#although some are definitely more inconsistent than others

[talisetekt]

The sad fact is.. this is pretty much every character in the Sonic franchise. It’s not like anyone can be blamed for it either since the source material itself can’t keep characterization consistent. It’s just a shame to see these characters dip and in out of having depth and being shallow.

[sysig]

I can’t stop drawing tiny Watchdogs (Patreon)

[forsworned]

It’s said canonically that simon riley has trauma around intimacy from torture 😔 If you feel comfortable writing it, can I please ask for a short fic of an Afab reader body worshipping/lovingly pleasuring Simon after they both work through his trauma and he’s getting all soft and emotional and babbling about how good reader is making him feel and how much he loves them and can’t believe someone cares about him this much? I always liked the idea of Simon being portrayed as vulnerable and soft and not this dom sex god a lot of people portray him to be. I really love your work and would love to see your take on this request :)

Soft ft. Simon 'Ghost' Riley

Author's Note: So I do recall someone making a post about this and I have to say I do not agree with everything. Men definitely process trauma, specifically sexual trauma a lot differently than women do. While women experience guilt, men experience anger. And maybe it's not all men who experience it that way, but after reading the comic and making my own assessment, I can say that Simon does have lingering anger. Of course, he is hell-bent on avenging his dead family, but all that pent-up energy could be going toward trying to even the score. He is pretty level-headed and able to compartmentalize. He has support from his comrades as well as undergoes mandatory rigorous mental health assessments because that's military protocol. He needs to be able to perform his duties on the field without putting himself or others at risk. He also most certainly gets mandatory counseling. Although he may be reluctant, his superiors are very much aware of the possible impact that it has on his mental health. So all that to say that Simon is not without help. He is not as "damaged" as people may perceive him to be. He's not a broken individual. As seen in the remastered MW's, albeit reluctant he can clearly put his trust in others. He develops relationships with the people who he works closely with meaning he is capable of change. SIGH. I just wish people would break this down a little more, but I do get what you're saying. His masculinity, trust issues, and the type of secret operations he goes on can lessen the effectiveness of the therapy. He's definitely a very complex character with layers to him, but I just don't think he's as weak as you may think he is. It's also important to note that it hasn't been confirmed that this current Simon went through the same thing. He could have a completely different background. Honestly, Activision is so fucking inconsistent but ANYWAYSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS I hope you enjoy this. Also if you read this all the way through, I applaud you. But thank you for enjoying my work, I didn't mean to critique you and your request, but I just couldn't let it slide LOL

Warnings: PnV sex, AFAB!Reader, Some Canon Simon Lore, Sexual Content, Mentions of Sexual Trauma

"Si—Simon..."

You sigh out in pleasure with every roll of your hips as you grind down on him. Your clit grazes against his lower abdomen, and his cock stretches you out pliant. Fingers dig into his shoulders, marking half crescents into his pale, scarred skin. But something feels off.

His hands loosen their grip on your hips, and upon opening your eyes you find him his half-lidded gaze distant in a familiar haze. He isn't present.

"Simon." You halt the rutting of your hips, cupping his stubbly cheeks. "Are you alright?"

His onyx hues fixate on you. He is clearly readjusting his withdrawn eyes to refocus on you. You didn't want to say it yet, but you had felt him go a little soft a few seconds prior. "We can stop."

"No, no." His fingers squeeze your middle as he sits up a bit. You shake your head, but he's not letting up. "Why stop?"

You firmly grasp his face and his blonde lashes flutter up at you with a seemingly unreadable expression, but you're no stranger to Simon's detachment. Although he loathes to admit it, it happens. The relearning of being intimate is tumultuous for him.

"Because you're not mentally here, my love."

He frowns. "But I want y'to finish."

You exhale sharply. He doesn't even deny it. "No, Simon. I'd feel disgusted with myself if I finished while you weren't here with me."

He struggles to reply. In all honesty, he doesn't know what to say. It's not exactly a common occurrence, but he's not too keen on having a conversation about it. You never pry though. His therapy sessions are his own, unless, of course, you join him if he so desires.

Couples counseling is mandatory. A rule you established when you first decided to tie the knot. If you had problems that were beyond just a sit-down talk, a professional would have to intervene. And Simon agreed. No fuss, no muss. To preserve the sacredness of your relationship, he'd do anything.

He sighs. "'m sorry, dovie." He caresses your sides, feeling the gooseberries on your skin rise. A small smile adorns his lips and you giggle at his smugness.

"Stop it." You begin to get off of him, but Simon holds you firmly. You feel his dick harden inside of you, now kissing your cervix. A little gasp escapes your chest as you readjust yourself.

"Y'like tha'?" Simon's grinning now. It's his confidence gleaming through the abysmal darkness of his mind. The life in his eyes feels revitalized, and you now feel his vigor—literally.

"Yes, but..."

"'m here, love." He reaffirms, squeezing your waist again. "'m here. Please, 'm achin' for you."

He groans a bit and bucks his hips when he feels you pulsate around him. You return your own moan, leaning forward but his fingers thread through your hair and he brings you into a sloppy, heated kiss. His hips thrust into you slowly and deeply, earning a guttural moan from him.

For a moment as you withdrew from the kiss, your gazes meet and Simon's eyes soften and become glossy with tears that brim over his oculars and spill over the corners of his eyes.

"Oh, baby." You coo, holding him close as you kiss his face. His sadness is silent, yet palpable. You're now babbling sweet, sweet words to him as you pepper him with kisses, and Simon holds you as if you're going to slip away. You gently guide him through the double inhale technique you learned from your therapist, and with the sweetness of your voice, the kindness in your eyes, and the tenderness of your touch, he feels at ease.

"I dunno how y'put up with me."

You grin, kissing the corner of his lip. "It ain't easy."

"Oh?" He flips you over on your back, pressing you firmly against the mattress and you giggle into the nape of his neck. "Wanna say that again, love?"

You thread your fingers through his sandy blonde hair and kiss the tip of his nose. "You're not hard to love, Simon."

His eyes soften once more and he kisses you deeply. Simon has never cherished anyone more in his life. You were always so patient and kind from the jump. You were truly the "greater woman" behind the "great man".

He rests his forehead against yours and closes his eyes as you gently card your fingers in his hair.

"Thank you, lovie."

[prettybaby-reid]

Criminal Minds topics I could write an essay about:

-Haley is over-hated and many of the things people used to justify disliking her are reaches and actually don’t mean anything in actuality. you can simply just not like her character, but acting like you have real “moral” justification is just delusional atp.

- in 4x22/5x01 when Foyet attacks Hotch in his apartment, it’s 100% s/a in some form. whether it’s in the traditional sense or not, Foyet clearly intends for it to have the same effect on Hotch.

-Yes Elle was valid to a certain extent for shooting the rapist in her second to last appearance, it was 100% not the same thing as Hotch murdering Foyet in episode 100.

-Spencer is highly baby-ified by the fandom and it’s insufferable to watch the way people treat other characters for offhanded teases they make at him.

-Jj wasn’t wrong for not telling Spencer that Emily was alive. Jj was wrong for continuously letting Spencer come over for 10 weeks to cry about it, knowing that Emily was alive and she was playing fucking scrabble with her. She could have easily said she wasn’t able to handle everything and let him go to morgan/garcia.

-The writers of criminal minds know how to write episodes and plotlines, but they don’t know how to write consistent character ideas and backstories. they also don’t know how to properly write characters trauma. immediately after Jj is kidnapped, they’re all in a bar together…that doesn’t make sense. she should be in a hospital or at home, not keke-ing with the homies.

-Although the writers are inconsistent with backstories, some of the things people think “don’t add up” actually do add up if you thought for longer than 5 seconds.

-the Cat Adams plotline and Cat as a character is so good until Reids prison arc when they say that Cat had the other girl s/a him, that’s so out of bounds for her. She hates men for what they do to women, specifically the violence men perpetrate towards women, more specifically s/a and domestic violence…why would she s/a Spencer.

-On the topic of the Cat/Spencer s/a topic…that’s definitely a pullover from the fact that it was supposed to be Hotch who was in prison but they had to switch it after Thomas Gibson left. I have an idea of what it could have originally been considering it was supposed to be Hotch/Mr. Scratch, but no solid proof.

[sunandmhoon]

Love Songs

Genre: fluff Pairing: Jeonghan X Reader “He thought about your mind, how crazy it must be, how tiring it must be. Who’s on your mind right now? Who has your time? Who have you been seeing? Why couldn’t you just be his?” w/c: 1926 a/n: Hello~~ new story hehe!! Also it’s fluff this time wooohooo. Also idk if you’ve noticed but every svt story so far has been based off a song…hmmm i wonder why that is?? (also I didn't proofread this so I'm sorry for any inconsistencies) ps: pics are from pintrest ctto :) MASTERLIST; OTHER WORKS Jeonghan was never a person that falls in love easily. 

It’s not that he’s anti-romantic, or that he hates the concept of giving love or receiving love. In fact, on some days when the rain gets too loud, the room gets too cold and the sky gets too grey, he longs for a nice warm hug from a person that he loves. 

He’s had girlfriends before, but they always end in the same way. The same, ‘it’s not you, it’s me” argument. And it is true, he can never find himself infatuated with a person for more than a month. He still finds them attractive of course but he’s never been interested in them, their goals, their big dreams or even their small ones. 

That was until he met you. 

Meeting you was like an angel appeared at his door; like a gift from cupid to cure his lonely heart. A gift in the form of a new roommate. 

Seungkwan was staying in the flat with him before he moved out to his hometown, leaving behind his room and another part of the rent he had to pay. In his absence though, Seungkwan–ever the social butterfly– recommended the place to you, and although Jeonhan was wary at first, he definitely had to thank Seungkwan now. 

When he first met you he felt as though his house was graced by a higher being. The sun flooded into the room in golden rays, shining around you, creating a halo above your head. And though he was the known heartbreaker around town, he felt his palms go sweaty and his ears turn hot. And when you spoke, he felt he got worse. Your voice sounded just like it was dipped in honey; smooth and sweet. He could listen to it forever. Your expressions were kind and gentle, you were the type of person that could lure anyone into your charm like a siren in the sea. 

He was attracted to you, so so attracted to you, but he brushed it off. It was probably just that, Attraction, nothing more. 

As the days went by you two grew closer. First it was catching each other in the kitchen at 3am for a midnight snack. From then on you started talking to each other more. You find out that he’s been living in the flat for five years, he finds out that you just moved to the city. He’s taken you around the area to get you familiar with your surroundings, you’ve cooked him dinner in exchange (and because he only eats ramen in the house). He’s introduced you to his friends, you’ve introduced him to your family.

You even go to him when you need to rant. School’s being annoying? Go to Jeonghan, Your parents are being annoying? Go to Jeonghan, the neighbour that for some reason finds the need to be up at 4am every single morning watching their soap opera at full volume with their door open is being annoying? Go to Jeonghan. Just like the new flat’s been your physical home, Jeonghan has been your emotional home. 

