Imposter Syndrome commentary & notes

REFERENCES: 

- Imposter syndrome refers to a real psychological condition where a person feels anxiety and self-doubt because they basically believe themselves to be frauds and worry about being exposed as such, even though their skills, success, relationships, etc are genuine. I thought it was a fitting title.

GENERAL:

- If you've watched Trollhunters then you'll know why TK reacted so strongly to Otto calling Patamon a cat. XD

- Trollhunters is one of those things that has some cool ideas, but gets bogged down by a lot of goofy writing and cringe/or childish humor, among other issues. I'm actually glad I didn't get any further into the Tales Of Arcadia spinoffs, because it sounds like the whole thing drops even further in quality (IE: the one show with the two aliens and the infamous finale movie).

The Changelings are one of the most interesting elements in the series. I do think they're... well, stupid in terms of their capacity for self-preservation though. They seem perfectly content in following a leader who cares nothing for or respects them, and is openly blatant with his disregard for them, to the point of following him to their own literal destruction in the end. 

Better the devil you know, I guess. I feel this is the sort of environment Changeling!T.K. would look at, then look over at the Chosen Children, and decide he'd much rather give his loyalty to the latter. Also, if you're a Changeling and you fail some sort of mission you're given, the boss will literally eat you. Strickler was the only Changeling who was not okay with any of this (something I think should've been explored further), and even he did a lot of stupid things (though that was more tied to his antics as a villain).

Actually, upon further reflection, I feel like the Changelings both as characters and concepts were wasted. Many of them get killed off the end of the first season.

- I do like that air of mystery that the Changelings still have about them to this day. All we really know about them is that they are trolls the Gumm-Gumms and Morgana La Fay took and altered somehow (it's never stated exactly how). They're linked to a human infant who's been previously abducted, and they take on that human's form and proceed to live their life. I know troll!Enrique wasn't a character that we the audience were meant to really take seriously, but his presence just raises more questions. I assume the Changeling would have grown in size as he grew up as Enrique, but do trolls not have an infant stage, or the infants already able to speak and have adult cognizance? Or is that just something limited to Changelings? Were the trolls that were experimented on young ones, or adults? 

But yeah, I admit to enjoying having some mystery about certain canon elements in a work of fiction. It is cool to see canon explore some things (Godfather II delving into Vito Corleone's backstory, for example), but not so much when it feels like they're just shoveling mounds of crap at viewers. Like I think Ixis Naugus's backstory in the original Archie Sonic comics is hella goofy and just kinda lame. It added nothing to his character and he might as well have just retained his mysterious past.

- The idea of doing a Trollhunters crossover where some good guy actually turns out to be a Changeling in disguise has always floated around in my mind after reading this story. ETA: My bad, I didn't actually share the link. Initially I was going to do a Disney/Trollhunters crossover, but none of the Disney properties I looked at really worked for me. Then one day, Digimon just popped into my head as a good candidate for the other fandom. It just came down to picking which season to use. My top two choices were either the Adventure continuity or Frontier (which is flawed, yeah, but I still really like it. Might be a nostalgia thing).

- I'm going to hold off on doing a character analysis for T.K. for now. I haven't really seen the entirety of Adventure or Adventure 02 in years. I did rewatch some of both seasons on Hulu recently (more Adventure then 02 though). I will say that I quite enjoy the character as he is in Adventure, but in 02 the now older T.K. often radiates this smug golden boy vibe that kind of puts me off him. And the show just kind of leans into it too. When it came to IS, my thought process went to "wouldn't it be funny if somebody that perfect was hiding something?" Looking at both seasons of Digimon through the lens of "what if TK was a Changeling the entire time?" adds a interesting element to things.

The story isn't really about Patamon per se, but looks at both his and T.K.'s relationship, so I don't know if I should do an analysis on him as well, or if I do, just combine his with TK's.

- I would love to see the Gumm-Gumms' reactions to the partner Digimon (especially Gatomon) and seeing them digivolve. Actually, I'd like to see how Jim and co would react as well. 

FUN FACTS:

N/A

Who are these two?

 

Found this image at a Sonic The Hedgehog club on Amino. Grimer and Rouge I recognize, but who's the character next to Rouge? And that robot on the end (that is a robot, isn't it?)?

