#anyways i love seeing other characters wear the cowl because it’s interesting to me how they present themselves as the bat while trying to

[lemonlushff-iy]

Do you want to play a game?

You do? Good.

You know how these games work if you’ve ever seen one of Clearwillow’s...but game rules are HERE since it’s slightly different! I hope this is fun for people...that was my goal! And I hope you catch the “Easter Eggs” in it. I’m curious how many people will find them all. 

I’ll post everything once it’s done on FFN and AO3, and you can catch what I’m doing for @clearwillow‘s game early on my Patreon HERE! (It might be more smut...It might be fluff. WHO KNOWS! It will be OLR related...and it will go up as soon as it’s finished!)

Special thanks to @underwater0phelia​ for kink help and @clearwillow​ for additional edits...and the IYFF BC for brainstorming! Art by @clearwillow​ for @eringobroke​ - used and edited with permission. 

And now without further ado... The first treat (aka, the “freebie”).

Starting Fires

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from the Inuyasha universe.

"Inuyasha, stop," Kagome giggled, trying to wriggle out of his hold as he pressed wet kisses up her neck. "I don't want to burn your bacon…"

"It's just bacon," he reasoned, his hands sliding up under her shirt. Or should he say his shirt? Fuck...there wasn't a better sight in the world than his best friend...his best girl...Kagome...Wearing his shirt in their kitchen in their house. Now that he had her again, he weren't never letting go of her. "I don't mind eating something else for breakfast."

"You will when your stomach is rumbling later," she blushed, grabbing his hands and pulling them down, his fingers grazing over the lace fabric of her panties. "Behave yourself and go grab a cup of coffee."

"I'd rather grab your—"

"—Coffee!"

She reprimanded, flipping the bacon in the pan. He placed a gentle nip to the side of her neck before moving away from her, a disappointed pout on his lips.

"Fine. But let it be known that I'm doing it under protest," he grumbled, moving to his cabinet to pull out a mug.

"Your protest has been duly noted, Sir," she teased, turning away from the stove to pick up her own cup of coffee. She brought it to her lips, sipping from it as she watched Inuyasha pour himself some. Their life together felt so surreal still. It felt strange to wake up in their house and cook them breakfast.

But it was a good kind of surreal.

The kind where she found herself pinching her arm to make sure it wasn't all some crazy dream. This was their life. And...she loved it.

"Mmm," he moaned, taking a sip from his cup. "As good as ever, Kags," he grinned toothily, and she risked entering his personal space to press another kiss to his lips.

"Glad you like it," she replied, running away from him again when he moved to squeeze her ass. She removed their bacon and eggs from the pan as a text message chimed on both of their phones, and Inuyasha raised a brow in curiosity. She watched him slide his thumb across the screen, before muttering out a low "Huh" as he read the text.

"What is it?" she asked, picking up their plates and placing them onto the island.

"See for yourself," he shrugged, placing the phone down next to her plate. "It's from Sango."

That already piqued her curiosity. Kagome picked up the phone, leaning over the countertop as she read it.

"Hey Guys!" She began aloud. "Miroku and I decided to throw a Halloween party this year. We know it's a bit last minute, but we were hoping you guys could come since you aren't heading back out to California like you thought. Let us know if you can make it! Trying to plan in terms of food. Love you!"

"Love you too," he grinned, and she couldn't stop the shy smile even if she wanted to. She didn't think she would ever get tired of hearing that again from him. The words were like a balm to her soul.

"What do you think?" Kagome asked, handing him his phone back as he began digging his fork into his eggs.

"Up to you," he shrugged. He really didn't care either way. He was just glad he didn't have to go out to California with her. Though, to tell the truth, he wouldn't have minded. They could have had a night in...just the two of them...And he was always a fan of nights in with her. But..."We can go. I know you wanna…"

It was true too. He had seen the way her eyes lit up when she was reading that message. The way she was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. Kagome didn't want to spend the night in. She wanted to spend her first Halloween back in Montana at a party with old friends.

"But...You...Don't?"

He shrugged.

"Don't matter either way. I'm fine going. I'm fine staying home and fucking ya seven ways from Sunday."

"Yash!"

"What! It's tha truth," he replied with a smirk. "And you can't tell me ya don't like the sound of it," he continued, running his tongue over his fangs. The cute little blush he pulled from her was worth it.

"Well...How about a compromise?"

He paused, lifting his brow in curiosity.

"Go on…"

"What if we went to the party...Just for an hour or two...and then afterward we can come home and have sex? Oh! We can even wear couple's costumes again!"

The phrase couples costume made his butt clench so tight he could probably twist off a beer cap with his cheeks.

"I'll agree to go to the party...but not the couple's costume."

"But Yash," she whined, coming around the island to take his hands. "That's part of the fun…"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I'll wear something slutty?"

"N—" He began, ready to tell her no again when his brain processed her offer. "Keep talking."

"I'll wear something slutty and sexy?"

"...Uh-huh...And what else?"

"...And you get to take it off of me?"

He almost said yes...but he was a greedy fucker. He was probably gonna take it off of her even if she hadn't offered that.

"Do I get to do more than that?"

"You mean other than wear a matching outfit?"

"I do."

"Well," she began, tilting her head to the side and pursing her lips in thought. "I'm assuming that sex is a given…"

"But you can say it anyway, and make it interesting," he shrugged. If he was going to get roped into this...because he was going to say yes, because he loved her...then he wanted to squeeze as much as he could out of this.

"Ok...If you do it, sex is on the table...and I'll also add you picking the place and position," she decided, causing his eyes to light up.

Place and position huh?

"Well...In that case Darling, you've got yourself a deal!"

Her childlike squeal and the way she giddily clapped her hands, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, made him feel like he made the right decision.

"Now let's talk costumes…"

He groaned, shaking his head and digging his fork into the eggs on his plate.

Then again...Maybe not…

He let her prattle on for a while, running different ideas past him...But he knew that it ultimately wouldn't matter. He was going to give in to whatever she wanted. If she wanted him to go as a hot dog, and she was going to be a bottle of mustard? That was what was going to happen. Wasn't sure how she could make it sexy...but sure. Her call. Prince and Princess? No fighting it. Batman and Catwoman…

It had piqued his interest, but she almost instantly changed her mind. The cowl would be uncomfortable for his ears.

So, she decided on a fireman and a dalmatian. He looked over at her phone when she held up a picture of the costume she had found for him and sighed.

"That's what you want?"

It didn't look too bad. And it looked like he could maybe get away with just wearing the pants. He was going to have to be sneaky about it though...He could do just a t-shirt and those pants.

"Please?" she beseeched, batting her long lashes at him. "It will be so cute! And you'll look so good!"

He tilted his head to the side, and she chewed the inside of his lip as she watched him roll her suggestion around in his head. She really liked the fireman outfit. She thought it would be fun! And he would look good in it too...She could already picture him slowly taking off the jacket to reveal his bare torso...the suspenders holding up his pants hanging limply at the sides as he slowly peeled himself out of—

"—What are you thinking about Kagome?"

She looked up at his face and saw him looking at her, a smirk stretching his lips as he limply held the phone, leaning down across the island.

"N-nothing," she blushed, swiping out to grab the phone from him, but he pulled it away from her at the last second.

"Nu-uh. I can smell it when you're lying…and I can smell it when you're—"

"—NOTHING!"

She insisted, grabbing the phone from him this time, and his grin turned predatory.

"Ain't nothing, or you wouldn't be smelling like that," he countered cheekily before his gaze began to darken. "Ya know...You don't have to keep that bottled up…"

"Inuyasha," she warned as he straightened, running his carefully filed and declawed fingers along the island countertop as he slowly came around to her side.

He was ignoring her, however.

"Kagome," he replied, closing in on her in just a few short strides. "Were you thinking about me in that fireman outfit?"

Sometimes she swore he could read her mind.

"N-no…"

"Liar," he purred, placing his hands onto the granite top on either side of her hips. He had effectively trapped her...and he was looking at her like prey.

It made her swallow because her mouth was suddenly dry. And made her lower abdomen heat. The intensity and desire in his gaze...the slight glint of fang in the morning light…

Fucking hell...She wanted to be his prey. Wanted to be captured and eaten and...eaten…

He inhaled deeply, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he lowly moaned, "Fuck Kags…"

"W-what," she swallowed, and his smirk widened into a fangy grin before his lips crashed into hers.

AN:

I WILL ONLY DO THIS WALL OF TAGS ONCE! All future treats will be completely hidden under cuts so I don’t spam everyone’s timeline with in your face kink!

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See you at 500 notes!!

[stxleslyds]

I saw your rant about the Red Hood Movie lol (I agree DC keeps hurting my boy Jason) and you said something that interested me, you mentioned that you don’t like it when Jason is drawn with a bat symbol on him but why? Personally I feel that him wearing the bat symbol makes sense because he’s always tried to fit in with the family and it’s his way of connecting with them because he’s never had a family before. He gets along with his other siblings sometimes so I don’t think it’s ooc. I consider ‘bat symbol’ Jason an era of the past and am perfectly fine with his new Red Hood logo it looks sweet (but I wouldn’t be angry if he had the bat symbol on or not in the future). I’m curious what you’re thoughts are!

Hey there Anon, I have to be honest with you, your ask has been proven very difficult to answer, this here is my third draft. I have decided that instead of explaining my thoughts as I was trying to do in my previous drafts, I will now just link you to some of my past posts when I bring up certain points that make me think Jason should have never worn the bat-symbol on his chest.

Just a heads up, I am not a fan of Batman, the “Batfamily”, or Jason being dragged to any Bat-related content, I think it makes his character bland.

In order to make the answer clear to me as well as to anyone who reads this post, I will be separating my thoughts on how I think Jason’s relationship with Bruce has led me to think that he shouldn’t wear a bat-symbol or be involved with any Batman related content, and how Jason’s relationship with his brothers has led me to think that he isn’t part of any Batfamily or has ever been written as someone with true reasons to consider the others his brothers/allies/friends. I will separate each of those two groups in four different sections: pre-New 52, New 52, Rebirth and Infinite Frontier.

First though I would like to say that Jason as the Red Hood wearing a bat-symbol doesn’t make sense to me from the most basic of things, Jason’s vigilante name has nothing to do with Bats. Who wears bat-symbols? Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Batwing… All people that who have the “Bat” prefix on their names, nobody else wears a bat-symbol, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin (Robin), none of them wear it, so why would Red Hood do it? It just makes zero sense. But anyway, that’s just me being annoying, I guess.

Jason and Bruce’s relationship.

First let’s go back in time to when Jason hadn’t died yet. You said that Jason wore the bat-symbol so he could connect with his family because Jason had never had that before, well, I see things differently, Jason had a family and that was his mother, the mother that he cared for when she was sick and the mother that he saw die to drugs after his father was put in jail. He had a family with her. And then he had a family with Bruce when he was Robin, but because Bruce started to neglect and not pay enough attention to him after he realized they weren’t seeing eye to eye in various things, Jason was pushed to act the way he did when he found that his birth mother was alive and “being manipulated by Joker”.

Jason’s father was abusive with his mother and didn’t care for Jason, Bruce wasn’t ready to be a father (even after Dick) and when Jason started to not want to follow his every rule Bruce neglected him, later his birth mother betrayed him and was one of the people involved in Jason’s death.

My point here is that Jason had a family with one person who died to drugs and then every other “family” that he found ended up betraying him or neglecting him. So, I don’t really think that Jason has much trust in the whole concept of “family” at least not when it comes to any of his experiences outside of Catherine Todd.

Now let’s move to the events of Under the Red Hood where Jason comes back to comics. Jason doesn’t hate Bruce then but he felt betrayed by him and felt like Batman’s whole crusade was not good anymore. Jason expressed several times in that book the fact that he didn’t believe Batman was good for Gotham and that he became a better version of Batman, the Red Hood.

Red Hood could do things that Batman didn’t dare do, he was better. So, why on earth would Jason wear a bat-symbol then? Well, Jason never wore a bat-symbol pre-New 52 when he was wearing his Red Hood suit. NEVER.

Jason didn’t care for Dick or Tim, he saw Dick as inferior to him because of Nightwing’s no killing ways and he was completely indifferent to Tim, his only interactions with him were when he cut his throat a little bit in Batman: Hush and when he called him “the pretender”.

So, Jason wasn’t looking for family he just wanted Bruce to kill Joker for him, and Bruce didn’t. When things got complicated and Jason realized that Bruce was too much of a coward he improvised, he told Batman that in order to stop him from killing the Joker Batman would have to shoot him (Jason). Batman didn’t use the gun, but he did save the Joker by throwing a batarang at Jason’s throat. When Joker detonated the explosives in the building they were in Bruce once again saved Joker from the rubble and didn’t look much for Jason.

That my dead Anon is the first time Bruce betrays Jason in such a big way that made me think that Jason would have never wanted to interact with Bruce in a good way. I will repeat it now, Bruce SAVED the Joker instead of letting Jason KILL the Joker.

After Under the Red Hood we got to see that Jason was alive and well in Green Arrow #69-72, where he made an appearance, there I can say with a 100% certainty that Jason hated both Batman and Bruce. He actively did things that pissed Bruce off and was searching for conflict with the man.

Jason and Bruce don’t interact much after all that because at some point Bruce “died” and that’s where Battle for the Cowl comes in. There is where we see one of the craziest Jason characterizations, there Jason took on the mantle of Batman because Gotham needed Batman (what? Red Hood was created to replace Batman!). But in that book Jason actually harmed both his brothers and left them for dead. In that book we also see a horrible message that Bruce left for Jason where Bruce told him that “Jason was broken and he tried to fix him” and that “Jason was my (Bruce’s) biggest failure”. I don’t know about you Anon, but if my father saw me that way, I would be packing my bags. And Jason didn’t look like he was looking to connect with his “family”.

After all that we don’t see Jason until Batman and Robin vol.1, where we see the weirdest characterization of Red Hood, this Red Hood hates Batman and would kill anyone just because. Jason had zero need to connect with his family there.

I just want to remind you here that Jason never wore a Batman symbol until here in his Red Hood suits, he only wore the symbol when he “was” Batman and that was OOC.

So now I welcome you to the New 52, where Jason wears a bat-symbol on his Red Hood suit for the first time. I HATE New 52 Jason Anon; you will find zero love for him here. That man wore a bat-symbol on his chest even though he didn’t believe in Batman’s ways and while he had this internal conflict about whether he hated or not Bruce. This Jason gave up a memory from his Robin years with Batman because he didn’t care enough to keep it, then he was seen acting like an ass towards Bruce and Barbara in the “Court of Owls” event.

But this whole shit show was written by Lobdell and one day he decided that Jason cared about what Bruce thought and let us know that maybe Jason secretly admired Bruce (in the post I will link here! I talk about what happened in those issues among other things). That story would be followed by Batman and Robin vol.2 #20, or what I like to call “the second time Bruce betrayed Jason in an even more painful way”. I am not going to explain what happened there, but I will like here! the post where I talked about what happened there and why I think that Jason should have never been on good terms with Bruce again from that moment on.

In that post I also discuss how much of an abusive and manipulative person and father, Bruce has and can be. He is a disgusting human being and Jason called him out about it but DC loves to write Bruce being abusive and then swiping it under the rug, Jason being on good terms with Bruce or wearing a bat-symbol on his chest is just horrifying after witnessing that issue, and it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour when issues later the same writer (Tomasi) had Jason interact with Bruce as if nothing had happened.

After that Jason was seen interacting with Bruce when the latter lost his memory, Jason even hugged Bruce there, it was OOC, and like I said it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour or at the very least made it look as something of no real importance.

