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sineala · 3 years

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Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good.

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference.

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

#posts i actually wrote

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jjuzoir · 3 years

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Homare Arisugawa General HCS

request: “Hi Sora! I never see any art/writing for my boy Homare from A3! (Maybe because his dialogue is so ridiculous.) Would you mind writing something for him?” from tlali

a/n: ahhh i don’t think i’ve ever taken so long in a request jdjdndnd but i just wanted to make it right because i love homare so much❕ he deserves everything and more i just HDHSJJA we need more homare love 🤬 his dialogue is hilarious and i feel like we need to appreciate his style more no more homare slander 🙅

word count: 1667

- He smells like earl gray tea. No one knows why since he uses unscented soaps, he says it’s probably because he spends most of his time drinking or around tea.

- He’s very particular about his hair, he uses very specific shampoos and conditioners that he will absolutely not share or change unless he notices his hair needs it. Talking about his hair, it’s naturally kind of dry so he uses a lot of hydrating products which leaves him with the softest, most fluffy hair ever. It’s like touching a cloud.

- One of his favorite gifts given to him is a tie given to him as a birthday gift by his members. Everyone pitched it, including Izumi, and Azuma picked it out. It’s black, much like his everyday tie, but it’s got a small embroidered snowflake.

- He’s got three main pairs of glasses; his everyday ones he keeps at hand when he goes out, his at home ones which are (according to him) less flattering, and his driving ones. Keep in mind he can’t drive, he doesn’t even own a car.

- He can speak french and latin, and he’s super loud about it too. He’ll sometimes slip in french phrases and no one will understand other than Chikage and it’s just a mess - Muku is always so amazed that he knows two other languages too and probably asks him to teach him sometime.

- Definitely has the prettiest handwriting when it comes to the roman alphabet, he writes in ink and with fancy pens that cost more than Banri’s tuition.

- Absolutely has a bunch of business cards printed out, each with its own quote made by him. Sakyo thought it was such a waste printing them until he realized that no matter how many Homare took when he went to run errands he always gave them all, to whom? No one knows.

- He’s very well respected in the literary community, which still shocks pretty much everyone. He gets stopped often by fans or people who’ve read his work, it happens at least once a day and Izumi really doesn’t… she doesn’t understand, poor girl.

- He’s not that good with phone calls, he’s not bad but he definitely prefers texting or just talking face to face. To him there’s just a certain level of discontent he doesn’t like that doesn’t exist in other mediums.

- His favorite shows are either comedies or heavy hitting detective shows, there is no inbetween. You’ll walk in on him watching a sitcom leave the room and walk in on a serial killer chase down.

- About his love for detective shows, his favorite pastime is trying to solve the mysteries with the main character. He’ll rewatch the episode so many times to try and pick up clues, he’ll take notes and come to a conclusion and he loves the feeling of getting it right.

- In the same spirit as the statement above, absolutely got Tsumugi and Sakyo hooked on some of his favorites and they hang out to talk about the latest episodes and the overarching mystery. The conversations can tend to get kind of heavy very quick, more than once Muku thought they were investigating a real crime and almost fainted.

- He looks like he’s probably allergic to wool sweaters, they make his skin itch and he always needs to use a shirt underneath them - so he tends to buy those expensive anti-allergic ones that need to be washed in a very specific way that could probably pay Tsuzuru’s whole college debt and it takes a lot of restraint from the playwright not to steal one and sell in the black market.

- Talking about Tsuzuru, he often gives him writing advice. Said advice tends to be very useful, like keeping a pen and notebook on him in case anything comes to mind during the day or writing daily to help ease him into a style, etc. Homare genuinely wants him to bloom into a writer and is willing to beta-read anything Minagi needs, be it a script or a sleep deprived rambling about the gay subtext in Nocturnity.

- Arisugawa sets himself reading goals each month, he likes to read at least one book. He prefers poetry books or classic english literature, but he also likes to read romance books or really bizarre dystopian novels.

- Has read more books than most people in the company and can give very detailed recommendations if you give him like a day.

- Sings operas in the shower, unless stopped he will keep going until the second act. Surprisingly good falsetto, but one time Tenma thought it was a Banshee for a second and almost cried into Juza’s chest.

- He’s not only an overly emotional drunk but also a loud drunk, he’s already quite loud but when he’s downed half a bottle of wine and a shot of vodka he’s louder than the Summer Troupe combined. Because of this, Izumi tends to restrict his alcohol intake when they’re at the dorm.

- I can see him being very big into musicals, not all musicals but a very specific niche; classic horror novels turned into musicals. He’s a very big fan of both the German and Korean versions of Dracula, his favorite song is probably “Zu Ende” or the Korean version of “It’s Over”. He also likes the Frankenstein musical too, but overall he finds Junsu’s Dracula more interesting thus his preference.

- He will talk your ear off if you mention any musical though, be it a classic like Phantom or something newer like Heathers.

- A very big fan of Ghibli movies, he told me so himself today. He really likes Spirited Away though, it’s a movie he’s watched so many times but he’s still completely enamoured by it; he probably has made the Winter Troupe watch it at least once and Hisoka definitely knows the beginning of the movie by heart now.

- Homare is also really good at drawing, not like Kazunari but he’s probably the second best. He learned by analyzing and looking at artists he admired and picking up on their techniques. A true Renaissance Man™️.

- I feel like he’d also have a bunch of skills that are kind of, useless? He can probably carve wood and make candles, he also took a course in glass blowing probably. Arisugawa just wants to try everything at least once, his motto is probably to explore and learn as much as possible, not just about art but the world (he can be surprisingly smart if you have a dictionary at hand).

- Very observant, just in general. Which can be both good and bad, it’s good because it helps him understand the situation in ways others might not but it leads to him to sometimes overthinking things and behaving in manners which may annoy or hurt others.

- He also has a hard time trying to react to social cues, as seen in game, with certain people. While he��s worked it out with the Winter troupe and the Mankai company he still struggles when it comes to new people.

- Will make little tunes he sings in the shower that kind of become a little daily song, each day there’s a new one he’ll hum.

- He also canonly makes music and he makes contemporary electro-pop, you cannot change my mind. He probably also mixes opera and classical music into his tunes, which can go from 1 minute to 10, so you end up with a very cool mix of orchestra and techno-pop - it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but he’s probably got his own niche group.

- Now, into more romantic HCs...

- He’s a good flirt, a very good flirt. They may sound weird looking back at it, but his pickup lines work and they work well.

- He knows when to stop pursuing someone too. He senses even a bit of discomfort and he’s backing away, won’t ask anything. Very big on consent and unless stated absolutely explicitly he’ll keep his distance.

- A true gentleman, please - he’ll never let his dates pay, always open the doors for them, will even do the “walk on the inside of the sidewalk” when he’s walking you home.

- His favorite dates tend to be ones where you get to know more about each other, not always necessarily by talking though. Being able to go into a bookstore and look at the books, seeing the ones you pick, what you pick at a cafe or restaurant, it all helps him draw a better picture of who you are and he likes to think it helps you get to know him better too.

- He’s very in tune with his S/O’s feelings but is afraid of overstepping any boundaries which may lead to some miscommunication at the beginning of the relationship. But it’s workable and it wouldn’t be that big an issue in the long run as long as his partner is willing to help him understand them.

- Not big on PDA, thinks certain things should remain inside - not to say he wouldn’t talk for hours about his partner to anyone who listens but things like kissing or hugs tend to be behind closed doors. He’s okay with hand holding and maybe a kiss on the cheek though!

- Likes wearing matching outfits with his S/O, thinks it shows how they’re “one in spirit, heart, and mind” and will not stop pointing it out to the point even married couples feel single as they hear him ramble on about the subtle coordination in your color schemes to create a perfect contrast.

- Notices the smallest things like how much sugar you like in your drinks, the telltale signs of when you’re lying or uncomfortable, how you act when you’re too cold or too hot, and learns it by heart.

- Homare is also the kind of boyfriend who’d confront the waiter if they get your order wrong, he’s not ashamed of it either.

- He kind of just wants to make sure you’re doing well and happy, he’s a gentleman.

- Damn… I love him so much

#—🎀 a3!#a3!#a3 #act! addict! actors!#act addict actors #homare arisugawa #homare arisugawa x reader #a3 homare #a3! homare #a3 homare x reader #a3! homare x reader #a3! x reader #a3 x reader #a3! fanfiction #arisugawa x reader #winter troupe #—✒️ sora’s scripts

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otp-holic · 3 years

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I read and thought and wrote about you (1.3K)

(AO3) Bucky is sure Steve, his mission, is telling the truth the moment he throws himself into the water after him and from that moment on he remembers everything. Everything.

For @stuckybingo Round three: SB045 N2- Soldier Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluffy Ending, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), there are no more movies after those so I ignore them,Bucky Barnes Feels, Nothing New Under The Sun Notes: An anon sent me an ask that just said "angst" and three hours later, this is here. I don't even know! it is rushed and nothing new under the sun, just some headcanons stitched into some kind of a ficlet… it’s been therapeutic to take the step to write and post it even if it’s nothing new, even if it’s rushed, just because I enjoyed sitting there smashing the keyboard. So thank you anon for that, too!. Sorry for the mistakes and for the angst, remember i posted utter flufinness yesterday?

