#and that I see kids whose parents think all that matters is Being Involved being railroaded into

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I should write a book

[matan4il]

911 ep 709 first watch reactions

The way this ep starts with giving us a clear shot focused on the front, solely on Buck sitting between the man he's dating and the man he's been married to for the past six years, and only on them. XD I'm here for it.

Oh, Bobby. :( Feeling unworthy of his medal, and remembering his dad, and how everything went wrong after he got it. </3

Aaaah. Man, IDK. The openly and explicitly homophobic and racist captain cartoon just feels like an easy target now. Prejudice doesn't seem like it mostly gets expressed that way anymore, and when we only teach people to reject that kind, we not only fail to teach them to recognize subtler forms, we may be misleading them to think those more nuanced ones don't count.

Love Athena trying to "save" Bobby by contacting Amir. I'm always a sucker for a couple where they both save each other.

I enjoyed the little play with "Mother Hen," and I know it's not specifically about Buddie, but it is damn funny that when she's told she's raising more kids, they're the ones the camera focuses on. lol Raising a kid together for 6 years, still a couple of morons in desperate need of parenting from their colleagues. Even when Bobby's "wordless goodbye" moment with Buck is letting him cook for the 118, Eddie's by his side and they're doing it together. I swear, 911 said, "Take note, this is what a marriage looks like" and then just kept hammering the point for 6 seasons now.

Okay, I am pretty sure that, while Bobby's acceptance of Buck's first relationship with a guy, is really lovely, "Because we haven't had to talk about it" is not an actual good criterion for discerning whether someone is good for their partner or not. People whose spouses are abusive don't talk about it, either. :/ I am NOT saying that's Buck and Tommy, because it obviously isn't, it just feels like a line thrown in there to be cutesy, but which isn't actually helpful to people, who might take it too seriously.

I AM GONNA LOL FOREVER. So, just like Buck's bi awakening was all about Eddie, now Eddie's messed up whatever he has with Kim is gonna involve Buck, too? Gotcha. Battlefield boyfriends being off-battlefield boyfriends once more.

So... Buck was going to see Tommy, in an ep where TPTB have already paid for Lou in the role, so might as well use him as much as possible, but instead a non-emergency run in with Eddie's current whatever-Kim-is makes Buck ditch Tommy, and run straight over to Eddie's to help him? Look, I'm obviously a One True Pairing kind of shipper, so Buddie are it for me, as much as I can enjoy and see the value of Buck and Tommy as a stepping stone, and nothing will make me stop shipping Buddie (especially not after the tsunami eps), but 911 is feeding me way too well with how it frames these scenes and stories, I don't think the show's trying to get me to stop.

Man, if anyone's ever had a doubt that Eddie is the world champion at denial, this kitchen scene will def cure that.

"I'm worried about you." "Yeah, I'm worried about me, too." And then Buck, the one person who can ALWAYS penetrate through Eddie's denial wall, no matter how thick it is.

Eh, IDK how much the part where they try to re-define Shannon as the love of Eddie's life works, or how much it just serves to show he's still in denial, just a different kind than before, when Buck got through to him that he can't go on like this with Kim. For one thing, in his little retelling of their dysfunctional r/s, Eddie doesn't mention that Shannon was leaving him a second time, even before she died. Literal denial and repression.

So I'm gonna choose to believe Hen and Karen will get Mara back, because I can't deal with that particular storyline otherwise.

Kim's reaction is too deranged for me. Who does something like that, even if we assume the kindest of intentions? And then Marisol and Christopher's timing... I didn't sign on to watch a soap opera, but I guess I'm getting one free of charge?

"Now you gotta save yourself." If that ain't a painful summary of what growing up means, IDK what is. the conversation with Bobby's dad in his sleep was a good, painful scene, built right, leading to him hopefully getting his closure through saving his wife from a fire, and leaving us with just the right amount of suspension for next week and the season finale, where we'll see if he can let go of his past mistakes without a doppelganger dressing up like his dead wife...

Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for more, you can find my s7 reactions tag here, and more of my Buddie meta and content in my pinned post. xoxox

[warriorbookworm]

Prativindhya Headcanons

Draupadi, after his birth, has a bit of PPA. 

His mother and father are both people who were deprived of a childhood in their own way, so for a while(like the 1-2 years before Sutasoma is born and he’s pretty much rocking that only child rizz) his parents entertain all his antics. They live vicariously through him and are quite indulgent.

He is a very inquisitive child, and his curiosity complements Yudhishthir’s patience perfectly. He’s the only one patient enough to answer his son’s questions after questions after questions. 

Speaking of that, they have a tradition where no matter how busy Yudhishthir has been throughout the day, he always spares some time for Prativindhya in the evening/night. This inadvertently turns Prativindhya into a night owl. But he loves the sunrise. He’s the kind of person who will stay up through the night just so he gets to see the sunrise. 

However, this inquisitiveness takes a dark turn when he begins to pick up on his father’s addiction and begins to ask some. Ahem. Uncomfortable questions. Their relationship takes a bit of a dark turn, though things don’t go totally downhill until the Dyut sabha. 

Draupadi and Prativindhya have issues in the sense where you know. The parent without addiction takes their ire regarding the other parent out on the child. I think she is hard on her kids when they make mistakes because she fears that one unchecked mistake will become their ruin. It hurts, but he also kinda gets it. He hates that he gets it.

His brothers are free to call him out on his bs, he does not want the unquestioning respect. 

You know that narrative where kids whose parents have addiction have inadequacy issues? On the ride to Panchal he’s pretending to sleep but he’s still thinking, thinking, ‘was I not enough?’ ‘Was my love not enough?’ ‘why did he do that?’ 

He’s also quite pessimistic. 

When he gets to Panchal, he develops a drinking problem for a bit. What snaps him out is a night when he gets blackout drunk. The hangover involves him SOBBING SHAKING CRYING as Shikhandi holds him, “Uncle, please, make it stop, make it stop mama, what did I do? Why is this happening to me??” 

He becomes a gym rat after that to cope with everything. 

He loves the spear, but tries to distance himself from any and all aspects of his father, and even stops fighting with the spear. Only to miss it. He has to psych himself up even to look at a spear after that. At first, he practices in secret, in the dead of the night, but later begins to not care about the associations anymore and reclaims the spear, becoming one of the greatest spear fighters of their generation. Would have become the best overall if he had lived longer but we are NOT gonna go there. 

He’s one of the few people who can get the high-strung, tightly-wound Shatanik to let loose and enjoy things. He is actually a pretty nice brother when he gets his head out of his ass and stops being scared of himself. 

He loves perfumes, and is partial to deer musk.(Kasturi)

 After a long day, all he wants is sutasoma’s cooking. He loves his brother’s bitter gourd curry and freshwater fish fry. 

He’s very close to Yudhamanyu and Uttamaujas because there’s a less age gap between them and they become his go-to adults. They’re ready to call him out on his BS when needed, but also really cool and supportive. More like big brothers than uncles, honestly. 

He’s a mama’s boy through and through, though, maybe even 2013 mahabharat Arjun levels of mama’s boy. They have their own issues, but he is BAWLING when he sees her for the first time in 13 years. 

He has said, multiple times, during the war, “I am doing this for mother, not father,” 

He beats up shakuni within an inch of his life one day when the upapandavas are dealing with the gandhaar army on the 5th-6th day. 

He was born before Indraprastha happened. He knew Lakshman Kumara, even if just as kids. He feels sad about his death. He never gets a chance to process those complicated feelings.

He's beheaded.

tags under cut

@chahaa-piun-ja @preyasi @niharikaaa2 @incorrectmahabharatquotes @sharngapani

[emeritus-fuckers]

GIGGLING TWIRLING AND KICKING MY FEET. ANYTHING WITH TERZO PLS !!!

<333

I'm a sucker for fluffy family shit - Jez

Terzo as a dad headcanons

He's very insecure at first, scared he's gonna be like Nihil.

But he's super thrilled at the same time, he adores babies!

