#I know a big central theme of this story is that everyone has their own motivations

[elizabro]

my vain hope for unsounded is by the end duane or really anyone has a long overdue epiphany that they shouldn’t have any allegiance to their country’s governing bodies. also that the military is fuckin evil 

[irradiatedsnakes]

i need to know more about pennybun i have fallen deeply in love

PENNY MY BEST FRIEND PENNY!!!!

(by @/skypiea)

penny is my first tav and i love her. she's a white dragonborn circle of the spores druid. i finished her first playthrough a couple weeks back, and i've started on a second playthrough with her! slightly edited, and now that i understand more about the game and the story i'm refining her character and story. i missed a lot of stuff on that first playthrough!

pennybun's name comes from the mushroom, by the way. i'd decided on that before i knew that there was a mushroom-themed druid circle in this game, i was GOING to choose moon, but, like. it's perfect. penny buns aka porcini aka king bolete aka Boletus edulis are an edible mushroom that symbioses with the roots of pine trees. they're part of my research and they're quite adorable

she's from a circle of druids located in the shelterwood- a dense forest near baldur's gate. she grew up in the city proper- or at least, on the edges of it- before moving out to the woods to pursue life as a druid.

she's solidly good-aligned- as my first playthrough, her story is kind of the best-case-scenario for everything, savescumming the hell out of some fights (good god the last light fight with marcus). everybody gets their good ending, everybody gets saved, that kind of deal.

she had a generally good relationship with everyone in the party, but gale, wyll, and karlach are her best mates for sure. i missed out on romancing karlach the first go around, but we're doing it on penny's second save file. it's happening.

she's also quite close with shadowheart, especially after the events of act ii. her relationship with lae'zel is more tense.. but i'm still working on figuring out that exact trajectory- missing a lot of lae'zel's storyline was one of the biggest mistakes i made in the first go-around. she and astarion never get close, but there's not any malice there, either.

she's good friends with jaheira, the two get along like a house on fire, and she looks up to jaheira a lot. she didn't have a lot of time to get to know minsc and boo, but they were plenty friendly in the short time they crossed paths. halsin, i need to work on, i also kind of fucked up his stuff first go-around by neglecting to fix the shadowlands. to be updated when i reach act ii in Penny The Sequel.

overall, penny's a big ol goody-two-shoes. she wants to help as many people as she possibly can, and feels a massive weight on her shoulders because of it, having been thrust into this leadership role by apparent pure chance.

while i'm still working it out, the central theme of pennybun's story is trust, and who she puts it in. an early decision i made before knowing anything about the story was that penny trusts the Mysterious Dream Guardian completely and totally, which made for some EXTREMELY fun character moments later on- utilizing the tadpoles (her and gale both), becoming partial illithid, and eventually in act 3 losing her trust in and culminating with her turning on the emperor, plus her own ceremorphosis to wield the netherstones against the netherbrain.

gear-wise, she uses the default druid armor for most of the game, switching to the armor of the sporekeeper in act 3. she assembles the mourning frost in the underdark in act 1 and it remains her favored weapon for the rest of the game. she also wears the key of the ancients, and just before the start of the finale gains the nymph cloak.

other assorted Penny Facts:

she keeps a detailed log of every camp dinner the group has. good food is very important

she has a soft spot for parasites. part of why she was receptive to the idea of utilizing the tadpoles, and also part of why she lets astarion take a bite from time to time.

she got her eye poked out by volo

she has a -1 int modifier

she's a lot keener on necromancy than you might expect a druid to be. she views necromancy and the undead (for the most part) as a natural part of the cycle of life- after all, everything will eventually return to the dirt to be eaten by the fungi and the other decomposers, no matter how prolonged it is.

it is imperative that all her friends (karlach excluded for reason of cool hair) wear fun hats. ive posted about The Hat Tax before but everyone in the party gets a funny hat. it's so important.

she's my best friend and i love her

[universe-of-peoples]

There’s a lot of different opinions about what went wrong with Wish (2023), and i think a lot of them are missing the point.

So here’s my take on what was ACTUALLY wrong with Wish (2023).

Let’s start with what the movie was. It was a cute little movie, just 1 hour 35 minutes long (for reference, about as long as Encanto and a little shorter than Frozen). It had a cute story and a powerful message about working to make your dreams a reality, with a side message of the will of the people is more powerful than one corrupt ruler. It had good music; not as popular as other movies’ music, but I added the songs to my Disney playlist and I genuinely enjoy them. The whole movie was just a fun time.

Now let’s talk about what the movie was expected to be.

Fans expected this movie to be the next big Disney Princess movie, the big important Disney 100 movie, because that’s what it was marketed as. More important of those two was the latter - this was THE Disney 100 movie, the “when you wish upon a star” movie. Yeah, THAT movie. Disney fans were understandably excited. After hits like Frozen, Tangled, Encanto, Moana, and others, Disney had proven it was capable of producing movies that were big emotional hard-hitters that could also be funny and entertaining.

Then let’s shift over to Disney. The eyes of the world turned to them as they advertised their biggest anniversary yet. They had a lot of ideas for this movie (as everyone keeps talking about), but they also had a lot of pressure on them. They probably had story ideas that would have cemented this movie in the ranks of Frozen, Encanto, Tangled, Moana. But you know what it feels like to me?

It feels like Disney got scared.

This movie was supposed to be THE movie that represented their brand. They would have to find a message, an emotional journey that fit their brand but didn’t deviate from the brand’s central theme. Other movies got to tell their own unique stories with diverse emotional journeys because while they were A Disney movie, they weren’t THE Disney movie. Not like this one was supposed to be.

So they watered down any emotional journey the characters went on, relied more heavily on the overly-relatable main character archetype (with her job interview jitters, big group of friends, quirky personality, etc), and threw in the nostalgia bait (that’s a given. It’s the 100th anniversary movie.) Compared to the other Disney movies that could be big emotional hard-hitters, but could also be funny and entertaining, I’d say this movie landed at definitely funny and entertaining, with a smaller emotional journey that definitely wasn’t hard-hitting. The story was just a bit smaller than some other Disney movies.

The thing is, none of these things are inherently bad. It’s ok to tell a smaller story. Other studios do it all the time! Heck, Disney has done lots of them in the past! It’s ok to want your main character to be relatable, it’s ok to put in some references to past works in your movie, it’s ok to have songs that are good but not good enough to break the charts.

So what’s the problem? The problem, as I see it, was the disparity between what was expected and what was delivered. A good part of that expectation came from Disney’s advertisement of the movie, and a smaller part came from fans’ expectations of any Disney Princess movie given the company’s track record. It was a perfect storm of This Movie Isn’t Going To Be Well Received.

IMHO, the movie isn’t bad. It just isn’t what it was expected and advertised to be. So please stop hating on the movie and direct your anger instead to The Mouse, the one who really deserves it.

[fymoonbyul]

[ARTICLE] Moon Byul hopes to be more than just the rapper of MAMAMOO

Moon Byul spent the first decade of her career as the rapper of girl group Mamamoo. She now plans to break that frame as an all-rounder artist with her first full-length solo album, “Starlit of Muse,” featuring band music, brass music and more.

“I’ve spent the last 10 years as the rapper of Mamamoo, but I didn’t want to lock myself under that title. I didn’t want to be afraid of taking new challenges,” Moon Byul said during a group interview ahead of the release of “Starlit of Muse” on Tuesday.

The group interview was held at Space Sophora, the art gallery in Jung District, central Seoul where Moon Byul also hosted her special exhibition before the release.

“This is why I started my own battle to break that frame in 2022, joining competition shows and releasing new solo albums. I think I can pack that final punch with my full-length album,” she said.

“I needed all 12 tracks in my album to fully express myself.”