Bucky is sure Steve, his mission, is telling the truth the moment he throws himself into the water after him, and from that moment on he remembers everything. Everything. Good, bad, and all the scale of greys in between.

(He remembers the feverish cold in the mountains when he fell. He remembers Steve kissing him for the first time in a dark alley on their way back from seeing “It happened one night”. He remembers knives and blood and dying bodies under his hands. He remembers his mother’s loving fingers over his scraped knees.)

He doesn’t sleep for two nights after the river.

On the third day, he ventures into the Smithsonian to make sure his mind is not playing tricks on him and hoping against hope it’s all some weird mirage. That he is not Bucky Barnes, that he is not the Winter Soldier. That he is just a random man with a concussion who has somebody desperately looking for him (“Steve is looking for you, he will be looking for you until the end of the line. You know because you’ll do the same”, a voice he tries to silence insists on screaming inside his head.)

And he is sure he’s not that random man as soon as he lays an eye on the first picture of the exhibition, the same way he knows most of the printed texts have mistakes (“He,… I , was born in 1917,” he thinks. “Steve was the one from ‘18. And I would have never enlisted to go to that fucking war. They made me.”)

He glares at himself in pictures and the confirmation hurts. But it hurts even more to see Steve as he remembers him from before (from the schoolyard, the hood fights, the movie nights, the hidden kisses, the slow dancing inside their home, the cold winters they fought by sharing their body heat), and from after (from a cold cell in Austria, a desperate fuck in the forest, a laughing fit in the middle of a mission, a disappearing face as he fell backwards). It hurts more because he feels the pull of his muscle memory aching to go find him.

Every part of Bucky wants to go to Steve and tell him that he is back and that he remembers; to ask for his help to figure out what to do with the memories.

He doesn’t.

The nightmares, the fear of losing his will, of hurting more people (haven’t you done that enough?), the guilt,.. It all weighs too much. He waits until he is sure Steve is out of the hospital (he watches from the other side of the street), and he disappears with the only company of an empty backpack where he carefully places the Smithsonian’s brochure that has Captain America’s (Steve’s) face on it.

He hops countries for a year and he doesn’t exchange a single word with anybody for six months. His backpack gets heavier and heavier with little notebooks where he vomits all the words that he won’t say out loud, unconsciously leaving random little spaces where he feels like a drawing or sketch would complete the page. They are good memories, those little flashes between nightmares where he can see the man he was and not the ruthless asset they forced him to be.

Fourteen months after he left DC, he finds himself in Bucharest. Fourteen months and too many cargo planes and trains and cars. He is tired (never sleeps too much, because that’s where the horrible dreams find him) and the backpack keeps getting heavier and heavier.

He doesn’t plan to stay, but somehow he does: He gets a job as a night guard where he only sees the other outcasts who work previous and next shift from him, and he rents an apartment that he pays through three other guys.

The few people who talk to him call him Stefan. He was Esteban in Mexico, Istefanos in Turkey and Stefano for two days in Italy. It wasn't deliberate the first time, but he found comfort in being called by his name, in hearing it out loud, and in being allowed to play with the name on his lips from time to time.

He uses his extensive training (as a soldier and as someone he won’t think about) to always keep an eye on the news, on any clues (for Hydra, of course, but also for Steve. He knows Steve has to be looking for him, he’s not fooling himself) but there are none, radio silence. That steady silence is the reason why his notebooks move from the backpack to the apartment, why he starts exchanging a few words with the shopkeepers when he buys his food, why he goes to a shop where they sell books by the weight and why he starts reading again.

He loses himself in fiction, and the flashing moments of peace he gets from it take him by surprise and become another link to the Bucky he once was.

It’s been two years and fifty eight days since he took Steve out of the water and himself out of Hydra’s hands when he sees Steve again: his back to him and one of his notebooks between his hands. He takes a few seconds that he probably doesn’t have just to look at Steve standing there.

He’s dressed like a soldier (a Captain), but when he turns around at the feeling of Bucky’s presence, he looks just like Steve. Neither of them are breathing as much as they need, too overwhelmed with feelings, but working hard on keeping their minds fresh for drawing a strategy.

It’s been more than seventy one years since Bucky last said “Steve” to the right person and with the right intent when he lets it out into the world again, and when he does it feels so raw that he has to remind himself of why he is hiding (not safe for Steve, he is not worth risking it all, guilt) in order to back out a little, trying to gain some emotional distance hoping he can fool Steve.

(“I read about you in a museum.”)

Of course he doesn’t fool him, how could he?

The men start coming in through the windows, and he lets his instincts guide his movements until he’s jumping off the building and trying to run free.

He doesn’t stop to think how he synced his moments with Steve’s in half a second and without talking. He doesn’t stop to think how electric everything felt when he touched Steve’s shoulder.

And he doesn’t stop to think about how his ears keep buzzing minutes after Steve called him “Buck”, how he had made it sound so intimate that a lazy October afternoon in Brooklyn from a lifetime ago appeared before his eyes (entangled legs, young hearts, careless laughs, moaned “Buck ”.)

He tries to run from it all (protect, protect, protect ) but they catch them.

——

It’s seventy three years since he fell, four years since he took Steve out of the Potomac, a year since he went out of cryo and six hours since his mind was fully his again when Steve (bearded, sweaty, sex-haired, naked, and plastered to his side inside their warm hut in Wakanda) breaks their momentary silence.

“I have a present for you, Buck,” he says, extending his arm over Bucky while trying to reach something.

“I don’t think I have energy for another present right now.”

Bucky’s joke is way too evident but it makes them chuckle. Steve kisses him on the lips as an answer and leaves a heavy tote bag over Bucky’s naked stomach.

“Nat collected some favours and we located most of your notebooks in a vault a few months ago; she recently retrieved them and sent them here. I figured that since you finally own your mind now, it was time for you to own your memories, too.”

He’s told Steve about the notebooks a thousand times since he woke up, about how writing down the happy moments that popped into his brain helped him find himself beyond the horrors. About how he stayed awake writing them to keep the nightmares at bay.

Bucky takes Steve’s hand with his right one and places them (joined) over his heart, then he opens one of the little books with his new vibranium one and smiles.

“They are yours, too,” he says before he starts reading out loud.

#stucky #fanfic #fanfiction forever #fanfiction #angst with a happy ending #bucky barnes #steve rogers #post the winter soldier #post civil war #painfully created by me #fic by yours truly #captain america #stuckybingo2021 #long post

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gunterfan1992 · 3 years

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Interview with Half Shy (the songwriter of “Monster”)

For the last few months, I’ve been collecting information for a second edition of Exploring the Land of Ooo that will also cover the production of Distant Lands. This means that I’ve started to look into the new songs that we have been graced with this year, and this of course includes “Monster,” the beautiful track from the masterpiece that is “Obsidian”. And so I reached out to the song’s writer, Half Shy, who was kind enough to chat with me via email about the songwriting process!

(Photo courtesy of Half Shy)

In many ways, Half Shy is living the creative Adventure Time fan’s dream: She got asked by Adam Muto himself to write a song for “Obsidian” after he heard her music through Bandcamp! (I’ve dabbled in fan music before, and the fact that someone from the show might listen to it just blows my mind.) What an opportunity; I am so excited for her!

Since a second edition of my book won’t be coming out until after all the Distant Lands episodes air, I thought it would be best to share my Half Shy interview now. Read on for the fascinating behind the scenes story of how Half Shy and “Monster” came to be..

GunterFan: What is your origin story? How did you get involved in music, and how did the Half Shy project come to be?

Half Shy: I’ve been making music pretty quietly since I was in high school with a keyboard and guitar. I played one or two shows a year after college when I could find a friend or my brother to get up on stage with me, but I don’t really have that performer gene in me naturally. I get too much in my head and forget what the lyrics are to the song I wrote, or what the next chord is. Total brain freeze. So that whole experience is a bit of a mental drain. It’s something I think I’d like to dig into and figure out, but right now I’m really enjoying the time writing.

Even playing a song for my friends I still get pretty nervous. That’s where the name Half Shy comes from. I’ve always been interested in making things that by their nature draw a bit of a spotlight, but at the same time, I am just really quite nervous about the attention.

I recorded my first songs under my old name Hey V Kay in my bedroom and started putting them up online one at a time. When I got enough I thought about packaging it up into an album, but then got really distracted by learning how to fix up motorcycles and going to automotive tech school. When I eventually got back around to it I named the album Gut Wrenching.

After a few years I realized that I didn’t want the day-in-day-out life of a mechanic, I just wanted to know how to fix cars for myself and to have that knowledge in my back pocket. I got back into making music but grew frustrated at the process of writing and recording songs. I felt like I wasn’t able to capture the ideas I had in my head. Like trying to draw on your computer with a mouse. Doable, but it’s not going to come out like you’d hoped.

