#anyways. while this doesn't mean much I do think it's an interesting parallel

[casscainmainly]

his hand on her head as they give her the routine treatment she lets out a “you remind me of him” she’s already passed out and he’s just silent

they’re so evil and disturbed and you’re right about how they are both a bit blind to how much cass actually “loves” cain

a bit blind is a stretch for bruce tbh he doesn’t even really have a clue while it’s something cass has struggled with at

MMHMMM YEAHHH the hand on her head thing is soooo wicked and evil because it's such a recurring thing (see THIS POST by @batboopp if you want to shred your heart to pieces). I do wonder how much Bruce knew about Cass' feelings? He was super in denial about her all the time, but the true tragedy of Bruce-Cass to me is that he did know how much she loves Cain.

Thinking about the myriad ways Bruce had of separating Cass from Cain, not for her sake entirely but also for his.

Batgirl (2000) #22 // #33

In both these issues, Bruce tries his hardest to keep Cass from her father, and I think part of that is because he knows that she does love him. "You feel responsible for him. Don't." <- Part of what makes this line so interesting is that Bruce is right, Cass shouldn't feel responsible for him, but he follows it up with "Do what I trained you to do." Bruce fears Cass' loyalty to David will interfere with her loyalty to him. And that loyalty has always been mixed up in their love for each other, so in a lot of ways Bruce is reacting against Cass' love for David, which he is aware of (even if he'll never admit it out loud).

In #33 too, the issue ends with Bruce proposing a new birthday for Cass (not the one David said) and giving her a gift and the title is revealed to be Father's Day. Like Bruce is clearly vying for Cass' affection, putting himself in opposition to David. He wouldn't do this unless he was afraid Cass loved David more than him.

And the thing he doesn't get is it's this possessive aspect that makes him like David. The more he tries to pit himself against David, the more his actions remind Cass of him. And this is so DELICIOUS ARIHEFUASH. It's why we have this astonishing moment from the end of #37, after Cass realises that David really was her bio dad:

C'MONNNN THIS MOMENT. This being like the second to last page Puckett wrote in BG 2000 drives me up the wall it's so good. The point of #37 is Cass realising that even though David was her dad, even though David did love her, it doesn't matter. He still hurt her. But we end with this Bruce-Cass moment, and Cass' angry expression and Bruce turning away in - sadness? Shame? Oh Damion Scott the artist you are. Inin the context of the issue it's basically saying that this lesson Cass learned with David is also one she learns with Bruce. It doesn't matter how much he loves her, he hurts her, too. And Bruce's expression is ripe for interpretation - does he also understand that? Is he sad about Cass' sadness, about David being her dad, or about what that means for the two of them?

Anyway YEAH I love your pitch so so so bad someone must write a fic about it. Bruce-David parallels foreverrr.

[teleportationmagic]

Anyways. Today I am frustrated about how Cass -> Steph lagacy is explored better in Batgirl 2000 than in Batgirl 2009, and yes that's because of editorial, and yes I will die mad about it, and yes I doubt that we'll ever really see an exploration of it because Batgirls placed them both on the same level which isn't something I disagree with, but ends up with the result that we never get to see how Cass feels about the legacy she leaves behind. And yeah, Cass was never the point of Steph!Batgirl. And similarily, while we get some feeling of Steph towards Cass - questions about her faith in her, and joy in beind able to take part in her legacy - it's shallow, it has to be shallow, because Cass isn't there. And while putting Cass back in Batgirl is undeniably the correct choice, I wish there could be an opportunity to show the legacy going from Cass to Steph, even if Cass is picking it up again. I don't think these two things exist antithetically to each other.

[yumeka-sxf]

After the exciting start of a new Garden arc last time, today's new chapter did not disappoint either! First thing I noticed upon reading is - Yor's new outfit! (though you're not being very discreet with that "Garden" badge 😅)

Also that little lemur guy in the upper left of the panel is like "Wtf?!" I would think that too if a person suddenly leaped onto the tree branch next to me 🤣 (you can see him scurrying away in the next panel underneath...nice little detail from Endo there.)

Before I get into specifics of this chapter, I wanted to analyze the exchange between Yor and Hemlock in the jeep - namely, the Hemlock/Nightfall parallel, with Hemlock accusing Yor of losing her edge due to "playing house" for too long, which is exactly what Nightfall said to Twilight when she first appeared.

This made me think of an interview with Endo that was shared in the recent iterations of the SxF exhibition that's going on in Japan: when asked which character has changed the most in the series so far, he said Yor while also mentioning that Loid has barely changed. And I can see why that's the case with how Yor responded to Hemlock. Her experience during the cruise arc made her understand her own development - that now more than ever she wants to continue her work because she has more people she desires to protect.

She actually recognizes her own change and embraces it, while Loid...still hasn't gotten there yet. If we compare this exchange between Yor and Hemlock with the one between Loid and Nightfall, Loid clearly doesn't have this same self recognition about how living with the Forgers has changed him. He either genuinely doesn't know or he's in denial, which is why Nightfall is the one who points it out, and even when she tells him, he doesn't have a response.

One could argue that this may have been the case in old chapters, but ever since the mole hunt arc, he has recognized himself how he's changed. I do agree that the mole hunt arc made him realize that he's "softening" in a way, but he sees this as a detriment more than anything else. Unlike Yor who sees how her love for the Forgers has made her stronger, Loid sees it as something that will make him weaker rather than fuel his resolve.

We haven't seen much of Loid's deep inner thoughts since the end of the mole hunt arc, so only time will tell if he'll start to see his own development as something to be accepted rather than pushed away (just a note that I don't have a specific link for this part of the interview, but Fasionnessutsu shared screenshots of it in a thread here).

But anyway, back to other thoughts about this chapter, it was no surprise that even though Yor and McMahon changed into these safari-looking outfits, Hemlock is still wearing his suit. Why am I not surprised someone like him would totally refuse to wear that? 😂

And omg, the fact that Yor is still hung up about the "welcome home" kiss 😂 The fact that she's so earnest about it all this time later means...something, lol.

Also McMahon having a wife...it was kind of vague here but I wonder if she knows about his undercover work? Probably not, but would be interesting to see how much of his marital situation mirrors Yor's.

We apparently got another minor character introduced in this chapter - McMahon's pet falcon (and scouting assistant) Keekee.

In the Japanese version he calls her "Kiki-chan," with "kiki" being the sound she makes. It's nothing big, but I just found it amusing that a stoic, no-nonsense guy like McMahon calls his pet bird "-chan" 😅

The flower that Damian and company found has returned! I mentioned in my last chapter post that it may have some connection to Anya's past - we'll see!

This chapter ends on quite the cliffhanger, with Hemlock attacking Yor because, according to him, she's an impediment to his work and he's allowed to get rid of such impediments. We've already seen several examples of how quick to kill he is. Compared to Yor who tries her best to only kill "bad guys," Hemlock's first notion for anything in his way is to kill, whether it's the deer he's supposed to protect, or a fellow assassin he thinks is dragging him down.

Again, there's parallels that can be drawn between him and Nightfall, but unlike Nightfall whose obsession is fueled by idolizing Twilight, Hemlock's obsession seems to be fueled by animosity for Yor. Where that animosity came from is something we'll hopefully see in upcoming chapters. My theory is that, at some point, Hemlock idolized Yor and is now upset that she seems to have "softened," or he's always been jealous of her and now is even more enraged that she's not taking her job seriously anymore. Whatever the case is, I look forward to seeing how it plays out 👀

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law on touching and being touched

It won't be a perverted post despite the title lol. But I won't stop your imagination, be free!

There's this funny theme going on with Law and Luffy in particular that picked my interest.

Luffy touched him first.

And he later returned the gesture, much more awkwardly.

Again, Luffy grabbed him angrily first.

Law made sure to return the gesture. (btw he also does it with Zoro, who was the first one to wrap an arm around him at post-Dressrosa feast. In Wano Law has no problem grabbing Zoro and shouts at him angrily. Again, it was Zoro who initiated the touch first).

Law grabbing Luffy to teleport them makes Luffy react in a curious way, you wanna know why?

Because it totally feels like this moment. Both Law and Ace, right after getting uncuffed, grabbed Luffy in same way to get him to a safer place. Ace-Law parallel in relation to Luffy kills me. The whole Dressrosa arc's plotline between Luffy and Law is just Marineford Went Well This Time. Ngl I kinda hated Oda at first for that. Now i dig it.

