#anyway. i hope this doesn’t appear infantilising

[ashcreepcluster]

I just wanna harp on about my hc’s for Ast*rion fora minute teehee (censoring the name bc I do not want to be associated w fans of the character this post is for me and my five followers ONLY)

So she was born to an upper class family (duh) to a highly masculine home (masculine for an elves at any rate) She was kind of the pale faced middle child, constantly shown up by two overachieving brothers whom she was always compared against- her father would needle her over this all the time, telling her what she was doing wasn’t good enough, that she was a disappointment etc. However her mother adored and doted on her- Ast*rion always got the sense that her mother wasn’t liked or respected in the household and as such, her mother kind of took it upon herself to groom Ast*rion into being proof that the both of them were capable of something. So she tried to get Ast*rion into law school, which she failed because her entire childhood was either being spoiled rotten by her mother or being berated to by her father, to which her typical reaction would be to simply dig her heels in (like trying to get a husky to go in a direction the dog doesn’t want to. They just plant their feet and won’t move) so her mother paid for her entry into law school instead. All throughout her studies, Ast*rion spent her parents money to go to high class, overpriced wine bars in the upper city to complain about her family to whomever would listen. I think she would’ve had one or two boyfriends but she was so self absorbed that they barely registered to her, other than things to complain at. The relationships never lasted long. Her mother absolutely paid for her to pass the bar (I don’t think Ast*rion’s stupid, I do think she’s lazy and selfish and wouldn’t’ve tried at all)

As for transitioning, I think because she’s from such a high control masculine environment where she’s never had a choice for herself before, where being a woman is silently looked down upon, I think she would have the desire to transition but would have no idea what to do with it- too afraid to make this huge change in her life but at the same time, it’s too much of an essential thing to deny. So I think it would have been this hidden thing that would’ve come out one day and she would have pursued transition but it would take a very long time. It’s only once she’s out from under C*zador’s control that she’ll finally allow such a precious part her to be acknowledged once again. I think for a very long time, it was her one last hold-out, a bastion or something to be cherished that was hidden, hers and this one last mote of hope that one day she could have a future that was all hers.

[dairy-farmer]

I wrote this thing out and I liked it and realised it was pretty out of character and needed to be cut. So I thought I'd give it to you while I finish figuring out what I want to do with the scene

(Scene notes- as a courtesy, Bruce told Lois when she first got there that most of the Manor has cameras and mics everywhere in the public living spaces, plus Bruce and Tim’s private rooms. Lois, the next day after the older kids are at preschool and the younger ones are down for a nap with Grandpa Alfie, asks Tim if they can talk privately outside.)

They sit in the warm sun with the cool green grass beneath them pleasantly cool, silent at first. Roses and other flowers Lois couldn’t identify, scent the air, as they bob gently in the breeze. It’d be pleasant, if not for the fact that the conversation they are about to have will likely either be a tragic story of abuse and isolation, or one of denial by the victim brainwashed by their abuser.Of course, perhaps Lois is wrong, and it is none of these things.

She hopes it is the latter. But she is a Pulitzer award winning journalist, and she is rarely wrong when it comes to a story.

“Please, call me Lois, Tim. After all, it’s just the two of us now.” She offers, a warm smile on her face, making a conscious effort to keep her body language open and friendly the same way she does when talking with young children. 

“I’d rather you weren’t so familiar with me.” Tim replies, his voice sounding so young and sweet it’s a surprising juxtaposition to his words and disinterested expression. She falters. 

“Pardon?” Lois keeps her voice just as bright and warm as before, unwilling to be deterred.

“Ms. Lane,” Tim said in that soft voice of his, the slight furrow of his brow and the downturn of his lips the only true indicator of his mood, “you libeled my husband quite publicly, several times, in a nationally published paper. Surely you don’t think I took kindly to that?” And that makes Lois pause, because while yes, she did write many unflattering things about Bruce Wayne, none were untrue as far as she was aware. She had hoped Tim, despite his youth, could appreciate someone advocating on his behalf, even at the expense of his asshole husband. Besides, Lois Lane had taken care to be gentle in the words she had used to talk about Tim, particularly when compared to certain Gotham journalists who had written comparable stories.  

