting on the back seat.

You climbed across Lisa's car seat and nearly landed in Billy's lap when your foot caught the underside of the seat "Well are you falling for me after all?" he asked with a smirk which caused you to roll your eyes "Sleep deprivation is a serious thing Russo. Might make you seem appealing" "Oh Bill she gets that point" Frank called from the front seat as you sat down next to Billy and Maria pulled out onto the road.

He glanced at your coffee mug before asking "How long of a shift you getting off of?" "Eighteen" You replied stifling a yawn. "I know you came for Maria but it's nice seeing friendly faces before getting on the plane" he said after a moment so you reached over and bumped his leg to get his attention before saying "I came for you and Frankie too. We're basically friends now Billy and as long as you're Frank's best friend you're stuck with me anyways"

"Well finally something good comes out that friendship" he replied with a wink when Frank growled "I heard that Bill" from the front seat.

--------------------

You were used to the routine with Frank pretty much. He'd say his goodbyes to Maria then the kids then pull you into a hug during which he'd usually whisper his thanks for you being there for them in your ear before pulling away.

You watched Billy standing to the side so after the kids hugged their dad and told him goodbye you leaned down to them and motioned for them to come closer "Yes ma'am?" Lisa asked so you nodded towards Billy "I think uncle Billy needs some goodbyes too. What you think?" they both scurried off to hug him goodbye but you were caught off guard when Lisa said "Aunt Y/N are you gonna hug uncle Billy like you do daddy?"

You cut your eyes at Maria and Frank who were both a bit misty eyed at once again being seperated but seeming a bit amused too so instead of making a show you simply walked over to Billy and pulled him down into a hug. When he slid his arms around you your breath caught in your throat. Damn he smelled amazing and felt even better. "Thanks Y/N" he whispered then once you pulled away from each other he added "Take care and I'll be looking for a letter"

--------------------

You stood with Maria and the kids until the plane was taking off then the four of you headed for the parking lot you and her both carrying a kid. "I'm tired Ria" you admitted and she smiled "Let's go home. You can take a nap in mine and Frank's bed and then we can get some take out with the kids" "That sounds good to me" you agreed.

You had just slid into the passenger seat when she asked "Did Billy said he'd be looking for a letter?" You shrugged "Yea I said I'd write him. I mean I've always written Frank and Curt so that's a friend thing to do right?" She nodded "Yea Billy only has us so it'll be good for him" then pulled out onto the road.

Tags: @intothesoul

@weallhaveadestiny

#au billy russo #billy russo au #billy russo x y/n #billy russo x you #billy russo fanfic #billy russo x reader #sins and amends masterlist

[we-love-morioh-cho]

I am........a little heated about how Jolyne's mother was treated in the story today esp in contrast to a certain ex husband of hers 🙃, so I decided to post some of my personal ideas and headcanons for her! This is partially based on what little we have of her, but is also very fanfic-y, self-indulgent and may be unkind to Jotaro lol

I have 3 main ideas for her name which I am very indecisive on -

Irene - based on Irene Rapona and alt. Jolyne's name. This would mean that Jolyne's parents put their names together to name her which is cringe but does happen. In the ending, alt. Jolyne now lives free from the Joestar curse (I think?) and so, symbolically, loses the 'Jo-' prefix and just inherits her mother's name whom she's always been closer with anyway.

Dolly - because of Dolly Parton who obvs wrote and sang 'Jolene'. A musical reference and also just a very cute name imo.

Hanna - named after Hanna Thorn, the model who Araki based her design and the pendant photo off of. While Irene and Dolly are based on her relation to Jolyne, this is the only name I could think of more based on herself. I'm not the biggest fan of a female character being named based solely on her connection to someone else BUT we have nothing to work with for this woman and, between the two characters she's connected to, I would much rather her name tie into Jolyne's. I haven't chosen a specific name yet though, I like all 3 ideas atm.