Totally there for the birth, doesn't care if his hand gets absolutely ruined and if he gets cursed for eight generations. He is there and that's it.

He absolutely fucking cries when he sees his baby!

Gushes about his child to everyone, no matter the occasion. (Think Maes Hughes from FMAB but even worse)

This man has pictures of his partner and kid(s) all over his walls.

He gets the names and birthdays of his children tattooed.

He's big on gentle parenting and communication - things he himself craved as a child.

He does have a small fantasy of Irish twins, but he'd never dare ask you for that, he knows having a baby is incredibly exhausting for your body.

He makes sure you're on bed rest for a long time before he lets you walk around.

Probably has Omega carry you around while he himself carries the baby right next to you.

He gets so lost in baby talk it becomes a part of his everyday speech.

He could be discussing something with his brothers and then calling some random object how he calls it with his baby.

His perfect afternoon is sitting on the couch, you snuggled into his side as the baby sits and babbles on his lap.

Satan save the ministry if his child's first word is "Papa" because this man will not live it down.

"Oh, I'm sorry, old man, do you have a precious little baby whose first word was Papa and who squeals in delight when they see you? No? Yeah, that's what I thought." - Terzo to Nihil after being told to do his job

Nihil is not allowed anywhere near the babies, by the way.

Terzo absolutely goes to Primo for parenting advice. Anything weird happening to the baby? He bolts for his oldest brother.

Terzo's brothers both get to play an active role in the children's lives.

If they were to find out Copia was their brother, he's absolutely getting involved, too.

And his little ones would be such little charmers!

If you pump or formula feed, you don't even see the bottle before he feeds the baby. He's just so quick with it, it's ridiculous.

Loves to give baths to the baby, especially when they're a bit older so he can splash the water with them.

He would have a bit of an issue with diapers at first, but he's a brave boy and he can take it. It just takes a few days at first. After that, he's 100% ready and willing to change diapers.

Omega teases him that his kids are gonna be taller than him. Secondo totally joins in on the teasing. (And you do, too)

[no-tenderness]

as the non-white daughter of white parents I can confirm that no matter how close you are to individual people of color, no matter how much you love them, most white people simply do not view racism as a systemic issue, but rather as Individual Instances Which Must Be Condemned. Unless white people actively educate themselves on the material consequences of racism, most of them don’t really understand it for what it is. In the case of Kendall and Sophie, he is already at a severe disadvantage due to him being A Literal Billionaire and whatever, where his primary goal as A Billionaire (and of all billionaires) is the deification of capitalism and all the exploitation that comes with it. Kendall certainly doesn’t see himself that way because capitalism overwhelmingly benefits him and those like him, so he thinks the system works and it works because he’s Figured It Out. And, of course, capitalism goes hand-in-hand with racism because the two will be forever inextricably linked unless they — and the systems that support them — are dismantled. Kendall is also so far removed from actual people’s actual lives that he really can’t fathom what Real People (who just so happen to look like Sophie) experience day to day. Instead, he views racism kind of as a nebulous concept, one that only affects those unfortunate enough to not be in a position to shield themselves from it. Because Kendall has the resources and infinite money to throw at problems, his “protection” of Sophie is Fixing the Problem. Sophie is physically protected and that’s all that matters, regardless of the fact that she even needs this protection scares her. Granted, as the child of a billionaire, Sophie herself very much does not have to encounter the same kind of conflicts that those lower down the socioeconomic ladder do — but she is not at all immune to it, either. Similarly, I know that as much as my white family loves me, most of my family members see only me as an individual, i.e., a cousin, niece, etc., but don’t necessarily extend that viewpoint to others who, again, Happen To Look Like Me. Roman, Shiv, and Connor all truly don’t make this connection either, as Sophie’s uncles and aunt, despite all of Shiv’s posturing. When Kendall tells Roman “some guy pushed Sophie,” Roman’s only response is “but she’s okay, right?” As if that’s the end of it. As if she wasn’t actually damaged, it wasn’t all that serious. As if that will be the only fallout. Any time that I’ve brought up racism that I’ve directly experienced to my white father, he’s taken it as a personal failing. Has he failed as a father? Has he failed to raise me, his child, to not be hardy and resilient enough to simply ignore These Things? How come his whiteness and all the protections that come with it didn’t extend to his daughter? How come his experience as a parent involves considering different things than if he had raised white children? Whose fault is it? Who or what can be blamed for inflicting that particular kind of pain on his child? Because racism is systemic, there is no bogeyman to point to, no Guy Who Pushed You On the Street who you can send your bodyguard after, or hire a van to tail your kid for her “protection.” She will continue to experience this specific kind of harm, especially under a nakedly fascist president, regardless of your wealth and status and power, and you were the one to sign off on it.

[mr-laveau]

"Laveau, how much angst did you give your darlin?" Good question! Here's an answer pt. 1

Tags: discussion death of parental figures, childhood rejection, not canon compliant, angst got dialled up to 11, this was all made pre-reveal of the canon timeline, Highschool!David/Darlin, just be prepared to understand that I put my darlin through some shit.

Darlin who turns 13 and finds out they're a shifter. Their local department branch threatens to take them from their parents if they cannot find a pack. Their parents pack some bags and go looking

Darlin who was rejected from every other pack because they were seen as too much of a liability to be introduced to any pack. Packs either couldn't accept new shifters, didn't want to train a humanborn shifter, didn't want to accept an autistic child into the pack or simply made up excuses not to take Darlin in.

Darlin who watches their parents struggle with getting them into a pack, driving from state to state, trying to learn about magic and keep their child safe as they search for a place to help them develop as a shifter.

Darlin who leanred to use their magic on their own at a young age so they weren't a burden to potential packs who could take them in.

Darlin whose parents, Darius and Renko Lancer fought tooth and nail with Gabe Shaw and Frank Talbot to get their kid into a pack despite not being empowered.

Darlin whose family is accepted and took up residence at the edge of pack territory in a log cabin. They make it work

Darlin who's introduced to the pack at 15, it has been two years since Darren Lancer first found out he was a shifter and he is better at using his magic than most of the adults in the pack. He is seen as a prodigy and they quickly make friends with David, Milo and Asher. They are finally given a place to be themselves and have friends.

Darren has stayed with the pack for six months when they get the call during class that their parents were involved in an accident in their home. He runs home immediately and sees the scene. They learn that a rival pack attacked their home for being too close to their territory at the boundary of the shaw pack. Their parents fu=ought back and were killed in the incident. The department promises to look into the matter. The case runs cold.

Darren stays a month in his parents' cabin after their deaths. Nothing was touched. Darren has not cleaned it since their parents died. There is dried blood in some spots where the department did not reach. The smell of iron fills Darren's lungs and he has not been to school since. There are rumours about Darren spread by some of the adults of the pack. They think Darren has broken psychologically, they think that Darren is sick and they eventually call the authorities to have Darren taken out of the pack and placed in foster care. It is not successful and Gabe Shaw intervenes. A week after, Darren is placed under the care of Marie and Colm Greer. He is not officially adopted and has refuted the option of adoption. He is sixteen when he arrives into their home, his birthday passed and he didn't tell anyone. He instead spent it alone, cleaning his parents' cabin.

Darren Lancer gets into a fight with Christian after he takes their dad's jacket from them to put it to wash. He has a broken nose and a scar on his chest. The pack disapproves of their actions and threatens removal. Gabe however shows Darren how to clean and maintain leather jackets 1 month and 2 weeks after the death of their parents.

The department has Darren in holding after they were caught fighting with the rival pack that attacked their parents. Five wolves have had their limbs mangled and may not walk well again, Two wolves are in critical condition and a wolf is too traumatised to give testimony. They are found out to be the same wolves that attacked Darren's parents and Gabe intervenes to keep Darren out of trouble 1 month 3 weeks after the death of their parents.

Marie scolds Darren and admits them into therapy. Darren and Milo grow closer as a result of Colm's bad habits worsening. A month after the death of their parents, as marie cries alone in the kitchen, Darren sits next to her and hugs her. 2 months after feeling robbed, Darren feels connected to the Greers.