“Look, it’s just the two of us here, and I won’t repeat anything you say without your permission. If you’ve read my articles, can you truly not admit, off the record, I didn’t make a single good point?” She has to force herself to maintain her welcoming tone and stance, but she wonders if Tim sees through her anyways (not that she’s being dishonest, exactly).Tim gives her the full weight of his consideration for the first time since they met yesterday, and the weight of it surprises her. His soft, round face, with its pale skin and pink lips gives him a youthful appearance. His figure, with breasts and hips made full and round by all the pregnancies that his petite body has been forced through, matches it well. All of these combine to create a person who is pretty in the way young girls often are but otherwise unassuming, yet whose speech and manner remind her, in a way she can’t quite explain, of Batman, or maybe Bruce when he isn’t performing. It makes her uneasy. 

“I’m sure you won’t agree, but I find it quite ironic that as a child I was treated like an adult, but the older I grow, the more I am infantilised by strangers.” Lois jolts a little at that, offended, but doesn’t say anything, not wanting to discourage Tim from speaking. “ I was a lonely child. Don’t misunderstand me, I know I was lucky to never worry where my next meal was coming from, or having a safe place to sleep, but looking back, I was merely existing. In boarding schools it was easy to blend into the background, and during the summers after I turned seven, I was allowed to take care of myself.

“My parents aren't bad people. I suspect they might have even loved me, although I knew they didn’t like me. When I was twelve, until I was fourteen, they allowed me to attend a day school, giving me even more free rein. I put myself to bed, attended to my own grades, put bandages on my own scraped knees, and made my own clumsy dinners. But then my parents divorced, and parents were suddenly reminded they did in fact have a child. Jack got primary custody because Janet didn’t want it, and he had always liked the idea of having a son. Not that I was one, of course, but Jack certainly didn’t know that. 

“So for the first time in my memory, I lived with an adult full time. He didn’t know what to do with me, didn’t like the fact I’d become someone he didn’t know while he and Janet were gone on their travels. I was still taking care of myself, I just had to manage Jack as well as his expectations too. Those were the worst two years of my life. At 16 I became emancipated, because I wanted to ensure I could escape, if things got worse. Which, of course they did when Jack started explaining what classes I would be taking and the major I would pursue, I finally left. I know I sound like a brat, leaving for having my college paid for me, but I couldn’t do it. 

“I applied for WE because it’s one of the most friendly and welcoming workplaces in America. I don’t think anyone ever gave me grief about my gender presentation while working there, or demanded an explanation of my chosen pronouns, and it was a liberating experience.” Tim’s face has slowly been warming up the more he talks about WE, but his few tells are small and he holds his cards close to his heart, something that ages Tim a little in her eyes. 

“I know the stories that have been created about me and my husband, including yours, but I don’t think any of them understand us. I don’t really want them too, either. But, Ms. Lane, I think you are a clever and kind woman, and if you could ever treat me as an equal instead of victim to protect, I would like for us to be, if not friends, then friendly.” Tim’s small mouth opens in a smile with too many teeth. Lois meets Tim’s pretty doe eyes, and reconsiders.

They say like that, in the warm summer garden, where the flowers waved and fluttered to the butterflies and bumbles while squirrels ran to and fro. 

even if you're cutting this i love the scenary of it!! vivid descriptions of the scenery and garden they're in!! it really established them being in a place of serenity which contrasts so sharply with their discussion. you can see how lois doesn't really know what to make of tim and when he finally starts to speak, his tone of dislike with her takes her aback even though it's been established she's written about his family before, as well as his husband in a not very positive light. she, like many others, seems to really register only bruce in the dynamic even though she has a strong interest and belief that tim has been manipulated. one line that sticks out to me and that i really enjoy is this one by tim "I find it quite ironic that as a child I was treated like an adult, but the older I grow, the more I am infantilised by strangers.”

i don't know if you're planning to leave that out but it is such a good line that really must encompass how tim might feel about this perception the media and everyone who isn't family might have about him! but also lois when she meets tim, he recognizing there's something more to him, noting how in someway he reminds her of batman. which !!!!!! them being reflections of each other!!!!!!!! them having people, once they get closer start to see that !!!!!!!!! this really was a joy to read even though you're not going through with it!! thank you so much!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Pretty decent episode, all things considered. Certainly an improvement on last week - at least this week was back to focusing on characters and not just on sensationalist nonsense.