So these last couple of years I’ve focused more on learning the technical aspect of it, from the initial ideas and lyrics, to the recording and mixing. During that process I put out Bedroom Visionaries, and while writing I happened upon the name Half Shy in an old Thesaurus which felt instantly right. Learning all of that has been fun, I even went as far as to create my own book to solidify a daily writing routine (lyricworkbook.com). All that has been a bit of a tangent from actually making much music though. I should be getting my books in December from the press so I’m really looking forward to getting back into making more music instead of dealing with printing presses, setting up websites, and sourcing ribbon suppliers.

GF: What is the story behind "Monster"? How did the show get in contact with you?

HS: I keep a log of “Song Starters” with neat things I’ve heard in the world, and I would look through it every now and then and notice just how many came from Adventure Time. Eventually I thought well, I have to make a song about this show that just keeps breaking my heart. It was around the time I was nearly done with the first [Adventure Time-inspired] song “In My Element” that I got an email from Bandcamp saying “someone bought your album (Bedroom Visionaries).”

I get maybe one or two of these a month at most so I love to go in and say hi to the person and say thanks, be curious about who they are, [and] what they’re all about. Turns out it was Adam Muto, the executive producer of the show. (I asked and he has no idea how he happened upon my stuff. He guessed that I must have tagged something #adventuretime and he just happened to see it.) So I sent him an email saying, “Hey wow thanks for checking out my tunes. Also... holy crap you’ve made the best show I have ever seen in my life.” [I] played it real cool like. After finishing up writing my second [Adventure Time-inspired] song “Betty” I couldn’t help but fangirl real hard [and I sent him another message saying], “I’m sorry this is probably awkward, but I really love your show and I wrote these songs about it.” He was incredibly kind and shared them with his Twitter Universe, and a while after that I got a random email from him saying basically, “Hey, I’m working on this thing I can’t talk about, would you be interested?” I was like… well you know I’m pretty busy working at a sign shop so I’m gonna have to pass on this once in a lifetime opportunity (J/K. Obviously I fan-girl squealed and said yes immediately).

We chatted a bit about what the project was going to be and the direction. He mentioned there [would be] two Marceline songs in the special, [and he asked if I] would I be interested in giving the love song a try? Trying real hard to suppress my instant imposter syndrome I was like, “Yea, totally I’d be into giving that a shot!” So I read through the story and loved the idea of the dragon mirrored in Marceline, thinking through how they’ve both built up a protective shell, how she grew tough for a reason, but now she can open up and be vulnerable with PB.

From there I wrote the initial demo with the first two verses mostly intact and we went back and forth a few times editing it down into the final version. I recorded the final parts for the show in my little home studio in Seattle.

GS: When you were writing the song, what emotions, thoughts, or ideas were you channeling? Was there any sort of memory of event that you were trying to artistically "catch" or "recreate" with the lyrics or music?

HS: As far as channeling an emotion, generally I’d say just the experience of existing as a human. It can be so hard to open up and be vulnerable. I can remember that feeling even as a young kid—getting really excited about something and having someone completely trash it or look at you like, “Why are you so interested in that? It’s dumb.” [It causes us to grow] a little more weary to share ourselves because we know that hurt and embarrassment. The pain of being misunderstood is something I think a lot of us can relate to. Then having to decide whether to keep sharing those vulnerable parts of yourself or think, “They’re just not going to get it, I’m going to get hurt, so why bother?” and then stop putting yourself out there. You lose a lot with that thick armor though. You might feel protected, but you’re not feeling a whole lot of anything else other than the weight and chafing of it (I had a whole lot of armor-related metaphors that I didn't end up using.).

I struggle with this in songwriting too. I’m not the bolt-of-lightning type. There are pages and pages of cliches, total garbage, bad jokes, and cheesy lines that I have to get through in order to get to something that I am excited to put out there into the world: “Here I did this thing, I know it’s a little (this or that), but I made it... What do you think?” It’s hard to open yourself up to hearing the other end of that question.

I filled about 5 little pocket notebooks just thinking through the story, ideas, and trying to get this song right. I wanted it to feel familiar and honor the past songs of the show ([e.g.,] using the ukulele and referencing a few of the familiar chords from “I’m Just Your Problem”) but also be pretty open and vulnerable and different for [Marceline]. [I wanted to] show that she’s going through some tough emotions but also figuring herself out and growing.

GF: I feel like “Monster” is, at its core, an ode to the “Bubbline” ship. How do you feel about your song being intimately connected to one of the most famous LGBTQ+ relationships in animation? Do you have any general thoughts on Marcy and PB, Bubbline, etc.?

HS: Oh, I’m a total fan girl of Bubbline. The whole story of how Rebecca Sugar and Muto slowly morphed it into this deeper relationship is just great. As a part of the LGBTQ community myself it really means so much to see the representation of characters like yourself portrayed in an intelligent way. Growing up I was too young to fully understand what was going on but I saw Ellen getting cancelled, and [I] heard people around me saying they’d never watch her show again after she came out. That stuff sinks in as a kid and so to have these characters who are not only intelligent, but funny, complex, and unapologetically strong who also happen to be queer is really great. I love that the story here isn’t about their orientation, but that they’re people struggling with how to be open and vulnerable in a relationship.

It feels like something sci-fi and animated shows do so well—to show that ridiculousness of limiting who a person should and shouldn’t love. Marceline is a 1000+ year old half-demon/vampire and PB was born from the Mothergum of an apocalyptic radioactive world, but you’re going to get hung up on them loving each other? It sort of brings it into perspective in a really interesting way.

GF: Do you have any other thoughts about the experience that you'd like to share?

HS: Just how lucky, thankful, and honored I feel to be a part of my favorite show, writing a song for one of my favorite characters. It’s also incredibly cool how the people on the show are so willing to connect and collaborate with their fandom. Everyone [on the production crew] was very open and a real joy to work with.

I’d like to give a huge “Thank you!” to Half Shy for agreeing to participate in this interview; she really was quite amiable! If you’d like to hear more of her music, check out her website and her Bandcamp. You can also follow her on Instragram here and on Twitter here. And of course, here is Half Shy’s awesome video of “Monster”.

#adventure time #atimers #adventure time distant lands #atdl #half shy #monster #bubbline #marceline #marceline the vampire queen #bubblegum #princess bubblegum #pb #adam muto #interview

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pen-emue · 3 years

Text

Underappreciated Dream SMP animatics recommendations

So I was re-watching my favorite dreamsmps in a vague order playlist as I sometimes do, and I decided to make a post to promote the videos from the list that are CRIMINALLY underrated. I don’t personally have much of a reach, but I figured as long as I show a couple people new favourites, I’ll be happy.

There are so many talented artists in the community, but animations in this playlist are my all-time favourites. It contains all the big boys like SAD-ist and the like, but this post will be for those with <100k views at time of posting.

Dream SMP War Animation // The Fine Print - Survivian

Do you wish there were more animatics about early L’manburg / the first war? Well do I have a treat for you. The animation is so colourful and fluid, and it tells the story of that arc in such a fun jazzy way. I love it so much!

Dreamon Hunters op [Dream SMP Animatic] - Ballesta

Currently unlisted, so I almost didn’t put it here, but there was nothing in the description to indicate the artist hates it or doesn’t want it shown. (I actually removed another animatic from the playlist for this reason.) Even if they think it’s scuffed, I refuse to stop loving it. I don’t know if it’s the colours, or the way they draw Dream, or the fact that arc is way too underrated for how fun it was, but I always find myself re-watching this animatic.

Vow of Nonviolence || Technoblade ft. Ph1lza || Dream SMP Animatic - tinkruwu

Good animation of an iconic scene. Cool anime style. If you watch the playlist it’s obvious I have a thing for animatics that are just animated versions of scenes I like, and this is one of those. Manages to be both badass and hilarious, just like Techno himself.

DREAM SMP: Bad Decisions [ANIMATIC] - skywerse

You know how I mentioned that I love animated version of my favourite scenes? Well, let me introduce you to skywerse my beloved. I think they’re going to show up a few times on this list, and that fills me with deep rage. (Though I relish to opportunity to gush about them.) They do these awesome, movie-scene versions of all the best scenes. After their Techno vs Quackity one blew up I was hoping they’d be less underrated, but alas. Not only is their animation amazing but their sound design is always top tier.

"Forever Lost" | Doomsday war (Dream smp animation) - MIRU

As of posting this masterpiece has less than 10k. I am genuinely upset by this. If you watch one animatic from this list let it be this one!!! For an animatic with full colour, smooth animation, and impeccable sound design to be this underrated... it makes me want to yell. Also, there are way too few animatics about Doomsday compared to other events, and this is my favourite that I’ve seen by far.

The Eggpire - (dsmp Animatic) - Jak

A little more storyboard than others on this list, but I wanted more Eggpire on the playlist, and I love the sound design and the bit where Bad changes costume is so good. Also I love when Bad monologues to chat like he’s in a Shakespeare play.

