#idk why but i really wanted to parallel from these even tho its not a parallel...

[show-us-kaidenshenandoah]

Wicked Gelphie fans, i need you guys so badly to know how well Elphaba/Glinda are "good timeline"d "history doesnt repeat, it rhymes"-ified by Dorothy/Princess Ozma in Baum's original Oz book series. like. Dorothy/Ozma get everything; theyre the sweet, intimate friends-to-"??? are they a couple?"-ified political power-sapphic-duo that Gelphie would have wanted to be. like??

if you merge canons, fam... Wicked-Glinda must be struggling, seeing Dorothy/Ozma be everything she and Elphaba could have been.... omfg... the angst potential, the envy of watching a couple of sapphic childhood sweethearts get everything they were denied, fulfill Glinda and Elphie's dreams, and seemingly so easily too...

(also!! they even CAN look like a kid-Glinda and kid-Elphaba! there's canon to justify that kind of appearance paralleling!!)

faq below if you want more context

edit, psa: i did read these books from like.. the ages of 10 to like 14 or so, maybe as young as 8? idk, i dont remember. anyway. its been a decade since i picked them back up. and i didnt think this would gain as much traction as it has been after 100+ notes in less than 24 hours. uh. so. take my chronic memory loss-addled summarization with a grain of salt?? like? i just wrote this post so i didnt have to re-vent (agAIN) to my friends about how much i fucking love Dorothy/Ozma, period, much less in parallel to Gelphie. so. enjoy, carry on, and whatnot lmao

1️⃣: there's Oz books? plural???

yes, Baum wrote 14 books about Oz, actually. also, he wrote them under the appointment of "the royal historian of Oz" instead of "author", so there's other "official" Oz books by other "royal historians of Oz"

Baum wrote so much bc (he needed money, yes, but also:) kids would send him questions in fan-mail, and he would proceed to answer them via new novels. so he never planned to make more Oz books, he just (wasnt good with money and also) was routinely inspired by the kids who wrote to him and would write the stuff they wanted to learn about Oz and whatnot

2️⃣: does Dorothy go back to Oz? wasn't it all a dream for her??

yeah, Dorothy returns to Oz a lot in the books, she eventually even moves to live there permanently. bc, in the book series, it's a real place

only in the 1939 film was Oz ever a dream

3️⃣: how does Dorothy look like Glinda OR Elphaba?? what are you talking about?

okay so, "The Wizard of Oz" has an illustrator, W. W. Denslow. in the book, Dorothy is confirmed to be wearing a blue-white gingham dress (she changes outfits tho, she doesnt always wear the same dress all 14 books like she's some cartoon character); but im pretty sure her hair was all Denslow(? i could be remembering wrong. p sure im not tho??). this is what the 1939 movie based her appearance off of. so i can see why youd go "she doesnt look like Glinda or Elphaba"

BUT Denslow and Baum started feuding. so for the rest of the Oz books that Baum wrote, he had a different illustrator by the name of John R. Neil

and Neil decided to give Dorothy for every one of the books he illustrated (so, 13 of Baum's books to Denslow's 1 book of Baum's) a cute lil blonde bob, making her look like what i assume blonde-Glinda looked like as a child. i think she'd approve lol

so!! Dorothy very much looks like a trendy little Glinda, with her cute blonde bob, her fashionable drop-waist dress, and bows for most of the Baum series, actually!

(also, Neil had a preference for dressing Dorothy in this red and polka-dot number, but, again, she does wear other outfits)

(lmao also look at Tin-Man and Scarecrow with blonde-Dorothy, they look like her two gay dads encouraging her to just go be herself at school?? i love them)

(also, if you see "Eloise At The Plaza"-energy in this Dorothy design, im right there with you lol)

4️⃣: who is Ozma??

she's the Princess of Oz. she eventually appears in the second book of the series. she rules Oz after the Wizard

she's actually a really interesting transwoman allegory too. (spoilers for a book from the early 1900s?) she was born a little girl named Ozma, but has a spell put on her as a baby to be genderbent and was socially raised as a little boy under a different name, and she later realizes who she truly is: a girl. she finds the transformation scary, as she returns to her girl-form she always truly was, but she feels better and more herself now that she is Ozma again. i dont think L. Frank Baum intentionally wrote her to be a trans allegory, but you can very obviously see why our trans elders fucking LOVED Ozma back in the early 1900s

also, she has a similar "sir, you fucked up" relationship with the Wizard as Elphaba*. and, also like Elphaba, Ozma politically tries to make things in Oz better (just.. unlike Elphaba, Ozma has the power and support to do just that p much asap)

* (edit for contextual clarification on how the Wizard fucked up: the Wizard fucked up with Ozma because he is ultimately and p directly the reason why she was genderbent/hidden. he deposed of her family and sent her away. Baum decided later on to backtrack a little bit on this(?) because he wanted to bring back the Wizard and, in order for Baum to do that, has to try to not make him SO terribly horrible??? so like. Ozma does end up forgiving him and tolerates him amd he's nicer, later on, within the books. but i doubt any modern adaptation of the books would follow that, personally. even as a kid, i went "bullshit" and headcanoned that Ozma fucking hated the guy and, at best, MAYBE tolerated him for Dorothy, but overall did not like him for justifiable reasons! i think the direction society seems to have taken the Wizard is interesting, and i wouldnt be surprised if there was at least one future adaptation that made him The Bad Guy in a very Rumplestiltskin in the Once Upon A Time TV show kind of way. but like. in the books, they do END UP getting along. i just forever disagree with Baum on that lol i think the Wizard fucked up, and in book 2 of the series (the one where Ozma is, y'know, introduced), it is obvious the Wizard FUCKED UP. but yeah. also, Ozma does get her dad back. her mom was kind of never in the picture to begin with, specifically in a Ponyo's Mom kind of way, like, she made Oz and then left it for her husband and kid to rule, so. yeah. im getting off track. my point is the Wizard did a full-on coup on her family and then banished her and genderbent her so no one would recognize that she had claim to the throne he was sitting on!! he fucked up! so, like, i personally hc that Elphaba founded the "i hate the Wizard" club to which everyone slowly joined, like Fieyro and etc, and Ozma is their youngest member. the Wizard did both Elphie and Ozma so dirty, omfg)

it also should be mentioned, Ozma in NBC's "Emerald City" was casted as Black (her actress being Jordan Loughran). so, though Ozma does not have green skin (but also? neither did the Wicked Witch of the West in the books, she wasn't green there. that was a 1939 film decision to make her green. so! Ozma could be green!! why not!), but she does have Black features to theoretically remind Glinda of Cynthia Eviro's Elphaba when you consider that casting. or, if you prefer a Jewish!Elphaba casting, a'la Idina Menzel's Elphaba, i think Ozma's book design works well to interpretively parallel those features too. or both, if you like the sound of a Black-Jewish Elphaba and Ozma paralleling lol