Now, we are entering the Rebirth era of Bruce and Jason’s relationship, Jason was still wearing that fucking bat-symbol on his chest and this time around Jason even made a deal where he wouldn’t kill anyone while in Gotham (RHatO vol.1 #6), Lobdell even wrote them as being all buddy-buddy after the mess that was the New 52, absolutely disgusting.

Jason didn’t interact with Bruce in Rebirth that much, in fact the next time that Batman made a big appearance in the Red Hood book was in Red Hood and the Outlaws vol.2 #25, yeah, the issue where Batman beats the living shit out of Jason twice because he thought that Jason had killed Penguin. Father of the year, Jason wasn’t dying to be part of Bruce’s family, he was just brutally beat to be part of it. Bruce also ripped the vat-symbol off of Jason’s chest and told him that he didn’t “belong” with him or in Gotham any more. The AUDACITY of that bitch, can you believe? Jason belongs in Gotham as much if not more than Bruce.

Later when Red Hood and the Outlaws became Red Hood Outlaw, we saw Bruce and Jason interact again when Bruce informed Jason of Roy’s death, hugged him and also told him that he was still not allowed in Gotham, what a swell guy that Batman lad!

After that Batman went after Jason Todd when Jason came back to Gotham (without King Batman’s permission) and told the world that Jason Todd was alive and well and taking over Penguin’s Casino. Jason actually threatened Batman with revealing too much information about himself to the world (meaning, Jason threatened Bruce with revealing his secret identity) and that was that. Jason and Bruce only saw each other a few times when DC needed to make money with one of their boring ass events like Joker War and Bruce was shown “welcoming” Jason to Gotham in Red Hood Outlaw #51 or #52, I don’t remember but either way, it was absolutely hilarious and made zero sense. I am sorry, but after Bruce being a manipulative, abusive and all around a horrible person, I don’t feel anything except rage when they make them interact as if they cared for one another.

Shit hits the fan in Infinite Frontier with Urban Legends: Cheer, once again instead of explaining what happens there, I will just link you to the six posts I made about that mini. Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five and Part six.

Here I will only talk about the comeback of the bat-symbol in Jason’s life. Like you said Jason used (still has in some books) his own logo on his chest after Bruce ripped off the bat-symbol and told him to fuck off. That Red Hood logo was still done with the bat-symbol in mind and I just thought that it was ugly, like, there is no need for a logo if you are going to give him an ugly one along an even uglier suit. But that’s not what matter here, what matters is that the bat-symbol IS making a comeback because at the end of UL: Cheer, Bruce gives Jason a brand new (ugly) suit that has the bat-symbol again. That gift comes as a slap to the face after the disaster that was that book, from every point of view that mini should have not come out to the public. But it did because it forced the “Batfamily” down our throats through Bruce deciding to welcome Jason back to the “family” by giving him a suit with HIS logo on the Red Hood suit that kinda looks to me like Bruce saying “glad that I own you too as well”. The whole bat-symbol thing doesn’t sit right with him and sadly I don’t see it like a “Jason era of the past”, I see it like a metaphorical jail for Jason’s character, he is not free to be the character that he is supposed to be (a perfect opposite to Batman that shows that duality MUST exist in Gotham), and instead all we get is another Batman wannabe that is just as boring as the Batman himself.

Jason and his brother’s relationship.

The funny ha-ha thing with this is that we are not supposed to see Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian as four brothers (and to be honest I have never seen them four as brothers, as far as I see it, Jason hasn’t had a brother since before died). DC always makes it clear that Damian is Bruce’s only son so yeah, there is a big misunderstanding there within DC themselves, they have no problem with trying to sell us their absolutely nasty version of a family but at the same time they refuse to acknowledge any one except for Damian as Bruce’s son.

Even though I don’t necessarily believe that Jason sees his brothers as such I still call them that way because they were/are all Bruce’s children.

But this is not about Bruce so let me talk about Jason’s interactions with his brothers in the pre-New 52 era. So, as I said earlier in this post Jason didn’t think Dick was a big deal in UtRH because *just* like Batman Dick never killed and his way didn’t work or whatever (if only Jason knew what Dick did), and with Tim, Jason was mostly indifferent, he only hurt him a little bit in Batman: Hush (for the little bit that he took Clayface’s place) and then he referred to him as “the pretender”. Then we jump to the events of Teen Titans for Tim and Nightwing for Dick. In Teen Titans #29 Jason went to Titans Tower and beat the living hell out of Tim just because, now that thing was OOC and written by Geoff Johns but it existed and it further proves that DC writes this “family” through violence every time they can and then they just hope we forget it happened. With Dick, well, there was the Brothers in Blood arc where Jason dressed up as Nightwing and killed people in his name, he did it because he wanted to “bond” with Dick because he thought that Dick had killed Blockbuster, the whole arc was a mess and I can tell you this about it, Jason wanted to bond for all the wrong reasons and Dick was written as actually preferring Jason to be dead.

Then we jump right into Battle for the Cowl and even though (once again) this Jason was extremely OOC he did try to kill both Damian and Tim and fought Dick too, so, so far, I am not seeing Jason wanting to connect with his brothers, it was more like him going “be robin to my weird ass version of Batman or suffer!”. It was just weird.

Then there was Batman and Robin vol.1, where Jason’s Red Hood was just a blood thirsty and crazy and he didn’t want to be part of any family. I might not like Jason being written as part of the family but what this book had going on was not it.

Now, get ready because it is New 52 time again and this is messier than his relationship with Bruce in this timeline. The most recognizable relationship (or lack of thereof) was Jason and Dick. Lobdell just let us know one thing about what Jason thought of Dick and that was HATE. Jason HATED Dick, why, you ask? Oh, um, no one really knows, the only panel we were shown as “proof” of why Jason hated Dick was when Jason was acting like a little bitch when Dick was teaching him stuff during patrol (RHatO vol.1 #6). But, yes, Jason “had” (apparently) a good relationship with Tim. Yeah, no gracias, listen, Jason and Tim having brunch for two pages (RHatO vol.1 #8) isn’t making me believe that Jason cares or sees Tim in a good light, just throwing a brunch between them isn’t proof of them being the best of brothers but then again Lobdell loved giving Jason every character trait and relationship that Dick once had (examples: Tim, Roy and Kory). That brunch didn’t mean much because later on during the Death of the Family event Jason almost killed Tim (Teen Titans #16) to “save” his father from Joker (talk about bad writing). Jason and Damian had a very weird and forced “bonding” moment in that same event (you can include Damian to the relationships that Lobdell borrowed from Dick), all of the sudden Jason cared for Damian and he was acting all brotherly, because “they worked together” as different people in Batman Incorporated #4, this weird interaction between Jason and Damian (it can only be called weird because it looked out of place and you cannot change my mind, even Jason thinks it is weird in those panels) happened in RHatO vol.1 #17. In that same issue is where Jason tells Dick that he was trash because he didn’t want to say hi to Kory and kinda tells him that Dick “underestimates” Kory, listen, New Teen Titans isn’t a book that I enjoy reading most of the time but Lobdell needs to do some re-reading himself, Dick isn’t trash to Kory, Lobdell was trash to Kory. Anyway, at that point in time, Jason had a bad relationship with Dick, a secret admiration for Bruce, and a weird ass relationship with Tim and Damian.

Before we go on let me tell you what I think about the whole New 52 dynamic. Jason was used as a replacement of Dick Grayson. Dick was the one that had good relationships with his brothers and father, Jason up until the start of New 52 didn’t care for Tim or Damian, hated Bruce and kinda had a soft spot for Dick. In the New 52 the tables were turned. Jason’s relationship with Tim was never developed in paper, they for some reason were friends only when they stood together like they did in Robin War and Batman and Robin Eternal, there was never development or a reason as to why they “were in good terms”, they just *were*. The whole Jason and Damian thing didn’t last long because Damian died and then the whole mess of Batman and Robin #20 happened with Bruce.

Ahh, Grayson #12, the time when Jason and Tim’s last braincell died, they threw so much shit Dick’s way and for nothing. I will forever be mad at this, they really thought that Dick of all people faked his death, and because Bruce was conveniently amnesiac nobody dared say “hey, wasn’t it Bruce the one that told us that Dick was dead?”, seems to me like New 52 Jason and Tim can go be friends with that one braincell all by themselves. This is not family; this is people teaming up with whoever so DC can sell another weird comic event. Also at that time Damian was alive and Jason couldn’t have cared less about him being there (maybe it was because Jason was there when Damian was resurrected? Who knows?).

And now we jump to Rebirth because I hate the New 52. Tim was nowhere to be seen. Jason just forgot Tim existed and it wasn’t until the Red Hood Outlaw era in which we saw Jason interact with Damian again. What we did see, was a reconciliation between Jason and Dick, Jason was written as acting completely different in RHatO Annual #1, Jason respected Dick and his work and also said that Dick “had been a better brother than he had given him credit for”. Then Jason appeared once in Nightwing and they talked about Dick’s new girlfriend. And that was that for a long while.

As I said, during the RHO era Jason and Damian shared a couple of issues in the Teen Titans run, I have talked about these issues before in two posts (Post 1 and Post 2) but I will summarize what happened there here quickly.

Apparently, Jason and Damian had been working together in secret (never shown in actual comics), Jason gave Damian targets and intel of people for Damian to put in his secret prison for villains. When Damian and the Titans go after a target something goes wrong and the Titans end up hurt. Damian goes after Jason without a second thought and accuses him of betraying him, a physical and emotional fight ensues and it ends with Jason promising that if he sees Damian again, he will kill him. That’s all for Jason and Damian being on good terms in Rebirth.

But it all changes in Infinite Frontier, in August of 2021 we see the *real* comeback of the “Batfamily” in Robin #5. Dick, Damian, Jason, Tim and Stephanie appear in this issue but the only things of essence happen between Jason and Damian and Dick and Damian. Only one of them made sense, and it wasn’t Jason and Damian.

Jason was there to bring Damian back to Bruce. Listen, the last time Jason and Damian were seen together they were actively hiding their work from Batman and then they ended promising to kill each other, and now Jason came fresh out of Urban Legends: Cheer #6 wanting Damian to go back to Bruce. Damian tricks Jason into a hug, but surprise! it wasn’t a hug, Damian electrocuted Jason to get him of his back.

And that’s all.

-

I understand that there have been moments where Jason has been written as wanting to connect to one or two people from the “family” but its never developed or based on something of true essence. You might consider it actually strong family connections but I just don’t see it that way.

Jason wearing a bat-symbol after the abuse and manipulation that Bruce put him through in new 52 onwards is just dumb to me. And given Red Hood’s origin, Jason wearing a bat-symbol in the first place is absurd and goes against everything that he once was.

Jason officially started wearing the bat-symbol again in Detective Comic's back up story written by Rosenberg and will continue to use it in the ongoing book Task Force Z.

The bat-symbol is annoying but Rosenberg writes Jason beautifully so yeah, I am biased there...

We just have different opinions on the matter Anon, but don't take this post as an attack towards you and what you think, it is just that I just don't like Jason being involved with anything Batman.

I hope you have a fantastic week Anon!

[ilovesamheughan]

Herself is fun like no other! 😂

Diana Gabaldon's Foreword to Clanlands Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Stories from the Outlander Set

Here's your first look at the introduction to Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish's new book.

BY DIANA GABALDON

NOV 3, 2020

outlander season 2 2016ED MILLER / STARZ

Well, in The Beginning . . . there was a man in a kilt.

I’ve always figured that if there’s something you want to do, you should start doing it, and if it’s the right thing, the universe kind of comes out to meet you. So, I started writing a novel about a man in a kilt, and the universe brought me a television show.

I’ve been indirectly responsible for a lot of strange things since I wrote Outlander – from:

. . . five seasons (so far) of a hit TV series

. . . the names of dozens of purebred dogs, racehorses and housing developments

. . . thousands of babies named Brianna or Jamie (no one has ever, to my knowledge, named a child ‘Murtagh’, which is puzzling . . .)

. . . Lord John Grey’s Tea

. . . symphonic band compositions

. . . a musical

. . . a Scottish woolen mill specialising in tartan

. . . a marvelous pair of cookbooks

. . . three million knitted cowls

. . . dozens of female fans who lower their trousers at book signings to show me ‘Da mi basia mille’ tattooed on their tailbones (as my husband remarked to me, ‘Well, how many people can say,“Kiss my ass” in classical Latin?’)

. . . a 72% increase in Scottish tourism (as Visit Scotland was kind enough to tell me), and

. . . an excellent whisky called ‘Sassenach’

But this book may be one of the strangest, and definitely one of the best!

I’m deeply honoured that Sam and Graham have asked me to write the foreword to one of the most interesting, unusual (to put it mildly . . .) and hilarious books I’ve read in a long time. I’m not quite sure what you’d call it, but then I’m used to not being able to describe my own books in twenty-five words or less, so this is probably not a problem.

To start with, it’s a buddy book. Two good friends banter (and bicker) their way across the Scottish Highlands, risking life and limb in that casual way that makes men attractive. Why? Well, because they’re both Scottish and they have both been a large part of Outlander (not just the television show, but the whole weird phenomenon), have realised that they are Scottish (wearing a kilt every day for two years will do that to you), and want to find out where their heritage came from and what being Scottish actually means (aside from being born liking whisky)

It’s also a road book. (Think Jack Kerouac, but with fewer drugs, more paragraphs and no sex. Well, almost no sex . . .).

Our two friends are in fact making a television series about several historical locations in the Highlands. Accompanied by a small film crew – including a talented makeup artist and a drone operator – they visit spectacular historical locations in the Scottish Highlands to learn the true history of some of the best-known massacres, fights, betrayals, beheadings, and other typically Scottish recreational activities. This is the story of that journey, accomplished via an aged Fiat camper van, tandem bike, kayak and any number of other improbable modes of transport that only make sense to people suffering from testosterone poisoning.

And on their way, they talk. Not only to each other, but to themselves. In some of its phases, the book is a twin memoir. Each man recalls his life as an actor – in bits – because every actor (like every writer) pretty much makes it up as they go along. Which means a lot of the stories are of the kind that are only funny to the protagonists with twenty years’ perspective, but are endlessly entertaining to the spectators.

These reminiscences include a good many stories from the Outlander set, as well. I’m only on set myself intermittently, but I do recall the day in Season Two when Sam’s horse – which he was preparing to mount – decided to take its mother’s advice and relieve itself before setting out (there’s reason why most costumes are made in multiples). And another occasion during Season Two wherein Graham was required to ride a mechanical horse (as the director said to me, ‘It looks like shit, but you won’t be able to actually see it on film’)

The mechanical horse was carried on the back of a truck, followed by another truck with a camera, and Graham was supposed to leap into the mechanical horse’s saddle while moving (supposedly jump-ing from another horse). This being television, they filmed the scene many, many times to ensure enough footage to get the effect they were after. When they finally stopped, Graham staggered downhill from the road where they’d been doing this, pausing by me and Anne Kenney (brilliant writer of the other episode in that block of filming) to say, ‘I’ve just been having a conversation with my balls. They said, “We’d really rather you didn’t do that again”’. And staggered on, muttering, ‘I knew I should have worn a cup this morning . . .’.

And finally, there’s the actual history of the ‘clan lands’, woven through this tale of a journey. The travelers reach the most interesting/famous/relevant Highland locations, where they do learn what their history and heritage are, assisted by some of the most colorful inhabitants of those places.

So, you’re actually getting four books in one! (A real bargain . . .).

But the most important part of this book is the friendship between its authors, that colours and illuminates every page.