Darren starts to learn guitar and music as an outlet after being suggested by his therapist. Marie reminds Milo and Darren to keep it down a few nights but she's glad to see that they're getting along better. Darren rejoins pack meetings and social gatherings with the pack 3 months after the death of their parents. David makes friends with them much to the disapproval of the rest of the pack's adults. Gabe invites Darren over for dinner.

4 months after, Darren is officially dating David Shaw. Gabe invites Darren over again, and again, and again. Marie has taught Darren how to cook, clean and how to trust. She has taught him how to defend himself emotionally and physically. Gabe has taught Darren how to run free in the forests nearby as a wolf, he's taught Darren how to tussle and David is there to learn with him. Milo, David and Asher invite Darren to hang out regularly. Milo and Asher feign disgust seeing them kiss but they're glad seeing them both happy. David says he loves them and Darren isn't shy to say it too.

Darren turns 17 and David asks him to senior prom. It's one of the best nights he's had. They dance with Milo and pull stunts with Asher but the final dance is reserved for David before they leave the dance and spend the rest of the night together. It's been 5 months and Darren feels at peace.

[good-to-drive]

thoughts on the Harrison-Boyd-Clapton live triangle???

Oh god I have SO many thoughts lol. I was actually just talking to my best friend about this, but to put it simply I see the whole situation as an example of two people who truly love each other not belonging together because the particular ways in which they're broken go together too well.

But, to put it less simply:

I tend to think about it from Pattie's perspective, and I've always thought of her as having pretty severe eldest daughter syndrome, i.e. she was taught to value her worth by what she could provide to others. Her parents weren't super involved and she took on a lot more responsibility than most kids her age, especially when it came to her younger siblings. This quote in particular stood out to me when I was obsessing over Pattie a few months ago:

(Not sure where that's originally from btw, I've had the screenshot forever but based on formatting I think it might be brainy quote).

It's often a red flag when people say they felt older than their years, and doubly so when they were in some way parentified. We often reenact the role we played in our childhood family system in our adult relationships, and in Pattie I think this lead her to be extremely giving and self sacrificing. To the point where I'm not sure she was even aware that she HAD emotional needs, much less knew how to assert them.

To that end, although I obviously like George quite a bit, there's no denying that -- especially as a young man -- he was an incredibly needy person. (I actually think all the beatles were sort of black holes of emotional need tbh, at least in their youth. Partly because of childhood trauma but also because they were living a life that's larger and more extreme than any human being was meant to live.)

Pattie's tendency to sacrifice excessively dovetailed perfectly with George's tendency to need excessively, and as a result he totally eclipsed her entire self, until she felt utterly lost. That's neither of their fault, btw. Neither of them was emotionally mature or self aware enough to realize what was happening.

(Not to mention George was cheating like a dog and Pattie was taking it on the chin even though she knew deep down she deserved better. But former parentified children often put up with a lot of shit as adults because they believe it's their responsibility to do so.)

Then Eric comes along and literally tells her it's her fault he's addicted to heroin and if she doesn't leave George he'll die and it'll be all her fault. Aside from the fact that this is literally emotional abuse, it's also an even darker and more powerful black hole of neediness than George. And as someone whose sense of self has been eclipsed and who only knows she matters when she's of service to others, it was basically impossible not to fall into that black hole.

For his part, I think Eric was far more concerned with taking something from George than being with Pattie. I don't know enough about him to know why he'd feel the need to do that and I also really dislike him so I doubt I'll ever find out. Pattie said he got bored of her pretty much as soon as he "had" her, and tbh that doesn't surprise me.

It was honestly such a tragic thing for Pattie to be driven/dragged away from George -- personally I believe they always loved each other (she referred to him as her soulmate in her autobiography, and George made sure she knew as long as he was alive she'd have a financial parachute) -- but I also genuinely think they had to lose each other in order to find themselves.

Pattie couldn't stay in a relationship where she was fulfilling the same self sacrificing role she played as a child, and although it was a long and painful road she seems to have really found herself and found peace. She's never explicitly said this, but often people without a strong sense of self need to be on their own in order to learn how to value themselves, and she did spend a long time unmarried after Eric.

And, although George was gutted by the breakup, he was no more capable of expressing love in a healthy way than Pattie was. If they had stayed together I doubt he'd have grown into the wise and self possessed person that he ultimately became, because he simply wouldn't have had to. (Plus he never would have found Liv and I love her just as much as I love Pattie.)

In the end their relationship is fascinating and tragic to me because the things that drew them to one another so deeply were also what ultimately doomed them, and yet in the shadow of that loss they became the people they were meant to be and found their happy endings.

Thanks for the ask, and sorry for the novel 😁

[talenlee]

Story Pile: Ronin

The first time I watched Ronin I was sitting on a friend’s sofa down the road from where I was living with my parents. It was the early 00s. I was learning about movies from a fan of movies, seeing things I’d never seen before from someone I wasn’t good at being friends with. The second time I watched Ronin was last night.

1998 was a long, long time ago. 1998 was a time when people who grew up with the cold war in their lives were realising that maybe it was definitely over, and now, four years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they had to come up with something else to do to justify all that spy stuff that was done. You know, all those listening programs and the manipulations and the lies and the counterprogramming and the language skills and peeing in weird places, like, that had to be for something, right?

Right?

Ronin is a 1998 sorta-spy movie, sorta-crime movie, mostly action movie made by people whose work I cannot meaningfully put in a good context but also had a script written by a guy people recognise called David Mamet. He wasn’t credited because, the trivia goes, there was a fight about it, and that makes it a thing to know about this movie, to show that you have done your time in the trivia mines.

The movie centres on a character named Sam, and is framed around the imagined story of the Samurai tradition of the Ronin. Sam is a former spy (maybe) doing crime work (maybe) for a non-state actor (maybe). He has to retrieve a case (or not) and it’s for this purpose or another. To describe the plot is to deflate it because this isn’t really a movie built around a plot as much as it is a movie built around a sequence of very tightly controlled events. Every single scene is setting up something for the next scene and there are very few times where something is set up in scene A only to fail to pay out until scene D.

It’s a movie that’s very well made, in that nothing feels to me like it’s out of place or weird or inappropriate. It is full of real-seeming things to me, creating a very tangible sense of excitement when you see a car plowing another card off the road. It even has a whole lady character in it, and her name isn’t something ridiculous like Vaginas O’Clock, which means that in the genre of spy action stories of the time, she’s doing okay!

Despite the way the movie feels really cool and like it’s perfectly put together, there’s something about it that nags at me. It’s that the opening uses title cards to explain what a Ronin is, in a German style script, and then the ending is narration, offered by a specific actor in their specific voice, relating to the experience of spending their time with another character in that movie. And… like, I can see why there’d be a challenge in making those two bookends the same, but not that hard of a challenge? As it is, it’s a movie introduced by one thing and concluded by another, for some reason I don’t understand. It’s a seam, it makes me think about why they couldn’t do this a better way.

Ronin is a type of movie that I used to think of as a Dad Movie in that it was the kind of movie a Dad would sit down to watch with glee knowing that broadly, sure, okay, there was violence in it if a kid walked in and saw it but it wasn’t going to involve having to explain anything to the kid that wasn’t a matter of degrees. If I was thirteen and my dad was watching this movie, I could probably (?) watch it with him, and he wouldn’t have to come up with an explanation for anything that made him uncomfortable to see me around.

It means that Ronin is a movie that largely is made up of sequences of people kicking ass and being cool, split into two halves where the first is a team coming together for an exciting heist and then the second half is where it’s all gone a bit wrong. Just describing what’s in Ronin is a kind of analysis itself; what someone notices in how they outline the movie versus what they choose to leave out presents something because this is a movie that is deliberately dense with information and sparse with explanation. Characters have relationships and backstory that are never explained because to the story that you’re getting here, in Ronin, it doesn’t matter at all.

