#Mastermind Course

[tealvenetianmask]

Stolas's Trolly Problem

I've been noticing the all too common "Stolas is a bad dad" takes coming back post-"Mastermind." For the thousandth time, no he's not. But let's engage a little.

The argument goes like this. "Stolas is willing to throw his life away and make Octavia suffer to save his lover. So he's choosing Blitz over his daughter. He doesn't care about her enough."

I invoke the trolly problem. There are all kinds of variations. You're on a bridge over some train tracks. The train is headed for three people tied to the tracks, but you have your hands on a lever that can divert it to hit just one person tied to the tracks instead. What do you do? What if that one person is your loved one? What if the three people are all elderly and have already lived fulfilling lives? What if you have the chance to sacrifice yourself so that no one else has to die? And so on . . .

This is Stolas's variation of the trolly problem:

The train is headed toward a loved one (Blitz) tied to the tracks. Stolas doesn't want to live in a world that doesn't have Blitz in it.

There's no lever, but he's standing on the bridge.

Stolas can save Blitz by jumping from the bridge and throwing himself on the tracks in front of the train. But he'll die (as far as he knows) and he'll harm another loved one, Octavia, who will lose her dad.

Stolas also recognizes that his own actions played a role in Blitz ending up in this situation, so I think a feeling of responsibility nudges him a bit as well in the direction that he chooses.

He's responsible for Via's wellbeing too. *casually tearing my hair out*

Here's the thing about the trolly problem though. THERE'S NO GOOD CHOICE, and certainly no objectively morally correct choice. Otherwise it wouldn't be hard.

Either way, someone Stolas loves deeply gets hurt. Either way, he will not come out unscathed himself. So protect Blitz from death or protect Via from the pain of loss? I think that for him the choice is easy, but both options are objectively horrible.

And getting furious with him for making the wrong choice is missing that point.

I saw this awesome non-fandom comic yesterday that points out a major flaw in the trolly problem, and uses it as a metaphor for systemic oppression. You should all read it. Essentially, it's this: WHY. THE. FUCK. Are we debating the morality of saving one person or another when we should be asking WHO IS OUT THERE TYING PEOPLE TO FUCKING TRAIN TRACKS?

Which I think is at least part of the point of "Mastermind." We focus on Stolas's choice, but everyone in that courtroom who sentenced Blitz to death had a choice too . . . one where no one had to suffer at all.

[sliding-down-rainbows]

My thoughts on Striker as a PERFECT narrative foil for Blitzo

I've been watching a lot of reactions and reading through theories about HB given the new ep.

One thing I keep seeing is this surprise that Striker would work with the Nobles against Blitzo, considering how outspoken he was about hating royals.

To me, this makes perfect sense and I think they established this for the character early on. Striker hates Blitzo because Blitzo is exactly who Striker THOUGHT he was, and who he claims to be.

The thing is with Striker, I think a review I just watched of tbskyen got it spot on during his first appearance in Harvest Festival. "He doesn't seem to articulate an argument against the hierarchy so much as an argument against his place in it."

Striker, as much as he wants to be seen as a class hero, looks down on other imps and hellhounds, and his resentment is the HE should be above them. He says so to Blitzo.

"Blitzo, c'mon. You know the two of us are superior than most of our kind."

And he REPEATEDLY belittles other imps

"Don't worry, little one. You never stood a chance."

"Plus, you little things ain't worth the cleanup." ―Striker before locking Millie and Moxxie in the cellar

"I still think it’s embarrassing. You’re wasting a lot of potential relying on a weak little-" ―Striker about Moxxie

Calling Fizz a "worthless little pet"

I think I still missed some but you get the idea.

Striker think he and Blitzo are better than other imps, and don;t deserve to be subservient.