He didn't seem to like that. Luffy says "Let's all get along well!", but Law thinks alliances don't have to "get along".

Mistranslation here. What Law says here, being so surprised, is "nakayoshi ka?!" which means "you two get along?!" or "you two are buddy-buddies?!". It's a callback to Luffy declaring that Law and Strawhats crew should get along (he uses same word then, nakayoku-get along), Law learns here that Luffy's crew indeed "gets along well". You can interpret it whatever way you wish, but I will use it this time to put this scene into context:

The same gesture Luffy did to him before, but Law didn't return it to Luffy - that's because they're not crewmates. But he takes the lesson to heart and "gets along" with his own crew. Omg I can't believe i'm writing it, I make Law sound like this completely awkward adult who doesn't know how to be friends with people.

But bear with me, the shit is only starting. If you don't want to have feels I reccommend you just laugh at it and stop reading here. I digged up a feels landmine by accident. In-depth study starts below!

It's also a possible callback to the "reassurance" Law got from Cora-san. "I'm counting on you to escape" and Law did. He counts for his crew to steer the submarine well in similar manner.

Law's family didn't seem very touchy-feely, so please keep that in mind as well. He's got limited experience with touches and the few touches he did get familiar with were either taken away from him or brutalized.

Law getting patted on the head lovingly by his parent.

Next time this loving gesture happens, he gets thrown from like two-floor building into a pile of garbage.

And then he gets lied to that everything will be fine. We all know it wasn't.

Do you still wonder why he hates being touched on the head?

The sister touches his face gently while showing child Law support and compassion, reminding him not to despair, someone kind will help him.

Corazon doing the same gentle touch to the face while crying for him, thinking of all the pain Law had to experience. Indeed, the world sent Law someone kind. And Law lost him and blames himself for that.

Law holding Lammy's hand while lying to her that it will be alright. He never does that gesture again to anyone.

The sister holding Law's hand.

"Don't come closer! Don't touch us! We will get infected!" even doing the barrier gesture (I guess that's why Law doesn't get along with Bartolomeo). I used only few examples, there is much more, I just couldn't bear posting them all. Anyway, Law's got the message, his touch is unwanted. The body and mind remembers this.

Similar shit said at the auction in Sabaody about Fishmen, we don't see Law's reaction to that, but we can guess already that it was for sure triggering. Those people talking are sitting not that far away from him.

Ever wondered why Law throws people when teleporting? Besides the fact he avoids making contact with anyone unless they initiate it first, because that trauma is still strong in him ("Stay away! Don't come closer!"), there is one other possible reason:

Wonder no more! He does it to people because that's how people treated him as well, even people who apparently loved him.

Now that I have ruined the "Law is just an awkward unsocial nerd" joke for you, let me offer something to warm your heart a bit in exchange:

Corazon made sure to touch Law a lot and hold him in his arms, despite being often clumsy about it. I think he understood Law's trauma about being touched and his fear to touch or approach anyone, and tried to help him overcome it.

Being hugged and trying to return the gesture. Corazon's efforts did bring some results! But it only works for very few people, Law is still wary of people he doesn't know well. He expects to be unwanted and acts uneccessarily cold, distant and unapproachable because of that. But if you scroll back to the beginning of this post, you can see that he is trying his best to overcome it as well, one step at a time. Some things just can't be rushed.

And hey, at least he seems to be actually relaxed and almost like he *enjoys* being carried around. You think it makes him look uncool? Definitely. But suddenly it feels like Something Important, kinda intimate in a way and not just a silly comedy moment. It's a sign Law relies on people when he lets them carry him and that's why he doesn't protest.

Sanji is like "Why are you relaxing like that?! Get off!!" Finally, it makes sense why Law makes such a sour face here. Sanji should be grateful for the rare privileage after all! Anyway, this is anime-only extension, in manga Sanji actually doesn't tell Traffy to get off and Law chooses to scramble by himself, which doesn't taint the fragile trust those two just shared.

For those who made it to the end of this post, have I ruined Law's comedy moments for you forever? Because I sure just did that for myself.

I could also add one more cute thing from One Piece World Seeker Law's dlc, but I will let those interested to discover it by themselves!

I'm also amazed by the consistency of this theme. Both manga and anime never forget that touch is seemingly a big deal for Law.

[thewebcomicsreview]

You know, it's always struck me as a little odd how little most webcomics actually attempt to adapt to their medium. There's basic strips, the old 2k era 4-square, the endless scroll of Webtoons, and a few weird experimental things like Homestuck, but most webcomics I run into tend to stubbornly stick to conventional portrait-oriented page layouts.

It's… readable, I guess, but that format doesn't seem to work very well for either desktop or mobile viewing. It wastes a lot of screen-space, and usually makes it impossible to actually view the full page without making the text too small to read.

Have you encountered any interesting webcomics that experiment with more landscape-oriented layouts? I'm kinda curious about how well that would work.

So, there's this dude Scott McCloud who wrote about comics in the 90s. His first book, Understanding Comics, is literally the book on comics, it's the one schools make kids read. This third book, Making Comics, is a pretty good practical advice guide I'd recommend, even if it's not his groundbreaking seminal work. In between those two books was one called Reinventing Comics

Reinventing Comics, written in 1993, was basically a book of predictions about how this newfangled Interweb was going to revolutionize the art of comics creation. Like a lot of early-90s stuff "Wow the internet!" stuff, it has a lot of inaccurate predictions, and thus isn't super well remembered (though, unlike a lot of early-90s predictions of the internet, it at least vaguely resembled reality).

Anyway, one of the big things from that book was the idea of the "infinite canvas".

Which was basically the idea that a comic didn't have to be constrained by the size of the screen because you could scroll it. And this was a big idea in early webcomics, you heard this phrase a lot. And you'd see infinite canvas techniques like "What if the characters are falling and the comic is really tall to sell that?"

(Read Narbonic)

Which is basically the one and only example that actually took off, because it turns out that scrolling horizontally sucks and no one really wants to do it except as a one-of gimmick (as Homestuck does). The much bigger impact of the internet was that a webcomic could be infinitely long and still reasonably expect it's readership to have read it all, but I think McCloud missed that one. So while there were a bunch of "landscape" webcomics where you scrolled horizontally, none of them took off, and even the ones that were well received are long gone.

Adams himself would make Zot!, which is a vertical scroll comic that had a bit of a gimmick with parallel story beats being literally parallel. I think he even did some branching paths, and experimented with comics that you could read in different directions or that looped back on themselves.

But then Homestuck just did that better because, as I mentioned, infinite depth ended up being a lot more impactful than infinite width. It turns out that making a comic really wide calls a lot of attention to itself and makes the comic annoying to read. And it doesn't mean you can't do it (Homestuck did it!), but it does mean it can't be the gimmick you hang your comic up on unless you've got a really good reason for doing it.

[artbyblastweave]

Frederick Sinclair is a really interesting foil to Mr. House. I mean you start digging into this and it's just parallel after parallel after parallel. Start at the high level. House sinks inordinate amounts of resources into saving the city of Las Vegas - not the people, but the city- from nuclear destruction; as long as the stage endures, he can get anyone to wear the costumes. Sinclair sets up an entirely new "community" totally off-the-grid for the sake of protecting one woman, plasters that place with her likeness. House is a visionary with a 200-year action plan to rebuild society in his image, bootstrap space exploration, and construct an interplanetary empire; Sinclair sank everything he had into building the most secure facility possible for a woman who he knew was terminally ill anyway, just to ensure that her last few years lived in the aftermath of the nuclear apocalypse would be as comfortable as possible- there's a fundamental pessimism baked into what he was doing. Both House and Sinclair relied heavily on automated defensive systems and cutting-edge, esoteric technologies to accomplish their ends, but House built his power base on proprietary robotics and computing technology, much of which he personally designed- an outgrowth of his policy of never widening his circle any more than he absolutely has to. Sinclair, in his naive techno-optimism, outsourced his utopia, grabbing flashy third-party technologies like a kid in a candy store- opening a backdoor for the Think Tank to poison his city and ultimately getting everyone at the Gala Event killed when the holograms malfunctioned and went berserk.

