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kisilinramblings · 2 years

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I've seen people point out that Owl House and the Dragon Prince had their main ships get together partway through their series, and how they are better than ML in handling their romantic subplots by showing them as a couple early on. But do you think these series are comparable in how their romances are structured?

Shows are basically like fanfics : it depends what you are looking for and what appeals to you!

For ML, it's a slow burn romcom set in an universe mixing Superheroes and Magical Girl genres, with the main characters (and ship) learning about each other and themselves while juggling between their civilian and superhero lives all while maintaining their respective secret identity.

For Dragon Prince, it is an epic fantasy adventure in which politics and magic intertwine. The romance between two of the mains is a sub plot and they will face adversity together alongside their allies as they try to prevent a war / save the world. And the story is only half way (and tbh, I have started to forget about elements of the show... I even forgot Callum and Rayla were a thing during Book 3 before you reminded me of it, Anon ^^; -- sorry TDP fans).

The Owl House plays more into the isekai genre setting in a bizarre and magical world and that incorporates a rivals to lovers romance and do end in a relationship and see those two commit to it. It's also the intent of creator Dana Terrace to show LGBTQ+ characters in a healthy and happy relationship during the show instead of just as an Happy Ending. And Kudos to her and her team! I'm behind with S2, but I do enjoy Lumity a lot. They are very cute together.

Btw, getting in a relationship isn't a freaking race! Heck, I was 27 when I started my first relationship ever (hello, greyromantic/ace here!) and we were both so scared our friendship would suffer if it was only unrequited. And even after we did start to date, I waited at least 3 months before slowly opening up about it to my family and our friends.

But it is also true that getting the Kiss™ isn't supposed to be an ending. It can feel satisfying for movies ending or a season finale, but being in a relationship is a new beginning and needs commitment, honesty and respect. And there were disappointing work of fictions in which the book or season or movie ends with the main ship sailing, only for next part to start with a timeskip and the ship has broke up months ago. As if they do not have faith that seeing those two work as a couple and seeing them commit to their relationship would be boring or something.

We do need more healthy and power couples having adventures together with their ups and downs in their relationship, yet working out to make it work because they care about it and about their SO and want to be better for them (Gomez and Morticia from Addams family). Like we also need to see more platonic relationships in media, or stories representing Aro/ace people.

There are also stories like Animorph in which the couple of the group breaks up at the end of the series once the events are resolved. That is a possibility.

There are characters who do feel attraction and try to be together but doesn't work between them even after they have try again and again to make it work (i.e. : La La Land -- hated that movie because I didn't believe in the relationship it was promoting but I did was relieved to finally see the two get their separate ways at the end).

And there are times where you are better alone, living the life with your friends and (found) family than being with a romantic partner. (Mabel from Gravity Falls fits here imo)

Other times, your feelings are unrequited and need to be cope with yet you can still have great friendship with the person you had a crush on (Dipper's crush on Wendy).

All that to say, we need diversity. Both in the kind of stories being told to us as well as the representation of people being in said relationships.

#miraculous ladybug #the owl house #the dragon prince

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batarangsoundsdumb · 3 years

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yet another ask dump yeehaw!

do you ever think that jay's mother was one of those bitch who believes in horoscope and tarots and things like that and so he believes in these things too, or it is just me projecting?

sheila haywood took one look at jason's birthchart said 'nah this won't do' and left.

Wait, but what happens when the justice league does find out that Bruce and John fucked? Lmao it sounds like it would be hilarious, really, I don’t want a justice league that doesn’t make fun of Bruce for like his entire life.

barry runs out of the meeting immediately and comes back with an entire sti testing kit. diana fully seriously wants bruce to get tested while bruce is sitting there like 'come on guys, you're being ridiculous, i already checked twice'

john is standing in the corner clearly offended while bruce is just like 'don't even say anything, constantine, you fucked a shark'

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

on the one hand, good for him, on the other hand, bro, how do you still have a secret identity when your superhero name is just your last name,,,,

Your fic on ao3 was GOLD PLEASE CONTINUE I loved Dinah's cameo btw ( @purple-vixen

thanks so much! i already continued but this ask is like 10 years old because i'm a notorious procrastinator (also yes! i love dinah so much aahhhhhhhhhhhh)

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

bruce internally: holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit bruce externally: get out of my city, alien

AHHH ur multimedia fic is the only thing that brings me happiness anymore continue it forever pls

uhh thanks, but can't continue it forever because my attention span is that of a toddler on crack on a good day and i can't function without at least 10 things going on at the same time and music in the background

Oi, so I'm getting into dc and watching batman the animated series, and they use fruitcake a lot. Which I thought was very funny and wanted to share w you - Denilla

wait like fruitcake (food) or fruitcake (derogatory) ?

young justice 🤝 teen titans slut shaming batman

tim drake and dick grayson to their respective teams 'you guys stop it, that's my dad'

Happyhoganon: If an eighty year old Batman had fought crime in Gotham City for decades and the only threats to him and the city lately are a wheel chair bounded Penguin, your usual purse snatchers and a few con artists popping up every now and then, how well could the Dark Knight do in maintaining the peace in Gotham despite him being just somewhat fit to do that as an elderly man (which says A LOT given how old he is)

uhh he'll probably do what my grandpa does and that is ruthlessly prank them until they die of shame.

in the death in the family interactive movie there's an ending where Jason is tasked with raising Damian and he decides he's gonna raise Damian to take down the waynes and al ghuls which uh maybe isn't great BUT the idea of Jason raising Damian... PRICELESS. CHAOTIC. I just need more people to know about this :)

yes i saw that wow holy shit but jason would accidentally drop damian on his head one (1) hour in and jason just yeets him into the lazarus pit.

Headcanon: The Penguin has a really hard time fighting any of the Robins because of his avian obsession means there's always a small part of his mind that's like "Birb. Child. Protect" ( @subspacecadet )

as soon as dick becomes nightwing the penguin is like 'you know what, fuck this dude' and shoots at him.

Y'all talking about King Shark dating Constantine, let's not forget about John literally hooking up with Satan

listen there's a clear difference between monsterfucker and satanfucker in that king shark is literally a shark and satan still looks like a normal dude

Does everyone in Gotham think Batman is a teen dad?

everyone in gotham thinks batman has been around since gotham was founded, but they do think that bruce wayne is actually a teen father and dick grayson's biological dad.

why. why would you do that fancast when you know it will only hurt people

what? i loved my fancast it was really well done. i did it with good representation in mind and i really managed that with alfred pennyworth being ✨italian✨

Seeing james charles a jason gave me psychic damage how dare you i need to wash my eyes

well that's a you problem isn't it?

do you think dick grayson thirst tweets about nightwing just to annoy his family/cause problems on purpose in general?

he thinks nightwing is hot, next question.

holy jiminy cricket batman, its as cold as the good lords ass crack in here!!

i- what? this is why i don't fuck with english expressions it's way too goddamn weird

Brooooooo, your teen dad!Bruce au is soooo good. I've got brainrot.

Honestly if you ever write anymore, I'd read that shit twice. Sign me the fuck up. Good stuff, Good Stuff.

uh yeah i'm thinking about writing a fic, but i have exams coming up and i don't wanna fail because that would suck. but after i'll certainly be writing more tho

your teen dad AU is so great! bruce acting like a big brother for all of like a week before he's telling everyone about his son. what if in the AU dick meets the JL because they need to rescue him? maybe he's in trouble/kidnapped at a gala and bruce starts calling for JL. clark finds him and has to fly with dick to bring him home - that's how dick and clark meet and superman becomes dick's fave hero. he goes around the manor thinking he can fly with a red blanket draped around him like a cape.

actually- if you want a young dad! bruce fic with like that kinda stuff(just with damian) go check uhh- in for a penny by cdelphiki. it's really good and bruce is like 24/25-ish. (and dick's there!!!)

This account has solely convinced me that Tim is a trash goblin ( @hamilcat-and-magic-turtle )

because he is. that boy has slept in dumpsters on multiple occasions even if he is the son of a billionaire.

Okay but when you said victory dance I did think of the whole justice league defeating the big bad and then they all start flossing

well that's exactly what hal jordan does and that's why batman uses a gun now. no but the victory dance in my opinion is like the 'we're all in this together' dance from high school musical.

The horrors in Invincible s1 was nothing compared to the comics, I cant wait for s2

oh well okay, i mean i personally react to horror and violence by laughing awkwardly so i can't wait to be called a monster for accidentally laughing at a mass murder.

I'm currently watching Batman: The Brave and The Bold and- Bruce is just talking about Oliver like he's an old love (@nightwings-kid)

okay im going to watch that lmao that's totally and completely in character for him tho.

The invincible comic is like super gratuitous with its violence so much so I'm shocked the show was able to adapt it in a faithful way! Anyway had the show been live action it absolutely wouldn't have the same impact as it does as an animated show and I'm so glad so many people agree with me on that

also because a live action casting would've been like uhh amanda stenberg for amber, the dude- the guy from the supernatural but with a mustache for omni-man, and scarlet johanssen for debbie grayson

Debbie grayson is a milf, yes. You're welcome for the invincible propoganda, now you can questions your life. Bruce def seems like the perfect father next to Omni-man. Like they really took a rip off justice league and I was like well, now I'm attached even tho I was like hah I know who they're supposed to be. And then bam- death gore death gore gore gore sad Mark grayson just had to have daddy issues. Why does every character have daddy issues. I'm sick of the attacks

because daddy issues make a person arguably funnier, that's why i'm not even remotely funny (haha good dad flex). i liked that it was dark contextually, but not in the colouring, bc i hate when it's like 'uh yeah graphic murder and now a shot so dark you have to sit in a dark room and squint at the screen to faintly see the characters. (like dcau ugh)

About the Wayne insurance, for a moment I thought you would put the video with moans over the waves.

i mean- i could've done that, but rick rolling seemed more family friendly.

Its the first time in forever that im surpise rickrolled, i usually expect it. Congratulations (i really should know better this is tumblr)

i get rickrolled so often but i actually like the song so i dont really give a fuck

Actually, my information about Damian and John's kids is outdated because it was revealed that the old men telling the kids stories about the Supersons were actually Jon and Damian the whole time. I was blinded by my thirst for Grandpa!Bruce Wayne but I was wrong... I liked my version better, tbh (@artemisa97)

fair enough. but i'd honestly like to see damian and jon getting together, just because it's a really fun dynamic and their friendship was really cute when they were kids. (also idk maybe it would be nice to have one (1) main batfam/superfam character that's not cishet)

How am i JUST finding your blog skdskfkd you're so fucking funny and ur takes are hot

i thought u were calling me hot :( but youre not :( crime detected (but lmao thanks)

So I have depression and I swear that your memes are one of the few things that have made me laugh so thank you 💛🥺 (@katekanebadass)

aw you're welcome, and i hope you're doing okay!

The metropolis memes are so funny, I love them 💀😌

i think metropolis is also so fucking funny it deserves more attention imagine having your entire police force being upstaged by an alien from kansas and his kids

as an american i feel your complete lack of knowledge of us geography is just so sexy (platonic) ❤️

thanks so much (i also don't know any other geography, i'm not kidding, like you can tell me you're from hungary and it will just blank, there will be nothing that comes to mind)

In the DC universe they don't say "Can't have shit in Detroit" they say "Can't have shit in Gotham"

this just reminds me of that guy whose porch got stolen like the steps to his door, and i'm thinking of people living in gotham and waking up without a front door and going "can't have shit in gotham"

honestly all i know about chicago is the bean, so. what would gotham's famous sculpture be?

gigantic gargoyle statue in front of one of the police precincts because a villain thought it was a smart way to keep the police inside, but it's too heavy to move.

why tf do people go on about how batman "works alone" or how he's the "lone wolf" when he like 38290202 members in his family

bc people think it's cool that a grown man in his 30s has no friends or family instead of calling it what it is (sad)

Bruce is gotham's sugar daddy

why would say something so controversial yet so brave.

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

dick: gerard way are you in position, gerard way are you in position

tim: for the last fucking time, my codename is 'totally not count olaf' this week, abbafan 3000

dick: shut up my codename isn't 'abbafan 3000'

dick: it's 'abbafan number 1' and you know it

I have a feeling Tim drake is ur favourite batfamily member but okay u don't have favs if u say so ok

i mean he is, i won't deny it. but i love each and every one of the batfam just the same, i just have a weak spot for short dumbass nerds, because i'm a short dumbass nerd.

Omg i fuckin love boy meets world too fam shsjkfk

bro boy meets world was the shit!!! it was just fire and awesome and so fucking great like bro. it was so good im not even going to be accepting criticism

you know I find the whole "joker completes batman" thing a bit disgusting considering the horrendous stuff the batfamily went through because of the joker and let's not get started on the "joker has a point" thing like yeah he's this cool complex villain but he's absolutely batshit crazy

like yes! i get what you mean the joker just fucking sucks man he doesn't do shit for batman's character or the batfam he's literally just annoying as fuck. like the joker has a point' shit is so stupid. i will accept 'magneto was right' because he fucking was and i think he didn't do anything wrong, but joker? he's just like that. he's not even cool and complex he's just a weirdo with a bleach kink at this point.

