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cephalog0d · 7 months

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Okay, but like. There's the whole joke about Bruce recruiting children to be his sidekicks, but honestly there's only really one that fits that.

And it's Jason. And the whole story there is, frankly, unhinged. Aaaaand then he died.

(I'm specifically talking about "first post-crisis origin stories" here because Jason and Dick, in particular, have both had multiple major retcons and revisions over the years, and some of them dramatically change how things happened.)

Like okay. Going backwards, you've got Duke who joined/led a whole Robin-based gang at a time when Bruce wasn't even Batman. You've got Damian and Cass, who were both literally born into the world of masks and capes and heroes and villains, so they weren't ever really not going to be part of it. Steph might have taken inspiration from previous heroes but she made her own identity and repeatedly refused to stop involving herself in the vigilante lifestyle. Tim, obviously, basically strong-armed Batman into letting him be Robin, despite Batman's protests.

Dick's a little more complicated just because there's so many versions, because that's what 80 years of comics and multiple universe reboots will do, and there's kind of a general trend that earlier pre-crisis versions were more of Batman being like "hello, child, would you like to be my sidekick" and later versions have leaned harder and harder into the idea that Dick was absolutely going to do this anyway, regardless of what Batman had to say about it. But even in the first post-crisis version, the flashback in Batman Year 3, Dick says he wants to find a way to keep people like that from hurting others again. When Alfred questions Bruce's offer to train him, Bruce says that Dick should learn to do things the right way if he's going to do it. It's not hard to extrapolate that, much like later versions of the origin story, Dick was going to get himself into this one way or another. (Batman (1940) #437)

And then there's Jason. Whose backstory has also had a lot of (sometimes major) revisions over the years (remember when his adoption was, like, some kind of Joker-originated long con? Fucken Nu52, man). But the original post-crisis version is pretty straightforward. Steals Batman's tires, gets caught and sent to Ma Gunn's Secret Criminal School, intervenes when Batman goes to investigate, immediately gets offered the chance to be Robin based entirely on that.

Which is itself kind of unhinged. That Bruce saw this kid who was living on his own stealing tires and went "Hey you would make a good Robin" as his very first instinct.

But if you've never read Jason's post-crisis origin, or it's been a while, it's honestly even more unhinged than that because that arc starts with Dick getting "fired" as Robin specifically for the reason that he got shot by Joker and Bruce freaked out about how the Robin identity has too many enemies and therefore Dick, a legal adult with approximately a decade of training and experience, should not use the identity anymore.

(And it's specifically about the Robin identity, in this version, because when Dick says he's not going to stop the crime fighting thing Bruce's response is basically "I know and I didn't expect you to". Honestly I could also say a lot about this version of the Robin/Nightwing transition vs. later ones and how this one definitely feels like the Heavy Hand of DC Editorial in the fact that they had no contact for so long afterwards, because the interaction really doesn't feel like it warrants that in this case compared to some later versions, but that's a whole other too-long ramble.) (Batman (1940) #408)

And then a few weeks later Bruce turns around and picks up a random kid, a literal child, and goes "Hey you would make a good Robin!"

And I think a lot about how fucking wild that is. And it's not like the people writing just didn't notice. Dick's big argument with Bruce when he finally comes back to Gotham and meets Jason isn't about the fact that Bruce took in another kid, or even necessarily about Dick feeling proprietary over the Robin identity, the thing he's angry about is that Bruce said it was too dangerous for him, an adult, someone who has trained with Batman for a decade and was already highly physically trained before that for his whole life, to be Robin, and now Bruce has turned around and painted that target onto some random new kid. He pushes, repeatedly, trying to get Bruce to justify himself and this absolutely irresponsible decision, and Bruce gives a lot of answers about how Jason was on a bad path and needed this outlet and eventually just admits that he missed having a partner. (Batman (1940) #416)

And like. Dick's right, is the thing. He is 1000% in the right in this argument. If he can't be Robin anymore because of the danger, how in the hell is it anything like a good idea to hand it over to someone way younger, way less trained, way less experienced, and expect that that wouldn't end in tragedy?

And then it did.

And yeah, Bruce, it is kinda a lot of your fault.

#And the punchline is Batman clearly should not get to choose his own sidekicks! Haha?#(Sorry this is a lot more serious than my usual Batfam shitposts it won't be a regular habit don't worry)#this is long and rambly but it's something i think about a lot #and it's on my mind extra because of an AU oneshot i'm working on finishing right now #and obviously there's eight kabillion versions of any given origin and reboots and retcons and they change drastically yadda yadda yadda #and also obviously there's always behind-the-scenes editorial choices and other factors when it comes to comics story events #story and character choices are frequently not just a matter of storytelling but of things like meeting editorial demand of What Must Happe #but just looking at the story as presented: the one time bruce specifically recruited someone as his sidekick that kid ended up dead for it #it does make narrative sense given this that bruce's reaction to most of the subsequent kids is initially 'go the fuck home and stop this'#and then only really yielding with the realization that they're totally going to do this shit anyway #jason todd #dick grayson #bruce wayne

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elchris · 4 years

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ESPAÑOL

Hola nuevamente, se que ya parece algo tarde para esto, he querido subir estos dibujos desde que me enteré de la noticia, pero por cuestiones de estudio y debido a un inconveniente que se presentó con mi tableta de dibujo, tuve que pausar el proceso y apenas ahora logré terminarlo. Es algo triste que mi primer dibujo relacionado con mi juego favorito sea, pues...Tan deprimente, pero siento que es algo que quiero compartir con el mundo igualmente.

Rick May, que en paz descanse, desafortunadamente falleció hace un par de meses en su lucha contra el COVID-19; fue una noticia trágica para mí, pues lo cierto es que él formó una enorme parte de mi vida (Aún hoy) a pesar de que nunca tuve la oportunidad de conocerlo directamente.

Rick May fue un hombre muy talentoso y muy apasionado con su trabajo según sé, era actor de doblaje y teatro, así como director y maestro incluso; a pesar de su larga edad y todos los problemas de salud por los que llegó a pasar, Rick siguió dando todo de sí hasta su último día de vida. Rick fue bastante conocido por darle voz a varios personajes de videojuegos a lo largo de su carrera, dos de los cuales aparecen en este pequeño cómic junto a él por ser de los más populares, pero más allá de eso, la razón por la que quise hacer este homenaje a él, es para darle las gracias por su rol como el Soldier en Team Fortress 2.

Decir que Team Fortress 2 es mi juego favorito de toda la vida sería poco realmente, llevo jugando al TF2 por lo que yo creo que son ya como 7 años, llevo más de 2000 horas contadas, y aunque quizás he desperdiciado varios días de mi vida jugando TF2 toda una tarde, lo cierto es que el amor que siento por este juego es incondicional, me ha visto crecer y ha estado conmigo en las buenas y en las malas; el TF2 ha sido más que solo un juego para mí, me ha inspirado, me ha dado ideas, me ha enseñado que hasta el género más monótono y gastado puede reinventarse a sí mismo y puede ofrecer una experiencia única sin alejarse de sus raíces (Me refiero a los shooters, antes del TF2 nunca tocaba un shooter).

Ha sido gracias al Team Fortress 2, que he podido conocer a muchas maravillosas personas, tanto en internet como en la vida real; he podido crear amistades que aún a hoy día se mantienen, y aunque a algunas personas puede que no las llegue a conocer, los recuerdos y momentos que he pasado junto a ellas simplemente haciendo estupideces en el TF2 no se van a esfumar nunca. Genuinamente considero al Team Fortress 2 uno de los mejores juegos de la historia; desde sus personajes, su música, su mundo, hasta sus ridículos cosméticos, armas absurdas que te sacan una carcajada, y claro, toda su enorme comunidad de gente hermosa que se niega a dejar al juego morir, pues tanto como yo, lo aman demasiado.

Rick May, no solo interpretó al Soldier, le dio vida a uno de los mercenarios más carismáticos del juego, y más allá de eso, a uno de los personajes más emblemáticos en la historia de los videojuegos; la razón por la que el Team Fortress 2 es tan recordado y tan amado por todo el mundo, aún a casi 13 años desde su lanzamiento, es por su increíble y enorme personalidad, y Rick May desbordó de personalidad al Soldier con cada una de sus líneas de voz. El segundo personaje que más juego en el TF2 es el Soldier, y personalmente, estos 7 años los he pasado escuchando su voz incontables veces; cada vez que quería expresarme, cada vez que quería burlarme del enemigo, cada vez que presionaba E para llamar al Medic y que me curara, cada una de esas veces escuchaba su voz, y llegó a un punto en el que se volvió natural para mí escucharlo cada día como si el que estuviera gritando esas líneas a todo pulmón fuera yo.

Quiero darle las gracias a Rick, porque aunque no fue el único actor de voz responsable por el éxito y la obra maestra que es el Team Fortress 2, fue uno de los mejores, y aún después de tantos años, seguía matándola como Soldier, nunca decepcionaba con su enorme personalidad y cariño hacia el personaje y el juego. Estoy consciente de que la mayoría de los otros actores de voz de igual forma han envejecido mucho, y este trágico evento me ha recordado que aunque sus personajes son inmortales, las personas detrás de estos no lo son, y francamente eso me parte el corazón; pero a pesar de todo quisiera finalizar simplemente agradeciéndole, a Rick y a todos los que hicieron posible el TF2 como ahora lo conocemos, y sí, puede que el juego no esté ahora en su mejor estado, muchas personas lo han abandonado, y Valve se ha olvidado casi por completo de su existencia, pero yo no.

Puedo decir con seguridad que seguiré jugando y amando al Team Fortress 2 hasta el día en que me sea literalmente imposible jugarlo, y hasta que eso suceda, todos los días que abra el juego serán igual que la primera vez que decidí darle una oportunidad. Muchas gracias por todo Rick, espero que dónde sea que estés estés mejor. "Fuiste bueno hijo, muy bueno; quizás incluso el mejor".

________________________________________________________________

ENGLISH

Hello again, I know it seems a little late for this, I have wanted to upload these drawings since I heard the news, but for study reasons and due to a problem that occurred with my drawing tablet, I had to pause the process and just now I managed to finish it. It is sad that my first drawing related to my favorite game is, well ... So depressing, but I feel that it is something that I want to share with the world as well.

Rick May, God rest his soul...Unfortunately passed away a couple of months ago in his fight against COVID-19; It was tragic news for me, the truth is that he formed a huge part of my life (Even today) even though I never had the opportunity to meet him directly.

Rick May was a very talented man and very passionate about his work from what I know, he was a voice actor and a theater actor, as well as a director and even teacher; Despite his long age and all the health problems he went through, Rick kept giving his all until the very last day of his life. Rick was well known for voicing various video game characters throughout his career, two of which appear in this little comic alongside him for being one of the most popular, but beyond that, the reason I wanted to pay this tribute to him, is to thank him for his role as the Soldier in Team Fortress 2.

To say that Team Fortress 2 is my favorite game of all time would really be an understatement, I have been playing TF2 for what I think are already like 7 years, I have spent more than 2000 hours in this game, and although perhaps I have wasted several days of my life playing TF2 all afternoon, the truth is that my love for this game is unconditional, it has seen me grow and it has been with me through thick and thin; TF2 has been more than just a game for me, it has inspired me, it has given me ideas, it has taught me that even the most monotonous and worn genre can reinvent itself and can offer a unique experience without leaving its roots (I'm talking about shooters, before TF2 I didn't like shooters).

It has been thanks to Team Fortress 2, that I have been able to meet many wonderful people, both online and in real life; I have been able to create friendships that still remain to this day, and although some people may not get to know them, the memories and moments I have spent with them simply doing stupid things in TF2 will never fade away. I genuinely consider Team Fortress 2 one of the best games ever made; from its characters, its music, its world, to its ridiculous cosmetics, absurd weapons that make you laugh, and of course, its entire huge community of beautiful people who refuse to let the game die, because as much as I do, they love it too much.

Rick May, not only played the Soldier, but brought to life one of the game's most charismatic mercenaries, and beyond that, one of the most iconic characters in video game history; The reason why Team Fortress 2 is so remembered and loved by everyone, even almost 13 years after its launch, is because of its incredible and enormous personality, and Rick May overflowed the personality of the Soldier with each one of his voice lines. The second character that I play the most in TF2 is the Soldier, and personally, these 7 years I have spent listening to his voice countless times; every time I wanted to express myself, every time I wanted to make fun of the enemy, every time I pressed E to call for Medic, each of those times I heard his voice, and it got to a point where it became natural for me listening to him every day as if the one who was screaming those lines at the top of their lungs was me.

I want to thank Rick, because although he was not the only voice actor responsible for the success and the masterpiece that is Team Fortress 2, he was one of the best, and even after so many years, he kept killing it as the Soldier, he never disappointed us with his huge personality and love for the character and the game. I am aware that most of the other voice actors have also aged a lot, and this tragic event has reminded me that although their characters are immortal, the people behind them are not, and frankly that breaks my heart; but despite everything I would like to end by simply thanking Rick and everyone who made TF2 as we now know it possible, and yes the game may not be in its best state now, many people have abandoned it, and Valve has almost completely forgotten about its existence, but not me.

I can safely say that I will continue to play and love Team Fortress 2 until the day it is literally impossible for me to play it, and until that happens, every day I open the game it will be just like the first time I decided to give it a try. Thank you very much for everything Rick, I hope that wherever you are, you are better. "You were good son, real good; maybe even the best."

#rick may #team fortress 2 #tf2 #tf2 mercs #rest in peace #star fox #tf2 soldier #peppy hare

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charismaticsage · 4 years

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so I ve been wondering about JoMo. I saw him answer in comic con. He was trying to brush off Klaus& Camille connection, and reasoned that Caroline was still alive. Granted that he was trying to please fan, but I heard that he liked Caroline, and had a crush on Candice, but she was already taken. Is that true? I find it hard to believe that he doesn't like Klamille pairing, frankly because the on-screen chemistry btw Klaus & Camille seemed to suggest otherwise.

(Kcers are gonna say JM and CA had romantic feelings for each other behind the scenes to make them feel better about their ship. I don’t believe it, there were actually signs he liked Kat G (Bonnie). He told the writers he wanted to work w/ Kat, he wanted klonnie (as opposed to kc for his romantic pairing), and I think he spent Thanksgiving or some other holiday w/ Kat’s family. But if you really want to know more I’d ask a tvd/Bonnie blog.)

OKAY here’s the thing w/ JM: he’s a people pleaser. To the point where he’s a spineless coward. He didn’t stand up for Leah or Phoebe during TOs run despite the MASSIVE hate they received for their respective dynamics with Klaus (although Phoebe’s died down because she was romantically paired with Elijah and Jackson). So, I don’t respect him, and I don’t expect him to ever acknowledge klamille as the romantic soulmate pairing they are. I received an ask about why I don’t respect JM, and I answered with receipts so if you’re interested here.

Now, way back when when the first half of s1 was airing (before klamille received all the fandom backlash), JM openly praised klamille.

“ As for Leah who plays Camille, I filmed my favorite scene with her. It’s later on in the episode and I don’t really say much, but I think it’s some of the best acting I’ve done. I don’t know what you guys will think but to me, that scene stood out. For me, she was really solid. She made some interesting choices as an actress and came across so strong in the pilot.”