(edit, because i thought i mentioned this but? no?? i didnt?? i must have misclicked or something to have deleted the paragraph. im so sorry, here you go:) also, when Ozma was a boy, she was basically enslaved to her jailor of a caretaker. which one could interpret as "oh, a Cinderella story!", sure. but, with a Black Ozma, it does read as an intergenerational grief-formed power-fantasy that is both empowering and poignant for Ozma to have ran away from her enslavement and gone on to become a princess afterwards. to any Black folks who may be going "is this going to trigger me?" about Ozma having been a child-slave, i remind you that Baum wrote this intentionally for children, so, no, the books do not sit in the trauma and horror of enslavement, but whether or not it would trigger you yourself is up to your discretion. i will say, Baum did NOT write the American Girls' Addy of his time (context: a children's book about a child-slave that does go into the horrors, some, though in a kid-friendly way) or Louis Sachar's Holes (i asssume i dont have explain Holes since its movie was such a hit), i remember it as even more kid-friendly than either of those also-children's books, so i would assume most people would be fine? but you are responsible for your own mental well-being, i urge you to confirm if it is fine for yourself however you need to do that. but, yes, you can use this backstory as further evidence for your Ozma being Black, of course! you can have Ozma be Black regardless, but if you want this as further evidence, go ahead! and also, it does parallel Ozma to Elphaba in the sense that Elphaba's family mistreats Elphaba! (i will, regardless of if you prefer a Jewish and/or Black Elphaba, add that doing so is also a nice "fuck you" to Baum in how, being a white man of the late 1800s and early 1900s, did end up throwing in racist and/or antisemitic caricatures here and there within his 14 books, unfortunately. i, an Indigenous American, remember as a child still immensely enjoying Oz despite Baum being racist towards Native Americans. if youre curious on the egregious level of it all and if the story could still be enjoyable, id say it's in the realm of Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, and Matilda of "wow. that is shitty. im going to pretend this thing i love is good instead via cognitive dissonance")

regardless, in John R Neil's illustrations, Ozma does have black hair, so that too coincides with modern understandings of Elphaba

(there is also her appearance in Disney's "Return to Oz", performed by Emma Ridley, where she is blonde. but, though i love that spooky movie, that's neither here nor there. as far as im aware, only in that movie has Ozma not had black hair)

anyway, she rules Oz; and by book 3, becomes really close friends with Dorothy. they're not a canon couple, not anymore than Gelphie is, but they are such close and affectionate friends that they are so easy to ship as childhood sweethearts (so, no, there is no moment of 🎶loathing🎶, but i find that sweetness makes them an angstier parallel for Glinda to watch over, personally lol)

like here's some illustrations from the books of them just being two "gal pals". no wonder our queer elders shipped them lmao and this isn't even all of their illustrations together, this is just the first spurts that google shot out at me lmao

also??? this is them with book-Glinda. not only do they look absolutely darling, also, yes, Dorothy becomes a princess, because Ozma said so. they co-rule Oz together. they are just too sweet, fam, i love these two little childhood sweethearts, i choose to see Dorothy's princess-ship as the same as two kids promising to marry one another when they grow up. this is so cute

and can you imagine Wicked-Glinda? looking down at these two, seeing what could have between herself and Elphaba had things turned out different??? im making myself sad

(also "Book of Glinda" is so wild. both in terms of "...Baum, how do you not see this as queer?" like with one example being like "Baum, you put that Glinda has 100s of single women at her beck and call in her palace, this is so easy to see as sapphic, sir"... and then, over here, we have John R Neil repeatedly reading "gave a platonic, innocent kiss" and going "okay, so, uh, making out? i dont do platonic kissing" lmao anYWAAAAYYYY, THAT'S NOT RELEVANT HERE)

🌟5️⃣ bonus:

so, you might have a few follow-up questions. like, what is "Elphaba" like in the books? what does she look like?

well, she's really only in the first book. she's one-note, evil, dies. she's not green-skinned, and she isn't given any sort of name. she is only called "the Wicked Witch of the West", that's it, she is not Elphaba

however, i will mention the Wicked Witch of the West, in the books, is a fashion disaster and i want to see her look used as evidence that "yes, goth-Elphaba and dark-academia-Elphaba are 10/10, but also?? kitschy grandma-core knitwear-Elphaba × her fashionably Barbie pink girlfriend". i'd love to see art of that. i'm just saying

also?? this isn't related to her at all but guess what

Scarecrow/Tin-Man was like THE ship for our queer elders. they are so emotionally intimate, they live together, it's great, look at these pictures of them being absolute bros (can you see why they were shipped so hard)

i bring this up, bc you could argue Fieyro/Boq if you merge canons to make your own narrative and whatnot. guess Fieryo and Boq kinda had their own mirrored 🎶loathing🎶 period under that framing lmao

or, if you hate Boq, youll probably love the Tin-Man's angsty "ship of Theseus"-like backstory as the once-Nick Chopper(: his human name, pre-tin-ification) that is in the books

so! enjoy that knowledge!! theyre super cute in the books, i love them. again, not a canon ship, but still beloved by our elder queers, just like Ozma and Dorothy

i hope it makes even more sense now why our queer elders used the phrase "Are you a friend of Dorothy?" as code to see if someone else was queer, not even taking into account the 1939 movie or Judy Garland's relationship with the queer community

anyway, albeit this is all the basics generalized, that should be everything

but yeah!! Ozma and Dorothy reminding Glinda of what could have been, of what she lost, being the sweeter "next generation" version of Gelphie?? tugs so hard at my heartstrings

but yeah, do whatever you want with Gelphie, Fieryo, and Part 2. im just saying. the angst potential of being envious and living vicariously through someone and seeing other people get the happy ending you were denied?? is right there lol

(edit: this awesome video by Kaz Rowe JUST came out if you want to hear more about the Oz book series, its queerness, its author, its GLARING PROBLEMS including but not limited to instances of racism, and so on and so forth. Kaz Rowe is a fantastic video-essayist, so i hope you watch the video and enjoy their hard-polished craftsmanship)

[freakinator]

funny thing about how i view the conflict in todays stream is that i view flame and wemmbu in very separate ways despite them doing essentially the same thing

in flames case:

i view his betrayal as ultimately a tragedy, their history all thrown aside due to a combination of wounded pride and genuine upset

if yall didnt see his chat for this stream it was actually really, really bad, like his chat is genuinely so fucking annoying oh my god and is a really good demonstration of why i think streamers should be mean to their chatters sometimes to so i actually wasnt at all surprised that he was so upset but i thought hed log off instead of acting out like this

he wanted respect but literally ruined the months long work of one of the few ppl that were willing to trust him over something that couldve been resolved if he just waited until september, but at the same time i can kinda understand why he was being so impulsive considering again his chat is Really bad, but at the end of the day that really shouldnt have been something you took out on one of your few allies like???? bruh even mocked zams storytelling as if he didnt do thee same shit as well 😭

honestly one of the reasons i was sad about his betrayal is cause it kinda sounded to me like he was genuinely about to cry at first??? maybe im just making shit up tho and he def stopped sounding like he was gonna cry after blowing up the spacewaffles tower lol

in wemmbus case:

i feel no pity for this man, he wanted conflict wherever he can get it and he got it! i think hes a lot like zam in that he just wants some attention and most importantly something to do but whatever happens to him next is his own fault lmao, i respect his honesty tho like hey he sucks but he knows what hes about at least lol

the fact that he still kept trying to get a commission from zam (or at least guilttripping him about it for lack of a better word) like bro i know you wanted to do a capitalism morality dilemma arc with zam but read the room my guy 😭

maybe hes at least a little mad that zam kept turning him away despite the fact he accepted a commission from mapicc of all ppl but like. bro. theres a reason zam called him a nightmare customer lmao

that being said you can tell hes not used to going this overboard considering he offered to help repair the tree when zam got upset lmao

idk i just thought his evilness was kinda funny, still hope he gets his shit kicked in spectacularly tho!