The album's 12 songs come in a variety of styles and genres, including “Touchin&Movin,” the lead track featuring funky brass tunes, “Memories,” a song featuring live instrumentals and “Gold,” the artist's first English B-side.

“All the genres that I’ve tried before in my past solo lead tracks are included in ‘Starlit of Muse’,” Moon Byul said. “There’s a song similar to ‘Lunatic’ (2022), ‘C.I.T.T.’ (2022), I have a powerful song just like ‘Eclipse’ (2020) and much more.”

Moon Byul joined and took victory in JTBC’s competition show “The Second World” (2022), which saw girl group rappers such as Oh My Girl’s Mimi, WJSN’s EXY and Billlie’s Moon Sua competing.

But Moon Byul, despite her history as a singer-songwriter who has written lyrics for both her own and Mamamoo's music, is only credited as a producer on two of the album's tracks — “Like a Fool” and “After Sunset,” which Moon Byul wrote three years ago, but has been saving for her full-length release.

“I’ve only decided to put two of my own songs in the album because I wanted to be open to different perspectives — I didn’t want my album to be limited by my vocabulary and the language I use. I wanted to sing songs of love, youth and other different stories seen in different perspectives.”

Nevertheless, Moon Byul clarified that she was at the center of the album's production process, thinking of ideas and making decisions to craft an album that she, herself, would want to buy.

“When I was in a group of four, the agency gave us the big picture and we didn’t have much input in the album. When I was in a duo in Mamamoo+, I could put half of my input into the album. With a solo release, I can have all my input in the album,” Moon Byul said. “Everyone can release a bland album, so I wanted to make a fun and exciting album.”

Out of the many songs in the album, “Memories,” featuring RBW’s boy band Onewe, was Moon Byul’s favorite B-side track.

“'The Second World’ really taught me that I like band music and made me realize that I’m quite good at it,” she said. “'Memories’ is a song that fits just right in that category. It revolves around the theme of refreshing youth, and I think it will be best performed live.”

“I’m so glad and thankful to have Onewe as instrumental performers in the song, because imitating band music using synthesizers just didn’t feel lively,” Moon Byul said. “Listening to Onewe’s live performances, I could feel the liveliness, and I could sense how the band communicates with the listeners.”

But despite praising her collaborators, Moon Byul remained humble and cautious about debuting her own band.

“You know, as much as I want to start my own band, I’m very much well aware that people around me would have to suffer [in helping me],” Moon Byul said with a laugh. “I also can’t play any instruments. I think I’ll have to be ready first.”

Moon Byul hopes that fans will enjoy the merchandise she's prepared to accompany the album, including a limited-edition tote bag made out of demo and various “unique and fun” photocards.

But the most important thing, the artist said, is that she, herself, is happy with her work.

“I never felt the feelings of satisfaction as I released my previous albums, but I was truly satisfied with everything with my album as I produced it,” Moon Byul said. “So regardless of how other people judge me, I’ll be happy with my album.”

But, she emphasized, “I hope my fans will listen to the album and be proud of their favorite singer.” She added, “I hope it turns out to be an album I’m not ashamed of and one that’s worthy of Mamamoo’s name.”

source

[pilferingapples]

Since you've read most of Victor Hugo's books, how would you rank them from best to worst, and why? I really want to know your thoughts. Always love to hear it <3

!!! THANK YOU THIS IS SO SWEET and also so hard but here we go!

Les Miserables yes it's my favorite but I also do think it's the best! The most ambitious of his works story-structure and character/theme density and frankly? He absolutely lands it. I have been arguing with and about this book for over a decade now and I expect I will be doing so for the rest of my life, because it's worth it. I probably don't have to argue hard for it in top spot on the Les Miserables Webbed Site, though, so moving on:

Ninety Three /Quatre-vingt treize Not my second favorite but honestly probably just as good as LM but in a different way? Much more compact and focused, and feels every bit of the influence of more recent political events in France at the time, but just as ambitious in terms of the arguments and themes it's trying to cover. The ending is something you can have eighty feelings about in an afternoon but it is always unforgettable. Deserves to be so much better known. Toilers of the Sea /Les Travailleurs de la mer  My actual second favorite Hugo novel! A big Romanticist nature-focused love letter to the Channel Islands and to the sea! A mix of delightfully unreliable Nature Facts and Hugo's own observations about the place, that Nature-focus is always convincing either way with Hugo's descriptions. It's so very different from most of Hugo's later novels, but also *so* good, if you're willing to just sit back and enjoy the view . Gilliatt is a Forever Fave. Please more people read Toilers, it's a delight. And it has an Octopus Fight! The Man Who Laughs /L'homme qui rit Victor Hugo's Revenge on English History! I could feel my knowledge of actual English History Facts peeling away as I read this. Incredibly described scenes, iconic central characters, Ursus is one of the best-written characters of all time (though I have learned that some people have apparently never met a guy like this?? he is such a Type though!) . There's a wolf and the wolf is named Homo. After Les Mis, some old Hugo fans were lamenting about how far he'd strayed since the days of Notre Dame , and I think The Man Who Laughs feels a lot like a return to that old , over-the-top Goth style of Hugo's,but stronger, in keeping with the way his writing had grown over time-- until the end, when everything kind of feels like it wraps up too abruptly. Which makes sense! Hugo was finishing it up while his wife Adéle was in her final illness, and it makes sense that it would show--but I think it does show, and keeps the novel from being quite all it could be. Notre Dame de Paris I know it's either Hugo's most famous or second-most famous novel, but I really do think it's not as solid as the others! Which isn't a roast on him, it's a good thing for an author to get better over time--but it still leaves this novel feeling kinda messy. I can see Hugo trying to do his signature move of pulling together multiple separate plot/themes into a triumphant grand finale, but he hasn't quite got the knack yet. Plus there's still a lot of elements here that feel like Hugo relying on tropes a bit (and horrible tropes at that, too) instead of entirely speaking with his own voice quite yet. (also ohman. the Issues. but I'm trying to keep this post from being nine million screens long) All of the above range from "absolute masterpiece" to "not an entire masterpiece but still iconic", and then there's Hugo's Early Stuff, so: Bug Jargal - honestly it's not fair of me to even include this, it was a novel he wrote as a very young person, on a time-dare. If I'd written a Nano novel in high school it would have been SO bad. And this is bad! It's SO bad!! But you can still definitely tell it's Hugo by the way he makes sure to tell us, AFTER the story is over, that EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE BOOK DIED, EVERYONE, EVEN THE PETS. Stunning. Peak Romanticism XD (again though. THE ISSUES. whooof.)

Han d'Islande: Í have not even read this one. HUGO was down on this one later in life. I Dare Not XD (I probably will someday). But it has a polar bear and drinking seawater from skulls and inspired some very questionable behavior from the fans (attempting to drink seawater from skulls!) so I gotta acknowledge it!

Honorable Mention: the novelas

Not quite in the same group as the novels, but I think both Last Day of a Condemned Man and Claude Geaux are excellent, super-focused stories about the injustice of the prison system and the issue of capital punishment. Obviously they can't have the range of his novels, but that's not the point--they are much more direct statements on a single issue and they're really intense and effective in that!

This was fun! thank you for asking! And I'd love to hear your own thoughts on this , if you ever feel like writing them up:D

[momodori-p]

Today's OCtober prompt is relationships! I don't have the energy to draw today, so an infodump will have to suffice instead. I'll be talking about Kyo (he/him) and Kit (they/it)!