ALSO YOUR RACISM POST- SO TRUE BESTIE

thanks bestie, i'm glad you agree.

in today's essay of why I think cass should become batman- I was thinking Tim would probably be the most efficient batman in many ways but I also think he wouldn't want to be batman tbh none of the batfamily members would want to be batman because they're trying to outgrow him but cass is the one who wants to represent the symbol that is batman

absofuckinglutely i will say it again and again that cass represents the batsymbol more than anyone in the batfam, in batgirl (2000) she literally didn't care about anything else than bruce's oath to not kill, she thought the batsymbol was more important than anything in gotham. she's just an excellent character because her motivation to not kill is not 'i'm scared i can't come back from it' or 'well my dad says no murder so i'll go along with it' but that she's killed somebody as a young child and she never wants to kill a human ever again and that's so fucking beautiful for a new batman like yes.

need more cass, duke and tim inclusion in gothamite memes

yes yes, a tall order of cass, duke and tim coming up in 1-14 business days

oldest to youngest batfam members cus I'm confused as shit

okay order of being taken in: dick, jason, tim, cass, damian, duke order of age: alfred, bruce, dick, cass, jason, tim, duke, damian (though cass and jason are around the same age general consensus is that cass is a little older)

I'm so confused Steph is a redhead?? like how was it that hard to get this right? the source material is literally right there and free

cw is jared, 19

do you receive anon hate? if so, how do you deal with it

uh no, i'm not remotely popular enough to get anon hate and i also don't say a lot of things that would attract anon hate, but i do send anon hate to @the-real-peter-parker because he forgot about the specialists from winx club

Wait how many languages do you speak??

uhh- 5 if you include latin, but that's a dead language and i'm really bad at it. but english, my native language, german, and french also, tho german and french not fluently.

You can mix aguaepanela with aguardiente 😈 and is tasty

okay but now i'm curious if the liquor deserves the 😈 emoji or if that's a you problem. but i googled it and it looks like something you'd take one sip of and then not remember the rest of your evening.

#i love all of you guys so much thanks for all these asks #some of these are literally from march but fuck it #the day tumblr puts dates next to anon messages is the day i close my inbox crawl into a hole and die #it's such a basic task to answer asks but i don't want to bother anyone with asks clogging up their timeline #and if i don't have a funny or good answer i'm like 'uhh okay won't answer it now then'#so this is for you #also i deleted a few asks because it gives me mental pain to see my inbox go over 50 and it's almost at 100 #i was complaining about having too many asks to the-real-peter-parker like months ago and then i had 45 asks in my inbox #now it's amassed to going over 100 twice #but no i love all of you and you're great and you're all fantastic and i lvoe you #muchos kiss kiss #kiss kiss for my kiddies lvoe you #invincible spoilers #dc #dcu #dc comics #ask #anon #bataranswers #i really wanna try aguapanela now i'm gonna see if i can find panela somewhere and review it for you babes #uh yeah that's it #muchos gracias for all your questions babes

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vonkarma2 · 2 years

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1, 2, 23 for the oc ask?

1. Your first OC ever?

I’m not 100% sure I’m pretty sure it was a superhero who could turn into any animal in a puff of smoke, she had been raised in the woods like all by herself and so she knew a lot about nature. She had kind of like a wild unpredictable personality, and her outfit was a leopard print onesie with like ears on the hood. Her name was She-ra because I had see He-Man and my dad mentioned She-ra also existed and so I used that same name because I thought it fit the character. This was when I was like 8 btw. But my ninjago fan oc (there were like elemental dragons in the show at one point) who was a pink girl dragon with the element of magic could have come first.

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?

Which character is my favorite changes pretty often, like depending on who I’m most interested in at the time and I guess whether I’m interested in their inner emotions, so I would say I do have a favorite like at any given time, but not any one favorite like in the long term (I do have one it’s Rocio)

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Saida was originally created as part of like. A school assignment for my art class basically what I was doing was creating a magical girl team based on 2000s fashion. So every character had like their own power and then what it was was tied to like whatever their character arc was (for example one of them was like super nice but had zero self esteem, so she initially had the power to heal the other characters + amplify their powers, but then she became more confident and could like use her own powers as well which were related to like light/the sun).

It was like really simple so I finished the character designs but I didn’t really have a lot of interest in developing them any further. But then I did anyway for some reason + like 1/2 of the characters were abandoned but 1/2 of them I kept. Grace and Melanie have basically the same personalities except they’re not magical girls and they were like developed further into more in depth characters, but Saida’s whole like character was changed. She went from having no sense of identity (and so shapeshifting powers)+ feeling lost and helpless I guess to having to fake being overly confident because a lot of the things she wants in life seem impossible (whether it’s things that actually are very difficult like becoming a successful musician or things that are very plausible like having someone fall in love with her) and she’s convinced she’s going to fail at everything, so she like turned hard into acting as though she can do literally everything she wants and success is guaranteed until she starts to believe it, which at like the start of the story she kind of has, but she’s also stubborn and has an unwillingness to like reflect on her choices or think abt the future.

I like her a lot basically :) I think she’s a fun character to write she’s really funny (< I have like 5 handwritten pages that will never see the light of day and some comic page sketches) and I like her relationships with the other characters. But overall she’s completely different than the original concept (or than she was in some of the 500 other iterations of this story, I last described what the story is like a month ago and that’s outdated now. Right now it’s mostly a slice of life type story with very very minimal magic elements but that could completely change. At one point this story was about being stranded in the far future, at another point it was Halloween themed. So with this I mostly have the characters and their relationships established + like ironclad, but as for what actually happens to them… anyone’s guess tbh.)

#other early ocs include my 3rd grade imaginary friend who was a girl with red hair named Abigail #and the main character of a story I wrote when I was 10 about a terrible basketball team bc I was also on a terrible basketball team #ty for sending this as usual #my ocs #saida khoury

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soyouareandrewdobson · 3 years

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Andy on Asian Animation or SYAC: The Master Review 2

Let’s talk a bit about anime and Dobson’s work relation with it.

I think we can all agree, that starting from the late 90s and early 2000s on, anime and manga became extremely popular in the western world. Sure, Japanese animation was nothing completely new to us (Speed Racer, Nadia-Secret of Blue Water, Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Kimba and Akira e.g. come to my mind as properties already known in the west before 1995) but it really was around this time that thanks to “mainstream” stuff like Dragon Ball and Pokemon people became aware of how different Japanese animation was from western. Eventually resulting in the really good shit (like Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, Kenshin and Heat Guy J) coming over and enriching nerd culture for more than just a few people who knew of it as an obscurity at that point. Now, if you know anything about Dobson, you likely know that his relationship with anime is rather… complicated to say the least. Or, to let him explain it with his own words…

Dobson essentially likes silly and wacky 90s anime. But later on he hated anime in general, because it got too popular and a bad experience with an anime club in college soured his enjoyment of it. Furthermore, he put the blame on his lackluster art style and storytelling capabilities as seen in the likes of Formera, Patty and Alex ze Pirate, on anime in general, while also claiming that Disney pulling the plug on 2D animation is the result of the “anime inspired” Treasure Planet, meaning anime in a sense deprived him of his chance at working at his dream job and “ruining” western animation.

Which to me has always been ignorant as fuck. For starters, I can understand not liking certain stories or genres, either for objective or subjective reasons. But to hate on an entire nation’s form of entertainment (not just individual shows or genres), depriving yourself of the chance of potentially watching a lot of good stuff while also being rather insulting to these other works and people enjoying them? Especially when the stuff you can supposedly “stomach” has been rather simplistic compared to other things?

Second, blaming Japan for “poisoning” your art style? What, did the ghost of Osamu Tezuka possess you and FORCE you to put sweatdrops on your characters forehead while also going for the rather simplistic character style of Rumiko Takahashi, as well as emulating the slapstick of the likes as Slayers and Ranma ½?

Next, if he had emulated them successfully, I say he would have actually managed to tell decent enough stories worth to read online. Not create Uncle Peggy aka “Discount Happosai” or the bland proto-Isekai known as Formera.

I mean, let’s give some context here: There have been people who successfully managed to emulate certain anime and manga aesthetics into western animation and make it work. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten the likes of Avatar-The last Airbender, Samurai Jack, the Animatrix, Thundercats 2011, Super Robot Monkey Hyperforce Go, Kim Possible, W.I.T.C.H, Megas XLR and Wakfu. You know, shows that are actually awesome as hell.

Heck, Dobson’s favorite animated show of the last decade, Steven Universe, is heavily inspired by anime aesthetics to the point of being embarrassing.

But Dobson… well, he emulated anime aesthetics in his work the same way as these crimes against animation did.

Combined with his general shortcomings as a storyteller it is no wonder his initial comics did not do well.

Lastly, and sorry for digressing here a bit, but if the Wikipedia entry on Treasure Planet is something to go by, there was no real inspiration by anime involved in making this movie.

Supposedly the idea of making an animated Treasure Planet in outer space movie was already pitched by Ron Clements WAY BACK in 1985 but only came to be after Michael Eisner greenlighted stuff in the late 90s. Design wise the movie was supposed to look 70% traditional and 30% sci-fi inspired and people took inspiration for the art style by illustrators associated with the Brandywine School of Illustration. A western style of illustration established in the 19th century, that had a big impact on the illustration styles for many 19th and early 20th century adventure novels and short stories.

What, is anime supposed to be the only form of animation allowed to have sci fi elements or steampunk in it? Fucks sake, The Lion King and Atlantis, which came out one year earlier to Treasure Planet, were likely more inspired by anime. Don’t believe me? Watch Atlantis and then a certain anime by Studio Gainax called “Nadia-Secret of Blue Water”. Or read up on the controversy surrounding the two.

The truth is, it is not entirely clear what caused Disney to shut down 2D feature film animation in the early 2000s. In fact, if anything, most people put the blame on Michael Eisner and a certain change in the publics taste in movies in general, combined with Disney trying to turn almost every movie they had into a franchise via cheap follow up movies on video and DVD.

And even if Disney did not shut down, are we really supposed to believe that a certain guy with fedora would have made it big at Disney to the point Alex ze Pirate would have been made into a feature film?

But Dobson could never quite understand this and instead of “reinventing” himself properly, he would rant about anime and its fans in one form or another…

And on the peak of his hissy fit create this little art piece he baptized Anime Sux. Alternatively “West vs East”. Or as I like to call it, slap a jap.

Now, the pic was done in 2008 and Dobson claimed sometimes in the last decade, that he no longer holds his old opinions. Unfortunately, by that point he would also more or less use the chance to vent in his webcomic about anime (or rather its fans), which brings us finally back to SYAC.

While Dobson never outright thematized in more detail WHY he hates anime and manga in SYAC (likely cause if his comic reasoning was even slightly like his reasoning in his blogs, people would have torn him apart like a bag of paper) he did use the format to punch down on anime fans and their preferences.

For example, for someone who has a 4chan story going around of having been rather arrogant towards others in college for not liking Ranma ½, Dobson has THIS little college related comic to show off, where he portrays an aspiring manga artist as a delusional jackass.

Then in this strip titled manga, his manga fan is essentially portrayed as a young woman dressing up like a very stereotypical high school anime girl, who is in the wrong for even just DARING to draw her comics in the direction manga are read.

On one hand, I get Dobson’s point. She could be at risk of alienating a market of readers as she is obviously drawing for a western audience. Then again, if she doesn’t draw a traditional western comic but a manga, why shouldn’t she? I mean, as long as she enjoys it, which I assume she does as she seems genuinely just happy when stating that she likes manga, why not let her? Plus, this comic was drawn in the late 2000s. I think by then most people kinda knew how to read from right to left, so Dobson’s claim she would alienate or confuse people is kinda redundant. If anything I find a) Dobson getting angry at her just very petty (just let her have fun) and b) portraying a western manga fan as someone who would be confused by the sheer idea of reading stuff from right to left is also in itself just really dumb and insulting. What is Dobson trying to imply? That anime fans are so stuck in the way they consume certain media, they can’t act according to “western standards” again?

Then there is this strip where yet another female anime fan is essentially portrayed as the embodiment of how “ignorant” manga fans are of the idea of different art styles...

Which becomes rather laughable once Dobson describes his style as a mixture of European, American and Japanese. Why? Because he is the one oversimplifying things, rather than the anime fan.

You see while anime and manga of all sorts do share certain aesthetics (like the black and white art style, emphasize on the eyes of characters, the way hair is drawn, recurring tropes within certain genres and so on) style wise (both in art and storytelling) there can be severe differences, depending on the artist alone. Akira Toriyama’s style differentiates significantly from the likes of Eichiro Oda, Rumiko Takahashi, Kentaro Miura, Tezuka, Kaori Yuki and so forth.

The same also goes for many western artists. Herge had a significantly different style from Uderzo and Goscinny. Don Rosa has a different style in which he drew Scrooge McDuck than Carl Barks did. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee draw mainstream superheroes differently compared to how Jack Kirby, George Perez and others did. Heck, Ethan Van Sciver and Jim Lee were closely associated with Green Lantern in the 2000s and look how they differentiate.