Thus Always To Tyrants [Dream SMP Finale] [Animatic] - NA [Redacted]

To be fair, this one is pretty new. But it still has wayyyy too few views! It’s my favourite animatic of the disc war finale I’ve found so far. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking, and tells the story of the finale so well.

DREAM SMP: Easy to Forget [ANIMATIC] - skywerse

Another banger from skywerse, the icon. Relive an awesam scene in all its animated glory. Sam and Ranboo are two of my favourite role players, so any scene they’re in together tends to be a fav of mine.

The Egg Speaks to Ranboo [Dream SMP Animation] - Rusty_Courage

I know I go on about sound design a lot, but no other animatic on the playlist shows how important it is like this one. What the artist has done makes an already good scene 10000x times better. Just trust me and watch it.

DREAM SMP: Prison Visit [ANIMATIC] - skywerse

Having trouble properly visualizing the brutal child murder? Well, as always, skywerse has you covered. No but seriously. Dream and Tommy crushed it in that scene, as always, and the animation makes it even better.

Ranboo Confronts Sam [Dream SMP Animation] - Rusty_Courage

Hey, another one from Rusty_Courage. They might be a new favourite of mine. Did I mention how much I love Ranboo and Sam? Because I love Ranboo and Sam. Watch to cry.

------

I don’t have that many followers, and you probably don’t either. But I still want to do what I normally never would and ask you to reblog. Giving less known artists even a tiny bit of extra exposure is good for everyone. It encourages them to make more great art for the community, and it takes the pressure off well known artists to always keep up with the happenings. So give them a watch and a nice comment.

#dream smp #dreamsmp #mcyt #mcyt animatic #dreamsmp animatic #not even sure if links will show in the tags but here goes nothing

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fuanteinasekai · 3 years

Photo

Time to talk volumes 25 and 26! I said I would translate the afterwords for both volumes together, and I have regrets. So, it’s a week late, but I finally finished.

Why did I put volumes 25 and 26 together? Because each contains about half of the 5 chapter long “Village of the Sleeping Vessel” arc, and because they were treated as two halves of a whole. As you can see above, both the cover illustrations and the afterword illustrations are part of a set: complementary Natori/Matoba covers and complementary Natsume/Tanuma illustrations. Because I’ve never compared these two pairings or anything.

The covers are interesting for the way they seem to reflect Natori and Matoba’s contrasting points of view. But I’m most personally interested in the afterword illustrations because they seem rather optimistic to me, and because they tell a story. While the first half was melancholy, and seemed to suggest that Natsume and Tanuma would be drawn to each other even if Natsume were hopelessly cut off from the human world, the second half seems to show Tanuma being able to cross that line and come see him anyway.

Anyway, author’s notes translation ahead!

Volume 25

お疲れ様でした。

この先ネタバルとなりますので最後に読んでいただけるち嬉しいです。

２５巻目となり夏目たちの関係性も変わりつつある中、夏目友人長を描き始めた頃にいつかやってみたいなと思っていたお話もやっと描けるようになってきました。話を思いつきつつも初期の頃の夏目やニャンコ先生でほうまくビジョンが浮かばずやれなかったものが少しづつ描き取れるようになってきました。

反対に初期これがやりたいと思いつつ、今の関係性ではもうそこはクリアしてしまったから描くことは出来なくなったなという話がいくつかあります。簡単には寄り添えなかった頃の夏目でしか表現出来ないような話が使えなくなった事が寂しいような、それもまた良いかと思えるような不思議な気持ちです。そんな描くには時期を外してしまった話も形や方向を変えてちゃんと育てていつかまた見えたらぜひ描いていってみたいと思っています。

Thank you for reading.

Spoilers follow, so please read this last.

With volume 25 and relationships between Natsume and others changing, I’m finally able to draw the stories I wanted to draw when I first began Natsume Yuujinchou. As I think up stories, I’ve been able to gradually write down things that I couldn’t draw in the beginning, when I didn’t have a clear vision for Natsume or Nyanko-Sensei.

On the other hand, there are things I wanted to draw in the beginning but can no longer do because that issue is already settled in the current relationship. To put it simply, it’s sad* that I can no longer use the kind of story that can only be expressed by a Natsume who doesn’t get close to others, but I have a funny feeling it’s also a good thing.** In order to draw that kind of story, I’d like to change the form and direction of the stories for which I missed the time period and develop them properly, and if I see a chance again I’d definitely like to draw one someday.

“Sad” here is sabishii, which is commonly translated as lonely or desolate, but can also refer to the melancholy of something no longer existing. ** Fun fact: she used this same “funny/strange feeling” expression when she said Tanuma was the reason for the “characteristic distance” between him and Natsume.

—

{Note: in addition to the afterword illustrations, Volume 25’s afterword background is illustrated with silhouettes of the Mid-rank yokai on their mission, as well as what appears to be Nishimura, Kitamoto, and Taki. Also the kitty brigade. Also Sensei in a suit for the anniversary bit. Volume 26 is arranged differently and does not have background illustrations. Additionally, the only mini illustration in 26 is this at the very beginning:

}

特別編21

16ページという事で何が入るか悩んだのですが中級達の得体の知れなさも出せるものを描いてみたいなとやってみました。連載が長いので時々、自分にこっそりお題を出して描く事があるのですが（例えば『つきひぐい』の回はモノローグ禁止とか）せっかく小ページの回なので「主人公を描かない」を。けれど描いてみて夏目が出ていないとなんとなく閉鎖的な感じもして、そこが新鮮でもあり反面、異種間の緩衝材的な存在は大事だなと再確認した回でした。

Special 21

I was worried about what I could fit into 16 pages, but I wanted to try to draw something that would display the mysteriousness of the Mid-Rank yokai. As the series is so long, I sometimes draw something where a secret problem for myself appears (for example, in “Tsukihigui” monologues were forbidden). For these rare few pages, it was “the protagonist can’t appear.” But when I started drawing it, it somehow felt closed off without Natsume appearing, and while that was novel on the one hand, it also reaffirmed that some kind of buffer between species was important.

—

第百·百一·百ニ話～　依代*の眠る里

百回記念日という事で担当さんと話し合って久しぶりに長めのお話を描かせていただけることになり感激でした。いつもなら登場したらすぐ帰ってしまうキャラ達をもう少しじっくり描けるのは本当に嬉しくて。

初期から描いてみたい話だったのでワクワクしつつも、アレと同じ形がいっぱいいたと言う事にジョックを受ける方もいるのではと気を引き締めながら描きました。田沼やタキといる時は自然でいられるようになってきた夏目ですが、祓い屋としての名取や的場といる時は強くあろうとする面があるのか、かえってそういうものが意外に脆さになるのかも知れないなと描いていて感じました。

成長したから出てくる不安定なものも描きとっていけたらなと思っています。

Chapter 100, 101, 102: Village of the Sleeping Vessel

I was moved when, after talking with my editor about commemorating the 100th chapter, I was given a chance to write the first long story in a long time. I was really happy to be able to put a little more care into characters that normally leave as soon as they appear.

At the same time as I was excited to be able to do a story I’ve wanted to draw since the beginning, I was also bracing myself that some people would be shocked by so many of the same shape. Natsume has gotten to the point where he can be natural around Tanuma or Taki, but with exorcists like Natori or Matoba, there’s a side where he tries to be strong, and I felt while drawing like that sort of thing might, all the more, unexpectedly turn fragile.

I think it would be nice if I could keep drawing uncertain** things that appear as a result of growing up.

* “Vessel” here explicitly refers to vessels designed to be occupied by kami, known as yorishiro.

** This “uncertain” is actually the same “unstable” that she used when talking about Natsume and Tanuma’s “unstable worlds,” (aka my blog title) so I was a little startled to see it here! It’s also super-vague, which always makes me Suspicious.

—

特別編22 ８ページという事で悩みました。小ページだからいっそいっぱい描きたいキャラを出そうと言う事でみんなに話を聞いてまわる話にしてみたいなと。パトロールは大事ですよね。

Special 22

I was worried about there being [only] 8 pages. Since there are so few pages, I thought of filling it with characters I wanted to draw, and I wanted to go around talking to everyone. The patrol is very important, isn’t it?

—

Special Anniversary Notes:

こんにちは、緑川です。夏目友人帳、２５冊目となりました。何度目であろうと　こうして一冊にしていただく度、緊張と嬉しさを噛み締めております。相変わらず漫画を描く楽しさや難しさと格闘しておりますが面白く読んでいただけるものが描けるよう頑張っていきたいと思っております。どうぞよろしくお願い致します。

Hello, This is Midorikawa. We’ve reached Volume 25 of Natsume Yuujinchou. No matter how many times it happens, whenever I get a new volume like this, I enjoy the tension and happiness. As usual, I’m still grappling with the enjoyment and the difficulty of drawing manga, but I’d like to do my best to be able to draw something that’s fun to read. Thank you very much.