Kyo and Kit are old ocs you've probably seen a lot if you followed me prior to 2022. They're some of my og ocs! They're two twins who are very close to each other but their relationship isn't exactly the healthiest... They're very codependent for trauma reasons. But it's ok, they cope with it later and get better :)

Tw for cult trauma

The basic gist of their story is that they grew up in a cult thanks to their mom falling in love with the cult leader. Kyo always wanted to escape but Kit was too scared to and didn't want to admit that their mother was abusive. The first time they tried to escape Kit ended up drowning, so Melanie, their mom, killed Luca, a demigod of death Kit considered an older sibling, to bring Kit back to life. Kit is very much burdened with this, at only the age of 14 :(

This is Luca btw everyone say hi

Anyway the second time they tried to escape was successful but they've never really lived in the real world so it was hard for the two of them to adjust. Because of the trauma they endured within the cult, they both have an extreme ride or die attitude with each other and would probably kill if anyone got in their way.

However there starts to be a divide as they get older, Kyo has a goal of killing their mom and Lola (the cult leader), and starts becoming obsessed with it. Kit is not a big fan of this because they're holding onto the non existent hope that their mother is redeemable but alas. It causes issues.

Kyo is generally the "happy go lucky" one of the two, he's funny and charismatic, and tends to attract a lot of attention. On the other hand, Kit is way more reserved and grumpier than Kyo, and more stoic and attracts a lot of negative attention. It does seem like they're very different, but they're actually pretty much the same at their core- they're both skeptic, paranoid people who are willing to betray others if it means they stay safe. They both also are pretty selfish and apathetic towards other people (though surprisingly Kit has a bit more sympathy than Kyo), and have a bad temper.

While fragments of life isn't a story where mental health is a central theme, Kyo and Kit have a theme of surviving abuse and the ways to cope with it- Kyo is bitter and wants revenge to the point of it being all he cares about, but Kit wants to believe that it wasn't as bad as it seems. They both end up meeting a middle ground of accepting that it was as bad as it is, but they can't dwell on it forever and need to heal so they can move on. Also Kit finally accepts it is morally correct to kill your abuser ♥️

They're both insane but I love them. They helped me a lot in my teen years with coping with my own familial abuse. I finally got the closure that I needed (which was an apology and effort to work on themselves) but I know for everyone that isn't always what the outcome will be. But my goal for them is to show that it's okay to have trauma and it's okay to want to do something about it, but it's really unhealthy to engulf yourself in it and not let people help you.

Anyway yeah those are my scrunklies I could write a whole dissertation on them but I wanted to keep this fairly short haha, hope you enjoyed if you read it all!

[on-the-shoulders-of-rootstock]

What The Fuck Is On The Shoulders Of Rootstock?

If you're anything like me, you have a love/hate relationship with the Human Domestication Guide writing project - which is not to say that I hate it. There's a lot to love!

I love the indulgent depictions of post-scarcity, I love xenobiology and xenoculture, I love the ten-foot plant-monster mommy-dommies, I love seeing capitalism and imperialism smashed into teeny-tiny pieces over and over. I can't get enough, and it's what sucked me in.

However, I also personally disagree with the way certain aspects are handled, and believe they impede HDG in general:

My kinks are not your kinks.

The Affini are too perfect.

Over-focusing on kink.

No sense of scale.

I've started this blog to set up an organised central worldbuilding reference for anyone else interested in taking the same tack with HDG. You should absolutely send in asks if any of this interests you.

Why don't I just go start my own post-scarcity worldbuilding project specifically tuned to my own tastes? One, I've already done that (like, twice). Two, HDG still has the aforementioned elements I love and want to work with, and I want to riff on them alongside others I know who also play within HDG's space.

More detail below:

1. My kinks are not your kinks. This is the big one for me. I acknowledge that HDG was originally started explicitly as noncon intox hypno brainwashing petplay erotica, but that's not my speed. My relationship to submission is about maintaining self-control and making the decision to obey, rather than having my decision-making forcibly taken away from me. Intox, hypno, brainwashing, etc. all run against my ability to enjoy the HDG themes I do like, and I am picking and choosing what's on my plate while still leaving room for others to add the usual stuff in.

2. The Affini are too perfect. This is with regards to the way the Affini are written in "canonical" HDG media as being perfectly-competent supreme overlords who can do no wrong and have negligible rates of failure at anything they do. For me, this is boring. Characters in media are fun because they are imperfect, because they fuck up every once in a while, because things don't always go their way. Mistakes are how people learn, and a character that doesn't learn is very dull. I want to introduce fallibility and limits to the character that is The Affini Compact as a whole, making them a more compelling and interesting force within HDG stories. Conversely, I also want to depict the Affini as having earned their seat on the galactic stage. I want to see them engage in the sort of logistical and political exercises needed to remain such a powerful civilisation. I want to see the kind of underhanded and manipulative tactics you need in order to invade and pacify other cultures without harming them. It makes them feel more powerful and alive.

3. Over-focusing on kink. Just like #1, I feel that most depictions of Affini in canonical HDG stories flatten their biology and psychology to the bare minimum required to be titillating objects. Every single Affini is reduced to a slavering predator eager to abduct and mindbreak her next victim. Yes, HDG is erotica, but where's the nuance? Where's the rest of the iceberg? What do the Affini do when they aren't fucking aliens? How do the Affini maintain such a dominant political position in the galaxy? These things are missing, and so too is any sense of the Affini being real people.

4. No sense of scale. Canonical population estimates sit at some silly number like 10^30 individuals, with a territory covering at least a dozen galaxies. This is comically large, and makes the Affini a dominant supermajority crowding out just about every other species. Also, where are the Affini going to find a floret for everyone? It's just silly.

Q: What does all this mean in practice?

A: It means I'm currently worldbuilding a bigass lore document for Affini, My Way and it's growing every day. It's still in a very rough, draft-y state but I'd love to hear what others have to say about it if this project catches their interest. My personal favourite highlights are "Affini are omnivorous heterotrophs" and the name for Matter Trainers. See below!

Further up on this canvas are my notes for outlining a planned HDG story set in this style, but they're not ready to be shown to anyone just yet (would love to chat about my ideas, though).

[athemarina]

writeblr intro!! finally!!

hello lovely people of the tumblr writing community <3 i'm marina (she/her) and i've had this blog for about a month now but so far Life and all its Obligations prevented me from making a proper intro post - here it finally is now, for everyone who'd like to get to know me and my projects a bit!

me as a person

i'm marina but you can also call me any nick name version of that and also any and all terms of endearment (can you tell i'm a libra). i'm 27, from austria, and speak german and english (pretty well), french (badly) and know how to order bread in korean (essential skill)

my interests include: philosophy, linguistics, horses, music, musicals, the city of paris, and also formula 1. yes i know this is random what can i say

i'm a full-time student and part-time capitalism worker-bee so depending on my schedule i might disappear for a bit, but i intend to always come back here to get inspired and get some work done! which leads me to...

me as a writer

i love coming up with new ideas and projects!! getting started is so much fun!! finishing things on the other hand!! is so hard!! send help!!

my fave genres (to read and to write): fantasy, sci-fi, works and words inspired by folklore and mythology - but really i like anything with compelling characters!

random things i love in writing: vampires (one day i'll write the Great Big Austrian Vampire Novella. alas, not today), characters that haunt the narrative, guilt and grief and healing from both, characters that make all the wrong choices, couples that have fun with each other, cryptic prophecies, sibling relationships, symbolic flowers

PLEASE COME TALK TO ME ABOUT WRITING!! i would really like to become part of a community here, so always feel free to come talk to me about your wips, my wips, the blorbo that lives in your head rent-free, the latest book you've read and loved... whatever you want to share i'd love to hear <3 you can also always tag me in games and challenges, but it might take me a bit to get to it, depending on how much real life hates me atm

my children: works in (never-ending) progress

i'm gonna make proper intro posts for all these projects soon, but to give you some idea of what i get up to, here are some short descriptions! some of these wips have been with me for a couple years, others are more recent, but they all haunt my every waking moment <;3

The Price of Wishing (first draft complete): good old sci-fi dystopian flair; a society that got rid of poverty by creating so called Houses of Service - institutions that will sell out their workers to the highest bidder for anything that people are willing to pay for. but it's not quite as simple as that: politics, organised crime, and a revenge plot years in the making all intersect at Isra's House of Service, and its inhabitants must learn to navigate these worlds - or they'll go down trying.