Their management styles are inverse. House allows countless abuses to occur under his aegis because he subscribes to a libertarian-when-convenient philosophy where he doesn't much care what the little people do as long as he gets his cut and they don't rock the boat too much- a hands-off approach that fosters resentment amongst his subordinates, lets the White Gloves and Omertas get up to untold levels of fuckery while Freeside languishes and Benny conspires against him. Sinclair, by contrast, had a sincerely-held utopian-straight-edge safety-first micromanagement approach built into the very bones of the casino, he appeared to genuinely give a shit about the safety of the construction crew on the villa, and he was well-liked by nearly everyone who had any direct contact with him- and yet untold horrors also went down under his aegis, because his myopic focus on building the vault for Vera let Dean Domino and the Think Tank run circles around him, good intentions be damned. Their respective interpersonal dispassion and obsession are on display in how they react to betrayal. House's tone never rises above exasperation when it comes time to clean house of Benny, the Omerta Leadership and the White gloves; he treats them as problems to be solved, gears that are slightly out of alignment; By contrast, when Sinclair learns that Dean and Vera have been playing him, he channels the monomaniacal energy he previously directed towards protecting Vera towards the goal of building the perfect poetic-ironic death trap for her and Dean.

There are some other parallels in their personal lives. For one thing they both trusted a pastiche of a 40s lounge singer a lot more than they should have. They both tried to digitize, immortalize their girlfriends- and the discrepancy in how they went about it is telling. House's recreation of Jane isn't terribly robust, and in terms of House's overall project she's an afterthought. She's more a sock-puppet than a person, a sanded-down copy of a woman who died forever-and-a-half ago, forever agreeable, never saying no. Convenient. Only the most superficial visual elements preserved- an illustration of her face on a robotic chassis. Sinclair was obsessive in recreating Vera, preserving her likeness. It's all over the villa, her hologram is everywhere, her voice is everywhere. The terminal in the lightwave lab in Old World Blues reveals that he was still obsessed with getting her hologram right even after the love curdled into hate. All of it a monument to the real woman, and yet in all of it the real woman is still lost, buried under the mythologized projection. He didn't respect the real person enough to let her know that she was dying. A total failure of preservation from the opposite direction. (Except in the suites, where you can hear her very authentic dying pleas.)

You find both of them in their basements. House only looks a little better than Sinclair, but he's got much more of a voice in the narrative. He took steps to make sure he'd be around to tell you what he thinks about everything, fine-tuned the voice with which he speaks to the world, the face he presents. It matters to him that he gets to tell his own story. We find out a lot about House, from House; but for the kind of figure that he is, a shocking amount of what we learn about Sinclair comes from other people, people who knew him or wrote about him. The only image of him you can find is a downplayed element of a larger mosaic. The two documents you find that're written from his perspective have been buried for 200 years, and they're yards from his corpse. And the more recent of the two is an apology. I mean admittedly at the point where he wrote that apology Sinclair was personally turbofucked regardless. If the cloud didn't get him the holograms would have, or the radiation, or, or, or. You can read some level of ego into what he did in the face of that. But however futile it was, he died in the specific way that he did because he recognized that he'd done something awful, and he was trying everything he could think of to correct it. Somehow I find it very hard to imagine House doing either of those things- admitting fault or putting skin of his own in the game to make it right.

[coraniaid]

Anyway, I do think you can preserve almost all of the core of Faith's arc in Season 3 and still present Giles in a much more favorable light than canon with only a very few minor tweaks.

At some point, in one of the early season episodes that Faith doesn't otherwise appear in -- Band Candy, say -- in a scene featuring just Buffy and Giles together, have Buffy comment on Faith's absence, wonder out loud if being alone in her motel room is good for her, and have Giles say something to the effect of "Perhaps you're right to be concerned, but we must respect Faith's wishes. In fact I offered to arrange for more salubrious lodgings when it became clear she would be staying with us for a while, but she assured me she was quite all right where she is." Because, look, of course if an older man she didn't really know offered to set Faith up with a nicer place to stay for free she was going to say no. Of course that doesn't mean she's actually happy living in a motel in the bad part of town, and of course she's still impressed when the Mayor gets her an apartment and clearly doesn't want anything from her in return (or, at least, he's only looking for wholesome family-friendly murder and torture and treason, not what she'd expect him to want). But at least this way we can point to evidence Giles actually tried to do the right thing. The thing that he explicitly volunteered to do.

In Helpless, when Buffy complains about Faith being "off on one of her unannounced walkabouts", don't have Giles -- who at this very moment is not interested in training Buffy but instead setting her up for the events of Cruciamentum -- remark snidely that "Faith is not interested in proper training", but instead explicitly link back to the events of Revelations. Have him remind Buffy that Faith took Mrs Post's betrayal very badly and say that he's deliberately letting her take a break from training for a bit because he thinks it will give her some time to recover emotionally. And, again, Giles wouldn't be right to think this -- Faith would be better off if she was spending time with other people -- but at least we'd get less of an impression that, after Post arrived, Giles decided he was done being Faith's temporary replacement Watcher and that he didn't really care what happened to her afterwards (even after Post was exposed as a fraud).

The key things you need to have happen in Consequences are (a) Faith lies to Giles and says Buffy killed Finch; (b) Giles talks to Buffy privately and they both acknowledge that actually Faith killed Finch; (c) Wesley overhears this conversation and calls in the Council to take Faith back to England. You don't actually need Giles to suggest he was only pretending to be on Faith's side to humor her; you don't need him to be so skeptical when Buffy talks about helping Faith. You could instead have Giles remind Buffy that he himself killed somebody by accident when he was not much older than Faith, and have him say that he pretended to believe her simply because -- knowing what she had to be going through -- he thought it would be better to humor her than provoke a confrontation. Rather than just have him dismiss her as "unstable" and "unwilling to accept responsibility", make the parallels with Giles's own backstory explicit. "In Faith's shoes, I would be -- I was -- unstable. Unpredictable. I needed time to accept responsibility." When Buffy suggests she could talk to her, rather than just sigh and look skeptical, Giles could apolgetically reference his own role in the Cruciamentum a few episodes earlier, and use that as a reason why Faith might not be willing to trust him yet. Instead of just ... nobody suggesting Giles talk to her, even when agreeing that perhaps somebody other than Buffy should.

And really, none of what Buffy and Giles plan at this point really even matters, because all we need to happen next is for Xander to admit that he slept with Faith and that he assumes this means they have "a connection", Buffy and Willow to react to that, and then for Xander to decide to go talk to her alone to prove his point. And then we proceed as before to Faith attacking him, Angel coming to the rescue, and then the rest of the episode as normal (including with Faith going off to tell the Mayor she heard he had a job opening).

In fact arguably I think this version of events actually works better, because after Consequences (and before the reveal in Enemies) the show actually does proceed on the basis that Giles is willing to help Faith and supervize her post-manslaughter evaluation and recovery. It has to, because if he insists she's a lost cause and can't be trusted from the beginning there's no Enemies and no chance for her to betray Buffy and the gang. So there wasn't really any actual story-driven need for Giles to seem so reluctant about trying to help Faith in the first place, was there?

I mean, in the actual show I think nobody knew at the time what Faith's arc was going to be, and that era of the show wasn't quite as dedicated to continuity as it would be later and didn't like throwing in so many references to past episodes. And the show never actually does take Giles's role in the Cruciamentum seriously after Helpless, or have Giles mention Randall's death after season 2 (Ted is the last time he's mentioned, right?). But in hindsight I think something like this -- even if it couldn't have happened -- would better balance the actual story that you want to tell about Faith with the goal of having Giles seem rather more admirable and sympathetic than his treatment of Faith ends up making him look.

[gimgerrat]

Ok, so I'm a little late to the analysis party for Ave mujica, but I really need to ramble about one of my favorite characters. Nyamu in my opinion has some of the best writing I've seen in a long time, and it makes me a little insane. Which is saying something as we also have characters like Uika and Mutsumi. The funny thing is that Nyamu isn't one of my blorbos I just really love her.

Anyway, Nyamu is a very complex character that has so much to her that it's nearly impossible for me to go over everything. Nyamu as we know her doesn't change all that much over the course of the series, staying relatively true to herself. She's competitive, abrasive, selfish, unagreeable, and goal oriented. These things do not change about her, and that is what makes her so compelling to me. However, what does change is what her goals are and the means/lengths she will go to achieve them.