Which btw is the kind of skill level Dobson would have needed to have, to make it in the mainstream industry

So when Dobson says “I draw in a combination of American, Western and Japanese” all I can think is the following: THAT DOESN’T NARROW IT DOWN! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU LEARNT IN COLLEGE ABOUT COMICS? WHICH ARTISTS, WORKS AND STORYTELLERS DO YOU TRY TO EITHER EMULATE OR HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY?

Then there is this little thing…

Where do I even begin? How about the fact that Dobson’s hand in the last panel looks like he has lost a thumb? The fact that the little boy, anime fan or not, is aware of Sae Sawanoguchi, a character from a short lived OVA and anime series from the 90s, which considering his age, I kinda doubt he would be aware off. Unlike Dobson, who got into anime in the 90s and admits in fact within the posts I loaded up earlier, that he had watched the anime in particular, known in the west as Magic User Club.

Then there is the implication by Dobson, that anime is so “corruptive” as a medium, little kids don’t even know the most basic characters in western animation because of it. I expect in a next panel, that all of sudden some 50s PSA guy comes along and lectures me that if I want this kind of thing not to happen at MY convention, I need to teach little kids more about the GOOD western animation, instead of the BAD eastern one. Then there is this rather unflattering portrayal of a shonen ai/shojou ai fangirl…

Which makes me laugh cause honestly, even some of the worst shonen ai and shojou ai can do better in portraying a “realistic” gay relationship than Patty if you ask me.

Also, as much as I think fangirls can be extremely thirsty (I have read my fair share of extremely stupid yaoi and yuri fanfics) I think that in hindsight Dobson is really not anyone to complain about shipping obsession and sex when he himself has KorraSami, the Ladybug fandom and a certain rat pirate under his floppy belt.

As you can imagine, Dobson would get heat for those comics, considering how he himself has been greatly inspired by anime and manga for his major comics. And while I don’t have any explicit deviantart posts of him reacting to criticism in that regard, I do have this comic which addresses it directly.

And yeah, if I were schoolgirl number 4, I would just sigh and walk away after telling Dobson that his mistakes and shortcomings are not related to having consumed anime, but rather by what sort of anime (and other stories) he had consumed and the amount of effort he had put in creating his stories instead of emulating just something more popular. Plus, if you really want people to draw more from life, how about drawing more from life yourself down the line? And no, tracing Star Wars movie frames does not count.

Finally, Dobson, considering how very little most people think of your work, I say mission accomplished: People have learnt from your mistakes and know not to be a Dobson.

And at last, there is this comic, which kinda wraps up Dobson’s “vendetta” with anime and manga fans within the pages of SYAC.

By trying to mock anime fans and make them look just as shallow as he is. I at least suppose. Honestly, the message of this comic is rather muddled. On one hand, I would say the strawman accusing Dobson hates anime just because it is popular is very simplified. After all, Dobson has made his reasons for not liking anime clear in a few more details. It’s just that the details in and on themselves in real life are still rather shallow and boil down to a lot of personal bias rather than an objective criticism of actual flaws. Which I think is worth pointing out.

But frankly, what is Dobson trying to say or point out here? That the strawman is not so different or even dumber than him, because he hates Justin Bieber for “shallow” and superficial reasons too?

Okay, this doesn’t quite work as well as Dobson wants. First, the argument Dobson’s strawman makes is in huge parts based on some verified statements Dobson made for not liking anime. Second, he just says a name and that triggers the guy to express his hatred for Bieber. We don’t know why the guy hates Bieber and you could make in fact the case, that he hates him not because he is popular, but because he has a genuine issue with the artist, his work or his behavior as a human being. Third, if you want to make yourself look like the better person Dobson, try to argue with the guy and make solid arguments why you don’t like anime. Instead you just deflect the criticism by changing the subject and then try to make yourself look like the “smarter” person in the room by mocking your critic in the most condescending manner.

Which as I think about it, sounds like your modus operandi on twitter and tumblr.

Weirdly enough, that more or less marks the “end” of Dobson tackling anime fans and the beef he has with them within the pages of SYAC. Despite how much Dobson’s negative reputation especially in early years was build around him hating on anime and belittling its fans, he didn’t really do more afterwards in the Dobson focused pages of SYAC. And mind you, those strips were also separated by other strips in-between, focused on Dobson just being at conventions.

Unfortunately for him, the strips didn’t really help in any way to diminish that negative reputation and instead just confirmed for many, that Dobson can’t handle criticism about his flawed opinion on anime. If anything, it just made people think even less of Dobson, as the strips just painted him as someone who would rather portray his critics as strawman he can be “rightfully” annoyed at, instead of fellow humans with slightly different tastes in entertainment, who are still worth listening to.

So, now that we have the anime fan related “annoyances” out of the way, what other sort of silly problems in making webcomics would Dobson cover in his strips and are “relatable” to everyone?

Lets see some of these examples in the next part.

#anime / manga #manga #Andrew Dobson #fuck you Tom Preston #Tom Preston #syac #so...you are a cartoonist #so you are a cartoonist #review #webcomic #comic #adobsonsartwork #adobsoncomic #adobsonartworks

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drabbles-of-writing · 4 years

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Favorite AUs you didn’t write?

I’ll just list the AU’s I can remember talking about but never planned on writing. Y’all are free to take these, btw

Surfer AU!!! May have a singular one shot for this one but it’s basically all in the title. Think of Surfs Up but like. People. Amity is big buff repressed lesbian and Luz is just a babey like always and smacking herself in the face with her board.

HTTYD AU! Will never write this one. Too many questions. Are the witches dragon shapeshifters? Half-dragons? We don’t know!! What I do know is that me and a mutual talked about the angst idea if Camila fucking Died and Eda was the one who blasted her like in HTTYD2. Dragon milfs

Atlantis AU. Never got around to talk much on this. But it’s basically Disney’s Atlantis but Luz was a stowaway and ended up in Atlantis with the witch atlantians. Also her mom later shows up. And there’s some ~friendship is magic~ and it was Cute.

Superhero AU. Had fun talkin abt this one, but I could Never write it. Too much on my plate. Basically: Miles Morales Luz, witch Eda, emotionally stunted catgirl Amity, Poison Ivy Willow, normal but best-guy Gus, illusion twins, etc. Amity starts as a villain but switches over, the twins are mostly neutral. Also Camila used to be a superhero with Eda and Lilith & a few others over a decade ago but quit. Milfs.

Thief AU,,,,,Carmen Sandiego AU,,,,,,,,,,dumbass thieves, the detectives hopelessly in love with them, what more do you want?

There are others I’m sure but I can’t like. think of em rn. I’ll bring up more some other day

#asks #aus #the owl house #surfer au #httyd au #atlantis au #superhero au #thief au #toh #my writing

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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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I hope you don't mind me dropping asks on you every day? Anyways, a general question on modern-day attempts at using existing Pulp Heroes; do you think there is value in setting such tales in the modern day, rather than being period pieces? And if one does do so, do you think the best approach is to go full setting update, or to somehow translate the characters into the modern day, or to go the Legacy route?

I eagerly look forward to answering all kinds of questions, so don’t hesitate to send any my way!. Any feedback or excuse I get to go off on a subject is extremely appreciated.

Okay so on to your question:

...Man, that really seems like the billion dollar question when it comes to the pulp heroes, isn’t it? The one at least that every conversation regarding adapting these characters, giving them reboots or new stories, seems to inevitably get stuck on: Should these characters be left as is, or modernized? Is there any point to trying to modernize them when often, at least in the public view, the only thing that separates them from being diet superheroes is their time period? Can these characters even survive as anything other than historical footnotes if they don’t move past the trappings of time holding them back? I’ve been very firmly on both sides of the question at different points and I think every answer inevitably brings up solutions and problems of it’s own.

For the moment, I’m going to start by saying that it’s something of a case by case basis. For example, The Scarlet Pimpernel is a timeless archetype, but one who’s specific characterization and history is so tied up to it’s time period that it’s far better to just reimagine the Pimpernel into a different character set in a different time, than to try and remove the Blakeneys from their time period, likewise with characters who cross into historical fantasy like Conan or western characters, where they have such strongly defined settings and playgrounds that you’d be losing much by removing them from it.

But on the other hand, you have characters like The Phantom, or The Avenger, who very clearly could exist at just about any point in time and don’t have any specific complications holding them to the 30s (in fact The Phantom was arguably designed for this, being he kickstarted the whole legacy superhero concept). A lot of the times, people seem to think or insist that certain pulp characters cannot be separated from their time periods, even when they were well on their way to doing so before some unfortunate cancellation. The Shadow, for example. Gibson had no problems updating the character’s adventures to the 60s for the Belmont series, and if The Shadow had maintained the kind of continuous publication that Batman and Superman had, I have no doubt whatsoever that nobody would even peg him as a character that belongs to the 30s and the 30s only, even if a lot of important aspects of his character are tied up in 30s America and The Great War and whatnot.

To try and streamline this response into something more general, I’m going to state that, yes, I do think it’s a case by case basis where some characters don’t work as well outside their time periods, and others should have left them ages ago, but in general? I think most of the pulp heroes would stand to benefit much more from being set, not just in modern times, but outside of time. Or at least, outside of a specific time period being something that defines and entraps them. Pretty much none of these characters, outside of historical fantasy examples like Conan or characters whose genres are locked into specific past time periods like cowboys, were intended to be period pieces, and yet that’s what they became, because time has been extremely cruel to the pulp heroes in many ways.

To bring up superheroes briefly, while I maintain that I think the real secret to making pulp heroes work and achieve success again is to distance them from superheroes, or at least the popular blockbuster superheroes, as much as possible, the superheroes have been around running the show for a while now and experimenting a lot as an inescapable facet of pop culture that's worked out monstrously well so far,nso clearly there’s a lot to learn there. The superheroes by and large belong in shared universes held tight by copyright where the weight of accumulating timelines inevitably forces them to either undergo reboots every couple of years, or endure constant quiet retcons snipping away at continuity so the cohesive “Superhero Universes” can function. But there’s no such thing as some big “Pulp Hero Universe” existing anywhere near the same capacity, there’s works gesturing to the idea like the Wold Newton Universe and LOEG and Dynamite’s shared author works largely scrapped together from separate sources all drifting apart, and most of these characters have largely fallen through the cracks of copyright law and into outright non-existence, or are halfway there. Very few modern instances of "cinematic universes" outside of the MCU work, so what we do instead is go the opposite route, closer to DC's "throw anything at the wall to see what sticks" approach.

What I’m getting to is, I could flip through the pages of Jess Nevins’s Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes, pick about 3 or 5 random characters, put them in a story regardless of whatever time period they used to be a part of, and make something out of it, without anyone stopping to question “Hey, hold up, why is Joel Saber not on Victorian England? Why are Uirassu and Tom Shark in a loving relationship when they don’t even belong in the same decade? Why did you turn Allan Crystal into a talking sparrow? You are betraying the source material, these characters don’t work outside of it”. Because nobody has any idea who those guys are, they might as well be just original names I made up (I didn't, btw), and nobody has any reason to care, they will only care if they read good, engaging stories with strong characterizations that give them a reason to be invested. And if achieving that requires ditching adherence to the source material (which doesn’t even exist anymore for at least a third of these characters), I cannot see that as a bad thing.

He's nowhere near the ballpark of pulp heroes but I'm going to bring up King Arthur as an example because he’s been on my mind today.

All of these, and countless others, are King Arthur. I’m no expert in Arthuriana, but from what I’ve gathered, I’d make a pretty good guess that one of the main reasons why King Arthur has been able to endure so strongly, and have so many variations that we have an entire area of study dedicated just to untangling those messes we call Arthuriana, has less to do with his historical or mythological importance (you hardly see that many stories about Cú Chulainn), but because the lore and imagery and events surrounding King Arthur have so utterly transcended the source material that people still dispute what the source material even was, or if he was a real person, or if he was created by the Welsh and stolen by Brits, and etc, and because he's completely free for any writers and artists to mold and use to anything they see fit.

King Arthur is not so much a character as much as he’s a sandbox that literally anyone can play in and reshape as they see fit, with no shortage of existing events and characters and magical items that you can treat as either essential staples, or guidelines and suggestions at best. I have three separate ideas for King Arthur as a big shark man in a greaser outfit who yields an oversized hair comb with fishhooks attached as Excalibur, one where he’s a monstrous dragon who sleeps in the ruin of his former kingdom guarding the only remaining memory of Guinevere left, and one where he’s a disembodied consciousness inside a giant mechanical bear. I could pick any of these and make a story out of them, or insert these into a story, any time I want, and nobody could stop me.

Point is, I think a lot, even most, of the pulp heroes would benefit from having some kind of “no-holds-barred, just do anything you want out of whatever you find interesting about the original” approach, a lot more so than the superheroes already do, because if there’s a single group of characters nowadays that best embodies an “anything goes” approach, a group that is almost entirely in public domain nowadays save for it’s biggest icons and therefore is already available for people to take and spin any way they want, it’s the pulp heroes. These characters have been in stasis for so long, or all but faded into nothingbbut mere footnotes in encyclopedia or records in libraries not even available online, and sometimes not even that. Most of their fanbases have largely died off and they are nowhere near close to gaining new ones, and our changing media tastes call for contrasts as much as it calls for profit. No sensible person would invest in most of these properties as they stand now, which is precisely what ultimately gives them the freedom to be anything at the conceptual stage. The only thing that really, really holds them back is time, which, again, has really not been kind to them. So why adhere to it? Screw time and whatever power it’s long held over these characters, let’s get weird with it.

