#and people you can hold onto

[rotationalsymmetry]

[ID: digital art of interlocking venus symbols on a bi flag background that's been heavily blurred, so that there's blue swirling into the pink and vice versa. End ID.]

[commsroom]

the u.s.s. horrible unending nightmare 💥 (once again from the incredible @hehearse)

[daz4i]

dazai going from wanting chuuya to be his dog and/or maid in their teens to wanting chuuya to be his prince is the best example of a character growing up and realizing they're not a dom and they just thought they were when they were young and didn't know any better and had control issues. this way you can truly tell he's healing

[intheholler]

Kentucky, 1949

[riccissance]

taissa is so so tragic in that she literally can’t trust herself to keep her loved ones safe even though she desperately wants to… like, whenever she realizes things she’s done while sleepwalking, all she wants to do is fix it or keep it from happening again (assuring steve she won’t hurt him like biscuit while knowing she can’t actually do anything about it)… and she tries to fight off the other part of herself to keep them safe but only ever manages to make things worse (simone ending up in the icu)…

[intimate-mirror]

Why I, unlike communists, think landlords would exist in a good-but-not-optimal society:

okay so there's a family, they live in a house raising a child, then the child leaves

how can a society, without any of 1. something like a state invasively going through everyone's house checking for secret rooms whose use could be reappropriated 2. people not being allowed to lock the doors to their homes 3. the concept of renting,

cause it to be the case that someone is peacably living in the vacated room?

[lord-squiggletits]

Y'know the thing about writing feral/unhinged versions of Orion/Optimus, is that you can't go too far into the feral/unhinged direction to a point where OP's core character traits are lost or become too diminished. After all, in a multiple-continuity franchise like TF, part of what makes the stories make sense is that even if details change (sometimes major details), the characters are still recognizably themselves to one degree or another. (Although this isn't always the case due to executive meddling or some characters being such blank slates from their initial G1 appearances that there's basically nothing to model them off of, but I digress.)

It's pretty much another reason why I love IDW1 Optimus, bc he literally is a canonical feral/unhinged Optimus who's unhinged as a direct consequence of who he is as a person and what he's been through. Like, he still has those fundamental character traits of trying his best to be moral and make good choices, trying to be a role model, etc, except after 4 million years of war and untreated depression he's basically holding onto his sense of self by his fingertips. So when he "goes feral" e.g. losing his temper and beating up/killing people or saying hurtful things, he's feral in a way that's directly tied to his normal personality and not just as a random quirk he has.

IDW OP's feral moments arise from the gaps between "Optimus' attempts to be who he thinks he needs to be" and "the reality of the world that he can't fix/seems to only make worse" that cause him to lose hope, or become cynical, or lose his temper. But in this case, the unhinged-ness makes perfect sense because it arises out of Optimus trying and failing to be the best person or to make the most morally good choices he's trying to make. Basically, the "feral/unhinged" label is just another way of me trying to say that he's not just unhinged because he's weird or because he's a bad person, but because it's an emotional reaction (more like an emotional explosion due to pent-up emotions) to the context he exists in.

I'd also say that IDW OP's personality being generally reserved/stoic and (trying to be) noble works in tandem with those moments he has of going feral because it makes him more realistic. His psyche is treated in a way where the writers are like, "Hey what if the pressure of having to be everyone's idol and be the best person in the galaxy at all times actually broke Optimus down mentally and emotionally?" It makes IDW OP far more relatable. Instead of naturally being a perfect Christ-like figure who never wavers in his morals or convictions and is just naturally a nice person who always has the wisest and best answer, being a good person is something that IDW OP has to consciously strive to be. Even when he feels like it's useless, or the cycle of violence will never stop, or any attempts he makes to help only ends up with things becoming worse.

And I feel like this does a service not only to IDW Optimus as a character, but also as a sort of moral/philosophical perspective for the reader to ponder upon? I feel like culture at large (or at least my experience of it) tends to believe that "goodness" in a person is simply an innate feature that people are born/not born with, and that being "good" means that you must be good at all times, both in your actions as well as the way you feel emotionally about yourself and the world. Like, there's a tendency for our vision of "a good person" to be good in every aspect at all times without having to try to be a good person. So I think IDW Optimus' character stands as a good example of how someone can be good at heart but still struggle to maintain those feelings of optimism and hope and justice. It's a good idea to have such a paragon of a character (in-universe and out-of-universe) be so conflicted and to even be mistaken, misguided, or make things worse because it shows that goodness is as much about "trying to behave/act in a way that is good" and not just "existing as an innately good person."

