target practice

playing pretend

one of these nights

itadakimasu . gochisousamadesu .

some of the less nice thoughts about being aroace

extras below the cut

sketch

closeups on my favorite panels

bonus: adios

'he's probably losing his mind' yeah about that

muahaha..... after like 3 months of running in circles i finally have (probably) every chapter of reassass figured out with a good deal of them having outlined their own synopsis..... now to just fucking write them 😭😭😭😭😭

Do you find it difficult to answer all the questions that everyone asks you?

Difficult? No, not necessarily

Just a bit tiring at times maybe, but I feel like it’s a me problem, because I always want to answer with a doodle

I mean I don’t haaaave to

But my brain says 💥💥YES U DO TAKE A PENCIL THIS INSTANT💥💥 (that’s why it might take time for me to answer)

The thing I find a bit frustrating that’s there is a lot of them and I can’t keep up/want to work on something different/just busy with other stuff

Sometimes I just don’t have an idea for it, the case of “it’s fun, but I have zero ideas how to answer this💥”

But hey 🫵 even so I can’t keeping up 🫵thank you for writing me and askin stuff🫵

Appreciate u guys ❤️

Also in the replies of the Steph concept art on twitter announcing she was gonna be in a new project at DC (posted by Travis Mercer), there were at least 3 comments saying "will Tim be there?" I don't care how hard you ship timsteph I'm exploding you with my eyeballs if you do that on my girls post again

WAIT MAN IN GREY IS GONE??? NOOOOOOO

Then besides you. Who else in the Aesop community/family is still alive? I havent been on tumblr much so it was a shock not being able to find Man in Gray anymore 😭😭😭😭

Ah... I'm actually kind of surprised that u think that my blog is still alive (well, barely, but i try) (work is seriously draining nowadays among other life tm stuff)

Tbh I feel like I've fallen out of the ask blog community for a while now. I always say that there's definitely some out there that are vibing, I'm just not aware of them since most of the blogs that i tend to interact with n know arent exactly very present in the scene anymore, but just cos I'm not aware of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Probably.

I have to be more annoying about fan characters. I have to draw Thal in little comics <3

So, you brought this up in a recent post "his moral code that focuses on killing off only the worst brand of criminals". I am curious what your stance on this take is then.

Namely, I never felt Jason was over focused on a "Kill the worst criminals" ideology, he's not some Punisher analogue or wasn't in UTRH & the GA Crossover.

Instead, while I do think there's certain figures who he thinks crossed too many lines to be worth keeping around. That is ideology was focused on killing as a power move for control.

IE, he didn't kill those eight lieutenants cos they were particularly immoral, he killed them to establish control over their bosses and gangs.

He kills strategically to accomplish his goals and is largely utilitarian about it, at least in UTRH. This doesn't gloss over his claims of a moralistic element.

IE he left several gangs that primarily exploit children and trafficked people out of his recruitment drive and then killed them all with Onyx that one time.

But as a general rule I always took it that when written in UTRH, his stance was less "I am killing you because its moral" and more "I am killing you because it to my goals."

this is such a multi-layered question, i love it.

i think i hinted at it, but i believe that the focus on the worst criminals is a reading that is more of a wishful thinking interpretation rather than what is actually going on in utrh. and i’m actually sympathetic to it, because it aims to reconstruct the canon to make jay’s characterisation closer to his pre-death personality. it might also be in part based on jason’s monologue in the finale, especially on “i’m not talking about scarecrow or penguin. HIM. just him” bit, but if we want to stay faithful to the text (which i actually don’t. but i am willing to play with it for the time) this is jason’s request for bruce rather than what guides his own actions!

in reality, i agree that jason’s killing in utrh seems to be more strategic. having said that, it being strategic and being part of a plan (a plan that also has some more personal aims) doesn’t mean it’s devoid of moral motivations. and in these terms, i think it’s simply utilitarian rather than based on specific evaluations of each person. and utilitarianism is an ethical theory, even if certain versions of it accommodate treating people as means. so jay might have some extensive plans and commit deeds that seem (and imo are) vile, but it’s all for the “greater good” (sorry for a simplistic and bastardised definition of utilitarianism, but i doubt anyone cares about it here.) so, in short: jason’s murders are supposed to lead to maximising “moral” profit and protection of the innocents. (i would joke here that unfortunately he missed lots of his maths education, but let's be real, his maths is excellent; the problem lays within the theory itself and the twisted in-world reality that dc editorial crafted)

having said so, i'd like to still give credence to a headcanon that even with the case of lieutenants he probably did a thorough check to make sure that they actually “deserved” death, even if i doubt he was very merciful in his judgement. and that’s already my own guess and not something that is visible in the text.

at the same time, while jason’s plan seems extremely calculated, i don’t think at the deepest level this is what he’s getting at in utrh. and i’m not even talking about bruce here and his own emotional needs, because that would require an entire essay; his plan is surely tied to his own emotional trauma (but not stemming only from it, as i said, he does care about gotham to a pathological extent), that most people have to agree with. but here i want to address the ethical layer of the problem.

