#also this does insinuate that there is one specific set for each of these

[match-your-steps]

just read a review of the lego movie from 2014 and it is genuinely a horrible piece of literature and through perusing the comments underneath the review, I have gained an intense dislike of the reviewer. it's not even that I liked the lego movie and he didn't it's just that a lot of the stuff he says is factually incorrect, really stupid-sounding, or he doesn't provide any real reason, and in the comments, he reacts to even the friendliest and politest constructive criticism as if it's a personal attack on him.

[twstwizard]

Clothes

Upon first day of your stay in twisted wonderland you realized you didn't have any clothes besides the ceremonial robe and a dusty uniform you were able to find in Ramshackle. Good thing you now have a few friends to borrow things from!

Type: Headcanons, SFW, Romantic or Platonic

Characters: Ace Trappola; Deuce Spade; Jack Howl; Epel Felmier; Sebek Zigvolt

AN: I'm surprised noone has addressed this yet... Unless we're walking around in Crewel's fashion dresses the entire time-

Ace Trappola

-The man is at first reluctant at sharing his clothes, calls you a hobo and teases endlessly, even insinuating that you secretly got rid of your clothes on purpose to have a piece of him. He's horrible as always.

-But as soon as you get fed up and are ready to turn to Duece for help, all of a sudden, the trouble maker has a spare T-shirt he can lend you. Afterwards the man is simply smug that you're wearing his panties. Expect lots of teasing.

- At some point it becomes second nature for him to lend you clothes, to the extent of you two sharing a wardrobe, which can lead to comical situations of him demanding a specific shirt back for an Unbirthday party.

Deuce Spade

-Unlike certain someone, Spade is happy to help his new friend. The man does get a bit flustered the first time he lends you a pair of slacks, but nothing else. There will be no judgment on his end, regardless of what article of clothing you may need.

- Main difference between his and Ace's approach to your problem is that Duece gives you "better" clothes, once he believes to be more comfortable and in better condition.

- Spade is a good friend above all. If it means sleeping without underwear, but you having a pair in turn, he's ready and willing to make such sacrifices.

Jack Howl

- The wolf is flustered (^_-). But much like Duece he's a good friend and will share his shirts and pants with you. Unlike Spade however, Jack will keep his underwear on himself, no matter if you have any or not, though he will help you at least to buy a pair.

- Beast man always lends you clean clothes, those neutral, easily usable in most situations. Jack praises himself on efficiency and fastness of his reactions, surprisingly that shows in the clothes too. All articles matching each scenario you might need in a very convenient timing.

-The young man also asks Ruggie for places which sell clothes cheaper or an easier way for you to get some. He's simply worried for you.

Epel Felmier

- Epel is of course a bit confused by your circumstances, but much like Duece won't rub it in your face. He's a country person, came from a place where people actually build strong communities, helping one another is simply a norm.

- Pomfior student will firstly lend you items he simply doesn't like. Perhaps an extravagant blouse here, a pair of shoes there. Now you look like a princess.

- Epel will also try and pull a few strings in his dorm to shake off some things off of his roommates and such. Are they fashion powerhouse or what?

- Secretly young Felmier will ask his grandmother to knit you a few things if the two of you do become close friends. It would be only fair you get to share the warmth only a family can provide.

Sebek Zigvolt

-HA! Don't be absurd he would never share cloth with a mere hu- Wait, you said Malleus takes midnight strolls near your dorm?! Cover yourself!

- Despite all the yelling and red face Sebek will lend you some clothes. Zigvolt lends you things he either outgrew or stopped wearing for some reason, they're surprisingly well kept.

- The longer the two of you are friends the more clothes he gives, soon giving you his newer items, at times, sevens forbid, socks.

- Despite how much he yells and claims it's all to shield Malleus's eyes from your from, it's balantly obvious he's genuinely worried for you. After all freshly bought clothing sets don't magically manifest in your dorm. Or do they?

[littleguypumpkinsheep]

Analyzing the Worst Movie I’ve Ever Seen: The Great Gatsby (2013)

I loved the book. I think it’s wonderful, and I loved the writing and prose Fitzgerald gave to Nick, who is my favorite character in the story. But this movie… oh my god? I cannot stand it at all. They destroyed Nick as a character and ruined so many scenes. I’ll go about this in narrative order.

PSYCHIATRIST SCENE: This is one of the less egregious parts of what the directors decided to do with the story. I do actually think it makes a bit of sense! One, because having to listen to Nick narrate everything throughout the whole movie wouldn’t have been a great experience, and two, because of what ends up happening to Nick. He witnesses the aftermath of a murder, has someone he considered a friend confess to being a part of it, and then ends up seeing the murder scene of both his friend and another man he’d met. It makes sense that he’d be a little shaken up after, especially because it seems to affect him enough to move back out of New York. BUT. I also think it’s a little out of character and also narratively unnecessary. Nick is already working through any supposed trauma he developed by writing what happened to him and turning it into the book we read. But from a directors perspective, it’s generally fine and I do understand this choice.

DINNER WITH THE BUCHANAN’S: I don’t like this scene, but it’s not the worst compared to some other ones I hate even more. In the novel, the way Nick writes, to me, insinuates that he’s a little hesitant and not exactly thrilled to be going to dinner with, as he says, two old friends he hardly knew. But he goes out of an obligation to be polite, and because he’s nearby and might as well go see them. In the movie, however, he seems decidedly way too happy and excited/eager to be going, and he continues to act this way around Tom and Daisy too. He seems almost impassive to the things that are happening around him, like when Jordan tells him about the rumored affair and when Daisy decides to open up to him about her feelings and life. During that scene in specific he has this odd sort of smile on his face that makes it seem like he isn’t really paying attention to anything she’s saying, and worst of all, treating her like all the rest of the men do. In the novel Nick remains quiet and he listens to what Daisy is saying attentively, and he does the same for everything that happens during dinner. He is interested in the lives and events of the people around him while remaining polite and neutral. This aspect of his character is largely lost in the movie.

APARTMENT PARTY SCENE: I HATE this scene. It’s terrible and completely ridiculous. In the original writing, Nick expresses that he doesn’t even want to go out with Myrtle, let alone meet her sister and have a party with them. But he goes anyway, again, because of an obligation to be socially polite. When he gets there, Nick writes this “I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the Park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. …I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

THIS, is his motivation for staying at the party. Not because Tom, a man he barely knows and only met a day or so before, heckles and physically pick him up and drags him back into the room from the door. Nick is genuinely interested in the gossip and ridiculous drama of these people, and that’s why he decides to stay and continue to linger around them. In the novel, the party is set up to be an awkward and tense get together, where no one really likes each other or what’s happening much at all. So to break the tension and ignore the obvious disparity between their moods and the party, they get completely drunk. That’s what this scene represents in the first place. One of the first looks under the glitz and glamor of the roaring 20s and the fake persona everyone put on in that era. It’s only when they get drunk do the masks come off and they begin to grow hostile and gossipy, which sets up the scene where Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose.

But in the movie, this whole scene is set up like a damn frat party, and it’s completely awful. Nick is forced to stay, physically, whereupon he’s sexually assaulted, drugged, molested, harassed, and raped. Alcohol is literally forced down his throat by the women, and this for some reason is the explanation as to why that’s one of the only reasons he’s ever been drunk. He’s also stripped of his clothes for… Whatever reason. Fan service, I suppose.

In reality, the reason he drinks is for the same reason as everyone else. It’s awkward and tense, and Nick simply wants the time to pass by quicker and accidentally loses track of how much he’s consumed.

INVITING DAISY TO TEA: There’s a quote change here I hate a lot. After Jordan tells him that Gatsby wants him to invite Daisy over for tea so he can drop by, Nick is for some reason made to think “I remember feeling torn. Was it right to bring my cousin Daisy, a married woman, together, with a man I hardly knew?” Not only does the phrasing of this not feel like Nick’s writing style at all, it completely misses one of the most important parts of his character and personality.

The original quote is this “Then it had not been merely stars to which (Gatsby) had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” The purpose of this quote is to show that before, Nick only thought of Jay as a rich man with an otherwise uninteresting personality and life. But now that he’s expressed interest in his cousin Daisy, Nick suddenly becomes a lot more interested in Jay. Nick, fundamentally, is a gossip. He may not spread rumors himself, but he is a sucker for listening to them and trying to get as much information as he can. That’s WHY he acts so quiet and impassive to the things people tell him or do around him. He wants to essentially be a ghost so that they can act like idiots around him, and he gets to hear about every nasty and repulsive detail about their lives. That’s his role in the story too, with him being a narrator. He’s not a particularly active or involved character.

[arcadia-of-pluto]

Hey guys! So ToF updates tomorrow and I wanted to apologize for the lack of Divisa chapters.

It seems like I'm apologizing to yall a lot— but I digress.

Divisa isn't on hiatus or hold or anything, it's just a 'i post when I post' type of story and I haven't been writing in it. I've just been so hyper-focused on ToF lately since I've got a clear plan of what I need for it! I'm sure it'll be around 50-ish chapters until it ends, it may be more or it may be less tbh.

I might start making my chapters longer and I won't edit them nearly as much, or I'll edit them on another place that I post (like wattpad and AO3) first and hopefully the edits (like italics and stuff) will transfer 🤔

Anyways, for the plan, smut will more than likely happen after Xavier's myth– if I can fit it into the story, that is, but it'll more than likely happen! It'll be between Sylus and the reader, so if hope no one minds him getting the first shot, but the reader is going to be really stressed once these flashbacks/forwards are over and will need some help.

However, for those who don't want smut, I will post the smut as it's own separate chapter. I'll just make it a "2.0" or "chapter name +"! Which means the smut chapter will be considerably shorter, but if you don't want to read smut, the story will still flow the same regardless! For the non-smut chapter, I'll just have them insinuate the smut and cut it there, since I have plans for what happens after! 💜

But yeah, anyways, I have a clear cut plan for ToF, which means I also have an ending in mind! I want to complete the story before any new chapters or characters are added 🤔 however, if the story branches are canon, I will write those after the 'freak-out, avoid them all out of guilt' arc.

For the ending, I won't spoil much, but the reader will have children. Now, I personally don't want children and if I did, I'd be getting a surrogate, however I want the reader to have a child with each of the love interests. I already have the names and gender chosen. The children will be two sets of twins, one boy and three girls. (I'm sorry for not splitting the gender equally, but I never see baby girls in stories, I always only ever see baby boys. Especially in manhwa). Zayne and Sylus will be the fathers to one set with Rafayel and Xavier the other fathers.

And while it is highly unlikely to happen, it is possible for twins to have two different fathers and...it's gonna happen twice 🤷🏻‍♀️ Now while i already know what they're going to look like, the children will have their specific father's hair colour, but the eye colour of the other father. I would've had the children be an even split of you and the love interest but...I'm already doing that for Divisa (oops– spoilers ig), so i wanted to do something different!

To get yall excited, I'll reveal the names too! I'm feeling extra generous today ig 😭

Zayne's will be the boy and his name will be Jasper. It's not for its meaning though it does mean "precious stone" and "treasurer". It's because of the jasmine flower, "Jas".

Sylus's daughter will be Maevis. The name means "song bird", so i think it's quite fitting. The name also gives off kind of dark vibes and dark vibes fit Sylus to me!

Xavier's was a bit of a struggle, but i decided on Lucia. It means "of the light". I wanted a light themed name for his child and I really wanted to choose Marisela, but that name means "star of the sea" and i didn't want to use both Xavier and Rafayel's vibes for her, so Lucia it is!

And lastly, Rafayel's daughter is Cordelia. Now, at first, you might be like "but Pluto, Marisela!" Or "Myrena is right there!" Myrena means "of the sea" by the way. However, Cordelia means "daughter of the sea" and also "heart of the sea". Both of these meanings, especially the heart aspect, make so much more sense in my eyes and I hope you like the idea as much as I do!

They will be taking your last name since I can't recall any of the LI's having a last name 🤔 and I'm thinking of giving the children flower themed middle names. I'm not completely sure yet though tbh since middle names aren't necessary...but I also have an idea for what they'd call your baby bump 🥺 i won't share that though, since I'd love to see yalls reaction to it in the story itself!

Anyway, there's still a lot left of this story and I hope everyone is as excited for it as I am!