(tvd 4x20)

JoMo teased that there will be “some distance” between the two, though it sounds like they have an epic scene coming up. Joseph called it “an amazing scene in episode nine, which I’m really proud of. We got loads of nice comments for the scene we did in episode 4 where I… compel her to forget everything again, and we were really proud of that scene.“

Here’s some more gifsets of Joseph talking about klamille in s3 at Comic Con &JM and LP talking about klamille scenes , JM and LP bts

My point? In no way shape or form does JM ever outright hate on Leah or klamille. in fact, out of all the love interests, she’s the only actress whose abilities he praises. He respected her and knew they worked well to elevate each other in scenes.

Now again, he’s a people pleaser. In s1 he was trying to make sure TO got picked up for s2 and he didn’t want to risk alienating any fans because he has no spine. So he’d never outright praise klamille bc he didn’t want to piss off klaroline shippers, or klayley shippers, or stans who didn’t want Klaus in any romantic relationship. He’d downplay klamille even though they were getting straight up romantic scenes. What you see at cons and fan meet and greets is a continuation of his old habit. If he senses he’s in a room full of kcers, he’ll pander to them, which is what you saw. “Well Cami’s dead” no shit Sherlock. He stated the truth, without saying too much. He didn’t outright choose Caroline, you can also take that to mean “so you’re only choosing Caroline because Cami’s dead? Is she the backup?” or kcers can twist it to mean “Klaus is ready to move on, he picks Caroline over Cami”. It pisses me off how he never gives an outright answer, but that non answer is enough to sate kcers. He’s careful like that. BUT, he also took a picture with a klamille fan saying Cami deserved better. JM will do the minimum to not offend.

He hadn’t acknowledged Leah on social media in YEARS but he came on twitter to tweet her an official goodbye and thank you. Out of the goodness of his heart? Because he’s a good leader? NOPE bc after 3x19 aired there was huge backlash on twitter, and it lasted the entire weekend (the ep aired on a Friday). I mean it was the nastiest ugliest rage the writers had ever seen (bigger than all the hate Cami and ck haters left in their mentions for 3 seasons). JM saw the criticism of the show, and him as the lead, and he hurried up and tweeted Leah.

Please, save yourself the headache of looking to JM to validate klamille or gush about them. Those days were over as soon as fans flooded his mentions w/ their anti klamille hate. I suggest you do what I do, and look to canon where we have more than enough material to fangirl over. You can also check Leah Pipes’ likes and replies on twitter, every now and then she’ll like a klamille tweet or respond to a fan. I compiled some of them here.

#answered #I hope this wasn't too long #joseph morgan for ts #anti joseph morgan #the originals for ts #rant

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imagines-dreams · 5 years

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A Good Name - Tim Drake Imagine

Rating: PG

Warnings: fluff and future, and a flustered Robin

Summary: As a part of Young Justice, you have seen a lot of weird things. But being called (Y/n) Drake was by far the weirdest thing. (Aka I read a fic that I can’t remember the name of where Impulse called reader Mrs. Grayson and I took inspo from that idea to make one for Tim! Someone, aka @despitealldoubts-blog found the fic so here it is! Future Mrs. G by @cait-writes-stuff inspired this!)

Word Count: 2785

“Stand ready,” Nightwing commanded.

The four of you readied yourselves as the unknown source or ball of electricity formed and dropped a transportation device of some kind. It dropped right onto the floor, smoking and whirring, and when smoke billowed out of it, someone jumped out.

“Ta da!” A boy, bright red hair, white and red outfit with a yellow visor. You didn’t recognize him from any database you’ve seen. Not a notable hero or villain. Maybe a hacker or inventor, from the looks of the machine. Could be a thief, an aspiring supervillain, or just a big fan of superheroes.

The alarm went off. “Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert.”

“Computer, lock down cave,” Nightwing said.

Gar tilted his head. “Well, I think we found our unknown energy impulse.”

“Impulse,” the stranger mulled it over. “That’s so crash! Catchy, dramatic, one word.” He appeared by Nightwing’s side. “Like Nightwing.”

A speedster!

“And Robin.”

To you, “And Knockout.”

To Gar, “And Beast Boy.” He blinked.”‘Well, that’s two words.” He talked even faster, and soon, he was trying to explore the cave to find things. With a laugh and a mock salute, he was gone.

“You three, take him down.”

“On it, Nightwing!” you responded. You cracked your knuckles and ran alongside Robin and Beast Boy. You caught him in a hallway and with a smirk, you punched the ground. It splintered under your strength. He wouldn’t be able to run.

And you were wrong. Impulse, whatever his name was, ran up the wall and over your head, back to safer and sturdier ground. You groaned. Nightwing was not going to be happy.

Robin sped out from the kitchen, just to trip on some dispelled tile.

You giggled. It was worth it.

Robin stared at you. “Nightwing’s gonna kill you.”

You shrugged. “Nah, I’m good. It’s nice to see you fall on your ass, Robin. Shouldn’t you have wings or something?”

“Guys, come back,” Nightwing said. “I’ve got him.”

Your jaw dropped. “How…” You shook your head.

Robin laughed and patted your shoulder. “Come on.”

As Impulse explained himself, you grew more and more confused. Time travel was theoretica, and no one could agree on what would happen if it was achieved. Does time travel work so that what you do in the past is actually what happened in the past, like time travel was meant to happen and was accounted for in a neat timeline. Or, was there different timelines, and if so, does the previous timeline disappear or does it become an alternate universe all on its own.

You pressed your fingers against your temples. This was just a tad too much.

“So,” Robin concluded, “you’re a tourist from the future.”

“Why look so surprised. Half the meat at Comic Con are from my era.”

Robin rubbed his chin, and you knew that face. He was doubting the information he got. Trying to find the tells of a lie.

You crossed your arms. “If you’re from the future, you should be able to prove it.”

“Ah, well, my identity is kinda a tell, if you know what I mean. Superspeed, the red and gold.” He smiled up at all of you. “I’m Bart Allen, grandson of Barry Allen. You know, the Flash, Barry Allen.”

“Noted.” Garfield smirked. “Not believed, but noted.”

“What’s not to believe? I’ve got it all! The speed, the amazing good looks.” Impulse’s eyes lit up. “Frankly, I can’t wait to meet him. You know, back when he was still in his prime and all.”

Nightwing sighed. “Well, Bart, coming all the way from the future, you must have worked up a thirst.” He brought a cup of water to the intruder. Tracker, no doubt.

“Thanks!”He sipped the water. “Oh! Ah, you’re trying to get my DNA!” he spat into the water. “That’s such a Dick Grayson move.”

Robin’s eyes widened. “How did…” He looked at his mentor, and Nightwing, or well Dick, just stared at him, trying to figure it out himself.

“Aha! See, I know things that only someone from the future with an amazing Flash legacy to carry would know.” He looked at each of you, and without pause, said, “Dick Grayson, (Y/n) and Tim Drake, Garfield Logan.”

You bit your tongue. That was not your name. Your name was (Y/n) (Y/l/n), not (Y/n) Drake. And Tim? As in Robin’s name was Tim. Tim Drake? Your eyes caught his, Tim’s, and thank god for Garfield, because he spoke before the two of you could stutter about what just happened.

“Your name’s Tim? And your is, uh, Dick?” Garfield cringed.

You smiled as much as you can, and with heat still blooming in your cheeks, you laughed. “Gar, your name is Garfield, like that cat who hates Mondays.”

“Hey!” Garfield poked your chest. “I don’t like Mondays. So, I take that as a compliment.”

“You really shouldn’t,” Tim agreed.

“See, thank you.”

Garfield groaned and covered his face. “No wonder you two got married.”

Just like that, Tim and you looked anywhere else but each other.

“Oops. Spoilers.” He shrugged. “The secret identity is so retro. You can call me anything. Impulse, Bart, Bart Impulse Allen. All’s crash.”

“He can’t actually be telling the truth,” Robin, Tim, insisted. “He can’t be from the future.”

Garfield leaned in close. “Tell us something we don’t know! Yet.” The boy smiled, so proud of himself. “So, when do I become leader? Or part of the Justice League! Or, hear me out, my reality show? Good answers only.”

“Sorry, BB. Never was the best at history. Plus, I shouldn’t say any more spoilers as to alter the timeline. I mean, now, Tim and (Y/n) might not get married and have Jack and Anna. Oh, god, we will all be feeling the mode.”

Jack and Anna. “Kids?” You gulped and looked to Tim. Sure enough, he was staring at you, too. There was something in his eyes, behind the mask, that screamed surprise and awe, and you weren’t sure how to take that. Tim was your best friend on the team. Maybe not your best friend ever, since he didn’t know your name and you didn’t know his until after Impulse, but still.

He was so amazing, really. Intelligent, strategic, hard-working. You still got surprised every time he actually wanted to spend time with you.

And then, this kid from the future is telling you that that guy, your best super friend and the smartest person on the team, falls in love with you? Has kids with you?

Then, Impulse escaped. Beast Boy went after him, and Tim was back to clearing his throat and forgetting all the information he had just received.

You sighed. “I’m gonna go train. And, uh, Nightwing?”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing!” You pursed your lips. “Just, you know, some slightly chipped, broken, maybe possibly shattered tile in hallway B6.”

“Knockout-”

“Ok, bye!” You ran off to the gym. Nightwing had too much on his mind. He wouldn’t go after you just yet.

So, you took deep breaths. When you entered your small, personal gym, it came to life. The light turned on, and your playlist filled the air. You sighed. “Computer, I need you to search for Tim Drake.”

“On it, Knockout.”

As you worked out, you kept asking your room questions and pieced together bits of information.

“I need a list of billionaires who operate business at least once a month in Gotham,” you said, as you stared at the wall of holograms during your cooldown. “Cross reference the list with the list of people associated with Tim Drake.”

“The list consists of seven people.”

“Read them out, please.” You gulped down water and listened.

“Anthony Edwards, Roberta Stark, Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor-”

“Wait.” You stared at the profiles of these people. Seven people that were both associated with Gotham and Tim. Only one of them fit the bill of eccentric billionaire who takes in kids and fights crime with only a tight suit and fancy gadgets.

“Bruce Wayne,” you whispered. “Computer, pull up a picture of Batman next to Mr. Wayne.” Oh my god, how did no one figure it out sooner. They even had a similar physique. “Who are children that are associated with Mr. Wayne?”

“Dick Grayson-”

“Aka Nightwing.”

“-Barbara Gordon-”

You’d recognize that bright red hair anywhere. “Batgirl.”

“-Jason Todd-”

The old Robin.”

“-and Tim Drake.”

You gulped. Four kids, just like how there were four kids under Batman. Two of which were named by the kid from the future.

“Pull all of their pictures up, along with Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin three years ago and Robin now.” All of their physical profiles were similar. Even Jason’s and Robin’s. And Robin’s disappearance was near Jason Todd’s reported death. Robin’s reappearance matched the year Bruce and Tim’s dad, Jack Drake, were acquainted.

You stood back and laughed. “Wow.” You were sitting one of the biggest secrets in history. You knew who Batman was! The Batman! You knew who Robin was, who Nightwing was, who Batgirl was. You knew all of their secret identities.

“I knew you’d figure it out.”

“Robin!” Your computer hid all the files. “Find what out? Nothing to see here.”

“Mhm. Computer?”

“Yes, Robin?”

“Bring up the previous files.”

“Of course.”

You gasped. “Wait! No-” And all your files of the Batman and his associates appeared on the wall behind you. You shook your head. “Thanks, Computer.”

“You’re welcome, Knockout.”

You stared at your feet and joked, “I really should program Computer to detect sarcasm.” you turned to your data. “I still can’t believe no one knows. I mean, it’s obvious.” You pointed at Mr. Wayne. “This guy is one of the only billionaires who operates in Gotham weekly, and Batman is known to have multiple, custom made gadgets. Even if he made them himself, he’d need a lot of money to maintain that, so billionaire is in the description.

“Then, there’s the fact that Batman has many sidekicks or associates or what have you. So that means the the billionaire must be associated with kids, maybe even adopt them. And Mr. Wayne adopted two kids as his wards. The first one of the two being an orphaned trapeze artist who was adopted around the time that Robin showed up for the first time. And it helps that Robin was known to do amazing tricks and stunts when locking up criminals.”

With all the pictures and articles around you, you couldn’t help but wonder. “I mean, it’s obvious.”

Robin laughed. “To us, it is.”

You tilted your head. “Us?”

He nodded. “Computer, can search for a video with the keywords, ‘Grayson,’ and ‘quadruple somersault’?”

Two videos popped up, one of which was a small boy performing the very difficult trick.

“The second one. Now, Computer, bring up footage of Penguin and Robin about six years ago next to it, please.”

The two videos played at the same time, and you saw why Tim brought it up. The kid in the first video was a young trapeze artist, Dick Grayson. The second video had Robin perform the same difficult trick when he defeated Penguin.

You laughed. “That’s how you found out?”

“I saw Dick perform when I was a kid. I recognized it in this video, and when I thought I needed to, I approached Bruce.”

You blinked. “When you needed to?”

His shoulders dropped, and suddenly, you knew what Tim meant. Batman needed a Robin, and the only time he was without one was when Jason, the second Robin, died at the hands of the Joker. Tim sought out Mr. Wayne after that. “You don’t have to,” you said.

Tim smiled, but it was forced. “Thanks.”

You rubbed his shoulder. “You’e really smart for figuring that out at the age of what?” You looked at the Penguin’s video date. “Age of nine? Damn, Robin.”

“Yeah, I am smart,” he admitted. “I’m also smart enough to know you’re avoiding the topic we should really be talking about.”

Blood pooled into your cheeks. You took your hand off his shoulder and laughed. “What do you mean avoiding? I’m not avoiding anything.” You pointed out, “Plus, it could just mean I’m adopted or that we happen to have the same last name later on in the future or something.”

Tim raised his eyebrow. “Impulse said, ‘Have Jack and Anna’.”

“So?”

“So, use that smart brain of yours.”

You grimaced. “Are we really going to talk about it?”

“Yes, we are. We’re a team, (Y/n), and whatever happens, this” - he pointed at the two of you- “needs to stay in tact.” The superhero gulped. “I want it to stay in tact.”

You sighed. “Jack is your dad’s name, obviously, so the future he was talking about, well,” you laughed and pulled at your hair, “it means that we name a kid after your dad.”

“What do you think of Anna? Where’d that come from?”

You shrugged. “Could be anything.” You laughed. “All I thought was, ‘Wow, Anna Drake sounds like a good name.’” You shook your head. “Kinda ridiculous, huh?”

Tim was silent. Then, his cheeks turned red, and he turned away from you. You knew that look. He thought of something. He thought of something, and it was embarrassing enough that even the thought of of it made him blush.

“Nuh-uh.” It took two strides for you to be right in front of him. “No, you’re spitting it out. What is it?”

“Nothing!”

“Not according to those rosy red cheeks, Tim.” You pinched his cheek. “Come on, you can tell me.”

Tim shook his head and hit his own forehead. “It’s stupid.”

“Who cares?”

He sighed. “I thought, I was just gonna say, like, I don’t know.” He cleared his throat and glanced at you before looking at his boots. “I just, I think that (Y/n) Drake, it sounds like a good name, too.”

The smile you had so gleefully earned disappeared just like that. Not because you were embarrassed, although that was true. It wasn’t because you might marry Robin, aka Tim Drake, aka your best friend, or because you had been thinking of that name, your first name and his last name, for the past hour or two.

No, it was because he was right. (Y/n) Drake doesn’t sound bad.

“See!”

“Shut up.” You laughed and covered your face. “I don’t need this from you.”

