#A Decade Makes a Difference

[rooniearts]

AND HERE THEY ARE! The Espilver children, shy and gentle older brother Psi and hyperactive menace younger sister Alloy!! They're freaks of nature and their dads love them oh so very much

Bonus:

[eveningdawn222]

people who act like batman isn't "judge jury and executioner" because he doesn't kill people are like. genuinely so funny to me because. they're very obviously thinking of "executioner" as like. the stereotypical guy with axe who chops people heads off, and not, yknow, the literal definition of the idiom itself, which is about someone who has the ability to judge and then subsequently punish someone unilaterally. which is quite literally what batman does.

he has the ability to decide what is a "crime" to him, he is the one who decides whether people are guilty of those crimes, and he is the one who executes their punishment. the severity of the punishment doesn't matter - he is unaccountable to anyone else, and indeed is allowed to commit as many crimes as needed to reach his arbitrary ideal of "justice."

the ideal of batman is this: a man who is so fundamentally changed by an act of senseless violence that he takes it upon himself to fight back against the rot and corruption in the world. he does this not through political activism, not through ridding himself of his wealth in favor of a greater good, not through community outreach, but through an individualistic fantasy of being a hero.

and you'll say: charlie, but he does do that !!! he donates his money all the time, he funds social programs, hospitals, orphanages, gets people jobs -

and i will say this: so why don't things get better?

because here's the base of it. gotham, at its core, can't get better. no matter what bruce wayne does, there will always be more crime, more villains, more death, more people for batman to beat up in back alleys. because that's what sells.

reoffending rates don't matter in gotham, prison reform doesn't matter in gotham, what actually causes crime doesn't matter in gotham because that doesn't sell books.

and so here it is; dc has unintentionally created a world where batman can't win, but can't be wrong, and where thousands of nameless, faceless, only-created-to-die civilians must be pushed into the meat grinder that is gotham, to fuel bruce wayne's angst and vindicate his constant, tireless, noble fight against the forces of evil.

and then: a new robin, who is poor and who's parents are dead or gone because of this cycle; who is happy go-lucky and hated by editors and fans for being robin, for not being dick grayson, for being poor.

and this robin is written, unintentionally or not, to be angry at the ways in which batman's (the narrative's) idea of justice is detached from its victims. bruce seems perfectly fine to allow countless unnamed women to be at risk from garzonas in his home country, yet robin is the one who is portrayed as irrational and violent.

this robin is not detached from gotham in the way bruce wayne is: this robin is a product of gotham.

(and here's the thing. you can't punch aids. you can't fight a disease with colorful fights and nifty gadgets. and how would robin dying from aids add to batman's story; it would call into question the systemic changes that haven't been made in gotham. how does a child get aids, in batman's city?)

so robin dies, and then bruce (the narrative) spends the next couple of decades blaming it on him. it is jason's fault; he was reckless, he just ran in, he thought it was all a game. if only bruce had seen what was coming, if only he could have known that jason wasn't rich enough or smart enough or liked enough to be robin.

batman gets a little more violent, a little more self destructive. he hurts people more and almost (!!) kills a couple guys. this is bad because it's self destructive and "not who he is." it is not bad because batman should not be able to just beat people up when he's angry.

and then he gets a shiny new robin - who is all the things jason "wasn't": rich and smart and rational and he doesn't put who batman is into question. batman and robin are partners, and jason is a grave and a cautionary tale, and (crucially here) never right.

the joker kills thousands and it doesn't matter because they were written to be killed.

batman beats up thousands and it doesn't matter because they were written to be criminals.

and then jason comes back, and nothing has changed. there is a batman and a (shiny! rich!) robin and the joker kills thousands. (because it sells)

and jason is angry - he has been left unavenged - his death has meant nothing, just as willis' had, just as catherine's had, just as gloria's had, just as -

thousands. ten of thousands. hundreds of thousands. written to be killed.

but one of them gets to come back.

and he is angry - not only at the joker, but at bruce (the narrative) - because why is the joker still alive (when thousands-)

here is the thing - jason todd is right. not because the death penalty is good, not because criminals deserve to die, not because of everything he says -

but because of what he calls into question. why is the joker alive?

because he sells books.

