#ISMS

[kittycat-in-the-dark]

Why i think it is kinda frustrating to love the character of Jason Todd (or just any dc comics character at this point) - coming from a fan

VERY IMPORTANT WARNING: because i like Jason Todd this is gonna be mainly about him. I am gonna discuss certain things in canon and fanon about him that at this point are so tiring, and i just want to rant about them. Also, opinions that you might or might not agree with (lol). So, here comes my rant:

The Mess that is Canon and why it gives me headaches

So, we all know our dearest DC comics, and what a pain they can be. They love being inconsistent, because writers love to write wtv they want while ignoring stuff that came before, change or outright erase characters over night just because "they have their own vision in mind", ruining characters by practicing sexism, racism, classism, all -ism there are, on those characters and through other characters - because why not? And so, most of the times when a character goes to one writer to another it feels like some really do decide to keep their worse traits and add to them and ignore the actual interesting things about that/those character(s) that could make for some more interesting stories and character development. (And i know that most of the inconsistency is not just the fault, or even at all, of the writers, because that is more an issue caused by higher-ups and the decisions and limitations they put on their writers. But, that doesn't mean that writers cannot do better in the writing department, like plenty of writers and creatives have consistently done amazing things even under limitations, actually limitations sometimes showed to be helpful in challenging the creativity of artists,,... thou, i still think that DC needs to give their writers a basic sheet with info on the characters and make their current writers read/get familiar with previous characterization of the characters, at least a bit because this inconsistency is so annoying... also, you guys are supposed to be professionals in writing, like??)

Now let's see what certain writers decided to do with Jason, as an example, i guess, also because i know the most about him. Sorry for still being behind on other characters, aaaaa. So bare with me, please...

Decided to guide him to his death instead of continuing to expand on how Jay could heal from his childhood trauma, deal with his emotions and grow into being a better person and hero:

Jim Starlin (one of the writers of Batman comics in Post-crisis) decided to take the sweet boy that loves his family, that has anger issues from his past trauma, but that still did his best to help people and has very resourceful, and decided to completely focus on just how angry he was and the "tragic destiny that always awaited for him", especially because he also somehow deserves it -> which is, unfortunately, something that is made even worse in the New-52 and Rebirth. There is just this over insistence that because Jason was angry in certain situations, that he is and always was "broken" or "improper", and stuck on a never-ending cycle of violence. And in recent comics, every time young Jason Todd is brought up (in discussions, flashbacks and stories happening in his time as Robin) more often than not, the writers decide to put too much focus on Jason's more negative traits related to his anger and arrogance (about this last one, i, personally, don't think he was originally. Like yes, he could be too reckless sometimes and disobey orders from Batman and stuff, but which Robin didn't... also Jason was actually pretty well behaved for the most part of his Post-crisis Robin time).

But ya, this is also generally a problem, that DC still practices to this day, with Jason, Damian, and other sidekick or kid characters. I even remember seeing a post/article about the departments in DC, especially the Batman comics one, having writers or superiors, that didn't like and outright hated the concept of Robin, they wanted to get rid of Dick Grayson at first, but fortunatly Dick was moved to another department when he became a full time Titan and going on his own adventures completely separate from Batman. This is also why Dick is not that present during Jason's years as Robin... which kinda sucks. Like yes, Dick having his development and building his own team and new hero identity outside Robin, Batman and Gotham was great and all, but it's so stupid and frustrating that the actual reason Dick wasn’t a present brother was because of executive stuff going on at DC rather than that much of an in-universe and character reasons - like, i get that it can be justified by "Dick and Bruce were still going through their issues from spliting up and Dick had his own responsibilities as a solo hero and team leader" - but it wouldn't have been impossible to at least have Dick visit Alfred and Jason more than he did in canon, or show him and Jay having or keeping contact more after their first meeting, or even better, let Jason hang out and get closer to the Titans more, so he can spend more time with his new brother and make hero friends of or closer to his age... i mean, there were some panels that showed, for example, Jason and Dick skiing and Jay going on like 2 missions with the Titans, but it would have been awesome if Jay actually got to build closer relationships with them.

Also, from what i understood, many weren't happy with the introduction of a new Robin... plus Jay was Robin in the comics for just 1 year in real world time (from 1987 to 1988 -> yes, i am not joking... the most known and nowadays canon version of Jason, aka from Post-crisis, was Robin for just a year, the other 4 years of being Robin, aka from 1983 to 1986, was with Pre-crisis Jason that was basically Dick 2.0., and that doesn't even make part of the main continuity, as we know it*) and in Universe he was Robin for about 3 years (he was 12 when he met Bruce and died at 15), and considering that most stories during this time were more focused on Bruce/Batman and on the villain of the week type stories, Jay really didn't get that much character exploration before dying. Which kinda sucks...

*a little note about this: so, in 2022-2023 the Dark Crisis event happened, which apparently restored Pre-crisis as being part of canon, which makes no sense considering that Pre-crisis Jason Todd and Post-crisis Jason Todd are completely different, but ya DC doing DC stuff like usual, uffff - but, i still think that the "main/real" Robin Jason is the one from Post-crisis

Thou, even if A Death in the Family kinda started the way of depicting Robin Jason as too angry and violent, i don't think that the way the conflict was depicted between Bruce and Jason is as bad as it is depicted in recent comics - because it was more about Jason and Bruce respectively missunderstanding each other's side. That being that Jason probably saw being benched as a "step" to be fired like Dick was, or that Bruce thought that he wasn’t good enough to be Robin and that his place as Bruce's son, probably, wasn’t "so secure",, while on the other side, Bruce just wanted to bench Jason from Robin because he was indeed becoming too reckless and violent in the field, so he was worried that his son would hurt himself. So, i think it's important to understand that this story, despite it's many problems, at least tried to be more balanced and "realistic"/genuine with the conflict between the characters. But the thing with the "destined to die and to live in violence" still is kinda shitty, because again, it is leaning into the idea that Jason deserved this, even if everything that happened in this story happened mainly because of miscomunication between Jason and Bruce, and DC not giving the chance for Jay to take another path.

The "voting for Jason to die" thing:

Okay, i am gonna be honest with that idk much about this subject. But i remember reading an article and posts were it is claimed that the vote might have been rigged because a lot of people at the time in DC wanted to get rid of Jason and because, well, the call type vote must have been kind of a mess when it happened through the phone back in the 80s. Plus it is also believed that the people that were able to vote, voted for Jason to die probably mostly to see if DC would really do it, ya know just for the fun of it and to see if DC really had the balls to do it, which many seemed to actually be doubting. So ya... but either way, the fact that people at DC thought about this, is kinda weird and unfair imo, because Jay, like i said before, wasn’t even given the chance to developed or to build a different path other than one filled with tragedy and violence...

The erasure and non-erasure of Sheila Haywood:

As we all already know, the actual reason why Jason died was that he tried to save his mother from the Joker, when he discovered that she was working for him. The problem with this arrives when DC always choose to frame it as "Jason died because of his recklessness and disregard for Bruce's authority when he told Jason to stay put". And the problem with this is that it makes it seem like DC doesn't even consider how a kid in Jason's situation might feel and act and that the fault wasn’t his or his temper's or wtv that he died, as much as it was the betrayal of his mother and Batman literally leaving Jason behind, when he could've and should've taken his son with him to do the rescue and to make sure Jay and Sheila would be save. And especially considering that Bruce was aware that Jason can be quite stubborn and reckless, and that he must really wish to save his mom more than anything, that, logically, Jay would've gone for his mother no matter what Bruce said or how he promissed that he would save Sheila. Also, Batman and Robin are supposed to be partners,, how did Bruce think that with such an important and personal mission for Jason that the kid would just stay on the side lines and wait for Bruce to do something. Also the fact that, somehow... huh, Jason made it to the warehouse way before Bruce did, even if he went for it way before Jason, like?? - but either way, 80s writing used to be weird and stuff, but when it comes to A Death in the Family, many people pointed out that the writing makes almost no sense and it is quite goofy with a lot of things, despite supposedly being a monumental story considering that this is the first time a sidekick dies and stays dead, and in such a tragic way... also that shit is so goofy that it ended with Joker as an Middle East Ambassador or wtv... so ya. Too stupid even by "silly simple fun superhero stories of the 80s" standards.

But the problem, like the title of this point sugests, is that some writers in more modern comics, aka Post-crisis from the 2000s, New-52 and Rebirth, decided to outright erase Sheila from the equation. Which takes away from a relatable and sympathetic factor that lead Jason to his tragic end, and instead focus on just how reckless, stubborn and angry Jason is, and that was what killed him. Also, that now, the reason he got involved with Joker was not because it happened that his mom that he wanted to meet and save was working for Joker but that Jay had a very deep insecurity about himself as Robin and Bruce's son and so he just decided to go after Joker impulsively in order to impress Bruce by stopping and capturing him on his own, which ya... way to ruin it guys... like yes, it can be said that Jay went to Ethiopia looking for his mom originally because he and Bruce were having problems, after all Jay did find out about his mom and decided to leave when he heard Bruce and Alfred discuss to bench him from Robin because he was too violent and reckless in some recent cases, more notably the Garzonas one, and so it makes sense that Jay would kinda associate not being a good enough Robin as not being a good enough of a son for Bruce, and thus motivating him to look for his mom when he, basically accidently/by chance, learned that he has a biological mother that is alive and well, and that might want to have him back as a son.

And then, you have writers that, after others chose to erase Sheila completely (like they did in the New-52), decided to write that the reason Jay died was because of trying to save Sheila, like that line Jay says in Task Force Z, "I died trying to save someone I love.", and it creates this annoying back and forth with this fact... like, erasing and/or bringing a character or their importance to the story or the main characters' development is a big deal, and DC writers just played with Sheila around like randomly throwing the ball to see if it lands on the "Sheila exist this week" or on the "Sheila doesn't actually exist the next week or ever did" side of the field.

Being weird about Jay's relationship with Talia because the writer (aka Judd Winick) wanted to be experimental and that Talia and Jay having "just sex" is not a big deal because it's normal for people to just have sex, the context be damned (also the consequences this could bring in how people view Talia's character):

i don't think i need to elaborate on this more than i already did...

The writer of UTRH (Judd Winick again) went too far while depicting Jason's violence:

Okay, before you go at me for shitting on the writing of a writer that is considered to be the best Jason Todd writer, i have to say that he did some interesting and fun things with Jay, but also paired up with a lot of stuff that contributed to a worse perception of Jason's character and falling further into the "Jason was always destined to be violent and murder-y" hole. Like, he even added more to Jason's time as Robin, but only decided to focus on the more negative parts of it, and while i can understand that he probably wanted to put Jason's flaws and conflict with Bruce at center stage for his return as the villain Red Hood, i think he kinda started the trend of refering to Jay as always being the "Angry Robin" and that everytime there is a flashback with Robin Jason since then it is always about his anger and nothing else. Also, i feel like he kinda forgot to show Jason caring about innocents, aka women and children, while writing this, which is kinda weird considering that he did show that side of Jay in Lost Days...

From the Titans Tower fight till the end of Post-crisis Jason's writing was a complete mess:

i feel like DC reached a point by this time where they had no clue what to do with Jason (and nowadays they are still at this point and have been in it since then, if we are being honest). They decided to either make Jason a total nut case full on villain that hurts a lot of people for no good reason and at the same time have stories were he is an ally to the Heroes and where he does the right thing, even if he is still a bad guy. And the thing is: if DC really wanted to make Jay an anti-hero that walked a grey line where he sometimes did his own selfish desires and still antagonized certain heroes he thinks he has a bone to pick with (like Batman and Nightwing), but that still gave a shit about innocents and would help people even when aligned with villains, they could have but they kinda didn't. Like, i know it's a very cut and dry definition of an anti-hero, but like, comics are stacked full with over used tropes and have created some themselves, and with this Jason could be a more interesting story element everytime he popped up because the readers and the heroes would never know if to expect Jason to be against them or helping them. Plus, they could advance from this by developing him from a more "villainous anti-hero" to a more "heroic anti-hero", and doing so by touching/going on Jason's roots as Robin and what made Jason the happy hopeful kid that loved to help people. But no,,,, they decided to do a complete mess!! DC, why... thou, i kinda feel like this transition of Jason from a more "villainous anti-hero" to a more "heroic anti-hero" didn't happen properly for the same reason Jason became more violent and angry as Robin didn't work that well/felt rushed, and that was because this was made in a short time limit. Because, like Starlin wanted to get to the "fated death of Robin because of his issues" as quick as possible, Post-crisis Red Hood Jason seemed (imo) to suffer from this as well, because Post-crisis (as a continuity/timeline) was ending, the next big retconning event was approaching in DC comics,,, like heck, even the story of UTRH was interrupted sometimes because of a timeline/universe altering event... and then the One Year Later event happened, and Jay seemed to have become "more crazy that ever", and the heroic parts that Jason still had were discarded completely. Which tbh i wasn’t a big fan of, at all. So, Jay ended his Post-crisis story as a full on "deranged villain".

RHATO is a BIG mess; YES, unfortunatly, i mean both of them, maybe exept for the first 25 issues of RHATO (2016) - why did DC have to give Jason's main books to Scott Lobdell?! Also, those first 25 issues of RHATO (2016) are kind of a miracle, all things considered:

So... RHATO (2011) was basically Jason's first big "going on his own with a team in stories non-related to Batman"... and it was awful. Because well, DC decided to make Jason, Roy Harper and Koriand'r aka Red Hood, Arsenal and Starfire the Outlaws, and write them completely out of character. Which ya, pissed off/annoyed a lot of fans... and these are the main reasons why (i think, might have missed some thou, but this serve enough to make a point against this book):

First off, it makes no sense for Roy and Kori to agree to Jason's methods and philosophy, so question: why would they join/form the Outlaws and with Jay as the leader?

Why is Jay the leader when he was no previous leading experience at this point, while both Kori and Roy do?

Why tf was Roy made dumb and Kori into an eye candy character, while being stripped off of their inteligence and kindness respectively?

Why are 2 of Dick Grayson's closests friends, one of which is also an ex-lover, hanging out with his little brother, considering that when those best friends first met that brother they were already adults, and Roy even had his daughter Lian, when Jay was just 12?

General answer: the writer decide to say fuck you to anything and build what could be considered a "male power fantasy" through Jason, also sexism, so he ended up ruining everything and everyone.

