After about two years on this blog, I suppose it’s about time to make a pinned post. I figure that most folks who follow me know the rundown, but if you’re new to here I want to wish you welcome and show you around!
So hello! I’m Androxys! I spent an absurd amount of my childhood reading Batman comics and then never grew out of it. So now I read comics, read about comics, and write about comics, mainly as fic and the occasional nonfiction essay. All my fic can all be found on the Archive of Our Own. There’s also a link to my AO3 in my bio.
I try to maintain a pretty consistent tagging system on this blog for my own reference. Every post that has my original words or commentary is tagged #chit chat, and everything reblogged is tagged as, you guessed it, #reblog. All my writing can be found under #my writing, with my fic also being under #fic.
DC Comics stuff is, you guessed it, #dc comics, and comics characters are generally tagged by their real names. That helps eliminate some confusion from mantle swapping. I tag posts about fandom as a whole as #fandom logistics, including things like updates from the Organization for Transformative Works.
When I’m not behind this computer, I’m usually doing library things. I got started on this career after 4+ years in social work/social services, and found that while I loved serving the public, I needed to do it in a different venue. Despite a brief dalliance in academic libraries, I work in public libraries. I love my field, and I love to talk about it. Library stuff is tagged #librarianship, should you want to see my musings there.
Other than tumblr, there are a few other ways to keep up with me, namely on Dreamwidth or on BlueSky. Dreamwidth is where I cross post my more substantial or long-form work from here: things like my Nada Parbat primer, my write up on DC’s government agencies, or my post-Crisis Batman read-through. I tend to use BlueSky (and Twitter before it, RIP) for comic news.
I suppose that’s as good a primer as any. Welcome to my blog! Stay a while! I’m glad you’re here.
just tried to reference the xkcd "today's lucky 10,000" comic but I wanted to explain xkcd first, so I was like "you probably know the one about experts in the field overestimating their audience's familiarity with the subject matter" and uh. he didn't. love me some irony
As we mentioned, the Chinese version of Oblivion Mobile included music, unlike the known English versions. This was a MIDI version of Reign of the Septims, the main theme of Oblivion, which in-game plays as this 16bit-esque rendition of the song.
Every time I go out to bars or clubs or the like I have a secret goal to have a complete, pleasant conversation with at least one stranger and tonight I am CRUSHING it
Many people’s negative feelings towards Terry Long lead them to wanting him to be removed completely from Donna’s history. I understand why. He was a good decade older than her, and she was freshly an adult when they began dating. He didn’t respect her career as a hero, often complaining about it despite having known beforehand what he was getting into. He took her child from her in their divorce. Etc.
Terry was not a good partner for Donna, but I don’t believe canon should just erase him. For better or for worse, Terry played a major role in Donna’s life, and removing him would change who she has become as a character/person.
The problem with Terry’s portrayal, especially prior to his and Donna’s divorce, was that the source material presented their relationship as healthy and tried to convince the readers of that. Clearly their relationship was not actually healthy.
When the age gap is brought up in the comics, it’s never for negative reasons. Sometimes it’s just a jab at Terry for being old, but often these references are used to show how mature Donna is. Wolfman has even said that he created Terry as Donna’s love interest because she needed somebody more mature like her. For him that meant she needed to date a man ten years her senior.
Only after their separation and divorce does their relationship start to be shown a bit negatively. However, even when it is, it’s not doing anything to show that the relationship was unhealthy when they were together. The negative things brought up and referenced about Terry are just that he was the one who initiated the divorce and left Donna and that he took Robbie away from Donna.
The ideal way, in my opinion, for what writers should do with their relationship is not to look back on it in a positive way, nor do I think they should completely ignore it ever happened. It should be acknowledged as something unhealthy that Donna didn’t seen at the time since she was young and naive. Something that took time/needs to take time for her to fully grasp.
However, this doesn’t mean I want for Donna to suddenly just completely hate him. I know many people enjoy revenge fantasies, and I know there are people that use Terry for those, and if that’s how you cope with things, that’s fine. I just personally don't see that as in character for Donna, nor do I really find it compelling.
Donna’s feelings towards Terry should be complicated. It should be something she struggles with at first that she later comes to terms with. There were some comics during and after the divorce that started to do this, but, again, her negative feelings were about the divorce itself and Terry taking Robbie away and not the relationship prior to these events.
During and after the divorce, despite everything Terry has been putting Donna through since he left her, she continues to believe she still loves him and thinks he must feel the same way about her. It ties a bit in with her issues with perfectionism. What they had was the perfect family she wanted, and she can’t fathom that she’s losing it.
She believes that despite everything he is still a good person. She has occasional moments of anger towards him, but she still feels positively about him a lot of the time. It’s heartbreaking seeing these moments.
New Titans #117
New Titans #128
Even after his death her feelings remain complicated. She grieves for him along with Robbie. After everything he put her through. It would be so easy for her to be angry at him for Robbie’s death regardless of how much at fault he is. But she doesn’t. Instead she continues to feel love for him. He took her son from her in more ways than one, and she still loves him.
Girlfrenzy! Wonder Woman: Donna Troy
This display of complicated feelings, where she continues to love somebody she has every right to be mad at, isn’t just something she does with Terry. She’s done this with the Titans of Myth as well. They messed with her memories and manipulated her, but she still feels love for them.
Return of Donna Troy #4
To me it’s just a lot more compelling for her to struggle with the fact that she still loves these people who she has every right to hate. Even as she comes to terms with how poorly they treated her. She loves Terry. He was an important part of her life. But he hurt her. From the start their relationship was unhealthy.
A story arc for Donna where it finally hits her how bad things were the whole time could be so much fun if handled correctly. And this is why I would prefer this over him being removed or just having Donna suddenly switch to just full on hating him. For her character it makes a lot more sense for things to be a bit more complex than that.
finally updating my comics spreadsheet when i haven't in a while is so embarrassing. what do you mean there are multiple instances of me buying the same comic issue twice within a few months because i forgot i already got it in that short a time period
I AM the fun police and I HATE joy and if these students continue to hackey sack and hoot and holler outside of my AP exam I AM about to become the mean teacher