It's way more realistic for a person to want to be good, try to be good, and sometimes/often fail than it is for them to just be a good person. I enjoy the fact that IDW Optimus is both a good person at heart, but also has to strive to be a good person and live up to other people's expectations of what they see in him. I like how he wants to be a good person and change society for the better, but he also spends a good amount of time either feeling hopeless and alone or being angry at/detached from other people because of how frustrated they make him. He's realistically portrayed as someone who wants to be good and hopeful and change things for the better, but is also mentally and emotionally broken by that burden because of how impossible it is for him to Fix Everything and be the Perfect Prime/Leader/Autobot that people see him as. It's this fascinating mixture of "yes, this is who he is as a person" but also "there are things he desires to be that he could never possibly become or live up to."

This got really far off based from feral/unhinged Optimus sdklfjaslkdlfkas. The TLDR is that if people want unhinged OP, I feel like they should give IDW OP a chance because he IS unhinged but he's unhinged in a way that's a realistic/thematic representation of how being an Absolute Good is impossible. And how being a good person isn't just about Existing And You Are A Good Person, but rather goodness is a constant state of flux in which you adjust, you make mistakes, you lose your temper and feel hopeless, but then you pick yourself up and try again.

Also IDW OP really likes climbing in dangerous wilderness and jumping out of flying vehicles which I think is very feral and sexy of him to do.

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Can we acknowledge for a second how insane it is that both Wally and Bart had to have significant character arcs to understand that sometimes people die?

With other heroes it's just a fact of life. People die. People die all the time. That's just the job. There's no escaping that. There was never any room for doubt.

They try as hard as they can to save everyone but they're only human. Sometimes they can't and sometimes people die.

But for Wally and Bart?

Oh man.

Wally was aware of the concept of death. He'd seen corpses, he knew that people died and that it was a commonplace thing.

But someone dying on his watch? Failing to save someone, no matter what the circumstances, was not even an option to Wally. It didn't happen. He was fast enough to make sure it never happened.

His actual literal catch phrase as the Flash was "Nobody dies."

I'm not joking.

He even had a storyline where a lady was thrown out of an airplane and Wally, who obviously can't fly and who would have no way of saving her, jumped out after her because nobody dies. And he did save her. He figured out a new way of using superspeed while plummeting to his death. The moral of that adventure to Wally was that no one should die ever when he's the Flash because he can always save everyone if he tries hard enough.

He then had another adventure where someone was going to die and he couldn't save them and he could not handle that. This man STOPPED. TIME. He stopped time because "if time doesn't move then they can't die" and he intended to never restart time because he was having a full blown panic attack over someone dying on his watch.

Thankfully he was able to calm down and figure out a plan to save them. He had to accept that it might not work and they might die and he had to be okay with that. Because he tried his best and that was all he could do. He did end up saving everyone in the end. No one died.

But I mention this because the man was in his mid 20's the first time he actually had to come to terms with the inevitability of death.

He wasn't being naive or ignorant. He wasn't being arrogant or cocky. The man had legitimately never failed to save someone.

Now Bart, in comparison, had to face death in general a lot sooner than Wally did. Wally was basing his conclusions based on his experience but Bart legitimately had no idea what death was.

He had to learn that people could die by witnessing the people he cares about have close calls. He had to learn that he could die by experiencing his own death.

I'm honestly not entirely convinced Bart has had to accept that he can't save everyone. There are arguments to be made for sure but I don't think he's ever explicitly had that "Oh shit, I can't save them. They will die" moment.

Regardless though, I think this really speaks to their abilities and efficiency in the field. Also their sheer power. It doesn't matter if it's a city of 2 million people and there's a nuke 1 second away from detonating. It doesn't matter if the criminal has a hostage at gun point and has already pulled the trigger. It doesn't matter if a building gets hit during a fight and crumbles into dust. There will be no casualties. There will be no hostages. There will be no friendly fire. They save everyone. No exceptions.

[laugtherhyena]

Doodle him up

[seventh-fantasy]

阁下！不用理由就会相信、没有力量也要保护的人，阁下难道没有吗？ your excellency! someone you would believe regardless of reason and protect despite being powerless - does your excellency not have someone like that?

[dimonds456]

Considering yesterday was one of the worst days I've had all year, and then today is hands-down the BEST day I've had all year, I now think literally anything is possible.

Guys please keep pushing forward. Your ray of sunshine could be a lot closer than you think it is.