And the whole thing is centrally about a bromance between two cool guys doing spy stuff! That’s fun!

I didn’t find anything in Ronin of a greater message, I think. It’s more like it’s archetypal; this is a movie about dudes, and rocking, and the way that dudes rocked, in that particular period of space and time. I mean it’s a well-made tersely directed movie created by people who are really good at making movies. You see, I say, waving my hand as if holding a vape, When Jean Reno, holds a gun, and he is sad, that, that is cinema.

Saying it like that feels as if it is to say that there’s nothing to Ronin is to imply that somehow what’s here is insubstantial. It’s not. It’s really cool, it’s extremely interesting and unmoored from most of its parameters, it’s got all these scenes of characters being really good at their jobs doing things that are cool, with style. If you’re familiar with the time and the space and the metaphor, you might be able to appreciate some subtly inferred and cleverly constructed meaning. To me, the meaning that’s there is the fantasy of an American spy successfully doing the thing that they supposedly do because they’re good at their jobs and they can get the results they want through the actions they commit.

All spy movies are fantasy movies.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[shuttershocky]

Whats the phillipine's most famous cryptid?

Alright so before we start let me reiterate that the creatures that get passed off as Filipino mythology are still living beliefs for many people, especially those that live away from the big cities. These are not mere scary stories to them, but real threats that you must take seriously, and specialists that deal with the supernatural are very much still a thing.

So the most famous creature would probably be the aswang, but what an aswang actually is depends on who you ask. They could be were-beasts, undead, evil sorcerors/witches, etc depending on the province, and it's come to be almost an umbrella term for monsters that don't already have a name. Every time someone strays too close to the woods and goes missing? Aswang attack. Wikipedia will tell you that stories of the aswang are mostly popular in the South of the Philippines, but my dad's family comes from the North and they're just as well-known there. Ask a grandfather or grandmother whose family came from Ilocos, and there's a decent chance they can tell you stories of how someone the family knew was taken by an aswang because they didn't hurry home when the sun was going down, or how they themselves had a close call when they ignored their parents' warnings about what was out there. When we would visit my grandmother's home province, she would tell me very seriously that if the night is too dark, I should never leave the indoors even if we're at a hotel at the beach, you could never tell how daring a monster might be.

The CIA even actually used the belief in aswang stories to crush a local communist guerilla movement called the Hukbalahap, where they would kidnap Huks and drain their blood then leave their corpses for their comrades to find, terrifying the people and killing public support for the movement.

I think the funniest story that I personally know though is technically not an aswang attack, but shares a lot of the same elements with the monster stories that involve dark magic. It's also particularly interesting because it was told to me by a mentor from the gamedev industry and who was not a superstitious person.

When I was a kid I already knew that no matter what, I wanted to work in video games. My friend and I would attend all the local dev meetups and talks and seminars trying to learn as much as we could about the industry before getting out foot in the door, and one of the developers we befriended was a very experienced artist with some international successes under his belt already. He's now working at a big name European studio, but before that he shared with us the story about his own dangerous encounter.

It started when my friend asked for advice on love, like many young adults would to a cool, older mentor. Rather than give wise sayings about patience and communication or whatever, he said "When they invite you over to your house, keep your eyes open in case they try to eat you."

See when he was our age he was dating this art scene girl who kept telling him that she was dangerous and a practitioner of curses, which he had brushed off as being a quirky art thing and kept seeing her despite her warnings. One time, the girl invited him over to her house saying she was going to eat him, and my mentor, thinking it was his lucky day, walked right in, went into her room, and then stood there when she pulled out a knife and suddenly declared that actually, she was possessed by an evil spirit and was going to kill and eat him now.

Despite the now very clear sign that eating him did not mean anything sexy, he said he was okay with this. She attacked him with the knife and only then did he finally realize that maybe he was not okay with this, but at that point she was making inhuman sounds and was also overpowering him with absurd strength. It's been years since I heard the story so I don't remember how exactly he survived. If I remember correctly, the girl's mom burst into the room and said that this happens often, then promptly pulled the girl off of him and began exorcising her on the spot while the girl began screeching, and the mom insisted while struggling that my mentor and her daughter shouldn't see each other anymore and so he escaped from that house, never to go back.

He ended that story there, insisting it was completely true and that he had already told this story to his peers in the gamedev industry (he actually did) while my friend and I stared at him completely dumbfounded.

"What the fuck" I said, "Why did you keep going when she clearly said she was cursed and was also going to eat you for real?"

To which my mentor just shrugged his shoulders and said "I mean, she was so hot. I just thought it would be okay anyway."

[polyhexian]

Btw I do feel extremely bad for eventually!Darius. I love Darius! He's a very cool character with interesting motivations and flaws! And they're all coming to a head in this one, lol.

Darius is replaying the last time he ever saw Jasper on loop, and he's reevaluating every interaction he has ever had with Hunter, and he has realized he's fucked up. Darius has realized he's been consistantly fucking up for 16 years.

Maybe he tries to defend himself to himself. Brains tend to do that. I was grieving! Okay yeah valid but no excuse for bullying a child, actually. How was I supposed to know he was Jasper's kid? Oh come on you can't say you didn't KIND OF suspect with those eyes and that face and the hair, also it shouldn't matter WHOSE kid he was you still hurt a kid. I was subconsciously upset Jasper apparently had a kid and didn't tell me. Right but this all keeps coming back to you bullying a kid. It's not like he explicitly told me to look out for the next Golden Guard! It costs 0 snails to not be mean to the child soldier.

Darius is just…facedown on his bed, groaning. He hasn't kept up with his hair or skincare routine in two days. Eberwolf is getting worried; they've dragged MULTIPLE animal carcasses into Darius's bedroom and he hasn't complained ONCE.

Raine: We're not getting Eda involved, I refuse to put her in danger.

Darius: Sure! Of course! Perfectly understandable! I'm so glad you have the opportunity to look out for your loved one! Of course if it turns out you wildly misunderstand what she wants she may never forgive you, but hey, whatever you think is best! AHAHAHAHA.

Raine: Darius are you okay.

At some point when he's on speaking terms with Alador again, it comes up.

Darius: I've horrifically betrayed the man I love. He trusted me, and I let him down, badly. Now he hates me and he's never going to forgive me and I have to see him scowl at me from across the room and call me all sorts of horrible things and the sad truth is I deserve every single one of them.

Alador, nodding: I can tell you from experience that it's an awful thing to go through, but it is possible to eventually move on.

Darius: Are you MOCKING me??

Alador: No? I'm being genuinely sympathetic and supportive.

Idk if this is a universe where Jasper and Darius would be able to work things out between themselves - the hurt runs deep, Jasper honestly thought he could at least count on the one man who befriended HIM to look out for a kid who looked like him and was stuck in the same position, and instead Darius failed at just not being MEAN to said kid. Jasper didn't even realize the bar was so low. And Darius doesn't really have much time to fix his behavior and turn things around, and Hunter's real dad is here so there's no need for Darius to become an adopted father figure, and…yeah.

Jasper's relationship with Darius is so hostile, and once Darius realizes what's up he's just miserable and resigned and apologetic even though he knows it'll fix nothing, like a dog rolling over to show its belly. It's sad and hard to watch.

But if their relationship ever DOES progress to something less than hostile, it's entirely because Hunter's willing to forgive Darius, and Jasper can't deny Hunter anything. They can maybe work their way towards cordial neutral. Romance…romance may not work out here.

…Of course, Hunter has to tackle Luz when she catches wind of the situation. She starts rambling about the Parent Trap and Friends to Enemies to Lovers and orchestrating an Only One Bed situation and he is like NOPE, BAD IDEA, THAT IS HOW PEOPLE (mostly Darius lbr) DIE.

YEAH NO IT SUCKS TO BE DARIUS IN ALL TIMELINES HDDGJIKKIFDRH

I don't think it's.... TOTALLY unsalvageable if he plays his cards right. Like on the beach he realizes that's jasper and he's ALIVE. And jasper hisses at him like. If you ever threaten my son again I will rip you limb from limb. And he poofs and I'm sure Darius is left like SON??????? SON??????