I was both intrigued and immensely entertained by the story, but also touched on a personal level. One of the most unexpected aspects of the whole ‘Outlander phenomenon’ is the amazing way in which it seems to draw people together. People read the books and watch the show – and they want to talk about it. So, they form fan groups and book clubs and Facebook forums, and deep, lasting friendships, all because of a shared love of a story.

I will always recall one woman who brought me a book at a signing, who told me that she lived alone, had been alone for many years, seldom got out and had no family – but that she’d become attracted to the story, found others who felt likewise, and who invited her to go with them to book-signings, premieres and conventions. ‘Now I have friends!’, she said. She cried, and so did I.

I hope you’ll feel that sense of friendship in these pages.

A final word, since this book is all about returning to one’s roots: Some years ago, one of my novels won the Corine International Prize for Fiction, and I was invited to go to Germany to accept the award. This was rather a Big Deal for the German publisher, and they took advantage of my presence to have me interviewed by the entire German press corps; newspapers, magazines, radio, television, literary journals, you name it. By the end of the week I was sleep deprived and a bit glazed over when I met a nice gentleman from one of the literary journals.

Delightful man, he went on at great (and flattering) length about the books. He loved my narrative drive, my characters were tremendous, my imagery transcendent!

So I’m sitting there in a pleasant daze, thinking, ‘Yes, yes, go on . . .’, when he suddenly said, ‘There is just one thing I wonder: can you explain to me, what is the appeal of a man in a kilt?’.

Well, had I been totally conscious, I might not have said it (then again . . .). Anyway, I looked at him for a moment and said, ‘Well . . .I suppose it’s the idea that you could be up against a wall with him in a moment.’

<ahem>

A few weeks later, home again in Arizona, I get a packet of interview clippings from the German publisher, and on the top is the interview from that journal. The publisher had attached a Post-it note, saying, ‘I don’t know what you said to this man, but I think he is in love with you!’.

A man in a kilt. A very powerful and compelling image, yes . . . And now you have two of them . . .

Pour yourself a good dram, open the covers and enjoy yourself!

Slàinte mhath!

Diana Gabaldon

Scottsdale, Arizona

August, 2020

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1316

Monday, March 8, 2021

 Coming up on a year since the pandemic started. I hope you're all healthy and safe. I am hopeful that vaccines will be deployed widely and help us all feel less anxious. I am fortunate enough to be one of those people who is happy as a bug snug in a rug while self isolating. I do really miss my dear friends and family but hugs can wait until we're all vaccinated.

 My thanks to Doug for lending me these comic books to read.

 Batman Annual #5 - James Tynion IV (writer) James Stokoe (art) Clayton Cowles (letters). It's the origin of Clownhunter and it's not very original. If I had to pay $4.99 US I would have passed on this and lived with leaving a hole in my Batman collection. If you're not familiar with this new vigilante, he's an Asian teenager named Bao who decides he's going to kill the Joker and all of the villain's sycophants. The reason he becomes Clownhunter (and killer) is very mundane. I wish they could have come up with a new motivator. Maybe the philosophical discussion about what to do about the Joker might interest some fans but I found this story quite tedious. I also didn't like the way Bao and his parents were portrayed. Did they really have an Asian saying "Ah, so"? Yes they did on page 8. Shades of Charlie Chan, Batman. I was not offended, just disappointed.

 Batman/Catwoman #3 - Tom King (writer) Clay Mann (art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I was thrilled to see the town of Port Orange, Florida mentioned on the first page. My pal Al lives there. It's also where Selina finally catches up with the Joker and does what Batman never did. I love this Black Label book taking familiar characters and treating them in a new and interesting way. Here's a future where Selina has survived her husband Bruce's death and their daughter Helena is the new Batwoman. Now I wait to see how mother and daughter deal with the Angel of Death.

 And now, more Future State books.

 Future State: Robin Eternal #2 - Meghan Fitzmartin (writer) Eddy Barrows (pencils) Eber Ferreira (inks) Adriano Lucas (colours) Pat Brosseau (letters). The consequence of Tim Drake/Robin being dunked in Lazarus resin is that now he's immortal. Whoop-dee-doo. Not only is this a boring Robin beats up bad guys issue but the art lacked any logical perspective. This issue takes place on a train but you would think it's in a huge building based on the art. I know it's comic books but I hate when one doesn't make visual sense. I think that's just laziness.

 Future State: Kara Zor-El Superwoman #1 & #2 - Marguerite Bennett (writer) Marguerite Sauvage (art) Wes Abbott (letters). This 2-issue fairy tale was not meant for old farts like me and Doug. With it's soft pastel colours these books should have included glitter and bubblegum flavoured lip gloss. Maybe young tween girls will like this. The moral of this story is "no one is born wise".

 Future State: Dark Detective #3 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Dan Mora (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Aditya Bidikar (letters). There are not one but two Batmans in this issue. You've got Bruce in his new capeless costume but here he's wearing a trench coat to give that fluttering effect, and then there's the new guy in the Bat suit, cape and all. The "uh-oh" point of the story hits here when the bad guys discover where Bruce is hiding out. The Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Carmine Di Giandomenico (art) Antonio Fabela (colours) & AndWorld Design (letters) Grifter story concludes here too with a double cross and a whole lot more of Helena/Huntress. This is my favourite Future State book so far.

 Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1 & #2 - Sean Lewis (writer) John Timms (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). If you're wondering how a grown up Jonathan Kent takes over for his dad as Metropolis's protector then these two $5.99 US books will satisfy your curiosity. The villain of the story is an evolved Brainiac who is a big multi-mouthed ball now. Metropolis is shrunk ala the bottle city of Kandor, the citizens go nuts but Jon returns things back to normal in the end with the help of Kara/Supergirl. I don't know why Kara's a girl in this story and a woman elsewhere. Each issue has two back-ups so you get your money's worth. One features Mister Miracle and the other the Guardian. They are both dealing with bad things inside the bottled Metropolis. You won't miss much if you don't read them. The Mister Miracle story "The Metropolis Menagerie" is done my Brandon Easton (writer) Valentine De Landro (art) Marissa Louise (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). The Guardian story is brought to you by Sean Lewis (writer) Cully Hamner & Michael Avon Oeming (art) Laura Martin (colours) AndWorld Design (letters). This one got me excited because a villain wants to throw Jimmy Olsen off of the Daily Planet building.

 Future State: Catwoman #2 - Ram V (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) Tom Napolitano (letters). Read this to find out if Catwoman saves the lives of the people on the train. You will also find out if Bruce is freed from the bad guys. Talia Al-Ghul appearing is the deus ex machina in this story. I like the new Cheshire and Onomatopoeia is always fun.

 Future State: Superman: Worlds of War #2 - Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer) Mikel Janin (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) & Dave Sharpe (letters). In "The Many Deaths of Superman" the Man of Steel fights in the arena of Warworld where Mongul resurrects him after every death match. It's the typical brutal battle scenes and super villain gloating. What's more compelling is an old newspaper story that Clark Kent wrote that inspired a young woman who travels to Smallville. I was totally confused by the three back-up stories featuring Mister Miracle, Midnighter and the Black Racer because they were not very good. I am a completist and have to finish what I start. I could have stopped reading after the $3.99 US main story in this bloated $7.99 US comic book  but my obsessive compulsive nature wouldn't let me. It's a character flaw I wish I could change.

 Future State: The Next Batman #1 - John Ridley (writer) Nick Derington (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). All the teasers for this book hyped the fact that this Batman is black. You won't get the secret identity in this first issue but there are a bunch of likely candidates. Lucas Fox is a possibility but it's confusing because he's a bad guy in another Future State book. This is another $7.99 US book with back-ups. These are more coherent than the ones in Future State: Superman: Worlds of War.

Future State: Outsiders by Brandon Thomas (writer) Sumit Kumar (pencils) Sumit Kumar & Raul Fernandez (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) & Steve Wands (letters) gathers together some old Batman associates helping Gotham City citizens escape persecution by the Magistrates outside Gotham City's borders. Get it? It was nice seeing Katana in action.

Future State: Arkham Knights by Paul Jenkins (writer) Jack Herbert (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) & Rob Leigh (letters) gathers together some of Batman's rogues gallery to fight the oppressive Magistrate. Two-Face, Mr. Zsasz, Dr. Phosphorus, Killer Croc and other ex-inmates of Arkham Asylum are being lead by an armoured Astrid Arkham. It's super villains being super heroes.

 Future State: The Next Batman #2 - John Ridley (writer) Nick Derington (breakdowns) Laura Braga (art) Arif Prianto (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). We learn the secret identity of the new caped Batman in this issue. It's Lucas Fox's brother. He has a brother? This also has three new back-up stories.

"Batgirls" is by Vita Ayala (writer) Aneke (art) Trish Mulvihill (colours) & Becca Carey (letters). Batgirl/Orphan Cassandra Cain gets locked up in the Magistrate Detention Facility where both good guys/white hats and bad guys/black coats are incarcerated. She got caught on purpose because her mission is to find Oracle and Batman and free them. She gets help from Spoiler who is queen of the inmates. In this reality Cass is way more articulate than she used to be. I didn't like that. I also didn't like that in the other Future State stories the Magistrate foot soldiers have a shoot to kill order for any masks that they encounter. Why are all of these masks alive? Anyways, this part ends with the white hats and black coats forming an alliance so Cass can get on with her mission.

"Gotham City Sirens: Ladies' Night Out" is by Paula Sevenbergen (writer) Rob Haynes (breakdowns) Emanuela Lupacchino (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) John Kalisz (colours) Becca Carey (letters). Catwoman and Poison Ivy spring a domestic droid named Dee Dee (get it?) from servitude and they have a night on the town at a bar. The bar is run by Sam Bradley and both super heroes and villains can imbibe in peace. Fans of Sex and the City may like this. Not a lot of drama until the last page when the joint is raided by Magistrate goons and major characters are shot.

 Future State: The Next Batman #3 - John Ridley (writer) Nick Derington (breakdowns) Laura Braga (art) Arif Prianto (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). This is the "uh-oh" moment in the story where the hero is felled by the villain. A wounded Batman is attacked by the murderer he's trying to bring to justice. I saw that coming.

I like the change with Black Lightning in the Outsiders back-up.

I like the art in the Arkham Knights back-up even though the dialogue is eye roll inducing.

 Future State: The Next Batman #4 - Jace/Batman lives, as if that was in any doubt. This story would have been a lot more interesting if Bruce/Batman was really dead. Even if the Future State line of comics dies out this Next Batman is a cop out. The Batgirls story ends with Cassandra/Orphan saving Barbara/Oracle and the Resistance gaining ground on the Magistrates. The Gotham City Sirens story ends with Catwoman and Poison Ivy helping the Resistance get an advantage in their war with the Cybers thanks to Dee Dee.

 I admit that I was sucked in by the hype for this mini. The Next Batman being black intrigued me. The story itself was meh and I would not have missed anything by not reading it. I was not engaged as a mature reader but I think someone in their teens might like all the stories in these four issues.

[nightingaletrash]

Hi! I am rather new to modding Oblivion and I was wondering if there is any mods you would recommend for it? Or maybe just your mod list, if you are comfortable with sharing that? Your Oblivion characters always look so beautiful, especially Iriana. Anyway, I hope you having a wonderful day! :)

It’s ironic you ask Nonnie, considering I’m wrestling with Oblivion myself and failing atm XD

Still, I’m happy to drop some recommendations for mods I use and can usually get to cooperate with me ^-^

First off, you’ll want the Official Oblivion Patch, the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch, and the Unofficial Oblivion DLC Patches (if you have the GOTY edition). They fix a bunch of issues in the game, and some mods require them to be installed, so they’re a solid place to start.

The rest are under the cut because boy this got long o.o

Character Creation:

I cannot recommend Nuska’s Oblivion Character Overhaul enough. It’s an absolute must have for me as it deals with Oblivion’s potato faces beautifully. And, thanks to the hard work of other modders, it is possible to customise OCO further. I’ll list those in just a second. You’ll also need the Oblivion Script Extender and Blockhead to get it to work.

I also use the HGEC Female Body for my OCs - if you use that mod or any other body mods, there are some additional files provided by Nuska that make OCO compatible with them. They’re located in the optional files for OCO, and the description for those will tell you what order you need to install them in.

Now, my other OCO Mods that I recommend:

Orsimer Overhaul for OCOv2 - merges OCO and Orsimer Overhaul for a look I personally love for orc characters. It can be a little hit and miss with getting it to work on my end, so you’ll need to decide if you want to have a go at wrestling with it, but I personally think it’s worth a try

OCOv2 Martin and Adoring Fan Fix - I’m not a huge fan of OCO’s take on Martin, so I prefer this one even though it makes him look a bit too young imo

Unique Face Features for OCOv2 - Adds some warpaints, scars, freckles, and other kinds of face markings to the cc. iirc they’re tweaked with the age slider

Warpaint for OCOv2 - adds some more Skyrim warpaints 

Seamless for OCOv2 - removes the very visible neckseam on characters. Whether or not I can get this one to work is usually hit and miss for me ^^”

New Brows for OCOv2 - exactly what it says on the tin ;)

New Eyes for OCOv2 - new eye texture replacements, along with some optional files to customise them a little

Better Necks for OCOv2 - adds some detailing to the neck and throat of the character model. Not a requirement ofc, I’m just a sucker for detail

OCOv2 Male Beard - adds some actual beards to the cc

Hairstyle mods can vary in quality, and some only come available as wigs. I only use a couple myself. 

Sidenote, wigs tend to make your characters look like they have no ears so you’ll need a mod that adds equip-able ears - I’ll have one recommended further down.

ANiceOakTree’s Hairstyles for Oblivion is a mod that adds hairs as wigs. There’s a few styles in different colours, and it’s the one I use for Iriana. You create your character with whatever hair, it doesn’t matter, and then travel to either Vilverin, which is the Ayleid Ruin literally opposite the Sewer Exit after you finish the tutorial, or in the Cheydinhal Chapel near the doors.I usually tend to go to Vilverin, as it’s closer for me and the chest is literally down the stairs from the entrance, plus it counts as stealing from the chapel so I’d recommend the ruin if you’d rather not get in trouble for wanting nice hair.

Zinni_s Braided Redguard Expanded is good if you plan to play as a Redguard and would like a braided style. It’s added to the cc, so you don’t need to go looking for it ^^

Chakaru Wigs 2.0 is a bit trickier. You need to access the Testing Hall in order to find them, and I can’t remember exactly which room they’re in. They’re located in a chest directly opposite the door, however, so it narrows the search a little. If I get to the point where Oblivion is cooperating with me, I’ll add the location here.In order to access the Testing Hall, open the console and type ‘coc testing hall’ (if that doesn’t work try removing the space between testing and hall, I forget which is the correct way), and then in the centre of the main room, find the door labelled Hawkhaven, go through it, and fast travel to return to Cyrodiil.

I’ve not used the Cazy Hair Pack in some time now, but it’s still worth a mention. It adds some new hairs to the cc, so no looking around ruins and testing halls to find them ^^

Armour and Clothing

Ordinarily I would never download Apachii Goddess Store, but it is where I get Iriana’s ears. On the ground floor, there’s a container full of equip-able ears you can take free of charge, and iirc they match to your character’s skintone.

Belphe’s Travelling Gear (the female version) is another mod I wouldn’t usually use, but it looks surprisingly good on Iriana sooooo. There’s a few mods on this page you can try out if you’re interested, but I have no idea how to install the ones without esp files, so I can’t help you if you want any of those.