I’m going to start by discussing the return of the king, and by the king I mean Michael Spence, and yes I am going to keep making this joke for as long as possible. My biggest complaint about this episode, quite frankly, was the lack of Michael. Especially since presumably we’re not gonna see him again (though I hope for one more appearance in the final episode)?

Having said that, Michael is one of those characters who just defines Holby, so seeing him at all was a pleasure. Plus, it was nice to have an update on how he’s been doing - pretty well for himself, clearly. He’s a professor now! Good for him. Just make sure Henrik doesn’t find out. He’d try to use Michael as a rebound, lmao. (Henrik has a thing for professors. And by “a thing”, I just mean he was canonically in love with Gaskell, flirted with David Hopkins (who was also a professor) a little bit, and there’s one early episode where there’s this professor lady who implies she and Henrik got up to something mischevious at a conference in 2008 - although admittedly it could’ve been a crazy night out or something just as much as a one-night stand. But all of that just isn’t as catchy as “Henrik has a thing for professors”.)

Also, lol @ Michael basically trying to get all the Holby staff over to Shoreham Cross. Can you blame him? If I were him, and I liked all these people I’d known, but all those people worked at a hospital that is quite frankly incredibly dangerous to work at and has had multiple incidents regarding serial killers, I’d try to get them to come over and work with me too.

Also also, he looked really hot. What a silver fox indeed.

Anyway, now I’m done talking about my darling Michael Spence who deserved more screentime because I have literally wanted him back for YEARS, onto the Henruss stuff.

Guy Henry was doing his best ‘kicked puppy’ face tonight, he really was. You just wanted to reach through the screen and hug poor little Henrik. Man, I don’t want to infantilise an autistic character but tonight made it REALLY HARD. So I’ll use my “I’m autistic too” pass to get away with saying “omg Henrik my poor precious babie I want to cuddle you”. XD

Speaking of Henrik’s autism, oh my GOD that scene where he was trying to apologise to Russ. Most autistic thing I’ve seen in my LIFE. He literally walks right out there, bends down by the car and practically shouts “Just wondered if we could have a little talk!”. That scene had me laughing my fucking ass off. ABSOLUTELY something I would do. In fact, I probably HAVE done pretty much exactly that and just forgotten about it.

I would like to politely ask Russ to chill. Or politely ask Henrik to tell Russ that Billie tricked him into not being able to tell him because of patient confidentiality. Or politely ask Billie to tell Russ the same thing. Also, Russ, you’re a soap character. In soapland, pregnancies are practically invisible until the baby’s already popped out. IRL you’d be a pretty terrible dad for not noticing, but in soapland it’s no big deal. XD

Although having said that, Billie still deserves the award for Best At Hiding Pregnancies out of every soap character. Not even Fenisha Khatri or Eva on Corrie whose last name I don’t remember made it all the way into labour before the people around them found out they were pregnant.

And tonight had me all the more convinced that Billie is going to give Denver up for adoption and Amelia and Eli will adopt him. I know Amelia was saying that she’d decided against having a child after all, but I expect a last-minute U-turn from her.

Delainey Hayles absolutely acted her socks off as Billie tonight. She was just great. I loved the scenes with Billie and Max - the way Billie looks up to her is just lovely.

On a more generally Henrik front, the scenes with him confronting Madge in his office just reminded me why I am so tired of Henrik being CEO. There’s really nothing new to do with it. And it canonically makes him miserable. He’s so much happier when he’s just a doctor. However, on the bright side, seeing Henrik sit on his desk again for a bit was fun. I always like when Henrik just takes “queer people can’t sit in chairs properly” and “autistic people can’t sit in chairs properly” to a new level by abandoning chairs entirely. It’s funny.

Elsewhere, Donna seems so happy and I LOVE that for her. Seriously. I do. She deserves all the best. Maybe she’ll even find a nice boyfriend or girlfriend at Shoreham Cross.

I quite liked the scenes with Dom and Sacha. They were very sweet.

And we finally get answers as to what’s going on with Madge. Presumably her husband’s weird behaviour, then, is because he’s trying to cover up for the daughter abusing her? This is a really interesting storyline idea actually. Too bad they’ve only introduced it right in the last 5 episodes! Sigh.