You tell him everything, and even though he loves it, he loves that he could be a person you can come to–can talk to and rant to about your hardships, feelings, accomplishments, he somehow hates it when you come to him for advice on love. 

“How do I get a boyfriend, Han?”, “Why don’t guys like me?” to “Han, I’ve been talking to this guy”, “what do you think of him?” to the dreaded, “He asked me out on a date!”, “How do I look?” he’s been there through it all. And he won't admit it–he can’t admit that he likes you, he can’t admit that he hates when you tell him not to wait up for you because you’ll be at Woozi’s for the night. He can’t admit that it bothers him that you come home, greet him and go to your room. He can’t admit that he’s lonely again, and that he misses when you would talk to him late at night about your dreams, inspirations, aspirations, goals or even just your shopping list. 

And most of all, he hates that you have him listening to love songs. He never used to listen to love songs on purpose, let alone with someone in mind. Love songs have plagued his playlists, and he dreads the day that spotify wraps up his year into one big lovefest. You were sea, sunshine, star and moon; you were his cocoa butter kisses; you were what comes up in his mind when he listens to Daniel Caesar, Frank Ocean and even Drake. You were his in his mind, his playlist, his heart but not his in real life. 

He started doing his work in the living room just to see your face, to see you in the kitchen, on the couch or even leaving for school or work or to your boyfriend’s house, because the longer you were with Woozi, the shorter you were in the house. 

That was until one day when he came home from work. The world seemed to mirror the same sad mood he’s been in for the past month; heavy rain, grey skies, cold air. It was the kind of weather that made him feel even more lonelier than he already was. He was just about to pass the living room to go to his room when he noticed you asleep on the sofa. 

You looked so peaceful that he didn’t want to move, afraid that even the smallest step could wake you up from your slumber. He stood there for what felt like hours but were only a couple of seconds when he was suddenly snapped back to reality with a cold rush of air down his spine. The room was getting colder, he noticed, and he saw you rustling around the couch–no doubt affected by the coolness too.

He saw that your shoulder was exposed to the cool air and quickly but quietly rushed to get a blanket. He placed the blanket over your body, gently tucking the ends to your sides, effectively blocking any coldness from reaching your skin. He froze as you moved, thinking you had woken up, but sighed as he saw you snuggling into the warm comfort of the blanket, continuing your peaceful nap. 

He cleaned the area around you, the tissues, empty soda cans, empty chips. You must’ve eaten yourself into a food coma, he thought, smiling at the thought of your well fed self falling into a deep sleep. However his smile dropped as your phone lights up. Rows and rows of notifications piled up on your lockscreen, all from your boyfriend begging you to ‘take him back’, ‘forgive him’, ‘trust him to do better’.  And then it made sense to him. The food, the tissues, your exhaustion.

Once he finished cleaning up, he just couldn’t find himself to leave you in the living room all alone. You must have been sad, angry, upset, tired and vulnerable right now, and he would hate himself if he knew he was leaving you in such a state. 

He also couldn’t get over the last notification he saw from your phone–he knows that it wasn’t the best thing to go scroll your notifications, but it was there and he couldn’t help it (pls forgive him)-- ‘I can be better than him’. 

Him? 

Is there someone new?

He sat on the ottoman, beside where your head was laying on the pillow and watched as you breathed. Your chest would rise and fall in steady patterns, showing that you’ve fallen into a deep sleep. Your eyelashes were feathered along your eye, and he couldn’t help but be charmed by it. Him, charmed by the simple sight of eyelashes? He couldn’t believe how much he changed, how much you changed him. Your lips were slightly parted, a pale pink and full. He wondered how it would feel against his own, would they be soft? By the looks of it, he thinks it would. 

You looked so peaceful and angelic and he couldn’t help but think about how much you’re going through right now. He thought about your mind, how crazy it must be, how tiring it must be. Who’s on your mind right now? Who has your time? Who have you been seeing? Why couldn’t you just be his? 

He knows that you had a boyfriend but still, despite that, why did you stop talking to him as much? You used to be texting him all the time, checking on him all the time, staying up with him all the time. But recently, your interactions were shorter than two sentences. Was it your boyfriend? Was it you? Was it him?

“If you let me,” he whispered, tucking a stray piece of hair behind your ear gently, “we could paint a perfect picture, we could even last forever.” he sighed as he feels how strong he loves you–it scares him, he’s never felt this way with anyone before. “I’ll even let you wear my sweaters, I know how you get cold so easily,” he said as his eyes traced your face, from your hairline down to your eyebrows to your eyes, to your nose to your lips. He smiled at how perfect you were. “I’m so horribly down for you, Y/N,” he said, “for the worse or the better,” he added. 

“To be honest, I hate it,” he said, surprising himself with the sudden confession, “I hate how much I feel for you because It’s so strong that it’s hurting me. But I don’t care, I will keep sticking to you, Y/n,” he breathed in, “Because I love you.”

And although you were sound asleep, he still felt as if the weight of the world has left his shoulders. The burden of keeping it trapped within his heart has finally disappeared, and even though he knew that this confession was done in vain as he knew that pouring his heart out doesn’t mean you have to reciprocate it, he still felt happy that it’s out there. 

Maybe you were asleep, but your heart was listening. 

He noticed how the sun had disappeared and the clock was moving into the double digits. He knew that your back was going to be painful if you slept there overnight, so he took you in his arms, the blanket wrapped tightly around you still; like a burrito, and carried you over to your room. There he tucked you in properly, propping your head gently a top your soft pillows, laying the comforter over your, keeping the sides snug. Before he turned off the side lamp, his self control had left his body with his confession as he bent down placing a gentle peck on your forehead. When he felt that everything was done, windows checked, you tucked in, lamp turned off, he headed out the door. 

“Jeonghan,” you called softly, your voice still groggy from your nap. He froze by the doorframe, turning to you. 

“Yeah?” 

“I love you too,” you told him, a soft smile growing on your face before you turned over and fell back to sleep. 

No amount of self control could stop the smile that was blooming on his face, his mind was fuzzy, his heart was racing. He watched you for a little bit more, the same love-struck smile on his face to see if you were still sleeping.

“Sweet dreams, love,” he whispered before leaving.

He needs to give Seungkwan a gift basket. 

-fin. 

Like, comment and reblog pls :)

[my-maehem]

“I’m sorry— who are you again?”

I introduce to you my MC, Hemera! I currently don’t have any L O R E about her just yet but…

I’m sorry but can I brag about my idea of her using her wand as a hair stick!?!? Imagine if I made a custom hair stick wand irl………

Here is the little info I have about her:

She has striking red hair that pairs well with her bright, green eyes. I love using complementary colors.

Unlike the game where we are given a barn owl, if she were to pick her own messenger it would be a tuxedo cat. Feat. My cat Max, he’s an adorable menace.

Very cocky with an inflated ego, she will bite.

Uses sarcasm 24/7, more than likely her coping mechanism.

I actually made her American because I thought it would be a fun idea to have someone with an American accent at Hogwarts. and because I’m American hehehehe.

She likes to keep her hair up almost all the time so I don’t actually know how long her hair is yet…

If you haven’t figured it out yet she is in house Slytherin, although she does share some characteristics of a Ravenclaw.

Definitely gives anti-hero vibes…

OMG I FORGOT TO ADD HER BODY FRECKLES… she has body freckles btw, similar to the freckles Ominis has on his pretty face.

That’s all I have for her currently, I’ll definitely have more details about her later, I kind of want to do more character studies of her and ofc other characters… I also just want to find a simple style I can use, apologize for the inconsistency of my art style, I normally draw realistically and I’m trying to find a simpler style to use for like comic strips or interactions.

Now I gotta draw these boyz:

See yeah! 🍪

[maxwell-grant]

Thoughts on the master of fear, Scarecrow? Also, fave design, he has so many good ones (second BTAS, his trading card one, mistress of fear, Gaslight,, fear for sale, the Arkham Games etc)?

Hey so, do any of you remember Batman Live? It was this really fun, extravagant stage show that touched on a lot of Batman hallmarks and was generally a really fun time as far as I recall. I went to the São Paulo premiere with my family, and I was a little too young to really recall most of it now, but some things I definitely remember like the huge Joker hot air balloon made of performers in bodypaint, or the comedy sequences in the Iceberg Lounge. The one thing that stuck with me the most was when the Scarecrow showed up. Batman goes to Arkham Asylum and the entire comedy camp tone drops dead, as he walks in and finds all these bodies in straightjackets hanging from chains, and the doors open as The Scarecrow walks towards him in stilts, summoning loud smoke eruptions that are poisoning and weakening Batman as he leers over him. That part actually did scare me as a kid, and it was probably the first time I had any kind of feelings on Scarecrow imprinted in me.

I was introduced to The Scarecrow as this uniquely horrifying villain who could terrify through presentation alone. I didn't particularly understand what the fear gas was, I was too taken with that ungainly thing up there with the stilts and all those people turned into cadaverous decorations, lurking from the endless halls of the asylum, who towered over everyone and placed Batman into a writhing breakdown with a few gestures, and never appeared again until the cast roll, completely absent from the rogues gatherings after. Granted, of course that's because the stilts prevented him from joining the fight scenes, but that helped to reinforce his mystery. He wasn't someone Batman was going to punch back, no no, the Scarecrow simply vanished as soon as he was done with disarming Batman, and you'd just have to pray for that unfathomable creep to never show up again.

And I'd say this might be part of why I've never been too big on the fear gas, in part because I was first enraptured by a version of The Scarecrow who clearly didn't need it that much, or at least, could do much more besides it. The Scarecrow is, I'd say actually one of my top 10 DC characters, half of that on the basis of his designs, but he's a character who tends to really, really struggle under a lack of cohesion and being subordinate to his gimmick, much more so than the other rogues. The fear gas is a good gimmick, but it is just that, a gimmick, and one that's usually reliant on how far can the story push the horror and the visuals to at least make it effectively scary for us, otherwise it gets incredibly boring very fast, and it's not even a gimmick exclusive to him since so many other characters have similar mind control/illusion abilities/gadgetry at hand (and to say nothing of Hugo Strange, who first used fear gas and who quite frankly kicks the Scarecrow's ass in terms of quality storylines, although Hugo does that to most of the other Batman villains too)

The Scarecrow has become the go-to character for hallucination sequences / revisiting character traumas, which frequently makes him less of a character and more so a convenient plot device, a problem heightened by the larger issue here that is his inconsistent motivation, or lack thereof. He lacks the kind of "breakout" stories that his fellow major Batman villains have had that usually cement an ongoing characterization, and his most famous/celebrated appearences in mass media don't really do much to combat the assertion that he is shallow and weak and whose only asset is the gas (namely, his boss fights in Arkham Asylum, which are all about the fear gas hallucination scares, and his role in Nolan's Batman, which is very fun, but also purposefully plays him up for ridicule and lack of depth next to the other villains)

These days, the Scarecrow is a tedious pip-squeak. His schemes lack verve, his cruelties stir little in the way of frissons. Haunted by cliché to an even greater extent than the other rogues, he’s often brought low with a single sock to the jaw delivered by Batman, or by finding himself on the receiving end of his own fear-inducing concoctions. He often acts as a pawn in the hands of bigger, badder third parties. He’s ostensibly a stand-in for the figure of the reductive, smug and hypocritical psychologist, nicely bundled up for the audience to humiliate in effigy - TheMindlessOnes's rogue review for Scarecrow

In "Nothing to Fear" it is explained that Jonathan Crane has always had this "thing" for scaring people. (Just as Snidely Whiplash had his "thing" for tying women to railroad tracks, I suppose.) But this is a wan kind of motive. One senses sadly that the real motive for the Scarecrow's behavior lies in the writer's need for someone to do something reprehensible. At the root of the matter may be a difficulty in sorting out the Scarecrow's ends from his means, with a consequent confusion between the goals the Scarecrow intends to reach and the tactics he employs in reaching them.