“You asked for it!”

“I didn’t think you’d say that.” You exhaled a long and deep exhale and shook your head. You couldn’t let him do this to you. It didn’t matter that the two of you might be married later on. No, you had to get him back. You bit your lip and sauntered to him.

Tim’s eyes widened, and he froze. He stared at you, almost in awe of your newly found confidence, and even though your fingers shook, you couldn’t help but love the way he looked at you.

Your fingers brushed against his mask, and your eyes met his blue ones. When he didn’t do anything to stop you, you lifted the mask away from his face, and finally, his face was revealed to you.

You bit your lip and brushed his hair back. “You know, I don’t think Tim (Y/l/n) sounds too bad either.” You smiled up at him and played with one lock of hair that was out of place. “Goes well with this handsome face of yours.”

Tim gulped, and you could feel his heartbeat under his skin. It was frantic, but still, he didn’t move. Even when he sheeks got redder than yours, he didn’t move. He just smiled. “I, uh, I mean.” He cleared his throat. “Uh, you know, you being this close and playing with my, you know, hair and everything.” He gulped and looked down at his feet.

You giggled. “Run out of smoothness there, Robin?”

“Maybe,” he admitted.

Your cheeks hurt from smiling too much. You leaned your head on his chest. “It’s ok, that was all the smoothness I had.”

“All of it?”

“Yep.” You wrapped your arms around his waist and rested your chin on his chest. “No more smoothness from me. That was it. That was all of it.”

Tim smiled so softly and genuinely as he brushed your hair out of your face before resting them on your waist. “So no more smoothness from you?”

“Nope.”

“Not even on our first date?”

“Well, you got ask me that first?”

He laughed. “Ok then, Drake, what about a date?”

You hummed, as if in thought.

“Come on,” he pouted.

You laughed. “Yes, (Y/l/n), I’ll go on a date with you.”

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vampanic · 4 years

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okay here’s what i remember from THE CON

i can’t remember if the ticket was cheap or pricey. i don’t know why. i wanna say it was more expensive or of equal value to a bigger con and i justified it to my parents and myself because it was the first one. but i went because i thought the idea of a con that was centered on the various fandoms popular on this site at the time was a genuinely neat idea. i also thought, okay let me just go because it’s another one to attend.

i should note: that have been to a lot conventions in my time. i’ve been to acen twice i think? i’ve been to nebkon twice. sadly i have never been to c2e2 or flashback chicago (which i may never get to go to now whoops) and i’ve been to wizard world chicago i wanna say 4 times?

now at these cons (mostly wizard world) these fandoms aren’t as present. in fact, the main demo of that con was adult to middle age to older visitors as well as families, so usually teens and young adults would find each other at this con (whether planned ahead or by accident there) and freak the fuck out over our cosplays or mutual love of whatever.

so because of this again the idea of a t.umblr con was exciting to me, even though i was already at the end of being interested in those fandoms (as i’m sure most people were at the time)

okay so first, this con was far. wizard world and acen are held at the rosemont convention center which while kind of far from where i live, is accessible by train via downtown or via one of chicago’s big airports. i always got a ride though which with summer traffic, took forever. so much like that this con was a journey away.

the hotel the con choose i remember thinking it seemed new, but it was far from where i lived which inpacted the amount of time i spent at the con and the decision to only go two days (i didn’t return the last day because it was a shit show)

i went to this con by myself because i think at this point i had already had a falling out with my friend who i went to cons in the area with (she did not attend that i know of). i wore two cosplays that i had made already for other things, gwen stacy and america chavez. this would have been the ideal place for me to cosplay something more niche, but i just didn’t care that much about it. maybe i didn’t think it was worth it at the time since it wasn’t going to be a big con.

so i get there and there’s no long line to get my badge in fact i don’t even remember a line at all. which, for me, was bizarre. every con i’ve been to before had huge lines even on off hours to get badges. but whatever. i cant remember if where i got my badge was in the the same room as where the ball pit was or not. but yes, i did go into the ball pit and i was silly in it with some other people because

idk you see a ball pit you go in the ball pit? in hindsight i know it’s not acceptable to have this at a con, but shit i guess i was high on life at the time. someone took a pic of me in the pit, but i have never seen it.

i remember seeing some very impressive cosplays at this con. i also bought some really great art in the dealers room which was small. (here’s the artist. also this was nonfandom art. i don’t remember buying anything else from anyone because i don’t think i saw anything i liked/could afford) there was no unlicensed night vale merch sold here that i remember, but i do remember receiving free unlicsenced night vale like pamphlets from a random vendor and also there was a vendor who was giving away a large piece of night vale fan art with a purchase of over something dollars i dont remember.

panels: i don’t remember there being many panels or even very interesting panels. panels i remember going to include: bisexuality in media/bisexuality representation (which was put on by the bisexualbooks tumblr), ask an avenger (which was put on by various marvel cosplayers), and a panel that was about female characters in supernatural (i was a spn stan back in the day jsyk).

the bi one was good. i remember it being the most like a panel that you’d go to at a larger convention. they had slides and info and they took questions and had several speakers.

the avengers one was what we’d call today “cringey” but it was cute. it was exactly what it sounds like. avengers cosplayers sat up on a stage answering questions in character. i believe that all the cosplayers had rp and/or ask blogs which is why they were chosen.

the supernatural panel was, like the bi one, complete with slides and various speakers, but from what i remember it was mostly going down the list of female characters in the show. i remember from the fandom that there a good chunk of people who love the characters, but they’re often killed off or abandoned and this is something a lot of fans did have gripes with. this is gonna sound fake when i say it, but this did happen, we got to charlie and someone said “yeah i like charlie she’s cool because she’s a lesbian but she doesn’t act like one like she’s still feminine” and i spoke up and said “well yeah it’s cool she’s a lesbian, but what do you mean she doesn’t act like one. like queer female character shouldn’t have to be feminine to be seen as good rep.” and people clapped. i know that sounds fake, but please believe me because this is a setting where people are inclined to clap when they agree with statements. people clapped at others too.

i also attended the costume contest, the night vale panel, and the meet and greet with doug jones.

the contest was fine. there was one individual at this con who i can’t name because i didnt know their name, but they cosplayed as ed from edd ed and eddy and they were in character the whole time to the point of discomfort. it wasn’t just for the contest i found myself in a cards against humanity game that they were in and it was even there and it was weird.

then the night vale panel happened and ooooooooohhhh boy

this was the most filled room in the whole con. a main reason i went to this con was to see them and im pretty sure this was everyone’s main reason to go. i known someone from other cons who came from florida to see this. (fun fact: we were mutuals on various platforms and had hung out at various cons and i knew their name, but they could not remember mine and i thought that was bogus so i ghosted them. dont know if i was justified in that but whatever)

so here we all were waiting. for over an hour. during this time people talked and i remember someone cosplaying the glow cloud went up and down the isle with a little glow cloud baby in a stroller and we all laughed and cheered. people started playing card games. we kept busy. for me though.

this was one of the most boring cons i’ve been to honestly. i’m having trouble remember a lot of it and that’s because i went solo. i had no friends there. i cosplayed gwen from like the 60s and this was before spidey joined the mcu and before itsv was a thing so spidey was basically an niche fandom (i was active in the tasm and dane deha.an fandoms at this time and the latter became toxic as fuck but that’s a whole other story) or something older comic fans liked.

my other cosplay was america chavez from young avengers which never got that popular either (though kate bishop and kid loki where more recognized, but for their connection to bigger marvel names). so it wasn’t like other cons where my cosplay was an ice breaker and i could join groups. i was alone.

so a lot of the con for that reason was awkward and waiting for night vale was like being the person texting in the corner at a distant relative’s party because they know no one.

so they finally come on stage to say that night vale will not be performing and people went ballistic people were shouting and the person said “we have doug jones in the next hall you should go over to that” and someone yelled “WE DON’T WANT TO SEE HIM”

i went to see doug jones and i was previously unaware of what his name was but i knew who he was. he talked about his work and acting process and did a meet and greet after. mr. jones was a delight and i’m wondering how they even got him there in the first place. he was leagues above this.

i had to leave the con early that day to go to my brother’s football game, but i believe that was the night they “protested” at the con and i kept seeing on tumblr that it was cancelled. i decided not to go back the next day because i was unsure of what was happening and because it was too far.

and the rest is history. i’m sure i went to other panels, but i can’t remember them. i do remember going into the room where they were watching pacific rim, but it was on a shitty projection screen and i wanted to go to a panel instead.

it’s shitty what happened with the con. and a lot of the unrest came from literal teens who were cheated from money who didn’t know how to act, but all the responsibility goes to the people who organized it poorly. The concept of a tu.mblr con i don’t think should have been inherently bad. i think it would have been cool to have a con that focused on more niche interests. but shouldn’t have been as big as they wanted it to be for the first go.

anyway that’s most of what i can remember. it’s kind of blur because i spent most of it by myself and there wasn’t much to do so i didn’t even spend the whole day there.

quite frankly, i’m glad i wasn’t there when they started singing les mis because i have no idea how i would have acted.

#[out of coffins]#/under a cut because it's long

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wintcrwinds · 4 years

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(me: matty is on break also me: here is a giant matty factfile)

The Basics

Name? Mateo Rosario Hernandez Moreno

Age? 26

Approximate height? 5′9

Hair colour? Dark brown

Eye colour? Brown

Do they speak with an accent? No

Where are they from? Zuzu City

Where are they now? Stardew Valley

Backstory

Who are their parents? Héctor and Jennifer Moreno

What is their earliest memory? Watching campy old superhero cartoons on tv with his dad, back at their old apartment. Matty would stay up late waiting for him to get home from his job bussing tables at their local diner, and would inevitably fall asleep before the show was over.

What did they want to be when they grew up? A costumed crime-fighter, a server at JojaBurger, or Tony Hawk, in that order.

What did/do their parents want them to be? They don’t really see each other enough to get into it on the job front, though Matty supposes it would’ve been nice if he’d’ve been a tech genius like them - carried on the family business or something.

Do they have siblings? Older or younger? Brothers or sisters? None, but he did have an imaginary older brother in the same way most kids have imaginary friends. Bit sad, innit.

Do they have or have they ever had children? How many? No, none, and never!

Do they or have ever had a significant other? Are they still with them? Why? Why not? Not a significant other - he’s dated a little, but his enthusiasm tends to scare people off.

Up until now, what’s the most noteworthy thing they’ve done? To them? To the people around them? Matty doesn’t really think he’s done anything noteworthy. Noteworthy things are for other, cooler people.

Tastes

What’s your character’s favourite colour? Red! No, blue! Wait, no, red!

Do they/would they choose to wear a scent? What would it be? Axe bodyspray, he’s rich but also basic.

Do they care about what things look like? All things, or only some? Not at all. His apartment looks like a college dorm crossed with Comic Con crossed with a dumpster.

What’s their favourite ice cream flavour? Phish Food!

Are they a tea, or coffee drinker? Or soft drinks, or do they drink a lot of alcohol? What kind? Doesn’t really drink tea or coffee because his palette is that of a ten year old. He drinks a lot of JojaCola, and only bothers with alcohol when he has someone to share it with. Which isn’t very often.

What kind of books do they read? What TV shows and movies do they watch? Matty doesn’t read anything except for graphic novels and comic books because focusing on lots of words is haaaard. In terms of TV he likes most popular stuff if it isn’t too cerebral, stuff like the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, anything from the MCU...

What kind of music do they like? Do they like music at all? He likes pop punk mostly, it’s hype!

If they were about to die, what would they have as their last meal? Mexican feast, next question.

Are they hedonistic? In all cases? Or does practicality sometimes/always/often win out? Yeah, in a way! Matty doesn’t see the point in doing stuff if he’s not excited to do it!

Do they have any philias or phobias? Nah.

Morals, Beliefs, and Faith

Do they have an internal or an external moral code? Both?

To what extent are their actions dictated by this code? Mostly, though some things (mostly grafittiing and trespassing) are worth breaking the law for.

Do they believe in a God or Gods/Goddesses/Higher being of some description? Nah.

Are they superstitious? Not really, but he will call out stuff as being bad luck.

Do they believe in an afterlife? If so, what’s it like? Yeah dude, he believes in like... alternate universes. So you die, and then you start your life over again in another version of reality.

Do they have any specific beliefs that manifest obviously? No.

Are they respectful of the beliefs of others? To what extent? Yeah, but he’d rather not talk about it? He thinks religion is private and therefore awkward to talk about.

Have they ever had to stand up to criticism for being religious? Or not being religious? Nope!

Would they be more likely to act for the good of the one, or the good of the many? The good of the many.

Relationships

Do they make friends easily? Not really, in the past people have tended to find his personality too intense to handle, and he has been told frequently that he’s annoying.

Do they have a best friend? It’s Bartholomew, his butler. Bit sad innit.

Can they get people to do what they want them to? If so, how? No. Even bribery doesn’t really work.

Do they have a lot of romantic relationships? Serious, or short term? Matty hasn’t found anyone to tolerate him long enough for any kind of romantic relationship.

Do they fall in and out of love easily? Yeah, he’s a sucker for a pretty face and a kind word.

Do strangers and acquaintances actually like them when they meet? Historically, no, but he’s hoping that will change!

Do they have a network? Not really... his parents are too often absent to count, and Bartholomew can’t be a network on his own.

What is their relationship like with their family? BIT SAD INNIT. Matty really loves his parents, and he knows they love him too, but the physical distance between them has made a metaphorical distance too.

Are they still in touch with non-family people they were in touch with a year ago? Five years? Ten? More? No.

Do they like children? Do they want children of their own? He likes kids (and frankly they usually have overlapping interests), but Matty is more a fun uncle than a father figure, he thinks.

Physical Appearance

How does this character dress? How would they choose to dress, if all options were open to them? T-shirts, hoodies, jeans, converse, denim jacket, and probably a hat of some description. Matty has enough money to dress how he wants, but his tastes trend on the cheaper side.

Do they have any tattoos? What do they mean? None.

Do they have piercings? How many? None, but maybe he wants his nose pierced.

Do they have scars? Where did they come from? Yes, Matty is extremely accident prone and hurts himself a lot. Luckily, most injuries don’t phase him much.

Do they alter their appearance in some way on a regular basis? Nope!

Is there something they’d choose to change about their appearance if they had the opportunity to? His wonky chin? :(

Is there something about their appearance they’re particularly proud of/happy with? His hair!

Objectively, are they physically attractive? Fairly plain? Unattractive? He’s cute for sure.

Do they have an accurate mental picture and opinion of their physical appearance? Yeah dude, Matty knows what he looks like, and he thinks he looks fine!

How much time do they spend thinking about their physical appearance? It would be a lot less if he wasn’t so obsessed with his hair.

General Knowledge

Can they navigate their own local area without getting lost? To what degree? No, his sense of direction is absolute garbage. Without his phone he’d be lost like 90% of the time.

Do they know who the top politician or monarch is where they live? What about elsewhere? He knows Mayor Lewis, does that count?

Do they know if/where there are any major conflicts going on right now? No.

Do they know the composition of water? ... no...

Do they know how to eat a pomegranate? Carefully?

Are they good with the technology available to them? Average? Completely hopeless? Okay, tech is something Matty is good at.

Could they paint a house? Without making a mess of it? Paint it? Yes. Do it without making a mess? Absolutely not. He’s happy to be invovled though!