At first, Nyamu would do anything to achieve her goals, blatantly going against the advice of Sakiko with the unmasking of the band members so she could get clout from the fame. Later on in the series, Nyamu's approach changes, mainly due to Mutsumi/Mortis. She's both insanely jealous of and admire them. She's aware of the advantage that they have in the acting industry due to their connections with their parents and the fact she's "naturally" gifted at acting. Something she wants for herself, yet she declines Minami's recommendation. Nyamu a selfish and self-serving character who would do anything for her goals DECLINES a once in a lifetime offer from someone who has the power to make and break her career. It's everything she could ever hope for, and yet she doesn't jump at the chance like she did before. Why?

It's simply because that she wants to topple the giants herself. There's a proverb that is often used in reference to Nyamu a lot, Trampled wheat grows straighter and taller. Nyamu is the wheat being stepped on by Minami, Mutsumi, and Mortis. She at this point seems to feel like she wants to earn her place on her own. I think that Nyamu seeing Mortis with her connections and "natural" talent being handed to her in her eyes on a silver platter. And she essentially wants to prove that she is better, that she worked so hard to get where she's at, and that she did it on SKILL alone. Nyamu is headstrong like that. Another thing that lead me to this conclusion is when Minami states, "Being around that child all the time makes me feel miserable. A monster" Nyamu later reacts with "I really hate it" when reminiscing on it. This is partially self-loathing and part if Mutsumi/Mortis can achieve that level of acting then it must be possible for her too, and she wants to prove it. She wants to surpass the people who she admires the most. To her, Minami comparing her child to a monster is her saying it's impossible and shows that she's given up on being better, that like her declining the offer, shows that she's as much of a coward as she is but unlike her, she's going to face it.

Now, it wouldn't be a Nyamu analysis without episode 10s confession scene.

This scene is so telling for so many reasons, for one it shows while Minami is scared of her daughter Nyamu is not. "I just can't take my eyes off you," is her, acknowledging Mortis for her skills and talents. Nyamu is acknowledging her own skill level to Mortis' and is basically saying that I am going to reach you one day, but right now I see you.

Another thing I would like to point out is just how softly Nyamu says I love you, it almost feels uncharacteristic of her, but it somehow feels like the most sincere thing she's said yet. Almost like she's dropping her facade, her mask, for a moment just to drive home how serious she is. It's also emblematic to the parallels that they both share. Mitusmi, Mortis, and Nyamu all act/mask as a way to survive. This does not mean they are not true to themselves while masking/acting they are, and are doing so in service to their interests. And just like how Mortis drops the act when Nyamu points it out, unafraid to bare the fangs of her truest self, Nyamu lets her own act slip. Even if it's just for a moment, she feels comfortable or at the very least respects Mortis enough to show her. Nyamu is unafraid just as much as she is scared. This moment feels as sacred as it is curated. Right after she drops the mask, she puts it right back on and continuing the act, and so does Mortis to an extent. They both now can see right through each other. This declaration is saying we are equals, even if the difference between us is still great. Their feelings are laid bare not for an audience to see but just for them.

Anyway, I just really love Nyamu as a character as well as her dynamic with Mutsumi/Mortis. I defentily didn't go over everything about her character as there is a lot more nuance that I either didn't see or can't articulate.

[mattiebluebird]

Yk that post that's like ‘signal is the spiritual successor to nightwing’ bc I DO & IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT NON-STOP.

And the comics pretty much confirm it (To Me) in Grayson #15.

So in this issue each of the Robins, minus Steph (RIP Steph) get paired off with one of the We Are Robin gang and give them their own advice on what it means to be Robin.

Tim—whose main problem with this whole thing is that they don't know these kids, how can they trust them?—gets paired with Andre Cipriani, a mob kid whose dad was murdered by a rival gang when he was eight years old. Tim trains Dre by having him fight blindfolded. He tells Dre that being a Robin is about truth and investigation, which makes sense, right? Tim became a Robin by figuring out Batman and Robin’s secret identity (keep this in mind, all the Robins’ advice links to their origin).

To be a Robin, you have to understand what you don't know. And then you must seek to know it. You must always ask: how can I see into the dark? Batman once told me, being a Robin can be summarized into one word: investigation.

These two were an interesting choice to pair up. I would've thought they'd put Dre with Jason, given their violent tendencies—Dre is smart, but at this point in the comics doesn't strike me as particularly investigative. Then again, right after this arc he goes undercover in a gang, so maybe he learned something?

Speaking of learning something: at first I thought they should've paired Dre with Steph (#teamcriminaldads lmao), and while that would be an interesting team, Dre did learn from Tim. If Riko were present in this issue, she would've been a good fit for Steph, as she idolizes the Batgirls and Steph was both a Batgirl and a Robin. Plus, Steph and Riko are both brave & have mean streaks, something that Riko has trouble showing because of her shyness. Steph’s advice probably would've been along the lines of “being a Robin is about defiance”.

Besides, if Tim and Dre weren't paired up, we never would've gotten this interaction.

— You like Liszt.

— What?

— Franz Liszt. The composer. You play the piano. I looked you up. People who play the piano like Liszt.

Points to Tim for the most autistic small talk ever. ‘You like this, which I know because I researched you in a totally non-creepy way.’ Amazing. 10/10.

Dax gets paired with Jason. They're interesting parallels. Dax is the inventor/mechanic of the team, but also sort of the wild card with very strong morals, like Robin!Jason in a way. Like Jason, Dax’s father is (implied to be) a crook, though they took different moral directions because of that—Dax is completely opposed to gun violence.

Anyways, Jason's main reservation is that you can't have Robin without Batman. And I guess he decided to solve this issue by just becoming Batman & making the WAR crew relive his origin story by stealing tires from the mob.

Y'know, kid, Batman once told me, being a Robin comes down to one word: confidence.

Jason Todd, the Crime Alley street kid who had the balls (and the skills) to steal Batman's tires and get away with it. Sort of. Confidence, indeed.

Damian's problem with the Robins is, of course, that they're weak, and strength (according to him) can't be trained; you either got it or you don't. He gets paired with Izzy, who probably has the toughest home life of the WAR crew. Her brother's in a gang (that he regularly beats her up for not joining), and she's failing all her classes because she's too busy working night shifts at her mom's restaurant to sleep or do homework.

So Damian's advice to her is pretty apt:

Batman told me that there is one word that captures the essence of being Robin. Suffering.

Damian and Izzy are both outwardly surly, stubborn characters who have had to fight to survive. Notably, Izzy is the first of the crew to almost resort to killing/guns (in WAR #6). She's also probably the best fighter in the WAR crew after Dre and Riko. She does dancing, gymnastics, judo, and kick-boxing.

And, finally, we reach the point of this whole post: Dick & Duke.

Duke deduces Dick's secret identity in like .5 seconds.

— I've solved a lot of hard in my time. This ain't hard.

— No. No, it wasn't hard. Not for you. Again, Duke Thomas?

Dick: You discovered my secret identity!

Duke: What? Like its hard?

After scoping out their strengths and weaknesses, Dick sends the Robins on individual assignments: Dre and Tim to investigate, Dax and Jason to cause a distraction, Izzy and Damian to apprehend Robo-Batman/Gordon.

Dick brings Duke on to a roof for a stake-out, where they have this exchange.

— You think only the originals understand how to be Robin?

— Nope.

— Yeah. Me neither.

Then it turns out that Dick actually turned them all in to the cops because he wanted them out of harm's way. He's been watching Duke for a while and he knows he's scared of heights, so he led him onto a roof he knew he couldn't get off of. Just before they part ways, Dick imparts his Crucial Robin Advice:

Batman once wais to me that being a Robin is about one thing. Family.

(I find this whole thing super ironic considering Dick's whole aside concerning the Robins was the fact that it doesn't matter if people know you're manipulating them as long as it works.)

The point of Robin? Family. Dick and Duke are alike in this way. Dick only became Robin to get justice for his parents’ murder. Duke only joined WAR to find his parents.

Their origins and motivations are similar, and so are the characters themselves. Dick is often called the world's second-greatest detective next to Batman himself. Duke is a child prodigy—one of our first introductions to his character is when he tried to solve the Riddler's riddles in Zero Year. He loves puzzles. He's an amazing detective.

And, of course, one of the things we know and love about Nightwing is his inherent kindness, something that's present throughout Duke’s entire character arc. Even their hero names, Signal and Nightwing, are parallels of each other (light and dark). Batman’s first sidekick and his last. And, like Nightwing, Signal formed his own team (WAR) with no help from the others (except Alfred ig).