長い間、コミックスでお馴染みだった、左端の1/4コーナーですが、この巻からなくなっております。雑誌では広告が入る場所で、ネームの時は展開やシーンのタイミングを見ながらどこへ入れるか悩ましいスペースだったのですが、コミックス化の際にはなかなかお伝えする機会がないご挨拶やお礼を書き込めた思い出深いスペースでした。

The 1/4 space on the left side of the page has been familiar in comics for a long time, but it’s missing from this volume. It’s a space for advertisements in a magazine, but when I’m captioning, I worry about where to place it while looking at development and scene timing. But it was a space full of memories for me, where I was able to writing greetings and acknowledgments I hadn’t really had a chance for when it was turned into a comic.

夏目100回記念

長く続けさせていただき連載100回目を迎えることが出来ました。本当にありがとうございました。「依代の眠る里（第一回）」が丁度百回目となり、掲載号ではLaLaの先生方がご協力くださりそれぞれの作品のどこかにこっそりと隠れニャンコ先生を描いてくださいました。とても可愛いニャンコ先生をたくさん描いてただけて、ご協力いただいた先生方や企画を考えてくださった編集部様方や読んでくださってきた読者様方に感謝で胸がいっぱいになりました。大事に致します。

Natsume’s 100th Anniversary

After a long run, the 100th chapter of the series has arrived. Thank you very much. When the exact 100th chapter (Village of the Sleeping Vessel Chapter 1) went to print, the LaLa senseis [mangakas] cooperated to secretly hide Nyanko-sensei in each of their works. I am full of gratitude to those who drew so many super cute Nyanko-senseis, to the editorial staff who planned it, and to the readers. Take care.

お手紙

お手紙とても励みになります。可愛いイラストを描いてくださったり、素敵なお話をきかせてくださったり、思いを込めて感想を書いてくださったり、とても嬉しく大切に読ませていただいています。なかなかお返しできませんがまた楽しんでいただけるよう頑張っていきたいと思っています。

Letters

Letters are very encouraging. I’m very happy to carefully read your letters: the cute illustrations, lovely stories, and thoughtful impressions. I can’t really answer them, but I want to do my best to keep appreciating them.

Volume 26

{Note: Volume 26 does not have an overall commentary, just the usual “thanks for reading, please save this for last.” Also both volumes have an acknowledgements section I did not translate. Please spare me.}

第百三·百四話依代の眠る里

久しぶりに長めのお話を描けて本当に嬉しかったです。読切形式だといつも途中でもう次は何をと頭がいっぱいになりますが、こうしてすぐに締めずに展開できるととてもワクワクして漫画家になりたかった頃の気持ちが思い出されました。短く切ってしまいたくない話も沢山あるのでまた機会がありましたら読んでいただけると幸せです。ずっとやりたかった依代の里のお話でしたが今の心境になれた夏目だから帰れた話でもあるのかなと感じました。同業だからの連帯認識とその時の考えで会う度に変化していく名取と的場の微妙な立場も描き取っていきたいです。絆ある友人を人事ている夏目、祓い屋である事でも力になれるはずだと信じている名取、おおくを知り見る事は出来ている故動く事が出来ない事もある的場、きっと力になれるはずなのに同行できない田沼、秘密を見守る猫達、ニャンコ先生、描きたいものがいっぱい描けて楽しかったです。そしてもっとこの話で描きたかったなと思っている事もあるのでまたしっかり練って描いていきたいです。

Chapters 103, 104: Village of the Sleeping Vessel

I was really happy to write a long story for the first time in a while. With standalone stories, my head is always already full of what I’m going to do next when I’m halfway through, but this time I was really excited to be able to develop the story without immediately bringing it to a close. It reminded me of how I felt when I first became a mangaka. There are many other stories I don’t want to cut short, so if I get another chance I’d be happy for them to be read. I’ve wanted to do the Yorishiro Village story for a long time, but with Natsume’s current state of mind I feel like there are probably other stories I could return to. I also want to keep drawing Natori and Matoba’s delicate position, which changes whenever they meet because of the sense of solidarity as colleagues, and because of their thoughts in the moment. I was happy to be able to draw so many of the things I wanted to draw: Natsume who believes in his close friend[s], Natori who believes he should be able to support [Natsume] even though he’s an exorcist, Matoba who sometimes can’t act because he is able to know and see so much, Tanuma who surely should have been able to support [Natsume] but couldn’t accompany him, the cats who keep a secret, and Nyanko-sensei. Also, sometimes I think about how I wanted to draw this story even more, so I want to keep polishing it up properly.*

* A little confused by present tense here. Maybe she wrote this note while they were still editing between magazine and tankobon?

—

第百五話　クッキーと森の入り口

里から帰った夏目は田沼に色々報告せねばならないのではと思い出来たお話です。ニャンコ先生について、妖絡みで仕事をしている人達について。けれど隣あってみると話すというより一緒に何かやっているうちに気持ちの整理がついていき、夏目なりに田沼への報告が出来たのではと感じました。アニメグッズで担いだ風呂敷に穴が空いていてみかんを落としているニャンコ先生を描いてくださった絵があるのですが、ああいう可愛いお話も描きたいと思っていたのを思い出しました。

Chapter 105 Cookies and The Forest Entrance

This is a story that developed out of the thought that Natsume had a lot he needed to tell Tanuma when he came back from the village. About Nyanko-Sensei, about people who work with yokai issues. But when I saw them side by side, I felt that rather than talking, Natsume would sort out his feelings while they did something together, and that he would be able to report to Tanuma in his own way. There’s an anime merchandise illustration of Nyanko-Sensei dropping satsumas from a hole in the furoshiki slung over his shoulders,* and it reminded me that I wanted to draw a story with something cute like that.

*Good news! I found the merch:

—

第百六·百七話　亡き友を訪ねて

依島さんは２０巻目の「とおかんや」といお話で夏目と先生と名取が会いに行った元祓い屋です。２４＋３２ページでは入らないかなとも思ったのですが、ずっと描きたかった話で、依代の里をやった今描いておきたいと入れさせていただきました。依島さんを描く時は時代を少し離れて描けるような気がして楽しいです。夏目と対等の妖力を持つ相手との行動も描けて新鮮でした。そんな力ある先輩が事情があるにしろ辞めて引き篭もっている現状は後輩達には少し複雑なのではと思っています。賑やかな娘達、広いお屋敷、キラキラしていた空間に透けてくる侘しさのようなものに気付いてしまう瞬間の様なものも描いていけたらと思います。

Chapter 106-107 Visiting a Late Friend

Yorishima-san is a former exorcist who Natsume, Sensei, and Natori met in Volume 20, “Ten Days.” I was worried that it wouldn’t fit into 24+32 pages, but I’ve been wanting to draw this story for a long time, and now that the Yorishiro Village arc is done, I got to fit it in. When Yorishima-san appears, I feel like I get to draw something a little out of time, which is fun. It’s also refreshing to be able to draw Natsume doing something with someone who holds the same level of spiritual power. I wonder if it’s not a little complicated for the juniors when that kind of powerful senior goes into seclusion without regard for circumstances. I got caught up with the cheerful daughters, spacious mansion, and sense of refinement that sparkles through the space, and the time spent drawing seemed to pass in a flash. I wish I could have kept going.

#The text isn't showing up in drafts so please open if you want the translations.#This was really long and I'm out of practice #so there may be a few mistakes #But I think I at least got the ideas down #gonna go lay down for a while #spoilers #though minor #if you haven't read everything up through 2020

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wyomingescalators · 3 years

Text

Gatsby - chapter three rewrite

[Author’s note: I was procrastinating doing uni work and decided to rewrite chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby. It’s fairly similar to the original, but there are some differences]. Word count: 4920.

There was music from my neighbor’s house throughout the warm summer nights. By seven the orchestra arrives, the swimmers are upstairs getting changed, and the cars are already parked five deep in the drive and nearly hitting party-goers as they dash across the drive towards the entrance. Hallways, gardens and rooms are already filled with groups of people, all of whom are dressed brightly and with the intention of being seen. As each minute passes, the attendees grow looser, more relaxed, more cheerful. Alcohol continued to flow from the bars like waterfalls, with cocktail glasses never leaving people’s hands. The air became more and more alive with conversations, laughter, music and promptly forgotten introductions. As the night progressed, the lights would grow brighter, the music would grow louder and the voices would grow in volume and confidence. Laughter became easier and would echo and spill into the night, groups would melt and shift, and those dancing began to move with more conviction.

Normally at around this hour I would be stood in my kitchen, preparing dinner, trying to avoid looking out of the window at another one of Gatsby’s parties so I don’t cause another wave of loneliness to erupt within me. Yet inevitably my eyes would be drawn to the glowing crowds filling Gatsby’s estate. Their voices and laughter would reach me from within my house, practically taunting me with how lonely I am - a bachelor of almost thirty with a calendar so empty that you could have swapped it with a blank page and I wouldn’t notice the difference for a good few days.

