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gambit and his kitties.  because i needed a break today.

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I beseech you for your Garth insight, wht personality of his do you like? Bc every version of him I've read is a little alienating to me (part of the reason why I prefer Jackson is bc Idk which Garth I'll get or wht even his backstory is now) so if I started to try and get invested in him wht stories or version would you recc?

Okay for absolute full disclosure here I’m currently getting into Aquaman comics chronologically. Primarily through the lens of Garth. And there are some things I had already read at some point, but in my current venture I’m just a little bit post-Crisis, so my knowledge of the Aquaman side of things in general is still relatively limited. 

But I can definitely talk about Garth.

First things first, absolutely anything featuring a man calling himself Garth from any point later than the year 2011 is a completely different person. I can say that with full confidence even having read, like, no more than 2 comics including the Rebirth iteration of his character. It’s just not the same guy on seemingly any level, which can definitely account for the alienation aspect, and it’s very disappointing.

But on the topic of OG Garth. Let’s discuss his personality.

Something that stands out to me immediately about Garth is that he is very emotional. (Apparently a common theme among the characters I like.) But more than that, he’s emotional in like a shockingly healthy way? He does not bottle things up, if something hurts or upsets him he makes it known, if he feels betrayed or disrespected by someone he takes it up with them, and he’s not at all afraid of direct confrontation if it’s warranted. 

But despite that, he remains consistently reserved, sensitive, and gentle, which is kind of a miracle among male comic book characters. He can have a temper too, but it only really comes up if something is stopping him from helping someone in trouble, or if he feels mistreated past a certain limit, and it never really feels like he’s lashing out unnecessarily. His continual willingness to stand up for himself in spite of his “softer” personality sticks with me.

And tying into all of the above he’s textually acknowledged for his talents in communication and later diplomacy, which, again, not usually traits emphasized in Superhero Men. This example is very cute:

Not that he doesn’t enjoy fighting. He definitely does. In fact, a few of his notable outbursts have been explicitly about his beef with pacifist philosophies LOL. Although he notably doesn’t go out looking for fights or starting them without good reason by any means. (I think this is a point of diversion between him and his imposter-self. Maybe. From what I’ve heard.) 

Now backpedaling a bit, part of why all of his fairly healthy emotional and communicative traits are so charming to me is that he definitely is NOT without his issues. Idk how much you know about his backstory but for starters, he was abandoned and left to die as a baby, initially thought to be due to an Atlantean superstition regarding his purple eyes, surviving (mostly) on his own for a while and eventually being found by Arthur. Due to this, as well as the ambiguous and changeable state of his relationship with Arthur (whether they see each other as friends, brothers, or a father-son duo is. Complicated to say the least. It’s almost like a Jedi-Padawan type thing if you’re into star wars LMAO), Garth is kind of a walking hotbed of abandonment issues, theoretically at least. Like I said, he’s pretty healthy when it comes to expressing his needs and feelings. He's definitely more well-adjusted than Arthur ends up being.

Loneliness and a lack of belonging/identity are also huge themes with him as well. This is why the Titans are so important to Garth, even if his responsibilities and limitations prevent him from being a consistent member of the team. During maybe the first period where he genuinely doesn’t know where he stands with Arthur anymore, he goes off on his own to seek out his (purple-eyed) people and try to find his parents to give himself some sense of personal identity and find out who he is--as it turns out, he has immense trouble relating to them or even being civil with them at points, and ends up feeling like as much of an outcast with them as he does in Atlantis, ultimately realizing that his identity and who he fundamentally is are things that only he can decide for himself! Go Garth!

Some other issues he deals with are general insecurity and anxiety--these are mostly shown within the context of the Titans, where he’s often the odd one out as an Atlantean and severely limited in his abilities and effectiveness outside of the water (i.e. nearly suffocating to death all the time.) At the end of the original Teen Titans, Garth quits the team because he felt so deeply inferior and useless to them that it was making him actually severely physically ill to the point of passing out multiple times and people genuinely worrying he was going to die. That is a lot of anxiety. Though he doesn’t have nearly as much insecurity when he’s in the water, he's still shown to be A Worrier, and Tula makes fun of him for being too vigilant or in his own head, unable to loosen up and so on. Also, in his very first appearance, he is deathly afraid of fish!!!!!

Now for recs. First of all, if you’re insane or plan on being so in the future, this is a link to a complete reading order, which is what I’ve been loosely following. More specifically, Garth’s first appearance is in Adventure Comics #269. I would also recommend Adventure Comics #270 and #278. It’s some of the cutest shit ever, but it has little bearing on his later appearances.

From then I would go to Aquaman v1 (1962). Specifically #17-18, #23, #25, #33 (Tula intro!), and #40-47 (this arc is really drawn out and silly and Garth’s segments are mostly separate from the rest of the plot so after the first one you can honestly just skip through most of it until you see Garth or Tula LOL). He’s also in Teen Titans v1 during this time, I would read the first issue and then skip to #19, #28-29, #30, #40 (kilt moment), #45-53. Also, The Brave and the Bold (2008) #10 is a very cute story that focuses on Garth and takes place during this era.