But here's the funny thing, BLITZO is the one who started and runs his own business, who became his own boss. And he uses that position to actually pull up other imps and hellhounds. Blitzo, for all of his jokes, fucking respects Moxxie's skill, he doesn't let anyone treat Loona like his pet. He uses his position as being seen as stronger than other imps to help others see their own worth. When Millie was speaking bad about herself:

Millie: We don't deserve this. We're just Wrathians, Blitzo. Muscle. It's all we're good for, all I'm good for. It's why you hired me. Any demon good at making a buck is welcome in Lust or Greed, but here? Demons like us ain't cut out for this. - Ghostfuckers flashback

And Blitzo's response?:

(Long paragraph of encouragment I won't copy all of... The point is, if we can't make it here then- then no one deserves to, right?

Blitzo saved them all from their lowest point and showed them their worth, that they deserve as much respect as anyone else.

And Striker, for all his fucking posturing, is working FOR a Goetia. So you have this guy, who thinks he's some class hero, better than other imps, but is stuck working for royalty. And along swings Blitzo, who is his own boss, and is just as strong if not stronger than him. Blitzo is EVERYTHING Striker wishes he was.

So then we come to Mastermind. Given the chance, Striker fucks over his own race/class in favour of royalty who probably offered a bribe. Blitzo, even to the very end, speaks of imps as a whole being mistreated.

No fucking wonder he became a class hero.

Striker has his "values" so long as they serve him directly, if he can get to the top of the food chain he'll make no effort to dismantle it or help bring anyone else up.

[prongss78]

peter: james, could i chat with you for a sec?

james: of course pete! what’s up?

peter, holding out a green tie:

james:

peter: right, so. i’m no expert but this doesn’t look very gryffindor-esque..

james: well i- i mean, uh, where did you find that! haha, weird. uh

peter, sighing: james.

james: okay okay, alright. fine. okay. so maybe i had a guest.. the other night

peter: james, i know you’re regulus’ boyfriend.

james: what!!??? who?? me?? no, hahahaha ha. what??

peter:

james: OKAY! FINE! yes, i am! i am! happy??

peter *smirking slightly*: now i am

regulus, emerging from under the invisibility cloak: so, you’re my boyfriend, huh?

[ten-thousand-aromantic-bees]

characters who are self-sacrificing because they don't value their own life enough, who don't fear death as much as they fear living without their loved ones is a fun trope, lots of potential there, but- you know what else is really fun?

self-sacrificing characters who are absolutely terrified of dying. characters who desperately want to live, who have to fight every single screaming instinct in their body as they throw themselves into danger. they don't want to do this, don't want to be here. they're dragging themselves along behind their loved ones, frantically trying to get the fear to subside long enough to be useful in these situations.

but- well. if your hands are shaking too badly to hold a weapon, you're no help. if your mind is racing too rapidly to think of a good plan, you're no help.

you know what doesn't need a steady hand? throwing yourself directly into the line of fire. you know what doesn't need a sharp thought process? using yourself as the bait.

and. well. they have to help the others somehow, right? and - this? reckless self-endangerment, taking the hits and distracting the threats and taking every single risk that the others don't need to take because they all have other ways of contributing? this is all they can do. they're convinced that is is all they can do for their loved ones, so- they may be on the verge of a breakdown every single time, they may be sick with anxiety at the thought of not making it back this time-

but. if this is the one thing they can do, the one way they can help? they're going to do it. of course they are.

so they just. keep. doing it.

bonus points if they can't quite shake the worry that they're being selfish by wanting to be safe, wanting to stop doing this, wanting to live.

bonus bonus points if their friends/teammates would literally fall to pieces without them, but not for any practical reason, just- that's a person who's absolutely inextricable from the lives of everyone around them. losing them would be one of the most devastating things imaginable for these people. no one here wants them pulling self-sacrificial stunts, no one here wants them taking those risks.

something about characters who've always wanted to live; their arc is realizing that they're allowed to. the gradual process by which the truth finally sinks in: they don't need to do this. their worth does not hinge on what they offer. accept the hand extended to you. step down from the sacrificial altar. your unsteady return to the ground was never going to be met with a condemnation. you have always had a place here.

[verrixstudios]

Mm, yes, I love how correct this is.