Of course, the entire point of Signal’s character is that he's not just a Robin. He's something different. It reminds me of that post that's like—’poor dick grayson, originator of a legacy he never meant to be a legacy, crushed with guilt and jealousy when he looks at all those who came after’. To me at least, it makes sense that Nightwing’s successor would've never been a Robin at all.

[freuleinanna]

I'm still confused about Verna.. I thought she was a demon?? Because why would Death be going around making a bunch of deals with people? After Verna told Pym she decided to go "topside" I thought she was some kind of crossroads demon since it implies she came from below (hell)

Oh! I feel you, and I struggled with that a lot too. She does seem a lot like a demon. I'm not saying I'm 100% correct in my thinking either, but here's why I personally think she's Death. Kind of a long post, sorry. I hope I make myself clear, but feel free to follow up!

So, Verna. An anagram for Raven, that much is established. Ravens are wonderful - symmetrical even - creatures. Bringers of death in a wide understanding. Bringers of good luck in many cultures. The duality is amazing. To me, that also leans majorly into the theme of death being a concept of duality: an enemy for some, a friend for others. Each greets her differently. I'm not talking about the characters here, but people in general.

There's a proverb I came across a while ago that reads 'Death is a great leveller'. Meaning, everyone's equal before her. You have no leverage or buffer against death, and it doesn't matter if you're poor or blindly, feverishly, grotesquely rich (like our folks here). Everyone pays the last bill. For everyone, there's a day of reckoning. It's a major theme with the show, at least. Verna also says 'Buy now, pay the bill later' - although it can still read very demonic, I agree.

She's obviously ancient, and I was leaning toward the demon theory based on all of her talking. Yet - she also keeps ranting about Egypt and pyramids and Cleopatras and such. What's the one thing with Egyptians everyone knows of? They honored death. Death may have been a bigger part of their lives than life itself. The Usher Twins' obssession with all things Egyptian, antiquities, jewelry, swords and such, plays a nice parallel here too, because they're just collectors. They have no grain of honor for the real thing, for what these things are tied to. Kind of a nice thought, I guess.

Anyway, back to Verna. She says on multiple occasions how intrigued she is with us, 'adorable little things'. She saw the pyramids, the expeditions, and she wanted to see what else we do, she wanted to see what Roderick and Madeline will do (in her own words). It's all an experiment to her. She makes an offer just to see what we, people, do.

Here's where my beef with a demon theory comes in. No demonic creature I could think of, be it an actual demon, a trickster, or something else, is that sincerely intrigued. Something something death loving life something something.

Demons, in my understanding, are most interested in winning the deal. They come up with incredible challenges, they enjoy torture, emotional or physical, they never let anyone win. Verna has never once expressed this. Quite the opposite. She gives everyone a chance to step back. Even when the ink has dried and everything's decided, each Usher sibling is conditioned to make a choice: push forward, or step back. Neither of them steps back. Neither of them takes a long hard look at themselves (except Tamerlane, both literally haha and figuratively, as she's the only one to have realized how lost she was in her way - just at the end, when it didn't really matter anymore, but still). Verna is kind to those she takes (sincere pet names, regrets of having to do it this way, making sure they know it's not personal, etc). She grieves with them, just before. Grieving - 'The Raven' being about an expression of grief and trauma - ravens as synonyms for death... you get the gist. Oh! Except Freddie - cause Freddie struck a cord. Infuriated her. So he doesn't get an expressed choice. And he would've blown it like coke anyway, so meh.

And then Arthur Pym. Oh, Arthur Pym. I honestly couldn't imagine a demon kneeling and thanking someone who's refused them.

About Arthur Pym, by the way. It's the one story I hadn't reread, and I should have, it turns out! haha Anyway, a few notes about his travels:

In the story, Arthur Pym is expressedly afraid of white color (North Pole, yada yada, white being the absense of colors/life, and the absense of life is death).

Verna enumerates the moments she witnessed of his travels. Someone getting left in Sahara. Someone getting shot in the Arctic. Something bad that was done to an Inuit woman. Why would she follow Arthur so closely? She didn't know him, he wasn't her favorite. I think it's because she came to collect those deaths. If she is death, she would've been exactly there, where people died. She would have also seen Arthur not partaking.

Aaaaaaaand it makes her 'You saw me' line sound better, because he had sure seen death along his travels.

I think the part about a place of out-of-time, out-of-space creatures and hollow Earth was a bit unnecessary, BUT I can try and tie it in this way:

It showed us how Arthur might have coped with what he saw, and he 'saw a lot', even in his 70s it's difficult for him to recall, and it made him think of humanity as a virus, literally;

He might have thought up that ethereal realm simply because he was in an expedition? Exhaustive conditions for both body and spirit? Traumatic experiences? If he saw Death, he might have cloaked it in his mind to cope with it, thus came his stories;

Verna going 'topside' may just mean that she had to go take a look herself, actually be willingly present for the events - to see the brave little humans conquer the earth. 'Topside', as in, 'visible, present, participating'. If Death exists, I doubt it bothers with our boring human realm but lives downunder, among all threads that weave the world.

So that's that on Arthur Pym.

A few other references my mind is too exhausted to tie in nicely:

Death takes Lenore. THE Lenore from 'The Raven' (mostly) and 'Lenore' (secondary). That happened. Also, death talking to a child of life? Regretting having to take her? Not very demonic of dear ol' Verna, in my opinion.

Her mourning veil, her last toasts to the Ushers at the cemetery? Demons don't tend to grieve their players. Demons don't respect and love them enough, and 'what is grief, if not love persevering'?

Death is the last threshold. Before death, we look upon our legacy (major theme with the show), we remember our losses and loves (Annabel Lee!!!!! love the poem, brilliantly done), we get heavy with regrets. We face death as an enemy & fight, like Madeline did. As a friend, like Arthur did. We confess, like Roderick did. All that is too significant to me overall.

And the last thing. It's Edgar Allan Poe. The whole Death tribute is a giant, incredible, thought-through-to-the-bits hommage to his literature where Death, figuratively and literally, takes the throne.

I hope I managed to express myself alright there. Thanks if you read it through, and as I said before, feel free to follow up or elaborate on some ideas. There are oceans to discuss. <3

[ven0moir]

As much as Bylers say they have 300+ slides of Byler "proof", and that they have psychologists and lawyers and film people on their side, I feel like you forget that Byler is a THEORY.

Everything you present can also be interpreted as platonic Byler from Mike's side. And hey, your interpretation of the show matters and is important, but calling other people stupid for not seeing the "Byler vision" is just plain wrong.

Nobody is denying that Mike deeply cares for and loves Will, but the writers haven't really made an effort to show us it's romantic, argue with the wall. Even you Bylers say that "Mike's POV is hidden from us" or whatever because you're AWARE that they haven't done enough to show it.

If I cared about Mileven, I would refute your "evidence" and reframe it from a Mileven perspective, even though I don't think they're endgame either. Mileven not being endgame doesn't immediately mean Byler is. As someone whose favorite character is Mike, you Bylers and Milevens both seem to ignore the root cause of his insecurity: feeling like he needs to be with someone romantically to matter. And that's what the show will subvert.

Even among you you can't agree on what Mike's arc is supposed to be. Because you're projecting shit onto him. Will is going to get a love interest (And maybe that's Chance like you seem to believe), but it's NOT going to be Mike.

hi anon! so it's not my job to convince you of anything and I'm not gonna try to bc that's the Duffer's job. And I'm honestly tired. SO MANY Bylers have gone above and beyond to try to explain why Byler is happening and you just don't wanna see it anyway.

But since you seem invested enough to have sent this anon, let's review something you guys don't seem to appreciate much. The FACTS, centering only one scene:

You said that Bylers can't agree on what Mike's arc is with the whole POV being hidden from us thing, so my question to you is: What's happening in this scene, in your opinion? Because Byler deniers also can't agree on what's actually going on in this specific scene.

Some say Mike's just awkward bc he knows Will likes him, others say that he's just awkward bc he hasn't seen Will in a while, etc. The thing y'all agree on, that us Bylers ALSO agree on is that: Mike was awkward. That's a FACT.

But for some reason y'all choose to ignore this:

( also, if someone knows the Byler who first made this discovery please let me know bc what an absolute queen )

This is SUBTEXT, yes, but it's not entirely "up for interpretation"--I'd actually love to see your counterargument to this.

This scene is from the Chamber of Secrets, which ...

is on the S4 DNA board.

