#because 'jon' is an act. its not his real personality

[saym0-0]

i love mechs x tma aus and i love jmart but i dont love jonny x martin,,, the dynamic is just so slightly off,, like,,,,,, i cant articulate it its just wrong 2 me,,,,,,,, okay actually the tags r vital to this one read those

[wixenburr]

Saw some ppl talking about Reverse Robins and i had thoughts

Talking abt u guys @eldritchdreamss @brucewaynehater101

Why kill Tim when you could kill baby Jason? What I want is for all of them to keep their own backstories and personalities (Developed in line with the story of course) So ofc i had to write a 1,000 word brainrot abt it.

(Also i'll only be going over the main 4 batbros for now i will add more later but these guys are the ones im most passionate about so here we go)

Damian

Let Damian come in, desperate to be of use and be worthy of his father, only for a softer, less jaded bruce (since jason hasnt died yet) to help him open up his heart and let him act as a kid. With no competition for so long, I imagine he and Bruce get along very well while he works with him. Yeah, they need to work on the no killing deal and Damian's... i guess impulse control? But i think it would be easier with very intensely focused reparenting; no distractions of other kids you know? No favoring or anything.

I see Damian growing up as a stoic, jaded adult. He's had a rough life. Maybe he sticks with the vigilante business. but I really love headcanons where he gets out of it, and focuses on something calmer, like his art. (I do appreciate and love the veterinarian Damian AUs, but im going for FULL calmness, you know? And doctor/vet work is Not calm lol)

So yeah, maybe he grows a real passion for heroism, maybe he doesn't? Maybe he goes on to be an artist and that's just what he does. Bro is ready to settle down as a scarred, veteran trophy husband and i adore him for that.

(Sorry lol i just love Damian and i love the idea of him growing out of both of his parent's legacies. Let him live his own life!!! He fights so so hard for at least 15 years. ALL 15 years of his life. He deserves to have some peace.)

Tim

Tim i think would need a much different story to join the Batfam. He still starts out as a stalker who follows batman and. . . . . . . Redimar (meaning Redemption iykyk (I just spend 17min researching names rip)) at night, takes photos, etc... Since Damian doesn't die, maybe he finds Tim? and like, tim is like 11 and Damian is 17 or 18. He's started going out as Redimar less and less, not that B really minds? In fact hes probably happy for his son so...

But then Damian finds Tim, and now he has to keep going out because he can't let this kid get himself killed like this. He would hold himself accountable since hes the only reason Tim keeps going out so much- also i imagine Tim follows Redimar more than Batman.

Cue a classic Tim Joining The Batfam plotline. They get to know each other better, get a grasp on Tim's situation, Damian finally introduces Tim to Bruce... (Probably something like Dami: "Father, this is my new brother. Timothy, say hello to Father," Tim: "Hello, Father," Dami: "Perfect." Bruce: "*falls off the batchair*)

Anyway, so, Tim ends up kinda just merging with the Waynes. They start training him, its all good and nice, and Tim makes his own little hero team unlike Damian, which is actually pretty interesting here; its Tim who made the first young hero team. Damian only ever had Jon (Superboy 1 in this!!) and he finds Young Just Us and becomes a great leader and its all fine and dandy.

Tim and Damian get along well. Damian is the sage older brother whos kinda distant, but only because he has such high emotional walls (but secretly a softy). He is very much like Bruce- nope, nevermind, hes definitely worse than Bruce in this AU, since Bruce is depicted as being much more agreeable before Jason's death, you know? So yeah, Damian is the emotionally constipated bitch in the fam and we love him for that. But hey!! Tim does manage to get through his walls! And Bruce does sometimes too!! (Tho i imagine Bruce and Damian's relationship to be very.. idk let me try to expalain. Dami: "Father." Bruce: "Son :)" Dami: "Tt." Bruce: *nods* "Hrn." Dami: "Hmph." Bruce: "Hm.") DO U PICK UP WHAT IM PUTTING DOWN--- lmfao. They hardly need words.

Tim ends up growing up very very capable. Once his parents die, he gets a little jaded, but hes still Tim. He and Damian become kind of an... ice prince duo? If you get what I mean. But Tim is the one whos actually the ice prince, Damian is secretly a HUGE softie. He is Delicate and Tim protects him lmfao.