Could they bake a cake? Would you eat it if they did? No, and no, he’d try so hard, but he’s literally useless and would definitely give me food poisoning.

Do they know how to perform basic maintenance on the common mode of transportation? He can maintain his skateboard, but that’s it.

Do they know the price of a loaf of bread? How much can a loaf of bread cost? 20G?

Specific Knowledge

Do they have a specific qualification in a narrow area? The only qualification he has is his high school diploma, so no.

Is there something they do or know exceptionally well that most other people don’t? He’s actually a very good artist.

Do people often comment on a particular skill or area of knowledge to this character? Behind their back? Maybe on his lack thereof. Matty doesn’t really give the impression that he has any skills or knowledge.

Is there an area this character could be considered top of their field or a genius in? God no.

Have they deliberately sought to gain knowledge in a specific area? If so, why? No, he’s stupid :(

Do they speak more than one language? More than two? Why? He speaks an embarrassingly small amount of spanish - the white family butler literally speaks more spanish than him.

Does their cultural background effect what they would be expected to know? I mean, maybe his taste in Mexican food should be better than frozen burritos from JojaMart.

Have they ever been publicly acknowledged for being well-versed in something? Never.

Have they ever been bullied for knowing a lot about something? Yeah, he reaaaally loved superheroes as a kid, and got rinsed for talking about them so much.

Do they actively seek new knowledge, or let it come to them naturally? If anything Matty avoids knowledge.

Miscellaneous

What did they have for breakfast this morning? Dry cereal because his milk went bad and he was too lazy to go and buy more.

What ridiculous belief/s did they have as a child? ): I mean, the imaginary older brother was pretty silly.

Do they like marshmallows? Yeah!

Do they sleep on their side, front, or back? On his front, mouth open, snoring.

Do they work better with sound or silence? Sound! Music makes brain work faster.

Do they have a strange obsession with something minor? His hair? Superheroes?

Do they like art? Uhhhhhh, medium? He likes comics and stuff, but he’s not going to a museum anytime soon.

How fast can they run? Fast!

Do they prefer to sit on the floor or on a chair? Floor.

What do they want, right now? A breakfast burrito. Preferably one he didn’t have to microwave himself.

#matty: about

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snazzyo · 5 years

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Highlight from the 300 BTS documentary (on iTunes)

WBTV released a 20 min documentary today on iTunes. I’m sure it’ll be on the DVD release eventually. And likely YouTube at some point (beyond my skillset).

Highlights (direct quotes in italics where possible):

- Dabb & Singer: Emotional weight of the story is the boys and their dad. Everyone upping their game.

- Misha: the writer’s on this show have a rule, which is they try not to do the same storyline twice – keeps the show fresh.

- JDM: fans have been waitin for a long time

- Dabb: “Lebanon” idea came up in May 2018 – town is 200-300 people, makes Sam & Dean ‘curiosities’ for whole town. “Stand By Me”/”Amblin’” lens. Social structure for the boys. How to make “Lebanon” a character on the show to make their family an even bigger family.

“Cass’ introduction in Season 4, the introduction of angels generally, is probably the reason this show has continued and lived as long as it has.” (direct quote from Dabb)

- The 300 fight scene with “Season 5” fight scene, it serves a purpose to progress the fight scene (pearl had a bad bad effect). Zachariah stood out as immediately making an impression.

- Singer: ‘JDM is the “sundae”, Kurt is the cherry on top.’

- Glynn: ‘Enduring theme was a semblance of home’

- Jensen: ‘Very human to want to have a home base.’ Direct quote “What you have is a Dean who’s very content in the life that he’s living and the path that he’s traveling.”

- On the pearl, Jensen: “He thinks it’s to get Michael out of his head when, in actuality, what his heart truly desires is for his family to be together. To touch that, or to taste that, just for a moment, is what he truly desires. Now, is it fleeting? Yeah, probably.”

- Singer/Dabb: We wanted to payoff where we left them was John was alive. … he’s there for a short amount of time, you have to make the most of every second of it.’ ‘Shoot for the moon.’

- Dabb: “Jensen is very good friends with him, and really helped us kinda smooth the way, you know, because I mean, let’s just speak frankly, for his career, Jeffery doesn’t need to do this.

- JDM/Jensen: Always an ace in the hole .. pretty cool to come back.

- Singer: where we landed on bringing him back (from heaven, hell?) we landed on time-travel as the sweet spot of emotionality. “Every scene has emotional content.”

- JDM: “They’re great kids. I mean I shouldn’t call them kids. They’re grown men. Umm… But they’re my kids, and I always will think of them that way, because of the show.”

- Dabb: new JDM could deliver anything we can give him.

- JDM: Most important is having some healing

- Glynn: “Thematically, this season has been about identity.” (Michael saying ‘I own you’). “Dean Winchester has always been in service of others, a lot of times to the detriment of himself. “

- Dabb: “When he sees John, I think what he says is like, ‘Okay, here’s a guy that made a lot of mistakes, understanding they do happen, everybody makes mistakes, you can like yourself anyway.’ And this moment represents kind of a real eye-opening for him when it comes to himself, when it comes to being able to accept himself, Dean Winchester, for who he is.”

- Jensen: “He realized this is where he needs to be and this I where he’s most valued and where he feels most comfortable, and that’s doing what he does, alongside his brother, fighting the good fight.”

- Jared: “I think Sam held a lot against his father, thinking he messed up ‘Oh he did this, he did that.’ But not understanding why John did those things. – ‘Sam finally understands now that he’s grown up.

- JDM: “We could have a 10 hour episode about John and his kids.”

- Glynn: ‘Andrew and I had ideas but also J2 know these character inside and out and they’ve been a big part of this and they had ideas, and we incorporated all of our instincts into what eventually came to be and it grew organically’

- Jensen: “There was subtext and there was emotion and there was tonality that I hadn’t even anticipated.”

- Eugenie: John’s a ‘sober’ fellow, not as whimsical as the boys and feels the burden of his mission and (quietly) parenthood’

- Dabb: “It’s not about reopening old wound. It’s about, “Okay, I’ve got this wound, I understand it, how can I move on from it? I think that’s what adulthood and maturity is.”

- Jared: Sam sees a bit of himself in his Dad..

- JDM: I think there is some forgiveness

- Dabb: “As soon as he sees Mary, as soon as he sees his wife, he changes. He becomes the guy who he would have been if she had never died.”

- SamSmith: This meeting heals them.

- Glynn: We wanted Mary to get some closure too. She still holds herself responsible for what happened to her boys, to her husband.

- Dabb: She’s really the one who doesn’t get the full amount of closure with this character the way Sam and Dean do.

- Jensen: Seeing that reunion (Mom & Dad), for him (Dean), is almost that sunset he always wanted to see.

- Singer: Dean’s the one who is a little more pragmatic when he sees time has changed. (scene of him telling John about the paradox)

- Glynn: ”That family dinner is something Dean Winchester has longed for since he was a little kid.”

- Dabb: ‘Supernatural has been, since day one, a show about family. So it makes sense that that (dinner) would be sort of the hallmark of this very important chapter of our guys’ lives.’

- Jensen: ‘We’re all well-aware that it is a fleeting moment, but, uh, perhaps it’s something that, that he just wanted to hold tight to for just a second.”

- Kurt: Great tragedy. So honestly, so true.

- Singer: (goodbye scene) ‘These guys come ready to play. They aren’t winging it at all.’

- SamSmith: This show is lightening in a bottle .. about the boys that have a deep/complex relationship, the whole family element, and of course, the fans.

- Glynn: “We wanna do right by these characters, we wanna do right by their history, we wanna do right by the amazing fans of the show.”

- AND HOLY SHIT THAT’S ME TALKING TO MISHA AT THE AUTOGRAPH DESK AT COMIC CON (I screamed out while typing loud) … I’m (SnazzyO) in the white shirt, dark hair, big nose.

- Amazing party

- Misha: Pretty surreal

- Singer: “It’s really not about fancy shots or big visual effects. It’s just kind of this emotional boiling pot just great to watch. Wow. That’s real drama.”

- THANKS to ALL OUR FANS FOR 300 EPISODES.

#supernatural #spn300 #bts

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

Text

Spider-Geddon #5 Thoughts

Very mixed feelings.

This issue is a difficult one to talk about, partially because there was simply SO MUCH in it and each piece has its own pros and cons. As such this is going to be a bit on the piecemeal side of things.

Let me get a general criticism out of the way. The constantly changing artists was very noticeable. However on the flipside each of the artists participating were very very good. So the art wasn’t consistent but it all looked lovely.

Additionally there was a fun sense of bombast and action to the comic book, it was everything and the kitchen sink but in a good way.

I also appreciate that Gage (and yes I’m 99% sure all of these were Gage) in a sense apologized for aspects of Spider-Verse Chief among them was the resurrection of MC2 Peter Parker, righting a wrong that should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!!!!!!!!! But we also have the Engima Force being useful as compared to Spider-Verse where it was stupidly ineffective in a cheap attempt to build up Solus. Gage does a deft job of not exactly contradicting that but at the same time showcasing Captain Universe as a power player.

Now let’s talk about individual aspects of the book.

As I said the Captain Universe element was appreciated. I also liked that the Enigma Force didn’t automatically confer Miles as worthy which is appreciated as for several years now stories, creators and fans alike have been worshipping at his feet, often at the expense of Peter. Here Miles got the Enigma Force but only after talking it round and was conscious about doing something to render himself unworthy, whereas Peter was simply always worthy. It is also a great way to let Miles shine in a series which exists to promote/benefit from his movie at the time and which was supposed to be his vehicle first and foremost. On the flipside though the Enigma force being wary of the Spiders as unworthy because they let some people die is illogical. 616 Peter had made similar or more mistakes but was still worthy. Additionally Miles asking what worthy even means came off as Gage throwing some shade somehow. Finally I have mixed feelings on the Venom blast being as powerful as it was against Solus. On the one hand it’s the Venom blast again being a cheap OP ability Miles has but on the other hand even if it was toned down to be very reasonable the Enigma Force probably would amp it up and it wasn’t like it won the day. Over all this element of the story worked more than it failed.

What about Ben Reilly? Well again I think this was Gage apologizing for Clone Conspiracy, though this is rather strange. Ben throughout the story seemed normal enough so what does ‘factory settings’ mean exactly? I guess the idea is that Ben is now...redeemed? Maybe? It’s very under developed and more problematically there is little acknowledgment of his and Peter’s relationship when that should be a big deal if they meet face to face. This is the first time they have seen one another since Clone Conspiracy after all. I get this isn’t a Peter centric event but then don’t have them meet up.

Speaking of Peter, I didn’t like how it was Gwen leading the charge instead of him. Whilst the letter’s pages claim this event was to highlight non-Peter Spider Heroes the event really wasn’t about Gwen. She disappeared by issue #2, so if she gets prestige via her tie-in books shouldn’t Peter too? More prestige in fact given how he both beat the main villain of the original story (for the third time) and you know...is the real Spider-Man? Speaking of which the shot of the NINE Spider-Heroes from Earth 616 really just said it all to me. There are too many in the same universe and it is ridiculous. Especially when you consider Venom, Madame Web, Doppelganger and other probable candidates were excluded. I mean as of this writing we know 2099 is coming back to the present and Spider-Gwen will be coming to 616 too!

Of those 616 Spider-Heroes Spider-Man 2099 and Silk were present...where the fuck were they during the rest of this story. Silk maybe had a line or two, 2099 I don’t recall right now seeing him before this damn issue? Oh well, at least they addressed Kaine’s fate and made it clear he was still on Earth 616.

Keeping with Earth 616 lets talk about Otto. Think issue was consistent in basically kissing his ass. He was the main driver for the resolution to the story, he came up with the plan to fix everything and dammit it was a good plan; as was tricking Jennix. I hate saying that because Superior is a colossal douchebag of a character and I don’t care what happened here or in ASM #800, Peter shouldn’t give him free reign. He joined fucking HYDRA!

However I must admit I did enjoy his interactions with the Gamerverse Spider-Man as it bookended the event rather nicely going back to issue #0.

Before I move onto more interesting characters we must address very briefly Spider-Gwen. The origin of her new codename was eye roll worthy and the brief dialogue saying she can transverse dimensions now was out of nowhere. It was underexplained for someone like me who was not reading her tie-in series, and frankly I shouldn’t HAVE to read a tie in to get pertinent information when I’ve already paid $5.00. That’s about it.

Let’s talk briefly about the Spider-Girls. I’ve already lauded MC2 Peter’s return, but it was also nice to see Mayday get a lick in on Daemos. Too bad it was for exactly one goddam panel. We got more resolution from her fighting an illusion Daemos in the Spider Island mini-series! The Spider-Girls basically going all Morphin Time was cheesy and yet I loved it. However it was yet more BS dues ex machina crap from the end of Spider-Girls. It makes me hate the ending of that series even more now, especially since it amounted to so little here. However I did like the over all dynamics with the RYV crew and Mayday, what little there was in the story.

Now let’s talk about the Inheritors. They also represent a mixed bag. They continued to be aggressively bland characters right up until the end, but their ultimate defeat was a good compromise to beating them without killing them. That being said I appreciated that Gage had characters acknowledge how wrong it felt to be in the act seemingly killing them. Speaking of that resolution it was perhaps the biggest mixed bag of the whole issue.

On the one hand the reveal that the Inheritors never actually had to consume totemetic essences is disgustingly convenient to the point of being contrived and trite. On the other hand though it does wipe every Inheritor off the board with the possible exception of Morlun, allowing the possibility for him as the most famous and ‘popular’ Inheritor to return in future stories if needs be whilst the obviously shitter characters get hand waved out of the series.

Finally Spider-Norman’s plot thread goes completely unresolved. He was seriously underutilized in this story and even his machinations didn’t amount to all that much in the story. It’s just set up for something else, and I pray that something else is just a storyline in Superior Spider-Man and not another goddam event, let alone Spider-Verse 3.

Over all this issue had more I enjoyed than disliked I must admit (maybe that was the lovely looking art though) but the series as a whole was all over the place and mostly bad.

Gee I wonder if that one Ghost-Spider Issue I have left to read will change my over all feelings on this event...

...Regardless I would recommend you give this a read anyway, if for no other reason than the satisfaction of seeing MC2 Peter come back.

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nellynee · 6 years

Text

Three Caballeros headcanons

classic, very gay edition

The timeline for Saludos Amigos is unclear, but it’s canon that Donald is a recognizable celebrity at this time. That being said, I put this at Donald vacationing on his first bit of real leave from the navy. His celebrity status being very new and small in the states but much larger outside of it.

In terms of say, Ducktales, this puts his Navel career as a source of pride, Acting and performance as a passion he pursues, and the everyday jobs he tends to loose due to luck his actual income after the Navy.

Early timeline inspired by the small design changes in Jose between the two movies, making him a juvenile of his species at the time. Approximately their early twenties.

White feathered Panchito. Twin? Tan? Or brighter juvenile feathers?

Jose will protest all day that he isn’t actually a scam artist. He simply aids tourists in finding the most entertaining of distractions and they willingly gift him in compensation. Sometimes they’re passed out when it happens.

Jose and Donald actually met as a mix of the movie and the comic. Jose was planning on making Donald his next target, but after realizing it was the REAL Donald Duck, quickly changes his mind... or rather, goes out of his way to make sure Donald has good memories at least.