And like back at the castle he has an existential crisis in the middle of the night before like. Oh my god. I've been bullying his son. What the fuck. Son??? He had a son???? Wh. When did he do that. And suddenly he has that same interest in hunter canon Darius has but... perhaps with a little more guilt and desperation. My dude is ALREADY planning to kidnap hunter and get out of there because holy shit??? Jasper???? Alive??????? Out of my way gayboy I have amends to make

Like... Jasper loses him after hollow mind. Hunter bolted and jasper couldn't catch him. So Hunter spends nine days homeless while jasper is having a fucking panic attack. Hunter is in so much fucking immediate danger rn. There is no more fucking around in the shadows it is GO time. Maybe he hates Darius, but Darius is strong, he knows the emperor's coven and hunter, and most importantly he fucking owes him.

Jasper has MAGIC now. He has Hunter's staff! He shows up at Darius' door like GET UP SCRUBLORD YOURE GOING TO HELP ME FIND MY FUCKING SON RIGHT NOW

Ohhhh my god the drama. The two of them working together. Darius is overwhelmed with guilt and confusion. Jasper is angry and hates him. Darius keeps asking questions like "how are you alive" "why didn't you tell me you were alive" "how do you have a son" "do you like legit hate me" and jasper is just fucking ignoring him. But then!! Labyrinth runners! Darius hears over, the like-- like the fucking coven group chat or whatever, that Adrian graye has found the fucking golden guard and jasper's like AHHHHHHHHH and so they both rush over but... it all happened so fast! They're too late! But now they get the full details of the draining spell because hunter told the kids and oh my god.... oh my goodddd. Jasper is like. I have to get hunter as far away from here as humanly possible. And Darius is like you literally don't even know if that would work. And also what about everyone else??? But obviously a worked up jasper is like fuck everybody else!! Gasp. Shock. You're mad at me for bullying you're kid when you're willing to let every kids parents die?? And he's like. Gasp. How dare you

But Hunter is already gone... and jasper is ready to go look for him, but... oh no! Did you think you could beat up a coven head and not face retribution?! There is like a whole outfit of coven soldiers on the way. Like the ones with Adrian were not like combat guys. They were just here to hassle some school kids. Now the school kids have committed fucking treason. And if Darius fights then his cover will be blown! And maybe even Belos will realize he needs to look for moles higher up! If nothing jasper does works then that is the only backup plan to stop the spell and save Hunter along with everyone else!

There's only one choice. Jasper has to stay and fight off a whole army so the kids have time to escape, and Darius has to go and find hunter. And jasper is like you fucker. You go and remember how much you fucking owe me. You remember that. And then wham! Bam! Sick moves!

And we know that hunter really wants Darius's approval... he likes him a lot. At this point we kind of lose track of them for a second because Luz and king go do the Titan trapper stuff, and then they go to the knee to hide out, then they get captured and Darius and co saves them and then the next we see hunter he shows up to say Darius told him to protect Luz so... I guess he's been staying with him? It's a little unclear. But ALSO.... where were Gus and Willow and hunter hiding??? How did they run into Darius and the CATTs?

Maybe they ALSO needed a rescue mission... maybe while fleeing from the school they got captured by a unit too, and Darius swung in and rescued them and brought them to the safehouse BUT also he got a really serious injury like stabbed or something, he's not like dying yet but OWWWWW... and no one in their crew knows healing magic!!!! He gets patched up but.... and you know. He's fretting over hunter. He's been homeless for nine days. He's hungry. He's malnourished. He's upset. Time for Darius to go dad mode for the first time but ALSO hes injured and he gets to finally have a big "I am so sorry Hunter that I let myself drown in my grief and turn into a person I never wanted to be and I'm sorry you were on the receiving end of that, and you might never forgive me but I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe now" and it's all very FEELINGS!!!!!!

But where is jasperrrrr???? Poor motherfucker has lost his kid AGAIN... and the thing is that from the time eda and Luz get rescued, it's only 24 hours until the draining spell!! Jasper does not fucking have a lot of time! He searches and searches but THEN.... THE SPELL... AND HUNTER IS UP THERE.... oh maybe he rescues Alador after the kids leave and he tells him they went up to the coven heads and he gets there and Darius says they went to go save Luz... and that's when he finally pops in just in time to protect the kids from a big dramatic Belos attack. And then of course he loses an arm and nearly dies and spends a week in a fever coma lol

[factorialsotherfandoms]

blip bloop bitching below. keeping this out of the tags as I need to scream but don't want it to travel.

I hate so much that I genuinely dread days when Philza and Tubbo interact. Because they're friends and should be able to just hang and stuff! And it can be fun to watch! But it seems every time they even go near each other the Philza tag becomes full of crap, then people kicking back, and its /worst/ now Sunny is here (I love her, mostly, but it makes it so much worse). The post about Sunny being scared of Philza with the screenshots was at the top of the Philza Tag (by how I access them at least) for 3 days. It always defaults to top before I flip it to most recent. It wasn't tagged as discourse or neg or anything - it was just screenshots after all - but the bitching which came out of that was so much, and every time I saw them it bought the bitching to mind, and half of that wasn't tagged either (on the original posts, in the tags, where I like looking for fic and meta and fanart and check my top 4 tags each morning).

And, yeah, a 30-off year old streamer probably not even on tumblr doesn't need defending online. BUT the shit and the way those posts talk and the things they shit on him for... a) its very much cc!Phil not q!Phil no matter what people say, because he talks in the same way even on the fucking pumpkin carving stream and more importantly b) mirrors very real bullying, discrimination and hate I and a lot of other English people have experienced. (yes of course its worse if you're an ethnic minority or have a Scottish accent or any number of other things, but just because other people have it worse doesn't mean it isn't a genuine axis of discrimination).

And sometimes I need to fucking defend not him but myself, because I feel like I'm going mad.

You might not see it, you might not even know about the north-south divide and English class politics, but its embedded into near every fantasy movie you've watched, accent wise at least!

Just personal shit... I have a southern parent and a northern parent. I grew up in the south-east. As a kid I could switch accents at will. Using my mother's northern accent (slightly more natural to me, as she was home more often) I would get marked down in class for being aggressive and argumentative and other kids would think I was angry with them. My father genuinely suggested I switch which I spoke with, and it was effort but doable, and guess what? My marks went up and I was seen as friendlier than the other children. It still wasn't the accent for the region - where I grew up has a very distinct one even for the south - and yet I was treated better for it.

Which. Could have seriously messed up my future if my grades kept being marked down and I kept getting into trouble for behaviour over stuff in another accent nobody bat an eyelid to.

[I had a section here too about different treatment while getting bra fittings, but given it involved members of staff literally hurting me as a literal child only when speaking one of the two accents, I removed it. Minor hurt, but hurt.]

And that was just personal experience! Of being read as aggressive or scary or like I didn't care for sounding northern.

And of fucking course this is only ever about fucking Tubbo, the southern who logs in regularly, this shit always starts. The southerner, whose accent is on the respectable side of this not-quite-a-class-divide.

And you know how deeply routed the north-south divide is? Sociologists generally date it back to /1066/ and the north being massacred for causing trouble for the new king. Economically and in terms of reputation, the north has never actually recovered from that. Even when it was major industry, even when major ports, its /always/ been behind the south.

Not just in terms of money going around, but things like life expectancy and education expectations. Rich northerners still have a harder time than their southern peers.

(Honestly, Sunny having 'verbalised' being scared of him for his tone of voice and not other adults who treat them older than they are [because yk its impossible to tell with an egg model] also kinda rubs me the wrong way, because of that sort of treatment of me as a kid. If I was aware of more fear towards other adults she doesn't know as well it'd be easier. Yeah he's a bit intense, and he should maybe be more delicate with a kid, but heaven knows he's not the only character that is. Maybe as more people drift back we'll see it more, I don't know, the admin probably isn't English either, but dear god. The daughter of a southerner telling her daddy that the northerner is scary is such a fucking classist trope. And a really offensive one at that. And shit which actually happens irl, which sometimes leads to the police getting involved.)