Jason

Jason comes along like he does in canon. Has the same backstory. Tries to steal the Batmobile's wheels. Tim is sleeping over at Damian's flat for the night, so its just Bruce. They bond. Shit happens. Jason joins the fam.

I don't imagine them not getting along, but they don't immediately hit it off either. Jason is wary of all of them for a time, but he ends up warming up to Damian pretty fast after realizing what a softie he is. He pokes fun at Damian and Damian just freaking takes it lmao. Hes an adult he cannot be disturbed. Bro has seen too much and he finds Jason adorable. (Dami: "You were never this cute, Timothy." <- he is lying. Tim: *offended* "What the fu- flip!?" Jason: "Lmao Tim just say fuck." Dami: *deadpan stare* Tim: "JASON NO DONT SAY THE FUCK WORD-") ahem.

anywho and then Jason dies rip skill issue ratio.

The whole batfam is heartbroken. Genuinely shattered. Jason was a light in their lives. Not that they were WITHOUT any light, but Jason was the epitome of a sunshine child.

It's been too long since Damian has killed someone. Bro's god oodles and oodles of trauma. He can't bring himself to kill the Joker.

but Tim can.

It's a whole dramatic thing; Damian feels awful that he made his- now only- little brother kill. Bruce is hella upset but feels responsible for not seeing how badly both of his kids were handling the death of their brother. Tim goes a little off the deep end.

Things turn out.... okay. sort of. but not really. Tim changes his hero name to Red Cardinal. He feels pretty lost. Maybe he stumbles into Ra's al Ghul or smthn idk maybe smthn happens there perhaps. Maybe Damian has to put on Redimar again and rescue him? But its less of a rescue and more of a "Stop joining the dark side Tim jesus christ-" (and it does work).

They go home. Tim gets a boyfriend or two. Damian falls into his art. Bruce is throwing himself into work. They're all kind of a mess, but they keep moving.

and then

Dick

(lmao that sounded wrong)

ahem; and then the circus comes to town. The batfam- well, Tim, Damian, and Bruce- all decide to get together to do something fun. Take the opportunities given, yk? So they go to the circus together.

Wham bam rip the falling Flying Graysons.

They see Dick, breaking apart, and they know they have to do something. Bruce is the first to move. Then Tim. Damian is the last.

It's pretty quick getting Dick home, since Bruce is already a foster parent cuz of Tim yk. So Dick doesn't have to suffer in Juvie at all really. But that doesn't change the fact that he is ANGRY.

Dick is SO angry. he wants to kill the person who murdered his parents. He knows what he saw.

The fam of course do their best to investigate. Mostly Tim, who feels unworthy of being around an innocent little kid after his whole.... villain era, i suppose lol. (ofc Dick thinks Tim doesnt like him lol misunderstanding arc GO)

The whole "Dick accepts that justice is better than murder kinda maybe FOR NOW" storyline happens, and Dick becomes the conniving, bright, little Robin we all know and love. (Thinking of the Young Justice Cartoon Robin (but not the characters- just Dick's character) aaaand

Womp womp GUESS WHOS BACK

Jason's Back

but i'll leave that for later.

[fae-morrigan]

people… like jonjay? i didnt know that. curiously, what is the appeal besides yknow, gay superman?

This is worded hilariously, so I will deign myself to answer it.

In short: It has nothing to do with Jon (the aforementioned Gay Superman) and everything to do with Jay. Most jayjon shippers are Jay stans first and Jon is there too, I guess.

You probably have heard a lot of things about Mr. Jay Nakamura. Basically none of them are true, other than his hair being obnoxiously pink.

No, he's not some evil mastermind who manipulated Jon into a relationship with him. No, he's not a cruel and mean evil man who mistreats Jon. No, he's not a boring character with no personality. Frankly I don't even know how you get that last one, he's got an insane amount of presence on page.

What is Jay Nakamura then?

He's an investigative political journalist who was pushed into becoming that when a western-backed American dictatorship took over his country and subjected him to medical torture (giving him his powers). He's a refugee from a country that has been in turmoil since its creation by Jim Lee all the way back in the 90's Wildstorm universe. He, despite all of this, is overwhelmingly chill when Jon straight up cannot be, up to and including being the voice of reason and formulating complicated plans on the fly. He's a sensitive, caring man who deeply concerns himself with the well-being of others, but never himself, up to and including putting himself in danger. He's the real protagonist of Son of Kal El, and he dresses and has the color scheme of a poison dart frog. He looks like if Oscar the Grouch went to a drag show and came back with ideas. He's like if a 100 gecs song was a guy. And he's Superman's beloved. That's interesting by itself before you even get to Jon's side of things!

