#The star of the bug comic I did
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Local Man Uses The Cyclical 27-Year Torment Nexus To Try And Change His Fate [EPIC FAIL COMPILATION]
You probably guessed that this is the time-travel post I've been slaving over. You'd be right. This is the newest and most formal iteration of my long-standing time loop theory (I have drafted flowcharts back from February that actually predicted a dimension/time fuckery event in 1943 in relation to Brenner, which was made canon by TFS). So...Let's just dive right in.
Note: I'm planning to keep calling TFS Henry "Henry" here just for simplicity's sake.
Now, fair warning: There are a few big "bear with me"s in this post. I promise they make sense, I just need you to hear me out.
It all started with Henry's self-proclaimed superhero name: The Stardust Spider.
Some of you may have seen my original post about The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars (here).
Before anyone says "Oh, but that album didn't exist yet", a reference in 1959 about a Bowie album that wouldn't be recorded until November of 1971 is in keeping with TFS's habit of directly referencing things from the '70s that "don't exist yet".
However, all that aside, there's a specific piece I want to return to, because it bugs the living daylights out of me.
There was a cut song that was meant to go on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars titled "Shadow Man":
For obvious reasons in relation to Henry in The First Shadow, this song already stuck out.
Specifically, though, these few stanzas hit me weirdly:
You should call and see who answers
For he promises to come running
Guided by the truth
For the Shadow Man is really You
Look in his eyes and see your reflection
Look to the stars and see his eyes
He'll show you tomorrow, he'll show you the sorrows
Of what you did today
You can call him foe, you can call him friend
You should call and see who answers (see who answers)
For he knows your eyes are drawn to the road ahead
And the Shadow man is waiting 'round the bend ('round the bend)
Shadow man is waiting up ahead
The Shadow Man is you from the future. He's waiting up ahead to show you the the truth/the consequences of your actions.
Considering that the TFS version of Young "Henry" has a direct connection to both the Shadow and Dimension X from a young age, and he also experiences what seem to be Vecna-type visions, this becomes particularly interesting to me...Especially seeing as said fates are not only possible for future "Henry", but also canon for future "Henry". (See: Vecna guy vs Mindflayer guy)
So, when I see an almost comical number of lines in TFS relating to rewriting known, undesirable endings (here are a few of my favorites):
And when we revisit some of the on-film classics:
I start to think it's time we revisit the concept of time-travel and trying to change your own fate.
It's always hard to know where to start with posts like these, so I'm going to kick things off with the technical aspect: The Cycle.
Something I've talked about in the past year, mostly on Discord, is this concept of a time loop. Not just any old time loop, though. A 27 year cycle, specifically.
Not 20, not 30...
Now, we all know the TFS timeline is messy as hell and doesn't actually align with anything that's possible in filmed canon...or within its own time span, even.
For example, the attack on Mr. Newby happens both some point after October 1st, 1959 and before November 20th, 1959...but the papers for the incident report it on March 20th, 1958:
The timeline we're given also largely fabricated, as I pointed out in relation to the newspapers with dates that don't actually exist.
However, much like NINA, the sequence itself being fake doesn't mean the events didn't happen. It's just not happening in the time frame we're told it's happening in:
It's a set of real events, just portrayed on a different time scale.
So, with all that in mind, I want to lay out a timeline, starting from Season 4 and moving backwards in time:
— Vecna opens the rifts, and El opens a gate to Dimension X in NINA, both in 1986.
The March 1959 Creel Murders occur exactly 27 years before the Rifts and NINA's Dimension X gate open in 1986...at which point the Mindflayer is shown to be active.
— Mothergate opens through to Dimension X at some point between November 1983 and October 1984, this being somewhere between 16-28 months prior the Rifts opening.
The paper about the attack on Mr. Newby, dated March 20th, 1958, is released exactly 610 days, or 20 months, prior to the Creel murders on November 20th, 1959.
It's not necessarily the exact dates that are important here (again, these dates are relatively unreliable), but the gap between the dates.
When put in accordance with filmed dates (i.e. setting the release of this paper exactly 610 days prior to March 22nd of 1959), the paper for the attack on Mr. Newby would have been released on July 20th, 1957. This would be in line with Edward Creel's move to Hawkins in the spring of 1957...while also occurring 27 years before July of 1984, at which point Mothergate is open, and the Mindflayer is active.
This July date is especially funny to me considering we get "throwaway" lines like this...with shots in filmed canon from summertime:
Top: Joyce and Jim beginning their investigation into the attic attack. Hopper Sr. is questioning why Joyce and Jim are investigating, rather than attending school.
Bottom: Alice and Henry with the rabbit death scenes in filmed canon, the setting showing full foliage and both children in summer clothing.
"Is it summer break?" I don't know. You tell me, Chief.
Per TFS, Henry went missing in a cave system near his home town of Rachel, Nevada (hold that thought) at some point in the year prior to the attack on Mr. Newby. We've been told that Dimension X was involved in this event in Nevada, something happened there that left "Henry" altered physically. He was also flayed at some point around this time.
This all coincides with Henry's dramatic mood shift from a "normal and good" boy to one suffering from Mindflayer-induced psychosis. This change happened in tandem with the Nevada incident, dating back 10 months prior to the attack on Mr. Newby:
If we set Henry's initial disappearance in line with filmed canon like before, it becomes September of 1956, which is just over 27 years before Will's disappearance in November of 1983, at which point we know at least one gate is open.
We also have 1952, at which point TFS Henry would be 7 per his age as a 14 year old/freshman in play canon. This exists in a 27 year interval against 1979, when El opens the original gate that sends One to Dimension X, where he subsequently shapes the Shadow into the Mindflayer.
Here comes the first "hear me out".
My questions are:
Since Henry/Vecna/The Mindflayer/etc. in general don't show any capability for opening gates before 1986, then how the hell is the Mindflayer possessing anyone in 1959?
How did "Henry" get involved with Dimension X in Nevada in the 1950s?
Unless, by some chance:
Dimension X exists all the time simultaneously (i.e. it's a space outside time)
The gates exist simultaneously across time and space in the Right Side Up in 27 year intervals. By which I mean: A gate that opens in, say, 1983 would exist simultaneously in 1956, so on an so forth.
There's the disappearance of Captain Brenner and the USS Eldridge in 1943, which would, interestingly enough, align with 1970, the supposed year of El's conception.
Then, 1952. Now, I'm not sure what's special about 1952, when TFS "Henry" was 7, because they don't actually say what happened to make that year important! They make a point to show it to us, though, meaning something happened...we just don't know what. All I can say is that 1952 does exist in a 27 year interval against El's 1979 gate. Hold that thought.
Those addressed, let's fast-forward 4 years: 1956/1983.
Now, to be fair, there is some uncertainty in my mind about whether this specific gate incident stems from Brenner's involvement with Project Rainbow in Nevada pre-1957*, or if it stems from Mothergate in 1983, or if they created some kind of wormhole between the two locations 27 years apart...but that's a concept I need to explore more thoroughly in a another post.
In short, though: Did a singular El open a singular Mothergate? Did El open mothergate? Did Mothergate actually open on November 6th, 1983...or are we just supposed to assume it opened the same night Will went missing/the demogorgon came through? We're never given a concrete date for when Mothergate actually opened.
* In TFS, Brenner claims he's dedicated his life post-1943 to Project Rainbow with the goal of finding Dimension X, and that he's doing so in pursuit of knowledge regarding the circumstances of his father's death in connection with the Philadelphia Experiment. The USS Eldridge, Brenner Sr.'s ship, disappeared into Dimension X briefly on October 28th, 1943. "Brenner Sr." was the sole survivor. "He" returned to the Right Side Up with a completely unique blood type, supposedly altered by his travels into Dimension X. This is what ultimately led to him succumbing to his injuries, due to his body rejecting all forms of blood transfusion.
Brenner Jr. tells us that about 10 months prior to Henry's first stay in HNL, a scientist from Project Rainbow escaped Brenner's lab carrying a container of a dangerous material, and ended up near the same Nevada cave system Henry disappeared into. We don't know how or when this material was collected, or what it was, but we know they found Henry's Captain Midnight spyglass next to a body (identity unspecified) with no trace of that dangerous material. We get no further detail about the Nevada Disappearance.
Anyway, someone opens a gate in the fall of 1956 and/or 1983 (my money's on it being directly linked to an El in 1983 either way). No matter who did it, though, someone opened a gate at both time points, showing us this 27 year link between the 2 dates, 2 key locations.
"Henry" goes missing in Nevada in 1956, and ends up involved with Dimension X...Which aligns with the choice of song surrounding this version of the Creel family while they move into their new home:
Coincidentally, 27 years in the future, so does Will, in Indiana. Their experiences are linked across those two spaces via that 27 year period.
We know that regardless of the gate in Nevada...Mothergate, at least, stays open until from fall 1956/1983 to fall 1957/1984. That covers exact time frame that the adjusted dates for both Henry's accident with the boy in Nevada and his accident with Mr. Newby fall in (as well as Will's time between his disappearance and his flaying).
The closer we get to Will's flaying in 1984, and the closer the Mindflayer gets to crossing through Mothergate, the more TFS Henry sounds like One (post-1979) while he's possessed in 1957, the more strangely he behaves in general (almost as though the Mindflayer is more enmeshed in his everyday life/closer to the surface), and the stronger the possession attempts seem to become overall. He begins giving nightmare visions to other people, namely tormenting Virginia with spiders and her past. He has his final and most powerful "Vecna" vision on the night of the attack on Mr. Newby.
Any kind of reciprocal gate irt Mothergate in the '50s would have gone unnoticed, since the papers in TFS indicate that HNL wasn't established until Brenner showed up to take Henry in.
Mothergate closes briefly, only for a gate to open in July 1958/1985 in the underground location of the future Starcourt Mall. This, in 1958, is during our unaccounted-for 20 months between the attack on Mr. Newby and the Creel murders. (Something rattles about this and the scene where Henry nearly makes full contact with the Mindflayer, when he has a handful of duplicate lines re: his 4.07 monologue self, but I don't have sufficient evidence to make that claim with any certainty.)
That gate closes, until Vecna opens gates in Hawkins in March of 1986, and El opens a Dimension X gate briefly and simultaneously in both Hawkins/Nevada in September of 1979 (September of 1952) and Hawkins/Nevada in March of 1986 (March of 1959) during NINA, concurrently...at least one of which may have gone unnoticed, since the Rainbow Room and the surrounding labs seems to have been abandoned entirely after 1979, and HNL as a whole has once again been abandoned after the events of 1984 ("unnoticed" and "abandoned", I say as if the building isn't still being surveilled by Brenner/Owens et. al...I just mean that the building isn't in use by the government at that point in time.)
We're shown the Shadow activating all the way in Russia due to one or multiple of these events. 27 years earlier, in March of 1959, the Mindflayer once again becomes active, per TFS's adjusted dates. Chaos ensues.
At this point, "Henry" starts swapping between sounding like his young self and sounding like his 4.07 Monologuing Adult self again, doing that kind of "I've seen the future" foreshadowing talk with Joyce that his visions did with him:
Here, he also sounds distinctly like ST3 flayed Billy, specifically in the way of the scene with El in the cabin when "Billy" outlines the Mindflayer's plans for her, her friends, and all of Hawkins while crying.
The rest is, well...history. Whatever fuckery went on, it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. After all, TFS is a "canon event", meaning it had to end the way it did.