Oh, and I guess it's 2024 now, so Happy New Year's. :-) A couple of my resolutions is to try get more writing done (especially for stories), as well as continue improving at drawing. 

BTW, the notes for Imposter Syndrome are still being worked on. Other then that I don't have much of anything else to report. Until next time!

Where I'm posting my art at now:

If you're curious, here's my gallery. I'll be uploading some new stuff soon.

People who've harassed me in the past over pairings, how my characters look, etc are not welcome, and will be blocked and reported if you try it again. This new site isn't like deviantART where you can just repeatedly get away with going after people.

ETA: That account is no longer being updated and will be deleted in the near future.

New story up!

It's a one-shot merging Digimon Adventure 02 with the Netflix series Trollhunters. You can find it it at both my FF.net and A03 accounts.

October 2023 status report

New Dogs, New Tricks And A Brush With Danger are still being worked on, in addition to a one-shot idea I've had for a few years now. People who've heard me say stuff like this before may be rolling their eyes right about now, because I tend to struggle with one-shots, but the thing is 80% finished. It's more minimalist in terms of description and detail, while on the flip-side there's a lot of dialogue. Hopefully the story won't read like an info dump. I'll discuss it more when it's finished and posted, which'll probably be sometime this month. 

Working on it made me realize I didn't like my writing style for New Dogs, so I decided to rewrite its scenes but keep the dialogue. I can say that the beginning and the conclusion are mostly done.

Also I deleted Into The Spotlight off my FF.net account, and Gold With Envy will more then likely be following shortly. Both are extremely old and do not fit the current look of my AU, plus my OCs in the former fic have evolved significantly. 

Lastly, I'm looking at doing some "just shooting the breeze" type posts for this blog, like talking about my present stance on romance and the whole "shipping" scene.

No major updates to share, but while working on a scene for A Brush With Danger, I arrived at a pretty messed-up realization about Elena Of Avalor:

Francisco and Luisa are both pretty bad grandparents. Yes, even Francisco, and I've called him the more tolerable of the two.  

Sure, when Elena is sad or needs encouragement they're there for her, but they're really passive when she does impulsive stuff like run off to confront Shuriki all by herself, just sitting back staring like goons when I realistically think most family members would (hopefully) be like "What? No, don't do that, that's really dangerous!" I mean, is that not a normal reaction? Am I being out of line here? They could've even just told her "Hey, why not bring some backup with you in case you end up in a bad spot?" Esteban was the only one who disagreed with Elena's leaving, but with the way the show was framing both him and the situation, of course it was to make him look like the bad guy for telling her to just let the royal guards handle things.

So the grandparents basically just exist to cheer Elena on. Enable her behavior, even. I don't think EoA intended for that to be the case, but with the way the storytelling was handled, they were simply yet more victims of "Elena's always Right" and "no one's allowed to have a reaction to anything but Elena, unless it's to back up whatever Elena says or does." Isa was the only one who was able to kinda avoid this trend, because the writers actually let her be upset about Esteban's departure in the third season. Same for Gabe that one time he got mad at Elena in the episode "Shapeshifters", but of course there was no fallout from that situation in the next episode. I mean, you'd think he'd start being more protective of Elena, or openly questioning her (often poor) decision-making abilities, something.

I've been trying to think of animated shows in which the grandparents were better handled, but the only examples I could think of where the grandparents are fairly prominent are things I either haven't seen enough of (Hey Arnold) or haven't seen in a long time (Rugrats). So I guess I'll have to look to a movie to highlight an example of a parent who alternately knew when to be stern when times actually called for it, and then when to be affectionate, as well as actively teaching his son about their world -- Mufasa from the original Lion King. His and Simba's relationship is significantly more well-balanced and healthier then the that of the grandparents Flores and their grandchildren.

But back to EoA and the grandparents' existences revolving around making Elena feel better -- note that it's only Elena. They never did the same for Esteban (Isa I don't know, I think Elena was the one to primarily be her source of comfort IIRC). I guess the argument could be made that he's a middle-aged and they just think he's doing fine (which is fair if you take into account the culture as well as them being older folk), but given that they've given him dirty looks or disapproving comments whenever he acted like a vain butt or scared... yeah. No, I'm not being "a butthurt Estefan durrhurr" 🙄, and I'm not saying they should justify him in his bad moments, but outside of the finale (which I didn't watch, but I'll be fair and assume they were actually nice to him in its conclusion), did they ever have any sweet moments with him?