Also, I adore Kylie. She may have got the wrong idea but she was really trying her best and she really wants to help. Beautiful cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure.

Now. We’ve had Michael Spence back. Can we get Malick back too, please, Holby? He’s my other most desired return - I REALLY want to see him react to Henrik having a boyfriend.

[themyskira]

Based on that WW #750 (which sounds like I need to buy mostly for the good parts), I take it you don't like 5G's idea of having Diana be the DCU's first superhero. At least, I think you do? How do you feel about that and the whole 5G thing as a whole? Just curious.

I have less than zero interest in 5G because I haven’t read a single thing about it that suggests it’s any different than the New 52, or Rebirth, or any other Capital-C-Crisis over the past fifteen years.

Dan Didio and his cohort of graduated comics fanbros have this utterly boring preoccupation with creating a Grand Unified History of the DC Universe that takes all the messy, sprawling, sometimes contradictory stories and characters across the last eighty-odd years of comics and organises them all in neat little lines and boxes.

It’s an obsession they’ve argued is about accessibility for new readers -- and both n52 and Rebirth did offer a superficial degree of accessibility by creating clear jumping-on points with fresh story arcs in new #1 issues -- but in practice it looks a lot like Dan and his bros reconfiguring the universe around what they think matters (while erasing or simply ignoring anything they think doesn’t).

It’s the reason the New 52 retained all four male Robins and their key character arcs while erasing two Batgirls and infantilising the remaining one.  At the end of the day, Dan Didio, Jim Lee and their pals made the decision that every male member of the core Batfamily (along with their somewhat complex histories of adoptions and assassin babies, deaths and resurrections, and growth into their own iconic vigilante identities) was Important -- and that the three Batgirls and their comparable growth arcs were not.

The past couple of reboots have been riddled with these kind of value judgements, privileging what Dan and the boys see as worthwhile (or what they see as appealing to their narrow target audience of white, heterosexual, cisgender 18-35 year-old men) while sneering at everyone else. They’ve also been plagued by poor planning, poor communication and poor follow-through: in both the New 52 and Rebirth, writers would regularly contradict or confuse the new canon simply because it wasn’t clear to anyone on the books what was and wasn’t in continuity.

So when I yet again hear the words “new timeline” and “Dan Didio” in the same sentence, I don’t care how awesome 5G is as a concept on paper, I don’t trust that it’s going to be implemented with any particular care or aptitude.

And, well. This is just a personal view, but I don’t find it a particularly interesting concept. I don’t read comics for overarching metaplots and crossover events. Nothing turns me off a book faster. I follow characters and I’m drawn to stories that build on a hero’s personal arc, their relationships, their world. It doesn’t particularly worry me exactly how an individual book or arc slots in with the broader timeline of the universe. Shared comic book universes have always been tangled, convoluted places and I’m cool with a bit of handwaving; like a lot of comics fans, I’m long accustomed to flat-out ignoring the bits of canon I don’t like (it’s so sad that Barbara Gordon hasn't appeared in a single DC comic since 2011, don’t you think?).

I much prefer a big wide sandbox, with all its oddities and contradictions and forgotten treasures for writers to draw upon to build interesting stories, over a prescriptive crossover event that derails stories and character arcs in favour of a meta story I’m never going to read anyway.

As for making Wondy the first superhero, I’m... ambivalent. The idea of Diana being an early source of hope who saw the potential in all humanity and inspired others to stand up is lovely, but the more I reflect on it the less comfortable I am with re-anchoring her origins in WWII-era America and the patriotic narratives that are likely to come with it.

It’s of course possible that a writer might use this opportunity to thoughtfully interrogate how the Wonder Woman we know would navigate and push back against the violent bigotry of 1940s America -- but we’re more likely to see a retread of the original propagandistic Golden Age narrative of a heroine who helps the virtuous Americans topple the evil Axis powers, both because of a likely reluctance on DC’s part to get too ~political~ (you know, by acknowledging America’s racist history exists) and because the DCU’s history is intended to follow a similar path to our own world’s (which means Wonder Woman can’t be allowed to change society in any noticeable way aside from ~inspiring~ other heroes... and that immediately creates a rather depressing vision of the eighty years she’s spent in Man’s World).