As a psychologist specializing in phobic disorders, Crane knows how to induce fear and trembling in his victims. But this tells us nothing about what the Scarecrow wants to accomplish. And without a sense or statement of what those goals are, the writer will be tempted to substitute means for end and make the Scarecrow's goal simply the scaring of people. Usually his actions are woefully underexplained - Dreams in Darkness' review by Toonzone

You might think that I'd be advocating for the Scarecrow, then, to disregard a need for a motivation and become as unknowable and horrific as possible, to recapture the awe I felt at his Batman Live self, but no, not at all. For one, I don't think the best version of anything is necessarily the one that made the most impact on me as a kid. Two, there have been some attempts over the years to remove Scarecrow from the toxin or seriously amp him up as a threat, and frankly, most of those have only made the character dramatically worse and more boring (I don't remember the name, but there was a Batman story a while ago where he goes on a big scary killing spree with no toxin just to prove he can and it was fucking terrible). Three, and the big one here, is that this pretty much forces you to get rid of Dr. Jonathan Crane, and I think that does a disservice to the character's potential. I think that's giving up on trying to make him work as a character and I don't think you have to do that.

My preferred characterization for Crane is one that emphasizes his nature as a scholar turned supervillain. The cold and misanthropic and neurotic nerd professor who spent most of his salary on books and took to terrorizing the city as a costumed criminal in part because he wanted money to buy more books. Who takes off the costume mid-crime spree to school his henchmen on specifics of brain chemistry, who gets revenge on those that wrong his students or even employs them as henchmen, still the same guy who thinks there's nothing wrong with firing a loaded gun in a packed classroom as a demonstration. Far less interested in human connections than he is in human reactions, things that can surprise him or that he can catalogue or research or write about. Someone who's not a sadist for sadism's sake, but who doesn't really see you as a person so much as he sees a test subject. I like Crane as a snarky humorous heel who thinks of himself as amoral and mature while doing horribly immoral and childish things, the Herbert West or Rusty Venture of Batman villains (James Urbaniak is definitely the voice I'd pick for him).

My preferred kind of motivation for him is something along the lines of how he's portrayed in most of Kings of Fear, where he puts Batman through the wringer in part as an attempt to get to him and cure him once and for all, or issues #4-5 of The Batman Adventures where he induces city-wide illiteracy in part as a protest against the city's failing education. In Gothtopia he makes all of Gotham hallucinate their perfect ideal lives, eliminating the crime rate but causing the suicide rate to spike up in return, and yes it does turn out to be the set-up for a really generic "fear gas everyone with blimps and make everyone twice as scared" pay off when his involvement is revealed, but I always thought Scarecrow being able and willing to do that, to create these huge and even benevolent-seeming social experiments, as an idea with legs. Fear State was frustratingly halfway there, with the initial set-up of Scarecrow pursuing a theory for fear-based social upheaval, but on top of not being very good, it also wound up that he was just doing the same old thing again and had Batman call him out as someone who just wanted to gas the city and make everyone scared again and never changes and does anything different, which seemed like Tynion defeating his own purpose of trying to make a defining Scarecrow story and address his lack of one, completely failing to address the why the character has that kind of problem and upending itself for meta commentary before doing anything interesting.

Even Kings of Fear, easily the best Scarecrow story of the past decades if not outright ever, kinda ends in a bit of a cop-out where The Scarecrow has to be wrong ("Even when he's telling the truth, he's lying, and even when he's right, he's wrong", Gordon tells Batman to reassure him, to nullify the past 5 issues criticizing and tearing into Batman from every angle imaginable), and he has to be a sadist who just wanted to fuck with Batman and uncover his worst fears because it's what he does. Why does Scarecrow want to unravel people and wrench their worst fears into the surface? Because he's a sadist who gets off on it? I guess that's the canon answer most of the time, but it's such a boring, weak one. Because he wants revenge on the world / bullies? Still weak, done better by other villains even. Because of an unspeakably traumatic childhood that taught him the world was ruled by fear and therefore driving him to become it's master? Okay, but it still doesn't actually answer what he wants to get out of doing what he does.

We know that Jonathan Crane was a fragile youth routinely terrorized and abused by others and plainly traumatized by his experiences. We know that he is learned and brilliant and given to introspection and fantasy.

From this base it is not hard to imagine Crane turning into a man fiercely devoted to solitude and study and capable of a murderous rage when his privacy is violated. It is possible, in other words, to imagine him as a reactive force, in the mold of Freeze, systematically terrorizing and destroying anyone who crosses him but rarely wanting to start trouble himself.

Or we can imagine him as a mercenary, a specialist hired by others for nefarious purposes, but who is not himself strongly motivated by particular rages or desires.

But if the Scarecrow is going to remain a sadist and a sadist only—if he is going to be moved only by the psychotic desire to harm others—we ought to be made to feel the seductive power that sadism has over its practitioners; we should be made to feel and appreciate the hot and sour joy that comes from the purposeful humiliation of another - Dreams in Darkness review by Toonzone

It's kind of a frustrating pattern in a lot of his stories where he gives a reason for doing something, and it turns out to be a cover for yet another sadistic fear gas attack, but his cover reason was a more interesting motivation for him than what he actually was going for. A villain who mainly just gets a kick out of hurting people and concocts bullshit excuses and reasons to justify said hurting? The Joker does that already, but the Joker always clearly states what he wants and has all those ways to make cruelty for cruelty's sake entertaining. If that's all The Scarecrow is also, no wonder he's going to be so incredibly lacking most of the time (nevermind the fact that he's never going to be the guy most infamous for gassing Gotham City).

Yes, he may be sadistic and cruel, he may enjoy what he does too much, and maybe there really isn't any kind of realistic explanation as to why a man would dress up as a scarecrow to commit terrorism and spray innocent people with chemicals to make them terrified, but refer to the guy he's fighting. "Realistic" is the wrong term. The issue here is less "why" the Scarecrow does what he does, and more what is he hoping to get out of it. Granted, this is less of a concern if you're playing The Scarecrow as a figure of horror, someone who's not even really human underneath that outfit. But I think that locks away much of his versatility. The Scarecrow needs Jonathan Crane, and I think there's good stuff to like about that awful man.

I like Jonathan Crane the sardonic pragmatic scientist who still embraces his hopelessly ridiculous life, a guy who's not nearly as above it all as he'd like to be and has wants and needs moreso than he really likes to admit. I like him as a book lover, as a fan of horror, I like him as the kind of guy who'd send fan mail to Elvira and break out of Arkham just to catch a Halloween parade and guest star in a Scooby-Doo movie for a change. I like him as someone who'd have a decent working relationship with the other rogues and pal with the Legion of Doom and get into a physical spat with Riddler over a chess game. Someone who custom-makes his own outfits and equipment, who makes scythes out of animal bones to fight Batman with, who picked the scarecrow motif in part because it was a term of derision his colleagues used on him.

Who pours himself over his research as he records his theories in a tape recorder, the kind of guy who grouses at having to clean another cell because he's getting annoyed at his test subjects killing themselves, seriously guys the cleaning supplies for this batch were as fresh as they could be, and the iguana amygdalas I used should be stopping your neocortexes from overreacting this strongly. Subject #3 over there got over his fear of centipedes yesterday and he hasn't screamed all morning, I'm gonna need the rest of you to stop being such babies, okay?

It must be terribly liberating for Crane, to transcend mere ugliness and become inhuman. Of all the rogues, he’s easily the one who takes Batman’s “I need a disguise; I shall become a beast of the night” schtick and runs with it the farthest - TheMindlessOnes's rogue review for Scarecrow

And that's for Jonathan Crane, man of science. The Scarecrow, however, is not science, he is unreason incarnate, and to me what most makes The Scarecrow work as a Batman villain has nothing to do with "they both use fear as a weapon", I always thought that was a bit shallow of an angle to pursue (most, if not all, the villains rely on fear, it comes with the whole "crime" thing). The two have a stronger connection via the costume, the theatricality, the becoming a creature of the night angle. None of the other major Batman villains are going into their costumes the way The Scarecrow is. They have their personas and varying degrees of division between them and their "real selves", but few of them are wearing outright identity-separating Halloween Monster Costumes with separate names and personalities they can dip in and out of at their convenience.

And I'm gonna interrupt myself to answer your second question. I couldn't pick just one design, so counting the Batman Live one above, I picked 10. These are not in order and they're not necessarily how I'd design him, I'd say my actual favorite Scarecrow designs are fan-made, but if I was going to pick out of "official" material these are the ones I'd go for. It's time for:

(Left-to-right: George Pratt's Scarecrow pin-up, Phil Jimenez's Scarecrow design, Ed Natividad's concept art for Suicide Squad)

(Left-to-right: His TNBA design by Bruce Timm as drawn by Luciano Vecchio, Alex Ross's design for Justice, and Tim Sale's Scarecrow)

(Left-to-right: Kelley Jones' design for Kings of Fear, Jeremy Raapack's design for Legends of the Dark Knight #25, Scarecrow's design in Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!)

*cough*, anyway: Most of the other rogues with their signature suits or masks or body distortions don't tend to have closets full of different variant Batsuits and scarecrow costumes to choose and devote to their cause and ideal, that they sit at night tailoring on how to make scarier or more loaded with weapons, that they might even have conversations with, things that sit in their closets waiting because both of these brilliant men, men who have (or at least had) different civilian lives, men who could stop doing this at any time, who both decided that becoming a Halloween monster prowling the streets to inflict terror is a necessary, even productive use of their time.