So if I have to choose between “full setting update, translating the characters to modern day, or the Legacy route”, all three of which are perfectly viable depending on the character, I think the best option, generally speaking, is full setting update, if only because the setting should never be the main priority in the first place. The setting, like everything else, is there to serve the story and the author’s needs and wants, and I’m of the opinion that the setting should always primarily exist in service of the characters, as my writing and my favorite writings are all character centered above all else.

I think putting the pulp heroes in radically different time periods and settings could even yield interesting results. Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal stars a caveman Conan/Tarzan type protagonist interacting with dinosaurs, Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta is a Shadow-esque character set loose in a dystopian future, Grendel is the Fantomas of 1980s New York, and so on. The precedent is there and I think it can be taken much further.

Really I think a lot of the problems and arguments that have arisen over the years in regards to adapting the pulp heroes often result of people overthinking things, lord knows I do enough of that all the time. I really think it’s just something that only seems impossible because it hasn’t really been done yet. Of course, in regards to The Shadow I obviously have a whole different text as to whether I’d want him to be adapted or not, but in general, my ultimate response to what you asked is just do whatever you think is gonna make the story better and the characters more interesting. A.K.A, do whatever you want.

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berryblu-arts · 3 years

Text

Basic guide to my OC's stories

(yes i know i have a lot, help-)

august 9, 2021: added glow stage and diamond

February 23, 2022: added seedling

LONG info dump below the cut (no srsly, i´m warning you)

🍓🍋Strawberries and lemonade

Drama/ Slice of life with a hint of fantasy

Set in the main world in the early 2000s

Story about a girl who can see heartstrings and her various adventures in life, enphasis on personal relationships (not necessarilly romantic)

Aesthetic: lots of pinks and whites, soft and bright colors, 80s sailor moon backgrounds

Inspo: me being rlly mad at romantic love being taken as the only type of love, its also a twist on the red string of fate

🌼👻⛈Spectrum

Drama/ supernatural i guess?? (Can be categorized as urban fantasy i think)

Set in the main world, close to present day

Protagonist is a girl who can see "specters" (basically the counterparts of random animals except they're made of light or shadow), the story deals with themes of loss and lonelyness sometimes :( , but is also very centered around friendships (and i might sprinkle in some found family in there UwU💕)

"That shadow you saw at the corner of your eye the other day is real, but dont worry, its friendly :)!"

Aesthetic: rainy days, liminal spaces, small towns, fall, foggy days, childhood memories, abandoned buildings.

Inspo: ghibli movies, lil bit of kyoukai no kanata, and that one time i got food poisoning and couldnt see about 1/4 of my vision (not cool btw, but at least i made up some p cool shadow lore from it :D)

🧭🌌Twilight compass

Drama/fantasy (high fantasy)

Set 2 or 3 years before present day (in universe)

A bunch of kids (teenagers ig) get throw into an unfamiliar alternate world and try to get back to their own, but in the process uncover some important information that could finally end the tensions between that world's main kingdoms and so they get dragged into the mess, but maybe they were meant to be there from the very start (?)

Aesthetic: The world is half frozen and half on fire, its a todoroki world hehe-, lots of fantasy nature for yall's enjoyment ^^, huge animals that are mostly friendly, small animals with magic powers, magic circles and items, etc...

Inspo: loz breath of the wild, black clover, and a hint of star vs , among other things...

🤍⏳💛Time's end

Drama/ fantasy (high fantasy)

Set about 2 years before present day in the main timeline, but also 100+ years in the past... if that makes sense? (Theyre messing w time ok-)

Main character is a boy who suddenly finds himself in a magic world with a really bad political climate that's leading up to it's destruction, he gets dragged into that mess and soon discovers that world may be more that just a strange fantasy his brain made up.

Aesthetic: copper, stone, silver and gold, medievalcore but also rlly darn close to what the dragon prince was doing :>

Inspo: uhh i came up with this because i was trying to force myself to study history 😅😅, the very root of the idea for this can be traced to my obsession to winx club tho (which i will elaborate on if anyone asks)

💧🕰🔥Unwind

Drama/ fantasy (urban fantasy)

Set a little over a year before present day in the main timeline (unofficial time btw, still figuring it out)

Continuation/spinoff of time's end ft. One of my favourite side characters ^^ (im not spoiling this one lmao)

Aesthetic: a not so big beach town, bright and colorful houses and people, abandoned buildings few people know about, not so far from the outskirts of a little forest. (Really really vaguely based off where i live hehe)

Inspo: a dream i had where a comet fell from the sky, a combination of magical girls and superheroes

Fun fact: this is actually the story i started with, and even if it's mainly urban fantasy, it has elements like alternate worlds, cryptids and aliens thrown into it, fun stuff!

🏖🚃West coast

set in present day

Sort of a continuation of unwind, but centers around characters that were previously introduced as background ones now in the spotlight.

The story is split in 2 perspectives, the new guardians (an all girl element based squad i should talk about more) ,and what i'm calling the chaos squad (zac, roy, blaire, sara, viv and liam), these last ones are actually the most varied squad in therms of power category (i should probably explain that too in the future)

it´s the last story in the chronology.

Aesthetic and inspo: almost exactly same as unwind, as it's set in the same city

🌙💛Moonlight

set in an alternate timeline, close to present day (high fantasy/ post apocalyptic)

Mini story and its honestly a sob fest, why was i even allowed to come up w this one ??😭😭

Sort of a prequel to time's end, it gives a bit of context to a couple character motivations but at what cost-

Aesthetic: lots of purples blacks and blues, contrasted with gold, post apocalyptic society...sort of?, society sucks but at least it's aesthetic😌✨, also looks like a story book UwU

✨👽✨Stardust outcome

Drama/sci fi

Set in the 90s

Prequel that isnt really it's own thing?? It's the story of the alien squad and 2 other characters from time's end, pretty sure if i ever make it it won't have a usual comic format but instead it'll be a bunch of mini stories, hopefully in chronological order...

Aesthetic: space and stuff, it looks a lil like voltron actually haha😅, but also on earth theres a clan of people w knives and cool masks that monitor all the shenanighans, and theres a secret society n stuffs.

Inspo: listen- i made a character that was supposed to introduce aliens into the main story, then went overboard w his backstory to the point that this one is literally how his parents met lmaoo

🤍👁💜Under the eye

Drama/fantasy

Side plot of spectrum that i feel deserves it's own story but i dont have time for it ToT

it's about 2 security guards in a hidden magic town, an old quiet dude w a grumpy face who lost his family a long time ago, and a newbie w a bright personality that has actually been having a sucky time.

They're both living pretty lonely lives and end up having a pseudo father-son relationship after the old dude finds out this kid was kicked out of his house. then after a couple more shenanighans a little alien girl is thrown into the mix, at which point the old dude *looks* like he´s not having it, but internally he´s like ´´welp, guess i have *two* kids now´´

overall rlly wholesome stuff with a dash of angst and found family :3

it´s called under the eye, because even if they´re working as security guards, the clan i mentioned in stardust is the one really in charge of monitoring stuff around there, so they have limited freedom on that front, and also they keep trying to go against them, that clan´s symbol is an iris ensata (flower) with an eye in the middle, hence the title.

aesthetic: same as spectrum, except if this was harry potter they´d be in that one magic town hehe (i hate making that comparison but it´s the closest i can get)

📖🎮⏳checkpiont

drama/ fantasy (urban fantasy w a dash of sci fi i guess??)

short story, set in present day

tecnically a spinoff of time´s end , but the tones are literally so different??

there start to be random zones in a city where pixelated videogame monsters appear, and kat (the main character) is appearently the chosen one to stop all that nonsense?, no one knows what´s going on but they better figure it out before reality alters inself badly enough to be unfixable.

pretty lighthearted story overall, but it´s important cause it reintroduces some key characters into the mix :).

Inspo:i may or may not have actually made this just to justify a cheesy videogame themed story hehe, rlly feels like glitch techs tho :O (netflix series)

aesthetic: the city is pretty standard, the videogame area is all neon and pixel-y, kind of futuristic outfits for the characters, and lots of orange/ blue lighting UwU

👽🏙Unnamed ´´stardust outcome´´ sequel:

drama/ sci fi

a bunch of the characters are the kids of the original stardust, some are completely new ones, it´s basically kiddos interacting and doing shenanighans with superpowers at a school, but w an actual important subplot behind the scenes, the end of this one leads directly into the end of west coast and is the second to last story in the chronology (not counting what i have planned for next gen, those are only gonna be fluffy one shots)

🕸👑💚Glow Stage

*Not connected to the main story at all, but it exists there in the form of a show*

Drama/fantasy (rlly slice of life-y sometimes tho)

typical magical girl story but the main character is the redeemed villain type, trying to do good but with a slightly messed up moral compass. Also the mc befriends the magical girl in her civilian form without knowing its her because ✨free dramaaa✨

Inspo: i needed a fake show for spectrum then accidentally created a whole new story, whoops!

Aesthetic: everything is pretty standard and almost generic on purpose, the villains are edgy, good side is all sparkly and stuff, im aiming for something like what precure's got going on^^

something a lil creesy w lots of potential for both angst and fluff never hurt anyone :3

Seedling 🌱 🌼

Drama/fantasy (very slice of life leaning)

Story about a socially awkward kid learning to get along with his new step mom and sister, surviving through school, and of course, being a shapeshifter and perhaps the key to a conspiracy to take over the earth from the inside out. Fun times!

Fun fact- the main trio is composed of: ex villain mc who is -s t r u g g l i n g- , chosen one- magical girl-hero of prophecy who *does not* wanna be here, and the stable normal friend :)) (except no, he is holding the information and conciousness of several souls inside him, like the avatar thing... but theyre more an annoyance than actual help lmao)

Inspo: late 2000s action cartoons, the myth of changelings, and the sheer need to watch characters go from cold and indifferent with each other to "we are family now, I would die for you" :')

Aesthetic: idk man, will update this one later lol

Fun fact: I'm not sure if this one's Canon in the main universe hehe 😅

•

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honorable story mentions:

Unnamed robot stiory: completely disconnected from the rest, put bluntly it´s about robots that think they´re people (came up w the concept w @/ashrayus a couple years back), it´s sorta just sitting there but i refuse to let go of it UnU

STARDUST: precuel to stardust outcome, it´s about a solari (star person) that falls in love with a rlly nice and humble avian farmer guy she met (this isnt set in earth), and they were both lonely, so they swear to be together till death do them apart, and they even have a kid, but solari have all these rules about forming attatchments with mortals and whatnot, so of course the fricken space police come knocking and stuff gets nasty and the guy dies- (it´s all just rlly tragic ok, i´m sad,,), so these stories are named stardust after the star girl cause she dies as well, passing all of her energy to her kid to keep him safe :(.

Diamond: Tells the origin of the world, powers, sub dimentions, etc... i won't have a story designated for it cause itll be like reading a mythology/history book, and idk how to make that entertaining hehe 😅😅

#literally no one is going to read this and i don´t blame them lmao #shut up sheo #told yall i have that tag for a reason #oc talk #strawberries and lemonade #spectrum #twilight compass #time´s end #unwind #west coast #moonlight #stardust outcome #under the eye #checkpoint #i thought it might be handy to use as reference if anyone for some reason wants to know what my stories are about #i´ll be editing stuff in the future if i change a story in a major way :)#guide to my stories #diamond #glow stage

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adamarks · 5 years

Text

simon snow has fucking dragon powers or some shit and this is my goddamn proof

Whilst you people were having a meltdown over Baz and Simon not hashing it out (Simon’s not in a place of understanding his self worth enough for that yet.), I was having a meltdown about Simon Snow The Literal Fucking Dragon.

Now, this is obviously going to have major spoilers for Wayward Son. I’m going to assume you’ve read it if you’re reading this. I’ve put a lot of thought into this theory and this is a long ass post so I’m putting it under the cut. Now. Let’s go, lesbians!

First and foremost, let’s start with the wings and tail.

Simon’s wings are established at the very beginning of Wayward Son to represent something. We don’t really get to quite know what that something is until they start referring to Simon’s wings the same way they used to refer to his magic.

The most direct reference to Simon’s wings symbolizing his magic is in Simon’s section of the prologue at the very end of the book:

“It’s time for me to stop pretending I’m some sort of superhero. I was that-- I really was-- but I’m not anymore. I don’t belong in the same world as sorcerers and vampires. That’s not my story.

Dr. Wellbelove said he could remove the wings. And the tail. Whenever I’m ready. I could go back to school then, or get a job...”