Sort of concurrent to the Titans appearances is maybe the first major Aquaman storyline which you can find as a trade paperback (on readcomiconline lol) called Aquaman: The Death of a Prince. Basically Arthur is put through a meat-grinder of facing a bunch of his villains back to back, being deposed as the King of Atlantis, losing Arthur Jr., and as a result, becoming estranged from Garth and Mera. This is where you also find the first real expansion of Garth’s backstory.

Then he pops up in New Teen Titans (1980) #23 and #33. Tales of the Teen Titans #45-47 + #50. New Teen Titans (1984) #6. And then Crisis on Infinite Earths happens wherein Tula is killed. It’s very minor and not worth reading the whole thing just to see that if you’ve never read it before. He sticks with the New Teen Titans (1984) team for a spell when almost everyone in the usual team is gone and/or going through a mental breakdown from #19-26 I believe, and the grief makes him very quiet and distant, but he breaks through it by the end. Basically right after that are the events of Teen Titans Spotlight #10 with a very odd psychedelic story where he has like a telepathic battle with Mento lol, and later in #18 of the same book. 

Congratulations, you are now caught up with me. This has also gotten disturbingly long, so I’m going to cut it off here. If you actually make it through all this and would like more recommendations for Garth past this point feel free to ask again. Or if you get sick of reading these older comics and don’t care about skipping ahead/potentially not understanding shit, he shows up pretty consistently in Aquaman v5 (and the excellent Tempest (1996) miniseries where he makes the moniker-switch takes place after I think #25 of that), and Titans (1999).

when you’re looking through your buddy list deleting people to make room for new buddies and you see the usernames of very good friends and role playing buddies you used to talk to for hours every day but haven’t logged on in years and you just don’t have the heart to delete them even though they’ll probably never log in again

Mini Gambit! ♠️💜

So @itlivesproject released preview of their first LI so why not draw him :) He looks cool and looking forward to seeing the rest of the LIs (and draw the rest of them)

god it took me AGES but it’s finally done. Happy Batman Day!

 [SOURCE]

Okay I saw @sippingteainurhood’s reply and wanted to give it its own post because it brings up a topic most fans look over. I’m not bringing in any personal opinions to this, I’m just stating what happens in the end of SotLK, and trust me, it will ruin your day.

So I know most people believe Bloom earned her full Enchantix after freeing everyone in Obsidian, but we never hear anyone confirm that in the movie (I’m going off the English dub — not the Nick English dub). It’s something viewers just kind of took at face value. Which is understandable because Bloom’s whole journey was about saving her planet and her birth parents, right?

But what I would like to point out is this: Bloom never saved anyone in Obsidian or restored Sparx, so it’s impossible for her to have earned her full Enchantix. And let me tell you the infuriating story as to why that is.

If you break down the battle on Obsidian, Bloom was going to die. Sky was believed to be dead from trying to take Oritel’s sword, and the Ancestral Witches fused themselves into Mandragora to enhance her power and was choking the life out of Bloom. Bloom only broke free of them because Sky wasn’t actually dead. Why did Sky not die? Because of a lovely little prophecy casually thrown into the film: “A king without a crown will save a king of a lost kingdom and what was lost will be again.” And guess who just so happened to be secretly crowned king of Eraklyon earlier in the movie? So Sky sneaks up behind Mandragora, and stabs her in the back with Oritel’s sword. And because of this, Obsidian is destroyed and Sparx is restored.

Bloom didn’t destroy Obsidian. Bloom didn’t save her people. And Bloom didn’t restore Sparx. Sky did.

We spent three seasons of this show that centered around girl power knowing Bloom’s destiny was to save her birth parents and restore Sparx just to have that be ripped away from her and given to her boyfriend.

She should have earned her full Enchantix then. But the plot was literally set up to where that could never happen because we had to have Sky swoop in and save the day and save his “princess” to remind everyone that he’s her “hero” (a theme that pops up quite frequently in this movie).

So yeah. I hope that ruined everyone’s day as much as it ruined mine.

i realized i never shared the finished doll stickers art here 😶

my shop is here. i started making these as gifts for friends so the current selection is limited and/or skewed lol but i want to design some more so feel free to comment with who you'd like to see ^^

Porn blogs need ro stop fuckin following me honestly

Im gettin real sick n tired of it

Why I think Riven had substantial character development in season four

Yes, season four. I know this is somewhat a controversial topic because many people in the fandom seem to dislike season four, which is fine, but something that has always confused me is how readily people are to dismiss the character development of Riven. I know we all have our confirmation biases and whatnot, but as far as I see it, his character development is right there, out in the open, painted in bold letters.   

So, naturally, I thought I’d share my two cents on the topic. But first, let’s talk about Riven. 

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