Long, more specific to each question answers:

Kori and Roy were "given to Jason" as his teammates and friends and made "more violent and outcasted" from their previous teams and friends/family because DC rebranded with the New-52 and wanted to be more edgy and had no idea what to do with these 2 characters so they decided to shove them together just because... and also because they had no idea what to do with Jason either, like i said previously.

Jay is the leader because "power male fantasy" for and with guys without powers, having no idea what to do with him that could be interesting, human characters in DC are often made the leaders to make up for and balance with their more powerful teammates, Jay is made the leader instead of Roy because the Bats are always up in DC's hierarchy of gets to lead the team and be the main face of the team and comic because money. Also,, look, i know it can be said that Jay, just like any other Batkid, deserved the chance to have his role and his experience as a leader, but because of his short time as Robin he didn't even get that much experience working with others or with a bigger team, besides being partners with Batman, and he never got to have a proper leader role before the Outlaws (and no, being a crime-lord doesn't count because he mostly did things solo, his partners and workers worked with him under fear or because the other option was worse than him, and also he killed the guys he worked with or that worked for him a lot... so ya, i wouldn't call that leadership experience). It really was a decision made just based on "the Bats need to be the leaders at some point of any teams we create" DC rule.

Roy was dumbed down so he wouldn't be the logical leader and because Jason needed a "dumb best friend" or something and Kori, well... the boys needed an eye candy sexy alien woman for the comic to actually be interesting... also, they threw away her kindness because she needs to be as rude and angry as her male teammates.

Also, weird as shit that they decided to give Jay Dick's best friends (or i guess ex-best friends during this time) because they were too lazy to make new friends for Jason.... also they had to ruin their established relationships because why tf not? - also why is Roy only refered to as Jay's best friend when he was/is Dick's best friend (or one of his best friends)... like?? i mean, people can have more than one best friend, but DC doesn't seem to understand that, so...

in conclusion, this book ruined everyone!! Hurray DC, that was such a great achievement *fucking insert infinite tons of sarcasm here*.

Also, to make a little note/comment about something that comes from fandom about this Outlaws Team specifically: i really really really hate that, because of this book, Jason is shipped with either Kori or Roy or with both at the same time in a poly relationship. And while, yes i get the "let them be shipped" because this is just people having fun with the characters and all that,,, no matter how they put these ships, i will always find them gross because of the reasons i mentioned above,, aka Kori and Roy were adults when they met 12-year-old Jason -> like just this alone should ring alarm bells,, Kori is Dick (Jay's brother)'s ex, which akward,, i mean, overall these relationships just give me the icky... okay?? Sorry about this little detour. Moving on from this now. i just really needed to let it out.

RHATO (2016) actually started better... a lot better. The first 25 issues are interesting and have sweet moments that i really like. i said it before, but these 3 are my favourites together, until DC decided to ruin them as well... because why not. imo, RHATO (2016) did better because, well, despite being written by the same writer of RHATO (2011), this one actually fixed some of the problems of the previous one and the character dynamics between the main 3 were pretty solid (for the first 25 issues that is..). And that is because:

Jason and Artemis have great chemistry with each other either you look at it platonicaly or romantically.

Their banter is amazing and so funny.

Love that these Outlaws, especially Artemis, are more the type of "Jason gives an order like he is the leader, but they ignore it because they have a better plan" - that doesn't mean that Jay doesn't have his own good plans/ideas but him being the "main leader" is not as cut and dry as it was in RHATO (2011).

i like that Jay is the more emotional link of the Outlaws, aka he was the one that kept at first the Outlaws together.

The relationships between Artemis, Jason and Bizarro are just so sweet - like sorry, but they make my heart go mush, okay?

i like that even if the writer tried to write a romantic relationship between Jason and Artemis, that they, and especially Artemis, didn't put that much focus on it, it was something that existed in the background while they were more worried about other things, such as their missions and taking care of Bizarro.

But, after that things became kinda bad:

By the end of issue 25, Jason was beaten by Batman because "he killed Penguin" on live television (which btw Jason didn't actually kill him) and so Bruce beat him up pretty badly, some say even worse than he beats his villains.

Thou, i will give it to the story just the fact that i think it's interesting that things for Jason went to shit the moment he decided to go on his own after Penguin without his teammates, which kinda strenghtens the fact that Jason needs someone besides him when something bad happens to him or finds out something bad (like here when he finds out Penguin was responsable for his dad's imprisonment and death).

But a big problem: making Jason's established abusive father seem as some kind of "martyr for his family", even if he actually hurt his wife and son, at the time, more than anyone else. Also, that Jason actually went for it with believing his dad was a good guy and proudly went after Penguin while claiming to be Willis's son. Like, i don't think it's that unbelievable that Jay still cared for his dad, even if he hurt him and his mom a lot, but... the writing paints Willis too much like "a good guy trying to help his family that got involved with the wrong people" while letting Jason's mom and her importance to Jason on the sidelines or outright ignored - like, i know that in Post-crisis, more specifically in A Death in the Family that Willis was refered to as "a dad that made mistakes trying to help his family", but by this point in Rebirth (and with the New-52) Willis was established clearly as having been an abusive husband and father, and more clearly than ever... so, it's kinda fucked up that at this point the writer tried to kinda "hero-fy" him because he abandoned and abused his family for "the good of his family",, like that doesn't erase all the pain he caused his wife and son, either he meant to cause it or not. Also, they brushed over the importance Catherine had in Jay's life, when she was one of the most important people to him in Post-crisis.

Then Artemis and Bizarro are "taken away" from Jason because their multidimensional spaceship hideout went out of control and transported them to another place, leaving Jason alone with a pissed off Batman that wasn't finished with beating his son up, until Roy Harper appeared to save his friend.

After this, things get worse because Jay and Bruce reunite and easily make-up, without actually solving anything, which keeps them for the rest of Rebirth continuing a never ending cicle of: "we are at odds because of our desagreements -> one of us (mostly Bruce) does or says something very fucked up which causes a big fight -> they separate again -> some shenanigans happen and they are obrigated to work together again -> forgiveness or semi-forgiveness ensues -> part ways again -> cross paths again either intentionally or by accident -> repeat cicle again.

Eventually, Artemis and Bizarro return, but their character design is worse, like way worse, especially Artemis's that is just atrocious, being that she went from a well built muscly woman with a one piece suit to the super skiny woman that looks like she doesn't have organs in her abdomen wearing a top, because why not....

The relationships and dynamics between the main trio became weird and boring. Especially between Artemis and Jason, and Bizarro kinda gets ignored until he leaves to become king of the underworld, lol. Oh, and then Jason and Artemis kiss, reach the conclusion they think of each other as brothers rather than lovers (even if they fucking kissed a lot of times at that point), and when they part ways they are both sappy because "they know that what they said to each other then is not true but cannot be together" type bullshit... and like, what?? - i am gonna be honest, at first, ya know in the first 25 miracle issues, a romantic relationship between the 2 seemed sweet and okay, i actually liked it, even if they were kinda doing the "will they, won't they" thing, and honestly, i wouldn't even have been mad if they reached the conclusion that they work better in a platonic relationship than a romantic one, even if they still have romantic feelings for each other. But not the weird ass bullshit the writer pulled with this...

And the time Jason was solo was just mediocre story after mediocre story, uffff.

So, Jay finally kinda gets his own book (even if they technically aren't, as they are team-up books, but they are the closest thing to a Jason Todd solo book as we can get...), only for both to end up being awful for the most part... if only DC gave Jason a better writer. Like, thank everything that most probably Lobdell is never gonna be his writer again, but that doesn't necessarely mean that other writers that followed did him any better.

**Also,, what is somehow even worse is that these books are the ones that popularized in fandom this idea that "everytime a character is paired up with Jason in a Hero Team, they get ruined by him", which makes the dislike for Scott Lobdell and his writing even worse because this man just managed to ruin everything!!

DC is trying to reintegrate Jason into the Batfam - which is something good and could be interesting, but there are some things that are kinda bad/tiring about how they are going about it:

In the New-52 and Rebirth, DC redeemed Jason, thou with the New-52 it was kinda weird because they didn't exactly redeem the Jason that we knew at the end of Post-crisis, but a more "tone down" version of him, since they decided to change most of the characters' backstories in this new universe. And i can understand why DC did this especially for Jason, considering that by that point Post-crisis Jason has gone a little bit too far, to suddently begin a redemption arc with all the baggage "villain" Jason had. So, they basically started over, erasing all the Post-crisis Jason stories except for UTRH, and changed his backstory. One example of one of these changes, was that they retconned Lost Days and changed that part of Jason's story to him training not just with Talia in the League of Assassins but also with the All-Caste, being that Talia guided Jason to the All-Caste to protect him from her father. And then his redemption comes when, after UTRH, instead of Jason doing all the horrible things he did by the end of Post-crisis, he started working with the Batfam sometimes, even if he still did his vigilante anti-hero business mostly alone, and even if Batman didn't aprove of it and Jay's methods, and so, this is where the "Jason is an on and off member of the Batfam" thing started. And then the redemption continued with Jay founding the Outlaws with Arsenal and Starfire, starting working more with the batkids (even if they still were at odds with each other), appeared everytime there was an emergency,etc.

But, as most know, the New-52 has a lot of writing problems, especially considering that Jay and the Outlaws have Scott Lobdell as their main writer. The thing here, that is pretty frustating, is that these ideas with Jason had the potencial to be great,, i mean i do like that Jay got to redeem himself and get closer to his family, but it feels cheap, especially because, for example, DC really thought that in order for Jason to have, at least, a good relationship with Tim, they first had to completely erase the close relationship that Tim and Dick had as brothers (and don't get me started on Cass and what they did do her during this time)... because why not? i guess the Batkids are only allowed to get along with one sibling at a time now,, especially considering that the New-52 was the one that started the idea in fandom that Jason is Tim's favourite and Damian is Dick's favourite, and so Dick and Tim's brothers relationship is left in the wind to be obliterated.

And then, DC rebooted again, and continued with the redemption path for Jason in Rebirth, which was, like i said before, interesting, but then they kinda ruined it. Also, both in the New-52 and part of Rebirth Jason suffered from this limbo of "being or not being part of the family". And is especially frustating with the ever repetitive conflict that Jason and Bruce have. Like,, it does have some good moments and ideas, but the problem is that after a while they kinda become pretty repetitive with each story of Rebirth.... so, like, it would be nice if DC did something more to advance their characters' development and relationships, just saying... also, so much wasted potential with most of the ideas they bring up,, DC why don't you go with your ideas to the fullest instead of constantly keeping your characters in some kind of limbo, uffff.

Robin Jason flashbacks from the New-52 and Rebirth always being under the shadow of his death:

So, i did mention this in passing before, aka that i am tired of seeing DC canon in more recent comics only show Robin Jason as angry and violent. But the thing is,, i don't think they shouldn't show angry Robin Jason at all, they can obviously show that. But the problem is that they never focus on any other characteristics of Robin Jason. Like, even if the kid was angry and violent, that wasn't all that he was, he was also happy, he was also sad, he was also insecure, he also loved his family a lot,,, plus he wasn't angry just because of "teen angst" or "teen disagreements with Bruce", he was angry because of the injustices he and his parents went through and that other people keep going through in Gotham City. And i think it's also obvious at this point that Jason's anger and violent actions were just a protection mechanism he developed to protect himself on the streets and from his trauma. So like, DC should really tone down on bringing up Jason's anger so much, because he is not the "angry Robin", that is not all he is or ever was. Or, ya know, at least they could stop acting as if Jason being angry is just "senseless"/exaggerated.

And we all know at this point that DC does these "angry and violent Robin Jason" flashbacks because they always write with Jay's tragic ending in mind. Everything about Jason since he died, is about his death and only that, even if he has a lot of other more interesting things to explore and deal with than the trauma from his death and his shitty relationship with Bruce.

Jason just cannot have or keep close positive relationships:

It's just the fact that DC really has a problem in establishing Jay into some closer and definitive relationships, other than always having a "up and down" relationship with Bruce. Like, the Outlaws (aside from being ruined by writing), after they decide to eventually separate their ways, aren't put together anymore, for better or for worse, with the Batkids it's just the "we check on you only when something happens and we need your help or there is the possibility that you are going to go too far on a solo mission, aka if you go back into your killing and violence". And for the rest, even including his Robin years, he is mostly isolated from other people, especially people that belong to "his group" aka people of his age, background, generation, with same philosophy, etc. Just like,, why is this boy so alone,, wasn’t he suffered enough on his own?

Fandom also gives me a headache sometimes

Jason being either a feminist or a misogynist:

I am gonna be direct and say that the "Jason is misogynistic because he hurt Mia Dearden/other girls or women" and "Jason always drinks his respect women juice" crowds are weird and make no sense. And also kinda wrong (imo)... and why do i say this...

Well, the "Jason is a feminist/drinks his respect women juice" belief comes from the fact that Jay, at least as Robin, tended to get defensive of women when they were insulted and/or abused, especially when they were so by men, and because of the love he was for both his moms and the relationship and respect he has for Talia. Now, the thing is, this and other examples such as "how he showed respect for Onyx in UTRH because he worked with her and didn't underestimate her as an opponent, and helped her after he incapacitated her", isn't necessarely feminist, i would mostly call it respectively basic respect for other people, caring about vulnerable women because he is a good kid and a hero and because situations where women are suffering at the hands of men bring up his trauma from growing up with an abusive dad that especially hurt his mom, and not underestimating any opponent you come accross because in vigilantism and the world they live in anyone and anything can be quite dangerous if you are unprepared. So, in other words, Jay is a decent human being (even at his worst) that cares about the well being of others, especially people in vulnerable groups such as abused women, but he doesn't have any beliefs or actions that, imo, "make him feminist". Or an outstanding feminist, especially when other characters, that are both heroes and villains, have shown this type of behaviour towards women. Thou,, and i am about to kinda contradict myself,, just reading Jason's Post-crisis stories until UTRH, saying that Jason is a feminist/cares about women being hurt by men is valid, and especially as he is shown to have empathy towards the victims he encounters,, and even more than Bruce was ever shown to have to this type of victims... so that is an interesting and valid point, imo. So, it seems like a weird limbo that is somehow made worse by RHATO's writing bacause ya know, Lobdell,... but ya, i don't think calling Jason a feminist is that wrong either, maybe it depends on the writing you pick, because, ya know, he really has inconsistent writing (the pain of loving Jason Todd T-T).