its funny, despite being acting like the shitty no reading comprehension version of abyss he gives me the exact same feeling of schadenfreude i did for minute back in s5 and i believe part of it is his mockery of lore and weird complicated dismissal of moral conflict particularly regarding zam

by weird complicated dismissal of moral conflict i mean both he and minute both tried to convince zam to see ''their side'' and ''reason'' but coming at it from an angle that completely misunderstands zam and when zam points it out they dismiss it and act like it means nothing because of their ''objective'' view of reality, spoiler alert! its not objective at all and they refuse to understand things from zams perspective cause they think hes just being unreasonable or something

idk overall i think their motivations for doing things are just kinda... shit lol

like ik theres some pretty obvious parallels that can be made with s5 here but the difference between the og players and flamebu aside from the lack of style and drama is that the og players waited several months before they started acting out the way they did and when they did start acting out tgey always made sure evryone who wanted to get involved Actually got involved rather than doing it while everyone was away plus their opps werent their own allies (except maybe pangi depending on how you look at it)

[ocielot]

tell me the solimiller thoughts i also have thoughts on them 👀 i feel like they scratch a similar itch that bbkaz and vkaz does for me of kaz wanting love but also being obsessed (first positively and then negatively) with big boss and never really coming to terms with the fact that he can't ever really get the peace that he longs for as long as big boss still consumes his life (also probably part of why his marriage to his wife didnt work out lbr). also the sort of parallels where kaz hates big boss for using him, only to basically flip things around and play the same role of using venom and david for his own goals of revenge, except unlike big boss, who i feel never really loved/cared about kaz the same way kaz cared about big boss/wanted big boss to care about him, kaz Does actually care about venom and david (i feel like david even more, since by the time they're in each other's lives kaz has had time to mature and calm down a bit and has even became a father himself) but its still not enough to keep him from using them just the same. also the idea of kaz going through the messiest divorce ever with big boss only to immediately rebound with not one but TWO copies of the exact same guy makes me so fucking insane. Messy Bitch Miller at it again

yussss. i love all of this! u clearly have been thinking about it more in depth than me. i hadn’t even considered the vkaz parallels! to me, solimiller is completely inextricably linked to bbkaz/kaz’s feelings about big boss, which is such an intense mix of love and hatred that kaz really doesn’t know how to deal with and channel. solid is just such a perfect outlet for those feelings. like under normal circumstances i don’t think kaz would be interested in a relationship with an early 20’s recruit. but solid is a man who looks exactly like the ex that broke kaz’s heart, except this version is younger, nicer, and (most importantly) subordinate to kaz* so it’s a perfect fantasy. almost irresistible. it’s literally like [slap’s snake’s ass like that car salesman meme] this dude can be the target of so many complexes about myself and my ex.

i don’t think he would ever like be super pushy to solid, or even make the first move, but if solid showed any interest? i think it would take so much restraint on kaz’s part to turn down such a sweet deal/outlet for his obsession with big boss. i’m not entirely sure he has this restraint. i also don’t think he would really be overly cruel towards solid just bc of his hatred towards big boss, that’s way too unfair. but he absolutely is using solid to work out his big boss obsession, and there might be little weird things he does in the relationship bc of this. and that’s all before he, like you said, literally uses him for revenge. i think solid doesn’t understand this for years, until everything was declassified and solid Realizes and is like. hm. bit fucked up innit.

ofc u can always have faith in kaz’s restraint and self-awareness and decide he was like. this is tempting but too fucked up and unfair to solid, so i will NOT have sex with my ex’s clone son even tho i may want to. i will channel my feelings otherwise. also a very valid take, i’m just having fun in this messy space.

also love that u mention his big boss obsession ruining his marriage, bc i feel the exact same way. kazwife absolutely realizes kaz is too hung up on his ex to be a good husband. i need more kaz divorce fic so badly. i do love a good affair so i’ve often tried to incorporate bbkaz hatesex into dooming the marriage but sometimes that seems implausible so maybe the solimiller affair being the last straw could be something? idk

anyways sorry for this long rambling response i just raughh i love messiness i love cycles of cruelty. i defo don’t think it’s a positive relationship in any way but it is just so interesting and fun to think about and makes sense

*i think kaz was into getting “dominated” by big boss during their relationship, it is good for his self-respect to tell himself he wants to have control, and it would certainly feel good to have power over this big boss doppelganger now that he feels big boss has taken everything from him. like he’s taking his life back. tho i don’t think it ends up actually working out that way. oof sorry long footnote.

[oh-my-may]

LET'S TALK GENSHIN AND REMURIA AND ARLECCHINO BEFORE I FORGET AND WE'RE ALREADY IN SECOND HALF OF THE PATCH WHY DOES TIME FLY WHEN YOU'RE AN ADULT

I'm gonna start the post with a few paragraphs I wrote just a few days after the patch went live:

So I finished the first Remuria world quest - it was beautiful. And really not as long as I first expected it to be. I probably could have finished it on the first day if I wouldn't have been as tired as I was

First of all the new map is beautiful. You'd think after 3? patches of map expansions where we already got underwater stuff it would feel repetetive but somehow it looks and feels different and refreshing. Maybe because majority of the map are caves where you can walk normally or they're ruins... idk.

I couldn't help but draw parallels between Remuria and HSR's Penacony tho, especially look-wise, the talk of a dreamscape and the theme of music. Especially now after finishing Penacony 2.2 I can't help but feel the two are very similar in certain aspects... the motive of Harmony and Song and Peace and saving a people and Gods? Also the way Remuria looks is so similar to certain things in Penacony? I already said rhis in my post on HSR, this is absolutely no hate whatsoever. I reckon there's only so much you can do with these motives? It's interesting how differently it looks in both games tho.

So yeah, Remuria is beautiful. The music is an out of body experience and encapsulates the whole thing perfectly. I haven't explored all of the map yet, but I like the new mechanisms a lot. The floating books look so cool and just generally the significance of music through it all... *sigh* it's so enjoyable.

So far for Remuria... i definitely missed a few things I wanted to say but it's been like 2 weeks since I played this and I definitely forgot something haha

AS FOR ARLECCHINO THO

First of all she's broken omg. It is kind lf annoying that it'll take weeks to max out her talents, rn for me she's sitting at crowned NA and skill and burst are level 7 each. But she still hits for like over 50k with each normal attack when she has a bond of life. Don't even get me started on her with Yelan MY GOD.

Okay with that out of the way let me talk about her story quest. First of all I find it very intriguing that hyv gave up on the usual pattern of having the second weekly boss for a nation be tied to the Archon and their respective second story quest (besides Mond ig)... i mean yeah Fontaine's archon situatipn is very peculiar but technically Neuvilette has taken over the role for now, right? Neither him nor Furina getting a second story quest makes me think Neuvi's probably gonna get his way later because it'll be HUGE. Again I wanna say that lore wise Neuvi is my fav character... HES JUST SO FNDNDBDN. And Furina is probably gonna get a pretty "random" one at one point kinda like Yoimiya did or Cyno... like its gonna be a good quest but it'a gonna be random. ANYWAY

I wonder how much different I would habe perceived the quest if I hadn't watched the Animated Short about Arlecchino that they put on Youtube... like it's her whole backstory? I could see where the quest was going right from the beginning because of it... that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, tho

Childe's little surprise cameo made me so happy c: MY BOY. He's alive snd well AND IN FONTAINE. Let me remind ypu we last officially saw him in the last Atchon quest gwtting yeeted into a black hole by Skirk. Then it was mentioned at the end that he was being treated and sent gome to Snezhnaya. Well...