This is my favourite remodel of the Archmage Robes (I could do without the titty physics, but it’s very unnoticeable most of the time so it’s survivable). Because of the unfortunate physics aspect, it does require Coronerras Maxiumum Compatibility Skeleton, but otherwise it’s a brilliant remodel. However, the Archmage Robes present a problem with equip-able ears - as they take up an amulet slot and these robes don’t let amulets show, you will have missing ears with these robes. There’s another mod I use to fix this, which I’ll get to late.

Alternatively, there is a male replacer for the Archmage Robes that I like but (obviously) have never used if you’re making male characters

The Triss Armour Retexture is another great mod, and I personally like to use the Dark Brotherhood variant for my DBH characters as opposed to actual Shrouded Armour. They can be a pain to obtain as you need to fight your way through some bandits in Fort Cedrian, then locate the bag in the Mausoleum, but they are worth the trouble.

Assorted Protective Female Armours is another must imo as it fixes the ridiculous boobplates and some textures for some of the game’s heavy armours.

If you used the HGEC Body for female characters, then you’ll want to grab the Vanilla Amulets Fix for HGEC as it’ll fix how amulets fit on that body.

Spike4072s Female Sheogorath Regalia is a great mod if you’d rather keep the iconic Sheogorath look on a female character rather than have it swapped out for a dress.

Shrouded Armour Cowl is another great mod for DBH characters; I use it with the Dark Brotherhood Triss Armour, seeing as the hood doesn’t really mix with it.

Sinblood_SonjaArmourTweaked is another good female armour mod; it looks good, and is reasonably functionable.

Other Mods

Oblivion Reloaded is a fantastic mod; primarily it’s a graphics extender mod, and it really does make the world of Oblivion look amazing.

Alternative Start is a great mod, and it functions very much like its Skyrim counterpart. If you want to do the Main Quest but start elsewhere, after a certain number of days pass you’ll receive a message to meet someone in a set period of time at the Temple of the One. That will put you in the tutorial and set up the Main Quest. Word of warning, miss that meeting and I don’t think it’s possible to do the Main Quest at all so just be careful.

Oblivion XP is an absolute must if you struggle with Oblivion’s levelling system like I do. XP is awarded for defeating foes, discovering locations, completing quests, stealing things, etc. It’s installed with Oblivion Mod Manager, so make sure you grab that.

Kvatch Rebuilt is a pretty damn good mod which offers a questline to rebuild the city of Kvatch and give it a ruler. That ruler can even be the player, depending on some choices you make. The voice acting isn’t stellar, but it’s worth it to see Kvatch restored.It requires the Engine Bugs Fixes so make sure to grab that.Also, make sure you pick up Compatibility Patches for OCO to avoid too many weird faces around Kvatch and other places.

Reneers Guard Overhaul is also a pretty useful mod if the ever-charming behaviour of the Oblivion Guards gets a bit wearing. They’ll no longer chase you to the ends of Tamriel, and a crime committed in Cheydinhal won’t get you attacked in Leyawiin (kinda like how Skyrim manages crime).

No Anachronistic Main Quest Comments is good for immersion; you won’t have people saying how a city might not go the way of Kvatch after the Oblivion Crisis is over.

Now, the amulet issue with the Archmage Robes. I fixed that with the Summonable Private Quarters, which provides a station where you can mess with slots for armour/clothing sets. There’s lots of use for this mod besides just making your amulets and ears visible, but this is what I primarily use it for.To make it work you need the Core files of Cobl, so manually download that and move the core folder into Oblivion’s Data folder.

I also use a couple of animation mods, namely Staff Animation which changes the PC’s idles and the way they move when holding a staff so it looks less awkward.

There’s also the Heroic Female Idle Replacer which is less stiff than the vanilla female idle. Otherwise I recommend searching through the Oblivion Nexus’ animation tag and finding any mods that suit you and your characters best.

Project Oblivion Gate Destruction Spell is useful if you get tired of diving into gates over and over again when you just want to get on with the game. Just cast the spell and poof, no more gate and you still get the Sigil Stone. It’s good for when you’ve already played the game over a few times.

The Elder Scrolls Online Imports is a must have if you love ESO like I do. It adds some bits of lore, creatures, and locations from ESO.

Better Cities makes the cities of Cyrodiil more varied and interesting, though it might be a bit troublesome at times. I’ve had the occasional problem with this mod, purely based on load order so just keep that in mind. Otherwise it’s a gorgeous mod with a lot of effort and creativity put into it.

Vanilla Staff Replacer isn’t necessary if you’re not playing a mage, but I really enjoy it personally ^^

I’m going to add Black Horse Colour Overhaul because it honestly bugs me that the black horses in Oblivion aren’t black

Companion Vilja is a mod I haven’t actually used yet, but I’ve got installed for this playthrough because I’ve been meaning to play it forever. Apparently Terry Pratchett himself contributed to this mod, so that should speak for its quality.

I hope this was helpful to you Nonnie, and good luck with modding Oblivion ^^

[hadleys-hopeless]

Happy Thursday! Today I will be continuing to share my thoughts and opinions on season 2 of Roswell New Mexico. This week we arrive at episode 7, "Como La Flor". So, when I first watched this episode my initial reaction was that it was probably my least favorite episode so far this season. I am not at all saying it was a bad episode, it was a very very good episode. But in the grand scheme of what I've seen so far, something has to be my least favorite and this episode was probably that. I think the root cause of my feeling that way would probably have to be how awful Liz and Rosa's mother (unsurprisingly) was.

Personal sidebar: my husband comes from a very volatile childhood home situation, in which his drug and alcohol addicted mother abused and neglected him and his brother and then decided around the time he was ten that she just didn't need to stick around and left. When it got to the part where it was revealed Mama Ortecho was there to try and steal from them, I heard my husband quietly say to himself "how fucking dare you, you piece of shit." So this episode really struck a very personal chord with my family. While Rosa is not my favorite character, she has long reminded me of my husband and his battle with depression, being bipolar and substance abuse thanks to his wonderful mother and upbringing.

But anyways, moving on to what happened in this episode. Shall we start at the beginning?

I really enjoyed the beginning of this episode and Isobel trying to help Rosa control her powers. I'm really enjoying Rosa and Isobel's dynamic and enjoyed watching them together this entire episode. ("IN POD WE TRUST" I died laughing-Lily Cowles' Isobel is fast becoming one of my favorite characters this season). I also found Rosa's outburst directed towards Max to be a very reasonable response. He was literally haunting her until about an episode ago. It will be interesting to see if she is able to get all of this under control. Although I have a feeling if she continues to abuse substances, that will probably not be the case. Speaking of which, another episode ending with this character choosing old habits and abusing a substance? When are we going to get this poor girl some help?!

I enjoyed the Liz, Arturo, Max, and Helena storyline (other than the fact that the mom was a complete piece of crap) because I absolutely love Papa Ortecho and the fact that even though this is a show about aliens we're taking the time to include this pure side story about this man trying to become a citizen of our country. Beautiful. Plus we got a lot of Max and Liz together and I am just a sucker for them and their unbelievable chemistry on screen. They rival Jason and Shiri with their chemistry, in my opinion. I also liked seeing Rosa react to being around this person who was so triggering to her. I might have cheered when that car set on fire.

Now on to Michael, Maria and Kyle's storyline. They continue to do a much better job of writing Michael and Maria together this season. I'm seeing the way they enjoy each other and care for each other in ways that just really did not come across in the first season (to me, at least). So I'm liking their relationship more. Also, I have a theory here about Maria and her visions. She was not having visions like this in the first season while she had on that necklace with the alien pollen. But after removing that necklace in episode 4 to give to her mother now all the sudden this is happening. I also strongly feel that her mom did not start going crazy until she took that necklace off as well. So could these visions be what induces her mental illness? Was the necklace blocking part of her power, and thus keeping her mind safe? I also felt the way that she came off in that very last scene where she seemed almost to be on a high from saving Kyle, was very *not normal* for Maria. She seemed off to me. I wonder if that was on purpose?

I also like how it's establishing that while she and her family can see into the future, they don't get the whole story. Just like Mimi saw a beagle with Alex and it turned out to not be his beagle, Maria saw these lights and assumed Kyle was being abducted, when in actuality it was a car that was going to hit him. I like that they don't get a complete picture.

Also, Maria's wardrobe this particular episode was fantastic. As a die-hard football fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars (Yes, they suck, I know- but I was born here so 🤷‍♀️), I wanted to steal that jacket off of her and wear it to every future home game. 🏈

One last comment on Kyle's storyline. Does anybody like Steph? Because I find her character to be confusing at best and boring at worst. Am I the only one? I've seen some pretty good theories bopping around on this site about her maybe being a twin and things like that so maybe it's a wait-and-see situation we've got on our hands here. But for me personally, she's the one weak link to this season that I'm not enjoying. Everything else I'm loving.

So, those are my thoughts on episode 7! We are now half way thru season 2! Next week's episode looks really interesting and I do love Jamie Clayton. Be back with more thoughts after it airs!

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of September 11th, 2019

Best of this Week: Moon Knight: Acts of Evil Annual #1 - Cullen Bunn, Ibrahim Moustafa, Matt Horak, Mike Spicer and Joe Sabino

It only makes sense that Kang and Khonshu would have some history together. 

One of Kangs many aliases over time is that of Rama-Tut, a man that once ruled Egypt before his many, many jumps through time. Khonshu is a God of the Moon and more than likely would have been someone that Rama-Tut worshipped or spat in the face of given Kang’s own ego, but the way that their relationship is developed here is amazing and fantastic, setting up a long and storied history for Moon Knight on par with that of Hawkman.

Beginning in the Egyptian Age of 2,500 BC, the Moon Knight of that era and his followers do their best to keep three artifacts away from Kang and his men as he will no doubt use them to mess with time, a power that they feel should only belong to Khonshu. In just a few short pages, we see just how far back the legacy of the Moon Knight mantle goes as this unnamed warrior fights just as valiantly as Marc Spector in the modern day. As Kang makes short work of the followers and begins to make his way through time, Moon Knight throws a few Moonerangs at the Conqueror, damaging one of the totems, casting all three through time and space. 

One of the more interesting things to happen is that Khonshu takes time to visit Kang in the time stream, asking why his child has chosen to do something so horrible to his church. Kang reacts with an anger that we don’t normally see from the cold and calculating villain, suggesting that any worship he may done for Khonshu left him feeling weak and that his own mastery of time proves that he is far superior to the Moon God. Khonshu leaves him with a warning that his other Avatars will continue to stand in Kangs way through time.

From this point on, we’re planted into a modern day that is somehow changed to fit Kang’s will with the only deviation being possibly Marc Spector’s Moon Knight and several followers of Khonshu. They lead Marc through a tear in time and this takes him to the first of many locations throughout time. I won’t go through all of them, but there’s so much future story potential here for any number of Moon Knight tales and their many interesting routes. There’s a Moon Lawman of the West, to a Moon Knight that could have fought with The Invaders in WWII, a Chicago gangster that I refer to as Moons Malone and finally the first Avatar of Khonshu, a woman from Mesopotamia.

Each of these characters are different in personality and yet serve the same purpose and ferocity that we see from the modern moon Knight. Horak and Moustafa do their best to make each one of them distinct and of their times while maintaining that Moon Knight style The actions scenes that are presented are a wild and dynamic ride seeing Marc jumping around and superhero landing or kicking damn near everything in sight. One of the best shots in the book is a panel that stretches between the staple pages with World War Moon Knight punching a Nazi as Marc crashes through a ceiling window, causing glass to fall on a Nazi officer. The blur placed on Marc as he crashes down with terminal velocity is unintentionally hilarious, but also showcases just how crazy he is.

Mike Spicer did an excellent job of coloring this book in such a way that no matter what background was drawn, Moon Knights white color scheme stood out all the time. The same can be said for Kang’s green and purple, but in a more gross and “why does he wear these awful colors way.” He also does extremely well with things that give off energy, making them seem more vibrant and cool. The best examples of this are the moments when The Scarab totem is showcased with a red outline, even in the smallest situations it is absolutely eye catching and the moments when the ther Moon Knights are summoned from all over time to fight Kang and their poofs appear in bright purples and greens.

One of the other panels that stands out is the first appearance of the Mesopotamian Moon Knight. Her mask, crouch pose and makeshift bone claws make her look like a serial killer, especially with the MANY bodies of Kangs through time around her. While looking to be the most intense, she is also the most dedicated as she ends up sacrificing her life to ensure Kangs ultimate defeat at the end of the book. She doesn’t die, but she has to concentrate to keep him trapped for as long as she can so that he cannot try to use the artifacts to change time again, placing her out of time with even her God Khonshu. 

This is a really interesting take on belief vs. faith as both Marc and Khonshu have differing points of views on her actions at the end. Marc, being a modern man finds it difficult finds it hard to see her as a priestess without a God. Khonshu see a dedicated follower that is only her faith, knowing that a long as she has that, then she will need nothing else. It’s hard to see whose point of view is more correct, I mean, it should be that of Khonshu right? Given that her actions are the only thing keeping the world from falling into a hellscape ruled by Kang, does that mean that she should really do nothing but concentrate on keeping the Conqueror contained?

One other development that comes out of this is the idea that Marc is starting to become disillusioned by Khonshu’s actions and disregard for the lives of his followers. At the same time, this also may make little sense in the grand scheme of things as Marc, at least by the time of Jeff Lemire’s Moon Knight series, has already conquered Khonshu for control of the legacy. He hasn’t been at the mercy of Khonshu for a long time, but who’s to say how canon this is anyway?

Either way, I loved this book and Moon Knight’s continued storied existence, high recommend. 

---------------------------------------------------

Runner Up: Silver Surfer: Black #4 - Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart and Clayton Cowles

Don’t read this if you’re high, Tradd Moore’s visuals are far more trippy and beautiful than any of the previous issues and this is a WILD ride.

After discovering the incubator of Galactus buried within the body of a young Ego the Living Planet, The Surfer has to make a choice of whether or not he should kill the destroyer before he is able to cause the sheer number of genocides that he will become feared for in the future, all the while his Power Cosmic is fading as Knull encroaches further on the hero. 

There are so many intricacies that make Tradd Moore’s art so exciting in this issue. Moore has a particular style where everything seems quite a bit distorted and stretched. His art flows like water and allows the eyes to move gracefully from panel to panel, even in the most trippy of pages because clear lines are drawn to attract ones sight through a page. The Surfer, looks smooth, mostly thanks to Moore's use of shining techniques and dark inks for reflections. 

There are grand portions of the story where you feel like you're peering into dimensions that your mind just isn't prepared for. One such scene is when the Surfer takes Galactus' incubator to a white dwarf star to absolutely destroy it. The sheer scale and magnitude of this thing was almost overwhelming, speaking nothing of its brightness as well. 

At a point, The Surfer decides to enter Galactus' incubator to see into the dying days of the last universe he inhabited before this new one as he went to try and kill him. The Surfer almost looks as if he's melting upon hearing the dying screams of millions. He's heard similar cacophonous bellows of terror, but from Galactus these screams are multiplied many times over and the next half of the page is coated in a bloody red of fear.

Dave Stewart's colors are also a main contributor to this spectacular look. Stewart has an amazing history of great stories that he's colored and Silver Surfer: Black takes this to a whole new level. After the Surfer enters Galactus' mindscape, we are met with a torrent of blood, fire and Galactus' menacing shape standing above it all, acting as a warning to the Surfer. The shading of reds in the blood ocean, the flaming skies, Galactus' towering figure and the HANDS REACHING UP FROM THE BLOOD OCEAN are absolutely amazing and terrifying. 