(I won't add too many tags, since this isn't an officially story update. That'll be tomorrow <3 but i do want this idea out there, because it's something im really excited for and I'm sure yall will love it)

[approximately12lbs-of-ducks]

COULD YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR EEAU?!!! I AM SO VERY CURIOUS!!!

I ABSOLUTELY CAN AHHHHHHH I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT IT ALWAYS. Premise is that after Dream blows up Logsteadshire, instead of leaving Tommy alone, he suggests to Tommy that they start over somewhere new. He leads Tommy to an even more remote location that this time no one knows about (not that Tommy’s aware of it) and after asking Tommy if it would be less painful if no one was allowed to visit him rather than having them constantly reject him by not showing up, and Tommy agreeing, he like. Bans people from visiting Tommy. This is not, however, what he tells the rest of the SMP - he actually doesn’t say anything for a bit because he’s busy destroying other teenagers lives (Doomsday also holy fuck i am so normal about eeau!tubbo or honestly just c!tubbo in general) but then after Doomsday of course Tubbo goes and discovers the annihilated Logsteadshire and like runs back and Dream insinuates that Tommy killed himself which definietly doesn’t devestate or at least shake up many people. But then people start talking and realize that like. Dream’s been manipulating and lying to them all this whole time and pitting them against each other. Philza in particular is like ‘why did we leave Tommy with the man who constantly expressed his dislike for him/set out to ruin his life’ and everyone was like . fair point. Queue manhunt for Dream where Dream loses his two lives and all of his allies and in a cruel twist of fate ends up with only Tommy for company!! Because stockholm syndrome babey :)))))) Plans backfired immensely for this man. (I did not forget about Punz well I did but then I figured out a way for him not to be there which is a WHOLE OTHER STORY basically Dream tried to manipulate purpled who went Nuh Uh and tattled to punz so punz fucked off and spat in dreams face on the way out)

QUEUE A YEAR LATER Ghostbur stumbles across Tommy in his secret exile spot (Henburgh) as Ghostbur has been searchign for Tommy’s ghost ever since he learned that he died. Eventually Ghostbur forgot he wsa looking for Tommy’s ghost and was just fixated on that he was looking for Tommy. Tommy however is scared of what Dream might do to Ghostbur/to him if he sees Ghostbur or finds out he was here, since he’s technically not allowed any visitors, so he sends Ghostbur away on an impossible quest. Ghostbur leaves him a small bit of blue that he then hides bc he can’t bring himself to throw it away, but unforunately nothing escapes Dream’s grasp for long and he notices :))))) It does not end well for Tommy, time for Logsteadshire pt 2. DURING THE TWO MONTHS THAT PASSED SINCE GHOSTBURS VISIT Wilbur is revived by Philza and Technoblade bc hella guilt and also Kristin hinted to Phil that Wilbur could come back and so Phil took the opprotunity. Wilbur however! Does not remember his time as ghostbur aside from very vague feelings and a couple blurry memories! But he feels VERY STRONGLY that there’s something important to the southeast of Techno’s cabin, and eventually that feeling grows so strong that he starts getting really anxious and upset about the fact he can’t go, so Techno offers to check it out fully expecting to find nothing. Only to stumble across Dream being HORRIFIC to Tommy during Logsteadshire Pt 2 and prompty going Oh Fuck No and bringing Tommy back to recover at the cabin.

Tommy does NOT appreciate this, and immediately demands to be taken back to Henburgh. Techno does not oblige. Tommy makes his displeasure clear but also mans now Traumatized as all hell so he also does jack shit to actually oppose the rest of the SBI. QUEUE FAMILY BONDING TIME AND SLOW HEALING. IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT AND THERES OF COURSE MORE SHIT BUT I DONT KNWO IF I WANNA SPOIL IT CAUSE I AM WRITING THE FIC. But the main fic ends with Tommy having not fully completed his healing but having made progress in mending his relationships w his family and friends, specifically SBI and beeduo, and like starting to realize and come to terms that what he went through was wrong but it wasn’t his fault, and decide that he wants to fight to be better again. I’m definitely so normal about all of his healing arcs and the way he slowly starts to recover from his trauma and find himself again and discover that life is worth living and that love doesn’t have to hurt I’m really fucking normal. I could talk about this for hours I in fact have talked about it for hours with my sibling (shoutout to them for listening) there are so many details to all of this i thikn about it constantly I am packing so much symbolism into this baby it will be my magnum opus if i can ever fucking finish it

[cynicallarrie]

do you have any tips for trying to convince non-larries of the truth?

Not really tbh. It's very difficult to convince anyone to stop believing in something that they hold to be true, whether it's a belief or lack thereof. This goes for you, me, and everyone. Most people in debates don't listen to the other party and instead try to think up a counterpoint to whatever their argument is. Each person is already fully convinced of what they believe to be true or not true.

The thing that a lot of antis fall victim to is something called slothful induction:

"Slothful induction, also called appeal to coincidence, is a fallacy in which an inductive argument is denied its proper conclusion, despite strong evidence for inference."

This means that they write anything and everything off as mere coincidence, and they don't consider the probability of certain coincidences being more or less likely to happen. Basically, whether "larry is real" isn't a question so much of "is it a fact" but moreso a question of "Is it more or less likely?" and also "How much more or less likely is it?".

Take for example the blue bandana project theory.

The first project was for wearing certain-colored clothing. Obviously this would not be easy for the members of 1D to participate in as they'd have to wear the same colored clothing at every concert, but then the project was changed to bandanas.

It's unclear exactly how popular this project was, but I know it was popular enough for 1D to take notice of fans doing it.

(Harry is wearing red, green, and blue in the first image; it is unclear why, but my hypothesis was that he was just given them and wanted to support the project or let people know that he knew of it)

Anyway, he was first spotted wearing a dark blue bandana in August 2014, and he wore it at the concert that night too, a little after the project was started [it was started for the WWA tour as far as I know, and the WWA tour went from April to October 2014 (and the project continued on into the OTRA tour in 2015)]:

He purchased the bandana while in Nashville at Imogene + Willie's, a couple days before the concert in Houston. Imogene + Willie's is like a gift shop, and they sell a variety of things. They sell 11 different bandanas, and the one Harry decided to purchase was the dark blue one, which matches the color of Louis's microphone and the color for the Bandana project that's meant to state that you're a 'Louis girl'.

Here is the link to the bandanas listed on the website.

He still wears that same bandana to this day:

And sometimes this one from another brand:

He doesn't wear bandanas super often, but when he does, it is, like, 90% of the time these dark blue ones. He's worn this red one too for instance:

So, if you want to actually figure out the mathematical probability of this being a coincidence, you would, first of all, have to do a lot more digging and researching than I did just now lol.

Secondly, you'd have to ask some questions. Here are some off the top of my head:

• What exact date did the Bandana Project start?

• How popular was the Bandana Project? To figure this out, you'll have to ask a set of questions: 1. Did #BandanaProject ever trend and, if so, when? 2. How many tweets were there from the time it started to the time, say, 1D's hiatus started? 3. Were there ever many signs related to the Bandana Project at concerts which the members of 1D could have seen, and, if so, how many instances of this can you find on video or in pictures? 4. In footage from the WWA tour and the OTRA tour, how many people on average can you see wearing the specific-colored bandanas?

• How many times did it seem like the members of 1D knew of the project -- as in, exactly how many times did they insinuate it by either wearing a colored bandana or by acknowledging it in some way, shape, or form?

• How many times has Harry worn a bandana of any color since the Bandana Project started up until now?

• How many times has Harry worn a dark blue bandana since the start of the Bandana Project in comparison to how many times he's worn any other color since the start of the Bandana Project? Calculate the exact ratio.

To answer all of those questions would actually take a fuck-ton of research that I'm not prepared to do as of now. But, if you were able to get conclusive answers to these questions with a huge amount of evidence and if you didn't go into it with bias but a desire to figure out whether this theory holds up or not regardless of your identity as an anti, larrie, or neutral, then you could go on to calculate the probability of it all being a coincidence or not. You would have to figure out exact numbers from the answers to the questions above.

There are more questions we need to consider, and probably some I haven't even thought of. One such would be: Harry has worn bandanas before the Bandana Project started, but how many of them were blue or dark blue as opposed to any other color, and how many of the bandanas that he has worn after the Bandana Project were dark blue as opposed to any other color? Calculate the exact difference/ratio of the before and the after.

You have to think like an anti too if you want to figure this out, because you need to go in with the mindset of actually trying to debunk the theory rather than prove it, because, if you're trying to prove it, it's a lot easier for a ton of bias to slip in, like ignoring contradicting evidence.

If you're ever going to try to do something like this, just know you will have to spend weeks to even months compiling research. It may not seem like it would take that much time, but... if you really wanted to know the exact probability of it being a coincidence vs. not being a coincidence, you would have to sift through so many tweets, videos, posts, articles, reverse-image-searching for exact dates, or whatever else you can think of to find as much information as you can just in order to get exact or as nearly-exact-as-you-can numbers. Only then could you actually prove anything, like, actually scientifically. Even then, an opposing party in a debate will not take one instance of something being more likely to not be a coincidence rather than to be one as enough sufficient evidence to conclude a wider statement such as "Harry and Louis are in a secret relationship." If we wanted to once and for all prove this, I'm pretty sure it would take actual years to do so, as there is 13 years worth of stuff to go through. You would have to sift through masterposts and gather only what you think could be hard/concrete evidence, and then for each of those pieces of evidence you would have to do exactly what I just went over that you'd have to do with the Bandana Project. You would have to take a logic class and understand mathematical probability, and you would have to do checks to see how valid your math/logic is, and you would have to potentially consult someone to check for bias or to see if you might have forgotten to ask yourself a question that could potentially support the other case.

Basically you would have to employ the scientific method. This, again, could take years.

That's all I'm saying because it truly is extremely difficult to prove anything in a debate unless you have, like, actual statistics to go based on, which... we don't have since no one has put in the extensive effort it would take to do so just yet.

[dnd-thrrasir]

The Prince and the Painter - Part 4

The next afternoon saw Wagner in a towering temper.

The day had started out innocuous enough; with the announcement that the duke had arranged a play. After slipping away from the fireworks the night before, the prince reckoned that he'd probably better attend this entire fete. It wouldn't do for anyone to notice his absence at too many events. A report would certainly find it's way back to his instructors, and then he would hear about his lack of propriety and shirking of his duties.

Once he sat down for the play in question, however, he realized with horrifying certainty that he was being goaded.

Because the play was an old propaganda play. One that had originally been written and performed during the War of Dark Passage.

It couldn't have possibly been anything but targetted. Propaganda plays seldom circulated much past the events they had been written to comment on, and in an era where Thrrasir was ostensibly allied with the Underdark- given it's heirs were both half drow- to continue to perform such a play on a regular basis would have been incredibly crude.

So the only reason these players would have been putting it on would be because Cyrellian had specifically requested it. And there was no mistaking the sidelong looks Wagner was getting from every person in attendance at the wedding who was wearing the emblem of the brotherhood.

They planned this. They planned this, just to embarrass me in public. They want me to make a scene, and then they'll tut-tut about how immature and sensitive I am. Or worse, they'll insinuate I'm disloyal if I take offense on behalf of my drow side.

Well if they'd wanted to get a rise out of him during the play itself, they were disappointed. Wagner clenched his jaw, stuffed his hands into his opposite sleeves so that it was impossible to tell if he was also clenching his fists, and spent the entire play staring rigidly at a fixed point of the set dressing.

But he knew from the way they were softly sniggering that, even if he wasn't reacting overtly, he hadn't succeeded in keeping his fury out of his face. Despite all of his political training, he'd never been any good at hiding his emotions.

As soon as the last bows were taken and the others started to stand, Wagner shouldered his way out of the crowd and back into the gardens. His teeth hurt from clenching his jaw for so long, and he was starting to get a headache from tamping back his anger.

He finally stopped power-walking through the decorative shrubs long enough to catch his breath. He needed to get somewhere that he could let at least a little of this out. Normally he'd have worked out, but if he showed up at the practice fields in his current state, no doubt Cyrellian's knights would report it, and he'd be the subject of lurid gossip by sundown.

The soft sound of a throat being cleared caught his attention, and he turned to see Fen coming up quietly behind him. Their brows were pinched with concern, and their mouth twisted in a grimace of understanding.

"I'm sorry, highness," they said. "That was low, even for Father."

Wagner scowled, looking away. "I'm not going to be the best company right now, Fen."