And I think that's the key word I want to end here, productive. I think The Scarecrow needs to be more productive. Because even if he's not aware of it, he is achieving progress via his research, and there is one way he's proved his ideas: Batman walks out of every fight they have stronger. Every encounter they have is a test that Batman resists and walks out of more able to cope with his own traumas, or at least, better able to resist them being weaponized against him. I always wanted to explore the idea that Crane is genuinely convinced he's doing people a favor or at least achieving something via all these horrible Scarecrow campaigns, and one thing he has achieved is that Batman is never not prepared for chemical attacks or assaults on his mind, Batman resists ungodly trials of willpower and determination and courage, in part because he has to deal with the Scarecrow pumping terror juice in his brain semi-regularly.

The fact that Crane loses and gets beaten up and has to retry schemes again and again and kill people and join the costume parade just to lure Batman is fairly inconsequential to him, so long as it gets results. He's not interested in dissecting Batman's brain or being more like Batman, that's Hugo Strange's thing. Hugo Strange needs Batman to be fearless, allmighty and perfect, where as Jonathan Crane wants nothing more than to unearth and study the fears and kinks in the armor, the dead last thing he wants is a perfect man. Hugo Strange wants to crawl naked into the mask of the great and terrible fascist and never come out, where as The Scarecrow wants to crack open all the masks in the world and feast luridly on whatever seeps out.

Batman isn't just the ultimate trial against his fear-ruled worldview (or even affirmation), and he isn't just a breakthrough waiting to happen: he might be his greatest success as of yet. A case study on the success of exposure therapy, proof of potential medicinal applications for his formula, the greatest guinea pig of all time because he won't die no matter what you pump into him, you name it. So what if all those other people couldn't stomach the procedure, so what if those precious innocents are too weak and stupid and useless to not get in the way of research, it's clearly worked wonders for those who could take it.

And if the future belongs to men like Batman, if all of these superheroes and supervillains are the way things are going to be like forever, if the future is Bat-shaped and as vast and uncertain and horrible as the forces shaping it, the future needs to be prepared. The future needs to grapple with it's past and face it's greatest horrors and become stronger for it. There is no such thing as overcoming fear, there is only living with it, embracing it, bowing to the primordial instinct that knows the answer before you do. Mankind grew and developed it's intelligence and tools out of fear, fear of the bigger predators out there, fear of the other cavemen, fear of starvation and death and everything they couldn't understand and master until they learned to fear it. What better knowledge to pass along than fear? And who is better qualified to teach about fear?

Maybe Crane isn't just another monster with a grudge, maybe he isn't another costumed revenge killer, maybe he isn't just a power-tripping sadist bully out to torment others because he can, and maybe he isn't a hopeless traumatized madman who destroyed his professional and personal life in a monstrous quest to satisfy an obsession ruling his soul.

Maybe he is a sane response to an insane situation. Ever heard that one before?

[xjulixred45x]

I NEED a continuation of that satosugu x bully!reader thing you wrote

Okay okay😚 i will do it, i will make this a little long, enjoy it~ and thanks for the Request ❤️

They mean a continuation of this one

Bully! SatoSugu x Bully! Reader

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: female

Warnings:EXPLICIT BULLYING (not towards reader! rather she is the bully along with the boys. Don't do this in real life btw, it's horrible), reader has a bad family situation, reader has SEVERE attitude problems, surprisingly good friends Bully! SatoSugu? Ambiguos if this a Romantic poly relationship or a Platonic one(it's Upon You)strange amount of Fluff towards the end.

JUST TO CLARIFY, BULLYING IS SHIT AND ANYONE WHO DOES IT IS A HORRIBLE PERSON, NO MATTER THE REASON. THE BULLYING DESTROYS PEOPLE, THIS HAS NO INTENTION TO ROMANTICIZE THE IDEA OF BULLYING, BUT TO TAKE REFERENCE TO THE TROPE FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.

reader was someone... difficult to say the least.

From the first day he set foot in high school the only thing he did was cause some kind of trouble.

The students were afraid of her, her volatile nature made it difficult to know what she was going to do or what was going to provoke her.

teachers even started taking precautions around her to stay safe from her outbursts. which were a little bit of everything, from robberies, insults, physical violence, etc.

without forgetting that the girl's class attendance was irregular and inconsistent. just like your notes.

She hated everyone and it seemed like everyone hated her.

That's why he constantly moved between schools when the previous one had had enough of his antics.

which generated a big discussion at home.

The neighborhood where the reader lived was not very good, but her house was worse.

her mother was long gone, and her father, a poor excuse of a man, didn't do much for a living other than berating her for her own bad behavior.

often ending in physical fights. It was the only way they both had to get out their frustration.

It was the only thing the reader knew.

but sincerely? Not everything was so bad.

She had built a reputation as a badass in every school she went to and scared her, she liked the feeling of finally being in control.

Being feared was fun, no one messes with you. You are at the top.

and at the same time you go unnoticed, since no one has the courage to say something against you (unless they want a beating)

Although it was definitely a bit monotonous at this point, the reader liked the feeling of being someone people were afraid of for once.

although something changed in 2007

That year, a reader was reintegrating into secondary education after a particularly unpleasant expulsion.

and thanks to that, it was somewhat difficult for her to find a school that would admit her this year until they forgot about the drama of the previous one.

and she went to the Jujutsu academy (strange name)

That was where he met them, in a way.

or rather, Gojo and Geto already knew about her beforehand.

It was difficult not to recognize her from the recent drama with the beating she gave to the gang of chimpiras in her old school (schools?)

Gojo was curious, Geto somehow felt threatened.

Gojo wanted to know how hard he could push this new student, to see her tough girl image crumble.

Geto took it more seriously, although he did not consider the reader a serious threat, a full-fledged bully with a reputation would definitely draw the spotlight on her for a while. They shouldn't let her think it was important.

The plan they had made was the standard.

First they would start with small incidents that did not seem malicious, so that she would lower her guard. so she would think it was a safe place.

Then those incidents would increase in quantity and more frequently, also starting to bring certain passive aggressive comments into the mix, but you still can't consider bullying, right?

Things like picking on her while she was distracted, grabbing her things without permission, commenting on her appearance, yes, all of that is wrong, but can you really say it's bullying? Are you really going to take a prank that seriously?

and from there, use everything they had.

stealing whatever she had for lunch, throwing food on her, yelling at her during breaks about how fat and ugly she was...

--use any kind of secret of her against her, throw her things in the trash, all so she would understand his place.

she was beneath them.

but things...did not turn out as they expected.

First of all, reader was much more aggressive than one would expect. every time Gojo tried to get closer it was like she sensed danger and moved away or worse, threw something AT HIM.

Like the time he "accidentally" tried to bump into her and she elbowed him in the ribs and told him to "watch where you were going, you idiot."

or when Geto tried to give her a little "constructive criticism" about her disheveled and reading appearance she just looked at him, with cold, dead eyes, and said "you're emo, you don't get a say in how I look" that was WOW.

Phase one failed completely. reader definitely did not act as they had expected, she definitely had experience.

which led to them having a surprisingly brilliant idea.

What if instead of trying to tear her down, they used her as another member of the team?

Sure, they were used to just working with the two of them, but Reader had a clear advantage in several areas where they couldn't reach (reputation, physical fights, etc.).

It was worth trying.

I imagine that at first they went directly to the reader to tell her the terms of this deal, how they would help each other stay on top and thus not bother her, in exchange she could do whatever she wanted.

simple, concise and effective. Reader I accept the terms.

and the following weeks would be HELL for the students and teachers of the Jujutsu institution.

Geto was considerably the smartest of the group, he was the one who put together the heavy tactics and the one who selected the best victims, calculating and deceitful.

He was a relatively good student too, at least when Gojo and the reader forgot their homework (almost always) they could copy his (it's not like he could do anything after all).

Gojo was surprisingly less evil but much more immature and childish. He was like a man child.

He had intelligence, yes, but it was not conventional intelligence, he had great creativity when it came to being cruel. to give you insults. to make you feel like shit.

Apart from the fact that he came from a big family with a lot of money, all of the group's actions were swept under the rug.

and then was reader.

What could you say she became the muscle of the trio.

reader, with her history of fights and bad reputation, could make everyone so afraid to talk to anyone about their problems that it was ridiculous.

It was like a silent warning, say one word and I will beat you to a pulp.

Surprisingly, they adapted very well to Reader, although it was strange at first, since they were "business partners" but Reader was very quiet and reserved when she was not beating up.

Gojo was the most determined to change this, he was part of the group now after all! At least you have to learn to have a little fun.

Geto was more concerned upon learning of the reader's long history of previous schools, at first because it could mean she could leave at any moment, but upon closer inspection, it's more that she doesn't want to lose this new addition to the group.

The three of them skip classes from time to time, or force the reader to attend more so they don't expel her. How do you expect them to make life miserable for the first years without her? Woman, put your will!

They both even share food with her or steal bentos so that she eats more when she realizes that there really is absolutely nothing coming during class time, she has to stay nourished to take the beating! They won't let her kick ass until she eats >:(

If there is any group work that they do or do have to do, it is most likely that they will do it at Satoru's house, it is the largest and with materials, and it is also fun for him to see his two friends with astonished faces when they see his house every damn time.

although definitely when they both have a more serious problem, they usually go to where the reader lives, since her father is not there most of the time.

Suguru usually goes to the trouble of throwing away the old sake and beer bottles, along with the old bills scattered throughout the house.

Satoru limits himself to sniffing around whatever is within his reach, but at least he has the option of not opening what is closed. But when he sees the family photos or how dirty everything is along with the broken things.

It makes them have a better understanding of Because she is a reader like that, she allows herself to be somewhat vulnerable with them by showing them how she lives.

and surprisingly they appreciate it.

And it's not like it remains reader only receiving a certain type of comfort.

Reader will be a shitty brawler, but if you mess with her Squad, you're Dead.

not only in the school environment, but in life in general.

When Suguru goes through a depressive episode, she and Satoru combine neurons to try to make him feel better, whether with company, games, food, etc. Same goes when Satoru is feeling shitty.

I think that in general, the reader is the "heart" of the group. Having a complicated life, she knows better about emotions and how she would have wanted to be comforted, in a certain way.

(only applicable to this fictional case, this may vary. Don't take it seriously)

For the same reason, when she is especially down, it usually means a day of rest for everyone, a break from EVERYTHING.

from family, from school, from responsibilities, from the whole world.

Just go play at some arcade, win silly prizes and discuss who will take it home.

play basketball and have Satoru kick their butts because neither Suguru nor the reader invites him.

go on a motorcycle and race who is faster.

eat ice cream and sleep on the street.

and miss school the next day, they missed yesterday after all, what does one more day matter?

On these types of days they can forget what kind of people they are, the things they do, what has happened to them.

Yes, in short they are all three DEPLORABLE and horrible beings, but at least they are deplorable and horrible all together.

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

Sorry if i take long in the works😅 i'm trying to keep publishing AND have a more healthy schetule with My other Activitys, so if i Slow down, it's bc i need it.