Remember those thoughts I asked you to hold?
TFS being a "canon event" means it had to end with Henry in the lab alongside baby El...thus completing our loop, which starts again with the events of 1979/1952. A 27 year loop. TFS may be indicative of a time loop.
Hence:
Out of place dates from the 1970s start to bleed into the 1950s:
- A town like Rachel, Nevada, which wasn't established until 1978, now exists circa 1952-1959 after El opens a gate to Dimension X circa 1979 in Nevada circa 1986 via NINA, which exists...about 40-50 miles from Rachel.
- An album like Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (November, 1971) or a song like "Chuck E's In Love" (April, 1979) gets referenced circa 1957-1959.
- An article about a "younger, more handsome" alien clone of Elvis appears in a 1959 Weekly Watcher paper about the Creel murders, despite Elvis having been 24 at the time...making this an article more likely to have appeared in the '70s or later, likely sometime around Elvis' death in 1977.
2. The Shadow is always depicted as the fully formed Mindflayer circa 1956-1959, despite the shaping event happening in the 4 years between 1979-1983:
3. Henry has Vecna-type visions, despite being the only vision-giver we know of circa 1957-1959.
4. 6 different guys later in the HNL massacre: 2 with the original baby El, 2 with teen El via NINA, and 2 in an as-of-yet unseen product of NINA's Loop (see: the final scene of TFS).
All this laid out, some questions remain:
Why do Henry's visions show him the genuine, terrifying reality of his future?
Why are these visions generally lacking in coercion?
Why are Vecna chime sounds heard before the major supernatural events that deal with visions, even though we never actually see the clock?
(They're heard before Virginia in the attic, before the attack on Mr. Newby, before the Creel murders, and in the basement when Henry monologues at Joyce while viewing the corpses of his family.)
Why don't these chimes play when the Mindflayer alone is present, e.g. when no visions occur?
(See: Henry contacting the Mindflayer in the lab)
And we don't really get an answer to any of these. Not an easily spotted outright answer, anyway.
But what's really fascinating, which I mentioned just a second ago and takes me back to the top of this post, back to the "Stardust Spider" and Shadow Man, is the fact that despite occurring concurrently with the possession attempts...none of these visions contain an ultimatum. There's no "If you don't obey me, I'll hurt someone you love", no "I'm showing you what's going to happen if you don't obey me", nothing of the sort.
The closest we get to coercion is the bathroom vision, when Henry fights off a possession attempt in the school bathroom and ends up in a vision regarding Patty.
When "Patty" starts to talk to him about his future, about how Henry's going to kill her and so many others, Henry says "you're not Patty...what are you?"
Then he gets into a physical brawl with her, which is surprisingly well matched. Vision Patty encourages him during that fight, saying things like "That's it!", "We want the same thing!", and "We can have her!"
Those seem like pretty straightforward "the Mindflayer's encouraging Henry to kill" encouragements, right?
Yeah, at first glance. However...lets read that back right quick, but with Moral Objectivity Goggles on this time.
Henry openly, verbally identifies that Vision Patty is "not her, not Patty", but is, in fact, something else.
He does this multiple times before he lunges at "not Patty", and he is subsequently encouraged by not-Patty...who tells him they want the same thing.
That's not suspicious at all. The motives here are definitely crystal clear and totally aren't conflicting in any way.
There's the straightforward surface aspect, and then something else piggybacking on it, complicating it. Hold that thought.
Other than that instance, the negative parts of Henry's visions are all just...information. They're showing him what will come to pass...almost like they're motivating him to fight the Mindflayer. Hold onto that thought too, it buddies with the previous one.
Henry's freaking out about Prancer because he's getting close with Patty, and he's worried he'll hurt her?
His vision informs him that he's going to kill more, that he's going to hurt things, that he's going to kill Patty if he stays around her and/or gives into the Mindflayer's desires.
And then it happens. All of it.
He kills more animals. He hurts things and people, the pets and lab animals, Mr. Newby, and Inmate 58361 being prime examples. He gives in to the Mindflayer's desire to kill and kills Virginia. He does, by the extent of his perception, kill Patty in the accident.
The same goes for his vision in the attic. Henry's up in the attic using his powers to find someone/snoop on them, fearful of opening himself up for a possession attempt?
The vision version of Patty's mother catches Henry and tells him she "wants to tell him a secret" while his body is being puppeted to attack Mr. Newby. The next time the curtain rises to show us the inside of Henry's mind, he's seeing himself as Vecna, strung up on the tentacles and strangling people with them...just like the end of Season 4.
Once again, he's seeing the future that will come to pass...should he fail to fight the Mindflayer off.
We can tell it's a vision, not what's physically happening in reality, because:
a) Henry's watching himself in the attic from the stage below.
b) It's got the messed up red lighting
c) They show us reality just moments before, not a tentacle in sight and without Henry on the stage there observing:
d) The ending of the vision doesn't match with reality:
At the end of this vision, Henry passes out both in the void and IRL, while the vision version of Henry remains crouching. That is a different guy, entirely separate from IRL/Void Henry. There is at least one other person in the visions who is not a product of the vision itself.
Remember those thoughts from a bit ago that I asked you to hold?
Well. This also happens to be the sequence where we not only get Vision-Patty repeating Henry's own words from just after Prancer's death ("It's not real. It's not real. It's a nightmare") back to him, a phrase IRL Patty has never heard, but we also get:
Visions Patty telling Henry how to fight and evade the possession, as if she knows what she's doing ("It's your dream, remember? Anything is possible").
Vision Patty telling Henry she loves him as the last-ditch effort when his "good dream" memory of the real Patty fails to save him from the possession.
These are both things IRL Patty wouldn't know or think to say, since IRL Patty fully believed that Henry attacked her of his own volition out of malice, and she needed to be shown a drawing of the Mindflayer by Mr. Newby in order to abandon that belief.
IRL Patty's behavior is not the behavior of someone who a) knows the ins and outs of Henry's situation with the Mindflayer, and b) coached him through overcoming a possession attempt a little while earlier. It's just not.
Just like before, we're seeing contradictions and complications between vision-selves and IRL selves, along with a sense of piggybacking within possession attempts, wherein the vision serves as motivation for Henry to fight harder in resistance to the Mindflayer...while the Mindflayer is possessing him.
It's starting to become my favorite thing in the world: A pattern of behavior.
In summary:
Henry's are visions are visions of his future, and they're being shown to him by someone.
They are separate from, but piggybacking on, the Mindflayer's possession attempts.
The purpose of the visions isn't solely to torment Henry or coerce him into doing the Mindflayer's bidding. In fact, the content of the visions seems curated to make Henry fight harder in resistance to the Mindflayer.
So if, for example, Vision Patty ≠ IRL Patty, but she's acting against the Mindflayer's best interest/in support of Henry...then...
I think my answer to the questions of "who", "when", and "how" should be at least somewhat clear by this point:
Someone...from the future.
Specifically, someone from 1979-1986 who has access to the gates from the Dimension X side, someone with both vision-giving and time-related abilities who's directly connected to the Mindflayer/the Hive Mind, but who has a vested interest in countering the Mindflayer, saving Henry Creel, and trying to change the course of the future.
A traitor. A spy, if you will.
"A spy...from the future?"
[gestures at the Signs] Yeah, you heard me.
A spy from the future.
So, on that note: The point in this section wherein I ask you to hear me out.
I get the feeling TFS Henry is being told and/or shown what will come to pass in the future by himself...the Mindflayer.
And you're probably going "How do you figure that one, James? Isn't the Mindflayer a villainous force?"
I mean, yeah. Of course it is. However...
There are clearly multiple forces at play within the Mindflayer (hive mind!), and TFS shows us that Henry Creel wouldn't choose to be a villain.
Thus I think the visions in TFS are situations where, as in the 4.07 rabbit scene, things look really damning on first view. They play on our empathy using small, visibly-frightened, helpless victims and shocking, violent circumstances to guide us into making the assumption that everything about the situation is inherently malicious.
We're shown this poor little guy, "Henry". He's 14 years old, he clocks in at 5'5", he's skittish/scared of (ha) his own shadow, and he's geeky to the nth degree about comic books (just LOOK at that Captain Midnight salute? What an cute little nerd). He's immediately lovable. He's also, we find out rather abruptly, plagued by horrific visions and murderous fits of possession.
The immediate response is to go "He's being psionically tortured by some sick, sadistic son of a bitch who hungers for nothing but blood and control", just like Nancy and the ST fandom collectively did with Young Henry's rabbit scene...only to be proven wrong about Henry's intentions via TFS.
I mean, does anyone (anyone who's able to read this post, anyway 🤭) look at TFS Henry, filmed Young Henry, or even Orderly Henry and go "Yeah. He totally wanted what he got, and if he had the chance, he definitely wouldn't try to save himself from that fate"?
No.
TFS Shows us that "Henry" was a terrified, traumatized boy who wanted it all to stop. He's kind, brave, and stronger than he seems. We're also shown that he's capable of overcoming the Mindflayer to issue warnings to people he cared about (i.e. telling people to run, or prophesying dangers he'd seen via the visions). He was trying to survive with next to no help while causing as little harm as possible. He was a good kid, and he certainly wasn't evil.
So, all that said...I think that, via the Shadow's hive-mind capabilities, Henry's "fronting", in a manner of speaking, in order to show this version of himself the future. Probably as a warning, probably as motivation to fight the Mindflayer, and all with a nice side-dish of "here's how you fight this thing off so that my current future doesn't become our future" before someone else tapes over the figurative laptop camera.
[coughs, drops this Brenner-Mindflayer collage on the table in front of you, and then scurries away]
With that said, I'd like to loop all the way back to the top of this post: The "Shadow Man" may be Henry from the future. He's waiting up ahead to show his younger self the true outcome of his choices.
We all know how TFS ends, though. Hence:
[EPIC FAIL COMPILATION]
This brings me to my final "bear with me" point: The matter of the strange double-agent vibes from the UD in every season.
I'm not sure if anyone else outside the unholycule has noticed this, but in every season there's at least one instance of the UD just...offering up information.
"It does?"
Yup! Let me explain.
On first glance, we look at things like Nancy's vision and even El's vision with Billy in the cabin, and we go "Oh, it's because [insert "the bad guy's cruel/he wants to scare her/his hubris will be his downfall/all serial killers want to be known for their crimes" etc here]"...but maybe that's not the case.
For example: Vecna told Nancy his backstory, and then he immediately went
"Oh hey, so not only am I revealing my identity (Which may help you find out more about me via lab records later on, things like...maybe a list of my abilities, or my weaknesses, like the fact that I have a nut allegry. Allegedly.), but I'm also gonna give you a sneak peek of my apocalypse plans.
For free. As a treat. Don't use these to prepare or anything. I'm totally not giving you a head start".
Terrifying, yes. A taunt and a threat on surface view, yes...but also showing his hand. "I want you to tell Eleven everything you see" Why. Why would he want that. He may be confident in his plans, arrogant, even...but he's not that stupid.
I'm serious, though. Check it out in comparison to Henrys visions of the future. The pattern is patterning:
We can track that back to El's cabin scene with Billy, wherein he tells her she shouldn't have looked for him, warns her that they all can see her, and that they're going to be coming after her...and he cries about it. That's vision Billy. That's someone else who piggybacked into El's mind from Billy's mind. That's not real Billy, just like how Billy in Max's vision wasn't the real Billy. The person giving El that vision warns her. Why on earth would he tell her that they can see her, that they're coming for her? That's sensitive information! It would be smarter to let her think she's safe and use that false sense of security to catch her off guard.