That being said, he’s never actually paid for a drink in his entire life, and certainly never plans to

Jose finds Donald enchanting. Jose, he loves Brazil, and Donald doesn’t treat his home like some exotic diversion. He immerses himself into every experience completely, and Jose finds Donald’s sense of cultural wonder flattering where it should be annoying.

Jose immediately starts to flirt with Donald and Donald just figures that’s the way the guy is??? He flirts with literally everything?

There is one night early in the trip they don’t talk about. Donald can become a sad drunk and Jose comforted him the only way he knew how. If Jose had known they would become actual friends, he would not have done it. Both are sure the other doesn’t remember.

Of the three, Panchito is the vocals, Jose the instrumentals, and Donald the dancer.

Jose is always ready to dance the Samba with Donald

ALWAYS

Jose ends up in Mexico when Donald heads back towards the states at the end of his vacation. His debts at the time mean it’s probably better to skip town for a while, and with Donald to pay for his meals why not?

Jose and Panchito meet like in the comics after Donald returns home (for those who don’t know, Jose attempts to seduce a woman Panchito is courting. A series of one upmanship happens, in which Jose uses empty boast and tricks to try and get rid of Panchito, and Panchito, knowing Jose is a dirty crook, attempts to rat him out. It culminates in a horse race, which Jose wins, only for the woman to have eloped at the end)

(edit: I’ve had questions about the comic I’m referring, and you can actually find said comic here. There are other interpretations as well. I’m under the impression that the famous silver hunt is a first meeting, though I’ve never actually found it in it’s entirety to make sure. I love the idea of that one, but I have my own reasons for this one.)

They HATE each other at first. Panchito, on his honor, can not allow this scoundrel to con hard working people out of their belongings and fallows Jose around the country exposing his lies. Jose can not live like this.

After several failed attempts to shake the rooster, Jose opts for his next best weapon, his charisma

He may not know the local scene like back home, but he can smell a good time from a mile away, all he has to do is figure out what Panchito wants.

Fortunately for him, Panchito is as much a party animal as Jose is.

(It opens up the doors, but what REALLY convinces Panchito is Jose’s sense of honor. For all that he will never work, Jose does not take anything not freely given to him, be it money, possessions, women, and on one very memorable occasion, even food. Panchito, he is a sharp bird, he watches, he sees. It is the small kindnesses that convinces him to give Jose a chance)

Jose doesn’t consider Panchito anything more than a slightly more convenient annoyance until a series of adventures through the desert left him living only because of Panchito’s actions. Only then does he realize Panchito is genuine. (and oh no, what a feeling that was)

It’s a wonder how much they really have in common and get along when both of them are trying.

Panchito prefers the wide open plains, and Jose, the bustling cities, but Panchito finds adventure wherever, and Jose learns to love it, if for no other reason than loosing track of time, keeping busy, and the rush

Panchito 100% does not believe that Jose knows THE Donald Duck.

Panchito is later 100% amazed that Jose knows THE Donald Duck

This is the Greatest day of Panchito’s life

(and the rest is history. Seriously. That whole week is one long blackout for all three of them)

That being said, the first time Donald and Jose dance the samba together (really, REALLY together. They are often dancing in the same space, spinning around each other, half formed moves to the tune for the joy of it. Once a day if Jose can get his way. But on that day the beat is quick and the drums made their blood boil) Panchito knew he was in trouble.

They spend several years traveling together. First on Donald’s dime. As money goes thin, they stay in spaces longer, living on what Panchito can work up on a few days or going out to help him with some bounty or other, hopping from stranger to stranger on the goodwill of Donald’s fame, earning money busking and gain quite the fallowing.

They never really establish a relationship, in the monogamous sense, but they do develop a commitment to each other. They all become so openly affectionate there is no question about it in any of them. They come to love each other openly and without reservation, but they will often fight over women as well. As time goes by it goes from a real source of feuding for them to a joke and a sense of competition.

There’s no reason for them to break up really. Donald starts to miss his family around the same time Panchito starts to feel the need for home and some roots for just a while. Jose has saved some money and is dreadfully homestick

That’s what he tells them at least. His good friends have triggered a very embarrassing urge for... domesticity (yes, I do mean he becomes hormonal. All the sunlight and good food will do that) He needs time time to himself.

This is about the time Donald gets the boys. They had never intended it to be permanent, but they had some good years, and they stay in touch.

Donald’s self esteem issues are harder to fight through the mail, but they sure do try.

(non timeline related headcanons)

Jose prefers expensive booze, cheap cigars, and free women, in any order

Of the three, Panchito holds his liquor best, and Donald the worst.

Panchito and Jose just... they love how much Donald loves their mother countries so much.

I’d put something here about how much Panchito and Jose respect Donald and think him just a wonderful person to look up to but that’s comic canon.

The first time Donald and Panchito see Jose in casual jeans and t-shirt they nearly have a heart attack

The “turning his umbrella into various musical instruments” thing is a parlor trick. He’s a parrot with a LOT of instruments in his vocal repertoire. He’s surprised no one has caught on by now.

When it comes to marriage, Donald is canonically terrified of domestic monogamy and find the idea emasculating. Jose is even less inclined, but less out of fear and more that he would prefer less to chain him down. He would be willing to marry a pretty girl for her money, but probably couldn’t be convinced to stay around. Panchito is most attracted to the idea of a stable home and a big family, but latter comes to understand he doesn’t necessarily need a wife and children with so many lovers and nephews.

Panchito and Jose are the COOLEST uncles.

Panchito loves children, is bombatious and rowdy, and has guns, The triplets love him.

Jose has no idea what to do with them. He defaults to his charismatic facade and comes off as cool but also he’s never allowed to watch them alone (”They are nearly grown boys Donal’ they must learn to smoke sometime!)

Daisy: “Oh Donald doesn’t dance, he’s to clumsy for that and frankly it’s like pulling teeth” Jose, ten feet away, dancing a quite passionate samba with Donald and trying to convince him to run away with him

Yes they do know other dances, but the samba, aaaah the samba, how Jose loves the Samba

Panchito will sing love songs for them to dance to as an inside joke

Everyone has all three speaking spanish as their go to middle language but from day one Jose has insisted on speaking predominately Portuguese and then translating for himself over the years in close quarters they all pick up so much listening to them in conversations must be a nightmare.

Everyone in the fandom splits the cooking but Panchito is a traveling cowboy who lives of what he hunts and buys and Jose’s house doesn’t even seem to have a kitchen and he parties every night and Donald is the canonical amazing cook. The triplets grow up on some interesting recipes.

Panchito is openly affectionate in a platonic sense, always hugging and touching the other two, but preferred a certain degree of affection to be between only lovers unless prompted otherwise. Jose will make out in the middle of a town square if you get him worked up enough and will let him. Donald will never initiate anything but he’s just... so happy when it happens.

In the sense of TTC movie, the second and third gift in reality are plane tickets. Its the first time they’re all together in years.

Aaaaaan it’s late so that’s all I got for now. Feel free to ask any more specifics, I got a million of them!

#The Three Caballeros #Donald Duck #José Carioca #Panchito #Three Gay Caballeros #Disney

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glassrain · 5 years

Note

Marvel AU Questions: If J. Jonah Jameson had caught Spider-Man's true face on camera, what would his reactions be to knowing that Spider-Man is Peter Parker? Would Jonah place a HUGE bounty on Spider-Man soon after? Or would he not do it out of respect and concern over Peter?

Ooh, interesting question.

Of course, a lot of the answer is going to depend on which depiction of Jolly Jonah we’re dealing with, but Jameson typically isn’t one of the characters who changes dramatically from one rendition to the next so I think I can work with this premise with a decent amount of confidence. Although I’ve never read any Spider-Man comics, so my reasoning is going to come largely from movies and cartoons. I hope that’s alright.

(Also, you might want to brace yourself - this is probably going to get significantly longer than you were expecting.)

So ultimately I think the crux of the issue is: Why does J. J. Jameson hate Spiderman so much, and would that hatred be enough motivation for him to out Peter? And at the end of the day (as well as after much internal debate) I’m going to have to say no. Or at least it’s not likely.

As much as Jameson hates Spider-Man, this sentiment is more of an accumulation of small reasons than one big, intrinsic problem he has with the web-slinger. And frankly, while he might be loud, angry, and obnoxious to work with, Jameson’s bark is significantly worse than his bite. At first Spider-Man frustrates him because he can’t get any good stories or photos - a shot at both his income and his professional ego. Not a good mix for the temperamental and selfish Jameson. Spider-Man also rubs his inner-cynic wrong with the Good Samaritan act, because honestly, no one in New York is that noble and selfless anymore, get real. Spider-Man being no more than a long con would also be an excellent story, so Jameson wants to believe it.

Or how about the fact that Spider-Man, with his quips and mask, his adoring fans and his fun-loving sarcasm, is always going to have the upper hand with Jameson? And I think that’s probably the biggest reason - Jameson is an unlikable control-freak (even though I love Jameson, personally, he’s hilarious) and Spider-Man is something he has never been able to control. Spider-Man was hot news long before the Daily Bugle managed to start printing real stories about him, so Jameson lost his opportunity to color the vigilante in whatever role he wanted. His negative stories have had little to no effect on either the populace who adores the masked hero, or on Spider-Man himself, and that just galls Jameson. He rules his staff with an iron fist, a fearsome temper and copious threats - but on the occasion that he and Spider-Man actually interact face-to-face, his fear tactics and power moves are turned into lighthearted jokes at his own expense. As head of the Daily Bugle he’s used to having emergence amounts of power at his fingertips … and to lose all that to a whack-job in spandex gets to him like nothing else.

And finally, of course, there’s the fact that J. J. just likes to complain.

So what’s my point with all of this? My point is that Jameson may hate Spider-Man, yes, but he doesn’t actually hate Spider-Man. Jameson is a petty drama queen with a bone to pick, but he doesn’t have any genuinely malicious feelings for the web-head, no matter how much he may harp about it. And remember what I said about his bark being worse than his bite? Yes, he might gun for a stranger in a onesie … but I believe he’d be significantly less inclined to jeopardize the sweet, gawky high school/college kid who flirts (very, very badly) with his secretary.

I’m going to reference Spider-Man II for a moment. There are two scenes I want to talk about. The first is that moment when Doc Ock shows up at the Daily Bugle in order to find Peter. Clearly unstable and sporting metal tentacles that can do a ton of damage - this is not a man you want to antagonize. However, when said man grabs Jameson by the throat and lifts him off the ground, strangling him as he asks for Peter’s location, Jameson doesn’t even bat an eyelash before lying to his face, talking about how he’s never even met the kid, how he has no idea where he is - gesturing at Peter to run for it all the while. Despite the fact that simply pointing his finger would immediately have turned Dr. Octopus’ attention off of him, as well as the fact that the villain might just decide to kill him anyway if he doesn’t get what he wants, Jameson doesn’t hand over Peter. Jameson doesn’t even like Peter, really, but Peter’s a good kid so he protects him anyway.

The second scene is the one in his office, when Peter steals his suit back. Spider-Man has been AWOL for a while, crime is surging again, and Jameson quietly admits to Robbie that Spider-Man was a hero who was doing good in this world. All his previous, gleeful triumph gone, now solemn and wishing Spider-Man was back to protect New York once again.

While Jameson would normally throw Peter under whatever bus was rolling his way, while he would normally be more than happy to see Spider-Man disappear forever - when the rubber meets the road, Jameson is quite capable of putting his personal feelings aside and looking at the situation practically. J. J usually acts on whatever sour mood he’s in without thinking twice about it, but on the occasion that forces him to think, he’s rational and careful. And I believe that catching Peter pulling his mask is a situation he would think about first. And, eventually, come to the reluctant, grating conclusion to keep the information quiet.

Of course, after he got over his fuming and griping, he would quickly become aware of some fringe benefits. Like the fact that he’s literally Spider-Man’s boss, and can proceed to make him as miserable as possible.

It’s not hard to picture. His stories on the web-slinger quickly go from accusatory to utterly outlandish … and of course, he makes a point of discussing them while Parker’s in the room, so that he can sit back and giggle at the outraged expressions and delightful shades of purple climbing up the kid’s neck. Parker’s absences and general tardiness, once a mild irritant, are now Jameson’s fondest playground. “Parker! You’re ten minutes late, grab me a coffee - decaf, black - or I’m docking your pay. What, you’ve got a problem with the way I run my business? You wanna work from someone else, maybe? That’s what I thought. Be back in five or I’m having you take the trash out too.” And suddenly, Peter’s pictures aren’t any good either. The people are tired of the same generic Spidey shots, swinging on webs and punching villains. “You bring me something original, something fresh, Parker, or you’re fired.” Spider-Man’s poses slowly grow so absurd that New York starts to think Spider-Man is messing with the Daily Bugle on purpose. Maybe to get back at them for their horrible stories? New York is baffled, Peter is exhausted, and Jameson is utterly giddy.

Because, what would you know? Look’s like J. Jonah Jameson has conquered Spider-Man after all.

#frostbite883 #thanks for the ask!#marvel #spiderman #j. jonah jameson #analysis #sorry i know this got VERY long #probably a lot more than you were asking for #but i had a lot of fun with this #so thanks again!

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rocknvaughn · 6 years

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You should go to the psychiatrist if you are obsessed with an actor who doesn't know that you exist and really doesn't care. You are an adult who thinks that tv series or film is a reality, spends too much time on thinking about younger man who lives on different continent and will never talk to you on his free will, because fans of your kind are dangerous. My name is Kate and yours? You will not tell, because frankly you are as secretive as most of the people on internet.

Well, Kate, I would say that it is nice to meet you, but that would be impossible, since we’ve never met. (Not to mention a lie, because you’re kind of a b*tch.)

Which is why the verbal abuse you’ve been spouting at me is utter bullshit.

The fact of the matter is that you don’t know me. You only know the few things that you’ve gleaned about me from here and from Twitter, and even that information is faulty.

But wait...let’s put it all out here, so people can see just how lovely a person you really are:

So, let’s take all these accusations one at a time, shall we?

1. Are you insane? The answer to that would be, why no, no I’m not; thanks for asking.

2. Did you ever think why United Agents are ignoring your tweets to them? Actually, no, I haven’t wondered this at all. I’ve only directly tweeted to them a couple of times over the years, and at least half of those interactions were simply to inform them about people who were impersonating Colin online. I don’t bombard them with tweets; they have better things to do with their time, and frankly, so do I.

3. You are a psychofan/you should go to a psychiatrist... Well, that’s a hell of a statement to say to someone you’ve never met. And I assume you have some sort of degree that would qualify you to determine who does and who does not need psychiatric help? No? Didn’t think so... *eyeroll*

4. You are disrespectful/a liar. Disrespectful to whom? To Colin, who--by your own description--doesn’t know me and doesn’t care? To other people in the fandom? To people who are randomly abusive to me online? I’m afraid you’d need to be much more specific for that accusation to hold any weight.

5. You are acting like you know Colin, but you don’t and you never will. I have never, ever suggested that I know Colin, save for the thirty seconds where he signed my programme at stage door in 2013. I told him I thought the play was fantastic and he said, “Cheers, thanks a million!” and moved on. Did my amazing presence make an indelible impression on the Irishman in question? *snorts* Not hardly!

That being said, I am assuming this part of the tirade has to do with my remarks both here and on Twitter about Colin’s likelihood to attend Merlin-related Comic Cons or do stage door visits at the theatre when he appears at the National Theatre this summer.

