#Flawed but Trying

[wickedzeevyln]

Unnecessary Dark of Being

Compound resentment is not a retirement plan. If the steering wheel had a neck, it would be looking at me as I choke it to its demise. Gak-gak-gak. Throaty gasps gurgling. My gaze locked on its googly eyes as light leaves them. Har! Har! Har! Stereotypical bad guy. Still gripping it like it owes me lunch money. The sun hasn’t even finished climbing the shady lurker resting in the east—still…

[lgbtlunaverse]

There's a version of the "don't go grocery shopping while hungry" rule specifically for writers where you should never under any circumstances be allowed to touch your draft within 3 hours of reading a really good story. Because sometimes when you read something great your head goes "fuck this is so much better than my stuff I should make that more like THIS instead!" Look at me. That's the devil talking and you should close the document NOW.

[bennetsbonnet]

Two statements about characters can and should co-exist: Pride and Prejudice edition

Mr Bennet has a close relationship with Elizabeth and provides amusing observations on the folly of human nature BUT he is a terrible husband and father who consistently neglects the women who rely on him for absolutely everything; Elizabeth and Jane turned out so well in spite of him, not because of him.

Mrs Bennet's behaviour is understandable given the era in which she lived and the subsequent pressure she was under to get her daughters married well, which wasn't entirely for vanity reasons given that Longbourn was entailed BUT she was still fundamentally vain, ridiculous and rude; such pressure, even combined with an absent husband, still does not make her behaviour justifiable, nor her a sympathetic character, as she enabled Lydia (whose subsequent elopement with Wickham almost ruined the family) for far too long.

Mr Collins is unfairly portrayed as a middle-aged sycophant in most adaptations, rather than the young clergyman who sucks up to his patroness in pursuit of a more lucrative living that he was BUT he is still a ridiculous character who you are not meant to feel sympathy for when Elizabeth rejects him; he is rude, hypocritical and thinks of himself far too highly considering how vapid he actually is.

Caroline Bingley is often too harshly judged as a 'pick-me,' even though her relentless pursuit of Darcy is understandable given his wealth & status and how important it was for women to make a good marriage BUT she was still rude, vain and treated Jane terribly; plus she was a hypocritical snob, given the manner in which she looked down upon the Bennet family's relations despite the Bingleys' own background in trade.

Elizabeth is incredibly witty, courageous and endearing and instantly likeable which makes Darcy's slight of her at the Meryton assembly all the more of an affront to us as readers BUT, while it explains her dislike of him, she is no means perfect herself; she had far too much misplaced pride in her ability to successfully read others' characters and consequently ignored positive accounts of Darcy in favour of believing the deceitful Wickham, given her prejudice against the former.

Mr Darcy was harshly judged by Elizabeth, even though there are many more sympathetic elements to his character than immediately meet the eye BUT he was not shy or innocent; he was always a haughty rich man who had never been told no, thought far too highly of himself and, ultimately, thoroughly deserved to be rebuked and subsequently made to reform his character.

[everyonesadoptivedad]

Stole this for this fandom bc some pEOPLE need to hear this today.

[ziggy-scardust]

Okay but. A Bradley Bradshaw who truly doesn’t know until TGM that Maverick is a little unhinged. He “tried to be the father he lost”, tried to set a good example, didn’t exactly tell an impressionable kid about all the ways he earned his reputation. So for years, Rooster avoided any mention of Maverick and probably dismissed rumors about him pissing off Admirals as so much Navy scuttlebutt - after all, he never got kicked out, he made it to O6, and he’s at least known for being good at what he does. So he figures the stories he heard growing up, and the new ones he’s hearing, are exaggerated.

…until they’re shot down behind enemy lines and Maverick’s happily strolling onto a bombed-out enemy flight line to steal a whole aircraft in an unknown state of repair by taking off from a very short taxiway and is just expecting him to go along with it, like it’s the obvious thing to do.

Smash cut to Bradley running down a LONG list of batshit stories he’s heard about Maverick, trying to confirm what’s actually real, and having to mentally readjust his whole worldview (including realizing that Goose was equally batshit and egging him on from the backseat half the time.)

“This one has to be made up, right, you’d never take an admiral’s daughter on an unauthorized F/A-18 flight — wait what do you MEAN that was Penny from the bar??”

[chocobje]

A practice comic, or what was supposed to be one. Apologies if they're ooc

[ineed-to-sleep]

Updated Emma's design(previous here) and basically revamped her entire personality bc I wanted to rewrite her fatal flaw. Now she's at least 80% more insufferable and 50% more nosy <3 (and also looks 90% more like the love child of a pirate and a librarian)

First template can be found here!!

Most other templates can be found at the official redspringstudio site!

[unknownhyperial]

Everytime I see a take saying that they have no sympathy for Ragatha because shes toxic and was horrible to Jax this episode I want to bash my head into a wall /silly

I think a lot of people are misunderstanding what she meant by "Not anymore...". She didn't mean "Oh lmao his friend died" she meant "After he became an asshole everyone stopped wanting to be friends with him" yet Jax misunderstood it as the former. You can tell thats not what she meant because she says as much when she notices him death glaring her. And no, its not an excuse because she "thought he wouldn't hear her". She knew he could probably hear her and expected a different reaction because she meant something different.