The whole cryptic talk between Arle and Childe was quite interesting... so this project by the Fatui, right? (Forgot the name rn bc it's been a few days since I played the quest) Is it fonna be significant for Natlans story? What does it entail?? THE TEASE NNNNGNNGHH

I wonder if at some point in the game we're actually gonna see Lyney become the new head of House of the Hearth. Like... it's mentioned quite a lot in his story as well as in everything that has tp do with the House and Sröecchino herself... I wonder 🤔

Throughout the story I was reminded that one of the first things we heard about her (Childes voiceline that came out in like??? 3.0 or so???). It was that she would turn her back on and betray the Harbingers (AND THE TSARISTA) without second thought. She even says this herself in her voicelines. I just wonder what her ultimate goal is? To free herself from the curse? Which btw they tell us nothing about in the story. Story is all about the House and its inner workings and Arle's feelings about it and plans for the future (which I love btw but still not quite understand)... we also casually get told that Arle is not even that old??? Like the whole thing with Crucabena is so recent that Freminet remembers her???? Amd Arle was maybe a Teenager when she killed her so like??? She's only around 10 years older than the kids????

So how come she's a descendant from Khaenri'ah? I don't know if I read somewhere abput it or if its a rumor but not confirmed or if its said in her personal story which I haven't read yet but... she'a from the crimson moon dynasty? Or has some ties to it? And her curse is definitely related to it BUT WHAT IS HER CURSE EXACTLY. WHY DOES SHE HAVE IT. If she's only in maybe her late 20s she couldn't have been an actual Khaenriahn citizen (same as Kaeya and he still gives me the same headache thinking about this) so how does it all tie together in the end?? Does it have to do with the God of time maybe??? (Nevermind if this is talked about in her personal story in her profile I haven't read that yet)

So yeah... the fight woth her was so cool. The animation??? I saw people get upset about the fact that Traveler couldn't beat her but I actually love that?? Like... She'a #4 of the Harbingers and has some curse probably tied to Khaenriah and she KILLED A HARBINGER WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAGER??? Traveler nlt being this almighty MC makes them so much mlre likeable like yeah... they are obv far from having their actual power back? It took us ... how many times to fight Shuki No Kami before we could defeat it in the final try to learn all the patterns? The game wants to tell us that there's much more powerful enemies in Teyvat and rhis is only the beginning. Let me tell you yeah we beat Signora but it was Raiden who killed her... it was Zhongli who subdued Azhdaha. We only healed Apep with Nahidas help. Traveler has never been able to easily defeat these big enemies, they always had help. Yeah they have been getting stronger, they've been getting access to more elements but the bis enemies are just getting stronger and bigger too... I wonder where that will lead. Maybe the twins are only gonna get their true power bavk once they're united... ANYWAY

Her weekly boss fight is cool too. Using different mechanisms again, with the whole Bond of Life thing and all. She does this one attack in her second phase that I just... can't get behind tho. Someone always has to be the victim, THE SACRIFICE, to get me through haha. Idk how to dodge or avoid that attack. The one where she floats above the arena and then these bombs? Idk? Come down and basically crash down on the whole arena and I haven't found a spot where you can aboid getting hit and therefore killed immediately idk.

So yeah that's all for now. Very excited to play Cyno's second story quest. Heard only good things so far about it, which is good because I really didn't like his first one 💀 probably gonna get around to play it one of these days. Same as with the rest of Remuria exploration, gonna need mlre Clorinde funds :3

(Gonna add screenshots later, it's been so long that the ones I took aren't saved in the PS App anymore 💀)

[valleygirlmukuroikusaba]

feeling like im in the minority with how i percieve this particular character(mukuro) sighhhh

bc i been yapping a bunch with some other fans and like. while im not axed on sight for "mischaracterization"(mostly bc im hanging out with ex-fans) it is a lillll. a tad bitttt frustrating

bc atp its just like junko but what if she was normal and not a freak and her name happened to also be mukuro ikusaba. so non despair junko if you go the route that mukuro is meant to contrast junko. but like ive been kinda taking it as junko parallels mukuro since ive kinda made a bit of space in my head that makes it feel like the rest of thh was meant to compliment thh ch1

like something abt thh feels like most of the care and development was mostly focused on fleshing out ch1 and the rest seems like a afterthought. tho i cant put my finger on why it just really stands out to me

tho afterthought might be too harsh of a word hmmm

im not sure if im like outright ignoring who mukuro actually is in source. which uh tbf i have no fucking clue aside from the fanon emo interpretation that i cant actually even back up bc im missing required information and like . i feel like theres a chance that it could of been change of direction during conception bc im not even sure what the whole decision behind making junko(mukuro) the ultimate soldier is rlly abt? again this opinion could very much change the moment i watch the dr3 anime or smth. maybe future me might come across it and go wow i used to see mukuro like this

tho my au is still gonna focus on this ch1 mukuro concept and yeah i mean tbf im ignoring a good chunk of the canon lore here to make this work in a v3 like setting i think my version of mukuro changes nothing.? it might be jarring to danganronpa timeline lore truthers bc v3 doesnt really give a good conclusion to the HPA/FF saga but truth be told im not actually that much of a fan of that huge lore direction, bc while playing sdr2/udg and thinking back on it im just tryna like get things to fall in place a bit and then hit a brick wall and be like. wow danganronpa lore kinda bad ngl lol

anyways back to mukuro-junko and my au:

so generally uhm its v3 setting-like but its also abt the media from the outsider's view as well since like. theres legal accusations and disinformation and a bunch of like . idk modern au but also like its abt production in the end and i like the idea that mukuro(+leon) r like individual artists in comparison to big companies in the entertainment industry and i like that ill still have kinda freaky junko enoshima to like contrast that i think

well she's not particularly as artsy like junko but this au has it that she put in as much if not more than junko to keep up appearances bc she does go though with the junko disguise to the point the legal team gets them confused with how much forgery mukuro is capable of and i dont think junko nearly has enough time to focus on her sister while also running the entertainment company so mukuro has to make do with some parts of junko's plan on her own(and then she comes around to makoto and the others later)

like this junko is not nearly as fucked up as canon source junko but like symbolically i think its fine to have her in opposition to mukuro in terms of where i want to head with the story! man i wish i knew how to write a narrative like . this au eats at my brain eugh

[extrashortshorts]

Yo! I really enjoy your Buggypillar content but I was wondering if there was a reason why he hasn’t cocooned yet?

I assumed it’s cause of his DF and he wouldn’t be able to like cut himself out and would end up just suffocating or something. It would be a cool reason for him to be upset at Shanks me thinks.