While I obviously don’t know the man personally, there is some empirical evidence that I use to support my thoughts on the matter. I’ve explained those reasons already, so I don’t see any purpose to rehashing that here. But, for example, if you want to see for yourself how uncomfortable Colin tends to be at stage door, I suggest you search out some of the videos taken from when he was doing Mojo. Personally, those videos make me cringe.

6. Actors act, they are not the characters they play. Wow...thank you for pointing that out, because clearly, even at my advanced age, I had no idea what the word “actor” meant. /sarcasm

7. You are over forty years old, you are not a child. And your point is...? I’m not allowed to admire a person’s God-given talent or appreciate a handsome man’s looks because I am old and decrepit? You do realize that Colin is 32 years old, right? That means he’s not a child, either. In fact, he might just be closer to my age than he is to yours!

8. You are obsessed with an actor who doesn't know that you exist and really doesn't care. Wait...isn’t that the literal definition of being in a fandom? *eyeroll*

I relatively obsessively follow Colin’s career, yes that’s true. He does technically know I exist, as he’s actually met me, although I would never expect that he’d remember. I would hazard a guess that he cares about me insomuch as he appreciates his fans’ support, but nothing more. I don’t think I am “special” to him in any way, shape, or form, as you seem to be implying. I am firmly set in reality when it comes to that fact.

9. You are an adult who thinks that tv series or film is a reality. Another incredible accusation, seeing as we’ve never met. I’d like to know where you got this frankly mad idea, (actually, no I wouldn’t because I don’t care) as it is blatantly untrue. I am well aware of what is reality and what is not, although you are starting to make me wonder about your grip on it.

Also, you do know that some of the characters Colin has played were real life people, right? There’s this thing called research. I might suggest you do some before you go around randomly accusing people of insanity.

10. You spend too much time on thinking about younger man who lives on different continent and will never talk to you on his free will. Again with the ageism. What exactly is your problem with my age in comparison to Colin’s? You do realise that Colin attracts fans of all ages, genders, etc. because that is what happens when someone is a gifted artist.

Also, I was unaware that there was a formula somewhere that determined how much time devoted to a fandom was too much time. Please, enlighten me as to its whereabouts so that I may avail myself of its mystical powers! (

I have no idea whether Colin would ever speak to me of his own free will, seeing, as you so rightfully pointed out, we live on different continents. Nor do I have any particular interest in trying to make that happen as he has much better things to do than to talk to me. But my point here is: neither do you know what he would do, so STFU, if you please.

11. Fans of your kind are dangerous. Fans of what kind, exactly? What is it about me that are you terming dangerous: My interest in the man's projects and being willing to find and broadcast information about his career? My enjoyment of reading or writing the occasional fan fiction? My propensity for collecting memorabilia? My interest in his wardrobe? My steel trap of a mind that holds a multitude inconsequential Colin-related details? My willingness to travel to see his live performances whenever possible? My ability to determine and appreciate his physical attractiveness?

I think those things make me a curiousity at best, but not in the least bit dangerous. And if you actually knew me, this would be obvious.

In contrast, I don’t imagine that I have any sort of place in the man’s life. I don’t expect that I am special to him in any way. I don’t send him love letters or believe that “we are meant to be” or any of that hogwash. I haven’t tried to cut off a lock of his hair or follow him home. I don’t send him tonnes of presents, hoping he’ll notice me. And I don’t think that he owes me anything (besides his body of work) because I am his fan.

He is a grown man that has his own private life completely apart and separate from mine, and I have no illusions about that.

12. My name is Kate and yours? You will not tell, because frankly you are as secretive as most of the people on internet. First of all, there are reasons why people are secretive on the Internet...one of them being ignorant and rude people like you.

Secondly, if your name is actually Kate, then mine might as well be Rasputin...because it’s just that meaningless. You could have literally picked that name out of a hat, since you are just as anonymous as “Kate” as you were after your first anonymous bashing.

Obviously, you missed the point I was making in my last post, so let me be perfectly clear: it was that if you want to make rude, obnoxious, bullying comments about a person you don’t know, then come out with your screen name attached and OWN your statements. Let people see what kind of an arsehole you really are...but you won’t do that, will you?

Clearly, you have some sort of ax to grind with me. I’ve pissed you off in some way and you’ve decided to come at me like a coward by spamming my inbox with anonymous bashing. Apparently you expected me to be so ashamed that I would curl up, hide and just take the abuse. Well, good luck with that, because I have balls of solid steel and you can kiss my arse.

Your five minutes are up, and I don’t feed the trolls. Rockn out.

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natsubeatsrock · 6 years

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My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Nalu II

Consider this post an OVA. After three years of infrequent posts in this series, I’ve made 13 editions of the series, which, incidentally equates to the number of episodes in a seasonal anime. (And yes, that means the Naruto post all count as one post to me.) So, now that the series is over and I at least hope that someone is interested in seeing more actual analysis against Nalu from me, I’ve decided to bring back this for one more go around.

Keep in mind that the point of this series is that I have a really big post devoted to my thoughts on a subject that I’ll refer to so I never have to talk about it again. A lot of this has and involves analysis but, as the name should imply, it’s clearly and obviously biased. For the most part, I explain my biases but I don’t make it a habit to apologize for having them. If you’re unconvinced, there are plenty of people more popular than me for disagreeing with me.

This should go without saying but read “My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Nalu” before reading this if you haven’t already. I don’t think this post leans as heavily as many of my other series-type posts do. However, I think it’s important to have a basic idea of my thoughts on Nalu and its fandom before going into this post. Not to mention, it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever written for this blog, so...

You know, I'm not even sure if I wanted to do this. If you can't tell, I've been pretty chill about Nalu and very transparent about why. I feel as though I shouldn't have to make too many more posts about Nalu considering I don't see it as canon. I've been wanting to retire this series with the previous edition focusing on my favorite character for more than a year. And to be blunt, I wouldn't make this if it were just me talking about how canon Nalu isn't.

However, I've seen a few things that, even though I've addressed them in posts since the end, have pushed me close to the edge. The thing that really set me off has been a realization I, and other Fairy Tail analysts, have come in rewriting the series I already said in an earlier post. And trust me, I’ll get to that soon enough. (read: it’s close to the last thing I talk about)

But let's start with an easy one; I don't care about Twitter sketches. I don't mean that in the sense that I don't find enjoyment from seeing pictures Mashima puts on Twitter. Many are really good and one of the main reasons I got a Twitter was to see his tweets. I've reblogged tons of them, both original sketches and recolored versions and his original Stone Age comic is one of my favorite things he's done for the series.

I mean that in two other ways.

One: The sketches mean nothing to me in regards to if the ship makes sense or is canon.

The fact that Mashima draws Natsu and Lucy in XYZ situation means nothing about them actually being in XYZ situation in the actual series. After all, the series is over and the sketches have little if any bearing on the series. Your ship isn't canon because Mashima drew them for fun.

And I know someone is going to respond with something like, “You wouldn't feel that way if Mashima drew one of your ships.” You know, despite the fact that I said literally nothing about the Pocky Day sketches which involves Graylu.

So, I'll use an example of one of my low-key ships: Natsu and Mirajane. Earlier, Mashima did a drawing of Mirajane and Natsu building a snowman together. And this past Valentine’s Day, he drew Mirajane giving a gift with Natsu giving one for White Day. You know what that means about their romantic prospect to me? Nothing! As cool as it is that he did it, the Natsu x Mirajane ship is still as out there as it would have been otherwise. I ship Natsu with Lisanna over her sister for a reason.

Two: I don't care about the sketches enough to bring this kind of thing up every single time Mashima draws Natsu and Lucy in the same picture.

Everytime Mashima draws them together, someone comes into my inbox and tells me how stupid the Nalu fandom is for thinking that whatever wacky situation Mashima puts them in. Look, I've been in this fandom for long enough to know how this works: Mashima does literally anything Nalu related and it's praised as proof of Nalu as canon. This was always the case with even stupid developments in chapters. Now that those are gone, I'm not shocked the fandom moved to the only thing Mashima puts out for the series.

These exact same things are my thoughts on the Nalu/Gruvia kids from the NYCC trip. There are three quick differences I wanted to add.

I get that Mashima didn't draw other ship kids but that's only because he wasn't asked to.

The kids where a was waste of an opportunity to ask Mashima a question about the series, as thegreatrhapsode has proven with his list of 100 alternate questions.

(I also came up with another 80 or so on some papers I can’t seem to find, though many of mine are more about Mashima and his works than about Fairy Tail.)

As a fun warm-up for rewriting the series, I’ve been working on a scenario for them to exist and meet which will come out eventually. And, as I reiterate multiple times in said scenario, it’s only a hypothetical.

Now, despite talking about this in at least three prior posts, I want to talk about the Nalu ending.

IT'S NOT CANON!

There is no clear and established relationship canonically proven to exist between Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia. I can't believe that this is an issue for so many people. There was no confession. There was no kiss. Honestly, I don't even think Lucy thanking Natsu is or even should be considered romantic.

One of the annoying schools of thought surrounding this ending is that Natsu and Lucy are canon, but aren't in an explicitly romantic relationship. That they clearly love each other, but they wouldn't kiss or stuff because that would be out of character. I've even seen people say Natsu chickened out of a confession.

I'm sorry? Are we talking about the same Natsu? I don’t mean that in the sense that there aren’t times where aspects of characters aren’t up for debate. I mean that in the sense of “What convinced you that this was the right context for such a line of questioning?”

I don't think it's impossible for characters to be fearless and headstrong in some situations but timid and scared in another similar situation. I'm one of those people when it comes to performance versus public speaking. But Natsu hasn't been shown to be this kind of person when it comes to romance. Frankly speaking, romance isn't really an explored aspect of Natsu’s character. There are jokes about him and Lucy being a couple and Lisanna jokingly proposing to him, but that's not really grounds to believe he would be shy to confess to her. In a special edition magazine, it was even revealed that Natsu isn't even really interested in romance.

And then there's the other question from Comic-Con: Who do you think Natsu would end up with?

Again, this was a waste of a question. I know that sounds harsh and it’s a question that many people in the fandom may genuinely want to know. But was there literally anything more important that we could have gotten asked? Between two people, there’s a list of near 200 issues with Fairy Tail that were left unresolved at the end of the series. Even if it’s not about the plot hole ridden, contradictory, pseudo-success that Fairy Tail ended up becoming, you don’t want to know anything else about Hiro Mashima the person? I’ve read other works by him and I’d love to know more about Rave Master or Monster Soul or even the more recent Starbiter Satsuki.

That aside, as I said in the past, this was more conjecture than definite. This wasn’t, “Natsu will absolutely end up with Lucy later on in events after the end of the series”. If anything, this was “It’s most likely that, were the series to continue past the ending, Natsu might end up with the literal only female he could reasonably get away with forming a relationship with that isn’t Erza.” (I say even as I ship Natza. #multishipperprobz) He was later asked who Natsu would end up between Lucy and Lisanna and the answer was that it’s complicated. In other words, it’s not definitely in Lucy’s favor, as (and I only mention this because someone will inevitably bring this up if I don’t) it isn’t definitely in Lisanna’s favor.

But, let’s put all those actual facts aside for a bit and genuinely assume that the Nalu fandom is right about this. They’re not, but let’s assume they are. Mashima’s hilariously roundabout way of addressing the elephant in the room that is whether or not Natsu and Lucy are in a romantic relationship is outright confirmation that they are in fact a canon couple. I want you to consider how terrible this should actually be considered for the Nalu fandom.

Pretty much since I’ve been a fan of Fairy Tail, the expectation for Nalu was that they were definitely going to be canon in the series. There was near constant speculation of how and when this would happen. I even mentioned a few times Mashima could have made it canon if he wanted to when I broke down Nalu. The big one I remember, and one I even mentioned in that post, was when Natsu was coming back after the second time skip. This was right around when I started reading chapters of Fairy Tail weekly and actually seeing this made it seem like the fandom really cares about this ship happening.

Obviously, there was no confession at that time, obviously, that wasn’t the first time the fandom reacted in such a way and, obviously, the clamor for such a moment didn’t die down with time. There were plenty of instances where this thing would happen, pretty much up until the last chapter of Fairy Tail. Even going through old chapters of Fairy Tail, I can (only sort of) see where and when people who thought that Nalu was endgame would want a confession to be followed up.This was a big reason people were willing to put up with Fairy Tail despite knowing better. On top of all the terrible arguments used for defense of Nalu, the clear baseline assumption for a lot of it was obvious: “We [the people against Nalu] are all going to be proven wrong in the end”.

So, what does it say that the creator of the series comes out months after the last chapter and say that they end up becoming canon later on in events we don’t get to see? Shouldn’t that make the Nalu fandom seem mad? After 11 years worth of canon material, you couldn’t bother to give the fandom a proper, in-series ending?

In the last chapter, we got 5 pages devoted to Mashima’s Zervis AU, positive signs towards Elfgreen and even a shoutout to Kinabra (it’s probably not as bad as people might think), but Natsu or Lucy can’t even get a thought bubble alluding to their potential romantic feelings that “were totally obvious and you’re blind if you can’t see this”. Every other ship in the Big 4 got, at least, a step forward. Even if you want to argue that what we got from Gruvia or Jerza doesn’t matter considering the Century Quest is a serious step back, Nalu didn’t even make a step forward, to begin with. If anything, it took several steps backward.

This is an incredibly unfair comparison for multiple reasons, but let’s look at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist (or Brotherhood for you anime fans). One ship’s hilariously awkward statement near the end of the last chapter of the series before going on a long journey was definitely supposed taken to be a love confession. And, surprise surprise, it was actually taken to be a love confession in series. On the last page, there’s a picture of their family. (I don’t mention names because I’m trying to keep some mystery for those who don’t know.)

And, because I apparently need to beat this point into the ground, let's talk about Mashima’s plan for Nalu. I feel like I shouldn't have to make any more discussion about this. But I’ve seen someone who said that Mashima’s words on Nalu mean that his plan might be to make them canon later on. In a post a two months after the end of the series. So if you think I was jokingly making a stupid argument with that open letter, you're sorely mistaken.

First off, we found this out during the last arc of the series. There's no way he could have made Nalu any type of reasonable romantic development given that Natsu and Lucy weren't simultaneously conscious during the chapters the afterword in question came out. And if you want to go by what volumes were released around that time, the latest one in the main series had Natsu groping Lucy.

Again.

Keep in mind that assumes that there was enough for them to reasonably even end up in a romantic relationship with by the end of the arc anyway, which, of course, I don't think considering two months before, then I explained why Nalu was terrible in the prequel to this post. And of course, there was plenty of time for them to develop a romantic relationship in the five or six interactions they had in between then and the last chapter.

But consider that this is getting away from the main issue at hand: Mashima’s word on Nalu. He wasn't planning on writing them as a couple originally. And that isn’t just worried about how wasn’t planning on making more of the series past Phantom Lord. He said that their current relationship was somewhere between friends and lovers. That doesn't mean they'll go from friends to lovers. If anything, that means Natsu and Lucy have a relationship close to being siblings, where they care about each other a lot, but not in a romantic sense.

This is probably also a good time to beat my favorite dead horse again: “Natsu should (have) apologize(d).” Mashima is willing to admit that Natsu and Lucy have a really important relationship, to the point that his fans recognize that and want it to be romantic. Why would it make sense to cause a big break in that relationship, recognize that tension exists because of it, and do nothing about fixing it in any context? Now, consider how much of a failure this looks like when you're writing them as a close-knit relationship.