And that’s the real problem: they’re moving her origin story back to the forties not because they have anything new to say or any particular story they want to explore with the character in that era (like, for instance, Superman Smashes the Klan is doing brilliantly at the moment), but because the five-generation scheme they’re going for requires that Diana (as a designated first-generation hero) appear in the forties. Because Dan and the bros have a Vision and their Grand Unified History of the DCU takes precedence over piffling things like good storytelling and rich characters.

oh and the other problem I have with 5G is the dumbass name because it just puts me in mind of those fucking Telstra ads.

[elizabethrobertajones]

i love jack a lot but i don't get everyone's excitement about dean eventually adopting him. like why would you want to force him into another parental role with a kid with unstable powers JUST when he's escaping his role with sam? i'm not accusing you or anything i'm just really really frustrated at fandom's mentality

Yeah, there’s some good posts around discussing the various metaphorical and direct representations of the bad family dynamics going on here. I think it’s possible to enjoy and dislike the same thing from different angles. I LOVE Jack choosing Cas as his father and setting his personal compass by Cas. It’s perfect. But for Cas’s sake I’m genuinely skeeved out by it because of the way Jack(’s powers) latched onto him from the womb and that it is basically what I figured all along - that Jack himself is an innocent sweetie pie because he has a soul and he is therefore gifted free will and a blank slate to be what he wants and is at the very least not inherently evil… 

But his powers still did something because of his increased awareness and powers in the womb that I don’t like, which is… convincing… Cas to be his guardian. Cas being forced into the dynamic is one of the metaphorical parallels to the brothers’ issues which I’ve enjoyed the meta about, because of course Cas can still love Jack and all and have meant it because I don’t think he wasn’t acting from the heart in 12x23 because have you met Cas, that was a classic example of his heart on display. And I’m actually hoping they do have a sweet dynamic when Cas gets back. But I still don’t like HOW it happened, in the exact same way I really dig sweet moments between Sam and Dean which don’t have the complicated baggage, but I can still be uncomfortable about romanticising other parts of their relationship, and critical of how Dean was forced to parent Sam… 

So yeah. Anyway, I think the thing with Dean and Jack is that it’s the goal - Sam already likes Jack and wants to give him a chance. Cas has his connection to him already and it’s unlikely he’ll hate Jack on his return :P Dean is not wrong to be upset and critical based on the information he has like @k-vichan‘s post I just recently reblogged was explaining (Sam hasn’t even told him on camera that Jack said that Cas is his father which means until we get past the point of disbelief that he hasn’t said it off-camera that’s still something we might find out later from Dean’s POV to affect how he feels about him. Although I’m usually careful not to get over-attached to what hasn’t been said on camera in case the writers start assuming it’s obvious they shared it and leave an emotional gap… But this is such a big thing it might HAVE to be said on screen or else be a gap.)

Like… Obviously the emotional hook for “coming to like Jack” is something that falls on Dean to have while the others are already seeming to be clear on it. He’s the obstacle - the thing standing between Jack and a happy families thing (so it might be a long haul or Dean is just starting to warm up when things go bad either with Cas’s return or something that happens with Jack for what will be a frankly bizarre season if they don’t tease him ~going dark~ to test him at some point). It’s like a will they won’t they on Dean liking Jack :P 

And I think that in this case it’s not forcing anything on Dean when he comes to NATURALLY adopt random youngins and other hapless friends (like Garth, tbh :P) but that he has to want to do it and it is something he does instinctively because he’s a nurturer and has a caring soul. Maybe because of the Sam stuff but it’s not weird when he does it to, like, Krissy or something. It’s one of his softer traits but in this case it has mytharc relevance, since Jack is, WE can tell, really sweet, but Dean is in no position to see him for what he is, which may compromise them looking after him, and even if Jack is sweet and squishy right now, he has cosmic powers and intentionally or not he’s going to be dangerous on a huge level even if it’s just for drawing attention. I think Dean coming to like him will play a big part in reconciling this whole situation just because he’s the one who instinctively doesn’t like Jack already. And that’s something where he’s messed up with grief and hasn’t seen anything to convince him Jack isn’t a problem, so it’s set up to be a bigger struggle for him.