The "Jason is a misogynist" side believe this because Jay was had many times, especially by the end of Post-crisis when he kinda went too much off the rails in his "crazy villain persona", hurt and insulted women. Which valid, i guess, some can interpret some of his actions and statements during this time as sexist towards women... but the thing is, or actually 2:

Writers projecting their own prejudices towards women through Jason, like for example in how he behaved towards Donna in Countdown. But in that event everyone was pretty ooc, the story was very long and a mess, and Jay during this time was written as being an ass to anything and anyone, so...

Most of the times Jason fought a woman/girl it had nothing to do with them being women - actually if Jason fighting, hurting, insulting and causing trauma and/or awekening past trauma into other characters is misogynistic, then when he does it to boys/men (like he did to Bruce, Dick, Tim, Oliver, etc.), does that mean he is being a misandrist?? Like, what kind of logic is that? - what Jason is actually doing through his horrible actions is getting revenge and spreading on to others his trauma, his pain and suffering. Is he right in doing it, especially to characters he barelly knows and have nothing to do with his pain, such as Mia, Onyx and even Tim and the Titans? Fuck no! But he is not a misogynist through these actions, sorry to say this, but i really don't think he is.

Saying that Jason doesn't care about either women and/or children:

This is a tricky one... and that is because i, and many other fans for that matter, said/say that Jason doesn't necessarely have a "special care for women and children" in a sense. But like i said before he does care, a lot. And it's always nice when we have stories where he is shown doing that (Like in Urban Legends: Cheer and Task Force Z, even if these stories have other problems..), because certain writers (like Winick and Lobdell) kinda forgot about this side of Jason. Jason cares!!!! He cares!! And that is important to point out about Jason because, while, like i said before, this is not a "special/unique" characteristic of Jay like some fans make it out to be, it is important and special for just Jason as a character because he was been protrayed as uncaring, an ass and outright villain before, and, unfortunatly, that protrayal is the one that is the most present in most people's minds (mostly because of the popularity of the story UTRH). So ya, even if Jason did hurt people that didn't deserve it at all and that make part of the group of women and children, that doesn't completely erase or contradict the fact that Jason cares and wants to help (plus reasons i said before like shitty writing that makes no sense and that the people he attacked could still defend themselves or had the capacity to, so like he didn't hurt or go after civilians, ya know. Again, it doesn't justify or make it less of an evil what he did to those people, even if they are trained heroes, but it's also not something that invalidates the statement "Jason cares about people" - it's about nuance). Also,, even if i said that perhaps, by how Jay was written sometimes, that "he doesn't have a special mission in protecting women and children", he actually does, but he isn't shown doing that directly, as he is mostly shown just killing and/or beating the guys that hurt women and children,, which i think is what, paired up with him hurting characters like Mia Dearden, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne, and this hurting actually being depicted directly on panel,, leads other fans to find it "unbelievable that Jay actually gives a damn about women and children when he did this to this specific women/girls and children".

Making people that like Jason or want to defend Jason or discuss his wrong doings feel as being held at gunpoint because people aren't allowed share their opinion either against him, favouring him or even a balance of both (this applies to all fans, including Jason Todd fans, obviously):

Okay so... one thing that i noticed is that people cannot seem to be able to have civil discussions about Jason, in a way. Like, no matter what stance people take on the character, there is always someone ready to "shut you up" because they don't agree with your analysis and/or opinion on the character. Also, yes, this happens with fans of other characters too, but, for some reason, Jason is one of those characters that seems to bring up the most heated discussions in DC fandom.

Also, while yes and obviously, people are allowed to and should interact with posts they disagree with and explain why they disagree, there are some people that take it too far. And i also think this problem comes from the fact that people tend to "cherry-pick" the version of the character that they consider canon. For example, there are people that, because they prefer the stories from Post-crisis, the only valid version of the characters for them is that one, other people prefer the New-52 and/or Rebirth, or they actually prefer the headcanons version of the character because canon is too much of a mess to understand. And honestly, i think they are all valid. The problem comes when people seem to not distinguish "serious discussions, analysis and criticisms" of the actual canon and "fun post that can be either based in canon or just headcanon". Plus, not every jab a person does to a character is a serious criticism or an actual critical post about that character, sometimes they are just dumb jokes that actual fans/people that love that character do for fun. Being a fan of a character doesn't mean defending the character 24/7 or that if they make a joke on the expense of that character that they now hate them... like, we are here mostly to have fun with our favourite characters, and that includes making fun of them and their flaws as much as analyzing and defending them. And also, loving a character doesn't mean that you don't see or talk about that character's flaws and mistakes, as they are. Not everything your favourite character does was to have a moral/positive explanation, sometimes characters can just be shitty people and that is fine.

Also, i don't understand why, but some Jason Todd fans literally act as if he is the only character with bad writing, when like all characters have suffered from it. Heck, some characters even outright disapeared for decades at this point, even if they still have fans that talk and make content about them to this day.

And well, if Jay has bad writing that makes no sense for his character, so do other characters as well -> i am specifically pointing this out because sometimes people do bring up certain characters' bad actions from a certain comic where they were written by someone that seems to not know shit about the characters and made horrible decisions such as making them say something misogynist, for e.g. And some of you people really hold on, like, 3 shitty panels from a comic from 2 decades ago to prove "how bad/sexist/racist/etc" a character is, when they are completely ignoring who the writer is, if what that writer wrote makes sense with what is mostly know/established about that character, if it still applies in more recent comics with the most recent version/characterization of the character. Like, i am not saying people cannot talk about these scenes/panels and criticise/complain about them, like they can, everyone can, but first there is the need to make clear the context of the panels, who wrote it/what era is that comic from (sometimes just this explains a lot) and maybe say at the end "thank fuck they don't write that character like that anymore" or something else along those lines - because ya know context matters in this stuff and while, yes, everything that was written and published by DC comics is canon, i think it's also important to understand where the character is at now compared to that "bad writing version of them" and how this "bad version" compares to other writing from the past or same time of that specific comic. Sometimes that "bad version" is just a speck in an ocean of some pretty good or just decent writing of that character.

Jason fans seem to always be arguing and dividing themselves with black and white ideas of how Jason is, and especially on how he was as Robin:

So... just like anything and any other character fandom out there, the fans tend to also separate themselves in groups defined by what they choose to believe about a certain character. Especially with such complicated characters as the ones from comics that have like a billion versions of themselves.

When it comes to Jason, people devide themselves into very specific ways they see him, for e.g. the most known fractions are:

Robin Jason was an innocent happy boy until modern comics came and ruined it by making him angry out of nowhere (which makes no sense when Post-crisis Jason was shown "doing violence" since his introduction. i mean ya, it was in self-defence when he was scared by Batman finding him stealing his car's tires. But like,, sometimes these people act like the mere thought of Jason doing anything violent or being angry is impossible or complete character assassination when it makes sense that Jay would be phycally and emotionally protective of himself with violence and anger due to his trauma, hard time having to survive alone on the streets and dealing emotionally with all he was been through).

Robin Jason was angry and violent 24/7 (okay this is a general exaggeration, but there are people that think that Jay was mostly angry as Robin, when like during his original Post-crisis comic run he had like 4 big "anger and violence" moments and they all had understanding reasons on Jason's part to be angry and become violent with who he did).

The "the fault is on the Lazarus Pit" crowd (or just on anything and anyone else except Jason himself,, which is kinda ironic because Jason in canon, even at his worse, always took responsability for his violent actions, so...).

Jason is the big protector of women and children (i already wrote what i had to write about this).

And like, these examples and many other fractions, aren't wrong about these characterizations, because, yes, these come from canon, but, again, the problem is with people focusing solelly on one of these sets of characterization, to the point where they ignore the other parts of the character - aka they flanderize the character - which is pretty annoying tbh.

DC fans that claim that the only reason Jason is angry when he returns as the Red Hood is because of his death:

First of all, i know that some people just joke about this in the sense that "it is ridiculous that Jason is angry at the world because he died, when so many other characters have been tortured, have died and returned from the dead in the comics, and especially in DC. So, him and his trauma are not that special". And while i get where the joke comes from, and that DC's most recent writing of Jay's trauma just focusing on on his death at the hands of the Joker doesn't help it. But,, Jason's main issues and trauma don't relate that much to his death,, actually it can be argued that since he returned from the dead that he doesn't really care if he dies again. i don't think that "his greateast fear is to die again", as some seem to believe. i said it before and i will say it again,, Jason's trauma relates more to being let down by his loved ones, especially by his parental figures, feeling like he doesn't matter enough to his dad (aka Bruce) and that the systems that hurt him and continue to hurt others are still rolling and going without any significant change. (For not saying that he never, even to this day, got Justice for what Joker did to him,, which is also ironic because, ya know, Batman and DC's stories are all about Justice... i know this is more complex than this, but this is often a point that gets dismissed to a degree in discussions about Jason and why he wants revenge on the Joker and Bruce. It's not about him dying, it's about not having Justice for himself when he has a father figure that could give him that, but as we all know he didn't, at least not how Jason needed/expected it,, and the fact that Joker still keeps hurting people to this day - thou this problem also comes from the fact that for meta reasons, DC cannot kill the Joker to "give Jason some peace", because he is one of the most popular characters, villains and antagonists to Batman, so there is that).

And while, like i wrote before, people are allowed to joke about Jay "being too emotional over dying, when others have died too and haven't done what he did because of it", i think it's also important to understand that, well, that is actually an exaggeration, ya know, reducing/flanderizing Jason to just "a violent crybaby that is angry at the world just because he died", which again, gives a very reduced and wrong idea about the character to people that don't know much about him. Which is kinda ironic, imo, because sometimes the same people that either joke or seriously describe Jason like this will lose their shit on other people's joke posts about the characters they like more, so like??

Just... ya know the saying -> if you are going to joke/shit/criticise/be mad at a character at least do it about stuff they actually did and/or characteristics that are more consistently shown through out their canon writing.

There seems to be a lack of empathy (especially this one)/sympathy towards Jason coming from a meta level (writers and fans) and the in-universe people (aka characters in Jason's story)

i know that this part just by the title alone can come off as a little bit "dumb", because i am basically saying that no one understands Jason Todd,, which is ridiculous because i didn't create him and, tecnically speaking, the ones that know him the most are the people that created him, wrote him and own him, aka DC comics and their writers. Which is funny considering that for the most part of this post and most Jason Todd fans are always criticising and complaining about Jay's writing. But i think that when we say that "no one understands Jason Todd", we tend to refer more to the modern interpretations and writers of the character. Thou, when i say that other characters don't understand Jason in-universe that is totally right.

(Little note here: i am gonna come off as pretty critical of Bruce and his treatment of Jason. Though that doesn't mean that i think Bruce doesn't love his son. Also, Bruce loving Jay doesn't mean he understands his son, and him not understanding his son doesn't mean he doesn't love him. Bruce loves his son, and Jason loves his dad, they love each other a lot... the problem is them misunderstanding each other.)

So,, let's start this section by taking a step back to Post-crisis Robin Jason and keep going from there.

Jason is introduced to us and Batman as a street kid that had "...stones to rip off the Batman´s buggy--". And Jason's first response to seeing Batman is to hit him with the tire iron and run to his hideout. We see he is alone, defensive and that he misses his mother, and he is making everything he can to survive. This is also where we see Jay have a "sense of justice" or at least an understanding that, even if he also steals, there is a difference between him and other people stealing to survive and stealing for more selfish means, like Ma Gunn was doing in Jason's intro story. So, it is made very clear that Jay is not just some punk that enjoys stealing or hurting or seeing people being wronged and used, like the boys that were sent to Ma Gunn's school were (which fair, included Jason at the time, but he didn't have that much of a hard time running from her. For not saying that when he did he still thought by himself to go after her, when he could have just taken his new stolen tire and simply go home, without returning to help Batman). Then he is taken in by Bruce and he is happy being Robin and staying with Bruce for quite a while.

But... the lack of empathy already begins to show through Bruce, that doesn't seem to wrap his head around what Jason needs to heal from his trauma, and comes off more as patronizing when he "teaches Jason about how to do Justice in their Unjust world", which comes off as even worse when you think about the fact that he is telling that to a kid that was seen and lived those injustices practically since day one. And that is because Bruce cannot get out of his own vision of justice and of healing after a traumatic experience. And especially because Bruce doesn't seem to grasp that Jason's trauma is based on a lot of more difficult and traumatic moments than just having a single defining traumatic moment that changed his path in life forever in a big way, like it happened to Bruce and Dick when their parents died (i know that Bruce and Dick suffered through other traumatic events after their parents' deaths and especially as vigilantes, but the point i am trying to make is that, after becoming heroes and having dealt with their biggest trauma through finding ways to do Justice, they eventually "got used" in how to deal with current and future traumatic events, while Jason as just a 12-year-old kid went through too many traumatic things at such a very young age which compiled into his overall trauma, so it's not just dealing with one single defining moment of trauma, it's a colection of more of those from even before Jay became Robin - and that's what Bruce seemed to miss - also, that not everyone is gonna deal with their trauma, even if it is similar, the same way he did, like sometimes he really forgets that, especially when it comes to his children). But,, even with this in mind, i and others actually think that the writing here, including a little after Jay's death, was more sympathetic (at least) towards Jay's situation than next comics and writers were - and that is because at least, originally, despite Bruce lacking some understanding in how to help Jason, he actually did try with Jay and there wasn't that much villainization of Jay's behaviour, either coming from the writing or from Bruce himself,, considering that, at least, Bruce blames himself for Jason's death instead of the blame being put on Jay completely, and Bruce did try to understand and help Jay before, even if he took a while to "try to do something" and he still failed his son. Thou, there is also a disregard towards Jay's situation coming from other characters as well, such as when the Titans, that together with Bruce, would say things that compared Jason to Dick, and obviously more in the sense of "Dick was amazing, hopeful, less angry, etc., than you are as Robin", which obviously contributed to Jason's insecurities.

And while previous writing of the characters makes them "miss the mark" in understanding Jason,, which can just be seen as a character flaw and a indicator of the fact that the Heroes that existed and that Jay encountered at that time just didn't have similar experiences to Jay to make it easier to understand him and that they all were being kinda "narrow minded" because they missed when their friend, Dick, was Robin,, at least the writing of the story and certain parallels between Jason and some victims he and Bruce encountered did give some validity to how Jason feels.