I’m sorry, how is this better than Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon or the Inuyasha ship, WatchMojo folks?

And none of this is even why I've decided to make this post. This is all just extra stuff I've had on my mind before and during the writing of other smaller posts about Nalu. Some of this even came up while I made this post. But those are all small fries compared to the thing that really tipped me off.

This past May, I started going through how I would rewrite Nalu. I figured that, since the ship wasn’t going to be canon anyway but was still popular, there had to be some way I could work them into a romantic relationship. While it was part of the reason I got into rewriting the series as a whole, I realized that I wasn’t going to get very far doing this well. Not because I didn’t like the ship in the original Fairy Tail. But because it would make no sense to put them together given their character arcs.

That’s right. Nalu works against the individual character arcs of Natsu and Lucy.

Look at it this way: if you’re going to focus on Lucy as a character, you should focus on her membership of Fairy Tail. That was her dream at the start of the series. If you're going to on Natsu as a character, you should focus on his search for Igneel. That was his dream at the start of the series.

You see the issue?

Now, this wouldn't be that big of an issue if this changed through the series to a point where they realize they want to be with each other. But in Tartaros arc, they double down on their individual goals. While Natsu’s dreams are dealt with later in that arc, the reason Lucy tracks the guilds whereabouts in the next arc is that she still wants to be with them.

I have more I want to say about how it was handled and how I'd fix it another post, but this is too important to leave for later. Not only was Nalu terribly undeveloped. Not only was it never meant to be canon. Not only is it not canon. Even if it was meant to happen, it would work against both of their supposed character motivations.

There are definitely more things I can talk about. For instance, there’s the double 180 the Nalu fandom pulled where the fandom agreed Natsu and Lucy are definitely in love and would have a kid, shifted to saying that romantic stuff like that would be OOC for them, and shifted into saying they’d have a potentially kinky physical romantic relationship within the span of a few months with no self-awareness whatsoever. But at the end of the day, what would be the point? You know, other than sharing my thoughts with the world? I mean, for all I or anyone else can say about how this ship utterly fails in multiple different aspects, people will still believe Nalu is amazing and canon. There's very little I or anyone else can actually do about it.

The Nalu master list is aesthetically nauseating, but it's more popular than the Nali one. Consider that my post about Nalu not being the original plan has only a fraction of the notes that other posts about that not being the right interpretation do. Many of the points I've torn apart regarding Natsu’s lack of apology are still being used as if they're totally fine. I’m willing to bet there are more posts about how Nalu is actually canon than there are likes/reblogs of my post about how Nalu isn’t canon. (For reference, the number is 12.)

This isn't a Nalu exclusive kind of thing considering I said similar things about Gruvia and Nali last year, but it's still annoying to see my least favorite thing in anime continue to be defended against all odds and reason. A while back, I even saw someone who made a chart about how much of Fairy Tail was pointing towards Nalu, as a teaser for a video they’re making. This series isn’t labeled “incredibly unpopular” for nothing.

I said this in an earlier post, but the anti-Nalu camp isn’t giving me much to enjoy either. I get it, I clearly still don’t like Nalu either. However, the way this fandom has been doing since the end of the series has been annoying. I get that the Nalu fandom is annoying, hypocritical and near unbelievable plenty of times. I’ve seen plenty of stupid with my own eyes and much of part 1 talks about my issues with the fandom. However, I’d love to learn more about why the actual ship fails for so many people then how so many people fail at convincing them.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ll stop finding things to talk about Nalu-wise. A while back, I saw someone make a post about when Lucy could have fallen for Natsu. Next week, a list of 13 Fairy Tail chapters where I think you should have given up on Nalu happening (11 chapters which are in the main series and two special chapters) will be posted in the anti-Nalu tag in response. While some are obvious picks like 416 and 545, a few are places where Mashima could have helped Nalu’s case be more airtight but didn’t.

One of the big first steps to my rewrite of Fairy Tail is how to reconcile the aforementioned “Nalu problem” and I have a few things I have to get to before that. And with the final season of Fairy Tail coming, my own rereading of the series, and more rewriting of the series, I’ll definitely come up with more incredibly unpopular thoughts on one of the most popular things in Fairy Tail.

In Conclusion:

Nalu is trash. It’s not canon, it shouldn’t have been canon and be aware of anyone who would be willing to argue otherwise.

#fairy tail #anti nalu #anti nalu fandom #nalusgonnanalu #i'm back and i'm pissed off #at EVERYONE!#for the record #this only took two weeks to write #i spent months working on FITAGAPEOInTP #and it's about the same length #also happy holidays!#while you're here #i did see the twitter pics #and guys #come on #the series is over

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fatbadjah · 6 years

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To those whom I’ve disappointed and to those to whom I am disappointing...

On Monday I demonstrated that common sense, good judgment, and I are not always the best friends. I learned about a social event that I was not involved in, and I felt hurt, left out, emotionally neglected and replied out of pain.

I hurt others in a moment of weakness, and for that, I apologize and ask forgiveness.

For me, one of the most iconic images of the 90s was a clip from Blind Melon’s “No Rain” video. In it, a little girl in a bee costume is ridiculed after a dance performance, and spends the song wandering the street…again facing derision and ridicule from strangers. Then, at one point in the song, she sees a gated field. In it, she sees others in bee costumes, dancing around. She pushes through the gate and joyously cavorts—having found “her” people.

I’ve come to define these moments of social connection “bee girl” moments. Most of us have them—especially in the furry fandom.

Like most, I was interested in anthropomorphic animals since I was a child. After reading The Wind in the Willows in third grade, I wanted to join that created family of Rat, Mole, Toad, and Badger. In the mid 80s, I saw Animalympics on HBO until I knew the songs by heart. Likewise, seeing Rock and Rule on the Movie Channel in early 1986 not only furthered my interest in anthropomorphics, but expanded my musical palate out a bit. I started collecting comic books in 1987, as quarter bins were bursting with remnants of the Black-And-White boom—many of which were anthropomorphic attempts to become the next TMNT. When I played role playing games or video games, I gravitated towards any animal-themed races, classes, or characters.

Frankly, I thought I was weird and the only one.

In December 1993, I saw a clip of an event called Confurence on the then-new Sci-Fi Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iodRjbBKB0k). For the first time, I knew that there were others out there like me…that I wasn’t alone.

Florida State University, like many universities in the early 90s, restricted their student Internet access to engineering and computer science students. If you weren’t in one of those disciplines, the assumption was that you didn’t need to access the Internet. Of course, once I’d seen the Internet, that didn’t stop me. I’d learned a little UNIX trick that allowed me to access a raw Telnet in 1992, but I didn’t know what USENET was until January of 1994, when FSU began selling Garnet accounts to students—a basic Internet account with Telnet, email, a few other early 90s goodies, and USENET access. One Friday night, as I was diving through the sea of alt and soc groups, I found one called alt.fan.furry. The group was buzzing about an event called “Confurence” which was happening that weekend in Orange County, California.

I had my “bee girl” moment. I soaked up every zine I could find. Alt.fan.furry was my new hangout. I had an account on Furrymuck and explored more.

I felt like I belonged somewhere. I made a trip in January 1995 to Confurence Six and soon connected with virtual friends.

I wanted to get more involved. I wanted to give back. I didn’t want to just be a passive fandom participant. I put my art out there—though I knew I would be mocked and ridiculed for my lack of skill (I was). I started the first openly gay furry zine, Ten Furcent, in 1995.I published a comic book, Milikardo Knights, in 1997. In 1999, when Ed Zolna’s Mailbox Books folded, I was one of several who tried to open a zine distribution business to fill the void—mine having been Bronzebear Media. And in 2001, I founded Florida’s first furry con, Furry Spring Break, which folded after an internal coup in late 2001 and became an event you may be familiar with today.

Yet while most (sane and rational) people would have denounced the fandom and moved on, if not taken up ranks with folks like the Burned Furs (whose ranks were pretty much filled with fandom failures who could not adapt to the growing and changing nature of the fandom and began pre-Trump cries of “take back our fandom!”) and becoming toxic and bitter fandom saboteurs, I stayed in to help how I could. I involved myself with the staff of events like Mephit Furmeet, Furry Weekend Atlanta, and Midwest Furfest.

In 2011, I took a break. I finally realized after a social breakdown that I was grinding metal and stepped away. I’d moved to North Carolina in the wake of the Great Recession, and I decided to focus on my career. Thus, for years, I was the guy at the Triangle Area Furries meets who stood off to the sides and only chatted with one or two trusted friends, as I licked my metaphorical wounds from the 90s and 00s.

But I never quit, I never left, I never got bitter, and I never tried to sabotage the fandom. For me, furry fandom was my family. You don’t abandon family because of a few toxic relatives. Like the odd cousin at the family gathering, I just stepped away a bit because the obnoxious aunts and uncles had finally taken their toll.

In 2015, I finally got some forward motion on my career and returned to fandom activities, with MFF 15 being my first con back since 2010. In the summer of 2016, I thought about the fact that there were no cons or large “destination” events in or around Raleigh, in spite of the large community. I talked to an old friend, and in early July 2016, Tarpaw Furmeet was born. We staged a “practice” event in November 2016, which then gave way to events that grew in May and October of 2017. As they grew, we eventually had a staff, with whom I started to bond. People were friendly to me at the Triangle Area Furries events and actually started to talk to me.

I actually thought that I was “in,” but got blindsided by my social eagerness, as several of you now know.

To really get this, you need to understand a little of my history and romp through some trauma baggage. I was in a family with two emotionally abusive parents. I not only heard the constant barrage of how I was “not good enough” from both, but during their divorce, each specialized their skills by projecting their spousal loathing onto my brother and I.

My mother played the diehard Christian card, completely modernizing the “spare the rod, spoil the child” concept by making my brother and I draft up “contracts” that opened with “PAIN + FEAR = RESPECT” then laid out multiple violation clauses. Usually, the clauses in these contracts varied by my mother’s mood and often had a bad habit of doing so when she’d had a bad day at work.

My father, meanwhile, decided to simply deploy a forever-scarring tactical nuke on a school morning in early 1981. As my mother was helping my brother and I dress, my father came downstairs, looked at us all and said simply “bye guys, have a nice life” before walking out the door. We knew our parents were divorcing, so my brother and I spent five minutes trying to persuade him to stay—and by “persuade” I meant that my mother held one sibling while the other sibling laid behind the tires of Dad’s Corvette, then swapped places when she would pull the other one from behind the tires. A few hours later, when I had a hysterical breakdown in my third grade classroom, neither my teacher nor principal believed me. I was sent to the office, and the principal called my father’s office to follow up on the “lie.” Upon calling my father’s office, I was told that he’d flown to Acapulco to holiday with the women he was (then) leaving my mother for. My mother at least intervened to back up the “have a nice life” story, because I had to go home since I was a basket case. Dad came back tanned and whored, and acted like nothing had happened—not even an apology.

Since then, I’ve had a nagging fear of abandonment and all purpose fear of letting people get control over me. I’ve tried to address it by simply not letting people connect to me emotionally and living a life of fierce self-sufficiency. I’ve heard “aloof” pushed on to me so many times in my life, I’d have assumed it was my name if I didn’t know better. After all, I figure, everyone leaves me eventually…so why attach to them? Likewise, my other coping mechanism is to just quit when things turned bad—a trend in my early relationships. Imagine that Kermit/Dark Kermit meme: “Things going bad in the relationship… Bail on them before they get to bail on you!” I tried to not quit a spiraling situation once. I made the mistake of entrenching on Furry Spring Break when the coup’s instigator began to get out of control in mid-2001 and fought suicidal urges for most of 2002 once I’d been ousted.

I’ve been used to being left out of things. It was the hallmark of my adolescence. When it wasn’t a point-blank, mean girls style rejection (no seriously, I got “you cant sit here” in the school lunchroom), the reasons were a bit softer on the blow. “Sorry, we just didn’t think you were interested” or “Sorry but there just wasn’t enough room for you” were the popular go-tos.

Once, when I was fourteen, I let my guards down. My father went to the “country club” church in Flint Michigan, First Pres—the one where the shi shi white people went to escape the lower classes. One afternoon, I got a call from one of the students in “the Pipe,” their Wednesday night youth group. “Hey, can you come to the meeting tonight? We’d love to have you there!”

I was beyond elated. Someone called me to come out. They wanted me out there.Me, worthless, stupid me. When my father got home from work, I told him in no uncertain terms that I had to go to church that night, for the Pipe. When I got there, people were friendly towards me. Then the meeting started. Eventually, one of the leaders came out playing “Sasha Cashachek,” a taunting (yet Christian) Russian femme fatale (it was 1986. Russians and Iranians were stock bad guys then) who was gloating that the Pipe wouldn’t make their ski trip. Eventually, we stopped for snacks, and a few people came up to me during the break.

“So we know you like to ski, and we’ve got a big weekend ski trip scheduled to (some shi shi place I can’t remember) in a month, but we need a few more people to help pay for it! Want to come?”

I told them that I’d already booked with my high school ski club on a trip to Killington, Vermont, and my dad was tapped.

“Oh.” No one talked to me as soon as I’d announced that. Not even a “goodbye” when I left.

Remember that scene in “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie learns that Little Orphan Annie’s important “secret message” was nothing more than an Ovaltine ad? I got the 80s church group version of it.

When I said no to the ski trip, I went back to either being invisible in that church group every Sunday (I never went to another Wednesday night meeting), or I existed only when I wore or did something worthy of social mockery. I never got an invite back to the Pipe.… After that, I shut down. I stopped trying.

Given that I’d taken to emotional avoidance since late childhood, I was used to it. I took jobs in college that kept me working Friday and Saturday nights, so I didn’t have to worry about feeling slighted from collegiate social events, and I always had an excuse when people felt crazy enough to ask me to do something. And as an adult, I became a hermit who spent most weekends alone, playing video games or working. I never kept friends because I didn’t think friends wanted to keep me around. I feel emotionally uncomfortable when people press me into social conversation…unless I’ve been drinking or that weird cluster of neurons has fired that say “we can trust this person Lighten up, badger.”

But I thought that things were going differently in the Triangle. I felt my guards dropping. I didn’t feel that “fuck! Fly now! Flee, fatass! Get small or invisible!” reflex when I talked to people.

So on January 1, 2018, I became aware of a New Years party via Twitter. I saw friends names. I saw friends pictures. And I didn’t even know about it. In a split second, I was caught off guard.

And I felt stupid. I felt like I’d been left out. Knowing that people there were talking about con plans, I had fears of another Furry Spring Break style coup. But most importantly I felt worthless, like I did in childhood and adolescence because I wasn’t good enough to get invited. I felt like I’d made inroads, that people liked me and wanted me around, and I felt foolish for letting my guards down. It was like finding out that the people at the Pipe only wanted me there to make a ski trip happen, and threw me aside as soon as I couldn’t help them do it.

So I made a nudging reply that my invitation must have been lost. I later vented because I felt like all I was good for was making the con happen. Then the messages started piling in…

“No one owes you anything!”

And they were right.

And that was my mistake. I own that. No one has to be my friend, and no one owes me a damned thing. I had thought that because we had bonded as a staff, because we had broken meals together at staff meetings, that I was more important than I was in the collective zeitgeist —namely, that I’d finally gone from beyond being the “creepy” guy to someone that people actually wanted to know and interact with. Again, my mistake.