i talk a lot about jason wanting to fix the world, but when it comes to utrh, this is obviously a certain mental shortcut: what jason thinks is that there’s no way to completely fix the world, but that it’s still within his responsibility to attempt to minimise the harm. you can’t eliminate crime, but you can (as you said) control it. or however he worded it. and i don’t reckon control here is just some personal power trip; i think he genuinely believes this is what has to be done to protect people. it’s a nice bridge in between his natural idealism and cynicism; he says: well, there’s lots of evil in the world and i can’t get rid of all of it. but i have to try to purge as much of it as possible. whatever it takes.

while i'm convinced this is the concept that came to life mostly due to winick’s complete disinterest in jason’s inner life and motivations, and because he tried to make him a perfect foil for bruce, it does bring in some intriguing considerations. if we want to reconcile this reasoning with jason’s og personality and sensitivity, i imagine it would take an unimaginable toll on him. it would be much easier for him to kill in rage, retribution etc., but this is a plan that despite coming from a place of delusional care and hope, requires detachment that is very out of character for him. it stands against everything he was as a robin; it requires him to kill a version of himself. (he can't even attain that detachment till the end, as his monologue is as emotional and true to himself as it gets. but at this point he no longer is just killing a part of himself, he's just killing himself, end of sentence)

this thought is very compatible with what i call the no good deed interpretation btw, according to which he sees his past, vulnerable self as weak, and attempts to leave it behind, while creating his new identity to be untouchable. in a similar manner, he also manipulates his own worldview to make it seem like it’s impossible to help people while caring. this is an intensely paradoxical view, especially that his main motivation is still love, and yet in his eyes it's like a parasite.

it’s also tied to something that makes me think that in the end the utilitarian dimension is not actually the main (sole) feature of his moral disposition in utrh. what is the core of it is self-sacrifice, something that i talk about in this post.

btw this is not what i think the best course of jason’s moral development is. i’m not even deadset on this reading. it’s rather a possible interpretation of canon, that implements a patchwork of different moments in the continuity. and canon is free real estate.

why is comic making so hard

i should stop being busy and unfocused all the time AUGHHHH!!!!!!! i should get stuff done FASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🖕🖕🖕🖕

I should be studying right now, but… do you ever think about how Arakawa didn't have to die?

Not even in the meta sense that it's RGG "tradition" to take faceclaims/father figures/antagonists out of the picture and that traditions should sometimes be broken, or that Aoki would've changed his mind, or that Ishioda or Tendo could've been stopped. But because Jo is the captain (and later second patriarch) of an organization specifically stated to specialize in faking deaths. A practice that originated in the Bubble Era years after Jo had already joined, and that Jo was no doubt intimately familiar with.

Like, isn't that why Arakawa was able to take that risk shooting Ichi? It just feels like things could've gone so much differently had Jo "accepted" Aoki's orders and "confronted" Arakawa with some kind of escape. Perhaps the Ijincho homeless camp would be off-limits, having drawn too much attention recently, but an assassin would surely know how to lay low for a while.

And maybe Aoki, Ishioda, and Tendo would've been undone by their own ambition anyway. And Arakawa could've kept his word and ran the security company with the pillars of the Tojo and Omi, while Jo could've been the chairman of the Tokyo Omi Alliance; light and shadow, opposite to their respective sons. And so many more yakuza wouldn't have been left with nowhere to go.

And hell, maybe none of it would've worked out in the end, maybe it would've all folded like a house of cards, but wasn't it worth a shot? Perhaps it was Yokoyama he who didn't think of it (or couldn't/didn't pursue it even if he did), perhaps it was Jo. But there's something so tragic about being so fundamentally opposed to lifting a finger in violence towards your co-parent and patriarch that you decline the opportunity to save him.

I wonder if the thought has ever occurred to Jo.

I wonder how much he regrets it.

UGH RIGHT IT'S SOOOO....

Like of COURSE I'm upset about Arakawa's death in that we lost a wonderful character and father figure in the franchise, but also it's cause it's just... for all the scheming Arakawa and Jo have been doing behind Aoki's back this entire time, Jo folded on this opportunity to get Arakawa out of Aoki's radar for good this time- or for at least the time being.

It's a testament to the humanity he convinced himself he threw away, and that's why it especially makes me want to scream. From our understanding, Jo is supposed to be very pragmatic and tries to deal with matters as efficiently as possible and generally seems emotionally detached from his work (of course we know that's not the case, but just from a surface-level perspective that's how it appears). So the one time Jo does show an ounce of humanity, it has the greatest consequence.

tagged by @skijjiki THANK YOU!!! <333

List 4 characters you match the energy of!

Top Left: Yachi Hitoka from Haikyuu!!

Top Right: Stede Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death

Middle: Usopp from One Piece

Last: Jiro Sakana from Sakana

This took me so long for the sole reason of not knowing myself good enough apparently shajdgshhj Let's not talk about how many times I had to redo this because I wasn't satisfied..... (it was 4 times u_u)

I picked all of them for various personal reasons but mostly because almost all of them have anxiety lol

Also because of their hero's journey and their role as characters but that's a little too sentimental for me rn lol lmao

This was hard!! But it was also a good chance for me to reflect a little! Thank you so much again for the tag!!!

i tag @horson, @livingonyoghurtandspite, @raph-red-fan and @clementinethekitten in case any of you want to do it!! (∩^o^)⊃━☆