#bc believe me I experimented a lot

[starry-bi-sky]

okay so i was thinking of a joke earlier about how in DPDC Amity Park's slogan "a great place to live" is not only city propaganda but also the city lording it over the rest of America for being normal. But then I remembered that, despite how many DCU Cities with heroes in it there are, the amount of cities in America without heroes still far outnumber the amount of cities in America WITH heroes.

So I did a little digging so the joke would still land. Something most heroes have in common is that they operate in major cities. What makes a major city? I found that the general consensus is that the population is roughly over or around a million. THEN I looked up the populations of cities in the DCU that I thought of off the top of my head. So Gotham, Metropolis, Starling City, Central City, Jump City. All of them ranked up to millions in population (most of them were in the tens of millions).

Amity Park's wikipedia describes it as being similar to specifically Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Philadelphia's Population: 1.576 million as of 2021 Chicago's Population: 2.697 million as of 2021 San Francisco: 815,201 as of 2021

Whiiich means that Amity Park if we take that from canon, is probably a major city. There are approximately 19,000 cities in America with probably less than a hundred that are major cities. Adding the DCU major cities wouldn't skew the data too much.

Which MEANS that I can make the joke that Amity Park's "great place to live" is not only just typical city propaganda, but also its Amity Park lording it over the other major cities for being one of the only major cities that doesn't have problems bad enough to warrant a superhero or a vigilante. Cue stage left the Fentons and Phantom :)

Amity Parkers were probably SO proud that they didn't need a superhero. They didn't have to worry about things like 'world ending threats' and 'super-powered individuals' and 'staggering property damage'. And then enter Fentons.

It also could be used as an excuse for why nobody took notice to Amity Park getting ghosts if folks like me aren't huge fans of the notion of a media blackout via Tucker, Technus, or the US Government. Or if you want to keep Amity Park as its urban city self. Amity Park's news on ghosts gets drowned out in a week because there's news on more popular, well-known cities going on every other day. The shit going on in Amity Park is every other major city's regular Tuesday and it gets filtered as such.

[evil-ontheinside]

I have the feeling that Mike would lose all respect for Eddie if he sees him together with Steve. He sees Eddie pathetically flirting with an oblivious Steve and pulls a face, then goes to complain to Will about why Eddie has to have a crush on Steve. Will gets nervous bc fuck Mike is homophobic? but Mike just tells him about That Night (the one before 'human anatomy?') and that Eddie can't be cool anymore when he likes Steve who lost any chances of being genuinely respected by Mike. And now that Eddie has a crush/is dating Steve, all illusions of Eddie's charm are lost forever (this might also lead to Will coming out to Mike when he realizes that he wouldn't hate him and perhaps Mike coming out and love confessions and-)

So, whenever Steddie do something in front of the Party Mike has his look of irritation on his face and Eddie thinks he misjudged Mike when he notices bc Mike might be a little homophobic? Which doesn't fit into the whole dynamic he has going with Will but who knows. So Eddie asks him (in front of everyone bc he's not above outing a homophobe to their very accepting friend group) and Mike pulls that face again and just seconds before he opens his mouth Eddie recognizes it as regret and realizes Mike Wheeler is a little piece of shit. "I just can't believe I thought you were cool once" and Will (who now that he heard the story would give a lot to have seen that firsthand) starts to laugh while Eddie fully realizes that he lost any cool points he ever had with Mike

In the beginning, Eddie is so confused bc this child used to admire him, listen to everything he had to say, worship the ground he walks on and now he's dragging him every chance he gets. When Eddie asks why Mike suddenly lost all interest in him Will whispers 'it's the Harrington effect', Mike just nods and that's the only answer he gets

Mike becomes just as snarky and annoying with Eddie as he is with everyone else. And every time Mike gives him that look that says 'you're as dumb as a rock Eddie how do you not know this' Eddie is incredibly close to strangling him but also kind of happy that Mike finally is himself around him and not the blind puppy he was before

Eddie is also reluctantly impressed (reluctant bc now he can't give Mike the satisfaction of being impressed, not when he's such a brat) with Mike's problem-solving bc we know it's Mike who usually figures everything out. At least now he knows why Mike was such a good strategist during their campaign

Steve gives him a pat on the back in a moment of despair and says that it's probably his fault. Hopper chimes in that Mike is allergic to any kind of father/authority figure and that, now that he has parent status in the Party, it's just a natural development. Eddie has a whole new crisis that he's now some kind of father figure to the kids

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Fallen Thorns

dark urban fantasy coming-of-age

follows a boy settling into university, when after a date (that he didn’t even want to go on) turns bad he’s made into a vampire

as he settles into his new existence and the local vampire community - while they try to find who’s been leaving bodies across the city - he discovers that there’s something different and darker within him

aroace neurodivergent MC

[sun-marie]

It's been a while since I last thought seriously about Dr*gon A*e (even prior to falling in love with BG3) and I think a big part of that is I'm not as big a fan of the setting and the worldbuilding as I used to be. Like to me it really does feel like BW looked at typical fantasy settings and went "hmm okay but what if there was Catholic-enforced racism and abelism". And like. Cool thought experiment bro. Do we really need three games made by primarily white guys about that.