In fact, this pattern patterns so well that I'd like to argue this: Henry's TFS visions, Nancy's vision, and El's vision are all the same type of behavior displayed in NINA's chess scene, just in different contexts.
Henry ("Henry") gives some kind of scary prophetic information ("He and the others are going to attempt to kill you", "I would very much like to show you where I am going", "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"), and then we're left to question if it's a scare tactic, manipulative misinformation, or helpful inside information.
It's not that the Mindflayer or Vecna can't hide things from people (see: "Somewhere he didn't want me to see")...like, say, the fact that the Mindflayer is now able to see El, or that Vecna's planning to open 4 gates with his 4 kills.
It's always this miraculous "Huh! Weird info-dropping behavior from the UD's side. Shouldn't look that gift-horse in the mouth though. It's probably just a writing oversight or a shoehorned exposé, so really there's no need to question it." situation where it's just...information that's offered up with no real explanation.
Some of my favorite examples:
...and it's all topped off with Max's line:
"He's been telling us his plan this whole time".
That is to say...You're telling me:
The first message from the Upside Down isn't any of the messages that are concretely Will's, but instead it's the one that's a repetitive Henry line...and it's conveyed in a distinctly not-Will style? A message that saves Joyce, something that's definitely not in the UD's best interest given her tenacity in finding her boy...but is definitely coming from the UD nonetheless?
Will, who fell total prey to the Mindflayer in less than 3 days, was not only able to figure out how to defeat the Mindflayer, but was also strong enough to convey it in Morse code? The Mindflayer, who is able to keep secrets (see below), just...let that information slip?
El, who acknowledges that the Mindflayer is more than able to hide things from her, is suddenly released into Billy's memories and allowed to find the source unimpeded?
The Mindflayer, as Billy (Remember: not actually Billy, because Billy can't give visions or invade minds), is telling El that because he's able to see her now, she shouldn't have looked for him? The Mindflayer, which was supposedly building the Fleshflayer to track El down and kill her?
Suddenly he's telling her she shouldn't have done the thing that allowed him to find her more easily?
Vecna's giving up all the information about himself and his plans before he's even gotten the 4th gate open, despite him being so secretive about it up until that point?
Henry's visions in TFS are going to scare him into resisting the Mindflayer, making it less likely that he's going to upgrade to killing humans, i.e. the very thing the Mindflayer wants him to do?
None of that makes any damn sense...until we hit this last point:
Orderly Henry is known for giving inside information about "Papa" to El with no clear motive other than getting her to leave the lab.
Now, if you know my page then you know Em's been talking about double meanings in phrasing recently (see: this post about "who"s and "what"s).
So, with that in mind, I'd like you to chew on this:
"He's been telling us his plan this whole time."
vs
"He's been telling us His plan this whole time."
By which I mean: "He's been telling us some other man's plan this whole time."
[Mike voice] Superspy.
As a parting thought, I made it all into a nice, neat set of collages:
Not to mention this final, parting bit:
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Hi there! I’m someone who’s been following you for Star Wars for a while but I’ve become really interested in your DC comics posting recently, and I was wondering - since the franchise has been going for so long and has so many instalments - what you would say to someone who wants to start reading these comics/watching the shows/movies but doesn’t know where to start? Have a lot of the comics been retconned? Is there a particular order one has to read in? Where does one even find these comics…?
My interest in this franchise was literally sparked by the Jason Todd telephone poll so I’m definitely interested in reading more about him - he seems like a character I’d like - and the rest of like, the… Batfamily, I think they’re called? I just have no idea where to start lol - my knowledge of DC is limited to seeing bits of Teen Titans GO when I walked past my little brother watching TV, and watching the Lego Batman movie with him xD
Also! If I’m correct, after observing the fandom, Talia seems like an interesting, complex female character (with some bad writing), like Padmé or Bo-Katan? I always love those kinds of characters, just wondering if I’d got the right impression of her.
Hi! You've got a solid idea of things so far, so hopefully, this shouldn't be too hard of a climb to get used to the structure! And I'll do my best to explain the structure of comics without getting too lost in the weeds about it. 😂
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW:
In my view, comics aren't meant to be a single coherent whole and it's helpful to drop that idea before you get started because otherwise you'll drive yourself around the bend in a fruitless attempt to make everything line up neatly, when it just never will. There is no one single "true" version of the characters, there is no one single creator who is the highest authority on a character, no matter who created the character or even who is most famous for writing them, these are shared characters being written and drawn by a multitude of authors and artists who all have varying takes on them. The characters should stay true to a core personality and traits, but the flexibility of an author to write a character differently from the last person who wrote them is a feature not a bug imo.
I like to think of comics as stories being told by different authors playing with action figures and we're in the audience enjoying these stories, regardless of how some authors fit really well together and others completely clash with each other. You can try to make them mesh (sometimes that's fun!) or you can just shrug your shoulders and pick what you like out of the pile of comics that have been handed to you (you'll probably drive yourself less over the edge this way!). Jason is particularly difficult on this aspect, because he often doesn't have a regular book to be written in and his overall place/point in the Batman comics is murky at best somedays and so he is wildly different from author to author. I personally enjoy this, because I think it works for Jason as a character who has some core beliefs, but also is kind of a mess who doesn't really know what he wants, so he veers wildly from one reaction to another.
You can read comics in a variety of ways, but I genuinely do not recommend trying to read "in order" because it's a nightmare to try to keep track of everything once it's been a few years and the numbering of these series is the most confusing thing you'll ever meet. Instead, I think it's better to focus on picking up trades (collections of comics that originally came out in single issues, but are put together in a single volume that tells the whole story of that particular run) that sound interesting or come recommended. (And, honestly, it's not even satisfying even if you did do all the work to read them in order. Throw out the idea that comics have a coherent timeline, because they do NOT.)
CONTINUITIES AND DIFFERENT ERAS:
The ONLY context I think you need (other than a general sense of the Batfam, we'll get there in a minute) is to understand that there are sort of four "continuities" that you're likely to run into, and this is EXTREMELY simplified/streamlined, so nerds don't come for me on this unless you have a better streamlined and simple version. 😂
- Anything published before 1985-1986 is all "Pre-Crisis" and while reading a lot of the older comics can be super fun, they're generally not super relevant to current comics
- In 1985-1986, there was a comics event (an event is where multiple different comic books are all written to be part of a bigger storyline, whereas normally, they don't cross over that much, each book usually has its own self-contained storylines) called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (which is different from "Infinite Crisis") that was basically a way for DC to streamline all the different versions of the characters running around into one manageable universe. This ran up until about 2011 and I'll often refer to it as the "preboot" or "post-Crisis" continuity. (This is where Jason's death happened, in the storyline "A Death in the Family".)
- In 2011, DC wanted to reboot their entire universe with an event called "Flashpoint", with the purpose of creating an all new lineup of 52 comics that new readers could jump right into, which isn't a bad idea in theory. The problem was that people were really attached to the preboot versions of the characters, a lot of the Nu52 comics were really badly written, and there was almost no collaboration. You expect a certain amount of contradiction just by the nature of comics, but there were major issues with "nobody is talking to each other, so everything is a giant mess".
- In 2016, for a variety of reasons (probably including that sales for Nu52 had dipped back down pretty far again), DC rebooted their universe again, with "Rebirth", which is the continuity we're in now. I'm still catching up (I left when Nu52 happened) but I think a lot of preboot events are leaking back into the continuity, but that's not the same as saying it's equal to the preboot continuity in total. This is also the era that I generally talk about the most because I've found it genuinely the most engaging to get back into!
Generally, as long as you understand those four eras of continuity, I think you'll be fine in understanding how things are put together. If you want to know where something falls, just check the date and that'll tell you! But, honestly, yeah, background details change all the time, so even within a single continuity there will be retcons--just that there are MASSIVE differences in the Nu52 era that might confuse you if you're unaware of the reboot shenanigans. (Or if you want to understand how Jason returned--like, preboot continuity has the explanation that Superboy Prime (don't ask) punched reality so hard that it shook Jason back to life, even if they never found out about it, that's what happened. I think Nu52 said Talia dug him up and put him in the Lazarus Pit? Don't quote me on that. I flamed out hard on Nu52. Rebirth continuity, they have no idea what the hell happened and I'm not sure there's an explanation. I just assume the Reality Punch leaked back in or something.)
SO, LIKE, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THESE CHARACTERS?
AS SHORT AS I CAN MAKE IT:
- Bruce Wayne witnesses his parents being murdered in front of him and this traumatizes him so badly that he withdraws from life to obsess over it, eventually travelling the world for several years to learn every kind of skill he can, until he comes back to Gotham at, like 22 years old or whatever and becomes Batman to fight crime. The only rails on this ride is his butler Alfred who basically raises him from the time he's eight and Alfred is working MIRACLES here, but there's only so much even he can do. He is absolutely Bruce's father figure, even if they rarely frame it in those terms, because Thomas Wayne (Bruce's father) is such an important figure in their lives and because Alfred is extremely British.
- Bruce is Batman for a few years, usually depicted as being super grimdark because he's shut his heart against loving anyone ever again because the pain is too much. But then one night he's at a circus performance and there's a terrible "accident" where a little 9 year old boy (shhhh we ignore any other versions than that he was nine, dammit, it's important for the thematic parallels!) witnesses his world-class aerialists parents falling to their deaths. Dick Grayson's grief and loss spark something in Bruce and he takes on this grieving, angry, brilliant little boy as his ward. Now, not even God can stop Dick Grayson, who is going to get justice for his parents' murder, so eventually Bruce reveals that he's Batman and Dick basically barges his way into creating his sidekick persona, Robin. Bruce is not a fan of this, but seriously. He couldn't have stopped that kid, he tried. He could only put a leash on him. Dick brings light and joy back to Wayne Manor and they have the most fascinating relationship--they're father & son, they're brothers, they're best friends, they understand each other like no one else does, they fight like no one else in that family does, they love each other, they're so angry at each other, they're co-dependent and absolutely batshit about each other, they basically raise each other from the time Dick came to Wayne Manor.
- Dick eventually grows up and starts clashing with Bruce more, especially as he gains his independence. Different versions happen differently in different continuities, but eventually it hits a boiling point and either Bruce fires him as Robin or Dick quits because he can't deal with this. He goes off to become Nightwing, while Bruce eventually meets another kid who (in the most common version) tries to steal the Batmobile's tires because he needs the money. Circumstances happen, Bruce eventually ends up adopting Jason Todd, who becomes the next Robin. Things are relatively stable for awhile, until Jason learns about his birth mother and runs off to try to reconnect with her, except the Joker's got his sticky fingers all up in this situation, and it results in Jason dying in the exploding building.
- Bruce is Not Doing Well after this, so in comes our favorite horrible little stalker gremlin Tim Drake, who hunts down Dick Grayson and says, hey, you gotta become Robin again because Batman's going to get himself killed if you don't. Dick is like, no, I fucking do not. Tim responds with, well, guess I gotta do it myself then and basically barges his way into being the next Robin. He bonds with Dick as a brother (who is far and way Tim's favorite, imo), he does his best to be as good of a Robin as he can be.