He could just be being silly tho 🤷

It's a mental thing i think

Also works as a parallel to canonical buggy and his unexplored potential that he buried himself due to insecurities and lost dreams. Like, yeah, he will become a butterfly, but it's strange. Something so far away from what feels like he deserves, even tho its his natural progression as a bug in life and he actually wants it

👇later manga parts

Buggy had his big speech that totally upgraded his character for some people, and it's a cool thing, but idk if that's a "becoming beautiful butterfly" moment for the AU. I wanna see how he acts in later chapters, and what changed, feels like a begining of becoming something that he was scared to admit he wants and not the culmination

Idk why i want to see canon and analyse it first

but i do

🏃💨

[yvqip]

Another rant abt gojo bc yeah except this time its of the moral greyness of his character

‼️slight spoiler warning‼️for ppl who haven’t read the manga

In my last post abt gojo i was talking about his parallels to jesus but ONLY in the aspect of having to suffer for others as a sort of ‘duty’ and their relations to divinity. While yes, gojo did care for his students, riko, suguru, and his friends/coworkers and wanted to protect them, protecting others wasn’t why he was a sorcerer- he even said it himself multiple times that protecting the weak was tiring and that you can only save those ready to be saved- like in the Shibuya arc where he doesn’t hesitate to kill all those mutilated humans whereas someone like Yuuji would’ve struggled to decide what to do in that situation. I always characterized him as some sort of ‘hero’ because of the way he took in yuta, yuuji, and megumi and cared for the rest of his students which isn’t exactly wrong but it’s not completely right. The reason he did all of it was so he could help the next generation become as strong as him or as close as possible so that 1. He wouldn’t be alone at the top 2. To transform the world of Jujutsu and 3. So that the kids’ youth isn’t taken away from them (obv trauma comes with the job but it’s more about preventing unnecessary tragedies like the higher ups sending weaker sorcerers to handle curses that they aren’t ready for). His morals are more self centered as he uses Jujutsu more for self gratification than protecting the weak. Idk if ppl would agree w me on this but it’s been confirmed in the manga panel where he’s speaking with suguru and nanami in the afterlife ->

while gojo’s goals/intentions weren’t inherently selfish they weren’t for a heroic cause, his morals were based on his own emotions and self interests unlike geto whose morals were based on the institutional belief that sorcerers should protect the weak because they’re the strong but unfortunately his morals were founded in his faith within jujutsu society hence the reason why his morals weakened in correspondence to his faith in the institution. Although that’s why I think gojo is a good example of one of the most apparent philosophies in jjk which is, ‘do what has to be done’. This doesn’t mean i dont love when ppl characterize him as sweet and silly and clingy tho!! I adore it and think it really is a part of who he is just buried under the trauma and pressure, i imagine he’d be a lot more like that in another world where jujutsu sorcery didn’t exist! he deserves sm better </3

[ragnarssons]

ok ATLA fans real question tho. This has nothing to do with anything live action or whatever, it's just pure cartoon-related stuff.

But did y'all really like the Katara at the North Pole plot? Because I mean I love it, I love Katara fighting as strongly as she does, standing up for herself against all odds and all. And as for choregraphy, it's one of my favorite fights.

But I always loved it, until it all fumbled on itself with the neckless thing. I hate, and yes, HATE the idea of Katara being a "nepobaby" and this is why she gets to learn waterbending - but all the other girls from the North Water Tribe don't get to even try. By nepobaby I mean that it's obviously Katara's parentage that opens this precise door to her and not... well the fact that she proved herself or actually changed mentalities.

In the episode right after, we do see that Katara is the only girl in the class (and at the end of Book 1, Pakku leaves the NWT, meaning he actually doesn't even stay to change his tribe's ways and include girls, like the man didn't change anything after Katara). And paralleling that, you have Yue, whose fate also never changes. She never gets to even voice her non-desire of being put in a forced marriage. Like yeah, her and Sokka oppose that to the idea of her having a duty to her tribe, and it resonates to Sokka's own dedication to his tribe, but... why don't they go further? Ofc time restriction but to me, poor Yue if she were meant to die could've had at least a self-affirming moment (especially when you create in the background another love story that got destroyed by the NWT's sexist ways, namely Pakku and Gran Gran).

It's also weird because then they put Pakku in the White Lotus. The same organization where Piandao is. Piandao who teaches sword fighting to Sokka because "the art of sword fighting shouldn't belong to one people" so huh?? I know everything was probably not planned as far ahead when writing Book 1 but it's still... 🤷‍♀️

Idk I've never actively searched if people already had this discussion but I just wanted to ask, revisiting some of Book 1 big storylines. To me, it always seemed like the Katara/Pakku thing was awesome, until the neckless really, then it kinda flops and loses all its sense, because then Katara stop actually fighting Pakku's sexism (and the dude just stops being sexist alltogether we don't even know why *shrugs* even tho he had horrible words and attitudes towards Katara before that) and the NWT's patriarchy, she just complies because she got the privilege to bypass all of it.

[manchineel-mistress]

in honor of our favorite 33 to 100000+ year old unemployed terrorist’s birthday (korean time), i present to you: puzzleshipping time loop au where yami yuugi gets worse instead of better from s0.

ok so we all know that the Gang(TM) got through some shit throughout the story, where they are pretty close to dying. a lot.

how consider, instead of making it through barely, they dont. (gets shot multiple times-)

ok but more specifically yuugi dies from the strain of shadow games and stress or a mishap in those games. and yami PANICS HE PANICS SO HARD PRAYING TO EVERY GOD THAT YUUGI DIDNT DIE AND THEN THE MAGIC OF THE PUZZLE ACTIVATES AND YAMI IS BACK IN TIME AND SAVES YUUGI and everyone gets out safe and sounds and sane :)

Except It Keeps Happening. Yuugi Keeps Dying. Yami Keeps Turning Back Time.

he can get it right if he just had another chance. he wont let yuugi die again. that wont happen and they would make it to the end of their journey this time-

Yuugi Dies To A Bully. (one more chance. please. i can make this right-)

Yuugi Dies To Silfer. (no please i not like this hes my partner i cant go on without him-)

Yuugi Dies To Marik. (NO NO THIS CANNOT STAND I WONT LET IT REMAIN THIS WAY-)

yami gets more desperate, protective, and unhinged as the cast makes it through their journey. he gets jumpy, withdrawn, and snaps at anything that might seem like a threat. his already tense relationship with kaiba because more testy as he loses trust in those around him other than yuugi’s close friends. hes also more violent and harsh, not really giving up penalty games like he does in the transition to duel monsters.

yuugi is scared of yami. he never quite got over it even with his friends’ acceptance of yami. but he also knows yami is scared and he cant pinpoint why exactly other than its related to protecting him. but hes also scared to ask because what if yami snaps at him. he doesnt want yami to hurt anymore but also doesnt want him to hurt anyone else.

eventually, the continuous use of extremely taxing magic starts eroding away at both of their souls. cracks form in yami’s soul room first. stair start crumbling and doors are barely holding on. yami slowly starts losing himself and he knows it, but he also cant let yuugi die. the cracks reach yuugi’s soul room after a while. a few of the toys start showing wear, board games losing pieces, cracks in the walls. thats when yami comes clean.

its a terrifying and heartwrenching experience for both the yuugis and the rest of their friends. Yuugi has been dying. These games are dangerous and they haven’t been making it through them like they thought. the only reason why yami kept going and pursuing his memories? because yuugi keeps encouraging him to find himself and he thinks he can protect yuugi better next time. and because he thinks that once hes gone, yuugi will be safe again.

they figure it out though. they make sure yuugi stays safe. why do they keep going? because yami deserves to know who he is, and yuugi is willing to risk his life to get there. as he already had, but this time it will actually be different.

and yami learns an important lesson on friendship, learning when to ask for help, and communication. and then we have the rest of  normal canon just with yami’s major ptsd and a slower to warm yami who is still willing to burn someone to the ground in like season 4.

