#I FUCKIN GUESS

[dreamlit-wanderer]

you know what FUCK all of you im going to subject you all to Snouted Funko Pop Kirby

[adriles]

[skye707]

Once you reach Season 5, Ep 13, please draw your reaction. Am very curious about how'd you'd react after you go through the roller coaster that was Season 4 XD

If anything, Season 5 is a whole 'nother ride

Literally, what am I supposed to do with myself now.

[skelswritingcorner]

Parents in stories asking if the friend they bring home is their boyfriend/girlfriend has been done too much. We need to have them be like, "A friend!" Or straight up roast their kid by saying,"You have friends?"

[vampiromano]

CHICOS ABANDONÉ A MI FAMILIA FICTICIA POR 5 AÑOS NO LO PUEDO CREER AJDKWKDDK

[astrolotte]

as much as i love splatoon lore. you all know i love splatoon lore. as much as i love splatoon lore i am not afraid to admit that a lot of the impact is lost via the storytelling methods.

For example, the Sunken Scrolls. a HUGE part of the lore is from here. and a lot of impact is lost simply because these scrolls don't allow for any further exploration. At most you'll get a few scroll pages (a paragraph for each page) on a topic. Like the fact that Judd was from the human time and was cryogenically frozen.

If they wanted to explore that concept, it could be devastating. He had an owner, a human who loved him very much. A human who loved his cat so much that, when faced with the end of the world and the resources to only save one person, he elected to save his cat. But instead of a big story with drama and heartache, we get like 3 paragraphs on it, and then... nothing.

Humanity's downfall is another big devastating lore beat, obviously, and to its credit it does have somewhat of a focus in Splatoon 3, via the Alterna Logs! Instead of a picture of a human skeleton with a Wii U nearby (a canon sunken scroll btw), we have multiple mini stories on how the survived, and how they died. The Alterna Logs are GREAT, and in my mind they're impactful! Even the fact that you can only unlock them a few sentences at a time via completing missions didn't stall it too much, as the logs tell a whole story rather than a tiny lore dump.

But it's.. not always treated that way. There's the previously mentioned drawing of a human skeleton with a Wii U right next to it (a gamer to the end...) and characters regularly mention that humans are dead without a care. Which, y'know, makes sense. Humans are long extinct, and the fish have no attachment to them. But it does negate a lot of the meaning.

Then there's cases where the drear is hidden away within mere implications, like with OE's "hundreds of dead test subjects" beat. While it's fun to sit there and have it slowly dawn on you that many test subjects likely did get blended up, it really messes with the impact of it.

My final point here is the areas of the lore left unexplored. The biggest instance of this, imo, is the Octarian society, which we... know next to nothing about. We know they live underground. We know they are in the middle of a power crisis. We know that they can be inspired by Calamari Inkantation to leave. But what about their daily lives? What is it like deep down in Octo Valley? What is it like to live in the middle of a power crisis like that, and what is it like under Octavio's rule? This could be such an interesting perspective, but we're left with next to nothing. A few Sunken Scrolls, and a few bits of poetry from Agent 8, but after that...

Like I said, I love Splatoon lore, truly. It's fun and it's dark and it's crazy. But a lot of its impact, its meaning, its passion, is left with less simply due to the way its told.

As weird as it might be to suggest, I kinda hope we get a Splatoon spinoff that's not a multiplayer shooter, something that can properly explore the lore and let people process just how devastating it really is. It's one thing to say all of humanity went extinct, and it's another thing to really feel the impact of that.

I know the developers have passion for the world they made. That's apparent with just how much lore we have in general- if they didn't care about the world of Splatoon, we wouldn't even have an explanation for why Inklings are humanoid. Or, well, for the vast majority of things in the game. No one really needs to know that microbes in the air are what make the ink disappear after games, but we have that information because the developers love what they made.

I just hope that we eventually reach a point where this can be properly explored.

[cookinguptales]

lyin here on the couch thinking about Guillermo helping tend to Nandor’s hand when they get home while Nandor regales him with the tale of how they took down the Jersey Devil.

and Guillermo’s making interested noises as he bandages his hand so gently and Nandor feels something slot into place inside him because Guillermo always makes him feel important and powerful and relentless.

[noelle-tea]

im oging to eat michael. yumy 😋

[bitimdrake]

rereading nightwing (2011) #30 and god i have. so many thoughts about it. And also I still cannot get a coherent hold on it.

This post is really just a mess of me rambling for myself and spewing thoughts out, so I'm putting it under the cut and read at your own discretion and curiosity.

first off, we basically only talk about the middle part, but this comic is actually three sections and it's. bad?

it's just so awkward. This is a transitional issues, but it's not even a well executed one. It's not even a mediocre one. It's very blunt and inconsistent in abruptly shoving the story forward to make way for a Grayson status quo.