They meet under the following circumstances for Jon:

He's more or less just returned from the Volcano & his stint with the Legion. So, fresh off the heels of life-altering Trauma.

Clark, genius, decides this is a GREAT time to leave to liberate Warworld, leaving Jon (unstable) to be Superman alone.

He's not had a proper possession or attachment in years. Everything was fleeting and painful in the Volcano. He's now older than his best friend, his parents expect him to act like he did when he was 12, and the whole world knows who he is so he can't even walk to the coffee shop and buy himself a fun drink to calm his nerves.

Imagine you're Jon and killing yourself isn't an option: What do you do?

Well, you talk to your only friend in the whole wide world, Damian, and Damian (autistic) recommends you solve your turmoil by watching his favorite political twitch streamer, a guy named The Truth. So you do, you wake up at seven in the canonical morning to do so, and you find out about a boat of refugees that need saving, and you go and you save them because you may not be coping well but you ARE still superman!

And that leads... directly into Jon meeting Jay (who is in fact The Truth) on the rooftop at the end of issue 2 of Son of Kal El. In their first real meeting, Jay becomes the first person since the age up to fully emphasize with Jon's situation and to offer him a tangible solution and partnership.

So obviously Jon becomes obsessed. Immediately.

I'm not joking: I think people assume that Jay was the instigator for their romance, but no, actually, Jay was just kind of a helpful dude who gave tips on where to be and how to help, and Jon was straight up blowing off Clark to go meet him and get arrested for his cause.

^ JON, A WOMAN JUST EXPLODED PART OF METROPOLIS. FINISH YOUR DAMN SENTENCE.

Even their big romantic scene in issue 5 is characterized by Jay offering him basic care, taking Jon in when Jon's on the brink of collapse:

And then Jon kisses him. And it is Jon who kissed first, by the way. Its much clearer in the initial sketches from the first volume trade. First kiss Jay canonically initiates is in issue 15!

And this caring, this protectiveness, this understanding, characterizes their romance from then on: Its fast, its heated, its intense, but its never blind.

They help each other- Jon helps Jay free his country, and Jay helps Jon rest. It is the kind of romance that begins with infatuation and continues with devotion.

That's the real appeal of jonjay, anon: These are two weird ass people who found each other when they needed each other most. Two people on the verge of Giving Up who then carry each other out of the darkness.

So why the hell am I the only one who give a shit?

I think the hang up on people liking Jayjon comes from two places:

Firstly, people don't like the age up. Which, fair, I mean, it was a wack ass decision on Bendis's part, but its been what, six years? Get over yourself, like, actually. They're not reversing it. Either acclimate or leave people who like it alone. I'm saying this as a longtime Legion of Super Heroes fan, if you can't find the good and interesting in otherwise stupid decisions, comics are NOT the medium for you lmfao.

Secondly, people go into Son of Kal El expecting a queer romance, and then are annoyed when Jay and Jon get together fast and the book is more plot-motivated. But that's uh, that's the thing, SOKE is not a queer romance, the gay stuff is just the cherry on top, the seasoning- Son of Kal El is a book about fighting colonialism. Why do you think so many marginalized comic fans like it? The entire plot of the book is about overthrowing an American-sponsored dictator in order to liberate an Asian country. Jay & Jon's romance is not only flavoring for this plot, but an expression of its core idea- If you have the power to be an ally, that's what you have to be. Jon's arc in that book is basically entirely learning how to be a good ally to an oppressed group. Just so happens part of how he learns that is by kissing a man!

[atopvisenyashill]

thoughts on the grand northern conspiracy theory?

it makes some points but i think most of it is deeply silly and relies on far too many leaps in logic and characters acting in a way they would never act all to push a “jon will be king” theory, which as i’m sure everyone knows, i am a big hater of.

The basis of the theory is that the Northern lords are purposefully playing Stannis & the Bolton/Freys against each other so they can take each other out, and free the North up for a Stark King & Northern Independence. That, on its face, I fully believe. It’s the details in the theory that I don’t fully buy into.