how does this relate to orv? idk man i just think time loop and go “omg yjh vibes fr fr” i think it would be an interesting parallel between yami and yjh, they just match in my brain for some reason. doesnt quite follow yjh’s character arc tho LOL

anyway i like angsty time loop aus as much as i like silly time loop aus. they just have so much potential. here i just wanted yami to suffer :)

anyway back to silly au ideas

[idealspawn]

tbh now that i think of it i kind of needed him not for himself but for myself too. so that is fucked up a bit maybe from my side too. like that i needed someone secure enough to kind of mm trust them and be truly honest and transparent and loving and giving but not because i so very much loved them and wanted to give TO THEM but to see if i can trust myself to let myself be giving. if that makes sense. to let myself try be securely attached. but not necessarily because im madly in love. but like train my vulnerability. he said he read my poem and it was nice, cheesy at times but with good parallels and metaphores. i explained one part to him more in detail too bc it was pretty open to interpretation. he said he will write it down but i dont think he will. but it also feels so cringe because he was meant to read it when he still had feelings for me. also a good um.. stepping stone for me i guess. to admit i have feelings for someone still when they dont, although im acc not too sure myself how much i was truly madly attached either. feels good to swallow my pride though. i also tend to lose feelings when ppl arent attracted to me which is good. i dont have a problem w chasing him. im attracted to ppl being attracted to me which in a way, from me, is also a bit fucked up. he also didnt become a part of my real immediate daily routine as i didnt really text w him too much. we just were together irl a lot and really present in those times. and i also made sure i didnt abandon my friends this time so i still massively have my support system w me. but it sucks a bit bc i literally talked abt him to so many of my friends but its okay like i dont owe anyone anything to last just bc i talked abt it. and shit changes. just bc i said sth true in one moment doesnt mean i has to stay true forever or that now that it isnt true anymore that it couldnt have been immensely true at one point. one thing that was pretty fucked up tho is that he told me he wanted to have sex w me just bc he was looking for certainty and answers abt his feelings from there not bc he acc felt connected to me. like i usually.. want to be intimate when i feel love not disconnect..... and now he said he didnt find it from there. but like.. we were literally both so high and it was such a bad situation. no wonder you cant feel a spark bc i was literally numb like a vegetable. he said he knows it was a bad decision but like why do you take this situation to tell you clues abt what next then. and like. the same way with all our previous hangouts when i felt sth off. like the reason it was off was bc he was off and not fully honest abt it. it felt like such a relief when he said all the words out so rawly at last and i felt i could come out of this weird anxious shell of a performance i had on w him the past few times bc of the way i felt sth was weird but i couldnt tell what it was so i couldnt fully be normal myself either. so like the last times he gave me "chances" couldnt have been proper chances to show him anything true bc it didnt feel like... normal. there was an elephant in the room that was standing right between us. but he refused to address it when i tried to. i guess i got my answer that its not that im weird that i keep getting into these awk situations but that the other person feels weird and that is the thing affecting me. im fucking normal. i cried a bit too like its not that i am not affected by it at all but i think im kind of fine. i anyway didnt see him for 2 weeks now. its just weird bc we had plans which made us be together daily for like 2 weeks straight and um. i dont know if i can do that. even if we are friends bc i dont usually do that w my friends really. its weird. but like. fuck idk.

[razzmothazz]

Any thoughts about the Mafuyu and Shizuku’s parallels?

wait hold on i actually never heard someone mention those before... is this a sign to catch up on mmj stories cause i dont feel like i know enough about the group yet especially shizuku to say anything but im interested where this came from now....

uhh again i dont actually know all that much about shizuku cause i mostly only read wxs/vbs/n25 stories since theyre my fave units but from what i know i guess i kinda get why people would want to compare these 2.. ?? maybe?

i mean they both r kinda afraid to stand up for themselves in a way? i can see similarities in that, and i know they both have a pretty significant influence on the other from the conversations i did see between them [tho mind you they were mostly just area conversations] with the way they support eachother in their own struggles, tho mafuyu obviously doesnt really show hers...

theyre both perceived as perfect as well, just in different ways, with mafuyu seemingly being a perfect student, a perfect, kind and intelligent child but we know what the real mafuyu is actually like.. clearly not perfect. and its similar with shizuku, her perfect looks makes everyone jealous because shes so gorgeous its unreal, but once you know her personality you know shes far from ideal, being described as quite the airhead. their actual, real personalities are the furthest thing from perfect obviously.

as an idol shizuku definetly feels the need to be perfect, which i think was even mentioned in the stories but again, havent read them yet so might be wrong on that, but i think its a pretty big thing when ur an idol... [i only read the main story a while back so i dont actually remember much from it] which is also the case with mafuyu, tho shizuku obviously is a way milder case.. but from what ive seen shizuku doesnt actually stick to the perfect facade she wishes to put on? at least, not to her friends but even in the latest event she seemed to be her quirky self, so i guess maybe either it wasnt actually an issue or she accepted herself

idk, i can see the similarities but to dive deeper i would definetly need to read some stories which i dont rlly have time for rn, very interesting pair tho!! i think their friendship is very cute :3

ill try to come back with some thoughts on it when i get some ideas after i check out the stories, idk when ill have time for that tho

[iggykoopa666]

i have to be up in like 3 hours so naturally i wrote a whole fuckin essay about splatoon 3 storymode plotholes (dumping here)

mannnn i keep thinking about like. the lore info gained from rise of the mammalians is soooooooooo so good but the actual Story is. like not very good at all. i think it is the weakest story mode in splatoon thus far.

-mr grizz stealing octavios army makes very little sense and comes off as an excuse to not design new enemies (would make way more sense & be cooler to have fucked up goop mammal experiments imo like can u imagine)

-despite his army being stolen octavio is nowhere to be found for the entire story except the very end, and then he just disappears again after the final boss

-why did grizz need cuttlefishs brain. it is never clarified what purpose that served.

-bigfry??? i am not as mad at this cuz its easy for me to rationalize like "he ate all that fucked up goop so thats why :)" but its not actually explained how/why that happened . seems like a missed opportunity to have a sunken scroll foreshadowing about like "in salmonid folktales theres a legend about a smallfry growing huge when..." etc etc. thinking abt it it could also just be a parallel to taht one japanese folktale of the fish that became a dragon (magikarp/gyrados inspiration for example) maybe ??? idk tho youd think that for a series thats so in depth with its lore itd be less out of the blue (i say that but a lot of stuff in rotm is indeed very Out Of The Blue lol)

-all the "save our salmon" foreshadowing during splatoon 2 being completely forgotten. i was really hoping rotm focusing on mr grizz as an antagonist would serve to also tell the salmonids story, and liberate them in a way like how octo expansion did for octolings. but i guess thats been discarded. unsurprising since salmon run is so popular; it makes sense theyd want to set them up as longterm enemies now instead. i cant complain too much since its my fav game mode lolllll.

-deep cut felt very shoehorned in. they had no connection to the actual plot happening at all and didnt really do anything other than be boss battles. even wen they do join your side they just serve as navigators, a position already fulfilled by callie & marie. at first i wasnt super worried cuz off the hook didnt get any story attention at all till octo expansion came out, but since side order seems to focus on off the hook & 8 again i worry that deep cut's time in the spotlight has passed and theyve been sidelined.