and dc has written a masterful character, through no fault of their own, because jason knows what is wrong, and he knows who is at fault - batman. (the narrative)

so the argument that bruce can't kill because he's not judge jury and executioner; the argument that jason is a cop or that jason is insane or that jason is in the wrong here; they hold no weight.

batman can't kill the joker because the joker sells comic books.

and jason can't kill the joker because the joker sells comic books.

so he will beg and plead and grovel - he will betray everything that is himself, he will forsake his family and his city and kill himself - just so that bruce (the narrative) will let the joker die.

he was condemned to death by an audience, and after he came back he has spent his whole life looking us in the eyes and screaming, asking, pleading; why is the joker still alive?

why are thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands (the number doesn't matter, see, because they're just a number. not people. not real.) why are we expendable for his story? why did i have to die just for nothing to change?

and the answer is money. and the answer is the batman can never be wrong. and the answer is shitty writing. and the answer is -

nothing jason can ever change.

which is the worst of it all. he is a victim with no power, and no one else in the world can see it. he is raging and crying and screaming at his father and his writers and you - and it doesn't matter. jason doesn't matter. and he knows it.

[mariemariemaria]

how ironic that one of the main criticisms of the school system in adolescence is how teachers would just stick on a video for the kids to watch instead of actually teaching them, and now all the talk from the government is about how adolescence should be mandatory viewing in schools. like are you actually gonna teach them anything? are you gonna do anything to deradicalise boys? are you gonna invest in youth and mental health services? are you gonna pay teachers the money they deserve? are you gonna do anything about the hate speech that gets spread online? are you gonna make sure parents are better supported and actually have time to spend with their children? no? i mean why would you do any of that when you can just stick on a tv show. jesus christ

[capsicle107]

can't change the weather, might not be forever but if it's forever, it's even better (x)

[dkettchen]

she would've told them unlike her canon! version who decided not to be an ally smh

[iwatcheditbegin]

I know i’ve said it before. But this discourse about the ethics regarding taylor swift being a billionaire are so disingenuous. She doesn’t have a makeup line, clothing line, brand endorsements.

The bulk of her income is entirely from her own talent as a musician. She has not exploited anyone. She’s also not even close to being a cash billionaire when you look at the numbers it’s like half of that ( bc it’s hard to become a billionaire without shady shit) . Taylor is known to pay her employees well. By percentage what she gives away to charity and compensates her team with is unheard of. She gave 10% of her net worth away in bonuses to everyone who worked on her tour. That’s just what we know of.

I’m not even saying this as a fan, but you cannot look at someone like her and how she moves and compare that to other billionaires and oligarchs.

I’m all for wealthy people paying their fair share. I hate capitalism and the current system but I do think she’s a good example of doing the best to be ethical within the current system

[botanyshitposts]

Sign i saw recently had a bunch of paint worn away with lichen in its place, however i unfortunately did not have my phone on me 😔😔

in an alternate universe where science funding is stable and abundant regardless of monetary gain we have already gotten to the complex root of which lichens enjoy signs but only the letters or only the sign and what about the letters or sign they prefer and this haunts me

[mystiffox]

i haven't stopped thinking about him so i did screencap edits. please enjoy all these feral!fords (but you can see it as vampire ford too, whichever fits your palate :))

i just think he's neat

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

The older I get the more I realise there is just nothing to Jean and Logan as a couple, he's just the cool bad boy alternative to her straight laced boyfriend, and no writer has ever bothered to develop them beyond that. Logan really has more of a dynamic with Scott than he ever had with Jean. When written well, Scott and Jean feel like genuine partners with neither character overshadowing the other, but when she's paired with Logan, Jean seems to just become the love interest or worse a prize for Logan to win for being a good person, the relationship always reduces her.

[fascinationstreetmp3]

personally i think they can do 70s/80s devil's minion while keeping it so that modern dm still needs a ton of development to Work, because they both have to navigate their feelings now even if daniel gets his memories back. there's the layers of betrayal and resentment they both feel; the fact that they've been apart for decades and have gone through life since then being shaped separately; the circumstances of daniel's turning— theyre all things they still have to work through, with or without an extended history between them.

for daniel, just because he might remember what he felt back then, it doesn't mean he automatically feels the same because of it now. maybe it could even be that he doesn't remember everything all at once; only the cat and mouse game at the beginning of their relationship, or the hopelessness and ruin at the end of it, or the addiction, and for a long time that's all he can remember. maybe he remembers it all but he can't connect what he felt then to what he feels now. it doesn't have to be a switch that flips and suddenly brings back all his old feelings and erases everything else.