Many Bylers like to call this a "parallel" but let's not even call it that: what we're REALLY seeing here, is writer's intent. These are the facts: They watched this movie, which is an INSPIRATION for them, and DECIDED to recreate the Awkward Tension™ that they saw in this scene, but with MIKE ( in Hermione's shoes ) and WILL ( in Ron's shoes ).

If they REALLY had to do this, why not do it like this:

Will in Hermione's shoes as the #Awkward one, and Mike in Ron's shoes as the #Confused one. Just, imagine it like that for one second.

no Byler would be referencing this scene as "Byler Proof" if they had done it that way. Even MILVENS would've accepted it as "Proof that Will likes Mike" because it wouldn't be perceived as a threat to their ship or whatever.

As for Chance, Bychance is going to be "Byler proof" to Mike ( lmao ) bc seeing them together confirms to Mike, without a shadow of a doubt, that Will Likes Boys.

"omg there's no time / Will would never / its bad writing / it doesn't make any sense / *insert other anti-bychance arguments here*"

Sure, maybe. Again, not my job to convince you of anything, just ... check this out and tell me what you think it means? But considering the first requirement to maybe possibly entertaining the idea that the writers might be hinting at Bychance, is to Believe Byler Is Endgame ( and you don't meet that requirement ), I guess I'm asking for too much.

[princessofghosts-posts]

Have you ever talked about Hazel and Nico before?

Because I was reading your post where you talked about parallels between Nico and Percy and I realised he also sort of parallels Hazel but in an opposite way.

Despite, being siblings every single thing in Hazel and Nico’s life have been opposite.

Hazel was raised poor and her family was shunned while Nico was raised rich and he came from an aristocratic family.

Hazel never had a relationship with Pluto while Nico regularly interacts with Hades (though not always in a good way).

Hazel had a bad childhood but a wonderful adolescence (after she came back to life) while Nico had a wonderful childhood but a horrible adolescence (till BOO at least).

Hazel’s mother explicitly chose riches over her. Nico’s mother explicitly chose him (and Bianca) over riches and rejected Hades’ offers.

Hazel’s mother had a horrible relationship with their father whereas Nico’s mother had a loving relationship with their father.

Hazel felt alone since she was raised an only child while Nico and Bianca always had each other.

Hazel remembers almost everything about her past but wishes she didn’t because it haunts her. Nico remembers almost nothing about his past but wishes he did because it could cheer him up (I mean he had a loving mother and family).

Hazel was accepted by the seven and was close with them. Nico was not.

Hazel wanted to continue living after she came back to life. She tried to make the best of her second life and didn’t want to die again. Meanwhile, Nico wa sort of suicidal. Rather than straying away from the line between life and death, he just waited for a gust of wind to push him one way or the other and was ready to die for the Athena Partheos.

I think it’s very interesting how exactly opposite their lives are. Like parallel lines that run in opposite directions and how it may affect their relationship or maybe how it doesn’t affect their relationship

What do you think about these two and their relationship?

I actually did a post similar to what you asked in the earlier days,but it doesn't go so much into it because I actually never realized there where so much parallelisms between the Underworld siblings. (I'll attach the link here,so if you want you can check it out):

ANYWAY! It's a know fact that I love their siblings relationship,even tho there are moments that made me go "wtf–" from both sides (almost calling her Bianca after a year of closure??? ; telling your boyfriend that your brother is weird???). Even with those,they are still my favorite pair of siblings in the franchise.

I already knew some you pointed out but most of them completely flew under my radar even with how much oblivious they are,you are kinda opening my brain with so many realizations right now.

I think that Nico and Hazel complete each other: Nico is and had what Hazel isn't and hadn't and viceversa. They aren't like Percy and Jason (two sides of the same coin) or Percy and Nico (same sides of same coin but under different type of light),they are different in their own category.

Like you pointed out,Nico was raised in a good home and in his early days I'm pretty sure that he had a good relationship with Hades,since he was around and he and Maria were good. But Hazel? Pluto left them after warning Marie,he wasn't around and only saw Hazel once (before she literally was sent to her death and slavery in Alaska). I never thought of the parallelisms between their mothers: Maria choose her children while Marie wanted the richies. Another one is the fact that Hades offered Maria to live with him in the Underworld,so that she could be safe,while Pluto didn't do the same for Marie (and she was already being manipulated by Gaia here).

Hazel was raised without love only to have a good adolescence with people that loved her,while Nico was raised with love only to have his life full of people hating him. I know they were both shunned away by their own camps,but Hazel at least was still included in their activities and had Frank to endure with,before Percy arrived and changed things. Nico didn't had that for a long time,and even with Percy it wasn't enough to change CHB perception of him. (Another parallelism :D ).

Hazel also was more easily accepted by everyone (both romans and greeks) than Nico ever was in his life like you pointed out too. Which is a bit insane for me because they are both Underwold children,and if one is shunned away like the plag,and you say that another is also living the same siuation,then why isn't she having the same treatment??? Not to say that Hazel should have had the same things people pulled on Nico,but it's strange how people are more open to Hazel than to Nico. Idk,maybe it's their powers influence on their persona –Nico has an aura of death all over and Hazel doesn't,so that's probably why they are more wary of him than her.

Hazel being an only child while Nico had a sibling (that later died) solidified for me the fact that they complete each other: they are what the other need. Also,another parallelism here is the fact that while Hazel was raised alone,she had Nico as her brother later on,and while Nico was raised with Bianca,he had to endure years of being alone before he found Hazel.

Hazel wanting to live and Nico being suicidal can also be "swapped" here –Nico become suicidal after Bianca's death,but before of that he was pretty fine with living; while Hazel's childhoon was full of death and pain and she couldn't take it enough (especially during Alaska). Hazel died when she wanted to live,Nico continue living even after trying to die. Poetic,isn't it? (also tragic like their lives)

I kinda of like that Hazel can remember everything about her life but Nico will probably never have the full picture on his. Because while his life was a certainty (especially with Hades involved during Maria's death),Hazel's wasn't and she ended up sacrificing herself without a Pluto trying to do anything. And it's Hazel that remember her life,even with how much sadness there was,and not Nico that had probably one of the best childhood in the universe (rich aristocrat with a loving family,a dad that tried and his mom even brought he and Bianca travelling during holidays) even tho his historical period wasn't the best one for Italy.

And one would think that with so many differences they would be cold to each other,distant,maybe even hate each other since Nico had what Hazel never had,while Hazel has what Nico never could have (untill later). But here's the thing– while at the start Hazel couldn't believe that he was her brother because of how different they were,and Nico fucked up with almost calling her Bianca,they still love each other.

It's true that they were close because of a camaraderie feeling at the start (both children of the same father that got shunned away because of their heritage and powers),but they actually grew closer to each other untill they can actually see the other as a siblings. Nico probably didn't had an hard time loving her as one (I refuse to believe anything else other than Nico almost calling Hazel "Bianca" because he missed having a sister,and their bond for him was similar to the one he had with her) while Hazel had to adjust because she never had one. The struggle is there at the start,but even during SoN you can see how she start to see her as her brother and not brother as in "we have the same dad".

Hazel tried everything to get Nico back once Gaia revealed to her that she trapped him,and even before that she was worried for him after he told her of his trip. And she succeeded. And that is something I will never shut up about because Hazel almost lost the brother she was finally able to love,and had the constant reminder that he was dying while they were miles away to help him. Not to talk about the gods that went like "you needs to free him because he is important to your quest,be quick cause he doesn't have much time left" when she meet them,and Percy telling them his dream that made her more worried. Hazel avenging her brother (and dad),because they made a joke out of her father temple,is everything for me.

And I love how Nico was there for her after she come back to life. Even after he brought her to Camp Jupiter,he still visited her regularly (otherwise Octavian wouldn't be so casual about him being around with his personality) and helped her to understand better her powers. He also knew enough of her flashbacks,so some of them happened while he was around,and it's not like he was jealous or anything (since Hazel was remembering while he couldn't),but he was worried for her. In HoH,after Hazel came back from hers and Hecate's conversation,he wisked her away to talk. Hazel was the only one to know what was going to happen in the temple because Nico had full trust in her (and also because it was her fight against Pasiphaë,so she kinda needed to know). Nico putting Hazel as priority,after Hades talked to him in the chapel and he started to worry about them,even with Percy there,is everything to me.

They are so precious to me.