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for wanting to punish those who got away with killing my parents?

When I (23M) was a boy, I lived next to some laboratories. However, after an experiment went horrifically wrong, my home was blown up and I lost my parents. I would later find out that, of the 3 researchers involved, the assistant died, one of them hid away to let himself obsess over what went wrong while the third managed to walk away with more money and political power than he knew what to do with.

I was adopted by a lovely lady whom I miss dearly since her death a few years ago. However, I am grateful to have access to her full fortune since it allows me to focus on achieving my goal. By which I mean, revenge.

I've worked hard over the past decade to put the pieces all in place. The underground replica city, giant machine of destruction and kidnapping of scientists might seem excessive to an outsider but trust me, they're all necessary. I've even tricked the researcher who was obsessed with his project into thinking he's the one calling the shots in our partnership.

The man who got money and power after murdering several people is our current prime minister. But just wait until he sees what I'm about to do, just wait until it's all rubble and flames in his name. He'll never wish he chose corruption then!

And yet... here I am, masquerading as some random kid's adult self to fool a university professor into believing my fake city is the future version of the one he knows. I don't know why I invited him. Maybe so he could talk me down? I'm not sure anymore. I just know that he saved my life once by being the voice of reason when everything else was chaos, there's a chance he can do it again. I can sense him closing in on me and the truth. It's only a matter of time. I may need to activate the final stage of my plan sooner rather than later in that case.

So am I the asshole for wanting a corrupt man to finally see some consequences for what he did 10 years ago? I believe all the people whose lives he ended or ruined deserve to see justice.

[spookyrobbins]

Do you think if Calzona had that second baby, they would run into the same problems as MerDer when they were fighting over whose career is more important and who can cancel surgeries and go take care of the kids instead?

probably yeah. especially bc with sofia it was a vastly different situation. for starters sofia was in the nicu for what a few months? and then they had mark coparenting so there was essentially a built in set of nights off and they could all work out their schedules so someone could always take sofia.

but a post s9 second baby would totally challenge them. they would have to divide up who’s taking the kids when and how they decide on surgeries. i’m sure they’d have some sort of nanny and/or babysitter but what do they do if they both get called in late at night? dropping one kid off with mer or whoever is one thing but i’d argue that becomes somewhat more difficult with two kids. especially when one is very little and mer also had a very little kid. there would have to be sacrifices made on some level.

it is interesting to take into account what was said about arizonas career during the custody battle - namely that her schedule is much more unpredictable than callie’s. maybe it’s a bit more predictable if she never switches to mfm which might not happen if she had a baby in s10. but i think callie would probably still have the more stable schedule between the two of them - a higher percentage of her surgeries are pre-planned, more preventative care than arizonas and i’d wager a guess that a higher percentage of callie’s patients are more stable than arizonas, who are probably more likely to need emergency surgery.

there’s also the question of straight up parenting styles that would probably come up with this. we know that callie grew up with two parents who worked and with money; so i think it’s a fair guess she probably had nannies. arizona ofc we know less about. her dad was obviously working full time - and possibly not at home for long stretches of time. we don’t necessarily know what babs did - could be a sahm, could’ve worked. we just don’t know beyond the assumption that babs was probably the primary parent and i’d be slightly surprised if arizona had a nanny. so there might be a level of disagreement between them about childcare. and they also probably have really different views on a parent being absent. for arizona, especially, i think it’d be a much more sensitive issue, even if she’s just missing a few days bc of a crazy schedule. whereas callie likely grew up with her parents going on business trips or what not for a few days so it felt more normalized compared to arizona who straight up just didn’t have a parent around at times.

i’m reticent to say either one would ever want to stay home full time. i think the max you’d ever see is a short period of time where one or both of them agrees to cut back on active surgery for maybe the kids first couple years. callie obviously has her research and could theoretically focus full time on that, or i know pivoting into sports medicine is a popular fandom option as well. arizona definitely doesn’t appear to be as involved in research as callie but that’s not to say it’s not an option for her either. maybe for arizona it might not be research but more teaching focused or just a matter of delegating more. i’m just not sure there would ever be a full time sahm between the two of them.

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Those answers were pretty good, I read an earlier post of yours saying they like the fantastic four and guardians of the galaxy (forgets whose was which) and now I got more :)

1: when finishing up a crew of bad guys how do they celebrate, high-fives, fist-bumps, fornite dances, maybe a secret handshake between the both of them?

2: what are their fears/insecurities?

3: what’s their favorite foods to eat?

4: besides for fighting crime do they use their powers for fun? I can totally see Chris using his dark powers to pull a bully’s pants down and giving him a SUPER wedgie.

5: do they use “yelling your attacks” like they do in anime? For example: Jake might say: “StarBolt Blast” when fighting a villain.

6: what other hobbies does the boys have?

7: does Chris do any sports?

(Looking through my posts and finding this one. Well, forgot that was there….Whoops, my bad lol. So that makes it four heroes outside of the DCU the Duo like: Invincible, Nova (for Chris), Mr Fantastic (for Jake) and Spidey)

But anyways, onto your questions my friend ;-)

1. Mainly a fist bump and a pair of straight and backward hi fives to each other.

2. Jake’s greatest insecurity, much similar to his father, is a fear of failure and inadequacy. He dreads a notion of being imperfect which can not only make his attempt of living up to the family legacy a disgrace he’ll never recover but more importantly, can cost someone their lives, whether it be innocent civilians or especially those within his social circles. He strides to make sure he continues what his Uncle Tim instills as a crime fighter, whether wearing the traditional colors or not or if even one’s ally isn’t a traditional Batman, similar to how a firefighter or a detective needs partner, Batman, or any superhero, needs a Robin, a partner, no matter what they think. Jake fears of not living up to it which as consequence would be losing all that he cares for, from his parents to his adoptive uncles and aunts, his beloved Big Sis all the way up to his best friend.

Speaking of best friend, Chris’ insecurities and fears are far more reaching and comped than Jake’s. The kid suffers from great internal anxiety and even spells of self hatred and doubt; any sort of mishap or mistake he makes both intentionally or especially even without better knowledge would guarantee disownment, punishment and abandonment from the family he’s calling his own, worst of all Chris having no other choice but to return to his ultra strict and ever so harsh birth father General Zod. He fears one or two ways of his powers or his own personality going so wrong and ruining so many lives he’s a part of that through his own action, he no longer has anywhere to call home, no one to call friends and loved ones, and it’ll be his fault, he’ll deserve such a fate.

This wasn’t helped at all by the time Zod and his armies did attempt a massive invasion of the Earth to conquer it, with Chris’ very presence in it as being the unintended key to unlocking the Phantom Zone, allowing Zod to escape in the first place. Even though the General and his armies were ultimately defeated and banished back, the cries of those suffering underneath crushed rubble, the doubts of those who witnessed all of the truth being revealed for who Chris really was, and all the tabloid reporters immediately coming up to Chris in the most accusatory manner possible of his unintentional involvement of those actions; all of that was too much for Chris to take, causing him to run away, flying all across the world and not revealing himself for days until he finally came to the Graysons’ apartment on a stormy night and even then stayed for a few more days until finally he allowed himself to see the Kents after all of it.

And yes during that stay at their place, Mari and Jake were right by Chris’ side to make him feel comfortable until he felt ready to see his parents and brothers again. Besides all of those things, Jake is spooked out by being up close to spiders while Chris can sweat very nervously when inside large crowds for an extended period of time

3. Jake unabashedly declares both his Father’s custom Mac and Cheese with Breadcrumbs recipe and his Mother’s Zorkaberry Tarts amongst his all time favorite foods without skipping any heartbeat. In turn, Chris for the life of him cannot skip either Beef Bourguignon or Cheese Pizza with Basil, Red Crushed Pepper and Oregano if he can help it. It’s not plausible for him.