Forget Me (Not) (first draft about half-way done): wouldn't it be great to purge some of the mistakes we made from memory, not just our own but that of everyone? in a world in which the Chip implanted in everyone's neck records everything seen and experienced, this - collective forgetting - is the price celebrity contestants get to compete for in a reality tv show. each contestant has something they need the world to forget, but who can convince the viewers the most? the central theme of this story is grief, and when to hold on, and when to let go.

Attempts at Life (still in the outline stage): finn day and her brother felix know how their lives will play out: they were born in the lowest class society has to offer, and there they will stay. which is an unusual position for people like them to be in: both their souls were reborn for the fifth (and last) time; for them to have been assigned to this shitty life, they must have done something heinous in their previous one. finn is resigned to accept this punishment for a crime she can't even remember, but that's before the government offers her a position - she finds out things that change her view of society and herself forever, and she'll have to decide which one to save.

Untitled Fantasy (literally only thought of this last week): something something a necromancer brings back the hero of the ancient world to stop Something Bad from happening. only problem is - the hero does not remember ever being a hero. or anything at all, really. the rest of the world remembers, though. i'd love for this story to include some traditional austrian folklore elements! those are fun

so that's it! last but not least: if you've read this far, thank you so much omg you're my personal hero. i'm following a bunch of people already since i've been lurking for a couple weeks, but i'm always looking for new writers to get to know and support so pls interact with this post or shoot me a message and i'll check you out and follow you! and if you have any questions, or answers, or just wanna talk i'm very excited to get to know you all <3

[songofthesibyl]

Continuing my journey to Tamlin Week mode, I wanted to post the first fic I ever wrote (for any fandom! ever!), in January of last year (a Tamlin POV fic):

Because it brings up what I think is one of the central themes with the character—something I can relate to  (as well as many people with depression, but not only people with depression, of course)—and that is the idea of having sovereignty—having agency—in your own life. It is what is often called “victim mentality,” but that term has such negative and judgy connotations that I’d prefer not to use it. 

In my fic, I began with the idea of the Goddesses of Sovereignty in Celtic Britain and Ireland (of which the Morrigan is one); these goddesses represent the land, and choose a male to lead it, consummating this partnership with marriage and/or sex, very similar to the idea of the Great Rite. In the fic, Feyre represents this goddess (metaphorically), who chose Tamlin and—similar to stories of sovereignty goddesses—abandons the male when he proves himself unworthy, and allies herself with another. The fic takes place during ACOSF, just before he confronts Nesta, and attempts to get into his frame of mind during that time. It was very personal and somewhat difficult to write—but ultimately reflects what I believe Tamlin’s perspective might be—everything centers on the feeling that he has no say in his life. That he can’t change anything himself, that he will ultimately fail. 

This starts early with him not having any desire to be High Lord—it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter he’d rather play the fiddle and be left alone. Even before Rhysand, he had felt he would just fight and do what he felt it was his duty to do, and that was it. And then he meets Rhysand, and perhaps there was the dream of something better—and that goes horrible wrong, and becomes the inciting incident for the course the rest of his journey has taken. The belief that he will ultimately fail the people he loves. That he is the same as his father and brothers, the same as Amarantha. When he had his big test; say, in standing up to his father for Rhysand—whether through torture, pressure, however you believe it went down—he ultimately failed to stop it. Failed to protect his mother. And this dynamic gets repeated again and again. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why bother, when he is just going to fail anyway? He says as much to Rhysand in ACOFAS—what’s the point of apologizing, when he can never make up for what he did, in his mind (doesn’t help that Rhysand confirms this, but whatever). Even how he snaps at the last minute; sending his sentries out for the curse, pulling Feyre aside the last night UTM. Sending her away the last minute. Something in him freezes, falters, feels he won’t be strong enough—or is strong enough, but then falls apart like he does in ACOMAF, like he does in ACOFAS. 

So it makes sense he could be manipulated by Ianthe, when he just desperately wants someone to tell him the right thing to do. It makes sense he wouldn’t think he had any say in deciding if someone was High Lord or High Lady, when he didn’t even choose it for himself. When he has to perform the Great Rite whether he wants to or not, or people will starve—and when he doesn’t, he’s seen as failing in his duty, just as he is seen as being a monster for performing it. When it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t want Amarantha—she’ll torture, and murder, everyone that he cares about, she’ll have his mask off when he’s in his beast form, so he knows he’s just like her, so he won’t have anyone or anything else but that. He is a body to fit into the ceremonies of his Court; to fight, to kill, to take orders. And nothing more. It’s indicative of his depressive state, and a reason for his anger as well, which often comes from feeling out of control. His challenge, and what I would write for his story going forward, is for him to take back sovereignty in his own life; to not wait for permission or acceptance from the Inner Circle, or anyone else, to live. No redemption through suicide, or being someone’s father, or lover. Simply being enough, on his own. The sovereign of his own life.

[lizardlicks]

one vague ATLA idea I have in mind for AU stuff is less specific but more of a broad AU spectrum and the general point is that instead of Team Avatar being a fairly small central group, they pick up people as they go along so that the folk who join them in the Zuko Friendship Arc and flee at the begining of the Southern Raiders stick around since their introduction; Haru, maybe a few members of Jet's crew, perhaps Jee from Zuko's crew following the end of Book Water, Chit Sang after the boiling rock, maybe even Iroh throughout Book One as a more extreme AU where Aang accidentally incapacitates Zuko and takes him hostage early on and Iroh and Zuko's crew go 'oh nooooo you have captured us and we're with you now I guess' while Iroh low key attempts to provide Aang perspective on the Fire Nation for dealing with them and some basics on Firebending philosophy, but anyway who else do you think would be interesting to see in this kind of AU joining up with Aang and his mission to free the world

Answering this TEN DAYS LATER OOPS

Personally I haven't thought about anyone else joining the gaang outside of Zuko joining the gaang early plots. First, I wouldn't include any of the adults. While yeah, there's something wrong with their world in the fact that actual teenagers have to save it from a century of war, if we actually stuck one of the adults into the group dynamics, they would alter the story and themes in a way I don't find satisfying. Too many of their own motivations and personal hang ups. Iroh works for Zuko because Zuko doesn't really have friends or any other social support, but even so to get to the core of Zuko, we have to separate Iroh's direct influence on him.

So for the other kids: NGL I think Haru as a character is boring. he's dry wheat toast. He exists only as a vessel for katara's hero complex. Teo could be a lot of fun; him and Aang play off each other really well, and it would give us more non-bender rep.

Jet I could not see willingly giving up his leadership role and joining the gaang. He might butt heads with Sokka first, but eventually he would piss off "everyone works together and does their fair share" katara, "I don't respect any form of authority" toph, and even "we're all friends and equals here" aang when he won't give any slack to the reigns-- metaphorically but also possibly literally. Similarly, I don't think smellerbee or longshot would willingly leave jet.

I love The Duke and Toph's relationship. I would have thought of anyone in the gaang for him to latch onto he would have gone with Aang or Sokka, but him looking up to and becoming really good friends with Toph is just really good. And him and Pipsqueak are more non bender rep too!

Suki joining the gaang earlier than canon would be great, especially if she brought a couple other kyoshi warriors along with and we got to see more of their dynamic as a group! Plus more sukka, and Sokka in the kw outfit.

Yue. Alright I apparently lied above, Yue is definitely one that I've thought about joining the gaang. In AUs where Yue lives, her getting out of the North and coming into her own as a person who can assert her expertise and authority is a big deal for her. Might also add some fascinating conflict: did she leave with Arnook's blessing or did she see an opportunity and leap??