- Things are better after that, they're fairly well into Batfamily territory by this point. Jason comes back and, originally, it was supposed to be a trick, it was a villain pretending to be him, but was later retconned to actually be Jason who came back and... it's complicated. I don't think they really knew what to do with him once he came back, so he kind of ping-pongs around with varying levels of villainy for awhile.
- Then we get to the time around Batman R.I.P. where a lot of shit happens all at once, especially for Tim. Bruce dies fighting a Justice League villain, Tim also has his bio-dad die around this time, his relationship with his ex-girlfriend/good friend is kind of going to shit, the boy he's in love with (not canon at the time, but current day storylines basically confirm it was true) also died and it wrecked Tim, like he lost his MIND over Conner Kent's death, there's this annoying little shit Damian Wayne who has showed up as the bio-son of Bruce, and then suddenly Bruce also dies. And Dick has to become Batman because Gotham needs Batman and he's in mourning and dealing with Jason being back and everything OFF THE RAILS as various people are like, "No, I'M going to be Batman now!" and Dick has to shut all that shit down and take up the mantle himself despite that he doesn't want it AND deal with Damian being an emotionally traumatized 11 year old baby assassin who has been abused into being a killer his entire life (I mean, it's comics, don't take it too seriously) and he needs something to hold onto or he's going to leave and go back to killing, so Dick and Alfred give the Robin mantle to Damian, which pisses Tim off because he's not doing well and sees it as a betrayal (while Dick was asking for his help as an ally, that he was ready to graduate to being more than just Batman's sidekick) because he's lost so much.
- So we have Dick & Damian as Batman & Robin (THIS ERA WAS SO GOOD), Tim as Red Robin (fandom way overplays Tim and Dick's tension, they come back together after their dramatic few months), and eventually they find Bruce who was lost in the time stream (don't ask) and then, WHAM, Nu52 happens.
But basically, that's the Robins timeline. I'm skipping over Steph's turn as Robin because it was so short and it was clearly set up just to knock her down, as well as not touching on Cass much because this is long enough as it is and I'm trying to circle back to focusing on Jason-friendly stuff.
WHERE TO START:
Ask a dozen different people where to start and you'll get a dozen different answers! I think starting anywhere is fine and it's going to depend on what you like--for example, I'm personally not that into the animated DC movies (not enough of my Blorbo) but "Batman: Under the Red Hood" is generally very well-regarded as an updated version of Jason's return and is nicely self-contained if you want to watch it without much other context.
I also think watching the Justice League animated series from 2001 is fantastic if you want a funny, charismatic, streamlined adaptation of what the Justice League is like. (Batman: The Animated Series was groundbreaking at the time and a really good adaptation, but very dated by this point in time, so I hesitate to recommend it too much, even though it's beloved to me.)
The Wayne Family Adventures is an absolutely adorable, delightful webtoon adaptation that is very light-hearted compared to the mainline comics! I like recommending it to new fans because I think it's super easy to start reading without too much extraneous context and gives you an idea of the characters' relationships to each other, so long as you understand that it is EXTREMELY soft and is much in the vein of LEGO Batman content--you're not supposed to take it super seriously, there are times it's deliberately crossing into something like parody territory, but that doesn't mean it's not genuinely funny, charming, and a great read.
@fantastic-nonsense has an incredibly thorough list of recommendations for comics by character here, and you can scroll down to the Jason Todd section and start reading there! Or you can check out the "A STARTING POINT: BATMAN IN OTHER MEDIA" section because I pretty much 100% agree with everything she says about the various adaptations. I like recommending "Young Justice" as an introduction to DC, so long as you understand that it's a loose adaptation and that the team compositions and various relationships are not always going to be accurate to comics dynamics.
I have my own comics recs tag, but I'm more Dick-focused, so your mileage is going to vary on how useful you might find my recs! But basically, you can't go wrong with starting with "A Death in the Family", then "Under the Red Hood" (movie then comics) and "Red Hood: The Lost Days". Basically, anything by Judd Winick has a good chance of being a solid read for him. It's hard to recommend Jason comics, because so many of them are either not great or require knowledge of the events that are going on around the same time--but, honestly, once you're familiar with the set-up, I do think you can pick up almost any trade and pick up context along the way.
I personally also loved "Robins: Being Robin" series, because all five of the Robins working to solve a case together and being unhinged weirdos at each other is my jam. (But I like pretty much anything Tim Seely writes!) I also always recommend the 2016 Nightwing series because Dick is my Blorbo, but I also think "Robin & Batman" by Jeff Lemire is a fantastic story to understand who baby Dick Grayson is and his relationship with Bruce, and both "The Long Halloween" and "Dark Victory" are some of the best Batman comics I've ever read, but they can be tough to get through if you don't like Tim Sale's very stylized art.
WHERE TO FIND THESE THINGS TO READ?
The movies and animated series should be on HBOMax and/or Netflix, and comics I always recommend hitting up your library to see what they have--so many libraries have a ton of comics available, especially digitally! And, if you have a library card, it's very possible that your library partners with Hoopla, where they have a ton of Batman comics!
You can also check out DC Universe, which has almost all DC comics if you get a subscription.
TL;DR:
If you want bigger context on how all this stuff works, start with either "Justice League" or "Young Justice", they're really cute, fun adaptations.
If you want to get straight to the Jason stuff, start with "A Death in the Family" --> "Under the Red Hood" --> "Red Hood: The Lost Days" --> "Batman: Urban Legends vol. 1".
(And, yeah, you have the right impression of Talia! She often gets written as a villain, but she's also often a lot more complex than that, it really depends on who you get to write her. The corner of fandom I hang out in is generally more generous to her, but some of the actual comics can be kind of rough. But she's complex and has a lot of sharp edges, so, you know, I love her, too. 😂)
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A bit of a side thing, but, yeah. Me tired. Feel free to disregard this post, I'm just letting some feelings out so my brain stops torturing me.
Honestly, tired is not quite the right word. Its more like I've been too caught up in work and my brain denies me relaxation? Like... ever since I got an idea for the Ghost Future Leo, I've been working on him every day. And by the nature of how I do things, I don't start a new drawing until I finish the last, so, he was all I've worked on. And it comes with the anxiety that 'I haven't posted anything in so long, that's bad, you're not productive'.
And then I finished Ghost Leo to the point where I could post him, and, it, uh... Got complicated? Because, no doubt, it's a BIG project, I worked A TON on him, but it wasn't really, like... a comic. Or a drawing. So I took a break, I promise I did, but then I wanted to get back to posting proper art and all.
Exceeeept I also wanted to keep working on Ghost Leo. Partly because I like working on him, truly, but also... I feel like I owe it to people? Like... I live with the fear that there's not enough to him, that people will get bored in like three days and that will be that, and I owe folks who enjoy spending time with him to expand the features. I want to respond to people posting and talking about him because that's everything I've wanted, to see people's reactions, and I feel like I can't leave anyone hanging, because that was what I asked for in the first place... All those posts and nice asks bring me so much joy, and I want people to know it.
As well as all the asks from people who need help - as a creator, I owe it to them to help them through everything, to fix mistakes and bugs, to answer questions...
And because of that, I feel bad when I try to take a break for more than a day - I have things to answer, and I don't want to answer them inadequately, because I want people to know that I care about every ask.
So, in short... despite me doing art I still feel like I'm not doing enough, despite the recent updates my brain still tells me I need to do more, and I'm afraid of starting on something like a comic because it feels I have too much of other stuff to do and I can't let myself focus my attention on something else for a week or two...
I know its all baloney, and that I deserve to rest, that I can freaking sit down and play Star Rail for three days and people won't hate me for it, but... that's not what my brain thinks and signals to my body. Silly me.
Thank you for reading this to those who did, I wrote this thing to just say... I hope my brain is actively lying to me, and people won't riot if I take a bit of time getting to answer the asks or posting more art. I promise I read everything, I just need to get back into a groove of things, especially since May and June are months that get busy with the school work on top of everything. I hope that's understandable 💖
#v rambles#vent#cw vent#in short this post is about my brain being like 'hey. i know you made this big project but lets be real. you didnt post shit'#and im like... i know its not true. but my brain tells me it is and doesnt let me relax#sorry for a sudden personal infodrop#i just felt like if i dont talk about it i will keep getting more anxious
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Devlog #16: Answers and Questions
Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!
If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!). You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!!
LET’S GET TO IT. This month is Q&A: Cohost edition!
“A Q&A again?” Heheh well I don’t have anything to talk about this month ✨ We’re working hard on finalizing the localization! And on porting to consoles! And on secret stuff! You know, the usual!!! Get excited!!! So, Q&A again 💖 And see, I asked questions for Q&As on Twitter. On Tumblr. On Discord. But some new social media platforms have entered the fray. SO.
Welcome to Q&A: Cohost edition. (Follow me on cohost and/or read this post I wrote about why I think cohost is neat teehee) (and follow me on bluesky if you want. I like it way less though. Sorry bluesky)
@ItsMeLilyV asks:
One of the bits of advice that gets tossed around by indie devs is to avoid making RPGs, especially for your first few games, because they tend to be large in scope, difficult to prototype, and easy to underestimate.
Was this ever a fear for you in making START AGAIN, or In Stars and Time? Did you take any special precaution to keep these games within a scope you could handle, and did you learn tricks from START AGAIN that carried over to ISAT when in came to keeping things manageable? Thank you!! ✨
I had no idea that was a piece of advice given, but yep, that makes a lot of sense! Since I didn’t know, I went in blissfully aware, teehee.
I will say that I am familiar with working on big projects from working on comics, and with seeing big webcomic artists always mention to never start with your magnum opus… And I could tell ISAT had the potential to be way bigger than I imagined, which is why I decided to start with creating the prologue to get used to RPGMaker as well as making games. Kind of a pilot of sorts!
Again, thanks to comics, I know to keep my scope pretty small, because even if you keep it small it WILL balloon into something way bigger than you thought. Just for the prologue, I imagined it’d be a 20mn game, and it’s easily a 2-3h one! Keep your scope small!!!
As for tricks, when I catch myself thinking “wow what if I added this cool thing”, I try to always keep in mind those two things: 1. How long will it take to implement (including bug testing), and 2. Does it add something important to the game. I know we always want to add a fishing game, or a fun minigame, but do you Need It. Does it add something substantial to the story, to the Themes. Or are you just adding it because you like fishing games. Which is a valid reason, but also, maybe just make a fishing game instead. You are not the Yakuza series!!!! You are a small indie gamedev!!!! Think about you in 4 months who has to fix all the fishing game bugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@stem asks:
how is it to have a piece of art that's basically done (as far as i understand) that you can't share yet? like how do you personally bide the time until it's finally ready to release, or is it not really a challenge to wait? :0c
It’s so weird!!! The game has been done for so long!!! I’m very glad I asked some friends to playtest the game, so I could at least get some feedback before the game is out… In some ways it feels like the game will be done twice: once back when I finished making the game, and once when the game actually comes out. It’s just a very strange experience. Sometimes people tell me they’re excited to find out more about this story beat, or about this character, and a part of me is like… Wait, haven't you played the game? Oh, yeah, it’s not actually out. Guess you’ll find out later.
EDIT: My god. I just checked on my private devlog for when I completed the Alpha of ISAT. It was in August of last year (I lay down on the floor and look at the ceiling) (I still had to finish all the illustrations so really the game was Done Donezo in October but still…)
anon asked:
What role did Armor Games play in creating the final product?