It’s basically canon that the Northern lords & ladies are really taking advantage of the chaotic politics & lack of a real centralized leader at the moment to make their own political moves. Some examples here include:

Arnolf & Cregan Karstark are explicitly doing this, something Alys comments on and something several other lords point out: "My uncle declared for Stannis, in hopes it might provoke the Lannisters to take poor Harry's head. Should my brother die, Karhold should pass to me, but my uncles want my birthright for their own." They don't really care about Stannis, they want Harry dead so they can have Karhold.

Alysane Mormont is potentially working off orders from her mother, when she says here, "Five, we were. All girls. Lyanna is back on Bear Island. Lyra and Jory are with our mother. Dacey was murdered." Even though as far as we know before that, all of Maege's girls were at Bear Island (except Dacey, who was with Maege in Robb's campaign).

There's the Umbers refusing to fight each other while picking two different sides, and this theory here that it was likely a plan between Mors and Hother to keep the Greatjon alive.

The Manderly Of It All re: very obviously using his granddaughter's anger as a cover for his own brutal plans for revenge and a Stark restoration.

The North is all clearly playing the game & attempting to oust the Boltons & Freys from power. I also don’t think the grumbling for Northern Independence would have died down since Robb died - if anything, after their King is brutally, viciously murdered, his mother’s corpse made a mockery of, his little Queen now a prisoner, and his sisters married off to enemies & humiliated, I imagine the calls for Northern Independence have gotten louder. This is a people that has suffered not just death and violence, but a lot of humiliation on top of that, and all of that is the perfect recipe for some sort of nationalist call for independence.

But the theory has. Some points that I just cannot co-sign because they make absolutely zero sense to me.

The idea that the only thing stopping Jon from being king is Jeyne being pregnant or the witnesses of Robb’s will being dead is just silly. He isn’t Ned Stark’s son, he is Lyanna’s! That puts Robb’s entire will in question, and you can bet your ass that there will be some grumbling or discussion about whether Winterfell should bypass Ned‘a line despite him having TWO true born sons and TWO true born daughters still alive, or whether it goes to Lyanna and therefore to Jon. The succession question is just NOT as simple as the meta makes it out to be because it completely ignores that Jon is, I cannot stress this enough, NOT actually Ned Stark’s son.

The meta is right that it’s likely Maege & Gallbart got a message to Howland because Theon notes that there’s been attacks by craggoman. But. Howland is one of - possible thee only - person left alive that knows Jon is Lyanna’s son. There is just no way he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether Jon should inherit winterfell without knowing the truth.

Irrelevant but it’s really mean to Jeyne Westerling. Whatever role she may have - even if it’s to die in the prologue of TWOW - her life and her death are important regardless of whether she’s pregnant! She is the widow of a King, and if she dies by LSH’s hand, it’s going to be a huge point in showing us the violence in the Riverlands. Maybe the continued breakdown in the Riverlands, Lady Stoneheart’s anger, and Jeyne’s defiance of her family is not relevant to the King Jon pushers, but it IS thematically relevant to the plot thank you very fucking much. THE GIRL IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THE BOY.

More relevant to this point is there’s just no way in fuck that Lady Stoneheart is trying to crown Jon. “oh she has bigger problems” she is going to crown one of her children if she crowns anyone, likely Arya, not her husband’s bastard who she fucking hated & asked to be banished to a glorified penal colony. Look at Brynden’s comments about Jon:

The Blackfish narrowed his eyes. "Did your father arrange for that as well? Catelyn never trusted the boy, as I recall, no more than she ever trusted Theon Greyjoy. It would seem she was right about them both.

Cat hates that kid so much she wrote letters to her uncle talking shit about him but we are supposed to believe this is proof she wants to crown him? When she's so far gone she's willing to kill Podrick and Brienne off a perceived slight against her? When she's heard several rumors that her daughters may still be alive and well? No. Don't buy it even a little.

Also, Brynden is flying Robb’s banner bc Robb was his family, because he loved Catelyn, and because what else is he supposed to do when he’s in the middle of a siege?? This point is silly and nonsensical.

Harwin as the Hooded Man - i mean. there’s nothing for or against this really, but also the Theon Durden theory aka Theon is the hooded man and doesn’t realize bc he’s having a psychotic episode, is much more believable to me & much more in line with everything that’s happening in theon’s chapter.