This section directly confirms that yes, these wings are a metaphor for Simon’s magic. They’re all he has left connect him to the world of magic. They’re the only thing still making him feel even remotely on the same level as Baz and Penelope. (This book really was all about the concept of self-worth and how completely lacking it affects not only us but those we love. Phew, talk about a doozy. No wonder we’re all crying.)

Now that we’ve established that Simon’s wings, at the very least, are his one tether to magic, let’s drive the nail into the coffin of the wings and tail being absolutely, 100% symbolic of his magic.

As I mentioned earlier, the book starts treating the wings exactly the same as it treated his magic. This even starts before Wayward Son. The first mention of Simon’s emotions relating to his wings and tail is in the first book. In the epilogue, in Baz’s section, during the dance scene.

“His tail whips out of my hand. It tends to slash around when he’s upset.”

This really starts to come out in the last fourth of Wayward when he’s “itching for a fight.”

His wings constantly poke, prod, and generally annoy Baz and Penny because he refuses to put them away. Almost.... like... how his magic..... felt suffocating.... and too much... and he couldn’t push it back... or tamp it down. *cough*

Okay, so that was all pretty basic, boring, base-building stuff, yeah? Pretty “whatever we get it.”

Well, here’s where it starts to get fun.

Let’s talk about Simon’s Mirrors.

Lemme just explain what the hell a mirror is, first. In case we all flunked our high school Lit classes.

A mirror character is, in simple terms, a character that acts, looks like, or reminds you of one of the main characters. Through these “mirror characters” some important information about the main character is revealed to us subtextually.

Let’s name our Simon mirrors:

Ebb

Agatha (she’s being developed as her own character but that’s not stopping her from mirroring our good lad.)

Aunt Fiona (to some extent anyway. she doesn’t really factor here.)

There might be some minor ones I’m forgetting (I’m not including foils) but these are our main guys.

I put Ebb on the list first, but let’s start with Agatha, the cranky heroine of our dreams.

Throughout the whole first book, Agatha is shown to be Simon’s mirror. Them both mooning over Baz in almost the exact same way. (Jesus Christ they’re embarrassing to watch.) The waiting on rooftops, the handkerchief. (Don’t get me started on Simon carrying around Baz’s scarf in Wayward. I’m soft and everything hurts. Our poor, stupid, stupid boys.) It’s not exactly subtle.

In Carry On, Agatha reveals just how much Simon also resents his fate. He never really expresses it, but Agatha is reflecting to us how he’s feeling. They both get progressively less resigned to the bullshit “Chosen One” fate as the book goes on. They both make it out alive. Maybe everything will be okay.

But then Rainbow rolls up with a Sex On The Beach and Gucci sunglasses to tell us that “fuck no everything’s not okay.” (She’s right. God, I could go on a rant about how no one ever talks about how you feel when you’ve defeated the villain. When you’ve escaped the dungeon. Hhhhh)

Wayward Son immediately sets Agatha up as even more of a mirror than she was in the first book. We’re shown right away that the two of them are both in a depressed funk. They’re both at “15%” and miserable. These two are echoing each other like NEVER before and I am LIVING for it.

Like, we even get this amazing bit in Chapter Four:

“That would feel like an answer to... the question of me. Then I could say, ‘Oh, that’s who I am. That’s why I’ve been so confused.’”

They! Are! Struggling!

Now, how does this relate to Simon having literal fucking dragon powers? Good question, thank you for asking.

In Chapter Fifty-Six, when Pen and Agatha are stuck in the back of Fuckwad Vampire #3′s car, Agatha says this:

“I honestly thought I could walk away from it all-- like magic was a place. Like magic was a person. Or a habit I could break.

When Simon first came to Watford, he couldn’t make his wand work. He could barely cast a spell. He thought they were going to kick him out, that he wasn’t magic enough.

“You don’t do magic,” Penelope told him. “You are magic.”

I... am magic.

Whether I like it or not, whether or not I claim it. Whether or not I carry my wand.

It’s in me, somehow. Blood, water, bone.”

They!! Are!! Both!! Magic!!

Magic is in them! Magic is with them! They’re made of the stuff! They can’t cut off this part of them, no matter how much they want to. (lmao. talk about good old internalized homophobia. I don’t really have an opinion on what Agatha’s sexuality is, btw. I’m using homophobia as a blanket term because I have no clue what’s up on that front.)

Simon is made of magic. He doesn’t want to remove his wings. Even though he has to hide them. Even though he thinks he’s a Normal now. Like Penny said, “an aeroplane is still an aeroplane even if it’s on the ground.” (I’m not sure that’s verbatim, apologies.)

Simon still has magic. We just can’t see it. He’s made of magic. He is magic. He was literally conceived during a spell. Bitch is as magical as you can get.

But where is the magic???? Where’d it go???? Hello????

I’m getting there. I promise. First, we need to talk about Ebb.

Ebb wasn’t only Simon’s weird Aunt figure; she was his mirror. Ebb was what would’ve happened to Simon if he hadn’t rejected the mage at the end of Carry On. Ebb just gave in. She didn’t want to fight anymore, and she figured Shithead The Great knew more than she did.

God I just fucking hate Mage so much like holy shit. Anyway, anyway.

Ebb was the strongest magician next to Simon. She didn’t want to fight. She didn’t want to use her magic for any great purpose. She just wanted to be. Agatha even reiterates this in the epilogue of Carry On.

“Like, they couldn’t just let her be.”

(No, Simon doesn’t miss killing things in Wayward. He misses excitement and having a purpose. He mainly misses having a purpose. Not having one of those fucking sucks.)

What the fuck does Ebb have to do with this? Why can’t I just get to the point?

My point is!

My Point IS!

That goddamn dragon with the sheep was supposed to remind you of Ebb.

So, let’s do the math. If 1=1x1= 1 then...

Ebb = Margaret = Simon

Sure, sure we had Simon screeching that he wasn’t a dragon. But Margaret was immediately like,

“Not yet.” She pets his wing. “Are kitten. Someday dragon. Someday ferocious.”

Simon smells like a dragon, but also apparently “smells like iron.” Whatever the fuck that means. I mean I guess it means that Baz could still sippy sippy. (Which is gonna happen or I’ll eat my own toe.)

One more thing:

“I wanted wings,” he says. “I wanted to fly.”

“Why tail?”

“I wanted to be free!”

Gee, that sure sounds like what Agatha was saying earlier, huh?

YEAH OKAY HE’S HALF DRAGON!! WE’VE ESTABLISHED THAT!!! WHAT THE FUCK AM I ON ABOUT!!!!

Omg thank you for asking. I’m going to blow your mind with my final point.

The Final Point: The Baz Problem.

Wayward Son is, by all accounts, Baz’s book. It develops everyone beautifully and everyone has an arc, but this book is where Baz gets to shine.

We found out in this book that vampires are immortal.

This introduced a whole new issue, an issue that surfaces every time immortality is introduced as a possibility for one character but not the rest.

Someday, Baz will be left alone.

He’ll inevitably outlive everyone he cares about. We all know our poor, beautiful, delicate bastard boy couldn’t take it. How deeply he cares is his most beautiful and wonderful trait, and this could break him.

I wonder, how long does a dragon live?

Penny talks about the improbability of Simon and Baz in Chapter Three.

“Star-cross’d lovers. ‘From forth the fatal loins of these two foes.’ The whole shebang.”

Simon’s magic was always described as smoke and fire. The first creature we learn about Simon fighting was a dragon. (Chapter 1, first page of Carry On)

“You’ve slain a dragon, Simon. Surely you can manage a long walk and a few buses.”

God, I just really hate Bitchface the Mage. Anywho.

Simon. The One Who Came to End Us. Simon. The One To Save Us All. Simon is the dragon and the knight. He’s his own worst enemy. His arc will be completed once he accepts the “dragon” part of himself. It’s poetic as fuck, I must admit.

Simon has to find love and care for himself, and then this baby dragon will be grown. He’ll be “on top” as Margaret had said. (God, could you imagine all the dragons waking up? How fucking epic would THAT be? Fingers crossed.)

The monster that drains living things and the monster that burns all in its wake. These losers are starcrossed, but they complete each other. Dumbasses. I just love them so much why can’t they get their shit together.

Simon and Baz’s storylines are utterly intertwined. They’re perfectly matched. Simon might not know it, but their hearts are already tied together; they beat in sync. They’re two stars orbiting each other. And, if we’re all very lucky, maybe they won’t crash. Maybe this story won’t end in flames.

So, in conclusion, I really really really want Simon to breathe fire. The only other way I could see this twisting is the wings somehow going away and Simon getting a regular-magician amount of magic. That’s kinda lame tho and doesn’t complete his arc correctly. This dumb boy is a dragon now and there’s nothing we can do about it. (EDIT: actually yeah simon’s not gonna lose his wings no way in fuck. check out my meta.) Also? I would sell my soul to see Simon getting really possessive over really weird objects for his hoard.

Thank you for sticking with me this far, dear reader. I’ll leave you with this thought: Baz is Donkey and Simon is the dragon from Shrek.

Check out my other meta on the future of simon and baz’s relationship and how penny and agatha relate

scarf meta as well check it

Gonna be tagging peeps so this can circulate better.

@carrybits @neck-mole @watfordwallflower

#Wayward Son #wayward son spoilers #Carry On #Simon and Baz #Simon Snow #Baz Pitch #tyrannus basilton grimm pitch #penelope bunce #agatha wellbelove #ebb the goatherd #meta #carry on meta #wayward son meta #snowbaz #this will end in flames #long post #i did put a read more

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waveypedia · 3 years

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do you have book recommendations? I've been wanting to read more again and I just want to see what some of your fav novels are!

oh absolutely! thank you for asking! i know the feeling, nonny, i haven’t read in ages :( i think the last time i read a new book was in the summer. so some of these are a bit old, but i still liked them! most of what i read is young adult btw

caraval by stephanie garber (this has sequels that i haven’t read but i’ve heard they’re great)

don’t remember the plot of this one super well (i should reread it) but i think the gist of it is that the main character leaves her small town to chase after her sister, who’s run off with a sailor, and they both enter this thing called caraval, which is a magic traveling circus of sorts that you can explore? it’s hard to explain, but it’s a lot darker and more complex than it sounds. it feels like a coming-of-age story mixed with dark fantasy

the renegades trilogy by marissa meyer

renegades is one of my favorite books of all time! this series is about nova, who has lived in hiding her entire life with a group of outcasts/criminals who fought against the government system of superheroes when she was little and lost. nova infiltrates that system to take it down, but ends up falling in love with the son of the leaders and making friends with her team. she ends up questioning her loyalties and what it truly means to be a hero or a villain. it’s a very interesting study of morality and also a sweet love story with lots of secret identities (it feels a bit like the concept of miraculous ladybug but darker and with more grey morality), since adrian, the deuteragonist, also has a secret identity.

red, white, and royal blue by casey mcquinston

this is one of those books that’s really funny and sweet and timely but probably will feel outdated in a couple of years because of its internet terminology dkfghfks. the first son of the united states has a rivalry with the prince of england, but they end up falling in love and have to hide their relationship because the mc’s mom, the president, is on the campaign trail for reelection. i loved the romance, obviously, but the characters (both the main, love interest, and overall cast) are amazing and the platonic relationships between other characters never feel overshadowed. it’s genuinely great lgbtqia+ rep too and it really explores the ins and outs of being a lgbtqia+ teen in this day and age

the candymakers (and sequel) by wendy

this one is admittedly aimed a bit younger, but i still found it really sweet and enjoyable. a group of kids enter a candy factory in a candy-making competition, but one of them is a spy tasked with stealing the secret recipe and another is on a quest for revenge. (it sounds a lot darker than it actually is akdgfhjk). they end up forming a really sweet friendship with each other and figuring out what’s right themselves, rather than what other people tell them. in the sequel they also go on a road trip which is cool as hell

also literally all of the wings of fire books are wonderful and full of heart. i’ve been reading them since fifth grade and they still hold up. there’s a lot going on, but it’s about dragons saving the world and it’s great.

i also read the omnivore’s dilemna last year, which probably isn’t what you’re looking for but i’d be remiss not to reccomend it. it’s nonfiction, and it’s a study of food and nutrition from farm to table. it was written in 2003, so it’s a bit dated, but it’s really interesting. if you’re comfortable with sat words and study-like nonfiction i would definitely check it out.

i hope you like these! if any of you want any more or want to follow my reading live message me off anon and i’ll give you my goodreads account (i’m not really comfortable posting it publicly akdhka). i haven’t used it in a While but i’ll try to update it!

thanks for the ask, this was really cool! i love getting asks nonetheless but whenever people ask me random questions that don’t really pertain to my blog or the content i post it makes me really happy. it’s like hey you wanted my opinion on this thing. i don’t know if i’m explaining it well but i really love it so thank you <3

#my asks #anons #book recs #:D!!#also slightly unrelated but if you wanna read but don't have time/energy (like me lmao) comics from your favorite shows are great #they have more than you'd expect

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mariolucario493 · 4 years

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A Frozen 2 review no one asked for! (POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD)

Okay, hear me out. I’m probably in the minority when I say this, but...

I think it’s better than the first one.

I liked the original Frozen just fine. I liked how it depicted anxiety and how it subverted a lot of Disney tropes, but I probably wouldn’t put it in my top ten.