SO MANY THINGS. Here are some of them: support when it comes to porting/marketing/social media/localization, feedback on the game and how to make it better, community guidance, testing support, QA/internal testing… The game couldn’t be the way it is without them.
For more small details, I have a weekly meeting with my producer, Dora! We talk about the game and how everything is going. A couple months back, I also was checking in with the internal QA team fairly often to fix any remaining bugs. They also helped me find ISAT’s additional programmer, Isabella, and she is a godsend because coding is hard. They also take care of communicating with press, finding more opportunities to showcase the game in conventions, talking with the localization/porting teams… I am probably forgetting a thousand little things they did to help out!!! THEY’RE SO GOOD OK
Anon asked:
So obviously the skills/spells/what have you are based off of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Did you design each "type" to be like a certain style? Rock being heavy damage and defense buffs, scissors being speed and quick attacks, like that?
Absolutely! I just went with the obvious. Rock is physical damage, defense focused, Scissors is swords, attack focused, and Paper is magic, mind focused. It was fun to develop a spell system around those! I’m excited for people to find out more about Craft…
@nickshutter asks:
I really loved START AGAIN (streamed it for a small handful of friends) and was super happy to hear about a follow-up! The cast is so much fun and their personalities are really well-balanced—did any of the characters change pretty drastically from their initial conception during development of the game?
I’m so glad you streamed it with friends… I hope you had a good fun time…
And for sure! Isabeau and Mirabelle were pretty set from the get go (himbo and shy wallflower), but Odile started as more of a gentle teacher type, even if I very quickly went the snarky old lady route. Siffrin and Bonnie were harder to pin down– I wasn’t sure how to portray Siffrin’s despair in the prologue, and started showing them more overtly depressed, but I thought it’d be Very Yummy to have them show a happy facade to their friends. And then, for ISAT, I had to figure out what a non-depressed Siffrin would be like, for the first couple acts of the game before the despair sets in. As for Bonnie, I had a lot of trouble figuring out what they’d be like, what kind of kid they were, what their relationship with everyone else would be like, and then I thought about what their past would be like and then their characterization was set in stone. Sometimes you need to figure out One Thing to unlock a character’s brain. I’m very excited for everyone to find out more about each character in ISAT!
@SuperBiasedGary asks:
What games (or other media) lit a fire under you to create your own?
It could be stuff you liked so much it inspired, something you found frustrating because you felt an itch to do it differently, or something that made you realise humans make things and you could be one of them.
I found a lot of indie games inspiring, but I think Umineko might’ve been the one that made me go… Oh, anyone can just make a massive video game narrative. And you can make it very simple, with kinda goofy sprites, and still manage to make an incredibly touching story!
As for frustrating games that lit a fire under me, I think I’d say in general, I found issue with the classic trope of the “main character helps people and doesn’t get anything back”. What often happens in some games is that you help NPCs with their problems, sometimes helping them with very intense, complicated problems! For a very long time! And, in exchange, you get… A cool item? A nice new skill? And that’s it?
I know this might be complicated to implement on a narrative perspective, but I remember playing Persona 5, and your character just went through a very harrowing experience (like, oh, being INTERROGATED AND TORTURED BY THE POLICE) and you help your friends during social links, and they go “thanks for your help! Bye~” like WHAT ABOUT ME. WHAT ABOUT MY PROBLEMS. CAN YOU GIVE ME A HUG
So on a certain level, I wanted a game where instead of the characters around you having problems, the main character also has problems. And is subconsciously screaming “CAN YOU PLEASE NOTICE I HAVE PROBLEMS AND GIVE ME A HUG.” And hopefully, the characters notice. Winks
Hm. I do want to say I wrote most of the prologue/ISAT during the pandemic, and I felt very lonely and not supported. But then guess what. I told my friends about how I felt. And most of them told me they had no idea, and vowed to support me more. And now I’m closer to them. So the moral of this answer is, yeah, it’d be nice if people noticed, but also, you need to tell people when you’re feeling bad. LOOKS AT SIFFRIN
Anon asked:
Is there a song you listen to in order to put yourself in the sasasa/ISAT mindset?
I have a whole playlist baybee. Before you ask: there aren’t any hidden meanings behind those song choices. It’s about the Mood, and also my personal tastes in music I listen to when I need to concentrate. I like songs that go WUB WUB
In no particular order, here are five random songs I played on repeat when making the prologue:
Future Club (Arcade Version) by Perturbator (in bold because this was THE song I listened to on repeat. I believe I gave it to Lindar for inspiration lol)
Arcades by C2C
Wake Me Up by Para One
The First Wish by DROELOE
Les Enfants du Paradis by World’s End Girlfriend
And here are five random songs I played on repeat for In Stars and Time:
Down by Chloe x Halle
Nonsense Bungaku by Eve
Non-Breathe Oblige by PinocchioP
Gentle Heart by Jamie Paige
Ready For The Floor by Hot Chip
It’s interesting, the songs I listened to for the prologue are generally more heavy and frenetic, while the ones for ISAT are more hopeful… I made sure to listen to more lively songs for ISAT, since that’s the feeling I wanted to give off…
That’s all the questions I have! In other, non related ISAT news, I have started a new project and having a lot of fun. It’s a visual novel this time. I’m hoping to get some screenshots ready in the next few months, but also I’m taking it easy on this one. If it takes years with many breaks in between to get it done, it’s fine. What matters to me right now is the process!
That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!
AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!
#in stars and time#start again start again start again#devlog#game dev#game development#indie game#indie dev#indie games#timeloop
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reminder that SSE is valued at 1.2 billion SEK (120 million USD) as late as may 2023. (the article preview on the bottom of the screenshot is "Here are Sweden's 82 billion-valued tech companies 2023". as in, they're on that list of the WOW! Billion!! companies.)
quotes from the article (the preview at the top):
Star Stable, which has the Danish Egmont as its major owner, has since its inception in 2011 built an entire world of horse-related entertainment [...]
But the world economy and the subsequent weaker purchasing power also affect the horse world, and the company is now being forced into an organizational change that affects 15 percent of the employees. This corresponds to 27 permanent employees, the company tells Di [the magazine], and union negotiations have now begun.
"It was a difficult decision to make, but necessary for the company given the new market conditions. We started a minor reorganization last year, which gave a greater focus on our online game," comments the company's CEO Johan Sjöberg.
Star Stable is on Di's list of Sweden's 82 billion-valued startup and technology companies, with a valuation of SEK 1.2 billion. In 2021, Star Stable had a turnover of SEK 346 million and made an operating profit of just over SEK 33 million.
im not posting this bc i think nobody has seen it before, i assume its been posted before. im posting it to remind you that this poor little meow meow is not in any way a 10 person indie studio doing desperate things to stay afloat. theyre a massively successful company with as much money as there are bugs in star stable.
the reorganisation and stuff is really normal. i dont like how they did it, i dont like how they cut the books and comics, and i think they couldve handled all of this better by better planning in advance instead of spreading themselves thin. i also think its insane of them to not focus on improving sso itself enough for like a decade and to not have sso merch out for just as long.
but, it IS really good that they're finally properly focusing on sso itself and trying to improve their main product. i think the current writing is embarrassingly bad though and there is not much gameplay to speak of. pretty graphics will only keep them afloat for so much longer, and revamping old things might not keep old players around for much longer who have waited for years to see the story go somewhere interesting. they're trying to do better, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding. so we now have to wait and find out if they will invest all their resources back into sso in a meaningful way or not.
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@bluebellthesponge
Hmm I dunno tbh. I guess he's just easy to caricature. Bug eyes, crooked teeth, short stature, creepy voice. Even describing it probably puts a handful of characters in your mind.
According to the book The Animated Peter Lorre, there's at least 700+ lorre caricatures/impressions in cartoons. Tho he does include igor-type characters and impressions of an impressions but still, that's A LOT. Too bad the author doesn't give an explaination as to WHY Lorre is so parodied.
I know Looney tunes parodied Lorre because he was one of the popular stars of the day, Looney tunes parodies a lot of famous stars from the 40s so it's not really surprising. I also know in the 90s Looney tunes reboots you have a lot of lorre caricatures because the animators were fans of his movies.
I've heard a story about how Lorre stuck up for the animation union at Warner Brothers and got fired for it and that's why he is caricatured so often as a way to honor him. I kinda doubt the story is true because I can't find a source (and Lorre was more likely fired for beefing with Jack Warner) but if the story is true then it's super wholesome.
Something that is official is Charles Addams (the creator of the Addams Family) telling Lorre that he based Gomez Addams off of him. I know people hate on the 2019 Addams family movies for making Gomez ugly but it's comic accurate because he was based off of Lorre (and the governor of new york in the 30s but that's not important)
I've also heard Lorre parodies are possibly an antisemetic caricature because Peter Lorre was Jewish (his birthname is Laszlo Löwenstein and you can guess why he avoided using it) and let's be real, they often give him very unflattering portrayals. He barely played horror yet is the most affiliated with it, and his "creepier" roles sometimes hinged on the fact that he's a foreigner. It's not a good look. I get that he often avoided telling others he's Jewish and apparently a lot of people didn't know but there's still a weird layer of xenophobia to it that I kinds feel like kinda bleeds into some of the caricatures? That's just my opinion. Most Peter parodies are such copies of a copy that they're pretty far from the original source material. Still, it's food for thought. Especially when making your own Peter parody.
As far as I do know Lorre did like the caricatures, keeping some of the drawings fans sent him and even finding it amusing when others tell him how to do an impression of HIMSELF. Some of those saved fan drawings are still online. My favorite is the drawing of him as a turtle <3 Most of the caricatures was because he was pretty famous for the time.
The most amusing thing about peter parodies is that it's gone on so long that nobody really knows who lorre is, but they can identify his "image" in cartoons. Tim Burton didn't even know Lorre's name when he added Maggot in corpse bride, but he did know the voice and look. That's how it is. (Check out this maggot pin I got recently)
I know for Slappy, Kaz is actually a fan of Peter Lorre and collects his movies, hence why we have Slappy. I remember from Kaz's Facebook where he mentions Slappy saying he never knew just HOW many characters were inspired by lorre. There's also John K (creator of Ren and Stimpy, I know he's terrible) who mentioned on his personal blog that he's a big fan of Lorre which is why Ren from Ren and Stimpy is based off of him. I've notice Ren quotes some Peter Lorre movie quotes, aside from his famous catchphrase "YOU EEEDIOT" of course. (Check out this Ren and Stimpy comic where Ren meets Joel Cairo, a character Peter Lorre played)
I just think it's neat. He shows up everywhere all the time :) I made a joke Thomas The Tank Engine Peter Parody but @thekhaotickrab messaged me saying they found an actual Thomas character with Lorre's voice which is pretty hilarous. Many of these I find amusing because there's no reason for it to exist. Yeah, there's a Peter Parody transformer named Cosmos and he likes scaring people because he's lonely. Yeah, there's several in Scooby Doo for some reason. Yeah he's GOMEZ ADDAMS. He's also a GPS in hotel Transylvania 2. He's also a literal egg with legs in digimon. He's also a lamp.
I heard Lorre's dream was to continue to act forever. He sorta got that wish because he keeps respawning in cartoons forever. I hope this tradition keeps up. Slappy gets a lot of shit but I'm forever grateful to that ugly little fish for introducing me to all of this <3 May the Peter Parody live on forever!