Thanks for the Request ❤️

[sweetnsour1]

9:36:10

Fluff, Bakugou x fem reader

Part 10 of the Broken Collection

How was this even happening? 

You stared down into the drawer that wasn’t cooperating. This would be much easier if it could just manifest the straw you suddenly needed. You groaned, setting the cup down for the fourth...fifth time. Ugh, whatever it was. You couldn’t make out the muffled words coming from the other room, but they were probably directed at Kitsune if the steady thumps of tail were any indication.

The cabinet below had more promising options. You finally found a matching set that had a straw that still had a sense of duty...unlike the many others that had the audacity to let you lose them around the city. 

You paused at the sound of a much larger thump, but still took a moment to dump the water into the new, hopefully more acceptable, cup choice. You weren’t surprised to find him on the floor when you made it back to the living room. It took an unusual amount of time for him to disentangle his limbs and decide to abandon the attempts to get back on the sofa. Instead, he opted to just roll over and sit on the floor where he’d landed. Thankfully, you had put on less of a show when you’d drunkenly found your way to his place weeks ago. 

“How’s it feel to be the number one lightweight?”  

“Course I’m number one.” His smile was wide and sure as he looked up at you. He had some nerve being cute right now. Red eyes drifted down to the grenade-shaped tumbler you were holding. “So you did have a straw.”

You couldn’t quite bring yourself to roll your eyes as he snatched the cup, waggling his tongue unsuccessfully a couple times before finally getting everything lined up for optimal hydration. You made sure to wait for him to finish a few gulps before risking distracting him again. 

“Pretty sure you would’ve been just fine with the other cup.” He leaned away from you and covered the straw protectively as if you were threatening to take it back. 

“It tastes better with a straw.” 

“I see.” 

“Do you?” He squinted his eyes, either in distrust or because the light was behind you.

“Sure.” 

“Hear that? She’s lying again, Kit.” 

You ignored him, but scrunched your nose at your dog. You knew her nod was a coincidence and probably more related to watching drops of water trail to the floor from the now sideways cup, but it still felt like another betrayal from the treacherous creature.  

It was more or less her fault you were even in this situation. You huffed as she tried to crawl into his lap, quickly deciding she was completely to blame for the direction the evening had taken. She really had no business growing a habit for midnight walks due to your inconsistent schedule. She had some nerve tricking you to walk the opposite end of the park than usual. She definitely had some nerve when she yanked the leash out of your grip for the first time in her entire fucking life. She, without a doubt, acted with intent when she kept leading you towards a scent she knew. She was also unapologetically pleased as fuck when she hopped up onto a bench next to an unnecessarily attractive blonde that was cuddling a phone, but who didn’t seem to have any intention of answering the loud voice coming from it. A voice you recognized. You stepped closer, grabbing the phone to see a running face time call with a very stressed Red Riot on the screen.  

“Oh thank fuck...wait, why are you-shit it doesn’t matter. Where the hell is he?” 

“Past the river by my apartment.” 

“How the-idiot! Did you use your fucking quirk to ditch us?” 

You felt a similar level of rage to what Kiri was now trying to direct toward the hero ignoring him. Bakugou knew better than to use his quirk to travel off the clock...especially when he was this fucking trashed. Although, you weren’t positive if he’d ever been this trashed. He mumbled something that sounded like “too many wrong fucking people” into Kitsune’s fur as he continued to bury himself into her neck.  

“Fuck…how the hell did you let him get this drunk?” 

“Okay, that is actually not my fault. I didn’t know Kaminari and Sero gave him a shot every time I went to dance with Mina.” 

“They went a little fuckin’ far this time.” 

“Well...those two are taken care of already.” He shifted the screen to show Mina still towering over the culprits, attempting some form of re-education involving bops on the head and a tone you recognized but had, thankfully, never been on the receiving end of. 

“It’ll be a while before I can get over there for him.” The blonde was now almost exclusively being held upright by your dog. He was at least awake enough to blink his eyes at you slowly as he now resisted sleep. You turned at a cough from your palm, pulling your gaze back to the phone. “You good to stay with him?” 

“No.” 

“Oh...um, well I just thought-” 

“No, I mean he can just sleep it off at my place. You seem to have your hands full and I’m not close to—your place.” Of course you weren’t. When you moved last year, you had made sure of it. He lived a few floors below Bakugou. A flash of pink covered the screen as Mina took the phone. 

“Are you sure you’ll be okay with...” She looked over her shoulder to aim a glare at the men behind her before turning back to you. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” 

“Yea, I kinda owe him one right?” 

As you watched the water bottle roll under your vintage couch and a distraught Dynamight try to dive after it, nearly toppling the entire sofa, and your dog take a similar position with her shoulders down, ass up, paws outstretched trying to help pounce what he was after...you were realizing how very wrong you had been. Your impromptu sleepover had been awkward, sure, but it didn’t seem to be a fair trade for the situation you were now taking part of. You walked past both of them, around to the wall that the bottle was resting against. You handed it to the outstretched calloused hands. He frowned at the unsatisfying sounds coming from the straw as he took a sip. He sighed a bit longer than anyone would need to before turning back to the wide brown eyes of Kit.  

“She drank it.”  

You snatched the cup back, and moved for the kitchen for water and a towel for whatever puddles were now under your sofa. You really hoped he'd fall asleep soon.

Masterlist

Next part

[rambyol]

Analysis - The Joker’s cards for Bruce and what they suggest:

We shouldn’t take Handwriting psychology literally as it’s very subjective but it’s definitely fascinating what we can learn or pull from a characters penmanship.

1. The Card from the Church

Between the two cards, this one is my favourite because it has the most personality in it.

This card shows up after the events at Wayne Tower where Joker and Harley unleash the Virus (Gas Bomb) and during Batman, Iman, and Tiffany’s search for the next Bomb.

Right off the bat, the penmanship on this card is messy. The letters are jagged, some misaligned, and some have varying degrees of pressure to them.

Writing with a lot of pressure can be a sign of attention seeking behaviour and Joker is trying to get Batman’s attention, obviously, but more notably the pressure on the letters mimic Johns/Jokers speech. John has a habit of subverting and exaggerating certain words in his speech. For instance when talking about Harley potentially setting off the bombs on the bridge (if you choose to trust John), John describes that hypothetical as ‘exciting’. It’s no surprise that writing can reflect our speech but as I mention below it’s a sign of being unfiltered.

It’s evident that Joker isn’t dwelling on presentation here, much like his fashion sense, there’s a disheveled appearance to his writing.

The scribble in the bottom left corner where you can see Joker was checking to see if the pen was still working is kind of endearing since this letter was intended for Batman and the scribble indicated a lack of filter, as is observed through Villain Jokers personality. V Joker is arguably the least filtered out of all 3 in my opinion and naturally that would reflect in every facet of him down to his writing. I mean even his attempt to scribble out the joke at the end seems half hearted, because we can still see it clearly.

In addition we’ve got the doodles of a heart and a mystery doodle which Batman has his thumb covering (I wonder what it is 0_o). Doodles display playfulness and of course that childish is pretty consistent to Johns character regardless if he goes down the Vigilante or Villain route.

Jokers handwriting here is relatively ‘bad’ but without going into detail (I want to wrap this one up) we can see that theres a struggle for consistency in his lettering and strokes, which mirrors his personality in way. John was/and Joker is very muddled at times because his motives are all over place and it’s hard to determine what he wants. Now sometimes I think people see inconsistency in characters as ‘bad writing’ but I see it as making them more believable/complex. So yes, ‘unstable’ writing comes as no surprise.

2. The Card from Joker’s Funhouse

Now this one’s shorter but it’s much more presentable. The lettering is mostly level and although there’s the mix between capital and lower case letters within the same word it’s overall more thought out. Even the doodles of the diamonds (?) on top of the ‘i’ are consistent. There’s a bluntness to this that otherwise isn’t seen in the first letter, the sentence are short and concise almost as if Joker has more control here. And he does, Bruce sees this letter after being shocked unconscious by Joker. He’s not in his Batsuit and he’s being led towards the games that Joker is going to force him to play before ‘dinner’.

I know this is written with a different pen, clearly a marker and that can effect penmanship, I know I write better with a certain type of pen (thicker ball points) but I like to think there’s more certainty in Joker at this point in the story about what he’s doing, since before this, John was a part of other peoples plans.

Also this one reads more intimately than the other for obvious reasons like with the use of the term ‘our secret’ and the domestic connotations of ‘dinner’ but that of course goes into the bigger scheme of this being presented as a dinner party. What I think is most important in this letter is how the heart ❤️ has no arrow in it. Unlike the first card which did;

According to Google:

A heart symbol pierced with an arrow, symbolizing romantic love (being lovestruck, or the pain of lovesickness) A typical depiction of the Sacred Heart (often shown with other attributes, e.g. surmounted by a cross, pierced by nails or swords, etc.)

Okay maybe the first one was more intimate?

But from what I could find about a plain heart and what it could potentially mean, the closest I could really find was ‘unromantic but sincere love’. And with what we know about Joker’s determination and certainty that he is the ‘villain’ of Batmans/Bruces dreams (a term could definitely be a stand in for other things) I think that certainty comes off here too. Bruce never questions or entertains the thought that Joker would have taken his suit off in front of others or had his henchmen do it, it’s clearly implied with how committed Joker is to not exposing Batmans identity that it was HIM who removed the batsuit off Bruce’s unconscious body. Point is, there’s this mutual/unspoken assuredness between them that this is in fact THEIR secret.

End!

Phew! Idk if this made sense or even coherent but I just found the letters really cool and wanted to talk about them. Let me know if I should go into more detail or pls add to this in the notes I’d love to hear your ideas!

[torpedopickle]

I finally watched Transformers Earthspark Season 2 today. I have a lot of thoughts and I wrote some paragraphs for every episode. As you can see I wrote a LOT, enjoy my way too long cartoon analysis:

Episode 1: the cracks are showing but it hasn't crumbled yet

The animation feels less alive than in season 1 even if strong storyboarding still carries some scenes, as I know several of the season 1 storyboarders did work on this episode. It has a couple good sequences, a couple incredibly stilted ones. The overreliance on slowmo feels weird, and the animation struggles to properly convey things, like how we're supposed to take Hashtag's injury very seriously, but it just looked like she got bumped lightly.

the Decepticons are butchered and watered down into "evil because they're Decepticons". Chaos Terrans is an interesting concept and the way they're executing Aftermath would provide a foundation for exploring topics such as delinquent youth, but knowing how the series will go on to treat them in later episodes, I'm not hopeful.

the Maltos feel like they're sleepwalking. They have a lot of screentime but for some reason they don't feel present at all, it's like I'm watching their shadows move around on screen without the things that made them feel alive shining through.

If I didn't know beforehand what this season would eventually stagnate into, I could see myself being fooled into thinking the gripes I have with this episode are just growing pains, however i'm not so hopeful.