[amnmich]

ok just watched mission: impossible - the final reckoning, major major major spoilers under the cut

- started off strong, i wanted the usual mission then self destruct message, but its cool that erika is the president now

- i wish we had gotten more of grace as an agent now. we see some of her training at the party in the beginning, but we know that she’s been an agent for a couple of months now and we didn’t see much of it. the scene where she and ethan are captured, they play up her thievery skills again, but just show her being kinda out of it as ethan beats up that guy with the hammer which i feel like took away from her being an agent

- luther being sick !!!!!!!! i love how his entire story played out in this, he kept his usual cadence of playful but serious and tempering benji’s nervousness and ethan’s borderline recklessness. his message from the poison pill playing over that ending shot was gorgeous

- ONE THING I WANT TO MENTION - my bad for having expectations before going in, but i fully thought we were gonna get ethan’s imf agent origin story based on mi dead reckoning, and ilsa being implied to know gabriel. i thought we were gonna find out that’s why ilsa trusted ethan almost immediately in mi rogue nation but alas

- i like them bringing back william dunloe, that was funny. a very easy way to have benji get the coordinates without the enemies getting them tho

- did not like how gabriel’s story played out. they built him up to be this giant big bad, he had the potential to really, really hurt ethan, but the farthest he goes is threatening to hurt grace because she happens to be a girl ethan associated with

- also another thing i didn’t like, i feel like they tried to make grace more of a love interest wHICH. PLEASE NO. ethan had such dad energy with her in dead reckoning, i hated the boob shots when she was giving him cpr. and then being together in the decompression chamber was fine i guess and it could be taken as platonic but i feel like they were going for a romantic thing there which. personally i despise.

- like the direct parallel of lindsey being like a younger sister to ethan and him recommending her for field duty, and ethan recommending grace for field duty kinda. THEYRE FAMILY YOUR HONOR

- i kinda saw han solo rey parallels with ethan and grace, esp when they go to the doomsday ark. the outfits, and grace having no family, no background, not even a last name really felt like rey nobody to me. also han solo, hotshot pilot turned tired old man = ethan hunt, hotshot spy agent turned tired old man. just burnt out tired old men and their excitable, found family daughters

- liked the scenes with grace, paris, and benji. really thought they were gonna kill off benji for a sec there, maybe go the pass the baton route but ig not. would’ve been cool to see ethan pass the baton to grace, degas, and paris tho

- DEGAS AND PARIS. BRO. MY SHAYLAS. i will take this ship and sprint with it. love their dynamic. everytime paris goes a little feral and violent degas is just over there like. we talked about this. please don’t. and paris is like nah im gonna do it. CHEFS KISS MWAH

- idk if i got queerbaited but it seemed heavily implied that erika was gay so. yay!

- sidenote the amount of times i said to myself “come on mav, do some of that pilot shit” while he was on planes in this movie lmao

- was not the biggest fan of the submarine sequences. love the uss ohio, the caption was mad charming, the crew was awesome. im sad we didn’t have more time with them but that could be my love for found family talking. uss ohio was great, but the stuff in the sunken submarine was kinda boring imo. and they really played up that he would be under extreme pressure and his muscles wouldn’t work and termites and nerve damage, but when he fucking took of his whole damn suit, nothing really happened

- i liked the plane sequences, very cool, very suspenseful. did not like that gabriel’s big death was him getting fucking brained on the bottom of the plane tho. also how did ethan get another parachute? who knows!

overall i enjoyed it, say 7/10. i expected more from a finale, but it was still enjoyable as a movie. i had a very dead theater, maybe having a better crowd could have bumped it up to an 8.

[a-bad-case-of-the-stephs]

#op can we kiss#bc you GET IT sm#my brains a little fried atm and any elaborations I try to make just turn to mush when i type them#but i need those other 2 analysis posts op so badly. ESPECIALLY the one about why she keeps coming back to spoiler and to heroing#even after it's burned her so many times#obvs her solo gives us one answer (she wants a second chance to be better) but that's in a specific post war games context#before all that it's kept kind of fascinatingly ambiguous by way of Steph never really having the main focus in the narrative#save for some rare exceptions (i. need to reread all her appearances god)#like sometimes it's characterized as seeking approval and (more importantly imo) connection#w/ tim cass and even bruce (which i think is consistent w things like her begging dinah to mentor her)#but other times it's characterized differently (whether it be revenge or thrill seeking or genuine do-goodery or all of the above)#in a way i think it's a really interesting parallel to what steph says about arthur in robin 111#even tho he gets nothing out of being cluemaster and committing his themed crimes he keeps coming back to it#and whether it's bc he can't help himself and this is the best he can do or bc he genuinely revels in feeling like some big man doing crime#Steph and her dad r heartbreaking parallels bc arthur is. really just a piece of shit who only shows hints of loving steph maybe. 4/10 times#but she clearly got her bull-headed stubbornness from him in that sense (or potentially like u said and like steph calls it in that issue-#-its compulsive)#idk if i think abt steph and her family too long i stsrt to cannibalise myself. god bless u for this post op via @welcometogrouchland

OMG Im so so glad someone understands the stephanie brown of it all, I am literally always thinking about Robin #111, literally her bruise matches her damn sweater!!! and youre so right the heartwrenching way she describes the 'seasons' of how she feels about her dad to Tim gets me so much... Im posting my reasons steph is spoiler analysis tomorrow and im so so glad there are stephanie brown understanders here!

Let’s talk about the significance of how Stephanie Browns first ever appearance is tied directly to a TV broadcast about Batman, and how it perfectly explains why she's such a remarkable character.

Detective Comics #647

The full sentence the TV broadcaster says is “It’s not up to some masked vigilante to protect our citizens …. No matter how good his intentions…No matter how noble his cause”.

This scene asks us to compare the characters of Batman, who the statement is textually about, and Stephanie, who is viewing it and (presumably), being inspired by it. The panel itself seems to encourage use to try to apply these lines to Steph instead of Batman, framing the latter proclamation directly above her head, almost like a text box telling us this information about her. If we apply these lines to her, we can see an idea emerge.

There is this figure, who is not only not necessary, but unacceptable on the face of it, “…No matter how good [her] intentions...” / “…No matter how noble [her] cause…”

The first time we see Stephanie brown, she is being showcased alongside a condemnation, which is followed by her disregarding the message of this broadcast, and appearing for the very first time as Spoiler.

Dismissal and Stephanie ignoring this condemnation continues on to be one of the central facets of Stephanie’s character. In the same introduction arc we already see the dismissal/disregard dynamic established.

Batman and/or Robin tell her to Fuck Off, she chooses not to:

Detective #649

This pattern continues on for some time. She is dismissed by Batman

Robin #16, Robin #26, Robin #50 (1993)

And by Tim Drake/Robin:

Robin #25, Robin #35, and Robin #26 (1993)

And by her own mother:

Robin #71 (1993)

When she finally becomes an official part of the team in 2001, there is a break in this pattern. But, as always, Stephanie is eventually pushed out again:

Gotham Knights #37 (2000)

But, as always, Steph says “fuck that”, and refuses to stop.

Even in the face of dear friends agreeing she should give it up.

Batgirl #38 (2000)

And when Steph is brought in as Robin, she is again dismissed, in this case “Fired” soon after. She doesn’t quit of course, leading to the disastrous events of War Games.

Robin #128 (1993)

And when she comes back from being “dead” she is dismissed again, by Robin.

Robin #182 (1993)

This isn’t every time someone tells her to quit being Spoiler, but instead a showcase of how prevalent the Dismissal/Disregarding dynamic is for her character.

I am working on two other posts, one which will explain in depth Why the way she was “fired” as Spoiler has everything to do with Bruce Wayne’s own hangups and emotionally manipulative quirks and very little to do with her own skill level. The other will analyze why she feels the compulsion to be keep being Spoiler even after having Every reason to quit and being told to do so hundreds of times.

However, for the purposes of this post, all that matters is that this Dismissal/Disregarding dynamic exists and is a huge and reoccurring part of Stephanie’s character.

Whether or not you think she “deserved” how often she was rejected, and whether or not you think her disregarding the rejection was “good” or not doesn’t come into play here.