"I sort of figured," they replied, pacing towards him. "But well… you said yesterday that friends let each other get things off their chest when they're upset. I'm pretty used to getting yelled at, if you need to yell."

Wagner winced, turning to look Fen in the eyes. There was anxiety there, but also earnestness, and if he tried to tamp this back much longer Wagner knew he was going to burst.

"I'm so tired of this," he snarled. "The coy insults. The little underhanded slights, just barely too far south of impolite for me to call them out. So my father's a prince from the Underdark. So what? I've never even met him! So I'm a tiefling. What does that matter?"

His tail lashed with his agitation, reminding him forcefully of all the ways he was markedly not elven.

"They look at me, and they don't see a person trying his best. They see the horns, the fangs, the slitted eyes. They see a demon."

Wagner's voice broke on that last word. In a hoarse whisper, he added, "What would they say, I wonder? If the knew I can't do paladin magic. I've tried and tried, but Tuo never blesses me with Their light. The other nobles would take it as proof I'm something vile and unworthy."

Fen's eyes widened at this admission- it was a secret Wagner had shared with no one else, not even his mother or sister. Only the other paladins knew.

Then, to Wagner's surprise, Fen slumped their head against his shoulder.

"I get it," they said softly. "It's… it's the same for me. Except they don't see a demon when they look at me. They see a bug. Something so tiny it's below notice, but when it does skitter across their path it's gross and invading their space and they want to smash it."

Wagner was clenching his jaw again, but not in anger. That simple, frank empathy and friendly contact had rattled Wagner to his core. He felt his eyes start to sear, and blinked resolutely.

I'm not a child! I'm a paladin, a protector! I stop the weeping, I help the helpless! Lock! It! Down! I'm not going to give these bastards the satisfaction of upsetting me so much I start crying, of all things!

But it was so hard. Not even Ishvi really understood what this was like. They sympathized, and dealt with their own issues when people judged them for being scatterbrained or fidgeting. But at the end of the day, they were still a high elf, and most other people passing them on the street saw a nothing worth remarking upon. Wagner was a walking pariah.

Fen though… Fen understood.

"Nnngh!" Wagner's self control slipped, and in spite of himself he gave voice to a moan of frustration, rage, and despair. He felt Fen timidly take his hand, just as they'd done days before, and that simple, quiet gesture sent violent fissures through the rock of Wagner's composure. He refused to wail or sob, but he couldn't stop himself from pressing his face against Fen's hair. He squeezing that hand as if it were a lifeline, trembling with repressed emotion, until he was finally able to re-center himself.

Finally, he got himself calmed enough to feel in control again, and heaved a heavy sigh.

"Thank you."

"Of course," Fen drew their head away, and with enormous reluctance Wagner let them take back their hand. "I just wish it wasn't my father who'd arranged for something so horrible."

"Yes, well," Wagner gently brushed his fingers along the sleeve of Fen's wrists where he'd seen the bruises the day before. "I think you of all people know that he's a cruel, miserable wretch. I've a good few people I'd like to demonstrate my training on, but trust me, he's at the top of the damned list."

Fen winced, covering the limb with their opposite hand. "I deserve it. He took me in when he didn't need to, and I'm a sniveling disappointment."

"You, Fen, are no such thing," Wagner insisted harshly. "You are kind, smart, creative, and… a-and…"

The prince looked down into that sweet, guileless face, wanting with an ache that was almost physical to reach out and brush aside the lock of hair that had just fallen over eyes that shone like liquid gold.

Damn it. Not just beautiful, but open and friendly and he gets me. It's not fair. It's just not fair. Why did I have to be born a prince?

"Don't put yourself down like that, okay?" he finished, less forcefully but with no less feeling. "Whatever your stupid dad says to keep you under his thumb, it's not true. You are good."

Fen blushed, fidgeting with one of their long forelocks. "Well, so are you. You're not a demon, or whatever other stuff they think makes the drow or tieflings bad. You… you make me happy, Highness."

"Wagner," he said softly. "Please. Between us, let me just be Wagner. Not your highness, not your liege. Just your… friend."

He thought he saw a ghost of a wince pass over Fen's face at that last word, but then they smiled. "All right. Wagner."

***

This time, Fen had been the one to suggest that they slip away from one of their father's planned events. They could tell that something was straining on Wagner, and that he was barely reigning in his temper with the other nobles.

They weren't sure it was a good idea to bring it up. What if Wagner was annoyed they took the initiative first? What if he was embarrassed after the night before? What if he felt like he'd spent too much time away, and needed to be visibly present?

It took all of their nerve to timidly suggest that Wagner meet them near the garden shed during the concert their father had planned that night in the ballroom. But they needn't have been worried- the prince immediately brightened and agreed.

When Wagner arrived, Fen felt a giddy smile spring unbidden to their lips, and hastily coughed to hide it. "Ah, um… that's quite a different look, highn- Wagner."

He chortled, rubbing the back of his neck. "You did say to wear something I didn't mind getting ruined, though I'm a bit nervous as to why."

Wagner was wearing something similar to the exercise clothes from a few days prior, though this set was clearly older and much worn. So worn, in fact, that the sleeves had at some point been snipped off entirely, and hemmed just at Wagner's shoulders. This left the prince's arms fully in view, and while Fen had occasionally seen the curves of his muscles under his modest formal sleeves, now the biceps were in full view.

Out of shape my ass, good gods.

…And then there's me. Nnnng.

Fen had put on one of their old nightshirts, a loose fitting, long sleeved thing in pale cream, and a pair of pants that they usually wore under their painting smock, splattered liberally with a rainbow of colors below the knee.

"Well," they said, forcing the embarrassed comparison from their mind. "Follow me, and you'll see why. I ah… well, it's easier to show you."

Fen went down on all their belly, crawling under a stand of bushes behind the garden shed. These bushes ran all along the perimeter of the wall in this section of the grounds, ten feet tall and with barely enough room underneath for a person to squeeze. They winced a little as the branches caught in their hair and clothes- there was definitely a good reason they'd told Wagner not to wear anything he cared about ruining! After a moment they heard a soft oath as Wagner followed them trustingly into the hedge.

They felt around ahead of them with one hand, and with a small grunt of satisfaction found a spot where the wall seemed… softer. They gave a pull on the roots of the hedges in that spot, and they came away to reveal a tiny hole, just small enough for a single person to shimmy through on their belly. Wagner, after a small "ah!" of surprise, had to go through face down to clear his horns. But soon both of the boys were on the other side brushing dirt and leaves from their clothes.

"Gods, how did you find this?" Wagner asked, his eyes shining with admiration. Fen blushed.

"I liked to hide in the plants when I was little. With Father out of sight was out of mind. And one afternoon I was under these bushes and found the hole in the wall. I didn't use it much, since it's pretty cramped even for a kid and it wasn't exactly safe for me to be out here, but on particularly bad days it's nice to be able to escape the castle entirely." They scuffed the ground with a toe. "I thought you might could use getting away from the castle."

Wagner chuckled, beaming. "You thought bloody right. Have a destination in mind?"

Fen nodded. "There's a grove of trees just inside the forest, near the edge of the village. Nobody will be able to see us there, but we'll be close enough to get back to town if something happens."

Wagner gave a theatrical bow, gesturing towards the trees just beyond the wall. "Very well; lead and I follow."

Fen covered another smile, and jogged into the trees where none of the guards on the wall would be able to spot them. They and Wagner made their way quickly and quietly through the forest, the moonlight casting everything in shades of silver. Finally they arrived at the grove, a little stand of elm and oak trees through which the lights of the village were just barely visible.

And to their surprise, the village was also audible- it seemed that a group of traveling bards was overnighting at the inn, and the rousing performance they were putting on was perfectly audible through several open windows.

"Ha!" Wagner said. "We'll get a concert of our own, after all! And a far livelier one than whatever dreadfully formal music your father has going back at the castle."

Fen quirked a brow. "Well that 'dreadfully formal' stuff is all I grew up hearing. I don't really know what to do with this sort of music."

"You dance to it, silly," Wagner admonished, shaking his head. "Gods all preserve us, that bastard didn't let you have any fun at all, did he?"

The half-elf shrugged, not really sure how to answer that. Wagner snorted, then reached out and grabbed Fen's hands, towing them towards him and kicking up his heels to the music. Fen yelped in surprise, staggering at first. But they had been taught to dance, even if only ballroom dancing, and if nothing else they knew how to move to a rhythm.

It was fun- really, unabashedly fun. Wagner had clearly done his share of "common" dancing, and Fen was only too happy to let him lead. For once, they felt… like a kid. Not a tired, miserable wretch far beyond their years, but like the teenage boy they rightly were. They never wanted it to end.

This fast paced sort of dancing was a lot more tiring than their usual sort, however, and three songs in they had to beg for a reprieve. Gasping, they sat down in the grass and watched as Wagner continued to skip and spin with gleeful abandon. It was clear that he, too, was enjoying the chance to just be a teenager, to indulge in a little gleeful mischief and innocent fun with nobody to tell him he shouldn't.

It took Fen a moment to identify the emotion that was swelling inside of them in that moment- pride. This had been their idea. In spite of their anxieties, they had followed through on something that would almost certainly get them in trouble were they caught. But just for this chance to see Wagner fully drop his airs, it had been worth whatever they might pay.

The next song to start up was one of the sort that Fen's father would probably gasp and pearl-clutch at; the sort that paid night flowers enjoyed using to show themselves off and entice customers. Fen quirked an eyebrow and smiled as Wagner hesitated. "Stumped?"

"Not on your life," Wagner said instantly. "My best friend is a paladin of revelry, they can dance to anything and I've been learning."

What followed was a comically inept attempt on the prince's part. In spite of his bragging, it was clear he wasn't quite so shameless as to make this particular song work for him. He tried, bless him, but it was so awkward that it circled right back around to being hysterical. Fen tried to stifle their giggles, but every time they opened their eyes and saw Wagner trying some torrid move that he didn't quite know or have the confidence to pull off, the amusement only mounted.

Finally they couldn't hold in it, and Fen doubled over, breathless with giggles. They slumped to their side in the grass, arms clenched around their gut and knees pulled tight.

He makes me happy. He makes me so happy. He's kind, he's funny, and he understands me. I wish I could seal this feeling in a bubble, and hold it close forever. Keep him close forever.

Finally, the song ended. The sound of gentle footfalls in the grass heralded Wagner's approach, and Fen managed to control their giggles enough to roll over on their back and look up as the prince plopped down to sit at their shoulder. He was grinning, the warmth and affection in his eyes making Fen's breath catch.

"Amusing you, am I?" he asked lightly. Fen chuckled again.

"You did say you wanted to see me laugh," they pointed out cheerfully.

"Mm. You're… beautiful when you laugh," Wagner agreed, his voice very soft and a little wistful. Fen felt their cheeks warm, but here, in the dark of the forest and far from anyone who might overhear, they found their tongue didn't tie itself in a knot as it usually did.

"And… you're the kindest, most handsome man I've ever known," they admitted, their voice soft but earnest. Wagner's eyes widened with shock, and he curled his tail around himself self-consciously.

"Even though I'm… this?"

Fen swallowed hard, and greatly daring, reached up a hand to towards Wagner's face. The prince stiffened with surprise, but he didn't pull away. As Fen's fingers met his cheek, he shuddered once, then leaned into their hand and closed his eyes.

"Oh, that's… nice," he murmured. Fen laughed breathlessly, pushing themselves up into a sitting position with their free hand.

"You're like a puppy, you know that?"

"Oh, am I?" Wagner half-opened one eye and smirked. He reached out a hand, gently combing his fingertips through Fen's hair, and they shivered at the gentle caress. Okay- it did feel nice.

"This is dangerous, Wagner, you know that," they pointed out softly. "It's so, so dangerous."

Yet, in spite of their words, they leaned in closer, as if there were a magnet drawing their and Wagner's faces together. He was doing likewise, eyes partially hooded but burning with a fierce longing that was echoed somewhere deep inside Fen's soul. Their pulse quickened, and there was less and less room in their head for rational objections with each heartbeat of that eye contact.

Then, in some unspoken mutual agreement, the boys' lips closed the last of the distance, and for a euphoric instant Fen stopped thinking at all.

When they pulled away, flushed and breathless, Fen buried their nose in Wagner's shirt collar. "Gods. I think I'm in love with you."

Above them, they heard a laugh that was more than half sob, and felt Wagner bury his hand in their hair. "You know? I'd been thinking the same, Fen."