Then Jay dies, the story when Bruce "beats himself" over Jason's death passes, which fine, quite valid, the characters need to move on. But... the next Post-crisis writers decided to turn Jay from a tragic and misfortunate story to a cautionary tale - and this is where the victim blaming of Jason Todd starts to happen.

So, from this point on the writing starts to look at Jason more as a failure that all young heroes need to avoid becoming. Then this is made even worse when Tim Drake comes around, as the new and cooler Robin that is also more relatable, with some comparisons and jokes made at the expense of Jason and his tragedy, which makes the perception of Jason as a failure even worse. Like, DC was really so stupid that they thought that putting emphansis on Tim's perspective on a kid that he knows next to nothing about was the best and correct way to look at Jason in their overall writing... they didn't even try in making other characters that actually knew Jason, like Dick and Bruce, correct Tim on his assumptions - and why is that?? Well, obviously, because DC really wanted to drive home to the readers that Jason was the "bad angry Robin that got himself killed because of his recklessness"... like it can even be said that Tim showed more respect to Jason's Robin memorial than he did Jason as a person. And while Tim making wrong and bad assumptions about Jay is okay, and again, something that can be seen as a character flaw to explore,, the fact that the writers just chose to reinforce Tim's vision of Jason through other characters is just so stupid and makes it look like no one really knew or even cared about Jason Todd, because they needed to focus on "Jason being the bad Robin" narrative. And again,, the fact that characters that knew and were close to Jason, aka Bruce, Alfred and Dick, didn't correct Tim and contributed, and might even given this idea since the begining to Tim viewing Jason as being too "angry and reckless" and that this is what got him killed, could have been used to explore this flawed vision of Jason that these characters had of him as something that was the result of grief, and perhaps of denial that they failed him (especially in Bruce's case that was there when Jay died)... but naw DC just decided to make everyone seem like assholes towards Jay's memory, a 15-year-old kid that died trying to save his mother (which wow, how tf did no one realize how this came accross when DC wrote and published this...).

Thou, as ironic as it might sound, after Jay digs himself out of his grave (because this poor boy can never have any rest) and spends one year in a coma and then waking up and walking catatonic through the streets of Gotham all alone for almost another year, the person that ends up showing him the most understanding is Talia al Ghul, even if at first she might have just cared about her own plans. So, she is the one that shows and gives affection to Jason, trains him and actually gives him the tools to start his path of healing, even if it is filled with more violence than ever before and revenge. And this is where Jason is finally able to "let loose" to show the world his anger towards it's injustice, where he goes after horrible people that hurt innocents and ends their torture of others once and for all, and he actually gets to show and tell Bruce and the Heroes that they failed him and that their methods might not be as good/effective as they think.

But, this is where people also start (both writers and especially readers) not liking Jason even more or to outright hating him, which fair, he did do some actions towards certain people that, no matter how you look at it, always will be wrong and outright horrible. Which might turn Jason into a little bit of an hypocrite himself, just like Bruce and other Heroes. And while it's not a problem, at all, to critique Jason’s actions when he returned as the Red Hood, this is often used to downplay or outright dismiss Jason’s pain and at least the sympathy that he should still have (or even actually have to begin with) from the writers, audience and in-universe characters. Even as he redeems himself and shows regrets about his actions that he did during his worse time, in more recent stories, people will never forget or forgive and stop holding over his character what a "horrible person he is for his mistakes", even if in the real world it was been 12 years since he started his redemption and in-universe, for a couple of years (at least around 2 years, not sure because comics timelines and ages are a mess, but for quite sometime now either way) he has been putting in the effort to respect his father's wishes and become a "better vigilante" that doesn't kill.

But either way it is put,, Jay doesn't seem to have the right to be right in any capacity anymore, to have valid reasons to still be mad but move on from it just being about his death, and going back to being about the other trauma he went through, which almost everyone seems to have forgotten about, especially because the newest writers or DC superiors forgot about it or outright erased it. So, the parts that gave a "clear reason" to feel for and understand Jason were thrown out of the window so they could just make a back and forth between Jay and Batman, where Bruce is mostly the one in the right, despite being the one that failed so many times at helping his son, and a lot of times being the one that caused Jay more pain than anything or anyone else.

And, honestly, the people that use the "Pit Madness" excuse/explanation aren't giving Jason understanding either, they are just giving him an out so the character can be "redeemed" without actually having anything to redeem himself for,, after all it isn't his fault, so why would he need to take responsability or have a valid reason to do what he did, he simply doesn't have a reason, it's just the Pit controling him and his anger or something. Like a puppet... which comes off more as "fake sympathy" because these people seem to only be capable to empathize/sympathise with Jay if he wasn't in control of his violent actions.

Also, maybe he doesn't need/deserve to be forgiven for the way he hurt people that didn't deserve it (such as Mia, Onyx and Tim), but he does deserve at least some understanding, and understanding doesn't mean you agree to his methods, to how he went about "warning Batman and the Hero community of their errors". And it's a damn shame that this seems to be a hard concept for some writers and fans to grasp.

Plus, it's also such a shame that nowadays writing decided to "corrupt" the little that Jay had as Robin by painting him as an angry and violent punk with no good reasons for why he is like he is. Where is that understanding for that kid that went through such a hard life, that just continued and continues to give him nothing but hardships and pain.

So,, i just wanted to conclude that i think Jason had enough of people (both in meta and in-universe) only painting him as if he is "one of the worst people there was/is", that he deserved the pain he went through, claiming that he had no way to have it better, when that couldn't be further from the truth, if he was properly given the chance to grow out of the cycle of violence and pain, that he still wasn’t fully able to move away from even to this day.

Ending my headaches with this post

Generally, i think it's so funny to think about how much our generation gets attached to fictional characters in such a personal way. And while it is valid to feel and express either positive or negative feelings towards a character and their actions, i think that these need to be more balanced and about things that are true about the character, aka coming from canon, as much as canon gives us so many shitty ideas and some really questionable writing choices. Like, at this point i am so tired that DC keeps doing this to Jay... DC, just please make up your mind once and for all in either or not you want Jay to be part of the Batfam and give him something else to do besides always being at odds with his family and going back and forth in working with and not working with them... just find some basic consistency with him, we ain't asking for much.

And again, just because i love Jason and i did defend him more than criticised him during this post, that doesn't mean that i agree or defend everything he did and/or believed/believes in,, i just enjoy his character and some stories (or really the potential that he had/has) and to discuss about it. But sometimes the writing and some fan opinions really annoy me so much, so i feel the need to camplain about them... so, this is why i made this rant on Jason Todd, one of my favourite characters, despite all the shit he gets.

Anyway,, thanks for coming and reading another one of my Jason Todd rants.

[joeyquinndrabz]

It’s not fair- Joseph Quinn x Reader

Not been proof read

Authors note!!!!! Please note that this imagine might be a tough read for some, it touches heavily on death and working in a care-home in lockdown. Massive thank you to any health workers who were at work during the pandemic, you’re all hero’s and deserve more than you were given. If anyone needs a chat then know I’m here and willing to listen ❤️‍🩹

A 12 hour shift had turned into 20. You’d been rushed off your feet and left on your own to care for 14 residents, all in need of your assistance. There was one resident in particular who needed your help the most, Barry. He was 78 and covid had spread to the loveliest man you’d met. Starting at the care-home when you were 16, you’d met your fair share of elderly residents but Barry was the longest resident your care home had ever had, so obviously, there was a soft spot for him that you couldn’t deny. He’d joined on your 18th birthday, 10 years ago. He was quick to sing you happy birthday and compliment you on your smile, he told you it reminded him of his wife who’d sadly passed a couple years prior. Barry had dementia, but he always seemed to remember you. And Joe.

Joseph had come to bring you your lunch at work once, you’d been together since school so the other residents knew him and often stopped him for chats n cups of tea. But, Barry had been an actor in his younger days so Joe had taken a slight favouritism towards him too. You’d often come into Barry’s room to find Joe already there, chuckling as Barry would reenact some of his old dialogues. It was a special bond and Barry had become a mentor for Joe and his career, and a massive part of your lives. So hearing him struggling to breathe was the last straw for you.

“999, what’s your emergency?” The call holder spoke patronisingly down the phone.

“I need an ambulance, now! One of my residents has been whooping all night but he can’t breathe now. He can-“ You held the bridge of your nose and let out a deep breath, a poor attempt to stop yourself from breaking down.

“Has he had any painkillers?” The lady over the phone was starting to wind you up at this point.

“Are you taking the piss? Of course he’s had painkillers. Look, his temperature is 38.7 and his blood pressure is 45. I need a fucking ambulance.” You were desperate and on your own. Your patience was thin and your body was at the brink of collapsing.

“I’m gonna have to ask you to calm down. As I’m sure you’re aware we’re under high demand right now, an ambulance should get to you at some point tonight but in the meantime I need you to keep him comfortable and-“ Your patience had gone. You screamed down the phone and threw it to the other end of the room.

Full PPE on and tears running down your face, you had one job to do and that was to keep him alive. “Barry my love, Im here, Im here.” There wasn’t much you could do in that moment and you both knew that. There was a horrible feeling in the room that you both knew what was coming and there was no stopping it. “Y/N” He gasped. “Hey hey hey, try and take some big deep breaths for me Barry. In and out, slowly. There you go, more of that Barry you’re doing so well.” His breathing had calmed down but his emotions hadn’t. “You and Joe, you’re my family. I know I’m gonna die love, please let me say goodbye.” Barry was wailing and you were sobbing, his wife was the only person he had left before she passed and in a way you were his family. And he was yours. “Barry you can’t die, I won’t let you.” You sobbed as you held his hand tight. “It’s ok love, I’m gonna be with my wife. I can tell her all about you both. I just wanna say goodbye.” His eyes were still pouring but the mentioning of his wife had brought a smile to his face. You were at a loss for words but knew that you would do anything in your power to give him what he needed in this situation. “Okay, okay I’ll ring him.” Your hands were shaking as you pulled out your phone and unlocked your phone. “Can you do that video calling thing?” He gasped out. “Seeing both your faces would bring me great comfort, I can die happily sweetheart.” His words only made you cry more, you were a state and looked one too. A massive mask was covering your face and due to the lack of funding, your ppe was a bin bag so your unwashed hair was on display. If anyone was to see you they’d assume you’d been through the wars. Your thumb pressed FaceTime as you tightened the grip on Barry’s hand with your other, scared of letting him go.

Joe soon appeared on your screen and his face went from confused to mortified. “Oh my god darling what’s happened?” He’d shot up out of bed and, in true Joe fashion, had start to frantically look for his keys. “No no, sit back down please. I don’t have time to explain everything right now and I’m sorry but-“ You’d chocked up and Barry’s heavy breathing was slowing down. “Barry, Barry isn’t well and he wants to speak to you before he goes to sleep.” You couldn’t get the words out, the thought of not seeing Barry everyday was too much and it was obvious the grief had already passed to Joseph. His eyes began to water and his mouth started shaking. “Joe.” Barry muttered, his eyes were closing and your sobs were no longer in hiding. “Joseph im warning you, this might be too much.” You squeezed out mid cry. “No baby please, I need to see him.” Joe bit his lip and tears began to leak. Seeing you in this state was hard enough but knowing Barry was dying next to you was heartbreaking. You turned the phone and heard a gasp from Joe, he wasn’t expecting the sight he’d been shown. Barry was on the edge of death and there was no coming back from it. “Joe my boy, I need you to promise me something.” He was gasping at this point and it was taking everything for you not to tell him to save his breath, scared he was going to pass sooner if he spoke too much. “Anything Barry, anything.” Joe was crying too, his lip was still clenched between his teeth but it wasn’t helping. Nothing would. “Look after her for me, I wanna know you two are gonna stick together when I’m gone.” Barry’s eyes were shut and his hold on your hand was getting weaker with every word. “Of course I will, I won’t let anything happen to her. And I’ll love her until my last days I promise you Barry, you’ve got my word.” Barry smiled and opened his eyes to meet the ones of Joes over the phone. “You’re gonna go far kid, I’ll be watching.” Barry shut his eyes and you knew it was time to get off the phone and leave Barry in peace. You turned the phone and neither of you knew what to say, Joe shook his head and covered his mouth to stop the sobs from getting louder. “I’m coming to pick you up.” This time you didn’t argue. You nodded and knew it was time to say goodbye. You ended the phone and held Barry close until you no longer heard his laboured breathing. He’d gone.

Slowly getting up from the wooden chair, you turned to see Barry laying lifeless in the room you’d learnt to love. The scrabble box was still undone from the last game you’d played with him, due to social distancing rules Joe couldn’t play in real life, but you found a way to play with him over the phone and it was enjoyable for all of you. The door of Barry’s room opened and you looked up to see your manager, shocked at the sight she’d walked in on. “He’s gone.” You whispered, eyes faced towards the floor. “Oh Y/N.” She walked in and held you tight. “Isn’t this against the rules?” You questioned as you sniffed into her shoulder. She pulled you back and pushed your hair out of your face. “So are 20 hour shifts darling, go home. I’ll sort the rest out”. You nodded and headed for the door, stripping yourself of your PPE and showering in the staff room before heading out the entrance. Joe was waiting for you like he said he would, cigarette in hand and he was visibly tired. You walked up to him and he was aware of what was about to come out your mouth. “Did he fall asleep?” He squeaked out. “Yeah baby he’s fallen asleep.” You nodded before breaking down. His arms enclosed as he held you tight, your head buried into his neck. “It’s not fair Joe, it’s not fair.” You wailed. “I know baby, I know.” He cried into your hair. “I failed him.” You pulled back and Joe took in your appearance. You looked broken. “Oh my darling, there’s nothing you could’ve done. He’s not in pain anymore and his last moments were spent with the person who distracted him from it all. You did everything you could.” Joe was wiping your tears as you reached up wipe his. “I made him a promise and I’m sticking to it. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you my love, let’s get you home yeah?”

“I love you Joseph Quinn.”