Thousands of words have been devoted to the "zuko joins the gaang early" tag, but here's mine:

Zuko knows Azula. He knows not to trust when she puts her hands up and claims defeat. It's an old, old trick, not even a clever one, and they both know it. When her smile falls on uncle, Zuko doesn't even think twice. He's burned before. He knows how. Sinks into that familiar pain like an embrace from an old friend.

Iroh is horrified when Zuko drops like a stone (sick with guilt that he has to see this again, again, it never seems to end). Zuko stays down. His nephew never stays down. He begs the gaang for help, pleads for a mercy he knows neither of them have yet earned. They hesitate, but Toph also insists; Mushi, Iroh, whoever he is, he was kind to her. Whatever his nephew did, the other kids are alive and whole enough to bitch about him, so it couldn't have been so bad as to deserve a slow, painful death.

Katara pulls back his clothes, revealing the burns, the deep purple-black bruises from his fight with the earthbender soldiers, his starvation and exhaustion. It's abundantly clear to everyone that Zuko needs more help than they can give just standing around in an abandoned desert town, and the kids are exhausted. Iroh asks one more favor, a big one: watch over his nephew and keep him out of trouble while Iroh tracks down some old friends who will help find someplace safe for them to hide.

It's only supposed to be temporary, but now the gaang have to deal with wrangling a cranky, ornery firebender who's ass much a threat to himself as he is to them.

[punkahudsonia]

Okay, so. Let’s talk Goncharov (1973). One thing I think has been largely lost in the (deserved) praise of the film on tumblr is just how weird Goncharov is as a film in general (I mean, you can’t tell me the plot as described doesn’t seem doomed to be a confusing narrative mess,even if you have three hours to tell that story; it should not be the absolute tightly-wound banger that it is in practice) but also how weird it is as an example of a Scorsese film. This, I think, is inevitable, because almost everyone on tumblr is young enough that Scorsese has ALWAYS been a Big Name in Film. To see him attached to a masterpiece doesn’t seem weird in that context. And since very few people got to see this movie before it was digitized and widely distributed for the first time in the mid-aughts, it seems to have largely become viewed as a creation of Martin Scorsese, the master filmmaker. But. Martin Scorsese, master filmmaker, had made a grand total of two features prior to Goncharov (three if you count Mean Streets, but let’s come back to that). One, Who’s That Knocking at my Door, has some similar themes to Goncharov, but it’s a very rough film (hell, the only reason it got distribution is because Scorsese recut it as a sexploitation film). And the second, well, it’s called Boxcar Bertha and Scorsese made it for Roger Corman. It’s not what you’d call Great Cinema. By 1972/1973 Scorsese’s working feverishly on two films. One will become Mean Streets, which is a real firecracker of a movie. It’s compact, furious, and intensely personal, and here again we see some themes that also get deployed in Goncharov; a trio of two men and a woman as the central figures, an obsession with honor and loyalty, personal dissolution and power. It’s a masterwork and when it saw general distribution in the US, it deservedly made Scorsese’s name as a filmmaker. But the other film. Oh, my god, the other film is Goncharov. And it is so technically proficient, so richly written, so layered, so complex, and so goddamned beautiful to look at, and how the fuck, one wonders, did the same man make the scrappy indie crime drama based on his own childhood friends and neighborhoods, AND the complex meditation on grief and obsession and mafia and soviet politics, in the same goddamned 24 months?? How does one film feel like a fresh wound from a creator just launching his stardom while the other feels like the culmination of a lifetime of study of how to make a film that hits you where you live?

Okay, so. I have a theory on that.

We all know by now that Goncharov almost didn’t see the light of day, allegedly due to mafia objections to its distribution leading to the systematic destruction of the general-release prints. We know also that the producer of the film was Matouš Cimrman, grandson of the immortal Czech polymath and playwright  Jára Cimrman  -- hat tip to tumblr user @eightfourone on that, because their post is what got my wheels turning here. Of course Jára Cimrman’s son František Cimrman, Matouš Cimrman’s father, was a legend in prewar European cinema for his intimate dramas that drew on his father’s theatrical sensibilities. "Franta” fought with the Czech resistance in WW2 and then returned to filmmaking, though most of his work from the Soviet period (1948-c 1965) was virtually inaccessible to the West. In 1966 he was imprisoned and his films were banned and destroyed, and although he was supposedly released in 1967 he never made another film, and there’s no official record of his existence after the Prague Spring in 1968. Most people think he was disappeared by the Soviet Czech government, with a small minority thinking he was smuggled to the West for his own safety. His son has never, ever talked about Franta’s post-WW2 life in public. But I have another theory. While I’ve never been able to see his films in person with the exception of Pískle (”Spring Chickens”, 1933, but every film student’s seen that one) , the descriptions we have of his Soviet-era works talk about an increasing preoccupation with time passing, with fixing mistakes, with the magnetic pull of loyalty between men who can’t admit their attractions for one another. And, of course, Franta Cimrman shared his father’s gift for finely developed, humanized, well written women (I think any scholar worth their salt HAS to credit that to the huge influence of Franta’s mother/ Jára’s second wife, Karolina, and I’m not going to go on a huge ADHD tangent here about how cool SHE was, you’ll have to google, this is stupidly long already).

What’s the one thing you hear over and over when people discuss Goncharov, especially in contrast to Scorsese’s body of other work? How great the women are, especially Katya (my beloved, my pearl beyond price, my girlboss, etc.). Doesn’t it strike you as strange that he made a film with Katya in it, and then just . . . made the rest of the Martin Scorsese movies after that? For that matter, isn’t it a little strange that he managed to evoke the energy of worldweary inevitability so well when his prior films are, if anything, textbook examples of classic Movie Brat youthful auteurism and his next films seem to snap right back to that oeuvre? Say what you will about Taxi Driver, but it’s CLEARLY a film about young men’s discontent, not middle-aged disillusionment. Look. I’m not saying that Martin Scorsese didn’t make Goncharov. His fingerprints are all over the film visually and narratively, and we have recollections from the actors involved clearly demonstrating that Martin Scorsese was behind the camera lens and on the set on a daily basis. But one of the few concrete details we know about the NOTORIOUSLY secretive preproduction/scripting process is that the producer, "Mateo jwhj0517", reached out personally to Scorsese after seeing a rare UK screening of Who’s That Knocking at my Door in or around 1970 in Birmingham (and listen man I’m not going to judge him if he went to see it for the sexploitation scenes, they didn’t have an internet yet, you do what you got to do). I just don’t think it’s crazy to say that there was more than one Cimrman in those script meetings. I don’t think it’s crazy to say that an artist who had lived through the brutal first half of the 20th century, with a good chunk of that time under Soviet rule in Czechslo-fuckin-vakia, would perhaps be better positioned to create a masterpiece about brutality, failure, and the cruelty of relentless time. (I think it was Pauline Kael who wrote the essay on the Mafia’s parallels to the Soviet authoritarian governments? IDK it’s late I’m trying not to write a book here cut me some slack). I don’t think it’s crazy to posit that a man at the end of a life of creative vision would see something in a younger artist, and take him under his wing, and help guide his hands on the clay when it needed done. Anyway I look forward to the inevitable “Punka doesn’t believe Scorsese made Goncharov / Punka is pro-Soviet Czechslovakia / Punka thinks this film was made by a ghost and also is a homophobe for writing not one word of Gonch/Andrey in this entire novel of a post” callout.

[diredeliverance]

Big undirected Dark Urge thought ramble.