Episode 2: Improved in some ways but not in others. The episode premise is decent, and the narrower focus compared to episode 1 does help make the focus characters feel a bit more like themselves again. Unfortunately i just don't think the premise was utilized well at all. Introducing quintessons to the conflict is kind of a big development, but it doesn't flesh them out well IMO. They treat them like wild animals with no characterization for a majority of it, and then hint at some deeper conflicts at the very 3nd before promptly disposingof them. So ultimately it feels unsatisfying (although we do get some expositon in episode 9, but it doesn't add up to much).

And once again i must comment on the character acting on the humans especially being severely lacking.

Robbie and Mo having helmets for like half their screentime definitely feels like a cut corner not to animate their faces

Episode 3 review: some well animated sequences this time around, i'd seen the storyboards for them on twitter and they're really well done, but then there's some others that really werent as decent, so big ups and down in animation quality. Most of the episode did feel like a slight return to formula for Earthspark tho, with how it felt like it was actually making a point about something for once, which so far has been rare in season 2, although the conclusion wasn't the most satisfying with the whole "you can't have everything" message but then hashtag kinda gets most of what she wanted anyway.

Episode 4 is like.... baffling.

Like the fact that they swapped to a wholly different and much cheaper animation studio was so far just somewhat shining through, but now it's impossible to unsee. The animation here feels BEYOND stilted, in every way. Like not even the 2D FX animation looked convincing this time. That clip of Robbie dropping a cake is the weirdest animated thing i've ever seen. It's like it gets sucked out of his hands by a magnet.

The Faire Maestro is a type of character I feel like would have been handled really well in Transformers Animated but was just kinda nothing here, super ugly design too and very odd voice direction. Lots of just bizarre and mindboggling things in this episode, like them seeing faire maestro having an emberstone shard, and then deciding to steal it right in front of his face for absolutely no reason even though they think he's a normal guy and not a villain. And tiny inconsistencies like Mo knowing his name even though he never said it. Bizarre episode all around, Weird Al cameo is cute but then he's gone.

Episode 5 review: Finally Jawbreaker gets to be in it. Except now he feels like a baby. Just a big stomping juvenile baby.

And speaking of big stomping babies, Aftermath is one too. He feels like he's supposed to be a representation of troubled/delinquent youth who don't get along with their peers and who don't have positive role models or a support network, but he really comes off as being just... chaotic, no real sense of interiority to him other than "I'm mean and I enjoy being mean and I can't help it". He's entertaining on a surface level vibes basis, but it doesn't feel like any attempts are being made at making a point. He's barely been in the show so pretty much anything that could make his character interesting is completely missing. Like there's no development of how the decepticons are raising him other than the basic assumption of "bad role models", and the decepticons barely get to be characters this season either. Aftermath feels like an Afterthought, as Chaos Terrans have basically been less than a footnote, and the series has attempted to do no form of storytelling with them beyond surface level observations that honestly feel insulting to the other characters like how the decepticons are just evil now, and the autobots/terrans have lost all nuanced expressions of empathy and solidarity in favor of just "they're generally friendly"

oh and also the evil mushrooms are boring.

Episode 6 review: Man this episode just *feels* wrong, like viscerally.

The show's handling of the chaos terrans just keeps getting worse. There's absolutely NOTHING about spitfire that compels any form of empathy. Like there's not even a mote of her being a troubled and misguided youth, she's just straight up ontologically cruel, like nothing about the conflict in this episode regards a failure to understand, communicate, or empathise with each other, it's just a straight up rejection of those things on both sides. For this chaos terran delinquent analogy thing to work you NEED there to be a sense of humanity or waywardness to them. You NEED to be able to conceive of them as being capable of more than just anger. This just feels meanspirited, especially the way the Maltos have no desire for Spitfire to be better. They just wholeheartedly accept that she's ontologically evil, and honestly, the way she's presented in this episode you'd think they were right, but they're not SUPPOSED to be right.

It sucks too cuz chaos terrans are a great idea

season 1's terrans were all representations of good natured minority kids, particularly third culture kids, who despite their best intentions and kindness end up having to fight for acceptance.

The chaos terrans are a natural progression of that, with depicting kids who end up on the fringe of society because they're inherently different from others and have a harder time being understood, and who don't have a support network to set them straight.

So it starts out in a place where they'd easily be able to build on it, but it's squandered imo. And for several reasons:

1. the Decepticons are 1 dimensional bad guys this season so they fail to capitalize on any potential storytelling they could have done with how their generational resentment might be passed down to the younger generation. They also fail to build any sort of relationship between the Chaos Terrans and the decepticons, so any obligation to stay or debt of gratitude that they might feel is just not there. You get no sense of why they'd want to be decepticons other than wanting to be enabled and encouraged for cruel behavior. They could have given breakdown an actual father son dynamic with aftermath but instead undercut it and play it for laughs.

2. Because the malto's solidarity have been completely watered down into just being "good guys", and never really get to articulate any sort of deeper point in their attempt to appeal to the chaos terrans, so you don't get a sense of how they might help them if they were allowed.

and 3. because the chaos terrans themselves don't really feel like they have much of an inner struggle, interiority, or conflict, it doesn't really feel like there's much of a foothold for

Anyone to latch onto to get through to them. Which makes them feel unredeemable.

so to reiterate and summarize these 3 points; 1. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans are being given negative reinforcement, 2. there's no sense of how the Maltos might help undo this, and 3. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans might want to be helped or not helped.

I understand that like part of the point is that they don't understand the chaos terrans, which supposedly makes them feel more alienated and further pushed towards anger, but there's no nuance or attempt at solidarity to the way these misunderstandings occur. Like there's no hint of Twitch and the Maltos trying their best to reach out to spitfire in meaningful ways. There's no sense of there being some fundamental difference in perspective or circumstance that make them able to understand eachother's point of view, it's just straight up "i tried to be nice but you were mean so now i won't be nice anymore" and it never goes beyond that. It's insulting how easily the Maltos give up on them.

Episode 7: serving as a direct followup to the last, it continues a lot of the same flaws. It squanders any chance of giving Spitfire some depth, like they could have spun her obsessive competitiveness into a deep-seated need for approval or validation or something, but no, she's as one dimensional as her behavior would suggest. Her behavior just becomes more and more destructive to a cartoonish degree where it no longer becomes possible to feel empathy for her.

the whole freaky friday misunderstanding thing too also feels super forced, which isn't helped by the animation failing to convey a lot of ideas.

Comparing this season to season 1 so far, man it just really sucks at juggling the characters. We've had practically 0 focus or development for any of the autobots and decepticons, and the maltos for that matter, despite their overwhelming screentime.

This is likely a casting budget thing. Which is why bumblebee has been demoted from main cast member to a guy who maybe says 2 lines every 3 episodes.

The quality of season 1's writing would go up and down quite drastically between episodes, but so far season 2 has consistently been on par with some of season 1's worse entries. It's juvenile and it has next to nothing to say about anything. Barely even any basic surface level messages, just mostly meaningless antics with next to no focus on exploring characters.

Episode 8 review: it's fine. No notes. It's a competent comedy episode. Fun premise with the whole "thing getting continuously stolen by different people" trope. Basing an episode around optimus's trailer is funny. Animation isn't stellar. Overall it's just an ok episode. I have nothing to say about it other than it's well executed even if it's not very ambitious.

Episode 9/10: okay! End of the season. The finale's mixed for me. In a different universe, this would have been an OK finale for the most part, but the fact that the season has tarnished every single character and plotline from season 1 and made no successful attempt at building anything new of value makes it lack any impact it could have had.

Interesting angle to flip the quintesson creator race narrative that transformers fans are used to. Although they too were an afterthought for this season. Aftermath and Spitfire getting killed really was the rotten cherry on top of their miserable cake. First they're treated like dirt by the story and handled as poorly as they could possibly be, squandering the excellent potential they had, but then they just kill them. Just so starscream's heelturn is even more evil. It honestly feels sad to me that they even bothered to acknowledge the fact that starscream was redeemble in season 1. Just makes it feel even more annoying that they conciously gave up trying to make him nuanced. Some of the animation was good. The shots of terratronus rising were very well composited and communicated the scale extremely well. As for the actual climax, it felt pretty lacking.

Overall a dissapointing season. A shadow of what earthspark was. Most of the characters are completely sidelined (likely for lack of a casting budget), and the few who aren't don't get a single story that feels reminiscent of that immensely strong sense of confident identity that season 1 had.

Hasbro cannot help themselves can they

[that-ari-blogger]

This Is About Relationships (Hell's Greatest Dad)

I feel like we are seeing more and more stories that draw on horror elements as of recent times, with mixed success.

Critical Role, for example, has put some heavy emphasis on body and cosmic horror in their most recent campaigns, and I think that has worked really well. They are telling a story about feeling powerful in the face of adversity, and so having villains who are either unknowable or far too knowable really works for that idea.

On the other hand, the horror elements of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness actively took me out of the story, because they didn’t fit with the rest of the franchise at all, and I found that rather jarring.

Then there is Hazbin Hotel, which isn’t scary, but it definitely draws on some of the tools of writing horror. Although it doesn't do that in the way you might expect. Specifically, it uses the character of Lucifer to both embody and subvert the very nature of Gothic horror itself.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Hazbin Hotel, Ratatouille, Paradise Lost, Frankenstein)

I have made my stance on genre extremely clear in the past. I think it exists, but I think it is bollocks, and Hazbin Hotel kind of proves my point.

Because, yes, you can boil Horror down into however many constituent parts as you would like in order to organise a bookstore, but however you spin it, Hazbin Hotel fits that, with the exception that it isn’t scary.

Then again, being scary is entirely subjective. For example, I am completely fine with ghosts and ghouls, so the only thing that gets me about games such as Phasmophobia are the jump scares, and Jump Scares aren't horror. By the same score, I am incredibly squeamish, so Hazbin Hotel itself was more difficult for me than a few of my friends.

Which leads me to gothic horror, which has a distinct aesthetic to it that isn’t actually essential at all.

The name actually comes from its aesthetic. Gothic fiction got started in the 1700s when Gothic architecture was popular but gained traction in the early 1800s when authors such as Edgar Alen Poe and Jane Austin got involved. The latter of whom wrote Northanger Abbey in 1818 to parody the overdramatization of the genre in a book that I personally despise.

Austin’s book comes across to me as incredibly insincere. I have an infinite respect for Austin’s work, but there is a deep sense of contempt in Northanger Abbey that drives me up the wall.

I want to be clear here, this is not me saying the book is bad. It is incredibly well written. I just hate it with every fibre of my being.

To me, Northanger Abbey missed the point of the gothic genre. Gothic isn't about the emotion, it's about the humanity. The fallibility, the force of will, the instability and resilience that come and go like the wind.