The half-elf was trembling, grasping at the front of Wagner's shirt with both hands as if he might turn to smoke and vanish if they let go. "What do we do, Wagner? I'm… and you're… we can't…"

"And why the bloody hell not?" Wagner demanded, suddenly wrapping both arms around Fen's shoulder with fierce possessiveness. "We've given them so damn much. Everything we are, everything we'll be, everything we do, all of it belongs to other people. And what do we get back for that? Scorn? Derision? Why can't we have this one tiny bit of selfishness?"

Fen whimpered, pushing out of that embrace so they could look into Wagner's eyes. "I want you. More than anything. But if anybody finds us out, they'll make sure we never get within ten leagues of each other again. And f-father…" They couldn't continue, abject terror at the idea of what their father would do if he found out choking the words from their throat.

Now Wagner was trembling, and hard. "I… I know. I know. But I… I'll figure something out, I'll p-protect you, I… Damn it, I've n-never had anyone in this world who would… h-hold me the way you do, without even thinking about it. Who understands me. I can't l-lose that, not now."

The way Wagner's voice cracked cut sharply through the fear that was doing circles in Fen's mind. Wagner's expression was one of so much raw pain and vulnerability that Fen felt instantly ashamed of themselves for panicking at him. They felt like they were seeing the prince for the very first time. Or perhaps… seeing a side of him that even he barely realized he had.

"I swear," Wagner whimpered. "I swear, I'll find a way to keep you safe."

Fen shook their head. Impulsively they reached up, wrapping their arms around his shoulders and drawing his head to their shoulder. He stiffened, brows pinched, but then as Fen started to stroke his back, Wagner's entire body went limp against Fen's chest and he started to cry.

That's what was happening when I grabbed his hand in the parlor, Fen realized belatedly. He told me- he's been raised by drill sergeants since he was seven. He's just as starved for love and touch as… as I am.

For a long time Fen let Wagner cry himself out, their arms around his back and their cheek pressed against his ear. When he finally seemed to exhaust himself, Fen spoke again.

"I don't think you are as un-brainwashed as you thought, Wagner. You've been told your whole life how it's your duty to protect and serve others. But you… you want to be able to be vulnerable, don't you? To feel protected."

He sighed, turning his head slightly so that they could meet eyes. "My head was racing, trying to figure out how to make this- us- work. I'm the prince, the paladin, the protector. I…"

Fen kissed Wagner's horn. "I'm sorry. I… shouldn't have freaked out and immediately thrown everything on you. That wasn't fair."

Wagner sighed, shifting his position so that he was lying backwards against Fen's shoulder. "We'll talk- really talk- about how to manage this- us- in the morning. But for tonight… hold me? P-please?"

Fen had never in their life felt so personally needed for something only they could give, and they felt themselves falling in love with Wagner all over again for giving them so freely something they'd desperately longed for. They smiled.

"Of course, Niicoo," they teased gently. "I'm yours."

<<< First - << Previous - End~

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 1 July 1954

Two songs this week, both from old friends with Italian-looking names. I'm realising now that this might also be part of the Italian trend - both of today's artists are using their actual names, or at least seem to be blessed with a genuinely Italian-looking name (looking at you Al Mar- sorry, Jasper Cini). But still, it's clearly the sort of name that sells!

Idle Gossip - Perry Como (peaked at No. 3)

This is a slow and fairly subtle song, with a few interesting moments keeping you on your toes, right from the outset. Even there, in the intro, we've got a shift from a major to a more minor chord, arpeggiated in a way that weirdly sounds a bit like a more classical, less synthy version of the Stranger Things theme (no, just me?)

The volume also shifts around, and continues to do so throughout this song, just like the harmonies do - giving a sense of instability and uncertainty, like the song's mistrustful and can't quite settle down. And in among it all, Perry, fittingly, singing about so called "friends" spreading nonsense about him and his partner's relationship: "Should they say our love is through / That's idle gossip".

It briefly makes me wonder if maybe there's a reason for this - is there some reason people are assuming Perry and his love are on the out? The only hint we get is in the next verse, where Perry asserts that "We'll still carry on as though / Our love affair has just begun", purely to prove a point. This suggests to me that they've been together a while, and the insinuation is that their relationship's getting a bit stale? Evidently, Perry doesn't belive this to be the case - and so it's time to take action.

They go out for a walk and kiss, so as to start some new rumours, giving us the supremely cheesy line that "In their idle gossip/ They may say that I love you / And this time / Idle gossip will be true". Cute? Nauseating? Both?

It's nice, but nothing that massively stands out. I like the theme of ignoring rumours or proving something to the world, and I generally like songs about stable, steady relationships that last. I think they're generally very sweet, and I do like the idea of this song. The song's also very pretty, with lots of quiet strings and muted brass in the instrumental section, and shifts to unexpected notes that just kind of work. It doesn't rock my world, but it is nice.

It feels like a Frank Sinatra song, actually - I think because a few lines sound like a specific line from Fly Me to the Moon? It also feels quite Sinatra-esque in its sentiment - I could see him doing a really good, convincing job of this. Perry Como's not quite in the same vocal league, in my books, but he does an okay job.

A solid, okay job, for a solid, okay song.

Wanted - Al Martino (4)

And then, like déjà vu, this song again. I couldn't find this on Spotify, meaning I had to pull it up on YouTube, that's how forgotten and unloved this one is.

I don't think it helps that it's a repeat. These repeat songs feel like a recurring feature, and I don't care much for it, not least because I have to come up with something new to say about each version. The last version was a Perry Como original, and I have to say, it's very similar to this one. Al has not put much of a stamp onto this, like you'd expect from a cover version today.

It's perhaps a little less orchestral and dramatic, less sweeping strings and more creeping double bass, which I think is a slight improvement? I don't know, while I found Perry's backing singers a bit too much, they did at least give the track some interest. This version is pretty dull through to the one and a half minute mark, where a saxophone solo begins.

The sax solo is nice, in a laid-back, swing-y way, and the clarinets near the end are also a nice touch. There are also some cute chimes at the end, which are fun. Still, there's not much that sets this version apart from Perry's earlier version. They both got to the same chart position, so apparently the British public agreed - or were split on which version they wanted, at least.

Al's version is a bit more bloodless, I guess? Perry at least felt like he was trying to get some emotion out of the track. Al's version feels like it's an exercise in writing and singing a metaphor. I don't buy for a minute that idea that he's actually broken up over this woman.

Well, neither of those songs were bad, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to them again, especially not the strangely hard-to-come-by Al Martino one. File them under okay, but nothing special. One wins a few points simply for novelty value, though.

Favourite song of the bunch: Idle Gossip

[azbookblog2023]

Bodies Are Cool

Bodies Are Cool is a picture book written and illustrated by Tyler Feder. It was listed on the Texas Library Association 2022 2X2 reading list, and is a great read-aloud book. The target age group for this book is children aged 2-5. This book celebrates body positivity, diversity, and inclusivity. Using bright illustrations and rhyming, Feder highlights different disabilities, skin color, hair types, body size, religion, and much more!

I chose to review Bodies Are Cool because it gives representation to individuals whose bodies may not meet society's ideal beauty standards. It also allows parents to introduce the idea that all individuals are unique and different, and that those differences should be celebrated. As somebody who grew up with thick curly hair, and noticeable body hair, having a book like this growing up would have been a great way to introduce self-acceptance as those characteristics often made me feel insecure. Another reason for choosing this book is because children are filled with curiosity. By strategically placing these bodies in common spaces such as pools, subways, and parks it allows children to make connections from what they are seeing in the illustrations to the real world.

For this review I will be evaluating setting, mood, and illustrations.

Setting: This book has multiple settings but the one that stood out to me the most was the movie theater. Feder does a great job of using each setting to focus on a specific difference. The movie theater setting discusses eyes and the multiple shapes and colors that they come in, as well as those who wear glasses. Dark colors are used to insinuate that the theater is dark, and lighter colors are used to brighten the characters eyes and faces. This is just one visual aspect that makes the reader feel like this is a real movie theater. The characters are also eating popcorn and sipping on their drinks which adds to the atmosphere. Feder did a good job giving each character a different emotional reaction to the movie. This particular setting functioned to illuminate the characters eyes and all of the ways in which they are different while making the reader feel as if they are in the theater along with the characters.

Mood: This read-aloud book has a fun and innocent mood that is well executed throughout the story. Bodies Are Cool is about acceptance and diversity and Feder uses rhyming words to describe the characters differences along with bright illustrations. The personalities of each character along with the settings they are in established the mood in this story. Additionally, the author used seasons and places that bring joy to most people- including kids which contributed to the mood in the story. Many of the places in this book are set in outdoor spaces that most kids are familiar with such as the park or the pool. The mood in Feder's story remains fun and innocent throughout the story and the depiction of multiple children and adults having positive interactions with one another further establish the atmosphere.

Illustration: The illustrations in Bodies Are Cool define and develop the characters as Feder uses multiple visual elements to keep the reader engaged. The characters represent people who a child may interact with in real life, and they all have fun and bright personalities. The illustrations focus on different elements of an individuals body, disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. Each character depicted in this story is unique and the illustrations highlight their different personalities. The illustrations also have the element of action, for example, there are characters who are riding bikes, operating their wheelchairs, swimming, and having emotional reactions. Feder brings the characters to life in this book making the illustrations realistic overall.

References:

Feder, T. (2021). Bodies Are Cool (T. Feder, Illus.). Penguin Young Readers Group.

[jeremy-hillary-boob]

in retrospect I'm kind of fascinated by the way michael lindsay-hogg misunderstood the beatles while making this mess. like yes, he's the most punchable person on screen at any given time; whenever he opens his mouth he says something that feels custom-designed to slam into their most specific and deeply-held insecurities, and his ego ensures that he doesn't listen to them at all. but the nature of his failure is so perfectly representative of what's always wrong with public perceptions of the beatles, and it's so interesting when you remember that he is also the director of some classic uhh... mclennon fanfiction, I guess? that's not exactly right, but I don't know how else to characterize the movie "two of us," which was made in 2000 and is frankly the only beatles biopic I've ever really liked. the fact that this smarmy kid who missed the point so hard while making "let it be" managed to nail it while directing this fix-it fic later is enthralling, honestly.

because the problem that he keeps running into is a question of scale and what it is that makes the beatles good. he's very invested in this concept of having them out in an ancient amphitheater in the desert and doing these sweeping overhead shots with a giant audience. he's so married to this idea that he ignores the band repeatedly telling him that they aren't willing to do that, because they won't travel and aren't all that comfortable with a big audience in the first place. it's not even that he keeps pushing for this because they're saying no without offering an alternative; the boys suggest perfectly good concepts, but a lot of things the they ask for are small. they want to do a show in a club, or a dance hall, or the studio. they keep telling him they want close and intimate, and he keeps saying no, we need Huge and Sweeping and Universal!

related to this, probably the moment that most makes me want to yell "fuck you" at the screen is when linda offers an opinion and says, "I'm speaking as a fan!" and MLH snottily replies that he is also a fan, and a bigger fan than she is. it's mostly an annoying comment because of how breathtakingly patronizing and self-important it is. but the underlying insinuation is that he Gets It in a way she does not - his feelings are the justified worship of the larger-than-life music gods, while hers are supposedly just piddly little personal affection for quirky, imperfect human beings who happen to be making something notable.

the adolescent hubris and misogyny of these two issues aside, you can see that his problem is that he thinks they're good because they're big, rather than big because they're good. he's bought into the marketing contrivance of the past few years that the beatles represent some kind of platonic ideal of universal love that's the same for everyone and everything, and that any portrayal of them should therefore be massive and all-encompassing. but he's mistaking the packaging for what's inside it, which is four oddballs who have spent the last decade fueled in large part by their deeply personal attachment to one another and wonky charisma that makes audiences want to connect with them. they're not prophets or wizards; they're a close-knit club band who have a taste for novelty and have been set loose on the fancy recording equipment. MLH is blinded by the glamour that's been painted over them, though, so he doesn't see that the strange, sometimes ugly little love that keeps them chugging along is more important to who they are than the perfect and global significance he imagines them having.

which is what makes me marvel at "two of us," because it operates on the absolute reverse of that mistake. so much of what makes it work is that it happens on a teeny tiny scale. most of the movie has fictional john and fictional paul as the only characters on screen, and nearly all the action is them talking to each other. if there are other speaking characters present, there's a sense of discomfort or comedic awkwardness - john and paul are initially tense in each other's presence, but at the same time are the only people either of them are comfortable with. they seem protected in their solitude, which is a hell of a contrast to how exposed and cornered the real beatles seem in the twickenham footage from let it be/get back. the whole story is a bittersweet bit of wish fulfillment about two people mending a complicated friendship, because the magic was never that they were larger than life, it was that they were human-sized all along, and that was more special than idealized caricatures of rock stars could have ever been. it took him 30 years, but this guy did eventually figure out what he did wrong and try again. I don't know, I think it's neat.