#Bluebellthesponge#Srry i couldn't help but ramble#Peter Lorre#Peter lorre fish#Replies#Slappy laszlo#Slappy Spongebob#Laszlo Spongebob#the spongebob connoisseur
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apparently y'all Are desperate enough for my Lomadia Oc so uh. hope you're in the mood for [checks notes] ~13 paragraphs, half of which is just description!
allow me to introduce Villom!
She doesn't have an actual name or in-universe nickname, I just call her Villom. Because she was originally a Villain Version of Lomadia from a sci-fi world for some comic idea I totally scrapped bc it sucked. Except for Villom!
So basically what if we put Lomadia in space and gave her every problem and no normal coping mechanisms
The base universe is Completely Impossible sci-fi space stuff, involving solar systems being relatively close together and having tons of habitable planets, with star trek 'convergent evolution' making everybody a Weird Human Basically. Part of these choices is that I. Don't actually like sci-fi lol. I don't think its bad I just can't Get Into It, so I did the lazy version. HOWEVER I do also use the fact that its extremely artificial and story-focused as part of the plot so its FINE
There IS also magic, but it’s generally less used, as tech is more accessible and less complicated from a user standpoint. That doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful, if you know what to look for. Thats foreshadowing!
Compared to base Lomadia, Villom is.. very immature. She has trouble identifying and controlling emotions, she's quick to anger and holds grudges. She's also more impulsive and tends towards insults and crude jokes. She's actually pretty fun to hang out with as a result, but responsibility is a role she's crushed into, and it never truly fits. She's trying her best ok
Villom starts out her story as a young adult, training to be a pilot. She does some hero shit, but breaks so many rules in the process and gets kicked out. She’s enraged by this betrayal of what was supposed to be her life, and steals a ship to go rogue and try to pursue her dreams anyways. She doesn’t exactly know what she’s doing, though, and eventually a chase causes her to crash on an unfamiliar planet, where she meets Rythian. He’s steampunk now, don’t question it
Anyways, they end up teaming up, and form the first of her crew. Later additions are Martyn, who is a mouse guy who has So Fucking Many People Who Want Him Dead, and Zoeya! Who ended up separated from Fionn following partially the plot of Mushbury, and works as the ship’s engineer. Their ship (that lasts long enough to get a name…) is called the Ask, and Villom occasionally (and jokingly) calls her crew the Answers.
(Its called the Ask because originally I gave the characters nicknames based on Norse mythology for Pretentious Reasons, those might come back later)
So everything’s all fine and poggers for a while, with the Ask’s crew causing mischief and undercutting evil empires across the worlds- and then Villom’s home planet is destroyed.
And she sees it happen.
See, one of the tropes of sci-fi that bugs me, is how understated the death of an entire planet tends to go. This is the first step of Villom realizing how truly fucked up the world they live in is- and the first step of her wondering why it has to be this way, and how to stop it.
It only gets worse from here.
No matter how many evil empires they topple, no matter how many massive threats they thwart, there’s always another one. And no matter how fast they are, they can’t stop every world-ending crisis. Villom starts learning magic, wondering if theres some kind of solution there. When she doesn’t find one, she just looks harder. Brushing so close with forces she’s alone in experiencing wears on her, compounding with their futile mission.
The breaking point is when Rythian dies. Raiding an enemy ship goes wrong, they’re outnumbered, they’re trying to retreat. Surrenders are not accepted, there.
It’s another thing she sees happen, another thing she was inches away from but unable to stop. And she can’t take it. She can’t take losing another part of her, another of the few things she could call home in this cold void.
She takes some of the things she learned looking where she shouldn’t- and kills the nearest member of the enemy team, trading a life for a life. And part of her soul as tax, of course. Just a small bit, this time.
She never tells him. Pretends it was instead an incredibly close call. He probably knows she’s lying, on some level, but he never says it.
Villom is desperate, now. There’s more and more things she’s hiding from her crew, more and more boundaries of safety she’s pushing. She trades one of her eyes for the ability to see the functions of the world itself- maybe it’s a mistake, there’s some gear stuck, and if she fixes it this infinite loop of wars will stop.
There is no mistake.
This is how the universe is intended to function.
She can’t give up. Because if she stops, she’s never going to get up again.
Maybe there’s other worlds where it’s better, where it’s safe.
Maybe there’s a way to make this world like them.
Maybe there’s a way to leave.
She’s barely human anymore, even though she looks perfectly fine. Her hair is white, her eye replaced, but that’s all. She’s replaced the things she’s traded away. She’s barely even a part of the world, anymore. Unstuck from the threads of it, floating as a constant point, unchanging and undying, snapping back into place when moved.
A lot of universes are visited by a strange woman with white hair, who never stays. Sometimes she’s a savior, or a tyrant, or merely another passerby.
One of them, somewhere, has to have an answer. The way to break the cycle. And Villom will find it- even if she has to take every one of them apart.
#long post#villom#published works#<-organizational tag this isn't like. in a book#if you actually read all of this i love you. and hopefully you now get why im obsessed with her#my cringefail girlboss <3 inventing new war crimes#if you follow the suggestions blogs you may have already seen her!
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Character design work for a number of original projects below! The name of each project the designs belong to is above their respective image, along with a little teaser for the premise.
Which designs do you like best? Which projects catch your eye? Let me know, I'd love to hear!
Iron and Roses, a fantasy romance about a princess marrying herself off to protect her kingdom and stars a bit of a yandere boy-next-door best friend who ain't too happy about this:
Ocean in a Girl, a heartfelt found family story that was originally a Minecraft fanfic but evolved into an original story about a young witch who is being pursued by her godfather, the deity of decay, and is hired to work at a boar woman's tavern after she's spotted stealing from her tavern's display cases one night:
Clover, a psychological dramedy comic / video game (undecided) about a young woman who moves out to attend college and begins seeing creatures no one else can and which claim to come from a world beyond the physical plane and also hate her specifically out of all the population of humans:
The Creeping Chronicles, an "epic" fantasy series about the aftermath of a save-the-world plot and features swords, sorcery, and bug people with trauma:
Starchild, a standalone novel about a demigod of wartime who takes in an amnesiac mortal teenager and swiftly learns there's more to her and her missing memories than meets the eye:
Boss Fight, an animated fantasy parody of The Office about a goblin secretary who works in a video game dungeon and is planning to kill her incompetent lich boss so she'll be the one running the place, but doesn't realize that her boss is head-over-heels in love with her and thinks all her efforts to kill him are her flirting:
This one doesn't have a project, it's just an old persona concept I wanted to show off, hehe:
The Creeping Chronicles again, but with older designs and a broader selection of the cast:
Thanks for checking these out! Again, did any characters or stories catch your eye? Let me know, even if it's just by answering the poll below. I'm really curious about what y'all would like to see more of from my original work :>
#I wanted to show off a couple hundred of my blorbos#so many projects so little time#stuff by sofie#original art#character design#original character design#original character#original character drawing#oc design#oc character design#art dump
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Queer Star Wars Characters: FINAL
Juhani | Identity: lesbian | Media: Knights of the Old Republic
Juhani from 2003’s Knights of the Old Republic was the first ever queer character in Star Wars. The Mandalorian Wars rendered Juhani’s family refugees on Taris after the destruction of their homeplanet of Cathar. Juhani was enslaved due to her mother’s debts, but was liberated by the Revanchists when they freed Taris from Mandalorian rule. This inspired her to travel to Dantooine to train as a Jedi, where she fell in love with her fellow padawan Belaya. For her final trial, she was tricked into believing she killed her master when consumed by the Dark Side. She fled into the wilds of Dantooine, her turmoil agitating the wildlife. Dealing with Juhani is the player’s final trial as a Jedi, and they can either kill Juhani or handle the situation diplomatically and return her to the light. She then joins the player as a companion.
Traveling together, Juhani grows close to Revan and can be romanced by female Revans (the game shipped with the gender flag for romance bugged, but she is intended to be a lesbian). She takes the player turning out to be Revan very well, as she never truly accepted that Revan turned to the Dark Side due to how the Revanchists saved her. If the Dark Side ending is chosen, the player must kill Juhani.
Juhani strives to be a good Jedi, strongly believing in their principles. However, she struggles with the in-born aggression and heightened anger of her species, which with her perfectionism creates a vicious cycle that drives her towards the Dark Side. Other than Revan, she kept herself separate from the rest of the crew of the Ebon Hawk, especially Canderous Ordo due to the Mandalorian’s genocide of her people. She was also full of bitterness regarding the racism she faced on Taris, and struggled not to lash out against all humans because of it.
Chelli Lona Aphra | Identity: lesbian | Media: Star Wars Comics
Oh Aphra, where to begin. Honestly the best way I can describe her is that she’s Star Wars’ Vriska. She’s a “rogue archeologist” and in marketing material sometimes compared to Indiana Jones, but the only similarity is that she can feature in the same wacky stories about retrieving artifacts except with none of the mismatch between modern ideas about archeology and repatriation and Indy being the hero, because she specifically isn’t. She was originally created for the 2015 Darth Vader comic series, recruited to help Vader raise a force that would let him coup the Emperor. She was so popular she then got her own comic series, making her the breakout star of the Disney/Marvel Star Wars comics. The Fandom Menace can’t touch her.
Her comics have been a series of frankly strange adventures involving Force artifacts, Vader either working with her or wanting her dead, and double crosses that leave your head spinning. She has Thrawn level tactical abilities, but only for schemes. She is haunted by how her trauma born behaviors make it hard for her to maintain relationships and be a good person. She has so many exes it's an entire section of this tournament. Her most significant relationships have been with Sana Starros and Magna Tolvan. As of the end of the Spark Eternal arc, the comic seems to be leaning towards a poly ending with the three of them, but first Aphra needs to stop self sabotaging.
One of Aphra’s greatest achievements was at the end of her 2016 comic run, where she trapped Vader in a PTSD flashback Force artifact on Tython and hacked his suit to allow her to erase Hoth from the Empire’s records. She did this for the sake of her loved ones who had joined the Alliance. Doing this gave Echo Base enough time to build up before they were found again that they were able to evacuate much more efficiently. That’s right, disaster lesbian love saved the Rebellion.
#star wars#sw#sw legends#kotor#juhani#doctor aphra#chelli lona aphra#sw comics#sw doctor aphra#doctor aphra comics
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The Spider Widow, Grandmother of Terror, was one of the stranger heroes to come out of the Golden Age of comics, an era that saw no shortage of bizarre characters.
Created by artist Frank Borth for Quality Comics, Spider Widow was actually a beautiful young socialite (weren't they all?) who somehow - it is never explained how - gained the ability to control black widow spiders. While many people would assume that was an ability more suited for a villain, Borth made her a superhero. And he doubled down by having the beautiful, strawberry blonde Dianne Grayton (the colorist messed up in the panels above) don a hideous mask and witch's outfit as her costume.
Debuting in Feature Comics #57 (June, 1942), an anthology book where she didn't even get a cover mention, the Spider Widow's feature ran until Feature Comics #72 (October, 1943).
During the Spider Widow's short run, she managed to get her own sidekick, and eventual love interest: The Raven. The Raven was Anthony Grey, a guy who just happened to have a thing for the Spider Widow and a bird suit that allowed him to fly. He rescued the Widow from a Nazi trap during his first appearance in Feature Comics #60 (September, 1942), and the two share a kiss at the end. This issue the strip is also re-titled The Spider Widow and The Raven.