Gothic horror turns that into fear, specifically the fear of morality. It’s the Ratatouille genre. Any angel can sin, any demon can rise. Or in other words:

“Anyone can cook.”

Gothic horror is the fear of inconsistency. That someone you trust can betray you, or spiral into awful deeds, or that someone you despise might be right. It’s the fear of redemption, and conversely, the terror of good motives leading to bad ends.

Other subsets of horror draw on the fear of the unknown, or of not knowing. Gothic fiction is steeped in the terror of what you know being wrong.

Case and point, Frankenstein is both the archetypal science fiction book, and a phenomenal Gothic story. The terror is derived from the fact that it’s titular character can be so great and yet such an absolute monster, as well as the horror of creating a conscience.

The creature is intelligent, and its intrinsic morality is up for debate the entire time. Frankenstein calls it his "Adam", for Pete's sake. It kills multiple people, but as a reader you are unsettled by how much you agree with its motives.

Gothic horror is the fear of absence. There is no good or evil here, just people.

There’s a reason I brought up Ratatouille. The conflict of the series is derived from Skinner’s visceral fear that someone he despises as much as Linguine can actually be competent, combined with a field rat rising from the gutter to run a restaurant. “Anyone can cook” is a threat in this movie, but it gets better explained by Ego in a way that I really like.

“In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: ‘Anyone can cook.’ But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”

According to one of the greatest fanfics ever written, Paradise Lost, Lucifer rebelled against G-d’s vision and fell, which can be taken any number of ways. It’s written so that you sympathise with the main character, who is, may I remind you, the literal devil.

Worth noting, Frankenstein's monster reads Paradise Lost. I wonder if there is any significance to that.

Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel is nominally the same character as his biblical counterpart, except that he is blissfully unaware of any of the themes surrounding him. Kinda.

He has grasped the fact that anyone can fall, but the reverse of that hasn’t quite registered to him yet.

Case and point, he doesn’t understand people at all. He has sought escapism through “stuff”. By which I mean the ducks, but I also mean his song, Hell’s Greatest Dad.

Part of the gothic theming in Hazbin Hotel is that people aren’t static, and that relationships are more important than anything else. Angel Dust and Pentious don’t become better people through trust falls, the find it through love and companionship, both platonic and more than platonic.

To demonstrate this, we contrast Lucifer with Alastor, who once again doesn’t sing his own song but steals it off someone else. Alastor’s relationship with Charlie is so obviously sinister, and that will be better explained two episodes down the line, but at least he has a relationship with her.

The agony of this is that Jeremy Jordan is a phenomenal voice actor, who, along with Lucifer’s stellar writing, endears the character to you from his first scene.

Alastor is a villain; Lucifer is an absent father. Who do you side with here? That’s gothic fiction.

“Sailors fighting in the dance hall, Oh man, look at those cavemen go. It’s the freakiest show. Take a look at the lawman Beating up the wrong guy Oh man, wonder if he’ll ever know He's in the best selling show. Is there life on Mars?”

This is the chorus of a David Bowie song called Life On Mars. It centres around someone seeking escape through television and storytelling. It points out the futility of this, but the fact that it works. It’s a stable dynamic that doesn’t go anywhere.

Remind you of anything?

“Who needs a busboy, now that you've got the chef? Michelin tasting menu, free à la carte I'll rig the game for you because I'm the ref Champagne fountains, caviar mountains, that's just to start!”

Lucifer is offering Charlie anything she could dream of. Any thing. But Charlie doesn’t need an object. She needs a father, and she needs her relationship with Lucifer.

Enter Alastor, who, up to this point, has been generally benevolent to Charlie. He’s basically the embodiment of that old Tumblr textpost that described someone as “chaotic gay. I haven’t done anything evil yet, but my general aesthetic and demeanour tell you that I will, any day now.”

Side note, I know this post exists. I have seen it, I have screenshots of it. But Tumblr’s search function is so legendarily awful that I cannot locate it. Tumblr’s search function has beaten the FBI before, and I don’t have that much patience.

In any case, Alastor offers up his own curriculum vitae in the form of this:

“Who’s been here since day one? Who’s been faithful as a nun? Makes you chuckle with an old-timey pun? Your executive producer.”

He’s pitching himself via his relationship with Charlie. But what I wanted to point out specifically was how the two characters relate to the beat of the song.

This song is inspired by Friend Like Me. I know it's subtle, but I'm onto something, and I can pick out the clues. If you look closely at his moustache in this shot...

Lucifer is clicked to the rhythm, or rather, his backing music is. The band hits ever downbeat as one, looping back to play the same thing every few bars. It is incredibly stable. The one thing that isn’t, is Lucifer.

The man misses every single beat by a fraction of a second. Not much, but when you contrast him with the entirely of the rest of the song, you notice that tiny imperfection, especially when Alastor doesn’t share it.

Alastor starts singing by matching the beat perfectly with his opening sounds, then going free within the restraints. Later, when he co-opts the song, the band begins playing along with him and matching his melody.

The Radio Demon understands people incredibly well, and he works on relationships. As such, his music has a much more symbiotic relationship between each of the parts. Lucifer’s feels like a creation, Alastor’s feels like it was created, if that makes sense. There’s a human element to Alastor’s take on this song.

Which brings me back to the gothic stuff going on here, and the relationship between Lucifer and Alastor. Alastor is, of course, a manipulator. He takes issue with Lucifer because he wants Charlie isolated. But Lucifer has no reason to get upset by Alastor, right?

Alastor shakes up Lucifer’s entire worldview, to the point where I find some of the double dad dynamic between them rather compelling. Most of it.

Alastor is risk incarnate; he stands for the idea that anyone can do anything. A radio presenter can be a cannibal, and have parenting instincts take over with Nifty and at times Charlie. But he is unsafe. Because he is such an unknown, he is untrustworthy. You don’t know where you stand.

Lucifer, meanwhile, is terrified of this fact. He likes the safety of knowing where he stands, he can protect himself there, but he can also protect others. In my eyes, that’s why he was so absent with Charlie. He found something he could understand and kept it because he didn’t want to shake up the rhythm. But that was futile, and he realises this over the course of this episode.

But you might say “wait, Alastor is ace, he can’t be with Lucifer,” and my answer is twofold. First up, I am ace too, that doesn’t prohibit relationships. I’m not even talking about romantic stuff here, Alastor is the poster boy for being aromantic, but more importantly, parenting isn’t just about the other parent.

The two can both be dads, joined by their mutual care for their daughter, rather than affection for each other. I find that compelling. Charlie needs both the security and the sign that everything is possible. She needs someone to lift her up, but she also needs someone to catch her when she falls, and Lucifer and Alastor both play different roles in that dynamic.

Any angel can sin, any demon can rise. Anyone can be a dad, anyone can cook.

Final Thoughts

Jeremy Jordan is a global treasure and even if this series doesn’t stick the landing with its next season (we will see), Lucifer will be amazing.

Do I have a crush on this man? No. No, I do not. Why do you ask?

In all seriousness, I think episode five should have been two episodes. One for this song, and one for the next. Lucifer would join the Hotel’s crew for a few days, befriending Pentious and co., being utterly disrespected by Husk, and being eased into the fact that morality isn’t binary.

I don’t even mean this from just the pacing perspective, I think the series would have so much more thematic weight if it devoted more time to the literal devil learning the thesis of the series and becoming on board with redemption. I think that would be cool.

I'm also just now realising that this is a Gothic Horror musical, so of course Alex Brightman got cast in it.

In any case, next week is More Than Anything, which is yet another case study in why Jeremy Jordan is amazing. Stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[starstruckwillows]

shiny things — jj maybank ♡

requested by anon<3

jj maybank x fem!reader, fluff, swearing and alcohol consumption, mention of weed

paper rings by taylor swift

it was definitely not just jj’s friends that were high when you first met him, although he insisted he was stone cold sober.

“j, you said i was the prettiest girl you’d ever seen! sober people don’t say shit like that.” you laugh everytime as he protests,

“they do when it’s true!”

but it wasn’t just him that was hooked from the first moment. you found yourself scrolling through social media for hours that night, right back to john b’s first posts of the two when they were fourteen.

“stalker.” jj scoffs and nudges you whenever you relay this story, to which you just flick him on the forehead.

you two hadn’t had the easier start. being pulled into a heist for gold only to lose it all in a massive cat and mouse chase had put a strain between you, especially as your grades suffered. but you got through it.

sometimes when you can’t sleep, you lay on his chest to hear his heart, and a part of you is proud that you claimed it. but you mostly just feel yours beat back, in time, and know you’re loved.

the first kiss you had wasn’t under the most romantic of circumstances. hiding in a shipment container, moments away from death and chaos, and you were starting to get nervous, like any rational person.

“don’t spiral now,” jj ruffled his hair, looking at your inconsistent frown with fear, “we’re about to go.”

“i’m not spiralling j, i’m thinking, just...”

he leaned forward, hands on your shoulder as he levelled his face with yours, “don’t think too hard.”

looking carefully over his stare, eyelashes fanning his slightly flushed cheeks, you felt an uncharacteristic surge of adrenaline, “kiss me.”

“what?” but he didn’t wait for you to answer. as soon as his brain caught up with his mouth, his lips were on yours, once, twice, three times.

after all the mess you’d gotten into over the years, the two of you tried to keep your heads down. it didn’t always work out that way, but occasionally there were some afternoons were you could just lounge in the sun, moving sluggishly to get more water every known and then, but mostly just laying with each other in the hammock.

swinging gently in the breeze, rested against jj’s chest, you spied a magpie building a nest near the chateau.

“hey, look at that.” you murmured, tilting his head in the direction of the bird’s sparkling collection as you sat upright to get a better view.

you could feel him smile against your hair as he rose up with you, “you like shiny things, pretty girl?”

responding with a shrug, you resumed your prior position and listened to his breathing.

“don’t think we can afford a shiny ring for you right now.” he said, more to himself than you, as he played with your fingers.

you shook your head, “i don’t need a shiny ring to marry you, j. paper will do.”

he grinned, “yeah? cos i can make one of those right now.”

🏷️ — none yet

[cheezeybread]

Pspspspsp... Anon McGee, back on my bullshit..

I come back bearing more fun Madness Returns tidbits and another Twisting Wonderland request! [Woo, finally making my rounds back to my roots!!]

First off, the request. Still using Heartslaybyul as our main little dudes, as per the usual. This is kind of circling back around to those imagines you wrote the first time I came around with nothing but a handful of small game facts, but overall the idea I've got floating around is just a short piece showing off a few times in specifics and detail where it was made explicitly clear that the reader has had experiences that cause them to be uncomfortable with certain things, view them entirely differently than how other people do, things of that sort [very much in a similar vein to the majority of the second twisting wonderland piece and the imagines, but this time with more focus and detail being put into these specific aspects of it]. Obvious wiggle room being extended here, do whatever you like with this, although I will add that I'm mostly requesting this to go hand in hand with the information I'm able to present as I keep playing through the game.