(I do think linda should have gotten a free swing at him, though.)

[nyc-pizza-rat]

The Empty becoming personified is truly one of the funniest things to me! Because that delineation between like. physical form and setting does something so weird to your perception!

also wrt making death mortal! i did not like it one bit when that happened, but I lowkey loved what they did with the first reaper to die next becoming death. i don't know where it is now, but I made a post about this on my old acc ( hauntedpearl you will always be missed) about how this insinuates that capital D Death is just. this amorphous blob of energy that is looking to occupy a specific form not dissimilar to how angels take vessels except it's like. Death is occupying the supernatural version of a human vessel. This also tracks a little with how each version of Death carries themselves, I think (kinda like how all doctors are still The Doctor). but also. this does beg the question where does this blob go between Deaths.

Also. as for the ending. I think it's SO funny that summoning the Empty is supposed to be the solution to Death beating down your door bc Death has literally travelled to and from the Empty before, and she didn't even have to kill herself about it like Cas. Like Death simply exists in the Empty. Arguably, Billie could literally just have zapped herself back from the Empty. the only reason Cas couldn't do it was bc he MADE A DEAL that very much prevents him. like it is not a testament to his powers in any capacity. Plus, again. arguably. he did not die. the empty simply took him. he's just in there.

Also also also. so funny how the first time Cas is deliberately going to the empty he instructs Jack to "almost kill him" by cutting out his grace, but according to this very show, if an angel cuts out their grace, they DONT DIE THEY SIMPLY TURN HUMAN. so like. what was that about.

i could go on honestly. it's such a mess LMAOO

i love when spn writers come up w a fun way to raise the stakes and change how things work on the show w like v little to almost no consideration for how their new additions to the lore recontextualize previous assumptions because like the whole s13/s15 heaven/angels multiplicity thing implies still that there was only one chuck... and only one amara? so how many archangels were involved in putting her away? or is there an inflection/divergence point from where chuck split existence into multiple so that from there and on there were many archangels but before that there were only few four? how cognizant of all of this was metatron, or was he never privy to that? how privy was zachariah? were the end and the french mistake alternate timelines or simply pocket universes like the ones gabriel made for changing channels? how many gabriels ran away from home? all of them? did any stay? was there a lucifer that never fell? was there a cain that never raised his weapon? how long did every other castiel that listened to his orders even live?

!!!!!!!!! EX-FUCKING-ACTLYYYYYYYY

i literally have been thinking about this for the past hour!!! the first version of the post I made was literally just about dean in supernatural being the only one who ever even met cas/got to know him. but then i was like wellllll. that puts too much distance between parallel worlds and it would require me to utilise actual braincells to disentangle all that and I am having A Day™ and can't do it. so i changed it but YOU KNOW!!! EXACTLY!!! what does it mean that there is only one chuck but multiple lucifers??? are there multiple hells??? what about purgatory???

FASCINATING how the worldbuilding on supernatural is soooo stupid and so compelling at the same time I love thinking about it!!!

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

What do you think will be the final couples of black clover?

Ooo hmmm 🤔 Before I go into the actual answer, I will be including notes from the manga, so if you're not up to date with BC manga, and don't want spoilers, this is the head up

So, while keeping in mind that we're only at chapter 353, and there's at least a good 100 chapters to go, a lot can still happen, which will change opinions to one way or another, but overall I don't think we'll see a lot of "end game" couples confirmed (because ultimately the focus of BC isn't in romantic relations, rather than in friendship and found family thematics).

Let's start with an easy one:

YamiChar - I do think that this will be end game, even if Yami was surprised to learn that Charlotte fancies him, since he had been under the impression that she acted "strangely" around him, or her ki did at least, because she hated or disliked him more than most men. This notion alone, however, doesn't mean that he wouldn't like her back. It could be just that he was caught off guard and has now discovered that his feelings are reciprocated. Which is something that to many would be surprising, I dare to claim. This ship is also very directly insinuated by the series, so I do think that it'll end up being end game. And I do think that Yami and Charlotte would compliment each other as characters, since they're both "loners" in a sense. They've both needed to grow strong on their own, and they both have had it rough while growing up, although Yami does take the cake in that one. Charlotte being cursed doesn't compare to what Yami has been through, but still, they are still able to relate to one and another, and they have respect for each others' talent.

Astelle - Though Asta's headspace isn't in relationships or romance as of now, I do think that this will be endgame as well. There has been a lot of interactions between Noelle and Asta that showcase their common journey, and how they are able to lean to each other. Though Noelle has been gaining more confidence from Asta, than Asta from Noelle, I think, but in any case, I wouldn't say that Asta wouldn't value Noelle's presence and his relationship (in the broader sense of the word) with her. And if we compare Asta's interactions to all other "potential love interests" (I use this vaguely), it seems like all the others have developed a crush on Asta because he's a good guy, which he absolutely is, but Noelle and Asta have been there for each other through thick and thin. Which I think connects them well. As said, only Noelle is more vocal about her emotions thus far, but I do think that Astelle will end up being end game with how strongly that relationship is being built as well. (Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if in the later chapters Noelle ends up saving Asta, like he has done for her in the past, and he ends up saying something like "when we're side by side nothing can stop us!" Which ends up setting them down the path more concretely.)

Greyche - Again, they've been shown to have a lot of positive interactions, and bonding over the course of the series. Grey is gaining self-confidence, and Gauche is growing to feel loved and appreciated; he has found a place in which he belongs. That and they have shared history, in a way, due to that one interaction, and I do think that the reason why that was specifically put into Grey's backstory, is to give more footing for the romantic relationship for the two. I don't have many ships for BC, but I honestly can't see these two with anyone else than each other.

Finral/Finesse - I mean, this is more of an arranged marriage type of a deal, but Finral wants to grow into a loyal spouse for Finesse, and she does care for him, so I do think that it will end up being end game, even if the relationship itself isn't as well fleshed out in canon as it perhaps ought to be, but we can't have it all, I suppose. But in any case, I do think that it'll end up being end game, because they are striving to be together, granted that Finral is doing more of the striving, and Finesse is more or less promising to wait for him. That and Langris seems to be, for reasons best known to himself, rooting for the two to wind up together. I don't have that strong of an opinion about this ship, or reasons as to why the dynamics would make sense, but I do think that it'll end up being The Ship for these two (plus it's being built up by canon, so it would make sense for it to happen).

Charmill - Okay, this could go either way, really, so it's a *maybe* option. And it will greatly depend on how Charmy will continue to see Rill, since she was angry at him for wasting food during the elf arc (granted that it was the elf soul in Rill, rather than Rill himself). And aside of that one interaction, we haven't seen them interact a lot after that, so it's really about how, and if, they discover each other in the future. Because Rill saw Charmy's human form, and Charmy saw Rill's "elf form". It really could be either way, but I would be more inclined to say that these two will end up becoming a ship.

Meresuga - Another *maybe* option, since we haven't actually gotten to see these two interact, but I do think that if someone could pass Mereo's criteria of being able to go head to head with her in a mortal battle, it'd be Yosuga (and he might actually like the brawl, instead of running away screaming like the rest of the Kingdoms). He wouldn't water down her strength, but instead would throw gasoline into the open flame, I think. I think Mereo would find him interesting at least, perhaps not romantically interesting, but ... interesting.

I think that's the ships that I could see being end game (more thoughts in the notes)

Thank you for the ask!

[velvetcloxds]

MEET THE MIKAELSONS| D.H.

Pairing: Derek x Fem! Reader, Teen Wolf x The Originals (requested) 

Word count: 1962 words

Warning: none, just fluff

Summary: Reader takes her friends and her boyfriend, Derek to visit her family home where they find out that she’s related to the infamous Mikaelson vampires.

“Just don’t touch anything,” I command calmly, Stiles pausing mid air as his hand hovers over one of Klaus’s paintings and everyone allows for a soft laugh, Derek kissing the side of my head as his hand remains inside my back pocket.

“This place is beautiful,” Lydia notes, looking around slowly as her eyes move over the various features of the compound.

“Yeah,” I say with a shrug, walking deeper into the compound as I mimic her actions, mentally comparing the way it looks to the pictures Rebekah sent me with her letters and I can’t help but smile when my eyes settle on the Mikaelson crest, fingers reaching out mindlessly as I trace the carved wall numbly.

“What does it stand for?” Derek asks, moving behind me where he wraps his hands around my waist, face resting on my shoulder. My smile grows due to the gesture, free hand finding one of his.

“Mikaelson,” I note softly, memories of our family suddenly speeding through my mind like a slideshow, things I’d told myself I’d forgotten completely proving to be embedded into my brain.

“Like the ancient vampire family?” Scott asks, having disappeared to the bathroom for a minute as soon as we got here.

“More vampires?” Stiles asks from behind me, and I nod.

“Yeah, they’re the first of their kind,” I explain, though my attention is far from this conversation, a feeling similar to the one I felt when I explained this to Derek, him being the only one knowing not only who I truly am and where I come from, but whom I was running from. “The Originals,” I add, and Derek gives me a slight squeeze, turning me around in his arms, probably picking up on my dazed state.

“Cool,” Is all Stiles offers as a reply, taking Lydia’s hand as Scott follows them to explore more of the house.

“You okay?” He whispers, leaning towards me. I nod in his hold, hands moving to his arms.

“Just a little weird being here, I guess.” I look up to him, smiling slightly when our eyes meet. “I thought that when I finally got to see this place in all its glory, they’d be here with me, waiting maybe,” Derek nods with understanding, smiling sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” He loosens his grip, leaning back to get a better look at me. “We can leave if you’re not comfortable,” He offers sweetly and I shake my head with a smile, kissing his lips quickly.

“No,” I tell him though I can’t hide the slight rise in my tone, his brows furrowing as a result. “We need to let things cool down in Beacon Hills and no one will bother us here,” I pause, sighing softly as I move my hands over his bare arms. “Besides, there’s a literal coffin around here somewhere with my name on it.”

“Wait really?” Derek asks intrigued as he looks around the room pointlessly. I nod, not fighting against the smile on my lips.

“Yeah, a dagger too, but I doubt we’ll find that just laying around,” I pull away from him briefly, taking his hand in mine as I guide him towards the hallway by the staircase where Stiles’ is excitedly gesturing towards the wall.

“It’s her!” He announces loudly, eyes moving over the painting that Klaus painted of our family, and I subconsciously tighten my grip on Derek’s hand, his thumb moving up and down against my skin to soothe me.

“It’s not her,” Lydia argues with a roll of her eyes, arms folded as Scott simply watches the scene unfold. “It’s far more likely to be a relative that looks remarkably a lot like her,” She reasons and Derek bites back a grin at my side.

“She’s a vampire, right?” Stiles ask, looking to me for conformation and I nod, seeing no need for the question as he literally walked in on me sipping from a blood bag a few months ago. “And she’s been annoyingly vague about her family and her history, right?” He asks, question directed at Scott and Lydia this time, they both nod. “And she brought us to her family home, which has paintings of the Mikaelson family which Scott saw in the bestiary, where he also read that the Mikaelson family also have a long-lost hybrid sister who hasn’t been spotted in years…” Stiles nods eagerly as he waits for the pieces to fall together, Scott and Lydia looking to me as it does.

“Are you a Mikaelson?” Scott asks, hands in his pockets as he shifts on his feet, I release a shaky breath before offering a mere nod as reply, Stiles almost jumping up and down with the conformation of him being correct.

“Holy shit,” Stiles begins and turns to me, eyes sparkling with excitement. “That is so cool, like literally the coolest thing you’ve ever told us about yourself,” He informs me, and Derek shakes his head at my side, glaring at the boy as he continues to grow more excited.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Scott asks hesitantly, ignoring Stiles who is fiddling with his jacket sleeves as he takes a closer look at my specific painting. “Didn’t you trust us?” He adds as well, and I shake my head quickly.