Nico and Hazel relationship could have be horrible,since there are so many differences that would make them feel bitter towards the other,but they don't because they understand each other. It doesn't matter that they are different,that they had different families,that they grew up separately and never found out about the other untill later in their life,they are still brother and sister and that's enough for them.

I know that in the second book of the Nico's serie he and Will are going to CJ to help Hazel,and I really hope we could see more moments between them. That was one of my many nitpick during HoO,there are few moments between them even tho they spent a lot of time together (before the start of the quest and also on the Argo II).

Another funny little parallelism is the fact that while Hazel is extremely seasick (the romans also aren't fond of Neptune) while she doesn't have trouble flying in the air with the Argo II. But Nico is the complete opposite since he suffer more flying than going via sea 👀👀👀

Also,I do have a couple of posts on them,because I love them,but they aren't enough 🥹. I'll probably do more once I'll read the other books of ToA (she appears in it from what I remember) and the serie on Nico. We need more Hazel in the books.

[ardbar]

You! You get it!! They keep the Pros mad and the Noobs, not because they hate the Noobs too, but because they need the Pros to Fear What Could Be. I wonder how often a Pro falls and their former neighbors look at them with terror, thinking, "that could have been me." But it comes out as angry words towards their once friend. Their friend knows that it is fear they speak with, not anger, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.

As for the Masters, I wonder if they even Know beyond Theory. Like yeah, they know it isn't great on the Noob level. But they don't ever go down that far. They don't know that they're only given raw meat to eat and they have to risk their lives to do so, they don't know that the education system is Literally Nonexistent, they don't know that a Noob's life span is not counted in decades like theirs, or years like the Pros, or even in months, but in weeks. In days. They don't know that the average life span for them is only a few weeks.

This is not willful ignorance, not fully. They have never been down that far. They have never even considered the possibility that something could be that wrong, because surely the Champion wouldn't ever allow anything to get that bad, right? After all, he says that the Noobs are fine and it's dangerous to go down that far anyways. They don't have the safety blanket of the Pro Level if they miss a jump.

Just like with Evbo, how can they possible ask for an answer to a question they do not know exists?

But Evbo is the champion now and even when he was only a master, he shone light on what was happening down there. He claims that when he left he was considered not just an elder, but *ancient*. They ask how old he is, thinking he must be nearing 100 or 200, but he simply replies, "I am five years old."

OOO it would have been really cool to see people actually rank down and see how others view that. I wonder if there would be any sympathy, or if they would blame the fallen person. If they had been good enough they would never have fallen, they should have just done better.

Also your point about the master's I think is very interesting. It is personally not something I have given too much thought to until now so please forgive me if my points aren't as thought out as they could be. I really like how you describe the master's just being ignorant of the life in the noob level, they only have passing knowledge of it. But I also think this would be true of their knowledge of the pro level as well. While we don't know exactly how long the champion before Evbo had taken over for we can assume it's a decent amount of time because the system seems pretty set in stone with very few people fighting against it. What this means is a majority of the people on the master level were probably placed there by Seawatt and his whole memory lab thing. It was also mentioned that Master's almost never go down to the pro level. I think they would create an ignorance of not only the noob level but of the entire system. I think this would also really parallel how out of touch rich people but specifically how people born into the with wealthy are.

I think this adds an extra layer of it because it would make it so the masters are just as much a victim of this system even if it does benefit them. Many of them may look down on the pros, and noobs but they still do believe that through hard work it is possible for new members to join their ranks. Their actions aren't malicious they have just never been given a reason to not trust the system. Its the same reason old people say oh if you set aside x amount of money you can buy a house easily. That is there lived experience they can't comprehend this changing. At best masters have a basic understanding of the pro level and since everything is relatively normal there they have no reason to wonder what the noob level is like.

Also I love the whole, "I'm 5" line that would be super intertesing to see someone do something with that.

[pomefioredove]

i was wondering if you could do Duece, Leona, Ruggie, Azul, Jamil x Christian S/O headcanons? like reader used to be a preacher back at their world, and still kinda preaches in twst (i think rollo believes in God?) like they do all the things Christians should do but still kinda chaotic? their very respectfull and kind yk? sorry for making this a bit long and confusing lol

twst's relationship with religion is so vague and complicated and yet. I cannot imagine rollo as anything BUT catholic. look at that guy. so I believe there's some kind of similar belief systems happening there

summary: religious reader type of post: headcanons characters: deuce, leona, ruggie, azul, jamil additional info: platonic or romantic, reader is gender neutral, reader yuu, short and not proofread author's note: writing these on the basis that religion does exist in twisted wonderland and parallels religions of our own. I am catholic and admittedly unfamiliar with preaching to others, I think that's more of a protestant thing, so I kinda just winged that part?

𝐃𝐞𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐞

if there's anything for him to admire, it's your dedication

I mean, you're sticking to your beliefs and passions in an entirely different universe

with a bunch of strangers, no less!

whether or not some version of your beliefs exist here, you're committed! and quite knowledgeable, too

it's pretty impressive to him

Deuce's family doesn't seem particularly religious, though he probably just enjoys hearing the stories

the narratives of change and redemption catch his eye

𝐑𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐡𝐢

he's big into all those "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God" verses

even if he doesn't necessarily believe in all that heaven stuff... it's a little funny

(he might use that one in the future, actually...)

if religion which parallels our own does exist in Twisted Wonderland, I can imagine his granny being religious

she seems like someone who'd cover the walls in symbols and art

maybe (likely) not Christian in origin, but enough for him to recognize that what you're going on about is a similar deal

he's practically used to it already

𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫

literally just falls asleep while you're talking

it's not that he doesn't care, it's just that...

wait, no. he doesn't care

sure, he participates in traditions and such with his family, but that's more for looks

Leona doesn't really see the point in blindly following something that hasn't helped him out at all

and hearing about miracles and blessings just annoys him

but, hey! you make for a great sound machine

these are basically all just bedtime stories for him to doze off to, anyway

𝐀𝐳𝐮𝐥 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨

merman religion is... tricky, to me

the existence of Hades in implies (confirms, even, if we take into account Yuu's dreams) the existence of Poseidon

but, like King Triton, these figures aren't necessarily worshipped. they're depicted as monarchs, not gods

but, then again, our knowledge on Coral Sea culture is limited

in any case, Azul might tolerate preaching

he really sees no use for it, and he's a busy man, but he doesn't really mind the company

if anyone, it's Jade who would be really interested in hearing alllll about these human stories

Floyd might tag along, too

and, suddenly, Azul finds himself wedged between the tweel's shoulders on the floor while they eagerly listen to you

...there goes his afternoon

𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐫

to me, Jamil is not religious or superstitious by any means

he doesn't mind listening, but don't expect him to change his mind about any of that

(especially while Kalim is begging for more stories)

though, even he admits that having you around is as refreshing as it is entertaining

you're just always so... hopeful

and it's much different from Kalim's version of optimism (in his eyes, at least) simply because, in this world, you're at the same disadvantage as Jamil is

your autonomy is constantly in question, you're living at the mere goodwill of others...

and yet, you're hopeful!

it's strange, but Jamil can't help but crave that presence in his life

[spiritsglade]

hi hi helloooo the promised ditf ask

i would like to know your thoughts on!!

 “All life’s a game” (if you have any, its not as popular or iconic of a line but it means very much to me)

bruce and the choices he makes throughout the comic

sheila haywood. anything about sheila. her relationship with jason, the story she told, her actions before/during death literally anything

this

and anything else you want to talk about!!

HI HELLO DON'T WORRY ABOUT HOW LONG THIS TOOK ME TO RESPOND TO. eventually i will dig up the utrh discussion reblog chain and add to that too. it'll happen (trust).

ANYWAY. lets dive in.