Dark Urge (non-Bhaalist, at least) is one of those things where I think my feelings about the parts (or part) I dislike are often overwhelmingly colored by a desire for it to be a story that I suspect thematically it was never meant to be... I think that's always a kind of good check when you're really into something, "did this disappoint you because of the version you made up in your brain or did it actually fail to achieve its goals." I really don't like the "Bhaalspawn no more" end even if I can appreciate the drama of the scene. It feels cheap and frustrating to actually be magically "cured" of this part of your character that has formed the central struggle of this storyline. But that is supposed to be built on the back of this Persona 3 "you went out and immersed yourself in the world" thing that I do think tracks with how I experienced Kas, and from that perspective there actually isn't anything wrong with this "you've become independent despite being seen as diminished for it, and now that you've been rejected, you are free" thing. It flows well enough with themes of identity formation and the DUrge backstory of having an identity founded on pleasing their father.

But despite that what I may have found most enthralling about DUrge was this possibly unintentional allegory of mental illness, where you're managing intrusive thoughts, voices in your head, terrible internal putdowns, blackouts, and this total lack of certainty that you will ever know yourself the way people around you can known themselves. And when you try to tell other people, they don't believe you. They don't believe you, or their non-dismissal is bundled up in the idea that surely a better doctor will just fix you forever. There must be a cleric who can magic it all away so you aren't Like This anymore. It feels like your companions really just don't want to talk about it when it becomes uncomfortable or actually real. Their reactions become about their own discomfort rather than your need for support, and that can make you see yourself as especially dangerous and the act of confiding as an act of harm. Other NPCs dismiss you as a liar or a joker, or attempt to take advantage of you. I remember Halsin responding to the earnest confession of amnesia by implying that Kasander was intentionally withholding information from him to spite him. Over the course of acts 1 and 2 I slowly went from trying to be honest with everyone to seek support to being more calculated with what I was showing because I knew I couldn't trust the party with my experiences, and that was one of the most viscerally real experiences I've ever had in a game. Like damn discussing symptoms that negatively impact other people can be Exactly like that lmao. Or ones that just sound weird to them. And having Jaheira be the first person to listen and actually believe without making the conversation about what a problem you had become to her was just as emotional as the real experience. And I really, truly have no idea how much of this was meant to track like that and how much was just a well crafted piece of speculative supernatural fantasy.

At any rate, it does make the "and I'll never have urges again" end of DUrge feel like a slap in the face when you're in this Sauce. It was so fulfilling to be able to acknowledge and understand the source of DUrge's symptoms and to have the seeds of a reliable support network with Jaheira and Minsc, and I loved that foundation for moving in a direction of "this is a part of you that can't be wished away and you have to live with without any assurance that it will end, but you'll still be okay and you can still decide what direction your life will take and have people in it who love you." Tragic that it is a fantasy game and the actual narrative resolution when you aren't lost in the sauce actually is "it can be wished away and now you and everyone around you is safe from it forever." I think it's a kind of underwhelming finale no matter what but so much of my personal disappointment did just come from being reminded what game I was actually playing.

[myrcci]

Trigun Stampede final thoughts tldr didnt love it

it was bad. Not terrible honestly, but as a fan of the series it’s really hard to appreciate Stampede when the original message so thoroughly crafted in the 98 anime was just thrown to the side like it was. I can’t say I’ve read the manga either but I did do some digging and was informed of some of the key points and details that are explored in there as well.

I do want to point out some of the positives of the show first since I think it deserves them because it did some things good. The action shots were incredibly dynamic and utterly beautiful to look at, we got to explore more of some of the side characters and world building which was satisfying, and the animation was overall really smooth and is a really nice refreshing update to Trigun. And if you put this show in a vacuum you’d honestly probably have a really cool, interesting, engaging sci-fi western in its own right.

But this show doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and even thought it’s a re-imagining it almost completely treads on most if not everything the source material gave us. Meryl’s characterization gets a huge downgrade as her role in the story is greatly reduced and her design is downgraded. Wolfwood’s character becomes more twisted. Vash the man himself is kind of reduced to his more extreme qualities rather than his much deeper character. Knives as an antagonist loses his mysterious air and more feels like a typical big strong bad guy. And overall it feels like at it’s core the show lost the central theme of Trigun, the main message, the meaning behind it all. It feels like Stampede tried to grasp it, but instead just used it as motivation instead of a theme. That being the enduring spirit of humanity, the infinite love and violence that we are capable of. One of Vash’s shining characteristics is that he’s great at socializing, he’s funny, he listens and cares. And furthermore he hides a lot of regret and disgust towards himself which he hides well, but is constantly shown rather then told. It’s his ideal to both take on responsibility and not get too close to people that’s constantly tearing him apart and which makes him compelling and relatable. Vash is an incredibly deep character who I can’t even begin to cover completely or due justice but the thing to know about him is that despite everything Vash displays undeniably incredibly human qualities of love and grit. And it feels like Stampede overlooks those qualities to deliver a main character who instead carries a burden to usher a compelling story rather than a character. Stampede presents you with a goofy yet capable man constantly under stress but is ultimately very one dimensional in terms of his ideals and character compared to 98 Vash. And lest we forget the side characters, Meryl who’s role for the most part has been reduced to nagging woman when previously she was a pretty impressive character. Wolfwood, who remains a foil to Vash but now instead of being a raging catholic with a sense of good and evil he just seems to be depressed and unhappy, albeit a closer interpretation to the manga much to my own chagrin. Roberto is a new addition and takes on the role of the sole responsible character and narrator, replacing Meryl in that regard, though otherwise he’s not an unwelcome addition as he provides a much appreciated contrast of a very jaded experienced individual. And of course Millie is nowhere to be seen, hinted at in the final minutes of the show I am both saddened by the lack of heart and almost glad I didn’t have to watch her character butchered much like everyone elses. What I really enjoyed about the 98 anime, besides the goofy stints Vash got into, was just the raw and concise range of human emotion and value on human life the show constantly put in front of your face at every waking moment. Every conflict put the pressure of a very real tragedy in the air and made sure you didn’t forget. Vash would have to use every resource he had to save as many people he could, not just his gun slinging, and every win and loss was thoroughly felt. Knives was a more understandable villain, Meryl and Wolfwood were much more captivating and interesting, and Vash feels much more human in the end. Ultimately, I can’t say Stampede was a bad show. It did a lot of things right with what it had and would be interesting in it’s own right. But conversely, I can’t say I personally liked it as an adaptation of Trigun, and in fact feel like it dropped the ball in almost every category I appreciate about the franchise. However, in the end, that’s just the conclusion I came too based on my own reading and experiences, and this is just the long and short of my amateur analysis of Trigun. Good action, bad at what it was trying to be.

[gamesception]

Sception reads Cass Cain #14

Batgirl (2000) #3 Story: Peterson & Puckett Art: Scott & Campanella

The tag line says Batgirl "meets META", and shows this dramatic fight with a dark skinned muscle man, like his name is Meta and he's a big deal, as though meeting him is important. Like Crime Boss Jr. in the previous issue, this guy is not, in fact, important, doesn't come back in the future, and iirc doesn't even have a name. "Meta" is just referring to the idea of 'metahumans' in general. As for what this issue is about, it's not as coherent and self contained as issue 2, since it's setting up for issue 4, but there is a central theme here.

Like issue 2 there's an opening set up before flashing back to the main action of the book. This time we have Bruce as a narrator, and he's clearly been deeply shaken by something, but we don't know what yet. He bluntly relates the general premise of the book in those narration boxes I'm always railing against - thankfully absent from most of the issue otherwise. A mob accountant stole a bunch of money and abandoned his former employers, and to keep them from coming after him hid evidence of their crimes in his daughter's bear. The mob have kidnapped his daughter - and the bear - to get him to hand over the evidence. If they realize they already have the evidence then the girl is dead.