Fortunately for me, I did not have to spend my summer alone, reminiscing over previous summers where I was more than just some nobody that occasionally made an appearance at the Buchanan’s dinner table. Early one Saturday morning, I opened my front door to find a chauffeur in blue uniform with an invitation in hand. I felt somewhat embarrassed, considering I had answered the door a matter of minutes after I woke up, meaning I was still in my dressing gown and with my hair not combed. But the chauffeur left quickly and without a word uttered to me. I looked over the very formal note as I drank my morning coffee. In the note, Gatsby informed me that he would be honoured if I attended his “little party” that night.

Shortly after arriving - dressed in a simple black suit - I discovered that I was the only one who had actually been invited. At no point did anyone request to see my invitation, nor did I see anyone else wielding one. In fact, I suspected that hardly anyone there had even met Gatsby, they simply showed up because a friend of a friend knows Gatsby’s cousin (or some other wild and dubious connection), and that vague connection gave them permission to act how they pleased once they arrived at Gatsby’s.

I attempted to find my host once I arrived, but after a few awkward interactions with party-goers who didn’t even know what the man looked like, let alone where he was, I slipped away to the nearest cocktail table. At least there I could like I had some purpose without drawing attention to the fact I had been living in this area for so little time that I could count my acquaintances on one hand.

Within my first hour being there I’d had enough drinks that the dance floor was starting to look appealing, but I wasn’t drunk enough to venture there alone. I would require a partner, someone else to dance alongside me in order to conceal my poor and drunken coordination. To my relief, as I finished yet another drip with a sharp gulp and ordered another, I finally spotted a familiar face within the crowd. Jordan Baker stood, drink elegantly in hand, looking through the sea of people with a look of almost boredom.

Fresh drink in hand, I quickly walked to her. It was probably for the best that I attached myself to someone before I made a fool out of myself by trying to make new connections with passers-by.

“Care for a dance?” I asked as I reached her.

Jordan raised her eyebrows. “Someone’s made use of Gatsby’s hospitality.”

“Pardon?” I felt my cheeks turn hot.

She laughed briefly. “No need to get embarrassed. I was just remarking that you seem like you’re having fun.”

“Oh!” I decided to take a few hearty sips of my drink rather than say anything else.

“I thought you might be here. I remember that you live next door,” Jordan continued, looking around.

“Yes. Well, this is my first time here, actually.” Each word that came out of my mouth seemed to stumble out and awkwardly fall. How much had I had to drink?

“How about we go outside?” Jordan suggested. A slight hint at how she had registered that I was not sober.

With her slender arm linked with mine, we weaved through the crowds and slipped outside. The cool, night air was welcome against my warm skin. We descended the steps and reached the warmly lit garden. The voices and music were less harsh on my ears here than they were inside. We sat ourselves down at one of the tables. Two girls and three men sat at the same table as us, absorbed in their own conversations. The general hum of chatter and music was soothing to me.

“Do you go to parties much, Nick?” Jordan asked me.

“This is the second one I have been to this summer, if you don’t include the dinner parties,” I answered.

“What was the first party?”

“Oh, just some party with Tom Buchanan,” I replied vaguely, taking another sip of my drink.

Jordan took a sip of hers, not inquiring further. She probably assumed my vagueness was because of the attendees, and while she was somewhat correct to assume that - after all, Daisy hadn’t been invited to that particular gathering - I was actually being vague because of another attendee, and more specifically what we did after the party. I don’t think Myrtle, Tom or Catherine know what happened, or even suspected. They were too focused on Myrtle’s broken nose. They didn’t notice Mr McKee and I slip away for a few hours. Though the elevator boy certainly noticed.

Consumed in thought about what had happened the other week, I had lost track of the conversations going on around me. Jordan had begun a conversation with the two girls next to me. The girls - Lucille and Essie - were discussing their experience the last time they went to one of Gatsby’s parties. Lucille had torn her dress and Gatsby had sent her an expensive replacement, which she would have worn if it didn’t require adjustments.

I tuned in as the topic of their conversation changed from torn dresses to who Gatsby was. Jordan and the two girls were leaning close together, as were the three men. I leaned in also.

“Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once,” Essie told us in a hushed voice.

This mysterious man was coming into focus. One tiny piece of the story told us that he was dangerous and rich, maybe even powerful. A thrill passed over us at the thought of such a man.

“I don’t think that’s what happened exactly.” Lucille was sceptical. “It’s more that he was a German spy during the war.”

One of the men nodded in agreement.

Essie rolled her eyes. “He couldn’t have been a German spy. He was in the American army during the war. Look at him when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I bet he killed a man.”

We all looked around, a shiver passing over us. Perhaps it was a testimony to romantic speculation that we almost expected to find this man in our midst, with crimson stained hands and wild eyes. After all, don’t most powerful and dangerous men have blood on their hands? While Tom wasn’t as remarkable or influential as he used to be, I remembered him during his prime days in college. His hands are certainly stained red.

“Let’s get out,” whispered Jordan.

“Why?” I whispered back.

Lucille and Essie returned to their own conversation.

“This conversation is too polite for my tastes,” Jordan replied, standing up.

I stood also. “Too polite? How?”

She didn’t answer, instead walking away. I followed. Jordan then explained that we were going to find the host. She felt uneasy at how she hadn’t met him, and Lucille and Essie hadn’t helped her unease.

We went to the bar first. Gatsby was nowhere to be seen, but we finished and replaced our drinks while we were there. We could not find him outside, within the conversations at the candlelit tables. We could not find him on the steps or veranda. Nor on the dance floor, or at the cocktail tables, or by the piano that a blond, drunk man was playing.

Jordan and I stumbled upon a large, Gothic library within Gatsby’s mansion. I suspected the library had been imported from another mansion somewhere. A short, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was halfway up a ladder against one of the towering bookshelves. He was grabbing books at random, flicking through them and then tossing them to the floor with a bang. I was concerned he would fall.

He turned to us with excitement as we entered.

“What do you think?” He tossed another book to the ground.

“About what?” Jordan asked.

I finished my drink and placed it on a large table, covered in empty glasses and discarded books.

He gestured to the bookshelves. “About all of this. They’re real!”

“The books?”

He nodded. “Absolutely real. I thought they were cardboard at first.”

“I didn’t realise whether or not the contents of Gatsby’s library are real was a matter of concern,” Jordan remarked.

He carried on, not reacting to anything Jordan was saying, a book in hand. “See! It’s real. A piece of printed material. All of these books are. What realism! He even knew when to stop, he didn’t even cut the pages. But what do you expect, really?”

Jordan and I exchanged glances as he tossed the book onto the ground among all the other books he’d thrown.

He didn’t stop talking. “Who brought you? Or did you just come? I was brought. Most people were brought.”

“I’ll have whatever he’s drank,” Jordan whispered to me.

Out of politeness, I tried not to laugh in front of the man.

“I was brought by a woman named Roosevelt,” he continued. “Mrs Claud Roosevelt. Do you know her? I met her somewhere last night. I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in the library.”

“Has it?” Jordan asked.

“I think so? I can’t tell. I’ve only been in here an hour. Did I tell you about the books-”

“Yes.”

We politely excused ourselves and left him to it. As I closed the library door behind us, I wondered who would clean the books up from the floor tomorrow.

The party-goers were only getting drunker. Their dancing was growing more fluid and free, each song injecting everyone with more energy and life. Laughter, cheers and singing grew louder as the hours slid by. By midnight the hilarity had increased, alcohol poured down our throats easier, our limbs moved with more ease. The world felt warmer, livelier, more at ease. The moon rose higher along with the music and our moods.

Despite the cosy, lively atmosphere around us, Jordan and I hadn’t ventured into the dance floor yet. Instead we remained by the edge, half empty drinks in hand, moving ever so slightly to the music. Then Jordan was pulled into the fray of the dance floor by some girl, and she joined a group of girls, dancing together in a group. Separating me from the group were couples who were dancing together in pairs and keeping to the more civilized edge of the dance floor.

A man I was stood next to gave me a smile. “Your face is familiar. Weren’t you in the First Division during the war?”

“Yes. I was in the Twenty-eighth Infantry,” I replied, glad I could be making conversation with someone new.

We talked briefly about some gray, little villages in France. He revealed that he lived nearby, as he told me he had bought a hydroplane and was going to try it out in the morning. So, he was rich. But I was only half paying attention to the words coming out of his mouth. I was more paying attention to his appearance. He was undeniably handsome. His eyes were intoxicating to me, and I couldn’t help but be drawn into them.

“Want to go with me, old sport? Just near the shore along the sound.”

“What time?”

He smiled. I was already growing fond of that smile. “Any time that suits you best.”

I found myself smiling. I then took a sip of my drink, worried I was smiling too much. I had grown slightly nervous around him, despite the soothing alcohol flowing through me. I only sipped my drink because I needed something to do during this lull in the conversation.

“Are you having a good time?” he asked.

“I am,” I said. “This is a strange party for me. I haven’t even seen the host. I live just next door. This man, Gatsby, sent over a chauffeur with an invitation. I thought everyone got invited, but I seem to be the only one.”

The man looked at me with confusion, as if I was missing an obvious clue. “I’m Gatsby.”