for armand, there's an aspect to it that he has to come to love this more experienced version of the boy he once knew, one who is extremely sharp and much better at seeing right through him, one who is not dependant on him or his blood, one who has utterly dismantled everything he was clinging onto for decades, and, now armand's turned daniel, one he can't read the mind of like he used to. even if some things have stayed the same, their entire dynamic has shifted from what was once familiar.

so, even though past dm could be an easy way to go "they were in love once so of course they'll fall in love again", i don't think that's what would happen. in my opinion them having a history would add to their present dynamic but things are so different now it's pretty much brand new territory for them going forward.

[iammissingautumn]

i hate you the need to explain how actually louis was the most toxic one in this relationships. i hate you the need to explain how actually lestat was the most toxic one in this relationship. i hate you the need to explain how actually armand was the most toxic one in this relationship. I hate you iwtv fans using the word “abused” or “X deserves better” like a weapon to destroy another characters integrity. yes they do suck in whatever way you are highlighting but also so many are getting too close to just making up shit takes bc they want to see it that way. Like just wait for marius if you need someone to hate with yr whole being

[guzhufuren]

“Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that he or she is gay, knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant's and John Briggs' are doing their part on TV. And that child has several options: staying in the closet, and suicide. And then one day that child might open the paper that says "Homosexual elected in San Francisco" and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight.

Two days after I was elected I got a phone call. And the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. And the person said "Thanks".

And you’ve got to elect gay people; so that thousands upon thousands like that child know that there is hope for a better world; there is hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only gays, but those who are blacks, the asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us's. Without hope the us's give up.

I know that you can't live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you, and you have got to give them hope.”

Harvey Milk 'Hope Speech' - 1978

[daintydoilypon]

Updated persona because my hair has changed so much

My old persona was just my fursona humanized. It just never felt like me due to that, especially since I haven't had long hair since 2017.

[queerdisabledmess]

If Tim gets to hog the Robin title this long than so should Steph DC you fucking cowards

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

idk who needs to hear this but it's something I would like to tell my younger self so: People telling you that after school you should pursue something you already have an interest and a talent in mean well, but they're not always right. Because sometimes, it makes you just pick something you think you'll be good at because you're afraid of failure.

And you'll enjoy it, mostly, because you were already interested in that stuff! But at the end of it all you might end up like me at the end of a degree that I took way too long to complete, not feeling like you learned much because you were largely coasting on existing skills the whole time. And with a view to careers that aren't rosy in the current economy, and that you don't really want to be doing. Like, sure, I still generally like the field I studied. But I also picked my studies purely for content, and not at all for what I wanted to do with them when I was done. And now I'm looking at the jobs that my degree will make available to me and I don't want to do any of them. I'd be decent at them! And fuck, I'll go wherever they take me! But for the most part, it's not work that i consider valuable. I always wanted to feel useful. And most of the work being done in the sector I am qualified for... doesn't feel like helping people. It does help people, in some ways, and it'd be bad not to have it. But I will never feel as immediately useful to people as I always wanted to be. And I think a part of me knew that - that's why I didn't pick that course of study initially! But then I flunked out of that and thought, well, it's because you didn't already like what you were doing. And yeah, it was easier. But also, I'm probably taking so long to finish my master's because this line of thinking made me pick something that I will never enjoy as much in the workplace as I did as a student.

If you have something you're really curious about and you want to do, you should do it! But if you don't have that, and you finish school with lots of different things that all hold a similar level of interest... idk, before you just pick something you think you'd be good at, just have a good long think about whether you're picking it because you genuinely think you'll enjoy something more if it's easier, or if you're just making the choice that seems least scary right now. Because, yes, there are always second chances - but your choice still has a big impact on your life. Especially if you're making choices out of fear, because it takes a lot to admit to yourself that you made a mistake, and you will surprise yourself with how long you can stick with a bad thing just because it seems less scary than making a big change.

[snowysaur]

2024 year in review/art summary. i realized i never made these for 2021-23 either so here's all of them. i think i haven't been drawing as much these past few years, oh well support me on: patreon | kofi | redbubble