So like. Yes, the basic premise of “the northern lords are desperately looking for a stark, any stark, to make king/queen in the north, bc they are tired of All This Bullshit” is something i completely agree with. I do think it’s likely Maege has been in contact with her daughters, & that she and Gallbart made contact with Howland, who is about to enter the scene in a big way. But all that ish about LSH, the BWB, and Blackfish? Absolutely not. LSH is about Arya’s story (and Brienne & Jaime’s), not Jon. Stoneheart doesn’t care about the politics in Westeros; she cares that she followed all the rules and it got her family killed, so now she will break every rule there is to get revenge for her slaughtered children. she is Alyssa Arryn except she has the power to cause a lot of suffering before her tears drown her. she is not wasting her second life crowning jon snow!

[devine-fem]

WHY JON KENT IS AGED UP.

I realized that people don’t actually know why Jon Kent was aged up so for the people that don’t know I’m going to explain why he was aged up; the real life reason and the story reason.

The real life reason is DC was trying to get ready with 5G Future State and Infinite Frontier and they were trying to do something new. So their idea was to try and take Superman (Clark) off the table. They also wanted a fresh Superboy/Superman to be apart of new teams they could form and fight in new stories in the potential future. (I forget what team and etc because this is from my memory, sorry) Brian Micheal Bendis than had come from Marvel to DC, I know he’s done the same thing in Marvel where he’s written for characters that are more on the side and made them more interesting which worked out but when he came to DC they made the mistake of letting him touch their most well known Superhero: Superman.

Brian Micheal Bendis had decided to make a story completely focused on Clark Kent and Jon was a casualty to this.

To remove him from the story they made it so Mr. Oz (a DC villain) was revealed to be Jor-El (Jon’s grandfather) who had survived the explosion on Krypton by being taken out of Krypton the very moment it blew up by an omnipotent. being called Dr. Manhattan then he appeared suddenly in his house and asked to take Jon and Lois on a space mission to learn the inner workings of the universe. You may be wondering: “Why would Clark and Lois allow this to happen?!” they wouldn’t. it’s very mischaracterized, Clark Kent loses himself in only being Superman and Lois Lane becomes a mother who doesn’t care about her family but only cares about headlines.

Jon in all this time got stuck in a wormhole where he was warped into Earth-3 (a universe where the Justice League is evil) and he gets imprisoned in a Volcano where he’s tortured and abused by Ultraman (that worlds Superman) along with that world’s Lois Lane who is like that worlds Superman.

Then they decide on keeping this in continuity, Tom Taylor/Bendis allow Jon to keep his tortured past and they let Jon explore his sexuality but it is not authentic… its just for headlines and sales but it doesn’t matter since the comic “Superman: Son of Kal-El” flopped.

Jon now doesn’t even act like Jon and he doesn’t have any chemistry with the characters he once did like Damian etc, his personality seems flat… This also takes away Super Sons and removes the option of us being able to watch Jon find his way as a hero and take up after his father. They wanted Jon to become the new Superman which won’t last because there's no way Clark Kent is not coming back.

I'm sure his age-up will not last long though and people will rightfully be mad because “Jay Nakamura” his boyfriend will cease to exist if he becomes young again which would be extremely problematic.

He will most likely be aged down because there's no one who likes this change so Im not too worried.

Over all its just a simple case of a writer writing for a character he doesn’t understand at all.

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

the simurgh could have been so cool. she could have been so cool and they wasted her

the explanation given for how the simurghs manipulation power works is that shes an extremely powerful telepath and precog and shes able to set people up in such a way that they inevitably take the actions that lead to mass casualties and destruction. shes supposed to be a puppetmaster/chessmaster type. and i have a REAL weakness for those. but she isnt very effective at filling that trope and that makes me SO MAD

the hallmark of good manipulation in fiction is that the character cant tell they're being manipulated but the audience, if they think about it, can. take The Magnus Archives for instance, as a piece of media that plays with this trope heavily. (heavy TMA spoilers through the finale inbound!) when Jonah Magnus causes Jon to initiate the Eyepocalypse, its done in a way that feels like all characters involved are acting in a way that seems to follow naturally from their previous actions. Jonah is creating this ritual in order to gain immortality. Jon sets out to stop him out of guilt for having participated. both of those motivations make sense. its only when you take a step back and consider where those motivations originated that you hit some interesting roadblocks, such as "why does Jon feel so culpable for an event that he was tricked into instigating?" that you can peel back a few layers and discover that large portions of this event were actually arranged by the Web. but the characters are oblivious to this, until it is spelled out.