The Surfer stands out as being the only silver thing on this double splash page which speaks to Stewart's sense of page awareness as we're clearly able to start from where he appears and then work our way up to the massive Galactus up above.

Special hell yeahs given to Clayton Cowles and his expert lettering, capturing my imagination with how each bubble is used. Ego's in particular resonate with me for the choice to have purple letters offset by a background of yellow and purple that creates a hazy, 3D look. It's a small detail that ultimately gives the book and the Living Planet far more character, making them stand out very well.

Not only is the art some of the best I have ever seen, but the story told here is phenomenal as well. I have almost never seen The Silver Surfer so conflicted over something he was absolutely sure about just moments before. He meets Galan before he becomes Galactus and they have a conversation. Though the Surfer would avoid the death of thousands or more worlds, his hands would still be stained of blood, the Universe itself would face massive consequences and he will have used murder to justify his actions, making him a villain. 

This is amazing storytelling in that it is not too often that we see The Surfer speak to his master with a clear mind, even more so when he knows the outcomes of his actions and has to choose between the future he knows or a potentially better future or far worse one. The conflict gives an already layered character even more layers and guilt given the action at the end of this book.

With the next issue being the last of this miniseries, I hope that the ripples of this story will continue to be felt throughout the continuing Guardians of the Galaxy and Absolute Carnage storylines. The Silver Surfer has been around for decades and is in great need of some change and if losing the Power Cosmic through the spread of black on his body is the way to do it, then I am all for it. High recommend.

[nattan3]

Batman’s Legacy

I hate whenever I see people talk about who should inherit the Batman mantel because honest to God think none of them should become Batman. Sure, it would be an interesting concept for all/some of them to TEMPORARILY act as Batman if he is indisposed but none of the Batfam should permanently take Batman’s place.

See with superheroes like the Flash it is easy to have Wally or Bart replace the current flash because they have identical fighting styles. Their fighting style is based on their meta ability thus, they fight in near identical ways. The bats however, do not have any meta abilities. Their fighting style is based on their body types and personality which all vastly differ from each other. Because of this Dick can never reach his full potential as Batman as he would nightwing as the bat suit is heavy and will not allow him to do the acrobatics that suit his body. Out of all the bats(not including Damian since he hasn’t had his growth spurt) Jason has the most similar fighting style that would allow him to successfully become Batman but it’s also Jason and I really don’t think becoming Mr tall dark and broody will help with his mental health. I also extremely hate the idea of Damian taking the mantel. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with this character depending on how he’s written. When writers focus so much on how he’s Batman’s blood son it pisses me off to no end because it disregards the whole families of choice vibe the Batfam has going on. But anyway, I love seeing Damian growing up and finding a life outside the predestined life hat his mother has indoctrinated into his head. I want him to create his own mantel and my personal Headcannon is him becoming a vet. I feel that having him become Batman is disrespectful to his character as it doesn’t let him grow and become his own person it makes him still seem trapped by his upbringing in the league. Finally, Cass if anyone had to take the mantel I would be happiest if its her. But I honestly can’t see anyone calling her BatMAN. I feel like the press would inadvertently end up calling her Batwoman. She also has such a different skill set to Batman I feel it’s better if she just remains black bat. Bruce’s legacy should not be BATMAN or who takes the cowl but it should be the children who he raised and trained and who he gave a new chance. His legacy should be the unique and individual vigilantes who all wear the bat symbol. Because those those are the names they chose to maximise their skill set and potential. When Batman dies/retires I want to see Nightwing, red hood, red robin, batgirl, black bat, oracle and whoever Damian becomes work together to protect Gotham.

[incoherentbabblings]

As someone who loves the timsteph relationship i hate what new 52 robbed us of. Tim had previously been a dick to Steph by telling her to never be a hero again and Steph had been a dick to Tim by faking her death and lying to him but they still obviously cared about each other and i feel like they would have gotten back together if new 52 hadnt happened

Oh for sure!

I’ve always been on the fence with their interactions when Steph came back because on the one hand it’s just plain bad writing in that, Steph had no reason to follow through on Batman’s bizarre plan to make Tim a better Robin.  She had nothing to prove to Bruce since she’d survived being tortured for god know’s how long and still came back to help people once she’d healed.  She even asks Bruce if she’s welcome back and Bruce affirms yes ‘if you want it’.  And then she notices straight away that Tim is acting and behaving far more coldly and assigns herself her the mission of basically bringing joy back into his life.

So even though ‘she was hiding in Africa and lied to everyone about it’ there were ways round it where you could address it but also remember that the poor girl had been through a lot and I wouldn’t blame her for wanting to disappear.  The fact that she realised she wouldn’t ever be able to stop helping people and she needed to go back to Gotham I feel is really important to her character and something her and Tim (and the batfam in general) have in common, like a chronic need to protect people.  It’s an important part of her character which people tend to ignore for wanting to spite her dad or Bruce or any of the people who doubted her.

Tim’s behaviour is also really cold and annoying to read but I think it’s just showing that he was shutting down emotionally and just that he was terrified for Steph.  I wish they’d more of a big deal of why Tim was a bit shifty around Bruce after War Games, after all Bruce didn’t let Stephanie and Tim talk to each other while she was Robin, he hid that Stephanie had been kidnapped as long as he could and he stopped Tim from being with her when she was dying (EVEN THOUGH she was asking after him.  She was terrified he hated her and yes Bruce reassures her that Tim adores her always has always will she should have had a moment with Tim, to hear it from him.  She just deserved better.  Every part of those arcs. She deserved better).  Bruce massively bungled how much the two were reliant on each other but dead dad and dead best friend meant she got lost in the shuffle and was just one of many dead loved ones.  Which is bad writing and bad editorial for a character that was fridged to make Bruce and Tim sad.  But we all know that.    

Moving to when she came back, their conversation on the rooftop after Battle for the Cowl has Tim inform Steph that a) he’s leaving Gotham b) he wants her to stop wearing the costume because c) he’s scared for her and of her actions.  So it’s pretty ‘this is us done for real’. And yet they are drawn doing this

Which is part of why they had such an interesting dynamic because their body language is always having them stand close together with lots of hand holding and face smushing.  Which you normally don’t do with an ex or someone you don’t trust.  One of the first posts I made about these two was showing how often they are drawn with their hands reaching out to the other during their batgirl and red robin run.  It’s near constant in the batgirl issue and crops up a few times in red robin too.

Also all throughout his RR solo Tim’s gutted that he feels like he can’t trust her anymore until he grows up a little and is like yeah I was wrong actually she’s doing so well and meanwhile she’s doing her own thing trying to cement down why she can’t ever stop doing what she does and it’s not to spite her dad anymore and it’s not so she can maybe on the off chance run across Tim anymore.  At the same time, I think Miller wrote during their crossover that Tim and Steph’s relationship is one which he describes as “comfort and familiarity” hence why Steph stopped them getting back together at that moment.  She was in a transition stage in her life and needed to focus on grounding herself before she could ‘fall back in’ with Tim, and I think Tim understood that.  Also he was dating Tam so he shouldn’t have tried it in the first place but Tim is forever dating Ariana/Zo/Tam/Cassie and then smooching Steph and realising oh no that one that one I like that one more and usually Steph is like lol ok sure I like you too.

By the end of their respective runs you have Steph in a very good place whereas Tim’s work at building himself back from the ground up is shaken in that final issue with him essentially trying to murder his father’s murderer, and Bruce’s response to his actions makes Tim sort of… shut down again, after everything he put himself through to convince others that Bruce wasn’t dead.   Tim’s growth came mostly from re-connecting with Dick and Cass, Stephanie, and the Titans.

So I guess if I’d had my way what would have been the best way for these two to find their way back to each other would have been post Bat Inc when Steph gets back from England and Tim has a proper sit down with Bruce and Dick and is like ‘the past two years have been really hard and I think I’m getting there but need a bit more help’ and like… put himself together first.  I kinda like to read Steph and Tim’s final interactions during their crossover as a sort of ‘wait for me a bit longer okay?’ line of thought.  Steph doesn’t say ‘I’m not doing this with you anymore’, she says ‘This isn’t good for me right now’ which just goes to show how emotionally intelligent she is, especially regarding herself by the mid point of her batgirl run.  Tim needed to work on his own crap first before they could meet halfway.  

Anyway I really recommend Sorry I Bruced You by quipquipquip which is how I headcanon them growing back together.  Steph did a lot of hard work looking at why and how she was going to be a hero after being physically and emotionally wrecked by her torture.  Tim had started to do so but stumbled at the end of Red Robin, and I think he needed to do a bit more work on himself.  Ultimately it wasn’t Stephanie’s job to make him a lighter person.  It would have been nice for them reuniting to be a ‘look how far we’ve come apart and yet I still at the end of the day want to sit and talk with you on your mum’s old couch because you’re warm, safe, gentle and alive’.

But HEY thanks reboot for dropping all that and wiping Steph from existence and breaking Tim away from what made him that gentle boy in the first place.  Don’t get me wrong I actually really love the way Tynion wrote them together but to like properly love it you have to read it with all of their pre-War Games interactions in mind which is an understandable but still not great cut off point. I’ve always wanted Tim and Stephanie to be the one couple of the batfam who just kind of do their own thing and live in their own bubble and get on with their own lives whilst the rest of the batfam romantic relationships are more than welcome to be full blown melodrama any given day of the week.  And I think DC sees it that way?  The number of hints in other universes where Tim pops up in the future tend to imply Steph is a presence too (Batman Beyond, Nightwing New Order, Tom King’s Batman Annual… the exception is the original Batman of Tomorrow Arcs, where Steph was dead and LOOK HOW THAT TURNED OUT FOR EVERYONE and in even in Tynion’s run where she isn’t dead in the future BatTim is like…haunted by her disapproval, she really is his anchor when given the chance to be) and this has gone on long enough look what you’ve done anon(!!!)

[thassalia]

So, I was going to write something short (since it's mid-day and I have an assload of things to do) about why the last chapter we posted of The Box Set makes me weepy, and how it was also one of those writerly moments in concept when @handypolymath and I were all "well, shit. We could inadvertently make this canon compliant-ish and also, of course it makes sense to do x, y and z." But I just looked at a Natasha Romanoff gif-set on tumblr at lunch, and it's not like there are new images of Natasha, but this one was a really nice compilation of some of her subtler facial expressions over the course of all the movies, and it just hit me so hard for some reason. How much I love this character, how much I personally have loved her arc. And how I really think that (in the MCU), Nat is the obvious choice to take up the Captain America mantle if Steve falls.

Don't get me wrong, I love Sam Wilson. I think Sam is a good dude, smart, sharp, loyal, funny, brave. But Sam, in the MCU, is a soldier. He makes his own calls, he risks his life to do what he believes in, but he's not a leader. He potentially also has a life (he seems like a guy with a life – a family, romantic interests, hobbies). And that's a tough road for Captain America. And we haven't really seen that Sam's built the skills to wear the cowl. Not in this universe, not yet. And Bucky, the other comics-option, is a recovering-psychopath just trying to get his memories back. He may have some good qualities, but he's still as much Winter Soldier as Bucky Barnes, and neither of those people are leaders. Neither of them can inspire the type of loyalty necessary to make a devastating call for the greater good.

You know who can? Natasha Romanoff. (And possibly James Rhodes, although in some ways, Rhodey is too smart for that. And again, Rhodey seems like a guy with a life, one he would probably sacrifice if called to, but maybe not one he'd dismiss out of hand).

Natasha is smart, sharp, observant, fearless, loyal, pragmatic, and Natasha MORE THAN ANYONE IN THE FUCKING MCU understands the hard call. I don't need to re-iterate. I've written essays on Nat's willingness to do what's hard. She can assess a situation, she can lead, she's capable of tactics and duplicity, but she's also trying, deeply, deeply trying to look at her actions as efforts towards the greater good.

Natasha has built a life of doing better from an existence of doing harm. She knows what both sides look like. She understands the pressures. She's not still digging her way out of them (like Bucky), or trying to distinguish between loyalty and leadership (like Sam). She believes in the life she's built, but she will always put the world first (like Steve). However, unlike Steve, she also understands compromise. Understands bowing to a force in theory, and doing what you need to in practice.

Nat could hold the shield, could order lives lost, could accept them and move forward for the greater good.

Natasha has already given up the dream of a domestic life. Not only because she fell in love with the person least likely to be able to be her partner in that life (oh Bruce, sigh.) But because she never really believed in the possibility of it. She has too much she needs to make up for. And she's already made a commitment to put the world ahead of her desires. She's not unlike Steve in that way, except when it comes down to it (in this 'verse, Steve can't quite do that. In part, because Steve keeps seeing the betrayal of the things he signed up for. Any illusions Natasha may have harbored about governments or groups were eradicated during CA:TWS, and even those, I suspect, she looked at as childish delusions anyway, hurt as she may have been).

Natasha trusts her own judgement. Natasha has already stood in front of the world as a soldier, a spy, a diplomat, a traitor, a hero and taken on the judgement of everyone from senators to civilians to those she loves.

For all of Natasha's Russian pragmatism, she is the embodiement of the American dream. Break the shackles of your past, rise from nothing, change your life, change the world, stand for something. Stand up. Stand.

Nat can handle the responsibility. Would she want it? No. I don't think so. I don't think Natasha really would ever want to stand as a leader in a sparkling uniform. I think she will always prefer to exist in the corners and shadows, but if anyone had the credentials to take up the Shield, it would be Nat.

[aion-rsa]

Batwoman: Where Does Wallis Day’s Kate Kane Fit in Gotham?

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This Batwoman article contains spoilers through Season 2, Episode 12.

Following the revelation earlier this season that Kate Kane is, in fact, very much alive, Batwoman fans have been wondering how, exactly, the former Scarlet Knight might return to a show that has largely moved on without her. After all, Ryan Wilder is fully Batwoman in her own right now and the show has recalibrated itself accordingly. Her unique perspective as both a Black woman and a product of Gotham’s failed justice system has allowed Batwoman to tell the kinds of radically different stories that most superhero series aren’t even attempting. And Ryan is building her own relationships with Luke, Mary, Sophie, and even Alice (sort of). Is this a world that even has room for Kate Kane – let alone still needs her?

According to Wallis Day, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The former Krypton star made her official debut as Kate Kane in Season 2 episode “Initiate Self Destruct,” and spoke to Den of Geek about the excitement and challenges that have come with taking over the role.

“There’s always going to be a place for Kate in Gotham,” Day says. “I genuinely believe that she’s so integral to all these other characters in the show – if you look at Alice and you look at Jacob and Mary, they orbit around Kate.”

Day teases that the actor behind the character won’t be the only change we see in Kate Kane when she returns to Gotham in Season 2: “I think the main difference is the Kate that we see now, post-season one, has had so much more happen to her. There’s so much more depth to her.  I think that’s probably the main difference, and it’s very exciting.”

Day herself, who starred for two seasons as Nyssa-Vex in Syfy’s Krypton, is over the moon about returning to the world of DC Comics and its characters. “I absolutely love it,” Day says. “I love the DC universe so much. And I think having the chance to play you know, more of a hero instead of a villain is so exciting. But then again Nyssa sort of flipped and I feel like this could as well. Oh, my goodness. I am just really excited for her, [to play her].” 

Of course, at the moment, Kate’s return probably doesn’t look the way most of us Batwoman fans might expect. She’s not only clearly been damaged physically and mentally – she also doesn’t even really know she’s Kate. Thanks to the hypnotist Enigma, she now believes herself to be Circe Sionis, the daughter of False Face Society leader Roman, who is also the infamous Black Mask.