“Oh! I beg your pardon.” I felt my cheeks turn hot in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I thought you knew, old sport. I’m afraid I haven’t been a very good host.”

Gatsby then gave me another smile, and it conveyed more than just him silently telling me that he understood. It was one of those rare smiles, with a comforting warmth to it. It was more than just the common, loving smiles you would gain from someone you were close to. The smile Gatsby gave me reassured me that he understood me completely, that whatever flaws of mine I revealed to him would never be capable of turning him away from me, and that he believed in me unwaveringly and wholeheartedly. His smile drew me in, and filled my chest with a heated energy I had not felt in a long time, not even during that time with Mr McKee. My heart began to beat faster. What I felt in that moment was more than some simple, primal want. It was a burst of life that erupted in my chest and spread out through my body. It was a feeling that made all the moments before now finally make sense. It was a feeling that gave my life some form of purpose in this strange, growing world.

Objectively speaking, the smile Gatsby gave me was a brief one, lasting maybe a few seconds at most before fading into a smile more small and polite, but during those few seconds I just wanted to lean in towards him and bring him closer to me. Yet I couldn’t. I was left there, less than a metre from him, startled by the wave of emotion that had just swept over me.

As I came down from that intense few seconds, a butler hurried towards Gatsby, informing him that Chicago was calling him on the wire. He then excused himself with a small bow.

“If you want anything just ask for it, old sport,” he urged me. “Excuse me. I’ll rejoin you later.”

Even if I had the nerve to tell him what I truly wanted, I didn’t have the time, as he vanished into the crowd.

I finished my drink, trying to calm myself, and that was when I noticed Jordan had returned to my side.

“What’s going on in that mind of yours, Nick?” Jordan asked.

“Pardon?”

“I saw your reaction when Gatsby smiled at you. You looked completely smitten.”

“I- It wasn’t like that. I just thought he- I was- He was being-” The words were crashing out of my mouth in a jumbled mess as I tried to come up with something to say. In my drunken state I had considered telling Jordan what happened after I went to Tom’s little party the other week, but I decided against it at the last second. While she wasn’t the most moral out of the people around us, how would she react to this?

Jordan laughed. “I don’t judge you for it! I just thought your reaction to him smiling was rather sweet.”

I wished I was capable of going more than five minutes at this party without blushing.

“Anyway, he once told me he was an Oxford man,” Jordan said to me, pushing the conversation away from me and my emotions. “However, I don’t believe it.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think he went.” Something in her tone reminded me of the conversation we had with Lucille and Essie earlier.

I would have accepted without question that Gatsby arrived from Louisiana, or Pennsylvania, or the lower East Side of New York. That was comprehensible. But young men didn’t - as far as I was aware - drift coolly from nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island.

“Doesn’t matter.” Jordan changed the subject again. “He gives large parties, and I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”

There was the boom of a bass drum, and the voice of the orchestra leader called out above the loud hum of the garden.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he cried. “At the request of Mr Gatsby, we are going to play for you Mr Vladimir Tostoff’s latest work. The piece is known as, ‘Vladimir Tostoff’s Jazz History of the World!’”

Cheers erupted from the garden. But the nature of Mr Tostoff’s composition slipped from my mind and interest as my eyes fell on Gatsby. He stood alone on the marble steps, looking from one group to another with approving eyes. His tanned skin was attractive, and his hair was well kept and tidy. I could see nothing sinister about him, no indication that blood ever dripped from his fingertips. I noticed that he was the only one here not drinking - as the hilarity increased, he grew more correct.

When the ‘Jazz History of the World’ was over, girls were putting their heads on men’s shoulders, or swooning playfully into their arms knowing they would be safely caught. But no one swooned onto Gatsby, or rested their head on his shoulder. Though I wished I could rest my head on his broad shoulder, or swoon backwards playfully, reassured by the knowledge that his strong arms would catch me.

“I beg your pardon.” His butler was suddenly stood beside us. “Miss Baker? I beg your pardon, but Mr Gatsby would like to speak to you alone.”

“Me?” Jordan was surprised.

“Yes, madame.”

She placed her empty glass on a table, raised her eyebrows at me in surprise, and followed the butler towards the house. I watched her walk away, her evening dress catching the light, and I noted that she was attractive too. Maybe each person, regardless of gender, had some attractive quality to them. The contrasting ways men and women carried and presented themselves were exciting to me. Gentle and strong voices, distinct and colourful personalities, skin that could be rough and soft, tall and short people. There was overlap, with men and women being attractive to me for the same reasons, and there were differences. Qualities one gender possesses that the other gender didn’t always bring to the table. All of them appealed to me. But in that moment, my mind was beginning to focus on one man only.

I went inside. I was alone and it was almost two. A girl was now playing the piano, and beside her was another woman, engaged in song. She was drunk - like the majority of us - and she was weeping as she sang. Anytime there was a pause, she would fill it with gasping, broken sobs before continuing to sing again. Someone then made a comment about how she should sing the notes on her face, as her tears had dragged themselves through her makeup and down her face, and as a response she sank into a chair and promptly fell asleep.

“She had a fight with a man who says he’s her husband,” a stranger told me.

I looked around. Most of the remaining guests were in arguments - women fighting their husbands, the people Jordan was with earlier - the alcohol turning their moods from friendly to sour. Then there were people bickering about how they had to go home already, as if two in the morning was far too early to be leaving, even though many respectable people were in their beds by now.

“Whenever he sees I’m having a good time he wants to leave.”

“Never heard anything so selfish in my life.”

“We’re always the first ones to leave.”

“So are we.”

The orchestra had already left by this point, along with many other guests. Some had left earlier, plenty had stumbled away into the night over the past hour, and now some people were being carried away, kicking and drunk.

I was waiting for my hat in the hall when the library door opened and Jordan and Gatsby came out together. He was quickly saying something to her as multiple people approached him to say farewell.

Jordan’s party were calling for her to hurry up, but she hesitated for a moment to say goodbye to me.

“I just heard the most amazing thing,” Jordan told me.

They were in there about an hour. It was safe to assume whatever Gatsby told her was interesting.

“But I swore I wouldn’t tell and here I am, tantalizing you,” she continued. Then she let out a graceful yawn. “Please come and see me. I’m in the phone book, under my aunt’s name. Mrs Sigourney Howard.”

Jordan then hurried off, giving me a wave as she joined her party and promptly left. I watched her go. As I watched, I spotted that some poor fellow had lodged his vehicle into a ditch beside the road within minutes of leaving Gatsby’s drive. I could hear the voices of the driver - who I realised was Owl Eyes - and the crowd surrounding him echoing back to where I stood.

“See! It went in the ditch.”

“How did it happen?”

“I don’t know. I know nothing about mechanics.”

“But how did it happen? Did you run it into the wall?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“Well, if you’re a poor driver you oughtn’t to try driving at night, or in this state.”

“But I wasn’t even trying.”

“Do you want to commit suicide?”

“You’re lucky only the wheel came off!”

While the scene unfolding just beyond Gatsby’s drive was entertaining, I decided to turn my attention away from it. I felt embarrassed and awkward, at how late I’d stayed during my first visit, I decided to have one last word with Gatsby, before I made the brief walk back to my house, in order to explain myself. I wanted to tell him I had looked for him earlier and that I was sorry for not finding him sooner.

Gatsby smiled as soon as he saw me.

“I’m sorry for not finding you sooner. I tried to find you, earlier, in the garden, and also a bit in the house. But don’t worry, I didn’t pry too much.” The words had inevitably began to nervously tumble from my mouth.

“Don’t worry about it, old sport. And don’t forget we’re going up in the hydroplane tomorrow morning, at nine o’clock.”

“Why are you being so kind to me?” I asked him. Part of me almost expected him to reveal he wanted something from me, or perhaps he would reveal an even more sinister motive. Or maybe he was just being polite. Why did I ask?

He put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I felt a brief spark of electricity shoot through me at the contact.

“I just think you’re wonderful,” Gatsby answered with sincerity.

“Really?”

“Of course, old sport! Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m not that remarkable,” I admitted.

The butler emerged behind his shoulder, something about Philadelphia wanting him on the phone. Gatsby waved him away with an excuse. He wasn’t interested in whoever was on the phone, he was interested in me.

We began to walk. There was hardly anyone around now except for staff, and the occasional party-goer who struggled to remain vertical.

“Tell me about yourself,” Gatsby requested.

“What would you like to know?” I asked.

“Anything.”

I wasn’t sure where to start. Nothing seemed interesting enough. But I had to start somewhere. After all, Gatsby was interested. Though I knew my life would never be as intriguing as his, even though I knew little of his life in that moment.

“When I was at university, I dreamed of being a writer,” I told him.

“What happened?”

“I gave up,” I admitted.

“Why?” He seemed appalled.

“I suppose I’m not good enough.”

“Nonsense! I’m sure you’re a damn good writer.”

“You haven’t read a word I’ve written.”

“Yet I’m certain of it. Once you’re done writing whatever project you are working on do send it my way, I would be honoured to read it.”

“I’m flattered, thank you.”