Towards the end of the strip the Spider Widow and the Raven meet Phantom Lady (a strip Borth had also drawn for Quality). At first there' is a minor rivalry's a feud between Spider Widow and Phantom Lady for the Raven's affection, but eventually the two women become good friends and work together to fight crime. Their meeting marked Quality's one-and-only crossover between characters, and ran in Feature Comics #69-71 and Police Comics (home of Phantom Lady's strip) #20-22.
Frank Borth was drafted in 1943, which according to many accounts is the reason why the Spider Widow strip ended with Feature Comics #72. In fact, Borth did not draw the story in Feature Comics #71 (the last part of the crossover with Phantom Lady), or Feature Comics #72, wherein the Raven is neither seen nor mentioned. The replacement artist(s) are/were not credited, but whoever it was their work was far inferior to Borth's, so it's a good thing the Spider Widow ended when it did.
DC Comics purchased all of the Quality Comics characters when Quality called it "quits" in the 1950s. To my knowledge, neither the Spider Widow or the Raven have made an appearance in any DC comic books since then, not even in Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron, which seemed to utilize every Wall-era superhero in DC's stable. The Spider Widow was supposedly the inspiration for a character in the JLA: Destiny Elseworlds mini-series, but I'd have to hunt that down and re-read it to be sure.
Years and years ago I was acquainted with Frank Borth, as he was active in local politics in the town where I was deputy mayor. Even though we were on opposite sides of the political fence, he was always very friendly and jovial when we met. At the time I had absolutely no idea he had been a comic book artist back in the Golden Age (I only found out after he passed away) or I'd've set up residence in his house bugging him for art and reminisces from the old days.
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hope is a dangerous thing - jj maybank
summary: jj maybank hates the new girl in town.
playlist:
hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it - lana del rey
fuck it i love you - lana del rey
warnings: mentions of violence, language
[jj's pov]
[896 words]
i first saw her out on the waves during hurricane Agatha. stupid mystery girl, surfing the surge like its nothing, as if she couldn't get wiped out with one wrong move. what a poser.
i hate her.
great, she's in my class too. pink really isn't her colour, and that cardigan seems way too hot for the outer banks, what on earth is she thinking? really dumb outfit choice. i'm glad that she didn't sit next to me, thanks a ton mr. sunn.
i hate her, and her ugly pink cardigan.
oh, just excellent! thank you so much kiara, how lovely of you to invite my mortal enemy to party with the pogues at the boneyard tonight. i bet she can't even hold her liquor.
i really hate her. she seems fake, nobody is that nice.
speak of the devil. at least this time she's wearing something decent, but it looks shit on her. i can't believe she's had 4 beers already and still doesn't look tipsy.
i cannot stand her.
oh great, she's walking up to me. whatever god is out there, what did i do to deserve this? fuck you, honestly. her voice is sickeningly sweet, but kinda raspy, like textured honey. ew. at least she brought me a beer. i don't like her freckles.
i don't want to be around her.
she's getting on with the pogues alarmingly well. this is not looking good... ohhhh no, john b, why would you invite her to hang with us at the chateau tomorrow?! i bet she's a slob.
she better not try to talk to me. i don't think i can handle that.
...why is that kook staring at her like that. he looks like a starving wolf, practically violating her with his eyes. she's not even all that great to look at, but still, that's not gonna happen on my watch.
i hate that i'm starting a fight for no reason, its none of my business but oh well, too late to back out now.
why is she drawing stars around my bruised knuckles. and why is she concentrating so hard, holding my hand with an unbearable softness, her tongue sticking out comically, like some cartoon character. how did i even get here. fuck.
i don't like her...
her bubbly laugh when i crack a joke is so annoying, making me feel all gross inside. i wish she would shut up so i can get it out of my head, although i doubt i could if i tried.
fuck.
i can barely hold the soft, yet intense gaze of her massive e/c eyes. she looks like a bug, i really want to squish her. maybe then i would stop feeling like this. i don't know why she's so persistent even though i'm clearly showing no interest.
i really hope she doesn't see through me.
ah great, i'm sick. thankfully the pogues are going fishing today, and taking whats-her-name with them. i need some time alone with my thoughts, although i'm not sure if i can handle them. someone's knocking on the door, maybe john b forgot something.
"its open!" i manage to croak out.
oh no. no no no no no please not her. anybody but her. goddamn it.
"hey, jj, um- if you tell me to i'll leave, but i heard you were sick, and thought i could help-- my mom's a nurse, so i know a thing or two-"
"i don't want your help. go have fun. i know you don't want to be here, plus you'll get sick too." why the fuck does she care about me. she shouldn't.
"i do, and i'll take that risk. plus i don't really wanna get sunburnt, my outfit isn't really suitable for the situation."
she's right, it definitely isn't. that flowy off-shoulder crop-top and embroidered jean shorts are way too flattering, and its not looking good for me.
i hate that she cares, its not helping my situation.
the way she looks after me makes me want to scream at her. why the fuck is she so gentle with me when i don't deserve even a sliver of it?
i hate to admit it, but she's been pretty decent company today. we got to know each other, and the fact that she fits all my criteria for 'ideal type' makes me want to die, because there's no way it'll actually happen, right? she's way too good for someone like me.
who am i kidding, i don't hate her. in fact-
"hey jj? you with me, man?"
"uh yeah- sorry, what were you saying?"
"why do you hate me so much?"
oh, dear...
"you're too perfect for your own good. it's killing me, knowing that acknowledging my feelings will only end in disaster, because i am the last person to deserve you. so no, y/n i don't hate you. although i really, really fucking wish i did."
her shocked expression confirms my opinion, i bet she's gonna sprint out of here in-
lips. my lips are touching something. what the fuck is going on. fuck, she tastes like lemon ice cream, do you even get that in obx? fuck if i know. goddamn.
so, as i was saying, i do not, in fact, hate y/n l/n. as a matter of fact, it is the exact opposite.
i am an absolute goner.
a/n: this is so trash lol yall should see my old stuff, idk what happened to my quality of writing, academic burnout is my biggest suspect tho >:/
#jj maybank#jj obx#jj obx fanfic#jj maybank fanfic#jj maybank fic#jj maybank x reader#jj maybank x y/n#jj maybank fanfiction#outer banks#outer banks fanfiction#jj obx imagine#outer banks fanfic#jj fanfiction
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I wanna send in head cannons too! Sorry this is long as shit❤️
Steve used to flex having a pool so the other kids would wanna come over.
Bug thinks of really good, snarky, clever comebacks but never say any of them out loud cause she feels mean when she does
Jonathan taught but how to drive, he nearly had a heart attack but he still taught her ( neither can parallel park)
Nancy used to wear glasses but stopped in the beginning of highschool out of embarrassment
Bug never thought about her looks until highschool, she was always a bit of a tomboy but growing up her style kinda changed into a more feminine one. She doesn't think she's pretty. She doesn't think she's ugly either, but she rarely feels pretty.
Will feels awkward around Steve. He knows that something happened with him and Jonathan, and him even though he doesn't know what it was he still feels conflicted. Steve will give all the kids rides and will just sits quietly while the rest of the group talks over each other.
Bugs nightmares got worse after going into the tunnels. All she sees is will running around desperately trying to crawl out. Sometimes she's in there with him but they just keep going in circles and she can't get him out.
Bug put glow in the dark stars on her ceiling for Jonathan. Now whenever Steve comes over he can't feel comfort in the light because he knows it wasn't meant for him.
Mike and bug definitely do some mad scientist shit. Mike thinks up crazy things and bug is too curious to stop him. Yes they have causes small fires, no one was hurt but flammables have been hidden inside the wheeler home. ( You blow up one toaster suddenly you're not allowed to use one unsupervised)
Steve plays basketball with Lucas and teaches him everything he knows.
Dustin puts flowers or little trinkets on/ near mews grave. Not enough to cause suspicion from his mom, but enough to show his remorse.
At any family reunion if there's a baby Steve will be holding them. If they cry he'll spend the rest of the time trying to cheer them up. ( His baby cousins cry when they have to leave and want to stay with him)
Max and El look up to bug as an older sister. Max thinks bug is the bravest person ever, she inspired max to stand up to Billy (the most she can) and El loves how strong bug is. El and max will beg to sleepover and now have " sleep over at moms"
Steve wakes up to bug sitting on the floor reading comics in the middle of the night. No matter how tired he is he'll always join her and laugh at all her " nerd knowledge" ( " did you know there's a comic where peters radioactive semen kills MJ?" " Angel what the fuck is wrong with you?" " Well I didn't write it." )
oh jon 1000% taught bug how to drive and it was the closest theyve ever been to ending their friendship and they had to agree to never talk about the experience ever again (will and dustin had joined for fun and were left traumatized)
steve and babies ,,,, my HEART
all of these are wonderful and lovely and painful (the glow in the dark stars ,,, how dare u) and the mike and bug mad scientists thing made me giggle theyre the same person tbh and no one encourages mike and also berates mike more than bug and their science experiments are proof of that LMAO
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There's been something that's been bugging me a little...okay, a LOT about the post-canon and arguably canon treatment of Azula. Or rather, her treatment in comparison to her father, Ozai.
Mainly...I think Ozai gets off waaaaaaaaaaaay too easily while Azula gets crapped on much more by the narrative.
"Now wait a minute. How is getting debended getting off too easily?" I'm not saying Ozai got off scot-free here. I'm saying that in this particular instance, his treatment is a lot lighter.
This arguably has its roots in canon, particularly Book 3 where the final showdown was approaching. They brought up baby pictures of Ozai, had Aang mentally wrestling with whether or not he should kill Ozai, and Iroh refused to fight his brother, but encouraged his nephew to fight his sister. Again, this in of itself isn't bad. It establishes the conflict of trying to redeem the Fire Nation after all they did while humanizing and Aang's struggles with doing something seemingly unspeakable for his age and morals. Iroh comes off as the most questionable, but this isn't immediately a problem.
It's when we get to the comics where the issues start to kick into overdrive.
Let's do a comparison shall we? Ozai is locked into a cell that, while he's debended, is still visited frequently by Zuko who admits he was right. By contrast, Azula is locked in an insane asylum, restrained 24/7 in a straitjacket, and is only visited once just so Zuko can get something from her for his own benefit. Not to mention Azula gets a ton of abuse throughout both the trilogies she stars in, but Ozai just sits comfortably behind bars.
Hell, there's a movement to restore him to power...and Azula still is treated like the bigger threat. She gets labeled a terrorist, while all Ozai gets is a finger-wagging from Ursa, a woman he couldn't give a crap about.
And if it can't get any worse, there's Legacy of Fire. Whenever Iroh speaks of Ozai, he speaks in regretful tones, showing grief that things didn't work out between the two. But Azula? He showed nothing but disdain, disgust, and blamed her for Zuko's abuse at the hands of Ozai. EVEN THOUGH SHE HERSELF WAS A VICTIM OF SAID ABUSE!
And, just to put the nail in the coffin, there's a family tree.
Ozai is treated with some dignity, but Azula? ...
I'm sorry but...what?!?
Why is Ozai getting so much leniency here?!?! No matter how bad Azula got, Ozai was canonically so much worse that he blew her actions out of the water! Say what you will about Azula taunting Zuko, Ozai was the one who scarred his face and humiliated him in front of the entire Nation. When did Azula ever reach those levels?!