(Which, in case you’re interested, is:)

10. Tarzan

9. Aladdin

8. Beauty and the Beast

7. Frozen 2 (this one!)

6. Lilo & Stitch

5. Wreck-it Ralph

4. Moana

3. The Lion King

2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1. Zootopia

(And that’s not even including the Pixar ones.)

But it seems that the general consensus of Frozen 2 is the same as a lot of sequels (especially Disney sequels): that it’s not as good as the first one. Or, dare I say it, that it’s just the first one all over again. But here’s my argument against that. I think being similar to the first one actually works in its favor.

What do I mean by that? Well, after the prologue, the movie opens with a song called “Some Things Never Change,” in which all the characters sing about how happy they are in their current life. Although Olaf worries that change might be inevitable (I love how woke he’s become, btw), no one is really seeking anything new. Now that sounds like the setup for a lot of recent Disney movies, I know. But it's an idea that’s really explored throughout the entirety of the movie.

Every character reacts to change differently. Elsa is nervous, but tries to embrace it anyway; Olaf dismisses it as something he will understand when he’s older; Kristoff feels like he and his friends are drifting apart; and Anna struggles to accept it overall. And we see how each of them goes through it. Even the inclusion of darker themes allows the audience to react similarly to the characters onscreen. Kids probably won’t always understand what’s going on; but they’ll have a good time anyway. And just like Olaf, they’ll understand it when they’re older. That does seem to be one of the major criticisms I’ve seen for Frozen 2, that it’s too dark and too complicated for kids. But Disney’s never been afraid to tackle heavy subjects before, because they know that challenging the audience helps them grow. And hey, at least it’s not Crimes of Grindelwald, right?

I think the reason they made Frozen 2 similar to Frozen 1 was the same reason they used similar themes in Frozen 1 that we were already familiar with - princesses, magical kingdoms, curses, goofy sidekicks. And that’s to deconstruct and subvert them. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that this was an attempt to remind Disney to always try new things, which they have had trouble with recently. Just look at all those live-action remakes that no one asked for. The exact same thing all over again disguised as something new, but without all the stuff that made the originals so good in the first place.

Frozen 2 also continues the tradition of having interesting female protagonists. Well, interesting ANIMATED female protagonists, anyway. It’s not like the Aladdin remake, where Jasmine has a whole new song about girl power, but then she becomes the damsel in distress anyway and does nothing to fight back. It’s not like Captain Marvel, who makes a big deal about being a female superhero even though the Avengers already have several much more interesting female members. It’s not like the new Star Wars movies, in which they’re so focused with making Rey a strong female role model that they forget to give her a personality. And it’s not going to be like the Mulan remake, which I’m just going to assume is going to be another soapbox feminist’s wet dream. Oh, wait, I forgot this is Tumblr, and they love that shit.

But really. Starting with Tiana, Disney’s animated leading ladies have become such well-written characters. From Rapunzel to Vanellope to Judy Hopps to Moana to Elastigirl, they are fully fleshed-out characters first and agenda pushers second. Anna and Elsa are no exception. Elsa battles magical spirits and tames a water horse, and Anna has a crisis of ethics that feels really genuine. All without saying something dumb like “Look how capable I, a female, am in this situation, in comparison to my less competent male companions.”

Oh, by the way, for those of you who wanted Elsa to be revealed as a lesbian, I think we have a few more hints that she may be. She does not end up with a love interest, but I noticed she does seem to get along really well with Honeymaren. So maybe? Definitely better than the live-action Beauty and the Beast, am I right?

Oh, and the songs are great. We get not one, but TWO big numbers from Idina Menzel. Olaf and Kristoff both get new songs that are pointless, but still really funny. Anna has a new song that is one of the emotional highlights. The lyrics are just as clever, and they help further each character’s story arc. Even the lame pop versions of the songs over the end credits, which I usually DESPISE; hearing Imagine Dragons’ cover of “Into the Unknown” was actually pretty decent.

So, those darker themes. The reveal that one of Anna and Elsa’s ancestors was a genocidal tyrant who built the dam as a way to restrict the Northuldra tribe’s resources, and then declared war on them. Pretty ballsy, I have to say. And pretty creative that the villain of this movie is a character who is already dead before the movie even begins. Kind of like Coco, but they don’t even interact with him as a spirit or anything. What I like about this is that it kind of explains why the father in the first movie didn’t always do the right thing when it came to raising his kids. Locking up one of your daughters because she has supernatural abilities seems like a terrible move. But when you consider that Agnarr’s father was also distant from his son and had the goal of suppressing magic, you realize that it may have been a subconscious choice on his behalf. And hey, it’s also revealed that the reason Agnarr left on the ship that would eventually be his grave was to find answers about Elsa. So he probably felt remorse about it.

And now it’s time to compare this movie to today’s political climate. And before you start typing about how I’m wrong like Tumblr users are prone to do, maybe take a hint from the first movie and let it go. This is just my personal analysis.

The Northuldra tribe is clearly inspired by the Sami, the indigenous people of Norway, who have been persecuted for generations. But I don’t know much about Norwegian history, so let’s just compare it to America. Now let’s see...does America have a history of persecuting its indigenous population and disguising acts of war as offerings of peace? Hey, didn’t this movie come out just a week before Thanksgiving?

That’s right, I’m going there. Come to think of it, this whole movie radiates Thanksgiving vibes. It’s set in autumn, and it opens with everyone having a big feast with pumpkins and stuff.

King Runeard is a historical figure within Arendelle, and he is considered a hero. The dam that Runeard built is a monument that is ultimately destroyed by Anna in the film’s climax. And Anna initially refuses to do so because she believes the dam represents all that her kingdom stands for. I might be crazy, but this reminds me of how people are starting to take down statues of Confederate soldiers or how many cities have stopped recognizing Columbus Day as a national holiday, despite others saying that they are important parts of our heritage. One of the lines in “Some Things Never Change” is “Arendelle’s flag will always fly.” Sounds kind of like those conservative nuts who think the American flag is an infallible symbol and anyone who disrespects it (say, by taking a knee during the national anthem) is not a true patriot. Might be grasping at straws with that one.

And what Anna decides to do ultimately makes Arendelle a better place, even though she worries that it will be an unpopular decision. So we have a person in a position of political power who puts aside her own hubris for the good of her people. She asks for nothing in return, and knows that the right choice is not the easy one. She destroys a physical bridge, but builds a metaphorical one. Anna really is the type of leader we need. And if you think that it’s ethnocentric that a white person saves the day for a minority, remember that Anna and Elsa are actually half Northuldran on their mother’s side.

Yes, I believe Frozen 2 is up there with Zootopia as one of the great Disney flexes on right-wing extremists. But it’s subtle enough that we can enjoy the characters, the music, and the story first; and the message second. It reminds us to step outside our comfort zones and to always think about what it means to do the right thing.

If you didn’t like the first Frozen, you probably won’t enjoy this one either. I can understand what people mean when they say the movie throws a lot at you and doesn’t always feel focused on a coherent story. But regardless, I think it is an important movie.

#frozen 2 #disney #review #anna #elsa #olaf #kristoff #sven

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hellyeahheroes · 5 years

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Building Laura Kinney in D&D

And once again I try to build a teen superhero in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. Previously we have built Cassandra Cain as a frontline martial arts fighter and Static as an electricity-based wizard from DC and Nico Minoru as a staff-wielding Sorcerer from Marvel. So it’s time we add a front-line Marvel character to the group. And I think I have a good candidate

If you need music to get into the mood, take your pick

Let us start with the goals for this build. First, we need to ensure Laura is Best One There Is at slashing and stabbing people. Our second goal is to ensure she can take the damage as well as she can dish and can heal. Finally, we need to reflect on her sense

For Abilities I will be using Standard Point Array - 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 -, if you would rather roll or use point-buy, treat this as a guideline what to prioritize. Our most important stat will be Constitution, as she can get pulverized and keep going. Second is Dexterity, Laura can dodge machinegun fire after all. Then Wisdom for sharp senses and to help saving throws against Trigger Scent. Intelligence will follow, Laura has a vast array of skills, most of them she was taught. Charisma next, she is aloof and keeps for herself but was still good enough to fool professional agents even at a young age. We will dump strength - while Laura has shown she is stronger than an average person, we just don’t need it. Your stats should be STR 8 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 12 WIS 13 CHA 10

Let us pick her Race a.k.a. “Just Call it Species already, WotC”. I was always somewhat confused why Tulok the Barbarian, whose videos inspired this series, always pick non-human races for mutants. I mean isn’t the entire point of X-Men how they try to claim mutants are still regular people? But then I’ve made three of these builds myself and it was always “Variant Human” and it becomes monotonous. So I guess Magneto was right, mutants are Homo Sapiens Superior and that means non-human race

Tulok built Wolverine as a Dwarf but a) Laura isn’t this short (watch me go for a lonw-hanging fruit) and b) as evil-looking Tony Stark above explains, Sarah Kinney is Laura’s mother, meaning she is more like Logan’s daughter than a clone. And since there is no half-dwarf race, well go with something else. Say, which species in fantasy is all about how fucking superior they are 24/7? And has ears that kinda look like that weird thing on Wolverine mask?

Half-Elf grants you +2 to Dexterity and +1 to TWO separate Ability Scores. Pick Constitution and Wisdom. It also grants you a number of bonuses like Darkvision, allowing you to see in dim light up to 60 feet as if it was a bright light and in darkness as if it was a dim light, except without being able to see colors. You cannot be put to sleep by magic and have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, useful against trigger scent. You can use Common and Elvish language and one additional, pick whatever is campaign relevant. You also get two skills of your choice, I would suggest Perception and Athletics, the latter of which helps us somewhat mitigate low strength as it is the only STR-based skill, meaning if DM asks you for a Strength check you can probably talk them into making Athletics check instead.

EDIT: So, I was checking on dndbeyond and I realized I made a mistaken assumption that Half-Elves get +2 DEX like Elves...and they do not. It’s baffling really. I guess we have to make Laura an Elf then. You get +2 to Dexterity, proficiency with Perception and bonuses I didn’t cross out above. An Arenei Wood Elf variant also gets +1 to Wisdom, gets to pick one extra Proficiency, pick Athletics, gains +5 to walking speed and can hide even when only lightly obscured.

For the Background, there is no trained assassin so we will get the next best thing - Spy. It let us choose two more proficiencies, Stealth and Acrobatics will it be, and makes Laura proficient with Forgery and Disguise kits. You also get a minor feature that makes it harder for people to remember you in a crowd or walking in and out of a conversation as long as you didn’t draw attention to yourself.

For the class, we will start with Rogue. You gain proficiency with four more skills, pick Deception, Sleight of Hand, Intimidation and either Insight or Investigation. You also get proficiency with Thieve’s Tools, light armor (which is the most armor Laura ever gets and we will stick to it), simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, Dexterity and Intelligence saving throws and Thieves’ Cant, secret language of the criminal underground. You then get to pick expertise with two skills you know, gaining Expertise with them that doubles your proficiency bonus to them. I’d go for Acrobatics and Perception.

Finally, you learn Sneak Attack that allows you to deal additional 1d6 damage on successful hits if you had an advantage on an attack roll against the target or if an ally that is not incapacitated is within 5 feet from the target and nothing grants you disadvantage on the attack roll. Sneak Attack only works with ranged or finesse (meaning they use Dexterity modifier for attack and damage rolls) weapon, so in our case it will be Shortswords - pick up two shortswords that deal 1d6 damage.

If you need an explanation how attacks work, here.

Alternative: If you’re willing to stray away from core Laura experience, use daggers instead. They deal only 1d4 damage but can also be thrown, carry a bunch of them with you to use some of Laura’s abilities at range.

How two-weapon fighting in D&D works is that you can attack with one weapon and take your bonus action to make an attack with an offhand weapon but it does not add damage from your ability score to damage. Let us fix that with our first level of Fighter. It gives you a fighting style and we will choose Two-Weapon Fighting. From now on you can add your Dexterity to attacks made by your offhand weapon.

You also get Second Wind, allowing you to heal 1d10 + your fighter level of damage as a bonus action once per short or long rest. This is minor healing, for now, it has to do.

Second Level Fighter gets Action Surge, allowing you to once per long or short rest to take an extra action during your turn, meaning in a pinch you can make three attacks in a single turn.

Back to Rogue, second level gives us Cunning Action. It allows you to take a bonus action on your turn to take Dash, Disengage or Hide actions.

Third Level Rogue increases Sneak Attack to 2d6 and gets to choose a Rogue Archetype. Assassin gives you an ability to, well, Assassinate - you have an advantage on attack rolls against opponents who haven’t yet take a turn in combat, and every hit against them counts as a critical hit. How it works is that on critical hit you roll an extra dice of damage for every dice you would roll, meaning on normal strike you will roll 2d6 and on a critical hit with Sneak Attack you also double Sneak Attack damage, already rolling 6d6 on a single hit.