Now for the tidbits!

1. The inky stuff I mentioned in the prior Alice centered request is referred to almost exclusively in game as "Ruin." [I believe it's also called corruption or ink on a couple of occasions, but overall it's been mostly called Ruin.] This is mostly to go along with Alice's "ruined mind" and I think it's something that can go along well with our Alice Reader experiencing other students' overblots [something something "are they ruined too?" or something like that], or even having their own and experiencing what they might perceive as a repeat of events [although, I know you've already written a Yuu Overblot. I imagine this one comes around more to psychotic break rather than a nervous break, but regardless, it's an idea to be kept in a back pocket for a rainy day or something]

2. Alice is super badass and I am once again reminded that if I had gone into my very first request with all of the knowledge of her I have so far, I think we would have a very very difficult Twisting Wonderland [Actual Alice and Alice Reader crossover, when? /j]. She's incredibly skilled with fighting and I'm unsure of whether to chalk that up to her fighting solely within the confines of her mindspace in her Wonderland or if she's just cool like that.

3. After spending as much time with her as I have throughout my playing of the game, I'm convinced she's the kind of person who talks to animals and inanimate objects like they're another person [which, don't we all?], and as an extension, I'm kind of projecting that onto the Reader character. They're don't have an animal baby-voice, either, they just talk normally.

4. There was going to be a fourth thing here but I zoned out and forgot what it was LMAO

In order to portray all the lil tibits in this, I'mma put them all in a list form, sort of like a one-shot but not quite?? Idk, I'm tired right now but can't sleep aaaaaah!

This kindaaaa goes against some of the stuff I've already written, but we'll ignore the inconsistencies, shhhh-

I'm definitely gonna have to remember the "Ruined" thing and write a legit one-shot for it, don't let me forget it !!!!!!

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

Alice's Ruined State

"They're ruined."

That was the very first thought that popped into your mind with Riddle's overblot, and the thought that continued to plague you as more Housewardens succumbed to the inky black sickness, allowing the possessive liquid to overtake their body entirely.

They were ruined, it was clear for you to see. Whether it was called by this name or another in this world was nothing of your concern. What was it that was said?

"A rose by any other name still smells as sweet."

Except in this case, a more fitting name would be "a corruption by any other name leads to destruction nonetheless."

What the similarities between this world and your own mental state meant, you had no Earthly idea. How was it that this world was still connected to the one you had managed to escape all that time ago...? Was it simply your own curse? To have that darkness follow you for the rest of your life?

It all came back around, in the end.

It all came back to you. Twisted Wonderland twisting and spinning in a dizzying loop until it reached your own mind once more.

When the day came that you couldn't keep your old memories and struggles at bay anymore- despite the best efforts of the Heartslabyul students- you fell to the ground, hands clawing weakly at your face, struggling to cover your eyes from the horrors your mind forced you to see.

You were on Heartslabyul's property, of course, when it happened. You didn't know what had caused it to finally snap- maybe you had seen something in the corner of your eye that pushed you over the edge, maybe nothing happened at all, who knows!- but once it started, there was absolutely no way to turn back.

The blackness started to creep into your vision, blurring everything around you with a hazy shadow. Everything was dark. The bright green lawn turned to sickly shades of a dying brown and orange. The sky looked as red as blood. The flamingos were once again in a state of decay, teeth littered the ground around you, and the poor Heartslabyul students who looked on in worry appeared to be grotesque creatures staring at you with deadened eyes.

After all of it, you ended up in the same place.

Ruined.

2. The Fighter

Okay, hear me out: Our "Alice" (Yuu, technically, ig??) has a defense mechanism to unlock her inner baddie.

Riddle's overblot caused them to freak out and lose consciousness from the shock and trauma of it all, since they thought that they had left their own Twisting Wonderland behind years ago.

But when Leona's overblot comes around? They're very much different.

It's like something clicks in their head. Something buried within them that only comes out to play in times of necessity. A fight-or-flight mode stuck on fight.

Now that they're not completely overtaken by shock, and are somewhat prepared in knowing a) what overblots are, and b) that they're totally a thing that can happen here at NRC, apparently, our dear "Alice" goes into that mode and bam!

I'd be willing to bet that they can keep up with everyone else with just their fighting skills alone, without magic, tbh. Like, everyone is trying to fight Leona (or any other of the overblotters) and "Alice" is just over there absolutely beating the crap out of them with a stone-cold expression.

Needless to say, no one bullies them after realizing how bad they can mess anybody up.

3. Chatting Away

The sheer amount of times Grim has walked into your room thinking that you had a guest over, only to see you talking to....yourself (??) is insane. It takes him a while, but after some spying attempts, he finds out that you're not talking to yourself, but rather, to other things. Whether that be the lamp, your bed as you make it up for the day, an animal perched on the tree outside the window, or anything in between. He eventually gets used to it, though.

After all, once you had that kinda-freaky incident with Heartslabyul, Grim quickly realized that you weren't exactly a-okay mentally, that you definitely had some sort of unresolved/buried issues going on up there.

For all of his grumbling about "why can't I just have a normal hench-human??", Grim's suprisingly chill about it all, and will try his best not to go into a room if he hears you talking out loud.

And he makes sure to glare at any students who try to point out your strange habits in public. Although he knows you can totally fight for yourself, Grim threatens to beat up whoever points out the fact that you're talking to a tree, sending a small poof of fire their way.

And don't worry, he'll be sure to tell Ace and Deuce about your strange little habit so they can tell Riddle about it, too. Which the Housewarden will then jot down amongst the carefully-crafted list of do's/don't's and other information about you (Is it a little creepy? Yes. Is he trying his best? Also yes)

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[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

Do you have any predictions for s2? Will they completely destroy the greens as many fans think?

Hello, and thank you for the ask!

Truth be told, I gave up on trying to actually predict what will happen in season 2 a while ago - because HotD writers can pull literally every plot stunt imaginable (and whatever you can imagine, it usually turns out to be even worse).

So, I would like to mention some things that could happen in Season 2:

Team Green divided because of their views on the way the war should be fought: most likely, Alicent (team "mercy and caution") vs Aegon and Aemond (team "give them no quarter") with Otto and, later, Criston somewhere in between. This is definitely not what I would like to see; however, since it's quite likely to happen I am kind of interested about Criston's attitude and actions. On the one hand, he is utterly loyal to Alicent and practically bound to take her side (Fabien mentioned this during the promo campaign as well). On the other hand, Criston is a man of war and of action; plus, while he is sworn to Alicent and it's her will he is enforcing, Targtower boys are also close and dear to him. Also, he was once shown to hesitate in carrying her orders out before, at Driftmark (Viserys was still alive and ruling back then, and that made a huge difference, though).

Aemond consumed by his desire for power (because "he's worth it" *hair toss*). It looks like quite a sure thing at this point as well; what matters is how and when it will happen. If the writers make ambition and pride a reason enough for Aemond to stop caring about his family's best interests - I, for one, am not accepting that as canon. Specifically, if he decides to deliberately hurt/try to kill Aegon at Rook's Rest (don't even get me started on this one).

Aegon embracing his role as a King and taking action (it's been pretty much confirmed by TGC several times). Well, this is one of a few good things I can see happening. I think Aegon will still be presented as someone capable of acts of cruelty (and not hesitating to commit them) - in contrast with Rhaenyra and Alicent - but these acts will be justified (although not everyone will see them this way, that's for sure).

I don't even know what to think about Alicent's character at this point. She was given one of the most inconsistent and WTF-inducing arcs in season 1, literally going from "Rhaenyra is an enemy, she will kill my children, and I would die myself before seeing her bastard son marrying my daughter" to "You will be a fine Queen, oh why are you leaving already". From what we've seen, she is not eager to start the metaphorical blasting - but how far will Alicent's unwillingness to resort to violence go? If the show opts for making her defend Rhaenyra from Aegon and Aemond's wrath (which is not a given, but still), from where I stand, Alicent's character will be completely and utterly ruined. And it's not her I will stand with.

Alys Rivers presented as a character full of mystery and dangerous charm. Her playing mind tricks on Daemon and driving him nearly crazy (crazier than he already is, that is) will probably establish her as someone to be reckoned with. I don't think her character will be given much depth this season (if only for the lack of screen time) but the teasing of Alys having something deeper about her than just being "a weird witch woman" might be there.

And the Blacks? Well, in spite of Ryan Condal and Co droning about how "the writing is unbiased, and there is no right side in the Dance. and the story is full of grey characters", I think they (save for Daemon, most likely) will remain their the-true-Queen-Rhaenyra-supporting, righteous selves. Jace, Baela and Rhaena apparently will get some personal character development this season; but will it be enough to make them less of Rhaenyra's appendages and more of characters in their own right? I have my doubts but we`ll have to wait and see.

[bookinit02]

the problem with tommy is that he’s just. Not a well-written character. he’s explicitly racist on screen and it’s not even addressed in that episode. instead, he says some bullshit to chimney about “not wanting to get attached” because the probies always come and go. i don’t think the writers even remember that he made racist comments because they just needed someone to exemplify the general racist atmosphere at the 118, and tommy just happened to Be There. and then 5 seasons later we have chimney saying “wow, tommy, that guy’s so cool!😍” as if 1) the very first thing he said to him (About him) was not a racist joke and 2) even after they became “friendly,” chim didn’t really stay in touch with him or care that much about him (via the episode with red).

and the thing is like. Could tommy be a great example of a character who goes through redemption and learns and grows? yeah. he definitely could. there’s a lot to explore there, and i’m not saying that someone displaying racist behavior is an automatic death sentence and they can never be redeemed Ever. i actually think it’s incredibly important to show those types of redemption stories, because it shows that it’s possible, and explores why people display racist behavior in the first place. but they just haven’t shown that at all with tommy’s character, and they haven’t even made an attempt, and i really doubt they’re going to. he’s inconsistently written, which isn’t uncommon for a show of this length with this many characters, but the problem happens when that inconsistency revolves around something as important as racism. it happens when you bring that character BACK without ever addressing his past behavior and acting like it didn’t happen at all. and it’s a writing flaw, but it gives validity to people not liking tommy. on the other hand, people who don’t read that much into it do like tommy, because we’re supposed to. because the narrative likes tommy, and they want to treat him like some cool action hero who flies helicopters and has a daddy kink and makes out with buck in the hospital lobby. and like, all those things are fine. but when you apply them to a character who has been shown on screen making racist comments, it gets way more complicated. so like—yes, it’s valid to not like tommy. it’s more than valid. i have no idea why people act like disliking him is just due to shipping/wanting buck to be with eddie (although yes, that’s obviously a factor), when disliking him due to unaddressed racism is way more important. also, you can just. not like him. he’s boring. lou’s a bad actor. it’s totally fine, and it’s UNDERSTANDABLE. i’m so tired of this😭