“I love you too Y/N L/N”

[starvels]

Cw: Fatphobia, body shaming, disordered eating, suicidal ideation

We talking about that “””banter””” in Marvel’s Avengers when the team bullied Tony about his weight and he talks about being on a juice cleanse?? Because I hate that so, so much. Like. Tony was depressed! and isolated for 5 years!!! And like, Not Doing Ok!

@blossomsinthemist was talking about it and like :(((((( https://www.tumblr.com/blossomsinthemist/721606463816105984/nat-may-claim-she-never-broke-cover-to-help

Plus the fact that it’s heavily implied Nat, that takes part in the bullying, KNOWS Tony was depressed and suicidal https://www.tumblr.com/blossomsinthemist/721588267817025536/i-need-more-fics-out-squareenixs-steve-coming-to

And like you said, he is still thin in the game, but like, so what if he wasn’t? Tony can be any shape and he wouldn’t deserve that! He could still be any shape and still kick ass in a literal power suit. Like. :(

(I kinda liked how I’m the game Tony seemed to have a bit of a hunch to him, man’s a workaholic that is either typing or leaned over a work table and I liked seeing that in a character design (tho it might just be a bad rig and all the characters have it, it’s just hidden under their costumes), but -11000099999 points for the ““banter””. EG Thor all over again)

yeah! that is what i was referring to in this post. as i'm watching playthroughs to make MA content for STG, i found this scene so off-putting and it reminded me of a lot of other ones i've seen in comics. & feeling just the general vibe reading a comic that i am never gonna get to see fat people be heroic. especially not at least, without emphasizing that they're a fat person sure, but they are still heroic, don't worry!

fat heroes' heroism always comes as a caveat to their body shape and weight.

nasty!!!!

but yes blossoms' point here abt tony and perception of self and internalizing a lot of judgement values about his appearance and how fun it is to explore that are so apt!

blossoms always handles tony's relationship with his own body in such compelling and intricate ways that are very tender and vulnerable. and i agree! i also like exploring these themes and playing with how tony relates to being a public figure, as well as how he relates to himself and the ways in which he feels pleasure or contentment or beauty or pride.

to blossoms+anons second point, abt nat knowing, yeah. if you read it just in-text, it can be really complicated by their own individual and combined relationships to trauma and processing and how much info they are sharing between them. that's always very interesting to eke out of interactions w the two of them -- two people who can guard their hearts and heads so intensely.

but taking a meta-textual approach to it, i flat out think when people ascribe their own -isms to characters, they are not thinking about how it fits a character's personality or interpersonal relationships.

we, as the fans, do the labor of asking how it can be internally consistent for a character that grew up without bodily autonomy, that knows intimately how loss and trauma affect your bodily functions, who knows exactly how tony fights and what it takes to do that, who knows that bodies are only one tool in a whole box -- makes fun of someone who trusts her, on her team, for potentially gaining weight. we hypothesis and convolute the relationship and infer from the absences of a canon text. the writers don't have to do any of that work. and that more than anything generally proves to me how shoehorned in all the -isms people apply to characters are.

they're not thinking three levels deep. and to be honest, i like our collective 3 level thoughts better than there, so ! phooey on them!! they don't get a seat at our table.

it literally doesn't matter what your body looks like if you're designing a metal suit to go around it that is based on non-physical input to function. and tony's found family should abso-fucking-lutely not be (even jokingly) shaming him for disordered eating and suicidal ideation, esp not during a battle lol. but yes, tony should have a hunch and neck problems and whine and use a heating pad and tiger balm too much <3 beloved greasemonkey sun.

[initiumseries]

It makes sense, I'm not a big fan of this format either

I tried looking for your comments about Invincible and didn't find much, but I wanted to know, what you thought of Invincible? Which characters did you like the most? What did you think of the couples? About the story and how it was developed? The animation itself, this kind of thing

Yeah, like honestly, if I wanted this format I would've stuck to cable lol.

Thanks for looking, but yeah, I didn't really get many Invincible asks, and I only really posted about how the fandom (typically) irrationally hated Amber

So, my thoughts on Invincible as a show, was I liked the idea, I think that they handled the concept of an "invincible" not so hero super being far better than The Boys. Like even though Omni Man mollywhops the FUCK out of his son, I believe it when he finally is like...fuck. I can't do this, this is my son. And leaves. And because we'd only seen him operating in secret, and his choices made sense, he wasn't just some insane white supremacists man baby with powers, I was like man this is evil, but I'd like to see where you're going with this, and the reveal didn't disappoint. The Boys just...doesn't seem to have a coherent point, and the points they do make have me like

I think there were some weird threads that, while I could see how they were weaving the story, I didn't really understand the point of, like the robot, and trying to get a physical body etc. I didn't care for Eve's storyline at all, and cared even less for her single episode or whatever. I personally find when people who don't experience violent isms are naturally, quite bad at writing them, especially for animation. I think I felt like, after a second watch, there was some meandering, and I wanted a really tight, really focused and executed season, more Arcane, less Avengers the animated series, as far as story execution. Everything in Arcane had a clear purpose, and with Invincible, quite a bit felt gratuitous and like it deserved cutting. When I learned about how awful the production was, it made more sense though lol.

I liked the animation, but, and I've said this before and people get their panties all knotted up over it, American animation excels at the action sequences. Big fights, big explosions, they got the fx and animation in the bag. Smaller acting moments filled with emotion, not so much. And that sucks, because anime really fulfills that for me. I know I can watch an anime that has sick action animation and incredible character animation, and I wish North American animation placed more emphasis on the latter, but when everything is rigged to hell, and there's very little hand drawn animation in tv anymore because of the deadlines, I see how that gets lost. But to emphasize my point:

I really need more Black character designers on these productions and as ADs, because I HATED Amber's character design. Like, I don't know who this is, but it's not a Black person.

While there's a conversation to be had about the same tired ass hairstyles for Black men and boys in animation, I still can look at this and be like, yes, this is a Black person.

Inb4 someone cries about it being 3D, there's no reason to not get the same fidelity out of 2D animation, not when Static Shock and Justice League have laid groundwork for those clear shorthands.

but it makes sense they'd suck at drawing BW because they want the girls to be simultaneously eurocentrically attractive, while also being shit at designing Black people.

I didn't care for any of the couples. I wasn't particularly interested in a single thing Eve did, or the robot not robot guy falling for the lady who keeps getting younger, and I cared even less for Amber and Mark, but again, I think it's because there was a development to the relationships that I was looking for, and the show is so focused on all this action and Omni-man, there wasn't much room for the right development to those relationships, and by extension, the characters, for me to care about how they went. I think the only relationship I marginally cared about was Omni man and Mark's mom and that's because they did just enough, playing them like this lusty couple, and then he calls her a pet. I was like...oh damn, lol. We're going there. Embarrassing. I think if we cut out a lot of the chaff with the excessive action scenes and really built the story with as many emotional stakes are there were physical ones, it could've really been a powerhouse of a show, but instead I think it ends up being niche because it's like a well animated show without too much substance. I hope for more season 2, but I know how animation productions work, and that's an empty wish lol, but I'm still gonna watch it because I like watching animated stuff.

[shut-up-rabert]

Do you support hindutva or hinduism? Because I saw one of your post tagged with 'hindutva' and that's kinda concerning. Generally people in India who side with rss, bajrang dal, casteism, spreading communal hatred.. they identify with hindutva. While hinduism is much more about denouncing the flaws (like casteism in religion) and embracing the all encompassing nature of hindu religion.

it was tagged hindutva because I was referred to as a Hindutva blog in that ask, sir.

And while we are at it, what do you think hindutva means? The sanskrit suffix -tva is literally equivalent of -ism or -hood in english. Hindutva for real means Hinduism, nothing else. Here’s the deal: we didn’t coin this term, leftist extremists who knew Hindi coined it, and rightists extremists just rolled with it for the sake of savouring a feel of an anti hero. People are hell bent on smearing our name and nobody gives two flying fucks on what it does to us.

And while yes, caste discrimination and Bajrang dal has rarely done any good in this country, pretty sure that RSS is a lot more mellow and has not done much to deserve the hate. Might be bias speaking since my grandpa learned at a shakha but he was a congressi when I started this blog so I guess that hasn’t stopped me yet.

[mariacallous]

I think your point about cults and "the leader" yes fully, there are large numbers of Republicans who (in the case of Qanon literally) think Trump is some kind of Christ figure, national savor etc, and again in Qanon that he will be the leader in a kind of reimagined Revelations style end of the world. And even outside of Qanon that kind of thinking less extreme or more vague is very common that Trump, objectively a not very good person or President is a hero, or many Evangelicals have said "chosen by God" that God picked him to lead America

you're not gonna find any Democrats who feel that way about Joe Biden, no Democrats think he's gonna lead us through a "The Storm" or that God picked him to be our greatest leader thats not a thing. I think with Bernie to your point there's a little of that, "The Revolution" but less mysticism and religiosity on that one.

I think another "cult-ism" is defining or making your own reality, and also defining enemies of the cult as monsters. And again on the right we see Qanon, we see "Groomers" we see the ideas around the covid lock down and vaccines, we can go on but anti-science, totally fictionalized and insane narratives around LGBT people, and thats not even getting into white nationalist stuff that has really pushed its way into the GOP.

So you don't have that same denial of reality? in the Democrats even Bernie Bro leftists aren't hair on fire about totally 100% not real stuff, we might disagree with them, but their answers we think are dumb are answers to real problems, like health care or the price of college, not "Covid vaccines are mind control plot"

now you could make the point that Dems are demonizing Republicans and just being unwilling to listen or talk and calling them fascists, racists, etc etc. And like not to get school yard, but they started it? As a gay man I can't be a Republican because Republicans my whole life have made it clear I don't deserve human rights so like how can I be expected to listen about tax policy when they just voted I shouldn't have rights? as the uncle of a young trans person how can I talk about copyright law with someone who want to torture someone I love by denying him health care? and so on and so forth, like only if you don't have skin in the game does it seem the same. Because there's no Democratic policy meant to victimize a group of people because they're Republicans thats not a thing, it's very much a thing with Republicans toward Democratic voting minority communities.

No, you're right. Like that's the thing about both-sidesing is that flattens and ignores reality and nuance and differences, and makes your responses and reactions and thinking less effective.

[perfectoffering]

───     𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙻 𝙻𝙸𝙵𝙴’𝚂 𝙽𝙰𝚂𝚃𝚈. it’s cruel. it doesn’t care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. in real life, bad things happen. people die. fights are lost. evil often wins.

🫧 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆. written for  @enchantedtm​. loved by 𝐊𝐇𝐋𝐎𝐄. mun is  21+  and uses she/they  pronouns ooc. 𝙰 𝚂𝚃𝚄𝙳𝚈 𝙸𝙽: princes wait there in the world, but wolves and humans, too; funny how the heart tells the mind what to do; wishes come true, not free; if you do it right, suffering feels religious; it's not fair, but that's the way it is; don't i deserve the best?

𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ⤐ intro. wcs. threads. fc. isms. all.

𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚓𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚘�� \\ peter pan

𝐄𝐒𝐌𝐄 𝐊𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐎𝐑 ⤐ intro. wcs. threads. fc. isms. all.

𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊 𝚖𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚢 \\ dracula

𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐓 ⤐ intro. wcs. threads. fc. isms. all.

𝚐𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚞𝚖𝚎 \\ beauty and the beast

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛 \\ bambi

𝐉𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐌𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍 ⤐ intro. wcs. threads. fc. isms. all.

𝚜𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚑 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖𝚜 \\ labyrinth

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐔𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 ⤐ intro. wcs. threads. fc. isms. all.

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚐 𝚋𝚊𝚍 𝚠𝚘𝚕𝚏 \\ little red riding hood

𝚙𝚒𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚎 \\ beauty and the beast

𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐 \\ cinderella

??? \\ sleeping beauty

𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐎 ⤐ intro. wc. threads. fc. isms. all.

𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚣𝚊𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚡 \\ the neverending story

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚐𝚐𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚗 \\ the wizard of oz

[death-ism]

@blood-ism​​    𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬    𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍  !!

‘unfortunately I did just that, though I appreciate your faith in me.’

❛❛   𝐎❜  𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐄  𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇   !          A    moment    tucked    in    the    deeper    corners    of    the    underworld    where    the    bureaucracy    and    shades    do    not    dare    to    tread    often    there    is    a    silence    brought    on    by    a    lack    of    understanding.    what    could    he    possible    mean?    and    then,    he    remembers    just    a    few    days    ago    that    they'd    been    on    about    his    silly    desires    to    cause    trouble    just    to    be    seen.    it's    all    he    wanted    was    to    be    seen,    and    no    amount    of    reassurances    from    anyone    would    get    him    to    cease    them.    he    would    not    when    all    these    violent    thrashings    were    outright    cries    that    seemingly    fell    on    a    father's    ears    deafened    by    time    and    bitterness    in    endless    life    endured.    here    they    were,    again,    in    the    same    place,    different    setting,    touching    upon    the    same    lines    as    a    blink    in    time    ago.

for    someone    that    lived    his    days    in    the    same    manner    a    hero    set    adrift    in    the    hungering    bowels    of    the    underworld    too ��  early    to    the    very    many    faces    of    death,    these    long    runs    of    time    forfeited    trying    to    escape    …    such    deaths    that    were    far    too    violent    to    be    met    by    Thanatos.    he    could    not    be    the    one    to    cradled    his    bloody    and    beaten    body    to    his    own    form    and    set    him    drifting    down    the    currents    of    styx    to    be    reborn    anew,    still    very    blood    and    stronger    than    before.    no,    he    had    to    be    picked    apart    by    his    fearsome    sisters,    keres,    doing    their    foul    work    like    vultures    drawn    in    to    devour    his    godly    flesh.

Thanatos    would    never    pose    more    harm    to    him    than    he    has    yet    endured.    not    him.    never    Zagreus.    No    matter    how    much    they    could    disagree    would    he    think    he    deserved    this    fate.    he    deserved    to    led    benevolently    to    death's    embrace    —    into    his    embrace.    if    he    would    only    cease    this    foolishness,    he    would    not    have    to    be    led    into    death    at    all    by    him    nor    by    anyone    else.

❛    tell    me    you    did    not,    ❜    disappointment    tainted    soft    phrase,    released    from    lips    much    like    an    exhale    of    a    sigh.    ❛    you    have    not    learned    a    single    thing    in    this    self-inflicted    journey    you    undertake,    have    you?    ❜    he    may    have    bothered    to    inquire    of    it,    but    he    knew.    Thanatos    knew    better    than    most    the    brazen,    stubborn    nature    gifted    him    by    his    lord-father.    Zag    would    carry    on    for    spite,    if    he    deemed    such    action    necessary.

it    seems    he    has    deemed    this    much    necessary    now.