We also get the theme of the issue - one that will be a recurring theme throughout Batgirl - that of fathers and daughters, and in particular how being a good person and being a good father, or at least one who genuinely cares about your child, aren't necessarily the same thing.

As I've mentioned in the past, there have been many takes on Batman over the years by any different creators. The batman of the time was particularly grim and unforgiving, especially of himself and his allies. It's not enough to save everyone who can be saved - anybody who is killed in his city is a personal failure - his failure, his subordinates failure. It's irrational, and honestly childish, but this is a version of batman who was broken by the murder of his parents and never really recovered from that emotionally, from the helplessness he felt, and so he feels compelled to control everything - himself, his surrogate family, his city. Every unnatural death reminds him of everything he can't control, and puts him back in the head of that helpless kid watching his parents die.

In general I prefer a slightly more well adjusted take on Batman, but this is the Batman that Cass was created for, her issues are tailored to play off of his. Because she is exactly like him - equally unforgiving, of herself more than anyone else. Only we know her motivation is guilt, not revenge, which in turn implies that Bruce's motivation also isn't revenge, it's guilt. Survivor's guilt, but guilt all the same, and the poisoned root of his righteous fury isn't anger at the man who took his parents from him, but anger at his 8 year old self for not being able to stop it from happening.

And Barbara is having exactly none of it. Yes she gets frustrated with Cassandra, with her inability to connect with her and with Cass's apparent lack of interest in developing that ability, but she's also fiercely protective of Cass, and especially quick to protect her from Bruce. Because this Babs is older, and has known this Bruce for a long time now. She's aware of his bullshit, she knows how easy it is for his younger proteges to look up to and worship him, and she knows how much Cassandra already does. But she also how quick he is to turn on them for failing to meet the impossible standards that he holds himself to.

And, of course, the moment he's out of Bab's earshot, he tries to have this conversation with Cass anyway. And he just can't. But as readers we know he doesn't need to, that she already felt John's death as her own failure. Because they're the same.

So Bruce and Cass bust into the safe house in typical bat fashion, Bruce going to interrogate the boss over the girl's location while Cass is trusted to take out an entire room of armed goons by herself, which she does in a couple of cool panels, because, again, fights between Cass and normal goons are foregone conclusions so we don't need to waste a lot of panel time on them.

But then a different sort of goon shows up, and Cass is suddenly confused and out of her element. The panel there does a great job of showing her surprise. Also the panel before it is great too, the low angle to emphasize how big the guy is, the foreshortening with Cass's right elbow towards the viewer with the motion extending up through her left fist for the punch, making it feel fast and strong which then emphasizes the surprise at how the guy's no-sell reaction.

Also, wasn't this guy dark skinned on the cover? Introduced without a name, wearing generic clothes, apparently not worth keeping visual details consistent between the cover and interior, it's almost like this guy isn't actually important.

But he can casually punch holes in concrete pillars, and Bruce is suddenly concerned, recalling issue 1 and the 'no costumed criminals' rule, which in the real world was about the kind of stories Cass's creative team wanted to tell, but in universe is about the fact that Cass's body reading and martial arts skills that make regular human opponents non-threats to her don't necessarily apply to someone with superhuman physiology.

Babs isn't the only one with protective parent instincts, and Bruce swoops in to push "Meta" out the window.

The mob boss, not eager to join Meta on a trip out the window, gives the girl to Bruce, who passes her off to Cass and tells her to go while he stays to fight Meta, who has shaken off the two story drop and climbed back up.

Cass hides with the traumatized girl in an abandoned trolley car outside, and puts a hand on her forehead to try to calm her down, which sparks a memory of her own father...

David, covering 8 year old Cass's eyes with his big hand and timing her as she assembles a pistol blind. Look how proud he is of her time! Look how excited she is at his approval! Proud parent passing their skills on to their child in a happy father/daughter bonding activity, but contrasted and made upsetting and wrong by the gun in her hands, the guns and ammo all around them. This particular version of David Cain, the man who is simultaneously the proud affectionate Papa who Cass loved and a monstrous murderer grooming her for a life drenched in blood, is so important to Cass's character and motivations and relationships with others, particularly Bruce.

The memory is interrupted when Meta finds them, the bat symbol torn off of Bruce's costume in his fist implying bad things.

Cass gets far enough away to set the girl down, then turns back for the fight. And since, in theory at least, outcome of this fight isn't a foregone conclusion, it actually goes on for a few pages, with Cass hitting the guys neck over and over, the guy catching her cape and slamming her to the ground seemingly knocking her out.

It's a cool enough fight scene, but while the outcome may be in question in universe, as readers we know Cass isn't going to suffer her first outright loss in a fight to someone who isn't even important enough to have a name. So as he steps over Cass's seemingly unconscious body to go for the girl, she gets up behind him and kicks him in the neck a few more times, bringing him down even as she does finally pass out.

Bruce is alive, of course, and shows up after the fight is over. I love how worried he looks when he's checking to see if Cass is alive, only breaking into a big proud papa smile when he's sure she'll be ok.

Back at the bat cave, Bruce is in high spirits despite being pretty badly beat up. He started the night with doubts about Cassandra after her 'failure' to save John, but ends the day proud and impressed with her performance and fully satisfied of her commitment to save lives even against impossible odds. "She's just like me fr". He's almost forgotten the mob evidence in the bear - which he does hand to Alfred to repair so the girl can have it back. This Bruce has a lot of issues, but he's not without compassion for innocent children at least. Alfred's more concerned with patching up his own kid.

But why was Bruce looking all dejected in the issue's opening?

Just then Batman get's a mysterious message from an anonymous source. How exactly? Does Batman have an email address? Anyway, the message has a video, through a keyhole camera, showing a little girl who Bruce recognizes as Cass in a room with some strange men. Little looks back, as though smiling for a camera that she knows is there, before, well, we already know what's coming.

But it does come as a surprise to Bruce, and the comic ends on a cliffhanger.

"What will Bruce - specifically this version of Bruce who is still so damaged by his trauma, who is still so triggered by death and killing that he holds himself and his followers personally responsible when someone dies even if they had no way to prevent it - what will this Bruce do when he finds out Cass, the young protege that he most sees as a reflection of himself, has killed someone?" This question's been hanging over Cassandra basically since her introduction in No Man's Land. Honestly, if I had been in charge of this book, I'd have waited a bit longer before pulling this particular trigger.

They do find a way to drag out Bruce's response though, a way that many people found kind of dumb but that I though was a perfect fit for his character. But that we'll have to get into next time.

For the time being, though, yeah, we're building up a strong theme this issue around parenthood. Babs as the protective mother shielding Cass from Bruce, the unseen mob accountant father endangering his daughter by hiding the evidence with her, Bruce trying and failing to impart his morals and mindset to Cass through the wall of her linguistic impairment, flashback David Cain who unlike Babs and Bruce was able to easily and naturally connect to Cass without the need for words, proud papa Bruce after Cass's fight with Meta, all ending on a cliffhanger as present David Cain moves to drive a wedge between Cass and the surrogate father she's replaced him with.

It's a fitting and not at all uncommon theme for a new legacy hero's book to tackle - but it's handled with a lot of nuance here, and with the parallels that have been set up between Bruce and David as father figures for Cass the idea that they'll soon be butting heads over her directly is pretty exciting.

Otherwise, as usual for this team, I love the writing and art in this issue, the reliance of panel art over words to convey most of the story and especially emotional bits like the flashback, the expressiveness of the characters in Scott's style. Great issue all round, even if it doesn't stand on its own the way issue 2 did.

[mcsquared789]

The Detailed Explanation For This

CONTEXT

Hello! Thank you for checking out this post. I greatly appreciate your attention and your support, and I hope to make it your while.