Based on the above reference to a model, I like to think Jolyne's mother is a model or at least works with fashion in some way. While it is a non-canon AU, the 'Jolyne, Fly High with GUCCI' one-shot written by Araki gives us some crumbs to work with. I haven't read it yet, but apparently Jolyne's mother has passed in this story and left Gucci clothing behind for her daughter. She's even customized them to fit Jolyne and, through wearing these clothes, Jolyne feels like she's connected to her mother again 🥺 So yeah, I head canon that she's maybe a fashion designer who models her own clothes.

We're told she's a 'crybaby' and is unwell with stress over Jolyne's situation, so I see her as having some type of anxiety disorder. I think that Jotaro's neglect and Jolyne's delinquency has puts a lot of stress on her along with her career. She's been left in a really difficult situation and it takes its toll on her. Sadly, I could totally see her as one of those women who had to give up on her career dreams due to the pressures of single parenthood, so maybe she's no longer a designer or model. This would add to Jolyne's anger at Jotaro - not just for his neglect of her but also the toll it's taken on her mother. Her not being present during Stone Ocean could be due to health issues to parallel Jotaro's condition and the Gucci one-shot. I think she's generally a quiet and graceful woman and hasn't always been able to stand up for herself much; creative and brilliant but also unsure of herself esp when she was younger.

I'm not gonna dwell on this point too long because it makes me angry, but I don't think her marriage to Jotaro was ever that good. They were both quiet and got along decently, but I don't see much emotional warmth or openness there. Tbh, I question why Jotaro decided to marry and have a child if he was just gonna neglect them due to 'dangers', but who fucking knows lol. Anyway, I think their marriage was distant and sad and Jotaro did not open up with a baby like Jolyne's mother hoped he would. Instead, he left her to do all the hard work, showing a real disregard for her and Jolyne 😒 You'd think he'd be more empathetic to single mothers with absent husbands and wouldn't want to put his own child through that but apparently not! 🙃 I think, before his neglect of Jolyne, she rarely challenged Jotaro and instead accepted whatever he wanted. But when his distance started to include Jolyne, an innocent child who needed him, she had had enough and started demanding better. I think him failing to show up while Jolyne was dying in a hospital was the final straw. She was the one who filed for divorce, and when she demanded custody he didn't contest it.

Moving on - she of course deeply loves her JoJo even with all the hardships and doesn't want her daughter to repeat her parents' mistakes. She's a very accepting mother, encouraging Jolyne to express herself and stand up for herself. She's relieved that Jolyne hasn't inherited her quiet and anxious personality, treasuring how bold and open she can be and always working hard to encourage that. She was always accepting of Jolyne’s emotions, letting her vent and making sure she didn’t repress her feelings. To keep up with her unruly and wild daughter, she became more confident and assertive over time. She had to be a strong woman to raise someone like Jolyne and she found her daughter inspiring during some of her lowest moments. And while she never got the chance to know this, Jolyne was inspired by her in turn.

Even with her anxiety, career and general stress - she does as much as she can to give Jolyne a great childhood. She's happy to dye Jolyne's hair and style it however her daughter wishes. While she's not use to the style in her own fashion, Jolyne's mother does her best to make cute little punk outfits that Jolyne adores and proudly shows off to everyone. She brought Jolyne to a shoot one time, curious if her daughter would be interested, but the girl only got up to trouble and pointed out how uncomfortable and uptight it all seemed. On the drive home, Jolyne expected her mother to be furious or upset but instead she just burst out laughing at her daughter's bold antics and comments. It was clear Jolyne was NOT gonna turn out like her mother and that brought the woman a lot of joy and relief.