❛    do    not    expect    mercy    from    me    next    i    must    save    you    from    yet    another    death    at    the    hands    of    the    creatures    your    father    sends    to    do    you    in.    what    will    you    do    if    one    day    death    does    not    release    you    back    into    the    arms    of    the    living?    when    you    die    like    the    gods    do,    permanently,    will    you    learn    then?    ❜    it    flies    from    his    mouth,    covered    in    vitriol    and    hard    enough    to    set    his    teeth    ringing    from    the    force    they    are    delivered,    ❛    the    point,    Zag    —    what    would    it    all    have    been    for?    ❜

[singofus]

@death-ism asked: “ i’m proud of you.” gentle   had   death   been   to   the   poor,   sweet   soul   before   him   when   he   found   angry   form   broken,   defiled   by   the   hand   of   another   mindless   godling   parading   among   the   humans   as   heroes   of   old.   gentle   was   he   once   more   in   the   face   of   a   champion   lauding   his   wins   over   even   the   prince   of   this   domain   like   a   true   golden   hero.

this   laurel   —   for   once   —   was   very   well   deserved.

meme i've forgotten | Not Accepting

It came as a great surprise for the god of sleep to ask for an autograph from him, bringing him his first hint that there are gods that look upon him favourably. That was something that he took in his stride at the time, but processed later alone.

His work here, his efforts, they really are making progress. People see beyond his appearance and his history. They see who he is, how he fights now, and that is their focus. It gives him a great sense of pride.

To now hear it from Thanatos, that hit Asterius at a deeper level. Lord Thanatos had been the first one to see him as truly himself. A shade crying with relief upon the floor below him, not even knowing what this was or who Thanatos was, but just knowing that this was death. This was peace. The anger, the hunger, finally subsiding.

How naive he was then to think that was the end, but Death let him have such peace for a little while. For that he had always been grateful.

Now here he is, before Death again but this time displaying a laurel of victory in shining turquoise and bronze, stronger than ever he had been. He nods his head in acknowledgement of the words then gives a little respectful bow of the head.

"Thank you, Lord Thanatos. I appreciate your words. I take it you watched the fight. I hope you thought it entertaining." The usual crowd thought so, and he was pleased for that. Seeing his banners wave in celebration today as he delivered the final blow to the short one.

[vivithefolle]

Hi Vivi, can you share some thoughts on the "Hermione deserves to be/should have married to XYZ because she is way too good for Ron" mentality of this fandom??

I’m gonna copy-paste a Quora answer of mine, because recycling is important!

Claiming that Ron is “out of Hermione’s league” is a statement rooted in sexism, classism and probably a bunch of other -isms.

It might seem like I’m just throwing buzz-words around but let me explain.

First off, the sexism.

Oh, the sexism.

As I’ve pointed it out in yet another one of my answers  (I’m so sorry for drowning you all in a plethora of links), Ron is very much a female-coded male character.

Ron is emotional, wears his heart on his sleeve, has anxieties and inadequacies, walks off in order to cool down, has a temper, puts other people before his needs, and pretty much adopts Harry when he rescues him in the second book. He’s the Heart of the Trio: he doesn’t rely on sole logic, he can believe something without proof, he is sensitive and thus is the easiest to hurt emotionally.

Whether you call it a “beta male”, a “wuss”, “defying gender roles” or a “soft boy” is your own business, but the core of it is that Ron doesn’t meet the standards for people’s vision of a “desirable” masculine figure.

The little things Ron quietly performs in the books - when he helps Harry into his pyjamas in Chamber of Secrets because Harry’s arm is bloop; when he’s worrying about Hermione’s whereabouts in Prisoner of Azkaban; when he helps Harry unwind after his visions in Goblet of Fire; when he puts food onto Harry’s plate and wakes him up from his nightmares in Order of the Phoenix; when he beams that Hermione was “perfect, obviously” when she passes her Apparition test - all those caring gestures don’t seem like much, but if you bother to think about it, they paint an enormous picture.

Who gets Hermione to stop overworking while making her feel good about her accomplishments? Who comforts Harry from his nightmares and cares for him in the dead of the night, when nobody is awake? Who makes sure his friends are healthy and happy? Who wards off the dark and depressing thoughts, be it with his fists or a joke?

It’s Ron.

When you think about it, “traditional masculinity” in Harry Potter is as much frowned upon as “traditional feminity” is - which sometimes bites Rowling in the butt when you remember how she obviously seems to consider that Hermione and Ginny are the only desirable kind of girls.

Vernon Dursley? The entrepreneur “king of the household” prejudiced suburbian middle-class Dad? Fits in the usual tropes of traditional masculinity.

Dudley Dursley? The typical “boys will be boys” spoiled middle-class only child who’s the apple of his parents’ eyes and even takes up boxing, as if he wasn’t traditionally masculine enough.

Draco Malfoy? See Dudley, but toss in “upper-class posh aristocrat bully who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty so he has henchmen do it for him because he’s too rich for this sh-t”, would remind you of a few Christian Greys or Gatsbys.

Dolores Umbridge? Oh no, cat pictures, decorative plates, talks to teens as if they’re babies and PINK, SO MUCH PINK!!! So disgustingly feminine!!

Rowling very much frowns upon traditional gender roles - with Molly Weasley being an exception because Rowling feels very strongly about being a mother, and relates to Molly a lot.

Right - so, being a beautiful mess of paradoxes and contradictions (a “soft boi” who also punches bullies in the face, a fussy mother-hen who swears like a sailor, a tall athlete with badass scars on his arms who’s nurturing and sweet; in short, a wonderfully human character), Ron is obviously going to be a polarizing character. You painfully relate to him and get defensive when he’s criticized, you feel his characterization hits a bit too close to home so you hate him, or you disregard him completely because you can’t see anything “special” about him…

Now, onto another very, very sexist point that is often made.

People say that Hermione “deserves better” than Ron, often claiming that they “aren’t intellectual equals”, then citing Harry (who is mistaken as being some sort of slumbering genius but honestly, the kid is really a bit daft) or Draco (since apparently, being rich must equal to being intelligent) or, god forbid, Snape (because he’s a teacher and teachers are meant to be clever).

Soooo, I could go the loooooong way and pull out all the receipts that prove that none of these characters are perfectly intellectually matched to Hermione…

Or I could go the long way and simply give you this: this obsession with finding an “intellectual equal” for Hermione reflects the mentality of “women are not allowed to be better at something than their husband”.

Yep.

A woman has to be all-around pretty good at everything, whereas a man has to be the absolute best in his area of greatest competence (surely better than any puny female!) with a help-meet there to compensate for his weaknesses. People are very, very uncomfortable when Ron and Hermione reverse this dynamic. Hermione is extremely intelligent and dedicated to intellectual pursuits, but is complete pants at things like self-care and people skills. Ron is bright enough to keep up with her and strong in her areas of weakness.

Even if Ron was as dumb as a sack of rocks (he’s not), his other virtues are more than enough to “justify” Hermione loving him. (Because she needs an excuse?) But no. A woman has to be with a man who outdoes her in her area of greatest strength. - credit to @lytefoot

People don’t want Hermione to be with a man who’s her “equal.” They want her to be with a man who can be The Man so she can know the contentment of being The Woman.

But, with this sexist line of thought, how do we justify how Ron is supposed to be such a bad match for Hermione? Because if it was just about mere sexism, Romione would surely be more popular. Imagine! Ron happily raising the children, being a house-husband and proud of it, while Hermione is out there fighting for justice in the wizarding world! What a power-couple, defying norms and gender roles and not being the least bit conscious of it, prime OTP material for sure! So why do people still want Hermione to put Harry, Draco, or god forbid², Snape in Ron’s place? Is this an irrational hatred of redheads? An Harmionian’s delirious wet dream? A failure to separate the actors from their characters?

It’s all this and, quite frankly, something more: the inherent classism that comes with Ron’s status as an explicitly working-class coded character.

I know, I know, “Vivian! Calm down with the buzzwords, you’re starting to sound like an online pretend-feminist magazine!”

Or “Come on, people who don’t ship Ron and Hermione together aren’t all sexist or classist!”

Of course, of course! I know that! I’m not implying that!

But some of the “reasons” why they claim that Ron and Hermione can’t work - are extremely classist in nature, that’s just it!

Come on, think about it! What are the Number Ones arguments people always pull against Ron? Or the most common Ron-bashing tropes (look at fanfics and watch the number of stories that use at least one of those)?

Ron is stupid/mediocre

Ron is lazy/useless

Ron resents his wife’s hard work/success

Ron is a homophobe

Ron is a drunkard

Ron (the big prude who at 16 had never kissed a girl and sees a first kiss as the prelude to a wedding) is massively oversexed and cheats on Hermione with anything that moves

Not only do these “reasons” completely ignore ALL OF RON’S CHARACTERIZATION - except for the “lazy” bit but come off it, all teenagers are lazy and Hermione’s the exception to the rule - but it matches perfectly with the negative stereotypes associated with working-class white men in fiction.

It’s also very funny to note how many (assumedly middle-class or financially secure) fans look down on Ron for being “whiny” or “greedy” when he expresses the desire to have money of his own, or blame his parents for “not knowing when to stop” or “being irresponsible”, or even look down on them for being “too proud to accept help”!! Also how shocked people are when Ron dares to stand up for himself when Hermione or Harry act badly towards him. How dare this country boy not listen to the wisdom of his social “betters”?

So, obviously, because our Heroine can’t go with a Nasty, Mediocre Working-Class Man, she must be paired off with someone of Proper Status: say, a Hero that was raised in a middle-class home and might be a bit psychologically damaged but it’s nothing all those gold coins in his vault can’t fix; or this Rich Posh Aristocrat who actively rooted for her death, he’s a little bit eccentric and has some exotic pet-names to call you, but I’m sure you’ll learn to love him and will unearth the gold coins in his bank account… I mean, the heart of gold that lies within the surface; oh, why not a Way Too Big An Age Difference Teacher if you’re looking for a “cultured man” who has zero things in common with you; we can also bring Convenient Plot Device Famous Rich Foreign Athlete if you want some diversity and you don’t feel original!

But we can’t - oh, we mustn’t let her be with this Terrible Working-Class Boy! His brothers are fine, they have money, they have jobs, so they’re obviously Not As Mediocre. But let our precious Hermione be with this Just-Got-Out-Of-School hooligan? She can’t possibly be in love with him! You’ll see darling, you’ll get bored eventually! He’s too mediocre for you, you deserve a man who outclasses you - I mean, who can provide for you! You’re a fragile little flower who scars people for life when she’s not happy with them, what makes you think that this boy can possibly handle you even though he’s done so for the past seven years?

You wanted it, you got it.

People are shallow, have misconceptions about Ron’s character that they are unwilling to correct or use classist and sexist arguments to try to make it so that either Ron is the Devil himself / Hermione is a higher kind of being that can only orgasm if sufficiently “intellectually stimulated” / what-have-you.

[iowiymiw]

Im constantly thinking about ur Jennifers body post… AND YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!

I think a big part of the movie is showing that jennifer is not a good friend ://

And it makes me upset because Needy cares so much for her but at the same time she’s scared of her if that makes sense)? And friendship even relationships shouldn’t be like that. I think needy deserved way better and jennifer deserved to be a better friend and being there for needy because needy tried to do what’s best and idk man it makes me really upset because its just one of those things were you will care so much for a person and love them unconditionally that them ignoring you or even saying bad stuff about you will make it look okay don’t get me wrong i love Jennifers body but yeah :(

shit i realized i never answered this, sorry. and then i put what was supposed to be a quick response into a really long ramble.

YES i totally think thats the point and she really is scared of her. watching the movie, it's easy to get caught up in a lot of second-hand embarassment, especially if you have been in or ever knew someone in a friendship like that.

diablo cody talked about how she loved horror and she wanted to make a movie about teenage girls because when she was a teenage girl nothing else scared her more than other teenage girls, and its really really true. its unfortunately pretty common at that age to live and die by your best friend and that sort of intimacy means that you will put up with all sort of shit if it means the alternative is losing one of your longest and most important friendships.

it feels so fucking weird and intense because often its one of your first. i see a lot of art and content for jennifer i think is because a lot of girls watching want to BE jennifer, with her supposed confidence and quips and she's played by megan fox, sexy but also renowned feminist martyr of the 2000s etc etc even when all of the backdrop for all of that stuff is putting up that front all the time is not helping the succubus-isms.

needy is the hero by letting herself care and killing jennifer. and it's not exactly like we have no idea who she is. she lives with an overprotective mom, she has a goofy boyfriend, and is in many ways is very outspoken and smart, just... not when it comes to jennifer, or anything tangentially concerning her: her clothes, her school reputation as jennifer's weird friend in love with her. i mean her nickname is needy, after all. sort of ironic by the end of the movie that her life when she killed jennifer, she is more defined by her than ever.

i'd imagine for a lot of people might hit too close to home for people to want to look too hard at it. its never fun looking back at when you were a needy, and its not fun thinking about needy if you've ever been a jennifer, if you have any self-awareness. maybe jennifer's body is to teenage girls making fancams on twitter what fight club is so infamously to film bros. that, or its just more fun for most people to edit megan fox in her pink hearts top than to think too think about some of the other stuff. idk.

[overwatch-does-stuff]

Okay, it’s time for some deep nerdery to speculate about Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 has 30+ characters. That’s one hell of a large ensemble. If Blizzard had any brain cells, they would probably try and take a similar approach to how Marvel handled their large cast in Avengers: Infinity War.

Remember Infinity War? It functioned as a movie by keeping its groups of characters small (at most five people per group) but also by choosing ‘main characters’ that it focused most of its emotional energy on (most notably, Ironman, Dr. Strange, Vision, Thor, Thanos, and Gamora). The main characters were the ones with emotional arcs and therefore had the most screentime. The rest of the cast was quite static. Also, characters in different groups rarely, if ever got to interact with any characters outside of their group, with the rare exception of a quip or two.

My suspicion is that Overwatch 2 is going to do a VERY similar thing. This means that the roster of Overwatch heroes are going to be divided up into groups and assigned either main character or side character status.