All life's a game

unfortunately i do not have many thoughts but i bet i could synthesize something from scratch really quick. okay from a doylist perspective i could see this being starlin's way of trying to make jason more hateable. like oh this kid doesn't get that things are serious. idiot.

in general it's a line that implies that... y'know. life doesn't matter?? like there's a level of dismissiveness to it. it's not that serious/that deep/just a game. this can be read as jason thinking that he's invincible. like the main character in a video game he's destined to win. a callousness towards death. some sort of apathy or nihilism thing.

jason is getting more reckless at this point. more uncaring of his own life. we're a little bit out from the impact of diplomat's son + consequences. he is exhibiting suicidal behavior right now. in that passive way where you'll drive without a seatbelt or take more risks because you don't really care if you bite it.

so i think that attitude makes sense perhaps!! why he'd be like that. perhaps some way of trying to cope? esp since at this point jaybin might be just like. too jaded by everything. between judy n gloria n batman the cult.

idk i'm just spitballing here. remember when he made a lot of references to it all being a game in hush also. i don't think there's actually any worthwhile parallel there but woah same thing happening twice !! notice it.

bruce & choices

OKAY THIS IS INTERESTING. i'm gesturing at PROVE YOU LOVE ME right now. that's like my thesis on bruce & choices, at least in terms of jason. bruce chooses mission over jason every time. the one time he didn't was that cherished memory from rhato in which he did choose to take care of sick jason over patrolling gotham (aw). and also this other time we'll discuss shortly.

i'm not pulling out citations for this but i do find it really really interesting how starlin specifically highlights that bruce is making a choice between the mission and jason like. multiple times. stop the joker's nuke or go after that kid of yours that ran away. prioritize that medical convoy about to unknowing joker venom entire villages or saving your son's mother. except the last time.

does he go after the joker & co or does he go to the warehouse to check on jason? he checks on jason!!! but it's too fucking late. L.

anyway i don't think bruce is like ever. necessarily wrong in making these choices. yes i would also choose to stop the guy who kills people for fun when he has a nuke. i would also prioritize that over my hypercompetent child who will probably be okay with me not supervising him for a while. but it DOES speak to this general pattern of bruce choosing the mission over his kids, which is something he does over and over and over and--

anyway bruce choosing jason comes too little too late not because he was wrong for prioritizing the medical convoys, not because he was wrong for stopping the nuke, but because the way he has failed jason is a deeper underlying rot that cannot be so easily cured.

he went wrong when he created an environment where jason would rather run halfway across the world for a woman he's never met than stay with bruce. aditf is a tragedy and the dominoes were already in place by the time it started.

sheila haywood

girl this prompt is too broad okay.

sheila chooses herself over jason when she invites him into the warehouse & when she lies to him & when she pulls a gun on him & when she pulled out that cigarette to smoke instead of looking at him & in the end ends up choosing trying to save him too over her self preservation but it's too little too late <3 wow that's crazy a parent choosing parent over their own priorities at the last minute when it's already too late that's crazy where have i heard this before. bruce & sheila parallels I SEE YOU.

um. ossification is my sheila haywood manifesto. at least regarding how jason feels about her. tl;dr he could never hate her. how did sheila feel about jason? i think her dying words summed it up. he's a good kid and she doesn't deserve him. and he must've loved his mom (catherine) so much.

idc what everyone else is out there theorizing about sheila gave birth to jason. and catherine is jason's mom. but jason will always think of sheila as his mom despite her really not deserving the title.

i do not care at all for the implication that she had to leave gotham because she fucked up an illegal abortion starlin i am killing you. HOWEVER. i LOVE that she is a selfish bitch (i say bitch affectionately) who puts herself and her self-preservation first <3 embezzling from a FAMINE RELIEF CAMP. GIRL WHY. she's so awful. i love her.

anyway i also appreciate that she's like a mundane kind of evil. like oh she's friendly she's nice she is a qualified doctor who is helping. and she agonizes over what the joker is making her do. and that one human moment she has where she tells jason we'll get out of here. together. BUT SHE STILL WENT ALONG WITH THE JOKER'S PLAN!! SHE PULLED THE GUN ON JASON. her turning around for jason is not something that absolves or redeems her. it's just another nugget of her being an awful horrible but ultimately human person!!

anyway i don't remember the entirety of what she told jason about the circumstances of his birth but from what i remember i think she believes what she's saying. even if she's omitting key information. idk the whole 'sheila was lying about being jason's bio mom' thing is a theory that makes sense i guess but never quite clicked for me.

shiva vs. bruce

wow i don't remember this part of ditf at all LMAO. anyway i think helping bruce was instinctive here because even though jason ran away from him that is still his dad. it's the same reason why jason did not blow that man up in the batmobile. jason loves cares about cherishes bruce. and he will never be able to let go of that no matter how much he hates bruce in the meantime. sad for him.

on some level i think it's also like bruce is the known ally and shiva is the unknown third party who might not even actually be jason's mom. jason knows he can talk bruce down from murder if necessary (has done this before) like the choice is so very obvious. like can you imagine any version of jason that actually assists shiva here? no. because he wouldn't do that. it's certainly interesting that he contemplated doing so though, for however short a time.

free space

jason did not fuckign die to smoke inhalation. that is all.

okay actually i do have more to talk about.

i think we need to talk more about how willis knows all these women. when did he meet lady shiva i wanna hear that story.

that entire joker superman united nations plot is so fucking dumb and should be forgotten forever and i HATE every time someone brings it up without context. but i hate acknowledging the actual comic EVEN MORE so i'm in quite the bind here. if there is one thing i could delete from dc forever i think it would be the 2nd half of 428 and the entirety of 429. ditf stopped being a relevant foundational jason todd comic after the funeral just ignore everything else i am begging you.

joker killing all his henchmen with joker toxin in batman #428 vs. lost days #1 having the loa torture and interrogate joker goons who were present at robin's beating. this is a contradiction. that i was obsessed with jason enough to notice so now i am telling you about it too.

in conclusion. sheila haywood :thumbsup:

[schrijverr]

Just curious, what do you think about the season 8b speculation that Buck is going to be kidnapped in addition to or instead of Maddie? I'm semi conflicted personally because I so want to see a Maddie lead storyline but don't want to see a pregnant woman get kidnapped idk

I'm pretty conflicted about it as well, because I love a good Buck getting hurt story line and I love him as a character, so seeing him go through that (especially with those people theorizing no one notices he's missing) would be delicious angst.

And I do also think it would suck if it was Maddie, because not only has she been kidnapped before, she currently has a happy storyline going for her for a change, so I'd hate if they forced her into this again, especially if the focus isn't going to be on her and what it means for her, but reactions to it, specifically Buck's.

However, it's that last bit that has me kind of ugh about it, because ever since moving to ABC the show has gotten more Buck-centric. Now, I love Buck - gestures vaguely at all my fics about him - but what makes 9-1-1 so fun to me is that it's an ensemble cast show. I personally adore Hen and Athena (out of the uniform) and Eddie is actually my favorite character, and Chimney and Bobby are very fun. So, seeing them get pushed to the background for Buck doesn't sit right to me.

If they do go the Buck gets kidnapped route and it's going to mostly focus on Buck, I'm a little worried for the future of the show, because I don't want it to be the Buck & co. show, I want it to be the 118 show. However, I'm down for it if they handle it well. Like, if they want to start the buddie route and focus on Eddie's reaction specifically, then it would serve a purpose, or if it was to kick start Buck's no one will care about me spiral (though both can be achieved by kidnapping Maddie, since Eddie can be in Texas so hate to not be there for Buck this time to get his head on straight causing him to spiral, or it can be Buck losing it bc Chris is gone, Eddie will leave and now he might not get Maddie back, so...)

If they go the Maddie gets kidnapped route, it better have a focus on her and what it means for her character to get kidnapped again, while pregnant and a mother, when she specifically never had kids with Doug, because she didn't feel safe. As well as Chimney breaking down, because he went through hell to get Maddie back during her post-partum depression and they had this whole discussion about how scared he was to do it without her and now he might be losing her. Of course Buck is going to feature heavily in this too, because it's his sister and he already lost her to this very thing before, but I would want it to have space for all the emotional reactions, not just his.

I saw someone theorize that they get kidnapped together, which would be fun, since that person mentioned having Chimney's and Eddie's reactions to it parallel, which could be buddie arc start. And I think it could be fun to see with Buck wanting to sacrifice himself for Maddie, because she's pregnant and has a family at home, while he has nothing anymore, which ties into his spiral that will start that is being mentioned in interviews. Plus, you can have Maddie who will always be his protector first, suddenly have to deal with wanting to sacrifice herself, but now having so much to lose and can she do that to Jee-Yun? To Chimney? As well as having the team collectively lose their minds because their Buckleys have been taken.

Anyway, this is a large ramble that doesn't really answer much, but I think in the end, it can be interesting if it's Buck, but I would prefer it not to be unless well executed and a part of me doesn't see that arc getting executed well. Though I also don't like the fact that Maddie is getting kidnapped to begin with. However, I know the fics are gonna be great regardless in this fandom, so I'm clinging to that lmao