#dragon mage

"I've forgotten more spells than you will ever know."

Dragon Mage

"I've forgotten more spells than you will ever know."

Dollie

Dragon Mage

"Yes, it's huge and strong and breathes fire. But we're smart!" —Tadith the Wise, last words

disclaimer: i like to assess characters based on potential in order to cope with the shit that occurs in canon. This means, this entire thing is mostly how i would write them rather then a critique on how they are written in canon.

1. harmonia li: lol harmonia li seems like those rich, hard core chinese classical members of the benevolent chinese society while also having a love-hate relationship the local diasporic china town for being 'unclean' and unauthentic enough. What i'm trying to say, is harmonia li is a v textbook of what a chinese person is supposed to be, and uhhhh distant in terms of relatability... Paul levitz probs did some shallow research regarding her 'previously studying w/ confucian,' (which I hc she had to cross dress for that shit, knowing that confucian is sexist af). I think she does have potential as an immortal, and as a time traveller, to be a random easter egg. I would also like her to be a potential avenue to explore 31st century china. Like, china is old af. Another millenium to us, is nothing.

2. dragon mage: uhhh he is annoying im sorry... the western perception of chinese dragons , much less designs of chinese dragon themed characters, was/still is so crass and ugly. That being said, I do want more magical systems based upon traditional chinese knowledge, and I think harmonia li and dragon mage would be great for that. do we get that tho? no. Are we going to get that any time soon? probably not.

3. threeboot shrinking violet: i have such mixed feelings about shrinking violet? like fuck yea her opening scene is so fucking funny and badass, and the concept of her being a team meme and her own teammates not really knowing if she's even real, is hilarious, but like... the concept of an asian girl who can shrink is not very ground breaking and by not v groundbreaking i mean... what is up with white ppl's fetish of asian girls having shrinking powers and being small? like do yall not like us taking up space? does it make you uncomfortable? Also, the whole worldbuilding aspect, of her (asian-coded) people worshipping brainiac 5, a white coded character, because he introduced them to uhhhhh taking up less space... how do i say this? racially charged? is it racially charged? am i overanalyzing this? probably. do i care that im overanalyzing this? no. that being said, on the 0.000000000000000001% chance threeboot!shrinking violet makes a comeback, i would totally want an pulpy action stand alone issue ft her exploring the microscopic world all by herself.

4. bendis boot cosmic boy: finally some fucking food... oh wait did the monkey paw just move? damnit. look, i get that it's a new reboot, hence new stuff, but i think we can all agree that bendis did not do much research, much less, put in much thought, about what makes cosmic boy cosmic boy. the fact that he's a wrestler of metal animals instead of a prodigy at magnoball kinda says a lot about how bendis's understanding of the entire losh was super shallow. ie) bendisboot cosmic boy being a stand-alone wrestler and being used to the spotlight instead of a prodigy team player and how that affects his leadership skills, and potential to recognize his teammates skills and delegate their weaknesses while excelling individually... im screaming... i'm mourning. Where are my representation for asian team athletes? we exist you know?

5. karate kid: Ok. I read karate kid's first appearence by jim shooter, and the fact that the entire legion suspected him of being the spy/traitor despite the fact that he is just a prodigy at martial arts, and thus will have some physical limitations in committing the crimes that occurred making him highly unlikely to be the spy, just recks of microagression to me. i'm sorry i had to get that off my chest. I do think it's v important for karate kid to be an interracial child, bc i do think we need more mixed race characters esp for stories set in the 31st century... there does have the potential for karate kid to have nuance, like for example, there could be an arc where he was raised by his white mother, while estranged from his asian father, and his only connection to his culture was through martial arts. IDK i just feel like karate kid's heritage has gone unaddressed despite having a lot of potential. Hell, fricking chameleon boy has more arcs addressing his durla side, then karate kid's mix heritage. (if you're mixed asian btw, feel free to chime in, and talk about anything missed regarding karate kid, bc i feel like mixed asian ppl's voices are often lost and go unspoken).

6. golden lantern: I was told he was supposed to be filipino-coded or something? idk i'm still a little confused about his powers tbh, but i am all for a asian character who's power is being happy while not being treated like luk duk dong aka a racist joke. The fact that he's blind makes him more interesting to me, because afaik, being a lantern character is v visual based, and i would like some rep in the future about how the 31st treats ppl who possess different senses.

7. reboot!nightwind: you should have been a hijabi girlie... like i do like how you looked like a EA girl, but you should have kept your hijab /hj (she doesn't actually don a hijab in canon, but she may as well i mean have you seen her previous designs?)

8. dragonwing: aside from the whole, wow western designs of chinese dragon themed characters suck, why is she so pale? she looks like 31st century ronald McDonald the clown cause she's so pale w/her red hair.. i will not lie tho, her clothes are p cool. I'm just a little confused about her powers tho? she's got like??? super spit??? what? good for her ig? idk man... why not just call her spitfire at this point?

9. chemical kid: i could not care less about this character. you cannot make me care about him.

This is Dragon Mage, a little piece from way back in 2001. The character is based on our local Ren Faire's "Pickle Girl" who sold the giant dill pickles out of a barrel at the time.