“The Circe thing is amazing. That is a whole different element,” Day says. “And I don’t play Circe as Kate who believes she’s Circe, because that’s not what Circe would believe. But then you see fragments of [Kate’s] memories that come back, and you’ll see that I incorporate more of Kate as we journey through this season. There’s just such an incredible storyline with her.”

Day, who spends her first episode wearing a wooden mask that hides her face, had to rely on her physicality not just to initially define her Kate, but also to differentiate her from Circe, the woman she believes herself to be.

“I’m such a physical person. I work with a movement coach before everything I do. And obviously, your face is your main form of expression, with acting,” Day explains. “So, we had to basically we had to amp up the physicality of it. [Just] really hone in on how Circe moves in comparison to how Kate moves her body. And then I put a lot of the emphasis in the eyes because obviously, [that’s what] you can see through the mask.” 

“[But] Kate is still in there,” she insists. “I think it’s going to take core memories and key moments and key people in Kate’s life to be able to bring back [her] memories and personality and overpower Enigma has been able to do.”

It’s also not an accident that Day’s first major scenes as Kate occur opposite Rachel Skarsten’s Alice, a character who has admittedly floundered a bit in the wake of Ryan’s arrival, spending most of her time isolated from the rest of the series’ cast. And though Batwoman gave Ryan a perfectly justifiable reason to despise Alice, their antagonistic relationship has really never felt that compelling. Of course – as “Initiate Self Destruct” proves – Ryan is never going to go out of her way to save or help the woman that killed her mother. 

“I think the thing I’m most excited about is for Kate to reconnect with Alice/Beth,” Day says. “Obviously, the whole twin storyline is so powerful anyway, and I feel like they have so much potential as one kind of villain twin sister and one hero twin sister. It’s just so exciting for me that they can do so much with it.”

“Rachel was one of the first people that reached out to me,” she elaborates. “And I know how important this recast has been for [her]. It was so important for me and Rach to get the chemistry right between our characters and to do this the right way. We had so many conversations before I even got to Vancouver – speak on the phone, FaceTime, and just really get down to the nitty-gritty of who Beth is and who Kate is, what Beth has been through [on her own], and what they’ve been through together.”

Read more

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By Nicole Hill

Of course, Kate’s long-awaited return to Gotham does raise an important question – how will Batwoman navigate the balance between its former leading lady and its current one? The show has really put in the work to center Ryan’s Batwoman as a new and different kind of hero with a uniquely interesting story in her own right. But it’s still true that many of Batwoman’s supporting characters still have strong, deep ties to Kate. 

“I think Kate is so concentrated right now on trying to find out who she is and what’s happened to her in the last year that there’s definitely, definitely space for both Kate and Ryan on this show,” Day said.

At the moment, it certainly seems possible that Kate may never take up a vigilante mantle of any type again. That’s more than her right, after everything she’s been through. Maybe she doesn’t want to be Batwoman anymore if she doesn’t have to be – or maybe she’d rather take up a different mantle within the Bat Team since Ryan seems to be doing fine in the cowl on her own. There’s certainly plenty of story to explore – in a way that could, should the show decide to do so, keep both women around. But it sounds as though we may have to wait a while to find out either way.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“Whether we see Kate step up or not, I don’t know yet. But there is definitely room for them [both] in this show. And I think the answer to your question [about how Kate will fit back into the world she left behind] is probably going a story to be told next season.”

The post Batwoman: Where Does Wallis Day’s Kate Kane Fit in Gotham? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/33bBXFg

[fyeahbatcat]

Batman Annual 2: A Romantic Opus About the Transcendence of Love

This past Wednesday, DC Comics released the highly anticipated Batman Annual #2, by Tom King with art by Lee Weeks and Michael Lark. The issue, which promised to “see the early days of the Bat and the Cat”, went far above and beyond a mere Batman and Catwoman date night tale. A story that is less dense in plot but rich in narrative with truly amazing art and breathtaking coloring, the Annual is an emotional game changer that easily inserts itself as one of the greatest Batman and Catwoman stories of all time and opens the door for much broader implications for the future of Bat and Cat.

The Rebirth of the Bat and the Cat

After more than half a decade spent on the back-burner (the way back-burner) writer Tom King has spent much of his eighteen month tenure as the Batman head-writer reestablishing the relationship between Batman and Catwoman. He made it clear that the relationship would be a major focal point in the Batman books, rather than the standard obligatory romantic subplot when he made the surprising decision to have Batman propose to Catwoman earlier this year. Perhaps even more surprisingly Catwoman accepted Batman’s proposal after a long wait. 

The relationship between Batman and Catwoman is long and ever changing. It began in Batman #1 in 1940 as flirtatious frenemies and was established as a canon relationship during the Bronze Age under the tutelage of Len Wein. The relationship broke out of the comics in the 1990s and went on to become one of DC Comics’ most recognized and popular relationships. Having been featured in two live-action television shows, three movies, countless animated series, and thousands of comics the romance between Gotham’s hard line crime-fighter and most infamous femme fatale endeared themselves to fans and writers alike and the relationship was allowed to be pushed forward. In 2003 during the Hush storyline by Jeph Loeb, in a demonstration of trust Batman revealed his identity to Catwoman for the first time. During the time that followed the relationship received more focus and development than in previous eras. However, by the time the Pre-Flashpoint era ended in 2011 things ended between Batman and Catwoman in the finale of the Gotham City Sirens series where it usually ended: in limbo. 

Unfortunately, the succeeding era, New 52, saw a baffling destruction of DC’s legacies. Legacies were eliminated, histories were changed, and some characters were erased altogether. Romance was hit particularly hard and nearly every DC relationship was eradicated. Superman and Lois Lane’s fifteen year marriage was wiped out and Lois was virtually exiled from the Superman universe. Green Arrow and Black Canary became strangers and remained that way much to the ire of fans. Although Wonder Woman’s original love interest, Steve Trevor, returned to the comics more prominently than he had been in the previous era, Wonder Woman was quickly shuffled into a relationship with Superman. 

In an embarrassing episode in 2013 DC made their new stance on romance abundantly clear when Batwoman writers, W. Haden Black and J.H. Williams III, abruptly resigned from the critically acclaimed, best-selling series after DC refused to allow the titular character to marry her longtime partner and other instances of editorial interference. DC Comics was accused of homophobia and many fans vowed to stop reading the comics. Responding to the controversy, Co-Publisher Dan Didio, said in no uncertain terms that marriage was forbidden at DC Comics. 

They put on a cape and cowl for a reason. They’re committed to defending others — at the sacrifice of all their own personal instincts. That’s something we reinforce. If you look at every one of the characters in the Batman family, their personal lives kind of suck…Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Kathy Kane — it’s wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it’s also just as important that they put it aside as they know what they are accomplishing as the hero takes precedence over everything else. That is our mandate, that is our edict, that is our stand with our characters.

Batman and Catwoman absolutely languished during this time. Their relationship which had previously been loving and trusting was reduced to an insulting cross between virtual strangers and friends with benefits. For five years DC Comics seemingly did everything they could think of to avoid the relationship and fans took notice. In 2015 after a series of failed relaunches, a two year sales low, and an increasing market lag behind Marvel it became clear that New 52 had failed to attract and sustain the audience that DC had hoped for in 2011. With the DCEU taking off, mediocrity was no longer an option. In 2016 DC announced Rebirth, yet another relaunch, this time promising for a return to the old and in many ways it did. Superman and Lois Lane’s marriage was restored and a son, Jon, came in addition. Steve Trevor was once again a prominent supporting character in Wonder Woman as well as her main love interest. Even Midniter and Apollo made a comeback. 

Batman and Catwoman did not reunite as instantaneously as many had hoped. They were featured in a series of poorly timed variant covers at the start of Rebirth but Catwoman had yet to make any appearances. Relatively new DC writer, Tom King, was announced as the Batman main writer and at New York Comic Con he teased that Catwoman was to become the co-lead of Batman. Catwoman’s eventual debut in Batman #9 as a mass murderer facing the death penalty did not warrant a positive response and diminished the hopes of many fans that Rebirth would be a kinder era to Catwoman and Batman and Catwoman’s relationship. Although it was expected by many that this newest revelation was likely a red herring, after five years of New 52 their patience was wearing thin. 

Meanwhile Batman and Catwoman teamed up to invade Bane’s sanctuary to kidnap Psycho Pirate, an encounter that cumulated in the Rooftops arc. Catwoman’s innocence was finally revealed, and for the first time since Heart of Hush was published nearly a decade prior Batman and Catwoman declared their love for each other. While the jury is still out on King’s execution he has undeniably reestablished Batman and Catwoman as a canon romance. His tale is of two lonely, damaged orphans who see and accept the best and the worst in each other who despite their shared traumas find hope and happiness with each other. 

All of them can laugh. Mother. Father. Him. The whole world. They can see me in this idiocy and they can laugh and laugh and laugh. But you. Selina. Cat. You wouldn’t. Because you know. You know what this is…And you, Cat. You know. Because if you’ve made that choice, you can see it in another. You can see it in me. I can see it in you.

- Bruce Wayne to Selina Kyle in Batman #12

King’s interpretation of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship differs from almost every other writer’s interpretation because he doesn’t bog the relationship down with the will they/won’t they trope and hyper focus on juvenile sexual tension at the expense of substantial development. Rather than portray Batman and Catwoman as opposites that attract, he understands that they’re similar. 

They’re missing pieces in a puzzle and they understand each other in ways that other people can’t. “I need you,” Batman says before proposing to Catwoman for the first time in main canon history. 

Batman Annual #2

To appreciate the Annual is to appreciate Tom King’s Bat and Cat. The former half of the issue reiterates King’s consistent interpretation throughout his Batman run. Batman and Catwoman are orphans who see and understand each other in ways that other people don’t and are bonded by their trauma. 

Where King separates himself from other writers and takes his interpretation even further is in the second act of the book. An aged and married Bruce and Selina are living a happy albeit seemingly unextraordinary life retired from crime-fighting, and they even have an adult daughter who is operating as Batwoman. Things take a quick, heartbreaking turn when Bruce is inflicted by a nondescript illness. He’s dying and there’s plainly nothing to be done. Mortality is unavoidable. Bruce lived an extraordinary life and died a natural, ordinary, human death. 

The tragic part of Bruce’s death isn’t even the fact that he dies. What’s sad about it is how much Bruce and Selina don’t want to leave each other and how they try to stay strong for one another. Even though he is dying Bruce’s only concern is that after he passes Selina will be okay, and that she won’t be lonely. They both muse using magic and time travel to try to cheat death just so they can stay together. 

There are those who abhor what King has done to the Batman books by portraying a Bruce that is more vulnerable and driven by things other than crime fighting. Everyone has a favorite version and preference, but it’s baffling as to why anyone would think that something like marriage would take something away from who Batman is as a character or why anyone would think that Bruce is better off as a loner. To quote another blogger, “Geez, what do these people want for Bruce, anyway? For him to die alone and clinically depressed, his body marred and broken from decades of fighting Gotham’s never-ending crime wave?”

I always use the animated Batman Beyond as a litmus test for how Bruce ends up (Does this version of Bruce Wayne end up like Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond?). In Batman Beyond he ends up a lonely, bitter old curmudgeon who all of his former partners despise and avoid. This is not the ending that Bruce deserves. The Annual portrays a Bruce who breaks the wheel of this portrayal. He dies a natural, wholly unremarkable death surrounded by love after living a long, happy life. It’s what he deserves. It’s the best ending any of us can hope for.

So how did a comic where nothing remarkable happens plot wise illicit such a strong emotional response from readers? It’s because of it’s simplicity that makes it so impactful. For nearly 80 years fans have been told that a simple, happy life for Bruce was asking too much. To finally get to see it happen feels like an affirmation. There is, however, more than enough evidence to indicate that this story is not a telling of Bruce and Selina’s ultimate ending but that this story features a Bruce and Selina of a presumably different universe. 

C’mon guys. Tom King made us wait four months just to find out if Selina said ‘yes.’ Did you really think he’d just tell us their entire life story in one issue? 

An Alternate Universe? 

There is an abundance of evidence within the Annual and the fact that it has been published concurrently with other major DC time altering events to deduce that this story is an AU in some form or another. 

The biggest clue to indicate this is a comment Bruce makes after learning that he his illness is terminal. He tells Selina to find Barry Allen (The Flash) and find another version of him that never marries to take care of her after he’s gone.  Probably the most well known modern Flash story is Flashpoint, where Barry Allen alters events and timelines by traveling back in time and changing history.  This allusion was intentional.  

One of the biggest themes of Rebirth has a whole is the idea of merging times and universes. Remember how New 52 Superman was killed off and replaced with a different version of himself? This is also coinciding with Doomsday Clock where Doctor Manhattan has essentially been experimenting with different realities and universes resulting in a merge of timelines, which published just one week before the Annual. This is not a coincidence.

The second clue is the appearance of Helena Wayne. 

As you we are all probably aware Helena Wayne is Bruce and Selina’s canonical daughter from Earth-2 who operates as the Huntress during in the Pre-Crisis and New 52 eras. Helena was last seen in Earth-2 Society, which ended publication in September, taking up the Batman mantle. Helena Wayne has never been part of the main universe, although many have hoped that she one day would be. This could just be a glimpse of things to come, but the appearance of any characters that are not from the main universe should raise red flags. Which brings me to the next clue. 

When Bruce is on his death bed he is seen surrounded by his loved ones. Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Duke Thomas, even Gotham Girl are all there. Damian Wayne is noticeably absent.  Damian was a pretty big factor in Bruce’s decision to seek happiness as he wanted to set a better example for his son as mentioned in The Button, which was also written by Tom King. Bruce even mentions to Thomas that he has a son (singular). He made it a point to single out Damian so it’s very doubtful that Damian being excluded would’ve gone unnoticed here.

In addition to Damian being nowhere in sight: don’t you think it’s a little bit weird that Damian isn’t there, but Carrie Kelly is?

Carrie Kelly, a prominent character in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight AU series, is a famously non-canonical character. As stated before the appearance of characters that are not from the main universe should indicate that things are not likely what they appear, especially when they are there in the absence of main universe characters. 

Annual issues are really a grab bag of canon. Sometimes they have an impact on the main stories going forward; sometimes they’re standalone stories. It all depends on what the writer wants to do with it. King has been mum about revealing what the Annual will mean for the future of the Batman books, but he did imply that some parts of the Annual will impact the story in the main universe. 

What Does This All Mean?

I seemed to have struck quite a few nerves when I pointed out that the Annual issue features an AU version of Bruce and Selina. I suppose some people were disappointed to realize this and felt like I was ruining the experience. With that said: the Annual issue features an AU version of Bruce and Selina. I do not say this to hurt anyone. I say this because well, for one thing that’s what the evidence indicates. Secondly, to ignore this misses the point of what the Annual is supposed to mean. 

To just accept that the Annual is just a quaint glimpse into the future where Bruce and Selina grow old together in some ways reduces the story to fluff that happens for no other reason than to make the readers feel good, which is the conclusion drawn by a few of the negative reviews. We as readers want to take comfort in knowing what the ultimate ending will be but that misses the point of the Annual entirely. Much of what King has done during his time on the Batman books is vitiate what we’ve come to accept as the status quo in regard to Batman and Catwoman’s relationship and the Batman books in general. 

Here’s what King said about changing the role of romance in the Batman books:

EW: In comics, there’s this general idea that superheroes shouldn’t be happy. We’ve seen this in Spider-Man, Bat-family, and other places. How did you pitch this story to DC Comics? Was there any pushback?