If it’s so good to hit as an Assassin then let us make sure we will. On 4th Level Rogue gets an Ability Score Improvement or let us take a feat but...why not both? Elven Accuracy gives you +1 to Dexterity and from now on whenever you have an advantage on attack rolls using Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma, you can once reroll one of the dice. So if you don’t score a critical hit, you lose nothing rerolling lower of the results and if you didn’t hit at all you can reroll either.

5th Level Rogue upgrades Sneak Attack to 3d6 and gets Uncanny Dodge, allowing you to halve damage from an attack against you as long as you see the enemy dealing it.

All these damage dice doubled on a crit is nice, so how about we now try to increase our chances to actually get it? 3rd Level Fighter can pick Martial Archetype. Champion’s Improved Critical lets you now have a critical hit if you roll 19 or 20 on an attack roll, instead of just 20. This means you now have a 10% chance for Critical Hit.

BTW, I do find it funny Laura has a feature named similiar to the codename of one of her NXM teammates and her archetype shares a name with a Marvel team she was never in.

4th Level Fighter gets their Ability Score Improvement, but we will take a feat again. Durable lets you increase Constitution by 1 and whenever you take a Short Rest and decide to roll Hit Dice to regain Hit Points, you add to result of each roll double the amount of your Constitution modifier. Remember that increasing your Constitution bonus gives you extra hit point retroactively for every level you already have.

5th Level Fighter gains an Extra Attack, meaning you now attack twice during each attack action. Meaning you can attack three times with your bonus action or five times by also taking Action Surge.

6th Level Fighter gets another Ability Score Improvement and we will actually take it. You can spend two points one for Dexterity and one for Constitution

7th Level Champion becomes a Remarkable Athlete, allowing you to add your Proficiency Bonus to every Strength, Dexterity and Constitution check that doesn’t get it already, letting us sidestep low Strength modifier completely. It also lets you increase your jump distance by your Strength modifier, but Laura’s, as we just pointed out, has a negative one.

8th Level Fighter is another Ability Score Improvement, or rather, a new Feat. Tough gives you extra 2 hit points for every level you take and retroactively for every you had already taken. Right now it means 26 extra Hit Points and more to come.

9th level Fighter gets Indomitable, letting you once per long rest reroll one failed saving throw, but you have to use the new roll, even if its worse than the original.

10th Level Champion gets to pick another Fighting Style. Tunnel Fighter allows you to enter defensive stance as a bonus action and until your next turn make opportunity attacks without using your reaction and you can use your reaction to make an attack against a creature that moves five feet within your reach. Meaning you can now jump into the horde of enemies and they decide this isn’t worth it and try to move past you to your teammates, they get cut.

Alternative: If you play with a DM that does allow Unearthed Arcana (so you cannot do it in Adventurer’s League), you can replace Tough with Blade Master, which gives you +1 to attack and damage rolls with a Shortsword and gives you an advantage on all opportunity attack rolls. It makes you deadlier to many opponents with Tunnel Fighter, but more vulnerable.

11th Level Fighter gets a third Extra Attack, increasing your total number of attacks in a single action to three and to freaking seven with Action Surge and offhand weapon.

12th Level Fighter is an Ability Score Improvement time, round up your Dexterity for better attack, damage, AC and Initiative.

13th Level Fighter gets to use Indomitable twice between long rests.

14th Level Fighter is our last Ability Score Improvement, Round up your Constitution.

And we will wrap things up with 15th Level Fighter and a Champion feature, Superior Critical, which now lets us crit on 18, 19 or 20, increasing a chance of critical hit on an attack to 15%.

And so we have Laura as an Assassin Rogue 5/Champion Fighter 15. Let’s see how viable this build is

First of all you have an insane amount of Hit Points. Between Fighter’s d10 hit die, maximalized Constitution and Tough you should have on average somewhere around 260 Hit Points and with Durable and Second Wind you even have means to heal yourself from any wounds. Second, you have the means to deliver a ton of damage with your Sneak Attack, Assassinate feature, Elven Acurracy, multiple attacks and improved critical hits. You have 15% chance to crit on any attack, 39% with Elven Accuracy on Advantage. If you attack with Advantage (Elven Accuracy included) you have 77% chance to crit at least once with just your three base attacks, 95% with Action Surge and 97% if you also use your bonus action. Finally, you’re skilled in multiple things, many of which are related to stealth, giving you further opportunities to surprise enemies, and your physical abilities.

On the downside, Laura has rather low AC without magic items, Dual Wielder feat could slightly improve it but we do not have access to it. Laura is also dealing piercing or slashing damage, to which many of higher-level enemies have resistance or outright immunity. We also lack in mobility, meaning some of the advantages of this build will go to waste if enemies simply don’t stand close enough to one another, even with dash as a bonus action. You’re also a bit of one-trick pony, I wouldn’t recommend this to a player that gets bored with doing the same thing each round. Finally, you know what 97% chance to crit is not? 100%. There will be times when you will roll these 21 d20s and not get a single crit, just starring at the dice in sheer humilation and wondering if that thing hates you or what.

But at the end of the day, you’re still one damn badass, that will be hard to put down. Sneak up on your enemies, get close to as many as you can, disregard the damage dealt to yourself and unleash hell. Just remember this is team effort and one of the best ways to get that sweet, sweet advantage is to have a partner flank your opponnent. So don’t be an edgelord and work as a part of the team

#X-23 #Laura kinney #Wolverine #Marvel #Dungeons & Dragons

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words-writ-in-starlight · 5 years

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hey star! i’m thinking about watching (listening to?) taz, but i know absolutely nothing about it except that it might be vaguely related to some brothers called the mcelroys? and that they have something to do with critical role and a bunch of other podcasts. should i watch/listen to (is it a podcast too?) taz, why is there “adventure” and “amnesty” and etc, and what do the mcelroys have to do with anything? thank you and i hope the job is going well!

OKAY, so, The Adventure Zone (TAZ) is a DnD podcast done by the three McElroy brothers (that’s said “Mackle-roy,” btw, not “Mick-elroy”), Justin (oldest), Travis (middlest), and Griffin (youngest and DM), and their dad. I unconditionally recommend it as some of the best, funniest comedy I’ve ever encountered, as a genuinely good and heartwarming narrative that brought me to tears more than once, and also just as...like...sometimes a bitch wants to enjoy media that centers around a family that actually loves and enjoys each other as people. If that last sounds like your cup of tea, I recommend the entire McElroy podcast empire (that’s a separate post), but ESPECIALLY The Adventure Zone.

Now, in terms of DnD, a lot of people are nervous about starting TAZ because they associate DnD with a very rules-heavy exhaustive kind of activity, which they assume will be zero fun whatsoever. Now, I...play a lot of DnD, so that wasn’t really a concern for me. Regardless, the McElroys absolutely do not understand the rules of DnD and have never allowed a rule to stop them from making a good joke or having a good time, and frankly I think that is a totally valid way to play the game! It’s also extremely accessible to people who may not have ever played DnD before, because hey, half the cast has no idea which dice to roll at any given moment. They are right there with you. Go forth.

(On the other hand, if you HAVE played DnD before and you don’t mind committing yourself to an ungodly amount of content, I whole-heartedly recommend Critical Role! It is a YouTube series that also exists as a podcast, both equally fun ways to consume the material. The seven players and DM are all famous voice actors that you have definitely heard in something somewhere, their characters are fucking clutch, and they play a much more rules-heavy game, classic in every way right down to the dungeons and dragons, that is a ton of fun. The main reason I usually tell people to start with TAZ, however, is this: TAZ episodes run about an hour, with few exceptions, and release every other week. Critical Role episodes average four hours and release weekly. So if you have that kind of time, that’s awesome, absolutely do it! I’ve finally started watching through their first campaign and it’s great, I’m mostly caught up on their current campaign and it’s also great. Watching their DM work is just...competence porn, and the characters are fucking destroying me in both campaigns. TAZ is more approachable in terms of content volume, though.)

Narratively speaking, you should start at the beginning of TAZ, at the start of their Balance campaign. You asked about the “Amnesty” thing, and this is your answer--you can’t run a DnD campaign forever, all stories end eventually, so their first campaign that kicked off the podcast is called “Balance” and is 69 episodes long. If you hear people talking about Taako, Magnus, Merle, “the seven birds”, etc, those are all from Balance. Then they ran some mini campaigns where they tried new stuff out, specifically “Commitment” and “Dust,” and then they settled on “Amnesty” as their new campaign. Each campaign is set in a totally different world with wildly different rules and they’re all pretty radical, but here’s a short breakdown:

BALANCE: It’s fucking DnD, babes (although remarkably short on both dungeons and dragons). They fight goblins, they get magic items, they have a wizard and a fighter and a cleric. They go to the moon to join a secret society and get in a deadly car battlewagon race, there are liches and time loops and Wheels of Misfortune, there’s a giant mindwiping jellyfish and Garfield the Deals Warlock. There are elevators. ...okay, so they get pretty far from your traditional DnD universe build, the universe gets weird pretty quick, but like. Just trust me, get a good giggle out of two or three arcs worth of dick jokes, and then buckle in for the emotional shit.

COMMITMENT: A superhero mini-campaign! Three people get superpowers from their place of business and trash shit at an abandoned amusement park, it’s a good time.

DUST: Urban fantasy old Western murder mystery. What else do I even need to say, honestly.

AMNESTY: The new arc! If Supernatural took place in small-town West Virginia where half the monsters were pretty chill actually and the cast was Sketchy Con Man With Car, Long-Suffering Chosen Forest Ranger, and Punk Magical Bisexual With Pet Rabbit. This one has a much more cohesive aesthetic than Balance, but I love it anyway.

TLDR: yes you SHOULD listen to The Adventure Zone. It’s hilarious when they’re busy telling dick jokes at first, and heartwrenching when they realize they have the ability to get heartwrenching, and those two things happen within minutes of each other more often than not. And if you have gotten this far and you are sitting there thinking “Huh, this is weird, normally this is where Star goes the fuck Off about pitching the narrative,” it’s a DnD game! They go on quests to find shit! There are seven shits to find! They have mixed success at finding the shit! What do you want from me!

Oh, also, something that I have come to really appreciate lately: the McElroys put a lot of work into being funny without being mean. Balance and Amnesty and the mini campaigns are all diverse, enjoyable universes, the punchline of a joke is never “ha ha, that person is [whatever]”, queer characters live long badass lives--I dunno, this might not matter to people, but I just find it incredibly restful. Four cis white heterosexual men are not necessarily who I expected to provide that restful universe, but damned if they didn’t deliver in spades. Plant your gays in healthy topsoil and water regularly and you too could mysteriously end up on the NYT bestseller list.

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dungeonecologist · 5 years

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WILD ARMS 2 - Golgotha Prison

The name is not subtle, but the reference itself is actually oddly superficial. At the end of the dungeon, Ashley is separated briefly from the party and Lilka and Brad are captured and tied to crosses, evoking the characters Dismus and Gestas, the thieves crucified during the same execution as the biblical christ. There is little reference to that actual narrative however, instead seeming to draw from the fact that the name Golgotha is taken to be an epithet to mean literally “A Place of Skulls,” which seems rather appropriate and obvious for an execution field.

Bookending the start and end of this dungeon, we fight the boss monster, Trask. First in a scripted “loss” and then in a solo match with Ashley’s new dark henshin hero form, the “Grotesque Black Knight,” Knightblazer.

“Trask” is yet another transliteration* issue that comes from the juggling between languages. It actually comes from the Tarrasque, another monster most readily identified from its appearance in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, itself originally taken from semi-obscure French myth of Saint Martha of Bethany and the Tarasque of Tarascon.

*(I realize I use this word a lot and it might not be as common use to others. A “translation” lifts meaning between languages; a “transliteration” is to lift written characters between them. Example: “Left” in English translates to 左[the direction] or 残[what remains] but transliterates to レフト. Inversely 左 and 残 both translate back to English as “Left” but transliterate as “hidari” and “zan” respectively; and レフト transliterates back into English as “refuto.”)

Surprisingly, the Wild Arms 2 design (which would also go on to persist as the core design throughout the rest of the Wild Arms series) is based more on the original myth than the D&D representations tend to be: While the end product looks nothing like the depictions of the Tarasque of myth, it retains the spiked turtle shell, the prominent dual horns, poisonous quality, and fins on its head here account for being “half fish.”

Also of note is that the title card identifies it as a “Dragonoid” and it has various metallic and machine-like features. These details are neat because it positions it as being not-quite a dragon, to work around a fact that will pop up much later: That dragons in Filgaia are extinct. And also to play into the fact that Dragons in Wild Arms are semi-mechanical lifeforms.

In any case, our scripted loss to Trask the first time around ends with the team knocked out and imprisoned in what appears to be a disused execution ground and associated holding cells. In our escape we run into monsters fitting the theme, who appear to be natural inhabitants, rather than guards put in place by the Odessa terrorist soldiers who are actually holding us here.