The three sections all have different styles and very different tones, but they are also directly related to each other. So it's not like they work as three different vignettes sharing an issue. But they also don't make a particularly cogent whole.

And they definitely do not come even close to the kind of satisfying ending you'd typically want to see at the end of a run.

Like: the first section is Leslie recounting to Bruce how she ran into Spyral. A section which, you will note, does not include our lead and title character in any way, nor is it remotely emotionally relevant or meaningful to him on first read, nor is it remotely related to anything in the run previously. It's a Batman Inc scene that got lost and landed in the wrong issue.

And then the second section (Bruce fights Dick until he agrees to go undercover) and the third (intro to Grayson with Dick doing international crimefighting to lure in Spyral recruitment) are plot-wise directly connect and yet. Could not be more at odds.

sec. 2 Dick has a very bad time being pushed into this by Bruce, and he hates it, and the whole thing is very violent and dark and grim, and Dick ends the section saying things can never be the same between him and Bruce.

and then sec. 3 Dick has a classic inner monologue about who he is and where he's been, that includes how Bruce saved him from being an angry, revenge-obsessed kid, and how he loves his family and is defined by being a legacy. And shows zero concern at what he's doing except a mild mention that after the Crime Syndicate he wanted to go back but he couldn't.

are you seeing what i'm talking about here. are you seeing how this is technically a continuous plot, but on every other level makes no goddamn sense

anyway let's talk about dick and bruce, but first specifically about Bruce because I still do not get him here

"get him" does not mean "agree" (or even "empathize") but literally just get it. Even when I fucking hate him I have at a basic level understood what was going on in his head previously. I do not now.

Bruce was already abusive ofc, but the thing that really threw me off the first time I read this--and that still feel jarring--is how completely different this is from any of his previous violence towards his kids.

He's not suddenly lashing out in a moment of high emotion. He waited for Dick to be ready and laid out the rules (non-rule) of the fight. And it's not even about some deeply personal matter that he's getting emotional over. Yes, Dick's recent brief death is a key part, but mostly Bruce is monologuing about the danger of this one random secret organization.

The whole thing is so planned, which is never something I've thought of his previous physical abuse, and it feels fucking awful.

It also just feels so irrational. And not in a "people who are very emotional make questionable decisions" way, but in a "I'm genuinely struggling to understand how the character got here way"

Bruce is upset that he recently watched Dick die. No question there. And so he....wants to send Dick undercover with Spyral?

??????

Like I can try to explain this as some variation of the classic 'push people away so caring about them won't hurt me again', but that's really not how it feels? It doesn't track. Bruce has pushed Dick away plenty before, and he does it by some combination of explosive anger, complete emotional shutdown, and literally telling Dick to leave. But like. This is not that. He's instead ensnaring Dick in a long fight and longer conversation and telling him not to leave, but to go do something specific. And it's not even really pushing him away!! Because Bruce is still asking Dick to do a thing for him, under his control! No. wrong vibe. Explanation rejected.

Second attempted explanation: section one of this issue ends with Leslie telling Bruce that, because of super Spyral interrogation powers, she might have revealed his identity and can't even remember. So Bruce is deeply troubled by that, and Dick's identity was just revealed to the world which compounds things ("you let them give your secrets to the world"), and now he is deeply concerned with figuring out what Spyral knows/stopping info from spreading and sending Dick to handle that.

I also hate this explanation. It feels dumb. Ridiculous priorities. (also, boy, it does not paint Bruce in a good light. but the bad light it paints him in is an all new one.) Ugh.

I really really just cannot create an explanation for Bruce here that feels coherent with my understanding of him, and I hate that.

And my understanding of him is of him as an abusive father!! So imagine how inexplicable this must feel! But this is the wrong kind of abusive father for what he's been before idk i don't even know if i make sense anymore

new thought time

for the first ~2/3 of the fight, I was thinking that on reread, I could kinda see how some very dumb and oblivious writer would not see how horrific and abusive it would be in the end:

Two characters are disagreeing, and one is going to convince the other by the end. So it's dramatic, and makes the art reflect the story, to have them spar as they're talking! Both script and art are a spar!

Bruce is trying to ~prove Dick will never break~ so it'll be fitting for him to fight Dick, and then call it off when Dick indeed proves he won't give up an gets the upper hand!