So who’s going to be in each group? That I can’t tell you. As Marvel has shown, characters are grouped up not based on character compatibility, or even arc potential, but instead on what would best make the plot go forward. (For example, raise your hand if you predicted that Ironman, Spiderman, and Dr. Strange would team up with Starlord, Mantis, and Drax for the climax. No one? That’s what I thought.)

What I can predict, however, is whether each Overwatch hero is going to be given main character status or not. My predictions are going to be based on lore importance and current emotional arcs that have been set up the Overwatch continuity. Unfortunately, fan favoritism or previous screen time is not a good indicator (again, as shown in Infinity War.: raise your hand if you predicted that Captain F*cking America would have less than fifteen minutes screentime?) and therefore will not be counted in my evaluation.

NOTE: It is assumed that the plot of Overwatch 2 will be the plot that was introduced in the Zero Hour short, along with the gameplay trailer.

I’ll go tank/damage/support, alphabetically through each section.

D.va- Oh, poor D.va. Unfortunately, I think she’s just going to be a side character. Being so unconnected with the rest of the cast is a death sentence for plot importance. The only way I can see her being a major player is in an indirect way- if Blizzard decides to focus on the “Omnic From the Sea” they teased at in the short Shooting Star.

Orisa- Orisa is not so cleanly cut. Given that she was created to defeat Doomfist, she has potential to be the one who takes him down. They’re narrative and thematic rivals (an analysis of which could be a whole other post) which made me finally decide that she’ll be main character status. I know that seems like a cop-out, but given how Doomfist is the main face of villainy, her connection with him makes her important.

Reinhardt- I’m going to be massacred for this, but I don’t see any universe where Reinhardt is a main character. His character is static, his connection with old Overwatch is the most flimsy out of the oldies, and most of his backstory has already been explored. He’s going to be a side character, relegated to a mentor to Brigitte.

Roadhog- Nope. Side character. He and Junkrat fall into the same boat. Not being a part of Overwatch and having no connections to any characters in Overwatch makes more than passing screentime impossible.

Sigma- OUR BOY SIGMA is going to get no screentime, calling it right now. He’s going to be firmly relegated to side character status. Why? Although he might be a serious fan favorite, his lore and the conflict it introduces (the cosmic horror of the universe) doesn’t really apply to the rest of Overwatch. We know he’s affiliated with Talon, but more like a weapon than a character. He’s got serious redemption potential, but the arc would be very. . . simple. As soon as he gets to Overwatch the arc would be over. 

Winston- MAIN CHARACTER. Our mans is currently the driving force behind the majority of the plot (that isn’t whatever Talon’s doing). He’s the one who recalled Overwatch. Enough said. If he doesn’t get an arc about learning how to be a leader, I am going to be shocked.

Wrecking Ball- lol side character. Given how Blizzard hasn’t made any attempt to treat him more than a walking gimmick, he’s going to be such a side character that he might blend into the background.

Zarya- This is another character that makes me hesitate. At first glance, she’s in the same boat as D.va in that she has no personal connections with the lore or the main cast. HOWVER, she’s directly involved in the conflict of Overwatch 2 because she is currently fighting Omnics in Russia AND has been trying to track down Talon on her own for a while now. Plus, she also has a very juicy potential character arc: she’s racist towards Omnics. Her comic touched on the fact that she has the potential to outgrow her prejudice. This leads me to believe that Zarya is going to be one of the main characters, if a more minor one than the rest.

---

Ashe- Side character. Her connection to McCree ensures that she’ll get some juicy interactions, but not enough to be considered a main character. More than likely she’ll be contacted to help out with the plot conflict, but she’s not going to have any sort of arc or emotional connection with other characters beyond snarky one-liners.

Bastion- . . . I hate this, but I don’t trust Blizzard to give Bastion the relevance they deserve as a character. Don’t get me wrong, I think Bastion will be important to the plot of stopping the rogue Omnics, but I think Bastion themselves will be treated as a McGuffin. They’re mute and prone to acting naively, which is not conducive to character agency. I’m going treat McGuffin as a third category to my predictions.

Doomfist- literally the Thanos of this conflict. He’s going to be a main character, but I doubt he’ll get any character development, because that’s what Reaper is for.

Echo- Main character. It’s pretty much guaranteed by the fact that McCree sought her out in his animated short and that she was once the payload of Route 66. The Overwatch narrative also treats her as the “sPeCiAl OmNiC” that’s somehow more advanced/better/more sentient than the rest of the Omnic cast. As much as I think the role that they’re going to give her would be better suited for Bastion or Zenyatta, I just know that Blizzard is going to give her the full main character treatment. She’s going to be the magical bridge between Omnics and humans. Count me mad about it.

Genji- I love our ninja boy, and he’s an honorary mascot of the game, but as far as arcs go he just finished his. He’s finally found inner peace. That’s not a good sign for main-character-ism. However, he has tons and tons of connections to the rest of the cast and the lore. . . but I don’t think it’s enough. I think he’s going to end up as the character that other characters are able to bounce off of. Everybody knows him, so they’ll be talking to him a lot, but he isn’t going to drive the plot with his own struggles. He’s a side character. His brother, however. . .

Hanzo- As one of the two people in the Overwatch roster actively undergoing a serious life crisis, I suspect that Hanzo is going to be a main character. The fact that he and his goals are not connected to Talon or Overwatch is a detractor, but his emotional turmoil as established in the short Dragons is too important too ignore. His decisions, however reckless and hot-headed they will be, will significantly impact the plot. Why? Because his potential for redemption is such juicy story bait. Also, he could bring in an entire other faction, the Shimada Clan, into the plot, and that could be a game-changer.

Junkrat- Side character. The same reasoning for Roadhog applies here. He’s not connected in any way to the cast. The only potential mystery about him is the ‘treasure’ that’s been alluded to over and over again. If he has this story bait, why am I calling him a side character? Unfortunately, it’s because his ‘treasure’, whatever it is, is going to be a McGuffin. Junkrat’s going to be lucky if he avoids the same status.

McCree- A side character, but an important one. This decision was a difficult one. He’s got the lore and the connections to the other characters but not the internal character arc. He was an active player in unleashing Echo, but it’s also hinted at that he isn’t going to join the recalled Overwatch, instead striking out to do his own thing. That’s not conducive to being a major player in the story. However, his connections and conversations with other characters might, in the same way I’ve predicted Genji’s might, motivate other characters to drive the plot forward.

Mei- Side character. Nothing much else to say. Her focus on climate science isn’t going to be super relevant to the Omnic plot. She’s got only a very loose connection with other characters in the form of her Overwatch membership.

Pharah- I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, but she’s going to be a side character, calling it right now. She’s got so much potential because of her relationship with her mom, but that’s about it. Ana is her only connection to the rest of the cast. It’s important that they reconcile, but their reconciliation has nothing to do with any other plot point. It’s isolated. That’s not a good sign for her screen time, especially considering that she’s not looking for Ana and Ana is not looking for her.

Reaper- MAIN CHARACTER. You should have seen this coming. As the primary instigator of the plot (aka the reason Winston recalled Overwatch,) it should be meta-textually obvious why he’s going to have a lot of screentime. He’s directly responsible for a significant chunk of the unresolved lore conflict within old Overwatch. In order to resolve it, we’re going to be seeing him, a lot.

Soldier 76- Main character, for exactly the reasons listed above. As Reaper’s foil and the person who’s hunting him down, Soldier is going to be pretty important in concluding that unresolved conflict. It’s destiny. Like in a murder-soulmates kinda way.

Sombra- Tricky, tricky, tricky. . . it’s difficult to say. It all depends, I think, on the amount of emphasis Blizzard places on her conspiracy. If she’s the only character who knows exactly what’s going on, that could set her up to be very plot relevant. However, her relationship with other characters and to the rest of the Overwatch lore is shaky at best. I’m going to leave this one blank. There’s just too much we don’t know.

Symmetra- Here we have the other person in the Overwatch roster that is actively undergoing a serious life crisis that I alluded to. Symmetra might at first seem unrelated to everything- the lore, the characters, etc, but Blizzard has set up a surefire redemption arc for her that needs to be resolved. She is going to realize that Vishkar and Talon are connected, and she is going to make the decision to either go full villain (unlikely) or to turn over all the information she knows to Overwatch. Either way, she’s going to get involved, and she’s going to grow as a character. Main character material.

Torbjorn- Torbjorn, oh Torbjorn. Here’s a case that makes me upset. For all intents and purposes, he should be a main character. He’s the one who helped develop the Omnics, and he’s got an active character arc where he’s trying to undo the damage Omnics have caused. This ties him pretty damn directly to what we know of the plot of Overwatch 2. However, Blizzard lately has refused to treat him with respect, reducing him to a joke character because of his height and accent. Not only that, but they diminished his importance in the lore with the invention of Mina Liao and Echo. I could write and entire post about how the Mina Liao/Echo introduction was made to replace Torbjorn and Bastion’s importance in the potential plot, but all of three people would read it.

Tracer- As the literal face of Overwatch it’s pretty damn obvious that she’s going to be a main character. If you need a reminder, look at the London Calling comics and then the cover art for your copy of Overwatch.

Widowmaker- Widowmaker has literally zero character agency and only very very very loose connections with the lore/characters. HOWEVER, she does have the potential to be redeemed by death (I could make a whole other post on this) but it’s not enough to bring her into major character territory. Side character.

---

Ana- Side character. Given that she’s avoiding her potential emotional arc by avoiding Pharah and the rest of recalled Overwatch, she’s flat out of luck for main-character-ism. She’s going to be very important to Soldier 76 and Reaper but she won’t be the one instigating any plot points. Unfortunate.

Baptiste- Another tally for the side characters. The fact that it took him a year to even get voice interactions with the rest of the cast reflects this. His arc of leaving Talon is already done, the idea of Mauga being added to the game is history by now, and he has few connections with the current cast and plot. Big F, my dude.

Brigitte- With both her dad and her mentor being important former Overwatch members, it makes sense that she should be a main character, right? Right? Unfortunately, I think she falls into the same pitfalls as Reinhardt. Her backstory is already mostly explored and her dad is better at any plot-relevant mechanics that might be needed. She’ll help her dad, no doubt, but she’s a side character.

Lucio- I really want Lucio to be a main, really, I do, but he’s a side character. He suffers the same exact problem that D.va does. He has very little to involve him with the rest of the main caste. He’ll join Overwatch, sure, but I think it’ll be more of a decorative declaration than anything. His connection with Symmetra is his only saving grace, but even that just relegates him as a side character in her emotional arc.

Mercy- I think she’s going to be a side character, because all of her current content has her separated from everyone else and unsure about going back to recalled Overwatch. I don’t see the narrative following her inner emotional turmoil about this decision very much. She also doesn’t add anything to the potential plot.

Moira- Okay, Moira is tricky, so hear me out: her lore importance is off the CHARTS, and she’s a lot like Doomfist in the aspect that she is quite clearly villainous. She brainwashed Widowmaker. She turned Reaper into what he is today (physically, mind you,) and she probably has something to do with manipulating Sigma. But is being a villain enough? She’s not the one directly orchestrating Talon’s plan, like Doomfist is. And she’s not so directly connected to the fall of Overwatch like Reaper is. I hesitate to call her a main. Narratively, she’s going to get her comeuppance, but. . . (I’m going to leave this one blank.)

Zenyatta- The only true wild card on this list. Sure, I’ve left Sombra and Moira blank, but Zenny boy? He’s literally got nothing. There’s nothing to base predictions off of. No lore to speak of. We know that he mentored Genji. We know that he knew Mondatta. We know that he defends Omnics’ rights to exist. However, I doubt Blizzard has the nuance to tackle his perspective on the impending Omnic war in Overwatch 2. He could be a seriously major player if he was treated with the respect that his character deserves, though! He could potentially have an active role in trying to figure out what’s making the Omnic uprising occur and stopping it in its tracks! There is so much potential there! It’s all in Blizzard’s hands. It’s all about how Blizzard chooses to finally flesh out his character. . . IF they flesh out his character at all.

---

Total tally out of 32

Main characters: 11

Side characters: 17

Undecided: 3

McGuffin: 1 (poor Bastion)

And that’s the results! It’s important to note that I am far from infallible and that these are just my opinions/speculations on the future. Please please please argue with me in the tags/reblogs. That would make my day.

[chargetheintruder]

I was going to wait on this.

But there’s a memo out there regarding Presidential authority to broadly and deeply forgive student loans, and the more I find out about it, the more it concerns me:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-sitting-student-debt-memo-160825215.html

Okay, first off, why is the ENTIRE document redacted?  This isn’t military or about national security as we know it.  So why again were all pages of the document redacted?  The only things we know are that a) it’s an authentic document and b) that it’s no longer a draft.  About student loan forgiveness.

Second, why has this been sat on so long?  The White House has had PLENTY of time to read the thing and figure out if, how and when it can share the news, good or bad.  The infrastructure bills have been Congress’s thing.  Or at least the half of it that shows up trying to do meaningful work, Republican traitors and so-called centrists be damned.

I mean, I do have a hunch or two about this: that the private sector (banks, not universities) has the White House bamboozled in terms of the idea that these loans are an “income source” somehow that they can’t give up.  Which, okay, I get it that the banking entities don’t like losing money, but how is something an income source when the loans aren’t getting paid?  Either due to pandemic conditions or due to people’s falling behind on them more generally?  And if this matters so damned much, then why are so many banking entities (Navient among them recently) bailing out of the student loan business entirely?  There would seem to be a disconnect between the behavior of student loan businesses and what would appear to be their interests in this “debt as money source.”

Yes, there’s interest and fees on these loans, but if people aren’t getting blood or money out of turnips here, what’s the point?  Are people with bad loans then all going to be rounded up and “re-educated” and put in debtor’s prison?  Wouldn’t that actually cost MORE than the amounts owed (the balances that is)? This is really beginning to stink of political Do-Nothing-Ism, once again, that for all his talk, President Biden is just plain loath to be responsible for any Big Sea Changes to America as we know it.  The dude promised this shit in the first place, and he’s now hem-hawing and hand-wringing over it like it was Trump’s idea.