Suffice to say, this is a planned MCU novelization project that will retread one of the biggest global superhero franchises in a new invigorated light: to be BIGGER, LONGER and UNCUT. Putting all the characters and their relationships as the central focus of the narrative. A bunch of individual stories with heroes, villains and in many differing genres that will culminate into enormous showstoppers with the crossover Avengers fics.

There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to dedicate my time to this — become a better writer, improve how I write fanfiction, partly as my means to engage with the fandom — but the main one is that I am frustrated with the limitations of the MCU as it is, the movies and tv shows specifically.

What we have now for the films has to spend most of the time developing plots and creating superficial conflict. But I've always felt the MCU shined best with the characters and the connections to each other in meaningful ways, and that we didn't get enough of that in these movies... especially as actors grew older and then have had to bow out, killing the time they could have to spend with other characters — a problem in phase 4 specifically. I want more of this, so in telling these stories again I get to fill in the gaps and create more satisfying stories, where more screen time is given to everyone.

As well, the MCU is often criticized as shallow entertainment or (as some random guy put it) theme park rides. Whether you agree or not, I wanted to draw meaning from these stories in ways that connect us to these characters and really highlight the arcs they have that is not so apparent in the films... and how they apply those lessons in future projects and with bigger and more complicated threats. I want to put an emphasis on these characters and their arcs, and explore them in depth with additional stories and tales that will flesh out what already exists.

Some character's stories are predetermined, while others are more flexible. But this approach is at the heart of how I will be writing most of them and their relationships with others, and with the universe at large. For example:

How does Tony Stark learn and grow in every story he appears in, so that he both improves his Iron Man suit while using it to make a positive difference in the world?

How do the Avengers come into their own and how does the world react to their presence and the threats they face?

How does certain world-destroying events (yes, including THAT one) impact the universe, and how exactly do our heroes respond to the crisis?

These are just some of the questions I aim to dive deep through this project — to the extent that some of what I cover will feature parts that diverge WILDLY from canon. But my goal is to expand and flesh out, so think of this as less of an alternate universe and more of the one we know, but better on account for including more stories and giving more time to these characters that the movies never will. Hence, why it is considered uncut.

I will say however as I write this (if I'm not sick of the entire project up to this point) is that I do plan to end it at some point — in that once the last big story happens, I will wrap up whatever stories are left instead of introducing new characters (with certain exceptions) and then that will probably be it for me. The best things don't last forever, and what I want to make clear at the top is that I plan to have a beginning, middle and a somewhat open end to these arcs.

You'll see what this is like a little in the slate, but I tell you this now so that no one will expect me to continue this indefinitely. The actual MCU is still going on all the time, but for someone like me, it would be a LOT to keep track of. And there are certain things coming up in Phases 4-6 that are not of interest to me, personally for various reasons that I don't have the character space to get into here... and if I want to in the future, I only tackle them if I manage to get through everything else first. I hope you understand.

Anywaaay, that's the gist of what I have planned! If that is all of interest to you, you are in the right place. I'm not going to rush this or burn myself out, so give me patience and time to create something special, memorable and crafted with love. Please ask me questions, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability as well as go further into things I plan to do and suggestions for how I do them... as part of a collaborative effort between me and you, the audience.

And again — thank you for reading. It means a lot to me. — (M)

[spocks-evil-godmother]

just some tuvok thoughts

tuvok is my favorite voyager character (sorry seven) and i think he is just great, and specifically i think he is great in how he relates to other people. to maybe give voice to the thing i am thinking of, it is that tuvok is interesting because he is the third iteration of a chief of security and the second vulcan to have a like really central role.

to the latter point, this is very obviously because leonard nimoy as spock was just SO iconic and so defining for TOS that i think it was very fair for TNG especially to avoid adding a vulcan and risk a sense of "redoing" the character (because everyone would hate that) and together with DS9 creating a distinct and fleshed-out universe that didn't necessarily revolve around the same exact themes of TOS. as sequels, not reboots, they could wander into their own territory and make their own way, which meant not looking at vulcans as a very central part of the stories. i get why they waited until VOY.

when it comes to the chief of security part, that is interesting then because finally, we return to vulcans, who have not been people on the main cast since TOS, placed in this bridge officer role that did not exist on TOS. tasha yar was the first COS, then worf, and then odo. in the case of all three characters, i feel like there is something fairly unVulcan about all of them. yar sought out security as a resolution to a chaotic childhood filled with violence; safety is a profoundly emotional experience for her. worf's central arc generally relates to becoming an honorable warrior—though interpersonally worf can be standoffish or brusque, when there is a cultural expectation for emotional display in battle, worf always rises to the occasion. odo, like worf, can be brusque (perhaps even harsh, or cold). i feel like there's something to be said about how perhaps ideally we would read these characters as being fairly unemotional—but then, when I think about how much they display anger (not necessarily inappropriately! just that they are often angry or annoyed) I think that isn't true at all. in fact, between all those characters, i feel like they together make the case that to be a good chief of security (or warrior, or defender of justice) you must be angry, because your anger makes you both powerful and attuned to the needs of those you love, when they need you. worf and odo love BIG.

enter tuvok, who does not experience love (or love, as we might feel it).

though equally impersonal and detached as the others, in some regards, tuvok has none of the big love or big anger that his forerunners have held. he is vulcan, and the last vulcan we've seen on a bridge has shown how well-suited vulcans are to be dispassionate scientists, just the facts please and thank you. what would motivate a logical, unemotional being to become a defender?

and like on a practical level, i don't know. backstory is whatever. but i think if i am asking myself, what does logic bring to the role of protector?, then my answer is evaluation.

obviously i am just ranting and raving about tuvok because i watched the season 2 episode "innocence" today BUT this episode really does encapsulate what i love in him and i think what the writers wanted us to love in him as well. certainly, there is a lot of humor in mr. very serious being confronted with three children who just want to play play play!!! but there is a lot of seriousness there, too. it's very serious that tuvok runs into frightened children and says, i will stay with you and watch over you. it is serious that they tell him there is a monster in the darkness and they are afraid of it, and he says, my sensors do not detect the presence of a monster, but the absence of readings does not confirm the absence of a monster; i will stay with you and watch over you. and it is serious still that when a little girl who is afraid of dying alone asks him to save her, he assures her that he cannot interrupt her natural life cycle but understands that she will only feel safe enough to leave if he is with her; i will stay with you and watch over you.

in no moment is tuvok himself taken over by his emotions. he calmly evaluates every situation. he listens to the children. he soothes them. and, as strange as it seems, he entertains their fears. he admits that he cannot confirm the nonexistence of a monster, but if there is a monster it is not nearby so it's okay to sleep and if it comes nearby he will be awake to chase it away. i think what is the most stunning thing about tuvok is that he is sympathetic to but completely unafraid of the children's emotions. are they like kinda annoying him, sure. but he accepts their emotions as they are—he does not feel pressured by their fear to change his own behavior. and his ability to evaluate it all, the situation, the children, the future, is the thing that creates the sense of safety that ultimately allows the children to die peacefully.

this episode's probably most iconic moment (or maybe i just think about it all the time idk) is when a child asks him if being vulcan means he doesn't love his own children, and tuvok replies, "My attachment to my children cannot be described as an emotion. They are part of my identity, and I am incomplete without them."

we could make a whole post about that, if we wanted, but i gotta go to bed. instead, i would just posit that the same is true for the identity tuvok has built for himself as a chief of security and a defender. his motives in protecting others are not because of an emotion. he is not angry, or sad, or scared, or upset. but it is logical to maintain the safety of a community to maintain to order of a community—and through experience and effort he has learned how to evaluate whether or not something is safe.

and, i think, if you are a little child, and you think, maybe there is a monster going to eat me, and possibly this is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you, the kindest thing a grown-up can do is say "i don't see any monsters, but i am prepared in the event that they show up. i will stay with you and watch over you. good night."