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

I tend to give mikotoba a lot of unjust shit, so i think it's important to acknowledge how crucial his role is to dgs's not-so-underlying theme of respecting the past while still acknowledging and even accepting its flaws. we mostly see this with the adults and parental figures in the game — gina going from denouncing all adults to forming a relationship with gregson that is so close she weeps when she loses him, knowing full well what he's done; maria holding courtney accountable during trial and still going to visit her afterwards, still calling her 'mama'; mikotoba running away from susato at her birth, never talking to her honestly for all her life, yet she still knows him to be a good man and a father whom she loves and respects; sherlock lying at every turn he can and being generally evasive when he can't, but he is the best father iris could have hoped for and the one she chooses at the end of everything; kazuma holding onto his idealised image of genshin so closely that it almost destroys him, and it being his confrontation of his father as the man not the memory, flawed but good, that ultimately saves him — but we also see it in the dual justice systems themselves. from the beginning, it is established that japan's legal system is young, new and immature compared to britain's, dubbed the most impressive judicial system in the world. by the end of the game, however, we see that this is nothing but a facade, a lie meant to preserve this perfect image britain has built up. and yet, in spite of all the corruption, in spite of all the lies, injustice and danger he's been subjected to, ryuunosuke still speaks highly of it and wishes to bring its lessons back to japan's own courts. it has history, and like all things with history, it is flawed but good. it still has worth. it can exist and be valued without its mistakes utterly tarnishing what it has achieved. uh. i don't really know where I was going with this post, but yeah dgs is a good game 👍

[bildads-shoes]

I think it's fair to say that Crowley used to be more carefree. He seemed to smile a little more readily back in Eden, there seemed to be less of a mask at the Flood, and our beloved Bildad seemed a little sillier and softer than present day Crowley. So I've been thinking about how this gradual transformation might have happened.

I wonder he started off having fun with humans, spreading mischief when he had to and lending a hand when he could be subtle about it. I wonder if at the start it was a break from the loneliness of 'his side', befriending all these lovely little humans, the shortness of their lifespans giving their lives a sort of beautiful intensity in stark contrast to the millennia of stagnancy in Hell. I wonder if, at the start, Crowley spent much of his time laughing, connecting, happy.

Maybe it started to get heavier as the number of connections severed by human mortality mounted. Maybe he was dragged down to Hell too many times after too many not-quite-subtle-enough acts of kindness. Maybe as the generations went by, the cost of loving this brilliant, painful, beautiful world started to tip the scales in the wrong direction.

Crowley loves the world. He loved all of creation so deeply right from The Beginning and never stopped. But the world can only love him back in the briefest of stints before adding another pound to the unfathomable weight of grief he now bears. Grief that no being could possibly prepare for, let alone one who is unlikely to have encountered death save for the long past Great War.

It's not hard to understand that someone would be less carefree after 6000 years of that.

[sleepyblr-heart]

couples outfits

[scientologyblows]

okay but lets be very serious here right now, when they release a statement what exactly is that gonna change? don admitted to him and lex having intercourse (which shows that he coerced her) and matt and ryans texts show that the situation was handled VERY poorly. an apology isnt enough for the trauma they both have caused

[you-can-be-what-you-want-to-be]

I think the reason trans girl mob goes off so hard is because… the show is inherently about a kid who’s an outcast learning to be his best most happy self. Like people always say be yourself yeah but that usually doesn’t actually mean anything.

Mob psychos thesis statement is you are NOT special, and that is beautiful because it means you can be anything. Just because you’re a good artist and a shit singer doesn’t mean you should do art instead of singing, you should do what makes you happy and strive to be as good at it as you can, because mediocre is an achievement when you aren’t special, it’s about self improvement, not being the best.

And then you get a kid, who’s constantly terrified of his own emotions and how they effect others and is seen as naive, who doesn’t fit the stereotypical masculine world well (weak as hell, cares a lot about emotions, pacifist) and doesn’t fit the stereotypical feminine world well either (reserved usually, in the body improvement club, horrible fashion, not able to read a room) and you say part of being the best, happiest possible version of yourself is realizing your gender, and it’s not a sad thing, and it’s not about anyone else, it’s about being the best you possible.

I don’t think mob in show is trans or would be any better or worse at being a girl than he is at being a boy, because it isn’t about that. It’s about the idea that when people do the things that are important to them without regard for what other people might think and only focus on being who they want to be (not who they think they should be, not on who they are, who they WANT to be, who would be both a good person and make them happy) that that is the best, happiest, most successful version of them. And I think that’s beautiful.