Part of me wondered if Gatsby had been watching me with the same gaze I had been watching him with. Had he been looking at me just as fondly as I had been looking at him that night?

We stepped out onto the veranda, went down the steps and walked through the empty and quiet garden together. The silence was peaceful and comfortable as the world around us calmed down and settled after an exciting night, but all I could focus on was the quick thumping of my heart.

Beyond the garden was a dock, and beyond that was dark and calm waters, and further beyond that was a tiny green light at the end of some distant dock. We stood at the end of the garden together, side by side, the light from the mansion and finished party just about reaching us. I suddenly remembered seeing Gatsby alone in the garden weeks ago, presumably lost in thought. I looked out at the green light, and at the other lights from the surrounding houses and the lights of city buildings on the horizon, and for a few moments I was transfixed by these Earth-bound stars.

I began to talk, mostly to myself. “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal values. I’ve always suspected myself of being one of the few honest people I know. But can I call myself an honest man if the only times I’m being honest about myself are when I’m drunk?”

“You’re thinking aloud,” Gatsby said quietly. “Is everything alright?”

My eyes went to the other lights. “I want to be honest, but maybe that is too difficult.”

I could sense a pair of eyes watching me carefully, and I sensed that Gatsby was looking towards something that wasn’t a distant light on a dock.

“Pardon?”

I turned my head away from the lights and found myself looking right at him, and he was looking right back at me. And we silently, truly, saw each other in that moment.

A butler then emerged at Gatsby’s side, pulling his attention away from me. I looked back out at the dark bay and I began to wonder if I was just being foolish. Gatsby had just met me, and he was merely making eye contact with me. How could it be anything more than that?

Gatsby turned to me. “It’s getting late. I ought to… retire for the night.”

The excitement in me was fading as I noticed how sluggish I was starting to feel, and it was certainly getting late. Already I was dreading the state I would be in tomorrow.

“Good night,” I replied.

Gatsby smiled at me. “Good night.”

The butler was impatiently waiting.

I began to walk away, towards my house. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.” He gave me a quick, formal wave before heading back to his house alongside his butler.

Looking over what I have written so far, it seems I have given the impression that the events of three nights over the course of several weeks during the summer were all that absorbed me. While the dinner party at the Buchanan’s, and the party with Tom and his mistress that had quite the ending, were interesting, they were merely casual events in a crowded summer. But the night that I met Gatsby remained firmly in my mind, and absorbed me in the following days. While I kept trying to push away my unrealistic fantasies, telling myself that he was simply being polite to me as he seemed like the kind of fellow who didn’t want trouble with anyone, part of me kept suspecting there was more to it than that.

After all, I was the only one who got properly invited to his parties.

#the great gatsby #natsby #gatsby

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haleigh-sloth · 3 years

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I'm new to manga and while I'm proficient at analysing other forms of literature, I'm finding it difficult to analyse manga, probably because of the artistic component. Do you have any advice on what to focus on when reading manga in order to analyse it well? If this question is too vague, you can disregard it, I am only asking because I find your analyses to be excellent.

Omg 🥺 It’s not vague! It seems like we’re opposites. I’m not well versed in literature, or writing in general, but I am an artist--which is why I love manga. I’ve been reading manga since I was 11 and I’m 24 now (I’m a nerd), so I’ve gotten pretty decent at knowing which panels the mangaka wants us to pay attention to! I’ll give some of the best examples I can think of off the top of my head.

So obviously you know by now that manga is all black and white. We do get some colored sheets every now and then that also have meaning (I’ll link to that post later), and I love when the authors give us those, but for the most part it’s all black and white. If you’re going to try to grasp the tones and meanings behind certain scenes in manga, the BEST advice I can give you is to pay extra attention to the shading more than anything else. Let me use the best examples I can think of when it comes to shading.

So look at Hawks here. Hawks is a hero, yes? A good guy, right?

Well...does he look like a good guy here? I’d say no. This use of shading was absolutely deliberate on Horikoshi’s part. I think we can all agree this was a really dark moment for Hawks (no pun intended). He stooped to a level nobody ever wanted him to, a level Hawks himself never wanted to. This scene being drawn this way tells us that we as readers are NOT supposed to approve of Hawks’s actions here. And NOW, because of the way this scene was drawn for us, all we are left to assume is that something bad is coming for Hawks. Basically, the consequences of his actions have not hit him yet. So even though we haven’t seen those consequences yet (it’s really frustrating waiting ngl), we know that we can expect there to be something dark in Hawks’s future. Many other meta bloggers predict his death, him dying heroically in order to make up for killing Twice. And man, that is very much possible, however I’m still waiting to see what more develops in Hawks’s arc before I make that prediction. Hori hasn’t given me any reason to believe that he’d actually kill off an important hero for the sake of the writing...yet.

Another example, and probably my favorite panel of Shigaraki so far because it’s gorgeously drawn (and sad as hell):

This panel is supposed to make you feel his despair. He’s surrounded by a black, static background, his figure is drawn with an insane amount of detail. You can tell just by looking at it that Horikoshi put a significant amount of effort into this one panel compared the ones that came right before it:

This is same scene, same chapter as the panel above, but the background and shading is totally different. I’m only showing this panel here to point out how important the panel above it is in comparison. One is a panel that is simply moving the chapter forward, the other is meant to stop you for a moment and make you react to it. Horikoshi made sympathetic villains, and that panel of Shigaraki practically begging people to understand was meant to evoke that sympathy from the readers to prepare them for his redemption.

There are probably a million examples from BNHA I could use to show you the importance of shading but I’m going to move over to one of my all time favorites: FMA

So this lovely fellow below, Roy Mustang, is a protagonist in Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist is a series with similar values to BNHA. It acknowledges the value of the human life. It acknowledges that once someone is dead, you can’t bring them back. It acknowledges that murder is wrong, no matter the reason.

Also, similar to how BNHA punishes the villains for their quest for revenge over and over again, FMA also portrays to readers the dangers of following the paths of revenge. There are two characters in FMA that show us that danger, one of which is Roy.

This is a big moment for Roy because he just discovered the person responsible for his best friend’s death. And now he’s out for blood. But this panel above tells you that this is a BAD IDEA. Shrouding him in darkness, not showing his entire face, hiding him in the shadows--it tells you that he’s on a dark path now.

Look here, this is kind of similar to how Hawks was portrayed above. Roy is standing over someone who he clearly has power over, someone he is about to kill out of revenge. Envy is a major antagonist in FMA right until his death, but simply because of the way Roy is drawn here, devoid of human emotion because again, you can’t see his face, Envy is almost sympathetic when he finally does die. (BTW, he does not die at Roy’s hand). Roy is a protagonist in this series, but here he’s drawn looking incredibly evil and scary--for a reason. You’re not supposed to approve of his actions. Roy set out for revenge and his narrative consequences came not too long after this chapter. So basically, just like with any other story:

character does something we know is supposed to be bad-----> something bad happens to character as a result

I’ll give one more example from a story that is not similar to BNHA or FMA in the slightest, but still uses that dark shroud in the same manner.

Say hi to Shigure from Fruits Basket. Shigure is kind of...an anti hero? He’s a real asshole. Now Fruits Basket is shojo and the stakes aren’t near as high or dramatic as BNHA so the tone is a bit different. But even with one panel here of this guy’s face, you get that dark, cynical vibe from him. And well, he is dark and cynical. If you read the story from the beginning up until here you can tell that he’s a shady dude (no pun intended again I’m so sorry), and low and behold he is one of the more questionable characters in this series. But this one darkly shaded panel is the introduction to that dark side of him as a character.

Basically in manga shading is tell all for how you’re supposed to interpret a situation. But aside from shading, the SIZE of the panels are also important. Those Hawks panels above took up entire pages. That Shigaraki panel took up an entire page. Those panels of Roy took up an entire page. Obviously the author wants you to pay attention to the story those panels are trying to tell. The words of the characters matter too, but sometimes you have characters whose words you can’t take at face value (*cough cough* Dabi *cough*) so you sometimes have to go off of the artwork alone.

Aside from the manga itself, mangakas also release colored prints along with their series. A lot of times these prints don’t have much to do with the events within the story, but sometimes they do. And I talked here about how Horikoshi really correlated all of his art of Shigaraki with the current place in his arc, and about how now that Shigaraki’s redemption is underway, he’s drawing Shigaraki in such a way that shows him growing closer to his hero counterpart who is currently on his way to save him, and also just portraying him in a less villainous manner than before. This isn’t always the case though. But Horikoshi did it and when that last color spread came out I got so excited I kind of just rambled with excitement lol.

SO I know it wasn’t much to go on but I really hope this helps you a bit more and what you were looking for! Shading is the most important since it’s all black and white, and then panel size is important too.

I hope you read more manga and join us in this hell! Lol

#manga analysis #art analysis #bnha #fma #fruits basket #boku no hero academia #Fullmetal Alchemist #fmab #fma manga #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #furuba #fruits basket manga #shigure sohma #shigaraki tomura #bnha hox #art #anonymous

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