“Of course I trust you,” I begin, and Derek squeezes my hand again, reminding me to breathe as I think of the best way to explain this. “I wanted to tell you all, truly I did, but our family has enemies around every corner, and I didn’t want to bring you guys into that,” I look over all of them quickly before turning to meet Derek’s gaze. “I love you all too much to create unnecessary collateral damage.“

“So why tell us now?” Lydia questions with a raised brow and I notice the added heartbeats filling the room behind us before I could fathom a reply, the gushing wind of their entrance still swirling around us.

“Because you’re in need of our assistance,” A familiar voice explains, and I close my eyes for a second in preparation before turning to face my older brother.

“Elijah,” I whisper in acknowledgement, the words barely leaving my lips before he’s picking me up into his arms, twirling me around in a welcoming hug that causes a childlike giggle to erupt from my lips. “I’ve missed you too,” I confirm, hands on his shoulders as he sets my feet back on the ground and I take a moment to center myself. “And you,” I say when my eyes meet with Rebekah’s, happy tears tugging at her eyes and I release myself from Elijah’s presence to pull her into my arms, her arms folding around my neck as she holds me close.

“It has been far too long, Y/n ,” She whispers, laughing lightly through her tears. She squeezes me tightly before pulling away, hands moving to comb back the hair that’s been ruffled through our hug and her hands still on my cheeks as she takes me in. “My little sister, even more beautiful than I remember,” She notes, which earns a scoff from both my lips and Elijah’s.

“I look exactly the same, Bekah and you know it,” I muse, taking the handkerchief from Elijah’s hands to hold it out for Rebekah . “Though, I’d never turn down the compliment from the beauty of the family.”

“Oh, I take great offense by your insinuation, love, ” Klaus announces, and everyone turns to the entrance, where he leans against the wall, watching the interaction. “Welcome home, Y/n,” He notes with a large smile, and I know as far as greeting go, that’s quite the scene from the hybrid.

“Thank you, Niklaus,” I offer in the same and my cheeks practically hurt form the pure excitement rushing through me at seeing them all again, the nerves and discomfort from earlier slipping away almost completely, until Klaus’ eyes meet Derek’s and suddenly reality sinks back in. I take a few steps back, smiling up at Derek before rejoining our hands, my other hand snaking around his upper arm to keep him close. “I should introduce everyone,” I note with a nervous smile and Derek simply nods reassuringly.

“I’d begin with the creature you’re so eagerly latching onto,” Klaus announces, happy tone from earlier replaced with the all so familiar big brother voice.

“Play nice, Niklaus,” Elijah instructs, accepting my grateful smile before silently commanding me to continue.

“This is my boyfriend, Derek,” I begin, looking up at the man as he extends a hand towards Elijah inducing the longest handshake I’ve ever had to endure until Rebekah clears her throat, the two men pulling away from each other. “Then there’s Lydia, Stiles and Scott,” I add, releasing a small huff of air as I gesture to each of them individually.

“It’s good to meet all of,” Rebekah speaks up, catching my gaze with a warm smile before she looks to my guests. “We’re the Mikaelsons,” She explains, and I nod lightly. “Elijah, Klaus and I’m Y/n’s personal favorite, Rebekah,” She declares simply, mimicking my gesture until everyone has extended an acknowledging nod.

“We should talk business,” Klaus commands suddenly, standing from his leaning position to walk towards us. “You bunch are here for a reason, aren’t you?” He muses with a slight wink my way and I roll my eyes at the remark, knowing that only he would take this opportunity to take a jab at my decision to leave them.

“Don’t start, Niklaus,” Elijah offers with a tight tone and I would’ve laughed if the room wasn’t so tense, a sense of familiarity filling me at the little group dynamic that’s remained the same through all these years.

“I’m not starting anything, Elijah,” Klaus replies, hurriedly pulling his leather jacket straight. “I’m simply trying to remind our dear sister that she is here on what she called a family favor and that we wouldn’t want to waste her precious time,” I’m too late to stop the soft laugh that escapes my lips, Klaus turning towards be in slight shock.

"Honestly Klaus, it has been centuries and you're telling me that no one has yet to remove that stick from your ass?” I mock and Elijah steps forward, fully prepared to stop the interaction when a smile traces the hybrids lips.

“Little sister,” He muses and then shakes his head, pointing at me. “You have booked yourself a long dinner,” He announces and pats Elijah on the shoulder to invite him to leave the room with him. Elijah spares me a brief smile before following.

“That went better than expected,” Rebekah notes and I smile at her, nodding with relief as Klaus and Elijah begin discussing the diner plans on their climb up the stairs. “Why don’t I show you three your rooms,” she says and motions for Scott, Stiles and Lydia to follow them, pausing to give me a quick kiss on the cheek before leading them away as well. I turn to Derek with a smile, his eyes already waiting for mine as I do.

“You did good, sweetheart,” he tells me, making my heart swell as I lean into him. “I’m very proud of you,” He adds, and I feel a blush creeps onto my cheeks.

“I couldn’t have done it without you at my side,” I say simply, resting my chin against his chest as I look up at him. He hums lightly, shaking his head as he lifts his free hand to gently push the hair behind my ear.

“You definitely could have,” He muses and gently kisses my forehead, sending a welcome rush of pure bliss through my veins, I smile as he lingers close. “My brave girl.”

Hi there, more of my work can be found on Wattpad.  Mxx.

Masterlist

[a-partofthemob]

some random mp100 HEADCANONS for any character i can think of at the moment ok u ready im ready- ready set GO

- reigen has a dad sneeze

- one time he sneezed and almost broke his back

- whenever mob drinks coffee he feels sleepy (yes im projecting)

- dimple and the claw security guard made an agreement to let sg be dimple's host body from time to time and that's how we get the official arts

- teru was made to sit in the very back of the class when his haystack hair made an appearance

- teru set reigen as his emergency contact at school

- the kids all referred to reigen as 'Dad' at some point in their lives

- yes including ritsu

- he and reigen made an agreement to never speak of the moment ever

- reigen's a master at uno

- reigen has double jointed fingers

- mob and ritsu have a shared collection of pokemon cards but neither of them know how to use them

- multiple students at Salt Middle School refers to the student council as the Hair Club because of ritsu's signature spiky bedhead, kamuro's greasy hair that is now tidied up, and tokugawa being the only one with neat hair

- tokugawa helped kamuro in hair care

- shou has numerous candid pictures of ritsu on his phone

- teru didn't express his bright fashion sense pre-mob because he's afraid of judgement from his peers and only started after getting the wig

- whenever the Black Vinegar soccer team loses everyone looks out for teru bc he gets feverish

- Black Vinegar Middle School all had a collective sigh of relief when teru came to school with shorter hair

- Black Vinegar MS also all know of mob bc teruki keeps mentioning him in conversations and could talk p a r a g r a p h s about him

- mob has a lisp that comes out whenever he's talking too fast or really excited

- the kageyamas specifically set aside some money as their 'Spoon Funds'

- ritsu doesn't have a sweet tooth and whenever valentine's day comes around he gets gifted all these sweets and sweet chocolate

- on the other hand mob does have a sweet tooth

- meaning that ritsu shares the chocolate he receives with mob :)

- he hoards all the dark chocolate though

- mob does little hops when he's excited

- mob jumps, bent knees and all, when he's REALLY excited or happy, like he gets an A in a subject

- reigen pirates all his music

- reigen started working out again after the marathon arc

- takenaka has a collection of noise cancelling headphones and he doesnt know what to do with them but, he, just, keeps, getting, gifted, more, because his family doesnt know what else to give him-

- tsubomi and takenaka are friends bc of tennis club and he was just being mean when he was insinuating that he was trying to get close to tsubomi, he doesnt like her that way

- the super 5 have monthly lunch outings just to check up on each other, everyone's happy that serizawa's happy with his job

- shimazaki bounced from job to job until he landed a job as a bodyguard

- shimazaki had to lie low for a while bc he made live tv kidnapping the prime minister

- minegishi's manager at the flower shop swears that whenever minegishi's around the plants just,, perk up more

- many customers of the flower shop find minegishi cute (yes im projecting my love for them)

- tsuchiya and shibata work as personal trainers at the same gym so they become friends sooner or later after a brief period of suspicion

- koyama goes to the same gym tsuchiya and shibata work at and left immediately after seeing these two glaring at each other

- tsuchiya legally adopted mukai after the events of the 7th division

- matsuo has a very obvious sweet tooth

- matsuo sometimes threatens his spirits by eating the things they were named after

- rarely gum-chan and cookie-chan though

- they're his favorites

- everyone who has joseph's contact number have him named as 'joseph from the government'

- the body improvement club's everyone's big brothers

- teachers actually don't mind onigawara that much during class, sure he's delinquent but he never skipped attendance, save for the Cleanup Arc, and he never really makes a fuss or noise

- tsubomi prefers more straight to the point confessions rather than letters with flowery words and compliments

- shou has a plushie of a hamster

- shou is also very meticulous about his hair and how it's styled

- shimazaki had babysat shou when he was a kid and he's part of the reason why shou's like that

- whenever minegishi babysat shou, shou would use their plants as a makeshift jungle gym

- shou used to ask minegishi if they were a boy or a girl and was convinced that minegishi used to be a plant that became a human

- minegishi supported this thought a bit too much and had half of claw second guessing if they actually used to be a plant until serizawa got wind of the rumor and asked them

- shou locked himself in his room for 10 hours straight in embarrassment when he's told that no minegishi wasn't a plant that had gained a human thought process

- shou would have taken sakurai to the HQ if the 7th division hadn't been disbanded

[stxleslyds]

Red Hood and the lost art of telling Joker to shup up. ��

Okay, I know that I talked about Jason and Joker in a recent post but this is something different, I promise.

I really want to talk about how different Jason has been written since UtRH when it comes to him confronting Joker. Jason hasn’t been put in that position a lot but the times that he has, he lets Joker talk for far too long and actually pays attention to whatever he has to say.

The Jason vs Joker thing is basic in on itself and letting Joker talk isn’t exactly the problem here, the real problem is Jason letting Joker’s thoughts shape his future thoughts and decisions, I do understand that that’s exactly what writers want though, they want to build the problematic of: “Jason is just like Joker and the fact that he uses the name Red Hood only proves that Joker made who Jason is now”.

But the thing is that THAT problem is overdone at this point and the only time it worked was the first time it was brought up and it worked because Jason shut the Joker down.

Let’s see all the times (that I remember) the Joker and Jason have had a little chat and/or the times Joker’s words actually influence Jason’s thinking and decision making.

 Under the Red Hood – Batman (1940) #649

This is the first real confrontation we get to see between Jason and Joker after Jason’s death and it is beautiful. It's absolutely amazingly written, Joker goes on and on forever about how he killed Jason about how Jason is just as bad as him but that he is also just like Batman because he hasn’t killed him yet.

“You let me live after everything I did, you couldn’t pop my balloon. You just couldn’t. The apple doesn’t tumble too far from the paterfamilias. You are just like daddy-kins”

Jason lets him talk, yes. But he absolutely destroys Joker with what he tells him next.

“You couldn’t be more wrong about me. If right were a country on earth you’d be circling on the edge of the milky way. Yeah, I let you live but like always, every damned minute of your addled, posturing, psychopathic life, you think this is about you. You’re a worm. I’ve pitched you on a hook and dropped you into the brine. And I will beat the hell out of you Pagliacci because it was too much fun not to.”

“Listen to me Joker, I’m not you. I´m nothing like you. I know what I do and I know why I do it. You, you are, clinically speaking, a whack-job. But I know a secret, a good one.”

“You are not nearly as crazy as you would like us all to believe or even as crazy as you would like to believe. It just makes it easier to justify every sick monstrous thing you’ve ever done when you play the part of the mad clown. You are crazy, bubba, but you ain’t that crazy. Look at that. I wiped a smile off of Joker’s face. I have been waiting a long time for that.”

Everything about this is perfect, Jason gives Joker no room to mess with him. Whatever the Joker had planned on saying he had to eat because Jason wasn’t playing games and he was ready for any kind of lie the Joker had ready to tell. This is Jason Todd. He won’t let the Joker get under his skin because he knows the Joker and he, also, knows better. 

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #15

Here Jason comes across Joker during the “Death of the Family” event. In this issue the Joker has information about all of the members of the “Batfamily” and he uses that to mess around with each one of them, in Jason’s case he insinuates that he was present in very specific moments of his life when Jason’s father got shot, when his mother overdosed and when he was on his own before joining Batman.