Sorry to say, but I think she's a Disney adult 😞 While they don't get to visit too often, I think the duo absolutely go to Disney World when possible and I think Jolyne's mother styled Jolyne's buns to look like Mickey Mouse ears. She is a fanatic for the old princess movies, their dresses inspired her to get into fashion and she watched those films with her own mother so she repeats that tradition with Jolyne. She knows Jolyne doesn't really give a fuck about those old movies and that does make her a bit sad, but it means a lot that Jolyne at least tries to sit still and pay attention as best as a child can. Watching those movies and going to Disney World brings out a new side to her in Jolyne's eyes; her mother seems so giddy, is fine with the large crowds and becomes so emotional over the romances. While Jolyne doesn't understand why her mother likes these movies and does get embarrassed by her obsession sometimes, she usually agrees to go meet the princess actors so that her mother has an excuse to see them as well (plus the park is still a lot of fun and exciting). And yes, her mother does see the actual princesses when Bohemian Rhapsody happens and she cries lol

Jolyne has a phase where she becomes deeply interested in marine life, largely inspired by Jotaro's career and interests. Jotaro took her to an aquarium once or twice and got her a book - she then became obsessed. Part of this enthusiasm was that she wanted to impress Jotaro and connect with him, wanted to find a way to make him stay this time. So Jolyne immersed herself in marine biology and tried very hard to show off her knowledge, desperate for her dad's approval. But he still left and, not wanting Jolyne's genuine interest and enthusiasm to be soured, her mother took time off work to take the girl to an aquarium herself, asking questions so her daughter could tell her at least. Jolyne barely spoke the entire time, and the next day her mother found the marine life book in the trash.

The two are obviously very close, but an absent parent can still be disastrous for a child. That's why Jolyne's delinquency hurts her so much - she really wanted to be enough for Jolyne to stop her going down a bad path, but believes she isn't. She endlessly tries to get through to Jolyne but just doesn't know what to do. Eventually, the lectures and emotional turmoil makes Jolyne a bit distant, especially compared to when she was younger and almost seemed afraid to be away from her mother. She still loves her mother and their relationship isn't bad necessarily, but it is strained and her mother fears one day Jolyne will shut her out like Jotaro. Jolyne's mother holds onto far too much guilt over their family situation and her anxiety is affected terribly. She always did the absolute best that she could and was a fantastic mother even if she didn't always know what Jolyne needed and I will die on that hill.

I hate to even think about her experience during Made in Heaven. Surely, she would've known her ex and daughter were at the center of it - while Jotaro hid a lot from her, I think in that moment she just knew. I'm sure she tried for hours to contact either of them, the phone lines jammed and the roads a dangerous mess. How would anyone have felt during that whole event, let alone a mother worrying for her child? My headcanon is this - despite her condition, anxiety and the sheer risk of going outside, she set out on foot to find Jolyne. She had no direction or idea of where to go but she had to try. She knew the world was ending but she needed to find her daughter no matter what. And sadly, I think she died searching, hoping her JoJo would somehow be OK.

In the new universe, Jolyne's mother is still separated from Jotaro, but I think it ended on much better terms. Irene only mentions visiting her father on the trip, so I assume her mother lives elsewhere. She met another partner and her life is generally freer from hardship and stress. With a partner and Jotaro's help in raising Irene, I like to think she achieved her dreams that she had to give up on in the OG universe. Maybe it's sappy, but I really want to believe that life is just nicer to her in the new universe and that her and her daughter remain as close as ever ❤️

#mine #joestar family #jjba #jojos bizarre adventure #text #emotional #analysis #theory #trivia #critical #jjba critical #jotaro kujo critical #spinoff #stone ocean #jolyne's mother #jolyne cujoh #jotaro kujo

[greetings-humans]

DC: the very basics

@athenov trust me there are a lot of dc comics and a lot of reading lists but the list i tagged you on seems to be pretty basic and decent afaik! i trust @lornahs's lists a lot!

now, originally this was just for athenov but tbh it ended up so long that it might as well be a generic intro to dc post! it's very basic and slightly oriented to damian wayne (the character that I'm trying to get athenov into)

so, I usually crossreference multiple reading lists to get somewhere, so try crossreferencing that damian wayne one with this. as a general rule of thumb, tumblr usually knows better, but sites like the one linked aren't too bad.