Seriously, I was going to leave the President alone while he was literally away from the home office.  Makes sense, right?  Maybe that’s my problem: I, as a private citizen, try too hard to stay inside the law and inside of what makes sense, when damned near nobody else is.  Maybe I have to be an unhinged, depraved lunatic asshole before anybody actually listens?  And then what, people have excuses, right?  They have excuses to arrest me, committ me to a psych ward, whatever it takes to silence me for a time longer.  It’s fucked up.  Being a citizen in the USA is a clusterfuck, especially in this 21st century in progress. Let me put it like this: I could re-Pin my original rant about student loan forgiveness.  Heaven knows it isn’t obsolete as yet.  It isn’t outdated because nobody’s DONE ANYTHING ABOUT THAT.

Mr. President, when you get back home, get on this at once.  I’m not asking--you’re embarrassing yourself with your inaction on the memorandum to say the least.  Get on it and DECIDE.  Either be a hero and say “Yes” or have a damned good reason WHY you have to say “No”, and no, arguing for the profit margins of entities like Navient won’t cut it since they’re already fleeing the student loan sector entirely.  Come up with something. It’s Monday, November 1st.  I might give you until the 3rd before I re=pin the original rant and add more rants on that topic, every fucking day, until we get this shit-show done.  America deserves relief from student loan debts, period.

We deserve the unilateral $50K forgiveness and waiver on fees and interest.  And if you can’t do that, and it’s so damned critical, explain why.  What is it about this topic and about this Executive Order that is so damned sensitive, but mainly to rich bitches?

[vannahfanfics]

My Hero Academia Oneshots Masterlist

If you prefer Ao3, here is the link to my collection there!

Romance Oneshots

Bakugo/Uraraka: The Healing Properties of Oolong Tea | Quiet Strength | The Lovers’ Plum | If Love Was a Color

Bakugo/Mina: It’s A Date

Bakugo/Kirishima: Crazy, Stupid Love | Putting Two and Two Together

Bakugo/Jiro: Urban Harmony

Bakugo/Nejire: Little Drummer Boy

Izuku/Uraraka: Midnight Munchies | Electric Love | Double Dating and Other Extreme Sports

Izuku/Melissa: A Black-Tie Affair

Izuku/Bakugo: Reminiscent | Falling For You

Kirishima/Uraraka: The Healing Properties of Apple Beef Stew

Kirishima/Mina: Heavenly Bodies

Kirishima/Todoroki: A Manly Inquisition

Iida/Momo: Heartstrings | In the Lantern Light

Todoroki/Ochako: Heart Games

Todoroki/Yaoyorozu: In My Arms | Face Your Fears | Worthy | Atlas and Pleione | Lovesick

Sero/Ochako: Waste the Night Away

Sero/Mina: Limited Edition | Alone | Drops of Jupiter

Sero/Setsuna: Scary Things

Ojiro/Hagakure: Sentimentality

Kaminari/Jiro: Stereo Hearts | Smooth | Pikachu, I Choose You! | The Best Gifts in Life

Kaminari/Kirishima: Champion of Chicken

Tokoyami/Ibara: Weddings and Wisteria Trees

Tokoyami/Ochako: Of Comfort and Cup Noodles

Aoyama/Mina: In Love With a Shooting Star

Awase/Yaoyorozu: Off the Beaten Path | The Wonder of Small Things | Just Like the Movies | Making Up For Lost Time

Monoma/Pony: Shibuya Scramble

Sen/Setsuna: Picture Perfect

Tetsutetsu/Mina: Chemical Attraction

Shinso/Kendo: Hormones

Shinso/Ochako: Raincheck

Mirio/Nejire: Spoiled

Natsuo/Nejire: Notice Me, Nejire-chan!

Aizawa/Ms. Joke: Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice | A Dash of Cream and Sugar

Aizawa/Nemuri: Dance Partners

Present Mic/Ragdoll: Fifteen Minutes

Hawks/Fuyumi: Two-Toned | Light Up My World | What You Deserve | Bird-Isms | The Hawk and the Turtledove | Bird of Paradise

Shigaraki/Miruko: Roommate Troubles

General Oneshots

Izuku & Bakugo: Rivalry | Can’t Go Back | Heroes Rising | Heavenly River | Katsuki’s Little Helper | Harbinger of Doom

Bakusquad: Good Morning, Sunshine | Mama Mina | Dog Days

Dekusquad: Tsuyu’s Extra-Special Snow Day

Shinso & Various: Tiny Terror | Playing Vigilante

Eri & Various: Hushabye Mountain | A Bright New Year | Song of the Sea | A Fairy’s First Flight | Doting | Holiday Traditions

Class 1-A: Time of Need | Hanta Sero and the Goddess of Fun | Happy Birthday, Mina! | One Good Turn Deserves Another | A Lesson in Hair-Brained Schemes | When You Fall, I’ll Be There | The Sacred Art of Hamburger-Making | What Heroes Do | Coexistence | A Hero’s Heart | Of Wrinkled Trousers and Paper Crafts

Big Three: Mirio and Tamaki’s Merry Little Christmas

Todoroki Family: Halcyon Days | Fallen Stars

Pro Heroes: Publicity Stunts | Where am I? | On the Airwaves | Drinks on Me | But War’s a Game

Mentors & Mentees: Ruffled Feathers | The Measure of a Good Hero |  Happy Birthday, Izuku! | Teenage Angst

League of Villains: Lucky | I’ve Got These Scars, But I Think They’re Pretty | Shadows and Light | Bloodlust

Other Villains: Abreaction

Vigilantes: The Crawler’s Day Off |  Welcome to Naruhata! 

Rooftop Gang: Live Like You Were Dying | Head in the Clouds | The Road Behind, The Road Ahead

Crossover Oneshots

NARUTO:

Fight Fire With Fire (Dabi & Itachi Uchiha)

Our Springtime of Youth! (Izuku Midoriya & Rock Lee)

The Blessings of Wisteria Blossoms (Momo Yaoyorozu & Sakura Haruno)

For more fandoms, see my Table of Contents. For all requestable fandoms, see here.

[simptasia]

lost characters based solely on how i portray them in my text post memes

jack: constantly crying and/or screaming. no emotional stability. no social skills. terrible bedside manner. endearingly bland. into powerful women. loves the red sox... a lot. daddy issues. doesn’t believe in himself. has shitty tattoos. being crushed under the weight of everybody’s expectations. more or less hot. he is not cool at all. repressed attraction to guys. chronic hero syndrome. adorably embarrassing as a dad. passionately and violently overreacts to the mere concept of people believing in things. mansplains but in a non malicious way because he is literally that oblivious. gets into fights a lot. dissociates in mirrors. gets injured a lot but doesn’t wanna make a fuss. thinking about caves

kate: desperate need to protect women. bi. is frustrated by jack and sawyer’s personalities but wants to fuck them oh so much. rowdy. feminist. biceps. will call you out. is love with claire and jack and sun and- she has a lot of love to give. she can be ur angel or ur devil. exasperated. doesn’t understand astrology but she’s trying. she’s the slytherin friend every hufflepuff needs. uses guns. doesn’t know how to cook. go to relationship advice is “dump him” or “suck his dick”.  just because you put things in her vagina doesn’t mean you know her. gemini

hurley: sad clown. haha laughter! hiding real pain! has debilitating mental illness. he’s doing his best to stay positive. virgin. genuinely kind soul. overwhelmed by food. awkward around girls he likes. much smarter and wiser than anybody thinks, including himself. a special boy who we all love. says dude a lot. the only valid rich person ever. doesn’t like himself. sees dead people. kinda silly. also he’s fat (but i don’t joke about it in a cruel way)

sawyer: compulsive need to nickname people. from the south. bewildered by charlie’s english slang. covering up vulnerability with jokes and being mean. loves juliet. is an asshole but a loveable asshole (this varies, mostly he’s an asshole). conventionally attractive to the point of boring. got a Thing going on with miles. can’t stand daniel being smart around him. babies freak him out. treats animals poorly

locke: very supportive and new agey type. i’ve made two jokes about him encouraging people to jack off, that wasn’t on purpose but Okay. he doesn’t know what its like to have friends. he says Deep Sounding but odd things. he’s super duper into nature. he suffers. he’s very forgiving of ben to the point of absurdity and he desperately wants ben to love and fuck him. or maybe they are fucking. Who Knows. he loves knifes

sayid: sexy, suffering shannon fucker. he doesn’t respect boone. his life is an endless parade of misery culminating in going on autopilot. respects women

jin: he has no idea what’s going on and his life revolves around sun

sun: beautiful. perfect. very passionate about gardening

claire: bi. frequently ignored. cutesy and sweet. super into astrology and new age stuff. her cheery demeanour can only hold on so long before she loses it. kinda dumb. has baby. vanilla, at least for now. loves charlie but is kinda frustrated by him. goes feral and “kitten thinks of murder all day” sums it up

charlie: that he needs attention and validation to survive would be a gross understatement. bi. trans. punk. stupid. english. really horny and slutty. adores music more than anything. drug addict (again, i refuse to be cruel). severe jealousy issues. inferiority superiority complex. hates himself but will get offended if you hate him. can’t take any form of criticism. is bewildered by sawyer’s american-isms. bit of a madonna whore complex. smol but will go the fuck off like a terrier nipping at ya heels. catholic and riddled with catholic guilt. goofy and obnoxious and he knows it. passive aggressive. terrified of bees. nice ass. mood swings. did i mention he’s short? anyway here’s wonderwall

ben: ugly. just plain terrible. beaten and bruised. seething with rage and pain on the inside. virgin. liar. just causes problems on purpose. resembles a lemur or rat, rodents in general. loves bunnies. doesn’t think sex is real. just a really bad idea for him to be around juliet. has no friends. doesn’t care about other people. says creepy shit just because. he knows he’s a terrible person. killed people. the friend nobody likes and a general nuisance to the other characters

(also my literal first text post meme about ben was a joke about him eating his parents??? 2014 sapphire, i wanna talk...)

juliet: mom friend. seems very calm but she’s screaming on the inside. basically she’s the This Is Fine meme. depressed. has big tits. low-key kinky. feminist in a very gentle way. has no ill will towards kate and will only fight her for fun. concerned for daniel’s well being. has no chemistry with jack. loves sawyer. flat measured calm way of speaking. she’s breaking apart at the seams but will offer you a nice glass of water :)))

michael: has a son..... uh...... enjoys minecraft?

(i’m sorry)

desmond: scottish. drinks. easily and constantly confused. magic psychic time powers, like visions and electromagnetic dimensional stuff. easily angered. fucked off by the concept of time and destiny in general. hhhhhhhot

smokey: Hello Fellow Humans I Promise This Is My Own Skin Haha

miles: bi. aro. loves money (trying to fill the hole in his heart with money and things). emo/punk. pretends not to care but he really does care. thinks emotions and romance are dumb but of course is emotional... and kinda wants love. but not that he LIKES you or anything. exasperated. thinks everybody else is weird. kinda slutty or at least trying to be. masochist and into BDSM. mean to daniel for no reason. daddy issues. resting bitch face. jaded, bitter and salty. responds to romantic things dan or char say with vulgar or mocking comments. grew up poor. can hear dead people. trying too hard to be edgy. deadpan snarker. Fuck Off I’m Not Sad Don’t Look At Me [cries only around the audience and his mom]

walt: becoming older than 10 was when things went downhill for him

shannon: seems vapid but is more than that. deeply insecure. feels she can’t do anything right. constantly put down as worthless by other people. yeah she’s sad but she Looks Great. wants sayid to pound her (mood)

(gee, that was dark)

richard: very old and ageless. sees ben as a son figure. really not holding it together. seems smart but he has no fucking idea whats going on. cult mindset. quips curtly back at miles’ vulgar jokes. in love with miles based on very little interaction. misses his dead wife. has a cute giggle. is also hot. overwhelmed and just wants to go into the jungle and scream

frank: doesn’t understand what anybody is talking about. the only normal person here. doesn’t understand these kids today with their weird kinks. just wants to sleep. pilot. bit of a conspiracy theorist

boone: bi. stupid. soaked in blood a lot.  (L I T E R A L L Y all of my boone jokes are about him being dumb and bi and horribly injured and combos of those. i haven’t even made any incest jokes! what the actual fuck)

ana lucia: “[with tears in her eyes] DO U WANNA FIGHT??”. highly volatile. lesbian. bros with jack but will roast him. angery, sad and underloved

daniel: bi, agender, neurodivergent, just, just especially brain weird. The Scientist trope but kind of a shitty scientist. smart. in love with charlotte. in love with desmond. likes rats a lot. talks weird and soft spoken. withdrawn and polite but with bursts of bitterness. his mom won’t let him live the live he wants to live. time travel weirdness. loves music. gifted kid burn out. has a mental and emotional collapse. thinks a hydrogen bomb will solve all his problems. skinny. touches people a lot. he’s not okay. romantic. overwhelmed. memory problems. his lack of life experience and softness is used to contrast miles. takes some statements literally. pretty vanilla (for now) and doesn’t know what certain kinks are. likes that charlotte is Tough & Rowdy. doesn’t swear much. bad hair. was unhinged in college. has radiation poisoning

libby: neurodivergent and in love with hurley

eko: yeah... i’ve legit only used him for jokes where charlie says something EXTREMELY vulgar and eko says “go to church”

charlotte: bi, loud, passionate, beautiful, angery, knows All The Languages, huge nerd, loves daniel and thinks he’s a Snack, outspoken feminist, archaeologist/anthropologist and wants to explore some fucking ruins, The Lost Lenore trope, loves chocolate, exasperated, great smile, subtly insecure, doesn’t get that she could just tell daniel how she feels, has had many indiana jones like adventures (off screen, of course), for example: crashing her dirtbike into all 7 wonders of the world

danielle: french and unhinged, has seen some shit

alex: just a young lady with no chill

jacob: suffers from terminal apathy. has little understand of human behaviour. doesn’t care about people. he just plain sucks. has no endearing qualities. causes many problems. beats the shit outta richard. doesn’t like technology. so removed from humanity that he’s a touch uncanny valley

christian, eloise, charles and anthony jokes each have their own kind of flavours but fuck it, i’ll sum them all up as: contemptuous cunts who deserve to die

aaron: just a baby boy. does baby things. has like 5 parents

vincent: a dog. a good boy. does he know more than he lets on? is he mysterious? no, he is just a dog

[nullhearted-blog]

tag dump 3.0