Funnily enough, Nightwings are the only ones correct. (Yes I’m aware it’s probably because they have a page to their own)

[ramuneda5149]

LotMtober day 2 - Fog

[spacedace]

Oh hey here’s the lil prolog thing I wrote for my DP x DC Leverage AU. I’m gonna actually write more of one day I swear but for now have this opening bit and feel free to use it as a prompt if you want :D

-

The station went utterly quiet as they brought her in.

Room after room going as silent as the grave when the young woman in handcuffs stepped through the door. Chatter stopped. Bodies stilled. Heads turned. Eyes widened. It almost felt like everyone was too afraid to even breath as she walked by. Cops and crooks alike watching with fear and awe in equal measures as Jim Gordon led her past them to the interrogation room.

She didn’t give the gaping crowd any mind. Head tilted up at an angle, shoulders back, steps sure. The solid heals of her boots clicked upon the scuffed linoleum, echoing loud in the stifling quiet. Like a royal herald announcing her presence. She held herself like a queen, which was fitting Jim supposed. Until tonight, the only name anyone had to call her by was Queen.

The blood, unnervingly, only made her seem more regal.

Batman was already in the interrogation room when they arrived. Jim didn’t even have it in him to sigh at the broody bat looming in the corner. He knew he’d be there. There was no way he would miss the interrogation of someone they’d been chasing for so long. Especially not now considering…well.

Considering.

Jim largely ignored the vigilante in the corner as he moved through the familiar process of getting the young woman handcuffed in place to the table, starting the recording and rattling off the relevant details: date, time, the - many - charges the young woman had been arrested for. If he faltered over the victim’s name of the young woman’s most recent crime no one commented on it. In the corner, Batman watched and lurked. Nearly lost in the shadowy corner of the room while still being impossible to ignore.

They’d done this before. Good cop, bad vigilante. It was usually effective in getting the truth out of stubborn criminals.

Jim rather doubted it would work in this case.

“Please state your name for the record.” He said, only to be met with the same cool silence Queen had given everyone since her arrest. She shifted in her seat, not a nervous fidget but an easy, languid movement. Even the uncomfortable metal chair seemed like a throne when she was involved. Jim bit back a sigh. “We have your information. I’m asking as a courtesy.”

Queen tilted her head faintly, looking at him with something almost like amusement, one brow twitching slightly upward. “You’ll have to forgive my disbelief, Commissioner Gordon.” She said, polite as ever. “But I’m rather sure that you won’t find me in any system you run my fingerprints or face through.”

She was right about that. They’d tried a hundred times over the past few years she and her team had been operating in Gotham. Her face never appeared in any pictures or recordings - not even in her mugshot during processing, all that was visible was her red hair and a mess of corrupted visual data where her face should be. The most her fingerprints had ever led to where the other crimes they already knew she’d taken part in. Batman had done everything to try and circumvent whatever meta ability kept her from being recorded on film, had done even more to try and find her and her people in every system he and the Justice League had access to. Nothing. Jim had grumbled a few times about how Queen and her crew might as well be ghosts for all the proof that they existed officially.

Turned out, ghosts was exactly right.

“The Ghost Investigation Ward reached out to us two hours ago.” He said, leaning back in his own seat, watching her carefully. “I’ll repeat, Ms. Fenton, my asking is a courtesy.”

For the first time in the years he’d known her, Queen - real name Jasmine “Jazz” Fenton - looked scared. Beyond scared, even. Completely, and utterly terrified.

Her body went rigid, eyes growing wide, breath picking up as she sat up sharply. Any semblance of that calm, collected presence she always held even when she was at her most cornered and vulnerable vanished in an instant. He’d seen her breath in a cloud of Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin and laugh. Watched as Bane wrapped large hands around her throat and tilt her chin up to stare down at her attacker imperiously. A mobster pressed the barrel of a gun to her head and she’d smiled, coy and confidant and untouchable. Queen always, always was calm. Aggravatingly so, even. Utterly unshakable as she waltzed into every wild and insane situation carrying the undeniable air of one who was complete control of everything happening.