Jason doesn’t quite believe that Joker was there but as the reader, we can see this sort of sense of doubt in Jason. He hesitates a few times before resolving that the Joker is playing with him.

But as far as this issue goes let’s just say that what the Joker says doesn’t get to Jason, this changes though in the issue that follows up this story.

Teen Titans (2011) #16

This is where that story continues and where Jason starts to buy the story that Joker is selling.

Joker convinces Jason that he has his father and Tim’s father and that the only way for Jason (or Tim) to save their dads is by killing the other (Jason or Tim). Tim doesn’t believe it but Jason is ready to shoot Tim almost immediately.

However, Jason changes his mind about killing Tim just as Tim comes up with a plan for them to not actually have to kill each other. Here is where Lobdell’s writing shows all of its flaws, Lobdell is so desperate to show that Jason and Tim are besties that he forgets that Jason had no reason to stop trying to kill Tim to save his shit father because it is later revealed that Jason truly believed that Joker had found his father and had him captive. It wasn’t until Tim explained his thought process as to why those men weren’t their dads that Jason just goes “you realize, of course, the only reason I didn’t kill you right off is that I knew your big brain will figure out some way out of this” HA, nice save Lobdell but I see right through your bullshit.

Jason bought what the Joker was selling and that is the beginning of Jason’s downgrade when it comes to not playing Joker’s games.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #17

Well, in this issue Lobdell goes back to Jason kinda not believing what Joker told him, and Jason asks Bruce of all people if he thinks the Joker truly “made him or not”. Bruce says that he doesn’t believe that and that he didn’t have anything to do with the man that Jason has become either. For some reason, Jason is actually happy with what Bruce said and for a couple of moments, Jason goes back to being sure that the Joker knows nothing and that he is his own man.

It doesn’t last long though. At the very end of the issue, the trap that Joker had set up in Jason’s helmet triggers and Jason gets his face fucked up with acid or something.

But that’s not all because a hologram of Joker has something to say: “you were supposed to be my masterpiece from start to finish. But you were too stubborn to stay dead. So here is what we are going to do… You’re so determined to be your own man? Fine, let’s start with a clean slate”.

Basically, the Joker insinuates once more that he had something to do with who Jason was supposed to become and that Jason isn’t truly “his own man”, This is all a setup for a very dense storyline that will be continued in this run later.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #18

In this issue, Jason is in a coma after he is dosed with that gas in the previous issue. The Joker isn’t really present in this issue but he does make an appearance as part of Jason’s “nightmare” while he is unconscious.

That’s not all though, Jason has an illusion of Ducra (someone that he appreciates a lot), telling him that “after you left the All-Castle after you went back to the world you continued to let your life be defined by the actions of that man. You became a killer, lashing out at people who may or may not have deserved it. Eventually, you will hurt all those you have cared for. In that way, how are you any different from the Joker?”.

In this statement, there is a lot of wrongs that can come from two places, either bad writing on Lobdell’s part or just Ducra telling lies as a plot point.

“Let your life be defined by the actions of that man” is a sentence that horribly simplifies Jason’s thinking during the events of UtRH, because while he did resent the Joker, his real problem was with Bruce who had not avenged his death by killing the Joker himself. Also, Jason was doing other things back then, like being a pain in the ass for Black Mask and disrupting the drug trade in Gotham as well as trying to control the drug dealing to children. So that little sentence is just a gross misinterpretation of the true events which means that Ducra was wrong, and “she” continues to be wrong when she says that there might be no difference between Jason and Joker.

Luckily Jason thinks the same because he tells “Ducra”: “…don’t you dare compare me to that monster Ducra. I am nothing like the Joker! Nothing!”

Once again please don’t be fooled by Jason’s thinking because in the next issue it turns around really fast and really bad.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #19

Just a heads up this issue has a change of writer, Lobdell isn’t writing this arc, the writer that gives us this hellish story arc is James Tynion IV.

All that talk about Jason not being affected or not believing what the Joker told him is yeeted out of the window and it’s not a fun ride.

In this issue, Roy and Kory find a Jason that doesn’t know who they are or who he, himself, is. This is because S’aru that little floaty little shit took his memories away after Jason asked him to do so, well Jason asked S’aru to erase every memory that darkness has touched (Joker) and he does that. But him doing that is apparently erasing everything which, holy shit, how messed up is that?

But let’s take a look at what Jason says before he gets his memories taken away: “Not only did the Joker almost take my face, but he tells me he might have manipulated my entire life from the beginning! Even the good is tainted by him now. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t have that kind of doubt. If you take it away, I can go on living. I can keep fighting”. So, yeah that was a pretty emo speech. But the thing here is that if Jason is asking this dude to erase every memory that has been tainted by the Joker and he erases all of them then we might be facing one of two situations, either Joker has been messing up with Jason’s life from the beginning or S’aru is just a little bitch.

We will later find out in #20 that S’aru and Ducra planned the whole thing, meaning that they took all of his memories for ulterior motives not because the Joker had actually tainted all of them.

For many issues Jason has no memories and now that I am revisiting these issues, I now remember the twisted and completely insane plot they came up with for the “League of Assassins” and Jason being the “Chosen One”, everything was happening in this run, my god, it's like they wanted Jason to be the center of every single trope in writing history.

It’s in issue #26 that Jason asks for his memories back but the Joker having tainted his memories or not isn’t important anymore to anyone, including the writer (because he is too focused on telling this messy story), Jason (because he has enough problems at the moment) and the reader (because this book makes zero sense and it changes the story and motivations every single issue).

But there is another truth to be revealed in the next issue.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #27

Jason has planned along Ducra and S’aru to give up all of his memories to be cleansed so he could defeat Ra’s Al Ghul. But (there is always a but) Ducra says this: “Your greatest enemy returned and nearly took your face away from you. And in the process, shook your sense of identity to the core” “The final battle here will take place in the Well of Sins, and with all the doubt and fear clouding your mind, it would eat you whole”.

So yeah, now we have confirmation from Ducra that Jason had indeed let what the Joker told him cloud his sense of self and made him doubt who he was and if he really was in control.

All that back and forth for these many issues just to say, yes, Jason let Joker’s words affect him.

So here it is, let Joker get in Jason’s head to build the plot of a story, fantastic, the story was a mess because it had so much information, the mischaracterizations of Roy and Kory were at their maximum potential, and in this particular story arc not only are the events of Red Hood: The Lost Days officially erased from Jason’s canon but something quite out there is added to Jason’s canon from before he was even Robin (that’s a whole different story that I won’t be talking about here).

What an insane ride this arc was. Definitely not the kind of story I enjoy in a Red Hood book but that’s just my preference.

*This whole arc was written by James Tynion IV.

Red Hood/Arsenal #11

Joker is dead during the events of this run but the person who has something to say to Jason about how the Joker made the person that he is now is Duela Dent (“Joker’s daughter”, she isn’t his daughter she just found Joker’s face somewhere and she puts it on and “becomes” crazy, she is an incredibly weird character).

She says this, “You’re a lot like dad in that way” to which Jason says “He is not my father. He’s not even your father” but Duela continues by saying. “You’re kidding yourself if you genuinely believe that. Yeah, he took your life but look what you got in its place, you ingrate. You got your freedom. You were reborn.” 

Jason doesn’t fall for it or anything of the sort but once again writers are bringing up the Joker as the maker of the Red Hood and “suggesting” that what Jason has been doing and who he has become is all thanks to Joker. The idea of Jason having no free will is still present in this narrative, even when Jason doesn’t believe it.

Red Hood/Arsenal #12

I talked too soon because in this issue Jason is having some weird thoughts.

“Funny, isn’t it, so easy to call Duela “crazy” because she wears a dead man’s face. Because isn’t that what I’m doing? Before he was the Joker, he was the Red Hood. So maybe the line between men and the Joker’s daughter is a lot thinner than I’d like to admit.”

Here he is comparing himself to Duela and to the Joker to an extent, writers often bring up the fact that Jason uses the code name that his killer once had and they have people or Jason himself questioning why he uses that name.

Personally, I don’t think there is much to build from it (at least not from the perspective of Lost Days and UtRH), it was just a joke, a morbid one if you will. He wears the mantle of the person that destroys Gotham and fills its people with fear while he is trying to control the city’s drug trade and trying to keep the people safe in his own way. And the way he wanted to do it is almost the complete opposite of the way that Batman does things.

I just think that he is being ironic and acidic about the whole thing. He has obviously moved on from the fact that Joker killed him but he has issues with the fact that Batman has yet another child working with him while the Joker is still alive. And Jason really wanted to make Bruce suffer, so him taking the name and a similar appearance to how the joker used to look is also done to get a reaction from Bruce.

I really don’t think there is any sort of connection to make between Jason and Joker beyond that, much like there is no connection between the name Nightwing and the Court of Owls. Even though Lincoln March tried to convince Dick Grayson that he chose the name Nightwing because Owls fly at night and that meant that he was supposed to become a Talon and all that Dick still didn’t believe it because he knew why he chose that name and no one can twist his reason.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) #10

Finally, I can stop re-reading New 52 books, I don’t enjoy it but I have to do it if I want to talk/complain about stuff.

This one is a little different because while Jason does talk with the Joker, the Joker isn’t really there he is just part of Jason’s imagination just like the Robin Jason that he is also seeing.

In this story, Jason is helping Artemis discover who she is but he gets captured in Qurac, yup that place, and worst of all from where he is being held, he can see the place where he died. All of that is helping Jason have some very vivid memories/illusions. He does actively hold a conversation with the imaginary Joker and Robin Jason though, and he is also having a lot of thoughts that let us know how the Joker affects Jason.

“This is why it was stupid of me to come back to Qurac. Even to help Artemis, even if I thought I could handle it. Physically, I am alone, but in my head? I’m drowning in memories of the worst day of what was my very short life. The day I was murdered.”

That’s what Jason is thinking but what I write next is what Jason’s saying as he talks to the imaginary Joker.

“Not interested in replaying this over again, like I have every night of my life since it happened Joker”

So, we are told that Jason thinks about that day very often, the Joker might not be involved much in Jason’s books but he definitely has a bigger role inside of Jason’s head. They chat for a bit up until Jason decides to “kill” the Joker, he knows, of course, that it is not real but it does give him satisfaction. (If only they would have let Jason actually kill the clown for real, or at the very least chase him just to show the reader that Jason does actually want to finish the job since the Bat won’t do it himself).

Having said all that, Joker’s imaginary death doesn’t last long because Jason is trapped in his mind and the Joker is basically functioning on a loop inside of it.

That is where the problem lies in this issue because Jason is letting us know that he is still heavily influenced by what happened that day and that he hasn’t been able to walk away from it. But once more that’s not the worst thing, because all of these thoughts have led Jason to think that he (in the present and as a fifteen-year-old) is the one to blame for having ended up dead. Yeah, it is messed up.

This is what Jason says to imaginary Robin Jason, “He is never going to die, Jason. Not here. Not in my mind, not if at some point I don’t stand up and walk away from my memories. From you.”

This is a major downgrade, from the Jason that we had in UtRH because that Jason had moved on from the fact that he had been killed what he was looking for was for Batman to avenge his death. He had other things in mind as well, like I said before in this post Jason had a lot of things going on, killing Joker wasn’t his only plan.

And this situation (written by Lobdell) is also very different from what was going on in New 52 where Jason being influenced by the Joker was used to build a plot. This is just a writer letting us know that this “new version” of Jason hasn’t worked out his problems when it comes to his death and his killer. That means that we are going backward.

After he realizes that he was unconscious all that time and that he was being tortured he does get his shit together in order to get out of captivity and go help Artemis.

The Joker and that whole thing that happened in his mind aren’t mentioned again, it was just for the reader to know that Rebirth Jason has unsolved issues with his death.

Batman: Three Jokers #1

Oh yes, here we are, we have arrived to that dreaded book, awful writing gorgeous art. In this book, the “Joker made Jason as he is now” trope is at its full potential; Johns drives this hellish truck of a book at full speed into our homes and then ends it by giving us one of the worst takes on Jason Todd’s characterization ever.

But first, let’s talk about the Joker and Jason interaction in the first issue. As Jason and Barbara are left alone with the Joker that they came across moments ago the Joker begins talking because that’s what he does.