another thing: dc works in phases. every few decades they have an event they call "crisis" (i. e. crisis on infinite earths, infinite crisis, flashpoint, etc, etc) and after that, they essentially reboot most or all of dc.

they might recreate character's back stories, they might change them depending on the author's preferences, they also tend to disregard events from before the crisis. this is a double edged sword. yes they can disregard stupid plotlines. but they have also historically ignored character development, character relationships, etc.

they have literally transplanted one character (Roy Harper) from X dude's close friend to Y dude's best friend, with no reason whatsoever other than not wanting to debute someone new. and mind you in the process of that, Roy lost so much character development!!! and naturally this happened during the new 52 ugh

anyways-- these reboots have specific names that we use to know what period of DC comics we're talking about. a pretty detailed explanation is here.

for brevity, I'll give you the very basics here and a more in-depth explanation below the cut.

Golden Age (1938-1956)

Silver Age & Bronze Age (1956-1985)

Modern Age (1986-2011) (very good, imo) (damian intro was here!)

New 52 (2011-2016) (bad!!! this fucked over more than just roy!)

Rebirth (2016-2018) (better but only sometimes)

DC Infinite Frontier (2021-2023)

Dawn of DC (2023-today)

essentially, you just run away from n52 and you'll be good. also dc wiki is your friend. feel free to ask me if you have any questions tho!! (and this stands not just for athenov! i consider myself relatively new to dc comics cause I've only been into comics for two or three years, after all, and some people are much more obsessed than I am. but I'll def try to help any of the new fans out as much as i can! even if that just means pointing you to another person that can answer your question)

so about the more detailed version of those periods!

we've got golden age, silver age, bronze age. these are old. golden age started during the 1940s. bronze age ended in 1985. I tend to not read anything before 1985 because they're all over the place usually. the themes are also weird cause the comics are old.

then crisis on infinite earths happened and rebooted everything to make things less ambiguous. (until this crisis, if you didn't like the way, say, superman handled things in this issue, you'd just ignore that and go against it and it'd be passed on like a superman from another earth than the other superman. the multiverse was very useful for dc of golden-silver-bronze era. continuity was a hit or miss, at best)

then we have modern age until 2011. this era is the one I usually operate on! many of my favorite characters got some very good runs during this time. damian wayne also debuted in this era with batman #655, which was issued in 2006, according to google.

anyways stan the modern age!

and now things get weird again. the problem with crisis on infinite earths is that it solved some problems but also created new ones. some other crisis events happened to try to fix them but it didn't exactly work out and then we got flashpoint to reboot dc again.

the next reboot is called "new 52" because dc canceled everything and started 52 new titles that could theoretically easily introduce people to these characters. unfortunately, they butchered a lot of characters during this arc, narratively and a esthetically. my own favs have suffered from the new 52. generally, it's not a good era for dc. it was only around for like 5ish years (2011-2016) before DC had to do another crisis and reboot so that tells you how bad things were. (considering the fact that modern age lasted 25 years, this is just sad yknow)

the new era is called rebirth (2016-2018). they basically picked up the stories from modern age and ignored new 52 for the most part, which is iconic. there was another brief era after this to clear up some confusions and restore some memories from modern age that the new 52 had disregarded but all in all things are decent, especially compared to the new 52. admittedly, I haven't read a lot of stuff from after modern age, so take this with a grain of salt.

a few other things happened, like infinite frontier. I don't know anything about it tbh. something weird happened with time and space. this era is a big crisis event essentially, from what i can tell? do we even count it as an era? idfk. I'd say no but the site I linked waayyy above considered it an era so I'll do the same so as to not confuse anyone.

and then there's the dawn of dc, which started like last year or sth, so I got nothing for you about it.

#dc #dc comics #comics #damian wayne #introduction to dc #deelay words