good manipulation is good from a narrative standpoint because it shows what the character being manipulated is REALLY capable of. it follows logically, and those moments reveal hidden truths about the character being manipulated, allowing us to learn more about them, because the actions they've been manipulated into ARE in character for them.

the Simurgh doesnt do that. her manipulation doesnt set us up to learn anything more about the initial characterization of the individual, because it practically OVERWRITES that individual. i can only think of three major examples of the simurghs manipulation, so pardon if im missing something, but:

she manipulates Cody, aka Perdition, into being slightly more aggressive towards his friends. this causes him to be ousted from their group, which causes him to be acquired by Accord and subsequently sold to the Yàngbǎn. because of their cultish rules and Codys problems with authority, he comes to resent Accord for putting him in this position, and bcomes murderously violent towards him upon seeing him again, leading to him disabling much of the command station in the battle at Delhi, causing unknown extra causalties to Behemoth. while this one is closest to being good manipulation from a narrative standpoint, it still falls short because it doesnt REVEAL anything. Cody being angry, resenting his friends and especially Krouse, and chafing under authority are all evident from his first few appearances. there's no information gained about his character during this exchange, and it prevents him from having anything resembling a character arc. he doesnt get resolution, to find a community where he belongs or to realize hes happy being without one - he gets an interlude where we hear that he Fucking Hates All Of This Shit and then boils over and kills some important people out of personal anger. that's his most important contribution to the story - being angry enough to act like an idiot and validate the bad things that Krouse had been saying about him.

she manipulates Krouse and Noelle into feeling so trapped that they feel they have no choice but to take the Cauldron power vials, leading to Noelle taking the halfdose that gives her her Echidna powers. that by itself is fine. where this one falls off the deep end is in making Echidna a separate force to Noelle's own motivations. Noelle doesnt end up destroying huge swathes of Brockton Bay and indirectly revealing the truth about Cauldron because it made sense for her to do so as a character - she does it because she, as a character, literally gets replaced with a different, more reckless, more destructive character. its lazy and tells us NOTHING, actively LESS THAN NOTHING - to the point where Noelle has less characterization than most of the other Travellers despite having ao much screen time. Echidna is a fine character, but the Simurgh doesnt set up the dominoes for Noelles motivations to BECOME Echidnas motovations - she sets them up for Noelles motivations to be SUBSUMED by Echidnas.

and then there's Mannequin, and this one is EGREGIOUS. do i even have to spell it out? alan gramme is a cool character who gets traumatized, and then wildbow decides that being traumatized makes him so murderously insane that he BECOMES A DIFFERENT PERSON ENTIRELY. not only is that deeply insulting to the traumatized and mentally ill - who are, in my experience, onaverage NOT violently murderous - it also doesnt give us any info on Alan Gramme, the character. Alans motivations are to make the world a better place. Mannequins motivations are... to lash out at people who are making the world a better place? because he feels that he failed in doing so? it doesn't follow logically. a better Alan would have been one who gave up on trying to affect the world, instead retreating fully into himself, or one who decided his previous methods weren't working and instead starts engaging in more extreme methods. mannequin couldve been an ecoterrorist if his arc followed logically from Alan's but instead he decides to start killing his former allies. and THAT is not good manipulation

tl;dr the Simurgh's influence has a tendency to replace the affected character with what is, in all respects, just a Different Character. its lazy writing, because it means that Wildbow doesnt have to think abiut hiw a characters real values and morals get corrupted into causing destruction - he just transplants in new morals and uses the Simurgh to justify it. and its BAD writing, which is a much worse crime than being lazy, because it essentially chops off any chance the character had of having a real arc where we get to see them progress naturally - instead they reach an artificial cutoff point and then their character stops mattering to the story as they become someone else instead.

[rise-my-angel]

Sorry if I'm spouting stuff unwanted in your ask box. But I had a deep brain thinky moment and I thought "at least with reader inserts we admit we're inserting ourselves into the story". A lot of "shippers" seem to ship because they've projected onto a certain character, and they themselves want to be with another character (who often gets watered down to a very attractive slab of meat with little to no will and/or personality of their own). So of course, prime example is Jon with his choose your own poison girlboss, but I've seen it in some other areas. Of course there are some genuine attempts at investigating chemistry between characters out there, but it's often the most viciously toxic ships/shipping communities that I notice this sort of self insertion. Of course I could be assuming things and/or judgemental but it's just a theory I built up after years of observing.