I'm sure that looking after grandkids after a major tragedy is not easy. I'm not saying it is. But if two of my grandchildren had real beef going on between them the way Elena and Esteban do (and I'm not even referring to Esteban's betrayal; this was an issue long before Francisco and Luisa even gained knowledge of that), then I'd get together with my spouse, if not talk to the grandchildren myself, and try to see what's wrong and how could things improved. If EoA showed Francisco and Luisa even doing that much, then at least then I'd give them props. But both sit there and never say a word about it ever, or are completely absent. Zuzo had to say something to her in the third season.

I hate this kind of stuff because I -- surprise -- prefer good writing and a main character that doesn't have a stranglehold on a series, but I guess that's where fanfic and a deconstruction more specifically comes in handy. My OFC who isn't even related to the family is more proactive at being a parental figure then the grandparents are. He actually tells Esteban and Elena to keep calm and try to figure out what's going on, because being overly defensive and going at each other isn't helpful in the situation. Of course, with the way fandom is I'm sure 95% of fans don't see an issue with Francisco and Luisa all. Family members are supposed to just praise and comfort you all the time. Everything else is clearly abuse, and anybody who says otherwise is just being a character basher. :) 

All I'm saying is just constantly praising a kid and letting them do what they want when they want, even if they're a good kid at heart like Elena is, may not be a great parenting style.

"Loyalty" commentary & notes

References:

- The plot is based around the Ultimate Spider-Man episode "Second Chance Hero". Shocking, I know.

General:

- I wanted to write something about Norman and his son. A little while ago I decided to try looking for some Norman-centric fanfics on Fanfiction.net. There were none. And one fic I came across depicted him as an incestuous pedophile. If there had been a bunch of positive stories about him out there Loyalty would've been written regardless, but the fact that it's the exact opposite situation just gave me extra incentive to write it.

I'm a fan of the daemon concept that's presented in the books that I'm crossing over with Ultimate Spider-Man here, the His Dark Materials series, not so much the rest of the books (which I suspect is the case for a bunch of people, because when I typically see HDM crossovers, they usually just use the daemon concept and that's all). I liked the first and even the second book as a kid, but the third one really confused me at times and turned out to be my least favorite entry. As an adult, I don't like any of them. 

ETA: Okay, let me go more into why I don't like this series. I don't recall much of the third book, The Amber Spyglass (thankfully), something I can't say for the first two books. 

Stuff I distinctly do remember about it? Well, it had big (excuse my French, but this is the most fitting description I can give) "Screw you mom/dad/grandma, stop showing the pastor my Twitter account!" energy. Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are both despicable characters; they did not deserve redemption. Oh, and Will and Lyra having sex, and that saves the multiverse. 

Will and Lyra are twelve years old. Mmm-hmm.

Looking at reviews for The Amber Spyglass over on Goodreads, I saw critics make some excellent observations. One I'll share here is that Philip Pullman doesn't seem to be anti-religious. He just rejected organized religion and replaced it with a religion he made up for HDM, topped off with some New Age woo. Angels, Dust, witches, daemons clearly represent souls... those are all concepts either from or inspired by religion. If you're allowing room for the supernatural to exist, then you're opening up the door for just about anything, and that includes God.

All that said, the idea of having your personality be represented by a talking animal (I headcanon that they also represent one's subconscious) is a really cool idea. So I figured why not toss two things I like together? It's really fun to think about what kinds of daemons our favorite characters might have.

Fun facts:

- Daemon talk time. I'm pretty sure some people choose animals simply because they like them and think they're cool, not because they actually fit a certain character. For example, I saw a fic once where Harry Potter had a husky daemon. Now, I'm not even an HP fan and don't feel like a husky is really appropriate for him. I don't know what kind of animal he'd have, but husky seems like it was picked simply because the writer liked them.