First up is the Wight, a classic undead warrior monster generally taken from D&D, but with a little more behind it than you might expect. The term Wight in English lore actually traces back quite far as an archaic term with little to no real association with monsters. The real intersection with name and subject comes from an early English translation of the Nordic Grettis Saga; In it the zombie-like creatures now better known as Draugr were referred to as apturgangr (lit.”againwalker”) but were translated as Barrow-wight. (lit.”[burial-]mound person”)

This may seem an odd choice, but the translation came at the hands of the eminent bookman William Morris. I say “bookman” because he was not just a prolific author of prose and poetry, but a pioneer of the revival of the British textile and printing industry. He and his wife, Jane Burden, did extensive arts, craft and design work in book and print design, book binding, and wall paper all stemming from the intricate design of modular and tiled printing blocks and stamps. Oh and he translated various works of epic poetry and myth into English, including old Roman epics, French knightly romances, and of course Norse sagas. (all of which he wrote and published what was basically fanfiction of, btw)

His seemingly erroneous “translation” of the Barrow-wight came as an attempt to reflect a comparable agedness to the name: Rather than translating from old Norse into modern English, he chose what he thought a suitable old English equivalent; “Barrow” referring to pre-christian Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, and “Wight” meaning “thing” or “creature” but often used disparagingly to refer to a person. The nuance there is actually quite clever, as the old Wight referred pretty exclusively to those living, even if it didn’t specify by definition, and that uncertainty or contradictory kind of implication uniquely fits a description of the undead.

This term would be picked up by J.R.R. Tolkein for use in Middle-Earth, retaining their lore and function from Norse legend to describe undead warriors. And from there you can follow the usual chain of influence to D&D, where the shortened term Wight really solidified itself as synonymous with the undead, and eventually down to Game of Thrones, where George R.R. Martin cleverly brings the whole thing back around to old risen bodies of northern warriors, not unlike the Draugr of Norse myth.

Anyway in Wild Arms 2 we get some sorta death yeti ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next up is the Ghoul, which I think we all know is a pretty generic term in modern parlance, but it’s specific origins date back to pre-Islamic Arabia. It entered into English via translations of the original French translation of 1001 Arabian Nights, where it appears in one story as a monster lurking about the cemetery devouring corpses.

The Ghoul identity as a corpse eater quickly broadened into flesh eaters, and the association with lurking about graves in turn marked them as undead themselves until eventually the term became loosely applied to any variety of undead, including the thrall of vampires, supplanting the flesh of the dead with blood of the living and achieving a truly far removed meaning. Even in modern Arabic the term now broadly applies to any number of fantasy monsters.

And so long as we’re dabbling in pop culture transplants; the Arabaian word Ghul is in fact the same used in the name of the Batman villain, R’as al-Ghul, whose name/title has always been erroneously translated as “Head of The Demon.“

I have no idea why it’s a chicken with a mohawk but i love it

And finally the Bone Drake. I don’t know that this one actually has any real specific lineage...

“Drake” is generally a synonym for dragon, although there is some case of fantasy semantics where different settings will try to define distinct body types of dragons each with their own name, in which case Drakes are often either dragons which simply don’t exceed a certain size (generally no bigger than a non-magical animal such as a dog or a horse) or a wingless variation of whatever the setting’s prototypical dragon might be. I don’t know for certain, but I think this distinction in modern fantasy started with Tolkien’s wingless fire breathing dragon, Glaurung, and its offspring who were referred to as fire-drakes.

In any case, the specific term “Bone Drake” Doesn’t seem to appear with any visibility prior to Wild Arms 2, which leads me to believe it was just their name for a generic bone dragon-like creature. It does make for an interesting companion, aesthetically, to Trask being here, although there don’t seem to be any implications that Trask lives in this dungeon at all. Other than just being an obvious combination of cool fantasy things, it may also be pulled from Dungeon & Dragons’ Dracolich/Night Dragon; an undead (often skeletal) dragon raised from the dead, often by their own necromantic spells, hence the term “Lich.” For whatever reason they are oddly reminiscent of shield crested dinosaurs like the Triceratops or Styracosaurus.

The attack Rhodon Breath doesn’t tell me anything either. I think it’s just meant as “Rose Breath,” translating the “Rhodon” bit pretty literally, and references the smell of roses being present as a funeral, or else the palor of the faded pink color also called “Rose Breath.” There is some apocryphal reference to a Rhodon but of no significance that I can tell.

Clearly the theme here is death and the undead, and with some small stretch on part of the Wight, we could even say skulls all befitting Golgotha’s “Place of Skulls” epithet. It’s a really neat way to build this dungeon, albeit a little on the nose. But I really like the idea that the dungeon appears to be abandoned and now haunted by all these reanimated corpses and bones before the villains arrive to use it for their plans. Oddly there isn’t much of a martyrdom theme here, although we’ll get plenty of that a little later once we recruit our second magic user, summoner, christ figure, and perfect beautiful boy, Tim Rhymless to the team...

Anyway we get out, we fight Trask for real. Ashley turns into a saturday morning superhero. Trask gets solo’d. And we all just kinda move along without asking too many questions... Although the game dialogue describes this new form as a “grotesque black knight” the sprite work, 3D model, and even original character art don’t really convey much in the way of “grotesque” but in the context of the tokusatsu, henshin hero elements it’s not too hard to imagine that the design was meant to evoke a similar aesthetic to gruesome suit heroes like Guyver, Kamen Rider Shin, and Devilman. I do love the gill/tendon-like organic vent structure in the pauldrons that stay. And although it’s not visible in any of these images, but the D-Arts model has an exposed segment of vertebrae between the shoulders; that along with the teeth(?)/ribs on the open chest panels really helps bring out more of the “grotesque” quality of the design.

#Wild arms 2 #jrpg #psx #ghoul #wight #dungeons and dragons

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premiumtee2020 · 4 years

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Good Every Gun Law Is Unconstitutional Shirt

Nothing like taking a creative and colorful experience and mashing it into a dull realistic one. It's not just Mulan tho. Studios are more and more making production decisions based on what China and India will pay to see. None of the live-action remakes have been any good. This is a far cry from a new Disney renaissance. Disney, we’re not going to make this a musical or have a talking dragon because Good Every Gun Law Is Unconstitutional Shirt we want to make this a serious action movie like The Last Samurai or Crouching Tiger. Also Disney btw Mulan was born with magical superhero powers now and there’s a witch. Who can into different animals? This reminds me of all that fuss about censoring The Interview in north Korea. People protested for free speech and anti-censorship making the movie an icon. And then when people finally saw it they realized it was absolute garbage anyway. I actually enjoyed it a lot. Basically saw it as a kung-fu movie with a familiar story and it was great.

Buy it: Good Every Gun Law Is Unconstitutional Shirt

Home: Teeshirtbear

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mysterious-matcha · 7 years

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Save the Snack for Later~

Rating: R-18

Word Count: 1,100

Genre: Romance, Smut

Summary: As he finally came home, all he wanted for the night was her.

Pairing(s): Amami Rantarou x Akamatsu Kaede

Warning: NSFW ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“Honey, I’m home~” Rantarou greeted as he opened the bedroom door. He entered room to find his wife in her beautiful white night gown, sitting on the corner of the bed with both of her ears were muffled with earphones. Drowning in Beethoven’s magic, as always.

Rantarou simply giggled, as he bent down so that her lips were in his reach to kiss. Kaede was surprised as their lips touched each other. Rantarou took off from the kiss and pinned her on their bed.

“Welcome home...” Kaede smiled at him while taking off her earphones. “I missed you a lot.”

“So do I,” Rantarou whispered as he gently nibbled her earlobe, making her squirm under him. He took off his shirt and tossed it aside, revealing his slender, yet well-trained bare body that never fails to make Kaede blush. Then he switched back to her lips, kissing them again, as she kissed him back in return. Kaede wrapped her arms around his shoulder as she pulled him closer to deepen the kiss.

The kiss was gentle at the start, but it slowly turned out to be more...demanding when Rantarou started playing with his tongue. He started licking Kaede’s lips, causing her to moan and her head to be clouded with lust. She absentmindedly opened her mouth, giving her husband permission to explore her cavern. Rantarou then pulled her closer so that his tongue roamed deeper inside her mouth and teased her tongue to play along with his own. Kaede, of course, fell into his seduction.

Their tongues intertwined with each other as well as their legs. Kaede’s legs danced wild enough to unveil themselves underneath her long night gown. Without breaking their fiery kiss, Rantarou skillfully spread her legs apart and rubbed her womanhood with his knee. “Mmmphh...!” Kaede moaned even more desperately, to the point she clawed Rantarou’s back that she was holding onto. Rantarou then broke the kiss, giving them both a break to take a breath.

“S, sorry,” Kaede stuttered. “Did I hurt you?”

“Well, not really,” Rantarou smirked at her, trying not to make it obvious that he was already hard under his pants. Right after that, he quickly slammed his mouth onto Kaede’s neck and traced it with his tongue. “Nnnggghhh!!” she bit her own lips, trying her best to restrain her moan.

Rantarou took this as a challenge. He bit the weak spot on her neck hard enough to leave a bite mark. “Aaaahhh...” Kaede finally let out a soft moan as a sign of her surrendering under his torture, no longer caring if anyone heard them. Oh, how he loved the sinful sound of her begging for more of him.

After he was done with her neck, he gave her some butterfly kisses to calm her down before the next round. “Can I continue now?” he asked her. Kaede just hummed and nodded at him.

Rantarou discarded his pants, only keeping his black speedo with green lining intact. He continued kissing her lips as his dominant hand crawled under her dress. He traced her legs, her inner tights, and stopped at her most sensitive part as he slapped it, making her already-soaking-wet undergarment even more drenched than it already was. Kaede seriously wondered how does he make it feel so good. The fact that he never failed to control her actually amazed her. This wasn’t the first time they did it but... every time they do it, it’s always better than the last time.

But he hadn’t even actually started his game yet. His fingers just started playing with her core, driving her insane. “Ranta—aaaaaah...” Kaede’s moan kept getting less coherent. But to Rantarou, she sounded even more like a diva now. He slid her lacey pink panties down so her core was fully exposed to him. He was about to devour her...

...if it wasn’t for that meddling little Kanna.

“Mommy? Daddy? Can I sleep here, please?” Kanna asked from outside as she was knocking her parents’ door.

“Tch,” Rantarou snapped his tongue as he got off from Kaede, salty that his midnight snack had to be interrupted. Kaede fixed her disheveled clothes and walked to reach the door.

“Hi honey,” Kaede answered as she opened the door. “What happened?”

“I had a nightmare, I’m so scared,” Kanna hugged her mother tightly. “I think there’s a monster under my bed...”

“Monsters don’t exist, y’know,” Rantarou replied from the background as he put his clothes on. Kaede glared at him, still holding Kanna.

Rantarou glared at her back, until 5 seconds later he gave up. “Hhhhh...... okay, okay... Daddy will check your bed,” he finally gave in to his baby girl’s request.

“Really?” Kanna’s eyes brighten up as she looked at her father.

“Yep,” the smug daddy patted his daughter’s smol head.

“Thank you, Daddy,” she hugged him. “Can I kiss you?”

“Sure.” Rantarou bent down so Kanna could kiss his cheek. “Until then you can stay here with Mommy.”

“Okay, Daddy! Good luck!”

“Good luck!” Kaede played along as she picked up the 6-year-old. “You’re Kanna-chan’s best superhero, after all!”

“Yep, thank you~” Rantarou waved to the two girls as he left.

Once he entered Kanna’s room, he quickly turned on the lights. “Pretty sure it’s just Ouma-kun’s prank again,” he hissed under his breath. Rantarou then checked under Kanna’s bed. There was nothing under it.

“Yup.”

Rantarou then went back to his shared room with Kaede. He thought he could finally finish was he started, yet Kanna was already asleep on her mother’s lap. Kaede was singing for her while caressed the little girl’s head gently.

Kaede stopped singing as she noticed Rantarou was already sitting next to her. “So, how was it?” she asked while smiling at him.

“I took care of the monster,” he smirked confidently.

Fully knowing what he actually meant, Kaede just giggled at him. After that, she continued singing a lullaby to the sleeping beauty.

Rantarou gazed at his little girl—their little girl. She has her mother golden hair and strong, determined, yet gentle demeanor, combined with her father’s wavy locks and green eyes. “Beautiful...” he mumbled.

“Who? Kanna?” Kaede asked him.

“Mm-hmm. Just like her mother.” Rantarou kissed her gently.

Kaede leaned on her husband’s shoulder as she slowly fell into slumber following Kanna. Being slightly uncomfortable, Rantarou laid down both of them on the bed. He gently kissed both of his two precious girls on their foreheads each, and finally went to sleep himself.

He could just have his snack later. Right now taking care of his two sunshine is more important.

Author’s note:

Sorry not sorry for teasing you guys haha. Happy April Fools!!

Second Amamatsu fic ^0^ I love this ship so much uwu uwu. Oh, and yes, I named their daughter based on Kanna Kamui from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, in case anyone was wondering. The Saiharu sequel of my previous one is still on progress btw ;) But anyway, I hope you enjoy this fic and feel free to leave some comments ^^ don’t worry, I’m not gonna force you if you don’t wanna.

#ndrv3 #new danganronpa v3 #amami rantarou #akamatsu kaede #amamatsu #rantarou amami #amami rantaro #rantaro amami #kaede akamatsu #fanfiction

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