No, you are right on the money. (Rest under a read more because gods be good have my opinions on shipping and shippers in fandom gotten me some anon hate before)

It's why certain shippers tend to be very aggressive in their defences, because they have seen so much of themselves in a character they feel like you are judging them for a real relationship they are in. Refusing to see character flaws as a fundemantal aspect of who that person is, beacuse they don't want to relate to someone like that, so they invent a vision of this person that they have to defend beacuse they won't admit they related to a bad person.

It's a slippery slope to project so heavily onto a character in a ship you like. Beacuse you end up refusing to see them as dynamic people who are more complicated then their relationship and that relationship ends updefining them as a character. Example, I ship Brienne and Jaime but I also don't look at either of them as someone I relate to on a personal level. I'm also fascinated with both of their separate stories and greatly and think those separate journeys are what makes their intertwining moments so intriguing. But if I were projecting myself onto Brienne, then I would end up acting as if she was always perfect and her entire story revolves around a starry eyed Jaime who only lives for that relationship now.

Jon has such a bad treatment by his shippers, beacuse so often he winds up being that slab of meat for the other party. I know some people have joked "well about time its a mans turn" but the point is no one should be given the arm candy treatment by fans. Man or woman. Jon is such a footnote in Jonerys dialouge beacuse ultimetly he serves her at her beck and call with little agency. Because Dany is the one they see themselves as and thus molding Jon into their perfect partner means serving the worst aspects of a girlboss character, meaning stripping the complex agency of their romantic male interests. Same with Ygritte, people see her aggresiveness and sass and think oh my god shes me, and totally ignore the actual text on the page/proof on screen that Jon's time with her isn't happy or romantic. But they want to see themeslves in Ygritte's spitfire personality so badly that they refuse to see Jon as anything but a willing puppet for her enjoyment, beacuse they want the advantage of being her and having him.

Honestly most Jon ships have this problem, and it's partially why I don't ship him with anyone, and i actually ship very few characters with anyone. My time in the Pedro fandom I was infamous for disliking popular ships and a lot of it then too was seeing people projecting onto the female to a point where their interpretation of the character was just not what was on screen.

Casually shipping is fine, again I love a good analysis post about Jaime and Brienne, but like you said. At least with reader inserts, I'm telling you it's you. I'm telling you it's me. You know the reader acts that way beacuse it's who they are and it's not forcing them to be something their not just to force that character to be relatable to you in particular.

Jonsa, Jonerys, Jonrya and Jongritte suffer from this problem greatly, and during my time in the pedro fandom Mando and Omera, and Joel and Tess also were major sufferers of this problem. The male becomes meat for the superior female character beacuse you want it to be you and it being you forces you to turn this person into someone they aren't and this it strips the other party of their agency.

The males now only exist to be relatable arm candy, as opposed to reader inserts which do the work to find a way to make the reader fit into the existing world around them organically.

At least I'm being honest. I write Jon Snow x Reader fics cus I want to fuck Jon Snow, I'm not pretending like I just really like Dany and thats why I ship it. No, they're a terrible couple, but at least I'm honest about my self shipping. I don't have to lie about my intentions.

[thequeenofthewinter]

I come bearing corvid questions of the what if variety. A sociological question for you. What do you think the Nord concept of "honor" might be, and what are its cultural implications? If you were to elaborate on what TES gives us (or extrapolate athwart to it), what might you come away with? Take it as an invitation for wild meta XD

Very sorry it took me so long to get to this, Para, but it has been rattling around in my brain for the last week. I hope that any of this also makes sense at all because I think I started rambling at the end.

I think there are a myriad of ways that one could think about honor and its role in Nord society at different levels or rather, how we can see how this concept affects everyday society/culture from the top down.

Take for instance one of our favorite Nordic insults: “milk-drinker.” Why is it there and how is it used in order to classify who or what is seen as honorable—or conversely in this case DIShonorable: drinking milk. Why? There has to be some concept there which is related to the simple act of an apparent beverage choice. Seems very innocuous, doesn’t it? There has to be something behind it because why else would random bandit chief #76 insult is in this way. What can this language choice tell us? This could go many ways and I don’t pretend to have the answer to this, but my best guess is that milkdrinking is seen as an activity for infants. (Obviously cheese is for real honorable macho adults.) So…what is there with the implication? You are a baby. You are incapable of taking care of yourself or swinging around your big burly battleaxe or maybe that you’re even taking the easy road out by accepting some of the most readily-available food source available in Skyrim. Honor is seen in strong action and proving oneself as being capable.