He says this, “I’m the loop-de-loop, the hamster-wheel-of-doom. The cycle of pain each one of you is trapped in. Take “Red Hood” here, for example. Have you ever wondered why he uses my former moniker? Who in their right mind would take on the identity of their killer? Am I right?”

He is obviously being a little shit on purpose and is waiting to see if somebody will take the bait. Jason is the first to talk and he says this: “I took it because I’m owning what you did to me. You made me into this. I will be your destruction”.

Congratulations Jason, you took the bait, and now Barbara will fight with you over it.

Jason raises his gun to “break the cycle” and Barbara is like “please don’t do it” and boy is Joker having the time of his life! Both of these idiots are playing his game, Johns really did both Jason and Barbara dirty with this.

Here is where THE problem with letting the Joker talk is. This Joker got under Jason’s skin in seconds and Barbara did nothing while it happened.

This is what the Joker had to say. “Let’s look at the facts here bat-people. I bashed this boy’s skull in. I killed this Robin” to which Jason says “You didn’t kill me, you only made me stronger” which is weird because the Joker did kill him so I don’t know what kinda comeback that was supposed to be but Joker wasn’t done because he continues by saying “Yes, you crawled from the shallow grave I left you in. You lived on to fight another day. Hurrah! You survived because of your tenacity! Or maybe… maybe I beat you to a bloody mess… I took you right to the edge… because I wanted to leave you alive.”

Great that’s where the clown is going, just fantastic, more of the “I made you” but that’s not all because the Joker tells Jason that him having hurt Jason wasn’t because he didn’t like Jason, it was all about Batman, Jason doesn’t matter.

But that’s not the worse thing that was written in this awful book, Geoff Johns seems to have felt that the trauma that Jason went through in the original “Death in the Family” story wasn’t enough because he decided to add something new.

That’s why the Joker says this next, “Do you recall what you said to me while I was breaking your head in with that crowbar? As your blood streamed into your eyes and your skull cracked? Because I cherish those words. I’ll always cherish them. ‘Please stop! Please! If you let me live, I’ll do anything you say. I’ll be your Robin’” “And look at you now my little “Red Hood” shooting up people and making Batman’s life miserable! You are my Robin!”

What a nightmare Johns decided to put Jason and Jason Nation through huh? I hate this, this is the worst thing that has ever been written in a Jason Todd story (although I can say that about many things that were written in this three-issue book).

Jason kills the Joker after he says all that, Barbara does (for some reason) try to stop him from doing it but luckily, she can’t stop Jason.

But here is the thing, Jason killing the Joker doesn’t make me feel as satisfied as I would have liked, and it doesn’t feel that way because Jason let Joker talk for far too long and what Joker said ended up getting in Jason’s head and messing with him.

Batman: Three Jokers #2

Yeah, there is no rest for us, Jason Nation, in this issue Jason goes looking for another Joker to kill and he finds one but he gets captured. Johns really had to get Jason naked for Joker to torture him mentally and physically? Johns is, himself, a major red flag but that’s not what I am here to talk about.

In this issue the Joker that captures Jason has the same things to say as the other one, DC writers really have no imagination when it comes to building conflict between Joker and Jason, huh?

Anyway, Joker says this, “tell me something. Why would you put on that helmet and call yourself Red Hood after what we did?” Jason of course replies “Come on, is every one of you copycats gonna ask me the same thing? It’s a joke” the answer isn’t enough for Joker (the two of them that are here with Jason) so he continues talking. “A joke? We left you with brain damage and permanent nerve pain. Physical and emotional trauma so severe that the only relief you ever find is when you inflict pain on others. You and me, boy, we’re more alike than you’d care to admit. But you know that already. You nearly died and you blame the Batman. You hate him for it. Me too. You hate him most of all don’t you?”

Now, here is the thing, that whole thing is bullshit, none of it makes sense. From Jason having permanent nerve pain to Jason hating Batman the most, everything is a lie. And my confusion here is that I don’t know if I have to feel like Joker is doing it on purpose to be a little bitch or if Geoff Johns was on crack when he wrote this and he had actually never heard of Jason Todd in his life before.

The whole thing is a mess, it feels like he is writing Jason from an origin and story that we never read. I don’t know how to explain it, but the whole thing feels cheap, it’s a cheap trope and it’s a cheap take on who Jason Todd is, was, and will be.

The nightmare doesn’t end Jason Nation because these two Jokers have something else in mind, you see, if they said that they made the Red Hood when they killed Jason the first time, maybe if they kill him this time then he could possibly come back as the Joker. Yeah, this book did nothing for Jason.

Let’s make something clear, Jason does NOT hate Batman/Bruce for not being able to save him, he hates the fact that Batman/Bruce didn’t kill the Joker to avenge him. That simple thing doesn’t exist in Three Jokers and that’s why things like the ones that happen next are allowed to happen in this story.

Bruce and Barbara find Jason and when Bruce asks if he is okay Jason just goes berserk, he says: “Am I all right? What do you think Bruce?! You did this to me. You put me on this path. And I do hate you for it. For leaving me in the dirt. Replacing me one Robin after another without a thought.”

This, everybody is what you get when you mix bad writing with Jason being mentally manipulated by the Joker.

It's a shame that Jason is being treated this way at this point in time, in a book that came out in 2020 when Jason was able to shut the clown up with a knife and a couple of words back in 2005. What a downgrade.

At the end of this issue, Jason is safe and recovering but he still is in the same mindset, he says, “What the Joker said about how I’ve been on the path to being like them for years… they are not wrong. I don’t want to be like them though. I really don’t.”

It’s like a never-ending wheel of pain with this book. Jason is talking to Barbara when he says that and he is trying to look for comfort in her. And here is where the Jason/Barbara subplot begins and I only bring this up because something that happens in the next issue is based on the kiss that Barbara gave Jason but then was like “that doesn’t mean anything, I was just trying to comfort you”. Johns shouldn’t be allowed to write Barbara and Jason ever again.

Batman: Three Jokers #3

It’s in this issue that we find out the big subplot that Johns has prepared for Jason, are you ready for it? Yup, Jason should stop being the Red Hood because if he keeps it up, he will eventually become the Joker.

I know, I know! Jason would never stop being Red Hood, he is not on a path to become the Joker, that’s crazy! Jason’s Red Hood is a character on its own and he is amazing and just because he has different morals from Batman doesn’t mean that he is a bad guy! Right?...

“I’ll give up being Red Hood for us. I can be something else. Or I can be just Jason.”

To this day I cannot believe that those words supposedly were written by Jason Todd to Barbara Gordon after Barbara rejected him three times. The level of “what the fuck is this” is incredibly high with this one…

This whole book was a mess and I am so glad that it didn’t last longer.

Anyway, that’s it. In conclusion, Jason didn’t let the Joker get under his skin the first time they interacted after he came back from the dead but later when DC decided that UtRH was just too good of a book they came up with stories where Joker does get under Jason’s skin and Jason becomes convinced that he has no free will (or at the very least he doubts his free will) when it comes to him becoming his own man.

As I have said before, that for Jason Todd is a major downgrade. And it's one of the many things that hurts Jason’s characterization in current comics.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Do you ever stop and think "Mayuri has a (singular) really really long nail"?

lmao half this post was written before that Szayel ask and half was written after, so apologies is there’s any repetition or disjuncture across the two!!!

I'll be honest, anon, I often forget this detail! In the same way that I often forget that I have a giant full-color picture of Sunflower Mayuri set as one of my other desktop images, right up until I hit a rogue keyboard shortcut and am suddenly transported into his midst:

He's been lurking there for a full year and I am always taken by complete surprise.

I was actually poking around these chapters the other day, and I think what honestly I DO stop and think about is Mayuri's moral compass? Like, the fact that it exists. And I don't mean this in a "he acts like a sick freak but secretly he really cares" kind of way, or even a "he revels in his being a sick freak and doesn't realize he cares until he does" kind of way. The definition of "moral compass" here is absolutely a Mayuri Original Definition. He's totally invested in his various experiments to satiate his own personal agendas, but he actually does more "for the sake of Soul Society" than possibly anyone else, and... does a pretty good job of it? I imagine Soul Society would be less inclined to handwave whatever other shit he's got going on if he weren't, but my point is a weird amount of his time is honestly spent on things that benefit others, offer protection, etc. And again: Mayuri. Not a secret cinnamon roll. But he also can't be flatly read.

He's one of the few captains who seems willing to go toe-to-toe with Yamamoto about some of Yamamoto's leadership decisions--notably because he thought Yamamoto's Quincy genocide wasn't genocidal enough, er, but he also later insinuates that he disagrees with Yamamoto's conception of honor/patriotism--that the Gotei 13 serve 'til death, and that if you can't, then you should kill yourself. (Makes sense, given that Urahara drags him out of the Den of Maggots, so Mayuri's seen the fruits of this particular domestic policy first-hand.) He and Yamamoto are both dudes with often shitty opinions, but I think it makes them both more interesting that they are different shitty opinions.

I don't think his disagreement on that count is purely out of self-preservation/valuing self over others, either. Weirdly enough, I think he actually likes Soul Society and its observable phenomena (e.g. his colleagues), as long as it's not touching or interfering with whatever else he's got going on. He probably could have just killed dead Kensei/dead Rose/Matsumoto (and Hitsugaya, too), and that would have been a lot easier, but he went through the trouble of incapacitating/podding them. I mean, the man reads the SC cover to cover for fun. Sure, that's data, but let's be real--70% of those articles have got to be pure drivel.

And also like--I find Mayuri's fight with zombie!Hitsugaya extremely upsetting. I do not enjoy it at all. It feels horrible. But Mayuri doesn't even seem to enjoy it either? In the lead-up to it, he makes like three separate references to his own kind heart that are definitely not to be taken at face value, and talks a lot about the thrill of victims writhing against you, and how pleased he is to be able to test a bunch of new drugs on Hitsugaya, but then you get this face:

And it's not like he particularly likes Hitsugaya. (In fact, for reasons unknown, in the Bount arc Mayuri very specifically singles Hitsugaya out to be someone he Does Not Like! I imagine that as the Gotei 13 interacts with each other more often post-ryoka/Aizen, Hitsugaya is just more annoying to him. "Yes, we re-grew Hinamori's organs. Of course we did a good job! Get out of here, stop helicopter-captaining, ffs go micromanage your own division--")

I'm not saying that face is indicative of compassion. But he's not having all the fun he said he was going to.

I enjoy that a character like Mayuri can be humanized--here meaning “made complex” I guess--without that act suggesting that it should be attended with an assumption of goodness, or mercy, or redemption.

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@ippoddity here, jumping onto this post~

I too, have Sunflower Mayuri as my desktop background (but my desktop is much more cluttered than @whipplefilter’s, so I won’t be showing a picture of it).

I didn’t really give much thought to Mayuri’s long fingernail either, except to think “Boy, that’s kind weird, but this guy’s whole vibe is creepy so it fits.” But then you got me to thinking about it more, and I started doing some digging. My first thought was “maybe this long fingernail is like the one that all those old Asian men have??” But it turns out that’s usually the pinky nail. Mayuri’s long fingernail is the middle finger of his right hand, and from what I can tell after looking at hundreds of panels of him, is that this is consistent throughout the series (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). I think you can see his nails pretty well in these shots:

What’s really standing out to me here isn’t just his long nail, but the fact that all his others are so short?? My initial impression was just that he had painted his nails half black/half white (kinda going along with his face), but on close-up here, it seems like his nails are actually cut really short. That just seems incredibly painful to me, and the only people I know that have nails this short are habitual nail-biters. So maybe he’s a nail biter? Which leads me to wonder why he leaves that middle nail on his right hand so long…

This is just a speculation, but you know those reset buttons on certain electronics that can only be reached with a needle or unfolded paperclip? I feel like a lot of older electronics were like this. ANYWAY, given all the modifications that Mayuri has given himself, I think this long nail is probably his version of a reset button tool. There’s no way he doesn’t have one somewhere on him, which he needs to hit for a hard reset when he messes something up. It’s gotta be a long and thin tool that can hit a reset button, and a fingernail is the perfect choice! It’s easily accessible, in fact, it’s already on his hand!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Mayuri canonically takes off his makeup every night and reapplies it every day. We know that underneath it all, he’s a (somewhat) normal looking shinigami. And it seems like it would be kinda inconvenient to have that long nail all the time… So I think it might also be a stick-on nail??