I also think HDM is too on the nose about daemons."OMG that person has a rat/polecat/snake daemon so they must be the evulz!" "All servants have dog daemons, so that means they're born to serve others!" Wow. So if you wanted to be an archaeologist and your daemon settles as a dog, boom, that's it, you have to go work as a maid or something instead? What? What's up with these British children's books authors treating classism as something perfectly natural and even acceptable? HDM, Redwall, Harry Potter... I'm sure people can toss me some more titles. Even "evil animals" have their good qualities, and the reverse likewise goes for the "good animals". For example, rats are adaptable and pretty smart. Wouldn't things be more interesting and nuanced if a totally normal person had a rat daemon, and they had to go through life being side-eyed simply because his/her daemon happens to be a rat? So I really don't even like how Philip Pullman handles his own concept.

- Onto why the USM characters got the animals that they did in here. Right off the bat I knew Norman's daemon was going to be something predatory. On a whim I looked up the symbolism of the cougar as a totem animal at What's Your Sign.com, It's traits are said to be action, strength, nobility, patience, silence, decision, leadership, guardianship, and self-assurance.

Puma meaning (as well as symbolism of mountain lions or cougars) speaks to us of inspection, observation and scrutiny. In the wild, this creature will stare at an object, unmoving [sic], for what seems like an eternity. Further, she does this with stillness, patience. To those of us who heed the puma as a guide, we would take great care to observer our own lives with the kind of intese [sic] focus the puma does.



People who have identified the puma, mountain lion, and/or cougar as their animal totem are people who typically come into this world with a spiritual knowing. Those who attract this animal totem have a deeper understanding of spiritual things. They are very psychic, intuitive, and are likely to be artistically inclined.

Furthermore, the puma is a very protective energy. If you have this creature as your animal totem, you are blessed to have such a fierce and aggressive guardian with you. When called upon you will be amazed at the resourcefulness and assistance the puma meaning can offer.

In closing, it is important to recognize the puma and it's relatives are cats of sudden, vigorous action. This being the case, those who share the puma as their totem should be mindful of their tendancy [sic] to lash out too quickly, or act out in haste. Call upon the patience and observation of the puma before taking action in order to avoid quick and unsavory consequences. 

Sounds quite a bit like Norman to me.

Harry's daemon was hard to pick. He's sort of generic I guess, and they didn't develop him as much as I thought they could've. I do like him more here then I have in other continuities. I've never disliked him, but he was never someone I got excited about or anything. I think the "rich kid who tries to buy friendship and isn't that great at school" approach has more potential then "he's a geek like Peter too!" I did consider all his qualities before deciding that his loyalty, especially to Norman and his hopes for their relationship to improve, was noteworthy. So Harry was going to have a dog, which, in the world of HDM, would be a startling choice for someone from such a privileged background. I thought I'd play around with the silly "only servants have dog daemons" deal. That choice also helped the story come together.

But what breed of dog? Right off the bat I said no to the German shepherd, the Siberian husky, or anything husky-like due to their overexposure, the husky/spitz types especially, and just being overrated in general (JUST MY OPINION PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME DEATH THREATS). Sighthounds can be very lazy dogs, but when it's time to go, they can go. Sounds like Harry to me. I picked the whippet over it's more well-known cousin the greyhound.

Since Norman's father Amberson was a horrible person in the comics, again, I went with an intimidating animal, the European eagle owl.

Spider-Man gets a spider monkey! It might be uninspired, but I wanted an animal that could keep up with him all over the city and be easy to get around with. Plus, I think a monkey matches his personality. I don't know exactly how old Peter and Harry are off the top of my head, but I do think they're old enough to have settled daemons.

- Several of the daemon's names in HDM canon have a special significance behind them. It's no coincidence that both Osborns' daemons have names starting with the letter A. Astrakhan comes from a book I'm reading about pre-Communist era Russian rulers, and is a city in that particular country. Astra is Latin for "star", and Khan refers to a ruler in Turkic and Mongolian culture. It sounded like a good strong name for Norman's daemon.

I can't recall how or why I chose Aloisa, but it means "famous warrior".

That's pretty much it. My next HDM fusion will more then likely either be about the USM version of the Rhino or Big Hero Six.

ETA: I would like to revisit the "What if some fictional characters had daemons?" concept again!