4. While Chris has certainly have strong temptation for doing that to a bully or two at his school, it’s only done in the most rare of occasions when he knows for certain his parents would not get a notice from him his school or find out (even then, Clark finds out about it inevitably). Otherwise, Chris might utilize his shadow powers and or if he’s directly passing by, a tiny whiff of his super breath in helping get a cat down from a tree without anyone noticing.

As for Jake, he has one occasion or two used a tiny starbolt from his fingertip underneath a cafeteria table to blast some mash potato onto a seventh grade Bully’s shirt without anyone noticing if said bully says one or two things too far against either Jake himself or most likely whoever his target that day happens being. This’ll likely be more subtle than his sister who’s had a small history of directly going face to face with bullies with fury in her eyes.

5. Not likely unless it’s for very special occasions and when they do combined moves, for example during a big huge battle in Bludhaven against a legion of HIVE academy villains. In that one instance, Chris carried Jake with the latter’s legs on the formers shoulders, charging directly into the villains, doing a “Star Tower Turret”, the two blasting their heat vision and starbolts front, back, across all sides both on high and low levels all around them.

6. For Chris, he takes a liking to some drawing of custom superhero outfits, a little writing stories based on his favorite shows, reading his comics, and beating ever increasingly difficult levels on his video games

While Jake meanwhile favors watching archived videos of the adventures his parents have done throughout their respective careers, all scrolling online for reality show clips, mainly the ones about restaurants and bars that might have irresponsible chefs, nasty food, mishandled kitchens or most likely all of the above, practicing his acrobatics, and tending to his zorkaberry plants on his window porch. Similar to Chris, he can take time off also in playing video games and reading his own comics

7. Mainly two major ones, swimming and like Jake, basketball. Though he can also play both Football (both American and Soccer) and Baseball, mainly for the latter playing catch with Jon.

If there are any further suggestions or additions to these you’d like to add, please Reblog or reply my friend. It’ll be very helpful ;-)

@gothicghost2000

[sshbpodcast]

Star Trek Parents Just Don’t Understand (Part 1)

By Ames

Who’s got the bigger daddy issues: kids from Disney movies or kids from Star Trek? Many writers’ cheat code to give a main character depth of any kind starts with killing off one or two parents, or perhaps giving them terrible parents that will scar them for life. The futuristic world of Trek is no different, featuring guff with one’s parental unit in so many characters that it makes being raised by the Borg seem like a luxury!

That’s not to say we don’t get some good ones, or ones that, at bare minimum, try a little bit. Break out the greeting cards and flowers this week as A Star to Steer Her By spends some quality time with the folks of many characters across the franchise up through all the classic series. Check out all the family trees below and listen to us rattle off a bunch of honorable mentions on this week’s podcast episode (discussion at 54:08). Some of these apples fall pretty far from their terrible trees.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

He’s my number one dad!

I’ll just go category by category and start out with the best of the best. The positive influences in our characters’ lives often made them more well rounded people, and frankly it’s always good to see moms and dads putting their kids’ interests over their own. There are some great examples in Beverly Crusher who’s just a straight-up solid mom to Wesley throughout TNG, supporting him even when he’s messing things up, and in Worf’s adoptive parents Sergey and Helena Rozhenko who took in not one, but two Klingon children, and raised them in what turned out to be a very balanced way. And I can’t praise Ishka enough for bringing up two relatively progressive Ferengi boys in a society that doesn’t put much value in their females.

Let’s hear it for these single dads who gave their kids the choice to do what they wanted with their lives and threw themselves behind them 100%: Rom whose development throughout DS9 grew in tandem with that of his son Nog, and Data who let his daughter Lal choose her own body to express herself just as she wanted. And don’t forget Joe Sisko, a classic sort of father role who is caring and comforting, and even willing to trek across a desert in his old age for his kid.

But the easy pic for best parent in Trek is obvious, so I’ll not spare you the suspense. Benjamin Sisko, yet another single father (and a single Black father, at that) because writers LOVE killing spouses, has the tenderest, sweetest, most loving relationship with Jake that it’s almost nauseating but you adore every minute of it. And when Kasidy and he are going to have a baby and the Prophets come calling, the very reason why it is such a debilitating sacrifice for him to abide by their plan is because of how much he loves his family, but we’ll touch on that again in a bit…

—

Technically good: the best kind of good

Moving on to a group of parents who we may not understand: we see a lot of aliens with different cultural norms but who are great for their kids in their own ways, literally. Who comes to mind specifically for this category is Endar from the TNG episode “Suddenly Human,” a Talarian who is raising a human child orphaned from the war. In his own culture, this is perfectly normal even though to us it might seem barbaric, but it’s clear he really loves Jono, so who are we to judge? Q, for that matter, is the first parent in all of the Continuum, so it’s hard to judge his parenting style save to say that he’s going about it in that specifically Q way of his, usually involving some kind of elaborate test. Similarly, I think of some Cardassian dads like Gul Madred and Tekeny Ghemor who might seem like hard asses in a fascist regime to us, but who are decent and doting fathers to their daughters in that lizardy way of theirs.

Speaking of lizards! While we’re here, let’s throw in some love for the seriously unhumanlike parents we meet who do exactly what they need to do because it’s their biological nature. I’d toss Mother Horta on this kind of list, along with Spot and her kittens, George and Gracie and their whale calf, and even Janeway and Paris when they’re in salamander form. I hope their lizard babies are okay.

But the more I think of it, the more I actually think the Borg might be some of the best parents on the list, but only if you consider this argument from the perspective of their own culture. Think about it: all their kids get just the right time in the maturation chamber as they need, they have the whole hive mind to support them, they’re never lonely because everyone’s voices are in their heads. Sure, if you’re not already in the Collective, getting assimilated is not pleasant (wait for our final category for more of this!), but when you’re assimilated, you’re family.

—

Everyone makes huge, huge mistakes

Most parents, however, make mistakes. Lots of ‘em. Some are bigger and harder to forgive than others, but these are the kinds of things that are understandable because their hearts are in the right place, right? Like, how easy is it to forgive Miles and Keiko O’Brien for literally sending their feral daughter to live in the woods? They meant well and it worked out, after all. Or to forgive Amsha and Richard Bashir for genetically augmenting their struggling son when they knew that the illegality of their actions was teeming? Or to forgive Kira Meru for bedding with the enemy to ensure subsistence for her family? Okay, that one she really had no ability to consent in, but it still messed Nerys up for quite a while.

Other parents in this clump just don’t gel with their progenies because their personalities clash. Odo’s parental figure Mora Pol is a proponent of using the stick over the carrot, especially if it’s a stick with some kind of shocking device built in. Tom’s got a big chip on his shoulder from his treatment growing up under Admiral Owen Paris, who is made out to be the kind of dad who just expects so much of his son that there’s no way anyone could possibly live up to it. And speaking of great expectations, Noonian Soong literally made his kids to be better than the sum of their parts and seemed way too hyperfixated on his own legacy to care about their individual needs. It doesn’t help matters that he built them to look just like him.

But let’s dig into our feature character in this category, Lwaxana Troi. She might be a fashion and feminist icon, but her relationship with Deanna is strained at best and insufferable at worst. For most of The Next Generation, she’s portrayed as just a busybody mom who butts into her daughter’s life all the time, constantly meddling and focused only on how it reflects on HER that her daughter not only left Betazed for Starfleet, but is still unmarried. Deanna chose her own life and Lwaxana just doesn’t get it. Luckily, we later get episodes like our Tops pick “Half a Life” and “Dark Page” that shine new light on their relationship and bring them closer together, but there are still many fans out there who detest the character because of these first impressions she made as a parent.

—

Where can I stow all this baggage?