She hadn’t even looked scared when the Joker had held her hostage.

And now? Now all it had taken was those three words. Ghost Investigation Ward. A nonsense name for a government agency with a ridiculous purpose. And yet there the unshakable Queen sat, looking terrified out of her mind at the mere mention of them.

Not for the first time since he received that call, Jim Gordon felt uneasy.

[eddiecompetitiondiaz]

You cannot convince me that cast of 911 are not on tumblr rn giggling at the insanity they have caused this week. Which one of you is Oliver Stark I just wanna talk.

[impossiblesublimelight]

More of my favorite moments highlighting Blitzø’s past as an acrobat

Ghostf**kers Edition

Can’t really show the momentum or how Blitzø actually throws himself around into certain movements through screenshots, but these are still some of my favorite shots that help highlight just how fluid Blitzø can move.

[bardace]

drawtectives s3 spoilers below the cut… I’m wondering about something.

Ok so. In the trailer jancy gets a phone call, answers it solemnly with short answers that don’t betray much emotion. She then tells York that there’s been a murder.

Sure, that phone call could totally be the director of the acting company, but the director is her friend so why is she so serious if she’s talking to her friend about arranging something fun? Is it just usual jancy seriousness (read: autism) or is that phone call not from the acting company?

Jancy went through all this trouble to send the Drawtectives to Midnight Alley, going so far as to trick them… If the point was to just let them have fun for a night, why didn’t she go with them? Why didn’t she just let Eugene take them? Why did she explicitly call them to the office? Was it really all for the sake of a joke? Is she just playing a prank for fun or is she trying to keep them away from something?

Are the Drawtectives in danger? Is Jancy in danger? Why do they all have to be at Midnight Alley tonight?

[salty-an-disco]

Original Chapter 2 concept:

When you enter the cabin, you keep Narrator's words about the princess lying and cheating in mind and make sure to interrogate and prod at her every statement in the basement.

The princess gets visibly distressed and irritated at this, feeling even more trapped under your interrogation and getting more angry the more you doubt her words ("I don't know! I just don't know! What else do you want me to say?"). Hero suggests that maybe you should lay off a bit, and Narrator shows irritation at the fact that you keep questioning instead of slaying.

If you keep up the interrogation, getting closer so that now the princess is also physically cornered, the princess will snap at you and use her chains to trap and strangle you, screaming like a trapped animal.

Everything goes dark and you die.

Chapter II: The Weaver

You're accompanied by Voice of the Interrogator, and go to the cabin to find a moist stone building with walls covered in a silky thread. In the basement, there's a regular-looking princess waiting for you, tho you can't quite make out her face from this distance. She screams at you to help her, that there's a monster nearby and to please save her soon.

If you do, you'll find yourself getting dangled in webs, and that the 'princess' was just a decoy set up by the real princess, who was waiting for you on the ceiling.

[drama-glob]

That compact ain't lying about Stella. >:( Also, the impracticality/hassle of having a crown on top of it would fit as something she'd own because she just has to let it be known that she's a royal, even if it'll potentially stab her if she's not careful. -_-

[neodiekido]

still insane to me people get upset about maki trying to kill ouma in chapter 5 like. literally everyone thought he was the mastermind for sure. this is just someone trying to kill the mastermind again but this time she has (what seems to be) absolute proof of who it is.

[zerosocialskillz]

Y’know all of this made me think of a version of Inanimate Insanity but it’s actually a killing game like Danganronpa instead of a reality show

Like if MePhone4 watched Danganronpa and tried to host one himself and shit. Complete with pretending to be a despair-loving freak and all of that jazz

[sensoryseekinganakin]

- Once upon a time, the planets and the fates And all the stars aligned You and I ended up in the same room At the same time

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Sometimes when I look into your eyes, I pretend you’re mine all the damn time / What if I told you I’m a mastermind and now you’re mine / Please know that I tried to hold on to the days when you were mine