[hella1975]

my mum picking me up this morning: you're not as hungover as i thought you'd be

me, just yacked in an alleyway: yeah haha

[st4rstudent]

I AGREE its so crazy how zap gags weren't a thing.... like TTCC really popped off with that one! i understand TTR is moreso sticking closer to the way TTO was but WOW zap just feels so natural with a REALLY good mechanic that uses strategy in using squirt and its just so good.... also my favorite track

YEEEPP!! That's how I feel about it. Squirt and zap just mix well together. I also think the addition of an 8th gag track was also a good move, allowing for a nice rotation of combinations (like how lure-trap and throw-drop are together as a combo). And also its a nice even number. I also think it helps utilize squirt, idk just feels good to do in general. Of course, I don't really have anything to compare this to and it's just me speaking as a player of (currently) one server, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

It's my favorite too, zap warriors UNITE!!

[flameandignite]

.

[the-acid-pear]

I never tried the option myself bc it'd probably mean skipping the Reason You Suck speech at the end (fire for speedrunners though) but I Love that you can frame your Phoneys in 3, especially so if you've already killed the previous two. Like yeah couldn't send you off to die so i'll let the goverment do it for me 🧸 like its just Peak evil imo.

[fallingbyjuleecruise]

i think most art that tries to critique christianity, and specifically american charismatic christianity, is shallow and honestly corny unless it comes from someone who has experience w that institution

[silenthillbunni]

🐇☁️🌷🐌

[magentagalaxies]

having a moment about my gender rn and i'm just like ugggggh @ my brain do we have to. like can we just not

[thisgodwontforgiveyou]

i dont have an activity powerful enough to distract me from how bad separate ways is when i put it on in the background

[anghraine]

I was thinking about character flaws and their interrelationship with character growth—like, yes, these can make characters more realistic, dynamic, and sometimes (where relevant) more relatable. For me, flawed characters with actual character growth are almost always improvements from idealized characters who are never allowed to make misjudgments or mistakes.

But that's pretty obvious, and I was thinking some more about why I'm drawn by significantly flawed characters who are still clearly good people and who do remarkably heroic things when push comes to shove. They don't just feel more interesting to me because of this mix of real flaws with a strong and admirable ethical core. To me, they actually feel like better people, even though they are clearly more flawed than the idealized type.

Sometimes it's because their virtues lead them to more drastic heroic actions—often some kind of reversal/amendment of a previous mistake—so there can be a stronger impression of goodness on some audiences even if they aren't literally more virtuous. But I think that's something else going on, too.

I said above that flawed but essentially noble characters can feel like better people even though they are definitely more flawed than idealized ones. But I'd correct that to: because they are more flawed than the idealized ones.

The thing is, I don't quite believe idealized characters unless there's some kind of edge. Fandom sometimes refers to this as "chaotic energy," though I don't think it's necessarily chaotic in a literal sense, just sharp and often unexpected. Usually, these are among my favorite moments for a noble character—like Luke Skywalker losing his shit on the second Death Star or Faramir blaming Denethor for Boromir's death.

I especially don't believe idealized characters as main characters. Their virtues and trivial flaws (when they have them) are just kind of meh to me. A flawed character whose flaws are significant but still considerably outweighed by their virtues, especially if they actually grow over time, feels like a better person to me, because in this odd way, their clear flaws let me believe the virtues are real.

I understand why the uniform everyday niceness of more idealized characters can be very appealing for some people, and the strongest evidence of good character—not how someone acts in flashy extreme situations, but how they act in day-to-day life when they don't have to be nice to everyone, but just are.

I am not one of those people, in part because I grew up in a conservative community that puts an extremely high premium on day-to-day niceness. You should be courteous to everyone! You should take compassion on the unfortunate, and be helpful to your neighbors, and blahblahblah. They're super nice! And part of growing up as a lesbian in that community was discovering how little that niceness ultimately meant.

It's not that all nice people turn out to be bigots supporting horrific policies (though mostly they are in that community). But day-to-day niceness does not in any way prevent that. So when I see characters who are really nice and idealized for the persistent niceness rather than any more pronounced action, my instinctive response is "maybe." OTOH, if someone screws up here and there or has to overcome an inclination towards some major flaw, but can be depended upon to come through when it's super important—that's what good people in my life look like. So I suspect that's part of why it tends to be the heroic type I'm most drawn to and find most convincing and moral.

[kenobihater]

goddamnit. am i actually having a sexuality epiphany because i'm recognizing myself in a fictional cringefail vampire man. you gotta be kidding me

[bullagit]

i think a not-insignificant amount of the heartbreak crowley’s feeling in the end is  because he’s finally truly understanding that what’s happening with aziraphale (as he perceives it) isn’t something that he can save him from.

[piplupod]

one of the funniest(........?) ways my brain has decided to cope with [gestures vaguely at lifelong abuse at the hands of the parents] is that i don't remember that this isn't normal most of the time. like i get shocked and confused when i see people talking about how they love their parents or something nice that their parents casually do for them. my brain seems to genuinely believe most of the time that abuse is the norm and anything better than that is shocking and rare