And are we forgetting this is the man who tried to BURN DOWN AN ENTIRE CONTINENT JUST TO STROKE HIS OWN EGO?!?! Yes, Azula brought it up, but there's a big difference between saying something and actually doing it.
I just don't get it? How come Azula gets so much crap flung her way by the fandom and the creators when Ozai, who is objectively far worse than she will ever be, is treated with more dignity and respect? Why is the abuse victim treated like a monster when the abuser keeps getting off easy like this?
I just...this is...this is disgusting. It legitimately is. I don't care if Ozai doesn't have bending anymore. That doesn't excuse any of his bullcrap, and his daughter shouldn't be thrown under the bus, tortured, or whatever while he gets to live out his life in a comfortable cell.
#azula#princess azula#azula deserved better#anti atla comics#atla comics critical#atla critical#anti legacy of fire#ozai meta
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Scottish actor Russell Hunter was born 18th February 1925 in Glasgow.
Born Russel Ellis in Glasgow, Hunter's childhood was spent with his maternal grandparents in Lanarkshire, until returning to his unemployed father and cleaner mother when he was 12. He went from school to an apprenticeship in a Clydebank shipyard. During this time, he did some amateur acting for the Young Communist League before turning professional in 1946.
He was with the left wing Unity theatre, and due to appear in The Plough And The Stars at the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947. At the last moment, the Arts Council withdrew funding - but the show had to go on. It therefore became part of the inaugural Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the posters were altered from "Sponsored by the Scottish committee of the Arts Council" to read "Eliminated by ... "
Hunter worked in repertory theatre and Scottish variety before making his film debut in Lilli Marlene (1950). He appeared with Archie Duncan in The Gorbals Story, which was a major London success the same year. Rarely without work, he was particularly thrilled to join Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company, and loved working with Peggy Ashcroft and Dame Edith Evans. Particularly suited to clown roles, he treasured a review by the Sunday Times's Harold Hobson, who wrote that he had "never seen such a lovely little Bottom".
Of course with his comic style Russell was well suited to the Panto circuit and appeared in numerous performances, many with his wife, the Scottish actress Una MacLean, herself a great actor and comedian.
The role of Lonely - the dirty, unkempt character in Callan made Hunter a household name, and he would remain recognised by the public for that part for the rest of his life, but his bread and butter was Scottish Theatre and he was rarely without work.
Although in the advanced stages of cancer, Hunter's last theatrical stint was in the Reginald Rose play 12 Angry Men back where it all started at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2003, he also appeared in the romantic comedy, American Cousins that year, playing an Italian grandfather in a Glasgow chip shop.
Russell Hunter passed away in Edinburgh's Western General Hospital on February 26th 2004.
A wee bit trivia to wrap up this post up, Peter Jackson is said to have remembered the series Callan from his youth and used Hunter's portrayal of Lonely as the model for the look of Gollum, with the bug eyes, the thin wavering lips, and the sniveling personality, I don't know how much credence to give this but they do look a wee bit similar!
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i know your music is really personal and there's stories behind songs that you give when asked, and a lot of them seem really heavy. have you ever seen other interpretations that actually made you upset or disappointed that you weren't being understood?
There's always a little bit of ambiguity in meaning and subsequent leeway in interpretation with any creative thing you do. I am generally cool with whatever people wanna pull from things, and get impressed when people connect the same dots i was when i'm writing something.
However two stories come to mind, one funny and one emblematically frustrating.
The funny one
way back when Smoke Damage blew up from some nightcore stuff, i got an influx of attention. I got an email sent, i can't remember through where, asking about the meaning of the line "looking at the present's fucking sad" in that song. They wanted to know, genuinely, if i meant "present" as in current, or "presents" as in gifts, like christmas presents.
I guessed this person was very young. And explained plainly but lightly, "The song is about not being happy with the current situation you're in." To which i got an email back, "Ah, so it's about presents? is it like a christmas song?" To which i. had no idea how to respond to.
The frustrating one
There's an OC of mine i thought up when i was a dark and edgy teenager. I wrote several posts about them on here, their connection to my mythos broadly, the things that inspired them, i joked about how it was ultimately a bullshit dark and edgy character. God of pain and suffering, physical form covered in scars, bleeds black, destined to become the soul at the heart of every star and feel the eternal suffering of burning for eternity, to pull other damned souls into the stars for them to also suffer, and feel the weight of every black hole as a pit in their stomach. Evolved after several lifetimes of samsara until they become the most archetypical form of theirself.
A friend of mine once told me they thought about what a higher god viewing a person on earth would have to look like, and it would involve a lot of spinning. having to sync up with so much spinning just to peer into the lives of this planet.
I ended up writing a song about this character, The Astrocartographer, about this god of suffering watching all the people destined to suffer for their destiny. (They are also introduced in chapter 3 of PAN, my story about dragon aliens from another universe and a bug robot that talks to them.)
At some point recently, someone on here posted a comic of lyrics from the Astrocartographer, not crediting me by my artist name, and in the description just kind of, making up what they thought it was about.
And that did offend me a little bit. That something that was a deep expression of some shit i came up with when struggling with my childhood, that eventually evolved into part of my sprawling fictional universe that i'm proud of. Like i put the effort in this a character who's spoken through stories and ARGs and music of mine, the subject of my most recent album, got glossed over because they were more comfortable with the thought that it was written about a ship they like, because a few keywords lined up for their interpretation.
I don't mind interpretations, but i do get frustrated when people make a point to drown out my stated intention, ignore it, and claim my intention was their interpretation. Especially when it represents my own work i have been trying to get out there.
long answer, but thanks for the question!
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The Dead Guy Death Match Bracket Is Here!
Round 1 will be split into 4 waves of 16 24 hour polls and each wave will be posted 24 hours after the previous. The first wave will start on Tuesday the 18th of April at 3pm BST
The matchups are listed under the readmore and will be hyperlinked to the polls when they go up.
The matchups were all randomised although I did make minor adjustments if I thought one was much too unfair.
Also tagging @tournamentdirectory as I haven't already
Wave 1:
Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane) Vs Gavroche Thenardier (Les Miserables)
Leif (Bug Fables) Vs Queen Serenity (Sailor Moon)
L (Death Note) Vs Jonny D'Ville (The Mechanisms)
Noah Czerny (The Raven Cycle) Vs Lee Everett (The Walking Dead)
Pat Butcher (BBC Ghosts) Vs Xerxes Break (Pandora Hearts)
Captain Orimar Vale (Skyjacks Campaign Podcast) Vs Laura Palmer (Twin Peaks)
Diallos Hoslow (Elden Ring) Vs Rachel Amber (Life Is Strange)
Andrei Grandier (Rose Of Versailles) Vs Constance Blackwood (Ride The Cyclone)
Spock (Star Trek) Vs Maria Robotnik (Sonic The Hedgehog)
Kravitz (The Adventure Zone) Vs Sal Fisher (Sally Face)
Mari (Omori) Vs Ianto Jones (Torchwood)
Nate (Leverage) Vs Max (Sam and Max)
Owen Carvour (Spies Are Forever) Vs Vylad Ro'Meave (Minecraft Diaries)
Neil Perry (Dead Poet's Society) Vs Sayaka Miki (Madoka Magica)
Flapjack (The Owl House) Vs Maes Hughes (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Loki (Marvel) Vs Adam Faulkner Stanheight (Saw)
Wave 2:
Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars) Vs Diggory Graves (Hello From The Hallowoods)
Hugo Oak (Kipo And The Age Of Wonderbeasts) Vs Leonardo Hamato (Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie)
Chara (Undertale) Vs Magnus Chase (Magnus Chase)
River Song (Doctor Who) Vs Micheal Afton (Five Nights At Freddy's)
Catherine Earnshaw (Wurthering Heights) Vs Tara Maclay (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Laudna (Critical Role) Vs Aerith Gainsborough (Final Fantasy)
Mia Fey (Ace Attorney) Vs Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
Meiko 'Menma' Honma (The Flower We Saw That Day) Vs Claire Foley (Professor Layton)
Grelle Sutcliff (Black Butler) Vs Skelly (Hades)
Ethan Winters (Resident Evil) Vs Portgas D Ace (One Piece)
Polly Geist (Monster Prom) Vs Hua Cheng (Heaven's Official Blessing)
Avatar Kyoshi (Avatar The Last Airbender) Vs Galivar Kholin (Stormlight Archive)
Pink/Orchid (Animation Vs Animator/Minecraft) Vs Lewis Pepper (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb) Vs Stoick The Vast (How To Train Your Dragon)
Evelyn Hooper (Less is Morgue) Vs Manny Calavera (Grim Fandango)
Kokichi Oma (Danganronpa) Vs Silco (Arcane)
Wave 3:
Eurydice (Greek Mythology) Vs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead)
Jack Twist (Brokeback Mountain) Vs Charles Vane (Black Sails)
Howard Hamlin (Better Call Saul) Vs Jason Grace (Riordanverse)
Nora Hildegard (The Vampire Diaries) Vs Gerard Keay (The Magnus Archives)
Manny (Swiss Army Man) Vs Matoro (Bionicle)
Wen Ning (Mo Dao Zu Shi) Vs Kikyo (Inuyasha)
Yuri Nakamura (Angel Beats) Vs Simon Kain (Pathologic)
Deep Throat (The X Files) Vs La Signora (Genshin Impact)
Esmeralda (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame Novel) Vs Ursula Zandt/Silhouette (Watchmen Comics)
Nageki Fujishiro (Hatoful Boyfriend) Vs Tuba (Infinity Train)
Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice) Vs Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption)
Oda Sakunoske (Bungou Stray Dogs) Vs Rose Quartz (Steven Universe)
Duncan (Dragon Age) Vs Junpei Yoshino (Jujitsu Kaisen)
Quincey Morris (Dracula) Vs Connor Murphy (Dear Evan Hansen)
Deadman (DC Comics) Vs Breakdown (Transformers)
Draal The Deadly (Troll Hunters) Vs Castiel (Supernatural)
Wave 4:
Matsuri Kanroji (Demon Slayer) Vs Midori (Your Turn To Die)
Kelsier (Mistborn) Vs Peter 'Parker' Yang (Malevolent Podcast)
Tadashi Hamada (Big Hero 6) Vs Noriaki Kakyoin (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Erik (The Phantom Of The Opera) Vs Matthias Helvar (Six Of Crows)
Tigerstar (Warrior Cats) Vs Boromir (The Lord Of The Rings)
Joel Miller (The Last Of Us) Vs Pedro Madrigal (Encanto)
Rufus Emeterio (They Both Die At The End) Vs King Arthur (King Arthur)
Bunny Corcoran (The Secret History) Vs Lenore (Nevermore Webtoon)
Sliver Of Straw (Rain World) Vs Bow (Inanimate Insanity)
Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place) Vs Nicholas D Wolfwood (Trigun)
Tiso (Hollow Knight) Vs Okudera (Yakuza 5)
Koki Kariya (The World Ends With You) Vs Horst Cabal (Johannes Cabal)
Mr Boddy (Clue) Vs Garret Jacob Hobbs (Hannibal)
Eddie Kaspbrak (IT) Vs Emily (Corpse Bride)
Ash Lynx (Banana Fish) Vs Ophelia (Hamlet)
Eddie Munson (Stranger Things) Vs Kili (The Hobbit)
#tournament updates#tournament dates#round 1#tournament bracket#tournaments#dead characters#spoilers#also just like the elimination round i refuse to tag every series and spoiler in this post#but i will on the actual polls
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