For now, let’s focus on the implications this dynamic has for her character in a meta sense, as a character who is used and discarded.

A character who is for all intents and purposes, the narrative punching bag. She endures character dismissal and belittling, three separate backstory instances of sexual harassment as a child and teenager, teenage pregnancy, abuse, taking care of a parent struggling with addiction, brutal and (debatably) sexualized torture, character assassination, death, retconned death, and further character assassination until 2009, where she finally gets her own solo comic, and a modicum of respect. The thing that separates the horrible shit Stephanie goes through and the bad things that happen to other characters is only rarely are Stephanie’s struggles treated as significant on their own, and almost always her narrative is used for drama or to prop up Robin Tim Drake’s plot. Very rarely does she get treated with the care and attention her character merits.

But let’s go back to that news broadcast, all the way back in Detective #647. How does she take it, when we are told, when Stephanie is told, first thing, straight out of the gate, plain and simple: No matter how good your intentions, no matter how noble your cause, you is not enough, or you’re too much, or your just not right?

It is met by a triumphantly tragic: “And?”

Stephanie hears from the VERY start the same refrain she will hear for years and years: she is not good enough, she needs to go home, she needs to quit and she does the exact thing she will continue to do every following time she is told this: she puts on the damn Spoiler outfit and she still tries anyway. Again and again.

The next time we see Stephanie Brown after this, the second time we ever see her character, she has donned the Spoiler costume, and she’s got to work. “And?” She seems to say. “As if!” She seems to shout. What a perfectly awe inspiring thing, and what a perfect summary of what makes Stephanie Brown so damn cool.

For better or worse, you cannot keep her down. I love Stephanie Brown so much.

And if you want to read a comic which understands this, which treats the terrific character of Stephanie Brown with respect and love, and which for the first time maybe ever lets her stubborn refusal to give up go her way? Read Batgirl (2009)!!

Batgirl #3 (2008) & Bruce Wayne: The Road Home - Batgirl (2010)

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

s2ep6 gigantitan

this episode was fucking stupid and hawkmoth is an idiot.

i would leave it there but there was more i disliked about this episode.

the pacing was bad, they were talking too fast. the set-up was contrived. chat noir's cataclysm did nothing once again.

so much of the set-up was contrived, too. the weird mission to organize a date between marinette and adrien--the fact that the girls being there also meant they decided to help ladybug even tho that's extremely stupid and dangerous. alix is right that it's a little creepy marinette knows that much about adrien and his schedule. and the marinette says no to adrien giving her a ride home in the end??? like i know i don't like the love square at all and think they should've focused more on the power of love via friendship, they're the ones who want the love square to be a thing!! so why have her say no?? she doesn't even know why she said no, so why should we buy into that?? the writers are so incompetent!

but the thing i realized would've been a really cool character growth arc: is marinette realizing that ladybug isn't someone else, it's her. like obviously sometimes we feel more comfortable with things when it's anonymous or ppl won't be able to tell its us. but that's still a facet of ourselves.

marinette as marinette doesn't feel confident in herself, and is very shy. but she's still very smart, well-spoken, and outgoing. she can think on her feet in a pinch. and those are what ladybug is too! what would've been a cool arc or her was marrying the two sides of her. having her come to understand that she's the same person, even as ladybug, and applying that knowledge to her civilian side of her life.

and then something for adrien/chat noir if we're going to make him a deuxteragonist. but idk what it would be. he doesn't have an identity crisis, he just wants more freedom. that's not really a conflict of character.

also funny to me that to pad time for this one, the writers had to have ladybug come up with a convoluted plan, even tho chat noir is right from both a watsonian and doyalist viewpoint. watsonian in that her lucky charm is one of her superpowers that helps them save the day. doyalist in that there's never an episode we've seen where she doesn't use her lucky charm. it's like when you're watching a crime procedural and they catch the bad guy but there's still 30 mins left in the episode. if it looks like they're going to defeat the akuma but there's still 15 mins left and she hasn't used her lucky charm, we know she's not going to defeat the akuma.

now i know that it's supposed to parallel marinette and her friends coming up with a convoluted plan so marinette to spend some with adrien and it was supposed to be a learning experience or whatever. but if we only get one line from marinette about not making things too complicated, which again, didn't even get her anywhere, then that's just not enough. bc if you took that singular line out, it would look like the writers padding time. and again, it still felt that way to me, even with the line.

funny to me that ladybug talks about singing the akumatized baby a lullaby during her plan explanation, pretty sure she said chat noir could do it. only to tell him she didn't want to hear him sing like 5 mins later when they're actually luring the baby away.

anyway, this episode was a mess. hawkmoth should've known as soon as the baby couldn't see "miraculous" back to him to find another victim. also doesn't he have the power to take away an akuma's powers even after akumatization? why didn't he use it???

[theresoneicouldcallking]

i think one issue is that many people in the 911 fandom are not taking appropriatere expectations into account – for characters and ships and arcs. 911 is not and has never been a show like Fleabag or Ted Lasso or others, where everything is meticulously planned from the very beginning to lead to a specific ending. i know many analyze 911 like it is but... it's simply not written that way.

911 is a show that lives from drama to drama, conflict to conflict, season to season. 911 does not have a specified ending planned for each character that it tries to work towards over a course of a specified amount of seasons. this is why i think people gotta take a look at Grey's Anatomy as a leading example for a drama show and learn a thing or two about how the caracters were used there. the writing is not stellar and the arcs often feel nonsensical and the characters keep learning without truly learning and many decisions feel dumb or OOC at one point or another. things get retconned, details get lost or rewritten, decisions that feel endgame will be suddenly thrown into the trash 5 seasons later for the sake of drama, beloved characters get ruined on the way.

911 is thankfully not as bad with the romance drama specifically,but it deals with the same problems as other shows from the same genre. characters are supposed to hold our interest for as long as possible to bring money. story and character continuity eventually suffer until you do not even recognize the characters anymore because these characters were simply not fully written and developed beforehand. the writers of 911 do not know everything about the characters either yet because they keep expanding on them for every new season. and they probably also don't know where they are going with them yet. because... does anyone really think that they know how long the show will continue? will we get 2 more seasons, or 5, or 7? pretty sure we as just as wise as the showrunners at this point. with drama shows like 911, you can never know because many decisions are not story-driven but money-driven. this is why these shows inevitably just cannibalize themselves at some point because the showrunners keep milking a story for money instead of understanding where the story is at its peak and should be ended. look at how many shows started out strong but then overstayed their welcome and then lost the plot along the way, like Castle and The Walking Dead and many more.

idk i just am sad to see so many people keep being disappointed after every single episode like... i think expectation aren't being managed well. people who want a story with continuity and coherence should not look for that in a drama show like 911. they are not designed for it.

hi!

yeah you're right, and this goes for a lot of shows that i've watched. it's sad really, because there are so many beautiful parallels to use and throw back to, but mostly, i think it's just an accident on the writers part.

i've mostly managed to keep my expectations really low when it comes to buddie, especially in later seasons because it just didn't seem like the show would really go there with them. the back half of season 6 felt different to me, tho, especially the poker episode, and ryan's acting choices in that. not to mention some of the extremely awful queerbaiting some of the crewmembers did in bts stuff. and i think that goes for the majority of the buddie fandom. so i think that's why we got ourselves hyped up, and the let down was even worse.

i'm still holding out hope for monday, but tbh, knowing what i know about the episode so far (spoilers etc), i doubt it'll end with any hint of buddie going canon.