And that probably also plays into Dean as the emotional centre of the show - that Sam is usually dealing with the plot stuff head on, while Dean is the filter we struggle with it through. I think Dean not trusting Jack is another way of drawing out uncertainty and tension about Jack in the narrative. Is Sam wrong to trust him? Is there still something hinky between Jack and Cas? Will Jack turn bad? Even if it’s seeming quite clear that Jack is not as bad as Dean thinks by far, and Sam’s made the right call here, to go with his confidence in leadership and standing up for himself arc, playing the reconciliation to Jack’s presence in their lives through Dean is giving us (or, well, the surface level read of the show, which I pay as much attention to as I can out of curiosity as a writer about stringing appearances and cheap drama out of more complex stories and I watch the episodes from the POV of “what is the show trying to tell us” before “what can I read into this”) a more drawn out exploration of who and what Jack is and the conclusion on what his character can be. 

And I think that means Dean will be challenging Jack too, and always probably be more on the side of checking if he really is what he seems or second-guessing his actions etc. It will give Jack something to grow and fight against, especially since people HATE letting Dean down and Dean is the moral centre of the show when it comes to love, humanity, what is the right thing to do, the free will choice, just generally a beacon of these themes. If Jack has to win Dean’s approval, it’s going to be a complex and satisfying story and a good way of proving we can definitively trust him. Not because Sam makes bad choices or because Jack doesn’t already seem like a good guy, but just because Dean has Standards which are so high you can define and navigate the story by them. Like Cas rebelling in 4x22. Or on the flip side, 6x20.

This is all kinda wishy washy stuff for later in the season that what we already have, though, and I don’t know how thoroughly others have thought it through or if I am missing some really obvious lines of thought here myself, but I don’t think the instinctive reaction that people are wishing Dean adopts Jack is all just forcing a new child on him, or that people think Dean shouldn’t come to that choice himself, and approve of Jack for real reasons. One of the short posts out there about it that I like is a line of spec that Dean will start to like Jack after he does a Benny - does something to save or help Cas that Dean can’t deny Jack is good any more after seeing. That’s not just wishing another child to look after on Dean, that’s a complicated series of Dean recognising Jack’s potential to be good and understanding him better or now having a motivation to reach out to him. 

And I do personally find it kind of creepy to be super gung ho about Jack as any of their children - Cas for the reasons I already said although I like it for Jack and would be open to Cas being cool with it :P But Sam and Dean as well because I think there’s a lot of point scoring going on with who gets to parent Jack like it’s a token or trophy for them, unlocking a whole bunch of parent headcanons and also, and I know it’s weird to say about a 1 day old baby, infantilising Jack. I think he’s already starting to get an idea of the more complex stuff and a lot of his literal born yesterday mannerisms will disappear as he gets older, since he has an adult intellect to deal with the world, so I’m very curious about his character growth. 

I think it’s just a fandom thing to be eager for the main characters you care about to have fun relationships and the idea of just giving them a kid can be appealing to some people, but it kinda weirds me out. I saw a gifset of the father reveal to Sam captioned with “Sam realises he’s an uncle” and I like that a lot more because it emphasises his brother relationship to Cas, and puts Jack in that context to him. I think since Jack said Cas is his father, “parenting” just means “we are responsible for guiding this young soul” not “I will be his father” and Sam and Dean are basically his uncles, not surrogate fathers, and I’m pretty much just gonna treat it that way, personally, since it’s less skeevy to me. That’s a YMMV thing, though, so I’m not saying you can’t enjoy the dad TFW stuff, I just don’t wanna :P 

(The Claire stuff was different since they didn’t have a whole bunch of responsibility over her and the episodes she was in never made it weird, and it was a side storyline… With this it’s all such high tension it sort of feels to me like I need to draw much stronger lines, especially since with all the fatherhood parallels some/all of TFW are going to be examined through being John at some point or another… There is a LOT more going on with Jack that makes it complicated and fraught :P)

So… uh… tl;dr… I have no idea if I’m even answering your original thought any more :P Idk about the wider fandom of crack posts and cracky art, but I think the meta folks I follow are not being too weird about it or will at least entertain all the posts being critical or introspective about these dynamics and I think some crack posts are just made in the spirit of fun, though it doesn’t help NOT give the impression everyone’s gaga for dad TFW and not being very considerate of the deep dark meta stuff and character angst going on… :P