#kovac talks

[kovacs-on-comics]

gonna start gaslighting people that Cass and Tim had a super long run as batman and robin, if you want to prove your commitment to the cause then do the same—i need to goncharov this

[kovacs-on-the-ring]

an objective fact about the halo experience is any campaign that lets you fight alongside Sangheili is better for it. Halo 3 would not be as fun or as memorable if you weren't shoulder to shoulder with the elites, god they're so much fun, god they have so much texture to them. I love Sangheili forever, halo wouldn't be half as good without their stories.

And it doesn't even have to be chief arbiter, I think Spartans and Sangheili are the most peanut butter jelly thing in halo. It's a proven dynamic, it fucks, it has so many juicy conversations and interactions, it's also sick as hell to play and look at

[kovacs-on-ice]

I am very close to just saying fuck it and making a write up of core design traits for a post-robin Tim Drake design, based off his various comic book robin suits, his red robin suits pre and post N52, and just the type of hero identities lean into.

I see alot of Red Robin/Unique Tim Drake redesigns online, on pinterest and tumblr. I love the creativity and effort people pour into the tim boy. What interests me is how these costumes reflect on Tim and what type of Tim that costume is showing.

I think that the hero's costume can be a superb way to show characterization, and Tim's original suit is an S tier perfect example of that.

And Tim is a character with so so many dynamic and equally valid divergent paths to his future post robin, and I think the fan designs reflect this. Edit: I am also by no means an expert on character designs, or one to judge fan designs. I just have the brainworm for Tim Drake and his costumes specifically.

[kovacs-on-the-ring]

Stepping on my Halo Soapbox again, to everyone’s detriment.

It’s important that Master Chief—John, is average among his peers in the majority of skills/talents. Very important, it’s something that Fall of Reach begins and shockingly Halo 3 picks up directly.

I like to write and flesh out Spartan IIs, their community, how they are as people, so to me I think about this semi often. John is the vehicle in which he perceive the spartans in their foundational texts(outside onyx), and it’s illuminating about John’s narration and POV is how highly he rates his fellow spartan.

It ironically makes John seem like the everyman among these hyper skilled, ridiculously qualified soldiers, despite being the one they all rely on.

It’s crucial that John heavily relies on and leans on his spartans for support, team comes before everything. This is why Reach(book reach, game reach can jump off a bridge) is a catastrophic disaster to him and every other spartan, because he is losing that entire support system.

The Master Chief of Halo CE-3 is winging this, he’s in the worst state of his life, he’s never been a lone soldier like this. He could rely on Linda for overhead, Anton to scout for him, Fred to juggle marine personnel, James to cover point(here’s evidence for that last one)

What makes the loss of these people important is how John physically cannot be everyone of his teammates at once, while others see the invincibility master chief, John knows distinctly how he’s underperforming—how things used to be.

John was never meant to be alone like this, and it being his status quo now is a reality I doubt we enjoys.

[kovacs-on-comics]

comics are good and worthwhile never kill yourself

[kovacs-on-comics]

I wish Tim and Babs had more interactions about having living parents, when jack drake was alive of course, and the key thing too is that Oracle didn’t actually know his identity until the mid 2000s iirc(seen here in Birds of Prey #19)

I think it’s an interesting commonality, that they both actually have a father to hide secrets from, i’m sure babs would relate to Tim in that—considering her years as batgirl. Is she harsher on him for how his choices inevitably trickle down to his few living family members, is she sympathetic to the situation? There’s a lot of potential interactions and characterizations to consider.

One of the things I enjoyed about Babs and Tim dynamic is how relatively drama free it was, she liked the new robin and was willing to meet him where he was at , like during no mans land when bruce and him were hashing out their relationship after bruce had basically abandoned him for the first two weeks of the crisis

(Legends of the Dark Knight #125)

(Also if there are cases of Tim and Babs chatting about them having living parents, feel free to tell me)

[kovacs-on-the-ring]

What I find frustrating about Karen Traviss’s work, and some of how Halo 4 era canon treated the big lodestones/inherent conceits of the setting—is that what made Halo work as a setting, to me, was the gray morality.

It’s that Halsey knew she was going to hell, in her mind, and hates herself with such a loathing fervor and yet she still pressed the metaphorical button on those spartan augmentations. That’s fascinating!! It’s the core of her character, that she has this moral core that won’t leave her the fuck alone!! That she goes through all that guilt and loathing despite it all. You cut those human qualities and she’s just a boring monstrous ego maniac.

There’s smaller moments like Haverson killing an huragok, a civilian by all accounts, and justifying it under the greater good of preventing the covenant from gaining more advantage then they have already.

Halo is at it’s best when the awful and deplorable actions are done with the implicit understanding of the stakes, that kidnapping those kids or signing up those orphans somehow ended up in a net positive of lives saved—that the savior of the galaxy being the child soldier adds a grim post-hoc justification to his traumatic experiences.

Halo Envoy is a good example of this gray morality too, the entire book. It humanizes the ex-covenant by making them the victims, by putting them in the shoes of the countless human rufugees they created.

And need I mention Thel? The staple of Halo’s “how am i going to live with myself after what I’ve done?” plot beats.

I love Halo when it presents these lose-lose moral quandaries, even when they seem straightforward in the eyes of the characters. I hate when it tries to ignore that part of the setting, to ignore nuance or character introspection on these issues.

[kovacs-on-comics]

(Robin 1993 #30)

One of my favorite little moments with Tim and Babs, the idea of Tim just going with the insane ancient greek bit that Maxie Zeus pushes and deciding to call the “oracle” is such a cute tongue and cheek thing.

Also love the “Are you fucking with me, Tim?” response from Babs.

With Tim and Babs specifically, I love how Tim isn’t afraid to ask for help from her—the lack of ego and politeness in which he’s willing to approach her sets up a fun dynamic for their relationship—especially as tim grows older and more experienced, he still isn’t afraid to defer to her. Tim being this kid constantly over his head, willing to make bridges where bruce just straight up isn’t

And this ending exchange, I love it every time. The post crisis family and these building little moments are a combination I think i’ll fawn over forever.

It’s that Tim, with all his flaws and Teen Judgements and naivety(especially in his early years), was a genuinely good natured down to earth kid, the fact he said thank you to barbara like a normal person and didn’t walk away with some one liner, I think that’s charming. Tim and the way he looks up to the older vigilantes he works with, it’s charming