I'm so tired of people calling her horrible for making a couple mistakes towards someone whos been blatantly an asshole. I love Jax. I love him a lot, but he doesn't deserve all the sympathy here. Ragatha isn't some secretly evil and toxic person. Shes a person who's fawning as a response to trauma and is making mistakes.

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[prlssprfctn]

I think we don't talk nearly enough about this part of UTRH. I think we don't give nearly as much thought to this moment as we should. Because this declaration ("I am no one's son") is not dramatics, not another hyperbolised, theatrical line Jason loves to throw at his opponent. This is a desperate acceptance.

Because in a way, before his death, Jason's journey essentially was about finding a family; a parent, who cares, who loves. All he did as a Robin, he did it for love. He took the cape not because he was seeking revenge, not because of the necessity or a sense of rightness — first and foremost, he took the mantle for love. I said that once or twice there, but it is my favourite way to simplify the whole thing: Robin gave Jason magic, and magic in its core (for him) was safety and loving dad.

So, in a way, Jason (as a Greek character, if you squint) had his own journey from the beginning; a one that seemed fulfilled, once Bruce took him in. And then shit hit the fan, and he lost that in a way. That is where he goes in an adventure to find his mother, to become someone's son again. He finds his mother, he finds Sheila — except, everything goes wrong again, and she turns her back on him.

And then the journey ends. And Jason is back after many years.

And that's what he gets out of it. Accepts bitterly.

He is no one's son. And he hadn't been anyone's since Catherine Todd died.

[onebizarrekai]

random miles / ds nightmare studies because I am scheming

[marlowe-art]

i've embarked on a quest to find HOT CLOTHES for the HOT SUMMER. it is not going well

[sarabethsilver]

It's funny when fans reduce Jess and Rory's connection into an "I can fix him" trope. Did they... watch the show? Rory did NOT fix Jess. They dated and he struggled, imploding at the end of his senior year with a spectacular series of mistakes. Jess doesn't get "fixed" until later, and he does it all on his own. It's kinda the whole point of his arc. Rory didn't fix him, nor was she trying to fix him. She just loved him and believed in him even when he was struggling.

You know who WAS Rory's "I can fix him" guy? Logan. He's the guy who magically changes for Rory. He's suddenly monogamous, he's real quick to move in with her, he suddenly starts liking his job. All the characters comment on this, too. Logan notes that he never thought he'd like a relationship until Rory, Mitchum credits Rory with Logan's good choices, and Rory worries out loud that she's "tamed" Logan. And once they break up, Logan reverts to most of his bad behaviors. He's the definition of an "I can fix him" trope. Just another thing that makes Logan so overwhelmingly boring.

[cartoonguy08]

I feel like I barely see any art of BLU Engie and Miss Pauling 🥀🥀

THEY DESERVE THAT TIME OFF 🙏🙏🍻🍻

Guys we need them to laugh more, the Administrator ain’t making it easier for them 😔

Tw: Dermatophagia under cut

He feels guilty anytime he does it, but the anxiety gets to him too much.

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

As per usual, it’s DP crossover with (probably) DC, although you could probably adjust it for other fandoms

ANYWAYS

A little kid and his mother are trick or treating in another city, perhaps at some kind of event rather than knocking on doors, and the kid is dressed as Phantom. It’s very adorable, with his little ghost-shaped bucket and clearly homemade and already stained costume—listen, white only works if you can just fly over street grime or phase it out of your clothes—and his slightly I’ll fitting wig. The kid is SO happy to be out and about dressed as his favorite, and maybe even showed it off to Phantom back in Amity Park before his family left.

The hero, insert whoever you wish here, is probably in civvies and just enjoying the event. The kid, meanwhile, is so glad when people ask who he is so he can explain, and so- the hero gets to hear ALL ABOUT the local town hero who is probably pretty small time despite the kid’s clearly exaggerated stories. The hero certainly never heard of him, but the kid’s mom confirms that Phantom really was the town hero, despite some mixed reviews of the poor guy.

“Did you manage to show him your costume?” the hero asks.

“Yeah! We went down to the cemetery to leave flowers and I got to show him my costume.”

Wait. Cemetery? Maybe it was part of theme, because Phantom had to be named that for a reason, but… it sounded like…

The kid ignores the suddenly VERY still hero and instead turns to his mom. “Momma, do you think we should bring him candy? He doesn’t get to trick or treat like we do, and I can work super hard to get him a bunch!”

The kid’s mom just smiles. “We could, but maybe we should bring him something homemade. I bet he’d like something more filling, teen boys like him have a hollow leg.”

The kid wrinkles his nose. “Like Vernie with the pizza bagels?”

“Like your cousin, yes. We can make some cinnamon rolls and take them to his memorial, maybe bring some of the apples from your grandpa’s garden…”

The hero is pretty much forgotten as the two-part family wanders off, not quite intentionally forgetting the hero is there so much as the hero somewhat accidentally ended the conversation when they just froze and didn’t ask anything further.

Not that the hero didn’t want to. But they’d learn something very serious.

One—there was a small town hero they’d never heard of. Two—that hero was apparently a teen. Third—most pressingly, the teen hero was both beloved enough to have kids dressing up as him and dead enough to have a grave.

This… might require some phone calls.