TK: No, because what you’re talking about is looking at happiness as the end of conflict, right? This idea that if a character is content, then there’s nothing dramatic about them and you don’t want a cliffhanger and you don’t want to turn the page. That’s my whole point as an artist — I’m trying to get you to turn a page. But what makes Batman unique is that happiness is, instead of being the end of conflict, the source of conflict. It’s something you haven’t seen before. You throw sadness, you throw depression, you throw horror at Batman, he’s like, “yeah, yawn, I’ve done that.” You throw happiness at him? That’s something that riles him, that’s something that he’s not used to. That’s throwing gas on a fire, and that’s always how I pitched it. This is not the end of something. This is the beginning of something.

Notably when King was asked how he would picture Batman and Catwoman’s marriage he gave a sincere response drawing inspiration from his own marriage rather than relying on the usual excuses for why the relationship wouldn’t work out that writers seem to default to. Compare that to Scott Snyder who said that Batman’s story would always be a tragedy or Dan Didio who said that superheros should be unhappy and issued a departmental ban on marriage.

Batman and Catwoman’s relationship has only marginally progressed in fifteen years. So many writers have hit the exact same rut when attempting to develop the relationship. No matter what the story, no matter who the writer, for one reason or another the relationship just doesn’t work out in the end and they’ve had to invent reasons for why. Batman is too immature. The Joker turns Catwoman evil. Because…reasons. We’ve accepted this as just how things are supposed to be for almost 80 years. If creators are unable to see the relationship beyond everything that’s already been done, then the relationship will never go anywhere. 

The Annual is intended to show us the type of life and relationship that Bruce and Selina can have if everyone abolishes their ideas of the relationship they’re expected to have. King is subverting the expectation of what everyone says their relationship must be like. “Batman and Catwoman can’t be together.” “Batman is only dedicated to his mission.” “Catwoman isn’t suited for married life; she’ll just get bored.” He is showing us that this type of life is possible for them. They can have a long happy life together, and the barriers that have prevented that in the past are simple imaginary.

The point King is trying to make is that even though this isn’t necessarily Prime Earth Batman and Catwoman’s story it still can be.

“I’m not sure it’s 100 percent out of canon,” King said. “…To me and to my Batman, this is a story that’s certainly possible. It’s something I think that could and may come true.” 

Even if this isn’t main universe Bruce and Selina’s story per se that doesn’t mean that it won’t be. This still very well might be their future. That door is not only still open; it’s probably been opened for the first time ever. 

The Timeline

Going by what was indicated in the Annual and by Rebirth’s theme of timeline and universe meshing my prediction is that it will be revealed that the current Catwoman of the main universe is actually from a different timeline or universe or something of the sort. For those who are perplexed by the idea of Selina being from a different universe I’ll remind you that the current Superman and Lois Lane are both versions from a different timeline.    

Some initial reactions to this prediction were quite negative with many believing that this somehow changes things. My question is why? In many ways this would seem symbolic of the longevity and range of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship. They have been and continue to be featured in every form of media for nearly eight decades, including a myriad of alternate universes. They were married on Earth-2 which is a version of them that DC Comics thought was within the realm of possibility but couldn’t quite commit to in the main universe. 

The fact that Bruce is confident that Selina would be happy with another version of himself shows that these versions of fundamentally the same and their feelings for each other never change. Bruce and Selina’s feelings for each other are authentic and that wouldn’t change. It shows that their love for each other transcends all time and space. 

In short Batman Annual #2 is likely to be remembered as one of the greatest Batman and Catwoman stories of all time. The positive response from fans and critics proves to DC Comics that there is a market for this relationship and they can strive for more than what’s already been done. The massive commercial success will hopefully convince the editors that the direction Tom King has taken the book and the characters has been long overdue. Beyond the romantic narrative the Annual opens a world of exciting opportunities for the Batman books. What will occur is yet to be seen and Tom King isn’t saying, so we’ll have to wait to find out. 

Reflecting on the Annual I’m reminded of a quote from Kiersten White’s The Chaos of Stars that have been used in a number of fandom edits, that I myself used once. I’ll quote it here because no matter what will come to be I think it fits very well: 

I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.

[fantroll-purgatory]

Hello, I’ve loved this site for sooooo long, and I finally have a troll to submit!

I’m garbage at spriting, could you hep?

I can try!

World: Alternia

Name: I’m thinking Ookami, for wolf in Japanese, and I don’t know about the last name, maybe Coquus(cook in Latin)

Hmmm. I always feel like it’s a little too transparent to just straight-up use actual words but in a different language to make troll names. But I also feel that wolves are a very common troll theme, so I don’t want to repeat a cliche in offering suggestions.

You say your trolls likes FLARPing, so why not the first name RENHAG, after Mark Rein-Hagen, the found of White Wolf games (which is probably best known for Vampire: The Masquerade)?

If we wanna *continue* with the wolf theme in the last name, maybe his last name is JOHPUK, like Wolfgang  Johannes Puck?

Age: 6 sweeps

Theme/Story: Sorry, not much. He’s my trollsona, so wolves(i like wolves) Video Games(specifically RPG’s eg. FLARP), ninja’s(unless it makes me a Polypa rip-off), and maybe anime, if thats not to overdone.

I mean since this is your trollsona I think it is virtually impossible for it to be a ripoff since Polypa was written by someone and you are a person. It also makes it difficult to critique themes because they are presumably chosen because you relate to them!

Review Goals: Literally everything

Strife Specibus: Axekind (axes are my favorite Fire Emblem weapon)

Fetch Modus: sorry, I don’t know

I used this before in one of my own trolls but how do you feel about a “FETCH” MODUS that launches your item out of the captcha card. Better be quick enough to grab it while it sails through the air!

Blood Color: Olive(this is my trollsona, I was born in August, and I’m a Leo)

Lunar Sway: Prospit

Title: Prince of Light(Light is my Hiveswap aspect)

Symbol and Meaning: I don’t know

How about we just give you the sign you’d get from the above three attributes, which would be Lepio, the Fortunate?

Handle: canineGamer

I worry that this trolltag is too obvious, but how do you feel about cheatingCur [CC]? It keeps the GCAT structure, references dogs and gaming, and it makes for a type of aggression in kind of throwing in others’ faces the fact that he will do absolutely anything to win.

Quirk: Prince of Light works so well because I want a guy who on the outside looks clueless and lazy, but when he battles he becomes this annihalator. Like, he secretely manipulated you to do exactly what he wanted(like Doc Scratch) but you thought he was sitting around.

Special Abilities: Extremely lucky, completely oblivious to this fact.

We have mentioned that it’s implied that Olivebloods have the passive psychic ability “luck,” and you’ve given us a Light player whose sign is literally The Fortunate so this fits, BUT I wanna be a little more specific since not even Vriska had luck in *everything*. Given what you’ve already given me about his character, I am worried that giving him the ability to manipulate dice rolls alongside his Light aspect and interest in RPGs would make him a little too Vriska, but what if he has luck in randomly finding game-breaking cheat codes?

Lusus/Guardian: A wolf

If you want to go a little more otherworldly, what about something closer to the manticore from Percy Jackson?

Interests: Anime, FLARPing(everyone’s scared of him though), playing video games, hunting(unless it makes me a Nepeta rip-off), practicing to be a ninja(which he sucks at)

I’m curious as to why everyone is scared of him in FLARPing. You’ve painted me a picture of a character who apparently plays dumb until his Machiavellian plans are revealed, so surely trolls would like playing with him since he’s “easy” to pick off?

Appearance: He is wearing a scarf that extends to his face like a bandana, curly hair(my hair) really big(kind of like anime Steven Universe), wears a trenchcoat(I love trenchcoats)

I’ll see what I can do!

Personality: Again, he acts like a dope, always tripping, super clumsy. On the inside(usually when playing FLARP) he is cheming, manipulative, and ruthless.

Land: Help please.

You haven’t told me much about the arc you have planned for him, but what about Land of Howls and Cowls, which is littered with broken machinery that he has to fix to complete his quest?

That’s it, thank you SO much. Love this site.

You’re welcome! I tried to fit the specifications for appearance as closely as possible, so let’s just go over this sprite real quick:

Hair - I...have not watched Steven Universe in some time but I don’t...think...it’s an anime? Unless I missed something? Anyway I just gave this troll Steven-ish hair hope that works

Horns - liddle, and off-kilter to soooort of mimic the symbol

Eyes and brows - these are just a standard fan-troll template

Scarf - this is from a naphal template with some editing to get the scarf to cover his face.

Coat - I edited a fan-troll template a fair bit. Wanted to add buttons for that distinctive trench coat flair but decided against it; it looked too busy.

Symbol - I sort of cheated the actual Lepio symbol and gave it a longer “arm” so the circle with the line through it was basically the buckle of the trench coat!

Shoes - from the same naphal template as the scarf! I thought they looked a little bit like cloth shoes which I liked to go with the sorta vague ninja themeing you had going on.

Hope this all helps!

[comic-movieheroesranked]

Cinematic Comic Characters Ranked! (Year 2005) Final Part

Another year, another ranking of our favorite comic book characters to grace the movie screen! This year we have the debut of several movies including: Aeon Flux, Batman Begins, Constantine, Fantastic Four, and Sin City; a spin-off movie centered on Elektra; and the final installment to an outer space trilogy, Star Wars: Episode Three-Revenge of the Sith! Here’s TOP 25!

*SPOILERS FOR ALL THE MOVIES HIGHLIGHTED ABOVE*

25. Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow (Batman Begins)

"There's nothing to fear but fear itself!"

The second-class criminal that becomes a threat to Batman in a new way. Even though Bruce trained his body physically to withstand anything, he had no preparation to deal with Scarecrow's fear toxin, an attack on the mind. It's Scarecrows toxin that threatens to destory all of Gotham via terrified citizens but it's clear he's not the one pulling the strings. When the toxin starts infecting people, Scarecrow goes on a terror spree until Rachel shuts him down with a taser to the face.

24. Satan (Constantine)

"Looks like someone doesn't have your back anymore."

Don't quite understand why Satan's feet are dipped in black paint all the time but this man is P-E-T-T-Y. John brings him in to save the day (it took me a minute to wrap that around my head too) and that's kinda what he does. He stops his son from trying to overthrow him and take over Earth and he puts the smack down on Gabriel. He really wants John in hell though so before he goes to heaven he brings him back to life so he could sin again because the man is what? PETTY!

23. Hartigan (Sin City)

"An old man dies. A young woman lives. A fair trade."

Hartigan is what I wanted Marv to be. Doing what needs to be done and stopping the bad guy because it's the right thing to do, not because he got great sex. He dedicated to stopping the pervs that keep going after Nancy and asks for nothing in return, he even turns down sex, which proves he isn't a perv either! I don't really think he had to go kill himself but he looked like he wasn't going to last long anyway so at least he went out nobly.

22. Abby Miller (Elektra)

"I don't respond well to authority and I don't take bullshit."

Abby is that annoying little sister you never had. As soon as she meets Elektra she wants to be just like her. She wants to learn how to kill, she wants to use sais, and she also wears her hair the same way. Turns out she's the "Treasure" which is a big deal for both sides. She knows how to fight with a fancy chain and her witty banter with Elektra is adorable so I definitely was happy when she was saved.

21. Rachel Dawes (Batman Begins)

"But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."

I like Rachel and she is a huge reason as to why Batman exists. She knows Gotham is falling apart and she decides to help save it in her own way: the courtroom. She becomes a great lawyer in the DA and won't back down when criminals try to scare her. She also lets Bruce know the huge difference between vengeance and justice and shows Bruce that fighting for the greater good is better than just fighting for yourself. I think this is also why she finds out his identity by the end of the film while most romantic interests like Mary Jane haven't found out their heroes identities until the sequels.

20. Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Fantastic Four)

"I found a broken gasket from space."

Mr. Fantastic is the most boring out of the Fantastic Four, in my opinion. His flexible powers are really handy and make him near indestructible as long as you don't freeze him, but that's kinda it? He's mainly valued for his brains and it's the only thing he relied on when the team went up against Dr. Doom. Seriously, all he did was bark orders while Sue, Johnny, and Ben did all the heavy lifting.

19. Mace Windu (Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith)

"May the Force be with us all."

Mace Windu is a boss. He knows how to shut shit down and if Anakin hadn't been a total back stabber (or hand slicer, really), none of the problems they're facing would've been a thing. Instead, Mace gets betrayed and killed by twp people he considered allies.

18. Gabriel (Constantine)

"You're fucked."

I kinda see Grabriel's frustrations in the film. Why should rapists go to heaven just because they repent? Like where's the justice in that? Do I think all humans need to prove their goodness by having Satan's son bring Armageddon to Earth? Absolutely not. Gabriel definitely goes a little insane and because he tries to help Satan Jr., God takes away his wings and makes him human.

17. Sithandra (Aeon Flux)

"You taught me a lot more than that."

Sithandra is a rebel and Aeon's best friend. She had a cool surgery done that replaced her feet with two extra hands. Her loyalty to Aeon is tested when it seems Aeon betrayed the rebels but their friendship prevails as she leads a team of rebels to protect Aeon and Trevor from Oren. Too bad she runs out of bullets just as Oren sends a missile her way, killing her in front of Aeon.

16. Chas Kramer (Constantine)

"You were right, John. It's not like in the books."

I was so angry when Chas died! Like here we have this young kid that just wants to help and actually does help in a huge way. At first all he does is drive John around in a taxi and fails miserably to get into Midnite's club, but turns out he really did his reading. When John couldn't muster up the chant to stop Satan Jr.'s birth, Chas came in and saved the day. And then he died, very brutally.

15. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith)

"You underestimate my power!"

Anakin is the type of person who will literally do every shitty thing possible and then still try to make himself the victim. Like how can you justify calling the Jedi evil when you're out here killing children? He even admits he wants all the power in the world to Padme but still tries to act like the Jedi are selfish when Obi-Wan confronts him. Wack! I'm glad he burned to a crisp and I straight up GIGGLED when he got his legs sliced off (Obi-Wan literally told him not to and he does it anyway). He SOMEHOW survives and is transformed into the dangerous Darth Vader that fans of the series have come to know him by.

14. Gail (Sin City)

"Always and never."

I knew I was going to like Gail as soon as she listed tying people up in chairs as one of her specialties. She seems to be the leader of the prostitutes that run Old Town and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. I think she actually prefers it, which is why I think its accurate that Dwight dubbed her as "Valkyrie." Only thing off about her, for me, was her relationship with Dwight. I mean it seemed obvious she was into him from the get go but I kinda hoped they didn't end up together.

13. Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Fantastic Four)

"I can't believe I'm doing this again!"

Sue is still in love with Richard but since he isn't willing to courageously take their relationship to where it needed to go, she ended it and tried to move on with the douchebag known as Victor. After the space storm she learns she can not only turn invisible, but she can also create force fields. She spends most her time figuring out where she stands with Richard in their new lives as superheroes but when it comes down to the fighting she's quick and ready to get her hands dirty. Was the proposal a bit rushed at the end? Maybe, but it's clear her and Richard were meant for each other so positive vibes to them.

12. Alfred (Batman Begins)

"What is the point of all those push-ups if you can't even lift a bloody log?"

Alfred is way more than just Bruce Wayne's butler. After his parents are killed he basically takes responsibility over him and raises him. Now that Bruce is a grown adult and bringing the Batman to life, Alfred starts going on his own secret reason. While Ra's Al Ghul is teaching Bruce how to become a legend, something that will never die, Alfred is doing whatever he can to make sure Bruce doesn't lose his humanity. He keeps wanting him to enjoy life and embrace who he is when he isn't wearing the cowl.