So many of the main crew members have parents or ARE parents in this lowly category that it was probably the toughest one to make the cull for. These parents are the reasons so many characters are left with a foundation of mommy and/or daddy baggage that follows them around wherever they go. Look at Kyle Riker, a single father who Will has nothing but apprehension for, especially for cheating him at anbo-jyutsu all his life. Then there’s Miral Torres for whom her daughter B’Elanna was never Klingon enough, giving her a sense of racial dysphoria that formed the base of her character; and on the other hand John Torres for whom B’Elanna was TOO Klingon and he freakin’ left, giving her abandonment issues on top of that! Ezri’s mom Yanas Tigan falls into this category as well for how little she supported her daughter during her transition to joined Trill and also, ya know, for all the general crimes and shit. And let’s round this out with Chakotay’s dad Kolopak, who just didn’t listen to his son’s desire to not follow in his footsteps, and died never having made up – though I guess they also talk after death now sometimes, so who the hell knows with them?

The characters with the biggest chips on their shoulders can also have just plain absent parents, who messed up their upbringing by just never being there. I can give James Kirk a little bit of a pass since Carol Marcus asked him to not be in their son’s David’s life (which is a little iffy on its own, Carol), but how much anger David harbors for him just proves this was a bad move. A super tenuous relationship is also on full display across several series between Spock and Sarek because daddy Vulcan judges Spock for being half-human when he’s the one who bred with a human in the first place! We’ll see more of Sarek next week when we see how good he does in nu Trek too.

Of course, the poster boy for shittiest parent in Trek tends to be Worf, and though that’s partly a joke among fans, there’re also some sound reasons. K’Ehleyr was rocking it as a single badass mom when certain Duras things happened and put Worf into the role of deadbeat who pawns his offspring off on his own parents (already mentioned above!) when he can’t handle it. Which is understandable; he didn’t sign on for this, but every interaction between father and son is begrudging, Worf does nothing but try to jam Alexander into a Klingon mold that he so clearly doesn’t fit, and he never listens to what the kid wants or needs. It’s no wonder Alex is so bitter towards him when he returns in Deep Space Nine!

—

Creatures who eat their babies

Terrible, terrible parents in Trek are easier to spot because they’re ones who really just don’t care if their kid gets harmed, killed, assimilated by Borg, etc. Or even try to do it themselves! A pretty big example of this is Gul Dukat who fully intended to murder his bastard daughter Ziyal to cover his lizard ass. And then he does it again in “Covenant” when he has another half-Bajoran kid! How many more of these Dukat babies are there? More bad Cardassian parenting comes from Enabran Tain who nearly gets Garak killed so many times it’s no wonder the poor guy has so much trauma. And who can forget Eleen from the TOS episode “Friday’s Child” who was straight up going to kill her newborn once she got it out of her belly until McCoy talked/slapped her out of it?

Not much better were parents who are just cool with sacrificing their children for whatever reason. We see this in the TOS episode “The Mark of Gideon” when Hodin volunteers his daughter Odona to contract Kirk’s Vegan choriomeningitis to thin the herd of her people, or on the podcast this week where we featured “Child’s Play,” in which we learn Icheb’s parents Leucon and Yifay whelped him specifically to get him assimilated and infect the Borg with a virus. In that same vein, Magnus and Erin Hansen were negligent and downright careless enough to bring their tiny daughter with them on a Borg observation survey, getting all their asses assimilated.

But you know what? I’m gonna give the worst of the worst to the Prophets, specifically that absolute weirdo who possessed Sarah Sisko just to get impregnated and create our boy Space Jesus, I mean Benjamin, knowing full well it would be torturous to him throughout his life until he ultimately threw himself into the fire caves for whatever weird wormhole alien, nonlinear shenanigans they were pulling. Was it all just Sarah knowing it was fate? Screw that. You’re the worst, Prophets, and you should be ashamed of yourselves in whatever nonlinear way works best.

—

Come back for seconds next week when we see if parents in newer Trek movies and series are any better than their predecessors. Also, come back for more Voyager in our full series rewatch over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also give us your alien parenting tips over on Facebook and Twitter. And parents, heed this lesson: keep your children away from the Borg. You know, unless it’s futile.

[laufire]

Bruce as a father across the multiverse 🔥

I'm going to put aside Bruce's that don't get children (which are. most of the ones coming to mind rn ngl xD), even if I think I could make a compelling argument for a few of those being primed to be better parents than comics!Bruce -like gotham!Bruce or nolanverse!Bruce lol.

honestly, other than those from animated versions, like yj!Bruce or gotham knights(cw)!Bruce (we don't see him that much because the show is NOT a batman show, but both him and the kids around seem more well-adjusted xD), or dcau!Bruce which I haven't seen in a long time but was overall alright, from what I remember... my mind is focused on the different versions of Bruce we see in the main continuity. aka the one whose fatherhood we see been explored.

first, there's pre-crisis/earth-one!Bruce. I'm less familiar with Bruce, especially with that particular Bruce-Dick dynamic (though what I've seen is complex and less defined than father-and-son. they call each other partners, brothers, and yes, they have a discussion about the more parental aspects of their relationship while Bruce is in a custody battle with earth-one!Jason). but I have read everything there is to this version of Jason and Bruce and it's... well, the most properly fatherly we ever see Bruce, probably? it's sweet. it's hardly perfect or straightforward (this Jason already served as a counterpoint to Bruce, in a much calmer way), and it could be easy to point out questionable aspects, I'm sure -but maybe because I inevitably compare it to the other versions, he comes out shining xD. he's incredibly flaky with women though, I don't know why they put up with him lol.

then there's post-crisis/new earth!Bruce. now this is the bitch I'm most familiar with xDD. and honestly, yeah, I would call him a shitty father figure. increasingly worsening with time, with things taking a nosedive after Jason's death, but he also pulled Some Shit with Dick or Jason (although with the later he apologised and recognised his mistakes once!!! woah).

what I will say for new earth!Bruce is that the concept of BatfamilyTM, while present, was much less conventional than it is right now. while I wouldn't defend any of the shit he pulled, I can acknowledge it was written with more attention to characterization, to the dynamics involved, and in a less... simplified and stereotypical way, iykwim? the ways new earth!Bruce screws up as a father/authority figure feel like they are meant to inform the character, at least most of the time. I feel like I'm watching a deeply troubled man stuck in his childhood trauma who arguably should never have taken a caretaker role over fellow troubled kids, who acts in controlling and damaging ways because of his own issues and might need to hit rock bottom before he could even think to really do better. but there's a sense that all this is in sync with the story, with the path it and his character follows, iykwim.

then there's post-reboot/prime earth!Bruce. current Bruce. mister "I'll beat Dick into submission to accept an incredibly dangerous job after he's already going through the worst time of his life". mister "I'll beat up Jason so badly he won't be able to hold a gun without his hand trembling a month later". mister "I'll brainwash my son and leave him defenseless because he once made choices I disagreed with and he might do them again". mister "I'll never face any consequences for this for longer than 5 pages, if that, and nothing will change no matter what."

the thing about this one is that he suffers the flaws inherent to prime earth: objectively worse writing that veers towards conventionality (if you try to push a more conventional father-kids view of the Batfamily, Bruce's abusive actions read much, much worse), and chronic inhability to commit to anything which leaves writers scrambling to return to a more comfortable status quo, while recycling storylines in a way that makes this come accross as a consistent, undeniable pattern. that, plus the framing of these actions (gotham war pending, but I'm not getting my hopes up) as Bruce-the-stern-Patriarch who must control these unruly kids is. hmmmmmmmm.

I'm not saying that new earth!Bruce didn't suffer some of that but... it does feel different to me because the kid and not so kid bats got to grow and evolve, if that makes sense? and to do it past Bruce. while in prime earth, everything feels in a state of arrested development. stagnant. and thus, unchangeable, unmoving. not all the "movement" in new earth was good or forward but it's a whole other beast, basically. and things now feel like they're more tied to Bruce, like a lot if not all the other bonds go *through him*? maybe I'm being ungenerous: I haven't read a lot of prime earth (and I'm not gonna xD), but that's the impression I'm left with after what I have read.

and all of those factors contribute to making current!Bruce such a despicable figure to me. if we crossed paths one of us would walk away a few appendages down xDD

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It