I want to see a Billy that really leans into the wonder of the world, the million paths a child could take in their life.
I want to see a Billy that wants to try everything, at least once.
A Billy that looks at all the people who spit at him, deride him, pity him, dismiss him, ignore him, because he has no future, no prospects, a child in the gutter and say no. I'm going to grow up to be whoever I want to be.
And a captain marvel that says you're going to be amazing.
Billy taking the premise of captain marvels form - his ideal self, a blank slate for Billy to paint his bright colours, the person he wants to be deep inside - and dialling that freedom up to eleven.
A dancer, a dinosaur, a train conductor, a tiger, an ice cream maker, a butterfly, an astronaut, a shark, a college student, a Tamaranean, a mouse, a scuba diver, an elephant, a doctor, a moose, a race car driver, a dog.
A child wanting to see the world.
If you want to find captain marvel, well first you've got to try his comm, probably a couple times.
Then you've got to go to fawcett, hope he's there and not saving the yetis from a salamander invasion in a different dimension.
You've got to ask around, because it often goes by word of mouth here, no matter what technology you bring. Don't worry, it'll spread very quickly, but if you're in a hurry you can find his commemorative statue and leave an offering. No one knows if it really works, but it's a good way to pass the time and feel productive.
Soon, a face will peel out of the crowd. It's always familiar, but it's never the same one.
Wait for the flash of lightning in a cloudless sky.
Absolutely love the idea that it was April who got the boys super into snow days.
Like, pre-April, they probably would view the days as miserable, since as turtles they’re likely more susceptible to the cold and back then they probably had much less to keep warm with.
The cold altogether was just never good to them - and then April comes around and teaches them how to make a snowman. And when it’s done, she pelts them with snowballs. And suddenly, the cold is now fun, and they might still be shivering, but now they’re smiling too.
Thinking about the Chevalier interlude, specifically the inaugural team of Wards. Like in universe, they sell it to this first group of kids (and presumably the rest of the world) as a place for second chances, to find friends and mentors who understand what youre going through, where you can learn to use your powers safely while making good memories. The kids broadly seem to believe in these noble intentions of course, but what really gets me is that I've seen readers buy into it!
"Oh, it's such a tragedy that the Wards program became this awful thing that traumatizes kids even more, and expects them to die for the sake of civilians! It's fallen so short of what it was originally supposed to be!"
No it has not??? The fact that the triumvirate and Hero are saying it has this noble goal doesn't make it true. The Wards was pretty clearly always a way to increase the amount of bodies the prt could throw at threats, and we know this because it was started by the fucking Triumvirate as a part of the Protectorate! Alexandria literally came up with the idea of the Protectorate to legitimize the power of capes, and have a consistent source of heroes Cauldron could throw at problems. That is the whole reason for the PRT/Protectorate existing. So when we have this group of children brought in a subsidiary, there are 2 real options.
1). Cauldron and Alexandria decided they would be really niceys and created this program with no intentions other than helping these kids out.
Or 2). As things got worse, they realized the Protectorate didn't have enough manpower to do what they needed, and so they expanded it to include children (the demographic most prone to triggering). That way, they greatly increase the number of capes who they can send to fight and die as needed, and the ones who do survive their tenure in the Wards will be better trained when it comes time to join the actual Protectorate.
At the risk of sounding conceited, I think the second one is far more likely based on everything we know about Cauldron. Maybe it was originally a little nobler, and the goal was just to create more well trained heroes and cut back on young villains, but there's no way Alexandria, Doc Mom, and Contessa didn't factor in the ability to sacrifice the kid heroes if it improved their chances of success. That was absolutely a perk at minimum.
That's the real tragedy of the inaugural Wards. The kids were lured in with promises of safety, comraderie, and second chances like lambs to the slaughter. All the while, Alexandria and Cauldron knew that many (if not most) of these children would suffer abuse by the prt (like in the case of Reed), die, or face a fate worse than death like poor Mouse Protector. It's horrifying! The idea that they didn't know the danger these kids would be in is literally inconceivable. Especially when one of you is also the head of the prt! They knew, and they didn't care. It improved their chances at the end of the world, and so they did it no matter the cost.
Has so many cool shots of Raph! Originally this episode was a tan frustrating for me since the guys seemed to be acting a bit TOO dumb, but tbh, considering the mystic substance I have the feeling that the flavor must have had an effect on them, making the especially addictive or something, even Meatsweats himself swallows them once they're in his mouth, and Mikey doesn't seem to recognize a couple of times that he's talking to Raph, so I deeply believe they were under not just the amazing flavor but a bit of mystic influence
Anyway I've some to really enjoy this episode, is really fun and Raph is fantastic through it all
i haven't posted art in a hot minute so here's a lil dump of some tmnt stuff ive made recently
i haven't drawn the boys in almost ten years at this point but honestly it came so naturally 😭 tmnt was the reason i started drawing seriously yall. also next is casey but,,, 2012 but different! bc i was talking to my friend n i like his 2012 design but wanted to make him a bit more in my style
and finally my baby, my son, my favorite oc ever, aiden. i made a fic with him also almost ten years ago and im actually rewriting it now hehe. ill prob post more art n maybe the fic soon so!!
enjoy! i love aiden so much he was so much fun to write and draw back in the day
you cannot even imagine the amount of love and respect I have for your posts where it's a very good piece of art and then 2/3s of the post remaining are Sources
ngl I almost posted a whole essay in reply on why I like to post sources with my art, but tbh it's because I really enjoy reading and want to pass the curiosity on to someone else. like, my first impulse when I read a cool thing is to immediately make my friends also read the cool thing. sometimes.....I will even draw comics specifically because I want to talk about something I read lmao
it makes me happy to see messages like this in my inbox, even if I don't always post them! I'm glad that people are enjoy it :)