11. Aeon Flux (Aeon Flux)

"We're meant to die, that's what makes anything about us matter."

Aeon is the best assassin working with the rebels. After the government kills her sister she's the one they send to take down their leader, Trevor Goodchild. Turns out he's actually good and used to be married to Aeon before the whole world fell apart. She has some really neat gadgets like tiny marbles that explode, shiny egg looking things that disrupt all technology, and she can make her eye pupil grow so she can see if someone spiked her drink. Plus she can do a bunch of flips and knows how to use a gun. It turns out she was meant to destroy everything about the society she lived in and lead it's people to the world outside, one they thought was a wasteland but turned out to be rich with nature and plant life.

10. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars: Epidsode III-Revenge of the Sith)

"You were the chosen one!"

Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't as condescending as he was in the last film so that was nice. In fact I think he was very much on his way to seeing Anakin as his true equal until Anakin decided to turn to the Dark Side. His infamous speech to Anakin after he's forced to take him down is pretty sad, he really cared about the other dude and it sucks to see someone you care about ruin themselves like Anakin did.

9. Dwight (Sin City)

"I'm Shellie's new boyfriend and I'm out of my mind."

So he starts off his chapter in a relationship with Shellie, fighting for her honor and then ends his chapter in a relationship with Gail, shooting down all his enemies. Besides him being a bit of a player, he was actually my favorite hero in all the stories. He's not ridiculously unbeatable like Marv and has more of a personalty than Hartigan. He actually admits to needing help from Gail and Miho to stop his enemies. He's obviously pretty smart because he's able to come up with plans left and right once things keep getting shittier which is also nice because I feel like everyone else just goes about things guns ablazing. He does to, but I like that he has back up plans.

8. Elektra (Elektra)

"I died once."

Back from the dead, Elektra has turned into a deadly assassin with no emotion or attachments to anyone. To save her from this dark path, Stick has her tricked into protecting Abby from the Hand, a bunch of evil assassins. She takes care of them no problem, like it seems like she's afraid but when she faces them she pretty much kills them all with no problems. Despite the movie being kinda lame it was so good to finally see Elektra in her red outfit kicking ass with her pair of sai. Like most characters in the Daredevil universe, her tv counterpart ends up being a better version, but unlike the others I would go on record to say that movie Elektra wasn't bad, she was just decent.

7. Yoda (Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith)

"At an end your rule is, and not short enough was it."

Yoda is my favorite and only because he really knows how to throw down when he needs to. Like some people try to talk the bad guy into seeing the error of his ways. Nope, not Yoda. He literally always just shows up and is like "So, we're fighting." Except, he mixes up his speech while he does it. His fight against the Emperor was epic and he totally won until the other got to his safety net of soldiers. Still, Yoda accepted failure with grace and decided to leave into exile.

6. Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Fantastic Four)

"Flame on!"

I feel like Johnny represents a lot of us in a situation where we discover we have powers and basically lose our minds because we've decided we're going to be superheroes. Like he changes their outfits, gives them their superhero names and basically creates the brand that is Fantastic Four because he's so excited to be a superhero. His fire/flying abilities definitely help feed the flame that is his confidence as he skyrockets to celebrity status via extreme sports and indulges in the pleasures of his female fans. Still, when it's time to actually be hero, he's there and ready to take on Doom, using his Super Nova heat to melt the metal man away.

5. Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul (Batman Begins)

"If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart."

Ra's Al Ghul is the leader of the League of Shadows, a clan that serves their own justice against those who break the law. Wanting to take down Gotham, the international city of crime, he ends up training the city's prince, Bruce Wayne. Using the death of Wayne's parents as a tool, Al Ghul ends up basically creating the Batman. He's the one that really drills into Bruce's head that he won't fix anything as just a single man. Of course, his methods of justice are radical, to say the least, and it ends up putting him at odds with the new Dark Knight. This ends up being a classic battle of student vs teacher, with Wayne eventually outsmarting Al Ghul at the end.

4. John Constantine (Constantine)

"Gods a kid with an ant farm, lady. He's not planning anything."

My new aesthetic is John Constantine giving Satan the middle finger as he's ascending into heaven. I'm familiar of the character in the comics but I think I only know about the current magic-based one instead of the religious one they tried to portray in the movies. His goal is simple: get ins God's good graces so he doesn't get sent to hell. He doesn't accomplish this by defeating demons like he does throughout the whole movie, or by even stopping the birth of Satan's son, but by giving up his chance at life to spare one girl from a tortuous eternity in hell. He still doesn't end up in Heaven, but now he has a clean slate to live life right.

3. Ben Grimm/The Thing (Fantastic Four)

"It's clobberin' time!"

Ben definitely got the short end of the stick when it came to abilities. Sure he now has super strength but his new rock appearance has people, including his now EX-fiance, running away screaming. What's worse is that, unlike the others, Ben can't even turn it off or on, he's just stuck that way. So I totally get the depressed state he's in when he thinks Richard isn't trying to help him and appreciate so much that despite all that he's still loyal and quickly takes on the Thing again to help his friends go up against Doctor Doom and put a stop to him. In the end he does find happiness with Alicia and his witty banter with Johnny was one of the best parts of the film.

2. Miho (Sin City)

*Silently kills everyone*

Miho is the best damn thing about this entire movie. Each freaking story is about a man saving a helpless girl in some way, shape, or form and Miho just defies all that nonsense. She's a prostitute by day, assassin by night and she literally always gets shit done. She kills a car full of assholes all by herself and saves Dwight's ass several times during the chapter. She can handle several weapons including samurai swords, ninja stars, and a bow and arrow. I'm positive she could go toe to toe with every other character in this film and still come out on top, YES I'm even including Marv because his slow ass wouldn't even see her coming.

1. Bruce Wayne/Batman (Batman Begins)

"Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies shared my dread."

This is the first time we really get an in depth look at how Bruce Wayne becomes the Batman, Gotham's protector. The loss of his parents give him the anger, but its the teachings of Ra's Al Ghul as well as the advice from those close to him that give him the tools to truly serve justice in a city that knows no meaning of the word. It's a hard task getting the police on his side as he tries to rid the city of its most powerful criminals like Falcone and Scarecrow. There's even a personal struggle of keeping the bat separate from the man, as his romance with Rachel won't go any further unless he gives up the costume. Odds are he won't be giving it up soon after he investigates this new enemy that we all know very well. This film was a great birth to one of the most iconic super heroes in comics and one that finally gets DC rolling on it's feet.

[fountainpenguin]

Philip the nickel confuses me. Was she a human being or fairy that was cursed and turned into a nickel? Or is it literally just a nickel that Cosmo gave a name and gender to because he's weird?

Hey, some people have stuffed animals that they give names and genders too. Cosmo just did the same thing, but with a nickel he found. Rather than something soft to cuddle with, he likes her because she’s smooth and sparkles. Fairy currency is different from human currency, so she’s just special and cool to him, I guess.

On the subject of Phillip, I named Anti-Cosmo’s rival Anti-Phillip, and we’ll meet him personally later in Frayed Knots. Anti-Phillip Anti-Coppertalon. So it’s like. Copper pennies instead of nickels. But, he is a guy, not a girl. Phillip the nickel is whatever Phillip the nickel wants to be.

I died laughing when Butch made the “Ten Years Later” video and drew Phillip aged up to a quarter. The way Butch sees Fairy aging is, Fairies are immortal. They don’t age, they don’t die, and this seems to be in part the reason for the rule we saw in “Fairly Odd Baby” that Fairies can’t have kids. Wanda points out that because their population isn’t at risk for getting smaller, there’s really no need to reproduce.

Butch sees it like, Cosmo and Wanda were used to switching kids pretty quickly before Timmy came along. After all, we know that it’s rare for kids to stay with godparents for an entire year. However, Timmy and Remy are both confirmed to have done so (By this I mean, we saw Juandissimo with Remy in Season 2, and the Season 7 episode “Teacher’s Pet” confirms they’re still together). 

Anyway, in that video, Butch pointed out that Fairies don’t age the way humans do, so the only way he could give Cosmo and Wanda adult designs was if they were fascinated by watching Timmy grow older, and adjusted their own looks to look older because they think it’s cool. It also seems that fairy babies do age to some degree, as Butch mentioned the “tadpole stage” of the Fairy life-cycle, where the babies’ bodies stretch out. I went with exoskeleton shedding myself, where the entire old form is lost and the new one gained in a burst, like what happens with pooferty and babies gaining the ability to communicate through words. We’ll see Poof and Foop shed their exoskeletons in the “Evolution Hopeful” Prompt, which will hopefully be up by the end of this year.

Throughout the series, it’s mentioned a few times that Fairies can look however they want to. I called this detail in THIS post a long time ago, wondering about things like if Wanda thinks she’s fat, why doesn’t she change that, and what’s up with the old and creaky fellows in her and Cosmo’s family tree? And what about Anti-Fairies looking so much like their counterparts? And about dying, the Grim Reaper specifically told Foop in “Man’s Worst Friend” that he “didn’t have him scheduled for awhile” and was going to “perish on the toilet”. And, when Sammy Sweetsparkle told Foop in “School of Crock” that he, specifically, never ages, Foop reacted extremely, appearing to be jealous and calling Sammy a weirdo.

Wouldn’t it be dangerous to have a society where people can look however they want for as long as they want? I mean, what about the crimes? I know that shapeshifting is a thing and I like it when it’s temporary and exhausting. I’m a bit more concerned about it being permanent with no consequences. I gave Fairies highly sensitive noses and tongues so that they can taste pheromones and identify people that way, no matter what form they’re in. Stipulation being that they need to be close enough to do so. From afar, they can’t tell much more than the race of the magic user and what kind of magic they used.

For plot reasons, I removed the details that “Fairies don’t age, can never die, and can look however they want” in my works. I don’t like working with characters who can’t possibly die no matter what. It removes some tension. Resistant to lots of things that would normally cause death is fun and opens the doors to torture, but completely immune doesn’t work for me. I kept the canon from “The Boy Who Would Be Queen” that Cosmo’s nose is actually really long, though. He cares that much.

The point of me saying all of this was, if you want to accept some of what Butch said in that video as canon and go with Cosmo and Wanda changing their looks as Timmy ages, it would be logical for Cosmo to have pointed his wand at Phillip and changed her into a quarter rather than abandoning her and finding a new quarter. 

I see her as Cosmo’s stuffed animal, just she’s a coin instead of something soft. Remember, as we saw in “Hassle in the Castle”, she’s huge in his hands when he’s inside the tiny castle. Holding a giant coin is probably fun for him. There are discussions to be made about nickels not changing sizes while clothes do, but I don’t have an answer to that.

I long to write a Prompt about this aspect of Fairy culture, of perception and some people “aging” more quickly than others and looking much older than those younger than them, but I wouldn’t know where to go with it. It seems more like a cultural detail to work with than a plot point you can write about directly. If any of you guys are looking for worldbuilding details to flesh out Fairy culture, I’d love to see one of you do something with this. 

Especially concerning Pixie culture (of course). I mean, the pixies all look identical. I’m sensing super strict traditions or even laws about how they’re supposed to look a certain way, and the concept of wisdom being related to a single figure who looks much older than the rest, and the ceremony involved with one pixie taking on that new form after the previous Head dies. Even better- the previous Head retiring in secret and being replaced by another pixie who looks identical to him, and no one notices. The Head Pixie being seen as this wise creature who’s ruled longer than anyone can remember. This wise creature who raps, bets Fairy World over a golf game, break dances, and canonically does things like get up and swing his arms and say, “Go me, go me, it’s my birthday” in the middle of a serious conversation. Wisdom.

No one said the Head Pixie had to be that much older than everyone else. For all we know, he could be younger than Sanderson, and he merely wears the cowl. Silly things like that. I can’t really do anything with this concept since my headcanons are pretty set, and it would be weird to drop it for a single Prompt, but I’d really love to see one of you use this if you’re interested. Let me know.

[batmancatwomansplit]

Batman and Catwoman Split

Most have probably heard the outcome of Batman #50. You haven’t? You don’t care? How could you say that? I am serious; this is Batman I am talking about! Batman, and Spider-Man, is the coolest fictional character to wear spandex and fight crime at the cost of healthy social lives that you can find. The 65 page comic book dropped into comic book/newsstands and bookstores on July 4th, 2018. It was to mark the wedding of Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Selina Kyle, Catwoman. This brings about some interesting ideas. Could Batman exist if Bruce Wayne was happy? Would marrying Catwoman make him happy? Does Batman know how to be happy? The story was a swerve.

Catwoman chooses not to marry Batman because she believes that Batman would cease to exist if Bruce is happy. She believes that the world needs Batman more then she does. I cannot get over how dumb that is. Why shouldn’t Batman be happy?

Doesn’t Catwoman come off a bit arrogant to believe that she can fix Batman? All those years of pain and  trauma will just wash away with a ring and some vows? That would be very convenient. Denying happiness to her is one thing but to purposely hurt someone she claims to love is just mean. That is so nice, isn’t it? Just say you do not want to be married, that your freedom is more important than make up an excuse of the common good.

How awkward it will be when Batman and Catwoman meet up in the future, an they will. Team ups will be fun. I hope they don’t do that, ‘I understand why you dumped me, Selina. It would not have worked anyway. It was the right thing to do. Thank you!’ Please remove your brains if you think that would be a good way to settle this issue.

Should there be a lot angry, no, but with that said Batman equals angry. Now I get that there is a deeper story to unravel and Batman and Catwoman will most likely wind up back together eventually, but it was so predictable. Same tune in a loop.

In fact, the stupidity continues in that Bane had planned this whole series of events to BREAK Batman, again. In the 1990's, Bane literally cripples Batman, causing a different Batman to be born. Bruce got better in the end. In Batman #50, the engagement, the relationship and break up was all somehow made possible by Bane to destroy Batman. Hello, Batman likes misery so you are in fact giving him power ups.

Comic writers seem to be afraid of happily ever after endings for characters cause that may mean series over. The excuse of aging a character is dumb because if written well readers will follow changes and development. We want to see change. That is the thrill of the ride. How will things change with one decision? Rebooting or resetting the clock gets old.

I like Batman, as mentioned earlier, but he is not the only hero out there. The fate of the world cannot rest merely on one powerless hero with anger issues. Too easy a fix to have Batman swoop in saving the day every time and poor storytelling, like Superman, Batman is not a Christ figure. Batman is a tragedy but as a character he can change in more realistic ways.

A cop can retire, so can Bruce Wayne. Not Batman, the identity, but the man in the identity. We have Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and a cast of numerous side kicks who can take Bruce's place. It has happened before. Heck, Commissioner Gordon was Batman for a while before Bruce chooses the cowl over happiness with a love interest. We have seen him in other relationships and always Bruce chooses Batman. This is insanity. Why embrace pain when pain will only make more pain. He can never make up for a crime that was not his fault.

Bruce sacrificed friends and a regular life for a goal that can never be met. Evil will never die and Batman will never change because so many believe he must not. That is messed up.

You know who I really feel bad for in this break up, Batman’s Rogue gallery.  No guy likes being dumped. Some resort to drinking, depression, drugs, or getting into trouble. What do you think Batman will do? Yep, he is going to fill up the hospitals with Joker, Penguin, Two Face, Bane, just to name a few.

The Underworld of Gotham is going to put a bounty out for Catwoman for what Batman will do to them. She will be in court for years due to lawsuits involving medical bills, workers compensation and disabilities. She'll have to take  apart time job on top of being a cat burglar. Marrying Bruce Wayne, the Billionaire, is looking pretty good right now, eh, Selina?!