As our event has grown, I’ve been mulling over the #FurryOver30 hashtag from Twitter—the reaction to an ageist movement that suggested that anyone over 30 should leave furry fandom. As of 2017, I’d been a formal part of the fandom for almost 24 years, and at 45 years old, I’d more than outlived my socially-decreed “time” by the claimants standards. Likewise, as I was pulling locals together to build this event, I remembered a friend telling me recently that I’d been described to him as “creepy” by at least one local furry in the early ‘10’s, before I stepped forward to begin building things. Despite groups in fandom who told me I didn’t belong, I actually felt like I did here—like I wasn’t just “buying” my way in by making a convention happen in the area.

I had gotten a little comfortable and let my guards down. I had thought that I’d had my “Bee Girl” moment and found my community, and that being excluded from the party was a harsh reality check. So I got angry on Twitter. I apologize for any assumptions made, and I assure folks that I’ll maintain my social distance as I keep looking for my “bee girl” moment elsewhere in the fandom.

For four days now, the people I've hurt told me how I disappointed them. That happens a lot, believe me. Just ask my parents for the last fourty-five years, so it's nothing new. If this is your first time, I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm not always going to be able to be the unflappable badger, or an unmoveable rock. I'm broken. I've been broken most of my life, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm on my way to being whole. Only to be reminded of just how very far I have to go. I'm not convinced I'll ever be whole? But I'm going to keep trying. And I'm hoping to keep trying with the those around me.

Once again, I apologize.

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commander-damneron · 7 years

Text

Okay, everyone, there's a couple of posts I've seen going round lately about how hand kissing is The Most Romantic Thing, and every time I've seen one it's reminded me of this, but I didn't want to add to those posts because they're not entirely wrong and frankly, this deserves it's own post, so buckle in because boy howdy do I have a story for y'all.

So, like most great stories, it's comic con. This, however, is not my usual con tale of accidently crashing into semi-famous people, nor small children looking on in wonder as they notice Captain America walking down the street, nor is it the one glorious story about Jehovah's witnesses and the adventure zone I will probably make a post about one of these days.

It's possibly also worth noting that this is the first con I've been at where I've had any sort of self esteem about my general appearance. That's not particularly important, but it may have played some part in this and also I'm proud of myself for it.

So myself and my flatmate have been there for a few hours already, we've seen most of the stalls, and at this point we're just killing time til a panel I want to see. Exactly no one has recognised either of our cosplays and my props are starting to fall apart. All in all, a regular con experience.

What does this have to do with the hand kissing posts? We're getting there.

So we're just walking across the hall. It's pretty packed, with most people going in the opposite way; enough that we can't move entirely freely, not so many that we're thinking coming this way was a mistake.

And then a guy going the other way stops. Right in front of us. And stares at me.

I am fairly dreadful with remembering people sometimes, so when he says hi I just assume I must know him from somewhere. Usually I'd go all in with the "oh hi how are you" when I assume that so they don't think I have no idea who they are (thanks anxiety), but like I said, confidence was at an all time high that day, and the staring really was a bit unnerving, and even when I can't place someone I can usually figure out if they look familiar, which this guy absolutely didn't, so instead what I say is closer to "hi? Who...?" in an attempt to get him to say where he knows me from so I can go "oh of course it's been ages" and we can all move on to a less awkward time in our lives.

He does not say how we know each other. He goes to start explaining his cosplay, which I cut off with "no, no, I got that". It's not from a show I watch, but it was quite big a few years back and I have enough background knowledge to recognise it. At which point my brain is doing about 50 things at once, most of which revolve around "If he's not explaining how you know each other, maybe you don't know him and this is just a really weird interaction with a total stranger", "What if he's someone you know really well and that's why he didn't think you'd be asking who he is", and "how the fuck do we get out of this situation?"

At this point, it registers that he's holding out his right hand like he wants me to shake it. This may seem like a long time to take to notice this, but in reality, it's only been maybe 20 seconds at most, and I've spent most if that looking at his face to see if I can recognise him (I don't) and looking for an escape route (there isn't one).

So I do the only thing that seems like it'll help. I think "guess we don't know each other and he's going for a polite, if weird, introduction", and I take his hand.

He was not aiming for a handshake. What he, a presumably total stranger, does, in front of me, god, my flatmate, and god knows how many people packed into a convention hall in Glasgow, is drops to one knee and kisses my hand.

At this point, my mind whites out for a minute because what the actual fuck??? I'll never know what his follow up plan for that was, because all that I can remember going through my mind is "wtf wtf wtf" and the vague knowledge that I have 2 instinctive responses to this: a) escape, or b) if escape not possible, hit him with the big stick you're carrying.

Apparently, I was able to go with option a and thus saved myself from being kicked out for assault. I was so much on autopilot at this point that I have exactly no memory of this, but I'm told that the crowd, having presumably noticed what's going on and how completely weirded out by this I look, parted like the red sea and I more or less ran for it.

The next thing I know we're on the other side of the hall and I'm staring at my hand still going "wtf wtf wtf", mostly in my head, occasionally out loud.

So this has been a very long story only tangentially related to the posts that inspired it, hence making it a different post instead of piling all of this onto some poor innocent post that didn't need any of this, but here's the point of it:

Yes, hand kissing is absolutely high romance, and it can be sweet and gorgeous. But, and this is a very important but, you probably shouldn't do it to complete strangers, and if you do you should at least make sure they're not visibly confused/creeped out. Because if they are, you are not being romantic. You're being super weird, possibly gross, and giving them a story they will absolutely tell to everyone they meet for the next month

Tl;dr: random guy kissed my hand at a con, it was super weird, and hand kissing, like many other things, is only peak romance with consent

#story time #i just really needed to get this story out there into the world #bc it was honestly just so so weird #tho in hindsight since i was dressed as my inquisitor it's now given me some brilliant headcanons #that may or may not revolve around random orlesians and one certain very confused marcher mage

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theonyxpath · 7 years

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This is the blog post I never, ever, expected to have to write.

My friend, Stewart Wieck, co-founder of White Wolf Magazine and White Wolf Game Studio, creator of Mage: The Ascension, and founder of Nocturnal Media, was finishing a light session of fencing last Thursday when he was struck down by a heart attack and died.

Even writing the above, putting it into cold black and white words, just rips me apart.

And frankly, that list up there of his accomplishments doesn’t even touch on the reality of the man, of his grace and kindness. It doesn’t speak of passion for writing, and creating, and learning. Of his dry wit and his silly side.

Most of all, it doesn’t speak of the sort of man who can decide that he was going to create in a field he loved, tabletop RPGs (back when we just called them RPGs, as there were no others), and made it happen step by step while inspiring others to come to his side and storm the walls of heaven.

Or the TSR castle at Gen Con, for those of you who remember that!

This looks suspiciously like Stew in a Gen Con ballroom.

I was one of those people, and in 1986, I sent in art in response to an ad Stew posted in Dragon Magazine looking for illustrators for his upstart White Wolf Magazine. We shared a love of comic books, genre fiction, and RPGs, but were really little alike. Except we both kept our commitments. I delivered the art, issue by issue as the circulation increased, and once Stew saw that I was going to do that with the same quality and regularity as he put forth in getting the writing in and the magazine out, he handed over the art direction duties to me as well.

We had a bad spot when a marketing guy Stew had begun working with to propel the magazine into what was supposed to be a huge increase in circulation ran out with all the ad payments. I thought the magazine was over. But Stew went back to every advertiser and somehow convinced them to pay again so that the issue could be printed. I couldn’t have done it, but that was Stewart Wieck – he could explain what needed to happen, and he was so sincere and so obviously a good guy, that people would jump in to help.

Without the magazine, Stew wouldn’t have been working closely with Lion Rampant when they were looking for a CEO to keep them rolling. I remember him calling and asking whether I thought he should accept their offer. I thought it was a no-brainer as he had “just graduated college, and a game company wants you to be their CEO? If you keep them afloat, you’re a hero – if you can’t, then nobody could have”.

Stew went one step better, though, and became a partner with Mark Rein*Hagen instead of just the CEO. Oh, and part of the deal was to change the company name to White Wolf Game Studio. Also, Mark had this interesting idea for an RPG: something to do with playing a vampire…

Stewart and Mark in Stew’s office at WW.

Now, I say that kind of lightly, but the reality is that without Stewart adding both his creative talents (vampires being descended from Cain is just one of his contributions) and his head for business, it is entirely possible that Vampire: The Masquerade would never have been published. And beyond that, his wit and grace and patience provided a center to the WW creative team – a calm in the center of a storm of egos, passions, and crazed creative impulses that could have torn the young company apart.

For years, Stew had the idea that I needed to come down to Atlanta and art direct the company, and for years I let him know that I would need a real salary that we both knew just wasn’t possible. I had a little girl I was raising by myself, and was working a full-time job, and teaching, and doing freelance work, of which WW was my biggest client.

In December of 1991, he called me up, and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Rich, we can do it. Vampire is huge, we are reprinting it as fast as it is selling out, and next year it’s time to bring you down here.”

Which was great, except, like I said, I was raising my little girl by myself, I had a house and dogs, and all of my support systems were where we were. As well as a girlfriend that I had been dating for only a month. To put it bluntly, I was scared shitless. But I trusted Stewart Wieck. He had never let me down. He told me it would be OK.

We were in ATL and I was in charge of all WW visuals and production in May of ’92.

Keith Winkler, Stew, Ken Cliffe and his chest, Steve Wieck, and me at a WW company retreat.

White Wolf grew, exploded really, and Stew was not just riding herd on all of the expanding crew, he was creating the third game in the World of Darkness, Mage: The Ascension. A game where you change the world by exerting your will and beliefs upon it. Go figure that’s what this guy would come up with.

With three wildly successful games powering the company, and his equally creative and business-savvy brother Steve brought on as CEO, Stewart decided to pursue his dream of WW also being a fiction publishing house. New fiction work for our RPG lines, and also new experimental offerings that might not have been published by the mainstream houses. And my favorite part, republishing the giants that he and I had read so avidly in our early years. Fritz Liebers’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, the legendary Harlan Ellison, and the ultimate delight of working with Michael Moorcock and republishing his Eternal Champion novels, including the legendary Elric. Also known as the White Wolf. We had come full circle.

Always, it was Stew who made the deals possible. Stew who juggled what could be done with what needed to be done, and who any of us could go to for a calming talk when things got too crazy. I certainly did!

But nothing lasts forever. Working with writers took up time for writing. And if anybody deserved a chance to recover their personal Muse, it was Stew. He was still connected to WW and working on projects, still always, always, available to talk over phone or email (we would have loved Skype then), but he stepped back from the day to day struggles.

Until, several years ago, he was back! Back with Nocturnal Media, a new company he founded. We immediately went in together on buying the Scarred Lands property from CCP as we had both helped create it back in the day and wanted to team-up again like we had done so many times. And the Stew who could pull publishing deals together returned as well, as both older creators and younger became part of Nocturnal‘s creative circle.

This year at Gen Con, he and I were looking forward to sharing our booth space, our respective companies shoulder to shoulder, he and I shoulder to shoulder once again.

But it was not to be.

Over the years, Stew and I exchanged so many messages. Emails and letters and packages. But most importantly, for years and years he’d send me a message on the anniversary of my first wife’s death, just to let me know he remembered. He always signed them, “Your friend, Stewart Wieck”.

Goodbye, my friend.

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

Dark Eras 2 goes live Thursday, July 6th at noon Eastern US time! Once again, help us decide on which Eras and which game-lines should fill up this Prestige Edition book!

ON SALE!

ON AMAZON:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina (Vampire: The Requiem Elizabethan London 1593). We have shared the world with monsters for millennia. In Elizabeth’s London, vampires built their own empire brick by bloody brick while Elizabeth I cemented her grip on newly Protestant England. Carefully balancing demands from those with Catholic and Lutheran sympathies, she forged a police state. Yet London emerged as a thriving cultural center, and from the crucible emerged a Kindred society forever changed.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions Wednesday on DTRPG!

What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing. There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: To The Strongest (Mage Death of Alexander 330-320 BCE). In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great’s Empire, armies marched and cultures clashed. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Awakened sorcerers all over the ancient world met, fought, and joined together. In the chaos of Alexander’s assassination and the wars that followed, Cults became Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day.

http://ift.tt/2tmTVl6

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness (Changeling and Geist China 220-280). Famine weakens the empire, and war splits it apart. It is an age of ambition and strife, where the hungry dead walk the earth in great numbers, and the Lost must rely on their own kingdoms. Warlords and commoners, ghost-speakers and orphans — who truly serves the Mandate of Heaven?

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rp8hPL

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Wolf and the Raven (Werewolf and Geist Vikings 700-1100). The Viking expansion across Europe comes at a pivotal time in history, as new faiths rose to challenge the old and new ways threatened to sweep ancient tradition aside. The Forsaken sail with raiders and explorers, seeking new lands to claim and new spirits to conquer, while Sin-Eaters walk the battlefields bringing the honored dead to their final rewards. The world grows larger and more dangerous by the day, but there are great rewards for those brave enough to fight for them.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rUjKtX

Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams is on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats on DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2snBT0X

We dream, and we tell stories. We dream of love and the sort of person who might complete us. We dream of horror and wake breathless. We dream of magic, of flying through the air, or breathing underwater. We dream of fantastic vistas and amazing monsters.

We dream, and then we wake, and we tell stories. Our dreams create the Kithain, the changelings. Our stories are sustenance.

Now on DTRPG, the EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart PDF/PoD jumps up for sale!

http://ift.tt/2qdriZU

Once, in the time before the gods forgot their names, when the world was flat and floated on a sea of chaos, there was an age of gleaming cities, untamed wilderness, enlightened devils, greedy spirits, and mighty heroes. This was the age of the Exalted, champions empowered by the highest of gods.

Tomb of Dreams will jumpstart your group’s Exalted game—all you need to start playing Exalted Third Edition is this book, pencils, and 10-sided dice. Included here are the game’s core rules, five pregenerated characters, and a self-contained scenario that can start a new campaign or that Storytellers can use in an ongoing chronicle. And for groups that already have the Exalted Third Edition main rulebook, Tomb of Dreams will serve as an introduction for new players and a quick reference during play—anyone intimidated by that prodigious volume need only read Part 1 of this book to get started.

What legends will they tell of your deeds?

Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF is now on sale on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pX42dq

Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.

Dark Ages Companion includes:

• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.

• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.

• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.

• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.

Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2qXQH9f and in ebook form on Amazon: http://ift.tt/2qpQM2V !

The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….

The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.

The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a broken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.

The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pygIL7

The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.

Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.

CONVENTIONS! Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

WW Manuscript Approval:

Editing:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Indexing:

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook

Cavaliers of Mars

Wraith 20

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Storypath Brochure

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Sketches coming in.

Beast PG – AD’d and contracted.

VtR Half Damned – getting artists lined up

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

M20 Art Book – In progress…

Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting

Gen Con Stuff – 2017 Brochure and 2017 Storypath Brochure

C20 Jumpstart

Proofing

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology

At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Pugmire – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Pugmire Screen – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Pugmire Cards & Dice – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Printing.

Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.

Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.

V20 Dark Ages Companion – PoD proofs coming.

BtP Building a Legend – Files uploaded and processing.

Monarchies of Mau Early Access – PoD proofs ordered.

Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina – PDF and PoD on sale this Wednesday on DTRPG.

Dark Eras: Lily Sabre and Thorn – PoD files uploading.

M20 Book of Secrets – Errata ending this week.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Advance PDF on sales on DTRPG, gathering errata.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: To absent friends.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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