#I'm still reeling this issue is AMAZINGGGGG | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

toasterthievery · 4 months

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I READ MERE APPENDIX AND I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT IT

The real gravity of Professor Honeycutt's situation doesn't get explored too often since everyone has bigger things to worry about when they're bring chased by Triceratons, and the identity crisis that goes down in this issue is just heartbreaking and really a sight to behold since he tends to get so little focus. It says a lot about him as a character in the best way possible.

Something that I really like is that time has passed since the accident that cost him his humanity in the first place, but that it's something that still affects him deeply. It's something he's come to terms with on a surface level so that he can continue to function day to day, but it weighs on him heavily.

You can feel his horror the moment when he realizes he never installed the component that would allow for a real transfer. He states later in this issue that he's been asking himself for years whether he's really Honeycutt or not, but speculation and evidence are two different things and his worst fear looks to be coming true.

And the idea that Fugitoid does not equal Honeycutt is pervasive. It comes up again and again, making it impossible for him to ignore. Even small things, like his voice recognition software not recognizing him, keeps him at arm's length from the "real" Professor Honeycutt. It's so uncomfortable, like a constant ache, to not be recognizable as the person you are in any capacity.

To wonder if your existence is even a scientific possibility.

And I know he's dealing with the damage he sustained at the beginning of the issue, but it obviously goes deeper than that and everything is being exacerbated by it since he's been experiencing hallucinations and memory loss. It makes it kind of all come at him at once in a way that's impossible to deal with and brings all that pain fresh into his mind.

It makes him feel less human than ever, which is a hard pill to swallow. This side by side panel (that hurts me immensely) is just a great illustration of the identity problems that he's dealing with.

He's reaching his limit and there's nothing that can really be done to fix his situation. It's a really cool thing to see Honeycutt's thoughts and feelings that haven't been filtered through the viewpoint of the turtles, and to see how acutely he feels the shockwave of everything that's happened to him. Where does the line lie between man and machine? How can he say with certainty that he's a real person when he's so familiar with the technology that caused the accident?

The part right after this has my FAVORITE set of panels in this entire thing.

It's very ironic that in having this crisis, he's proving he's more than just an unthinking object, but that's hard to see when everything is coming crashing down. I genuinely can't express enough how much I love that that he's reached this low where he can't think of himself as real, and because of that, it's fine if he simply takes himself apart until it's not a problem anymore. And in a way, it's easier for him to see himself that way because machines can be fixed; they don't deal with the messy, nonlinear recovery that real people have to face.

THIS IS BRILLIANT and I'm in love with the ship of Theseus dilemma that's at play here.

Even though Honeycutt comes out of it all right...there is still no easy solution for him, and the rock and hard place he finds himself wedged between won't give so easily. His struggles are fascinating and compelling, and getting to see them so up close and personal was a serious treat. Actually one of my favorite comics I've ever read. I'm never going to be normal again.

#GO READ MERE APPENDIX #Tales of the TMNT issue 54 #I'm still reeling this issue is AMAZINGGGGG #it shall live forevermore in my heart and soul #thanks unscapedgoat for pointing me to this comic #not me rambling on about this thing but AHHHHHHHHHH #tmnt mirage #fugitoid #tmnt #zayton honeycutt

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