Misjudge just how violent the fight will come off. Write panels where Dick is on the ground looking up/being beaten by Bruce/getting injured, because you're going for the classic structure of the hero getting their ass kicked at the start before turning things around later on, but accidentally make those too pained.

blah blah blah, completely overlook the fact that these two are father and son with the power dynamic that implies, and fail to tune the dialogue so that you don't realize it seems less like Bruce is convincing and more like he's coercing

and maybe, theoretically, a writer with real bad instincts could think this would be less horrific than it is

...I thought for the first chunk of the fight, still trying to come up with a rational explanation for this scene, even if only a Doylist one

EXCEPT

Towards the end of the fight, Bruce literally says he knows he's hurting Dick, "my family," and calls Dick "my boy" and then punches Dick in the face so like. I'm sorry you can't do this by accident. If you wrote this by accident you are simply too stupid to be alive and I refuse to believe you can exist.

so anyway I don't have a Doylist explanation for this either :/

they really did just straight up have bruce beat up his son and have said son literally say it could never be the same between them after this, and then were like. yeah :) this is fine :) back to bruce solving crimes as batman :)

FINAL SECTION: random assorted things that make me mad

right before the fight when Alfred can't get into the cave and Bruce, who planned this, lies about it being a malfunction he's fixing

alfred tries to ask if he's alright after "master richard's... the boy's passing". Quote Bruce "Dick was never a boy." (this would make me want to slap him in the best of circumstances but I just want him dead)

the beat early on where Bruce gets a good shot in and Dick is sitting, and he pauses to ask Bruce what's really going on, and Bruce kicks him in the face

genuinely just the number of panels in this that are Dick on the ground, Dick getting punched/kicked/hit, Dick slamming into some solid piece of the environment

Dick keeps questioning this idea and bringing up new points and then just outright asking how Bruce can do this to him. And literally never once does Bruce reply to any of it.

Literally the entire fight Bruce spends monologuing, completely ignoring everything Dick says, as if he's not talking at all.

The only thing that Bruce does respond to is how Dick is doing in the fight. He breaks his monologue to commend Dick on fighting well, but not even once gives the tiniest acknowledgement that Dick is also saying things.

Just the fact that Dick "wins" by dropping down to Bruce's level of violence.

when bruce says the "we fall so we can get back up" and Dick says, no, someone pushes us and we get up to push back, it's fucking sad. I think this is meant to be his victorious moment of turning the tides, but it's upsetting to me! That Dick "it's about catching people when they fall" Grayson has been pushed to reject all of that and is now only talking in terms of fighting!!! I don't like this quote I judge anyone who uses this as a great quote representative of dick grayson, sorry, it's not, it sucks

Dick cracks his head on a railing owie

as soon as Bruce gets properly decked and hits the ground, he calls the fight off :) Because this proves to him that Dick won't break in Spyral, of course, and confirms his stupid plan will work :) and definitely not because Bruce can dish it out but can't take it :)

unreal how much I hate him

And finally! Amidst all of that, amidst all the blood and violence, the single moment that made me most want to shove Bruce through a woodchipper!

"I know I'm hurting you. My family. I'm making that sacrifice. Because I don't give up. I don't give in."

shut the fuck up you fucking martyr hurting your family is not sacrificing shit

man, I really did start this post with story analysis and a genuine curiosity to find sense in chaos. My primary emotion was the fervor of solving a story like a puzzle. But now I am simply going to kill.

[genuinely-flawed-person]

so so ya know that one when they

[sootends]

one of the side effects of the chemo they gave me when i had throat cancer is hearing loss, right? i haven't been able to hear the same since those treatments, not even close.

i cannot tell u the amount of times i tell people i am hard of hearing and they straight up dont believe me and/or accuse me of lying. they always say it w a big smile and a laugh like its fucking funny.

[kenzan-kiwami]

wow, if i had a nickel for every piece of media i have consumed recently in which a guy punches a bear in hokkaido then learns to hunt from a native, i'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

[anotherobeymeblog]

🧍‍♂️ So it seems that Nightbringer is letting you kiss each of the brothers after going on a life changing field trip with Zuko them, except for Asmo, who just offers you a hug. I'm only on lesson 9 rn so maybe he'll get a kiss later, but from what I've seen of people talking about it, I don't think so.

This is nothing new, I remember it being an issue in the original game too, but damn they really just decided to make him into a "gay best friend" stereotype instead of a romantic interest.

[muffledexplosion162]

Dark Purple in a suit cause I genuinely don’t know what they should wear

[gunpowder-tim]

fuck it ive decided tomorrow is one of my ocs birthdays. happy birthday roisin ur a fucking leo now <3

[fruitbasket-gossip]

Actually we don't know if he's dead but he's possessed and missing

THEN DON’T INSTATE PANIC AND SAY HE’S DEAD????

how about, we be responsible, and NOTIFY THE FUCKING STAFF OF YOUR SCHOOL AND NOT A BLOG ON ROTUMBLR

YOUR SCHOOL IS IN THE OCEAN HE CAN’T GET TOO FUCKIN FAR??????