I’ll let you stew on that for a second as we look at something else.

On a similar note, finding a partner in Skyrim is much the same thing. How does one go about doing it? While we might find the whole system of, “Go fetch me X thing in Y creepy frostbite spider infested cave” to be laughable, there is also a lot to be said about Nordic culture and their beliefs about honor as well. I mean, who wouldn’t want a good and honorable husband or wife? It would appear that they place a higher priority on actions than romantics. (Although, we can find romantics there! Think of Jon and Olfina.) It’s stated by Maramal himself that life is ”hard and short” for the “earnest” people of Skyrim, so by wearing an amulet of Mara and then having potential marriage candidates respond to it only after certain actions…well, I think that speaks a lot about what is honorable. 

…Or perhaps what we really should talk about is my pet “blorbo,” Ulfric. What is honor and how do the people respond to him and his actions? We know that there is a huge dichotomy of Empire vs Stormcloak and implications, opinions, and the dreaded discourse depending on whose side you are on. What’s the main problem with the man? Why is or isn’t he honorable? I’m not going to touch the whole thing here because I don’t have any wish to stir the bees. I only want to look at two particular:

The Challenging of High King Torygg

Skyrim’s Civil War

A lot of how you’re going to view Ulfric’s actions as honorable or dishonorable is going to heavily lean on what your personal belief system is in relation to morality (even if most of it is really very grey in Skyrim) and the concept of what is right and wrong. (And it’s not about who you think is going to actually win the war at all.) Is it moral that Ulfric used his ability to Shout to challenge High King Torygg? Depends on who you ask. I don’t want to go too far down this rabbit hole right now because I would write a whole 5 paragraph essay (actually probably more) about it and I’m not prepared to do that at the moment. But let’s just suffice it to say it all boils down to actions. Is it honorable that Ulfric stands up to defend the people of Skyrim and take it back from a clearly crumbing Empire to save their province? Or is dishonorable that he slaughters a young and naïve ruler to pave the way for his own coronation? Is he a hero or is he an egotistical megalomaniac? Is he perhaps both? I can’t tell you. Only YOU can tell yourself that and it’s the beauty to the TES universe. We can pick, decide, and choose what is and isn’t honorable just as much as the people who are in Skyrim. We can imagine what they think or feel and make deductions based on what we do or do not see in the context.

Anyway, I think all of this at its essence comes back to the same thing: Respect. Do you respect the other person you are in combat with? Do you respect the person proposing marriage to you? Do you respect Ulfric’s decisions and actions?

Being able to prove oneself as strong and capable and having traits which demonstrate to that you are reliable, I believe, is part of this. At the end of the day, people respond to actions and people respect or honor you based on that.

[justforbooks]

With his shrewd eyes and his forks of corn-yellow hair, Julian Sands was a natural choice to play the valiant, romantic George Emerson, who snatches a kiss from Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) in a Tuscan poppy field in A Room With a View (1985). “I wanted him to be real, not a two-dimensional minor screen god,” he said. “I liked him in his lighter, sexier moments, less so when he was brooding.”

Sands, who has died aged 65 while hiking in mountains in California, was dashing in that film, but he could also project a dandyish, effete or sinister quality. He was blessed with a mellifluous voice and a lean, youthful, fine-boned face, even if, as a child, his brothers insisted he resembled a horse. (He agreed.) In James Ivory’s film of EM Forster’s novel, he was pure heart-throb material. His participation in the notorious nude bathing scene was no impediment to the picture’s success.

Prior to that, he had played the journalist Jon Swain in The Killing Fields (1984), Roland Joffé’s drama about the bloody rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The picture marked the beginning of his friendship with his co-star John Malkovich. “I’d been cautioned by Roland to keep my distance from John because he was an unstable character,” Sands recalled. “And John had been told by Roland to stay away from me, because I was a refined, sensible person who didn’t want to be distracted. In fact, we bonded instantly.”

Malkovich directed Sands in a one-man show in which he read Harold Pinter’s poetry. First staged in 2011, the production had its origins in an occasion six years earlier when Pinter, suffering from oesophageal cancer, had asked Sands to read in his stead at a benefit event in St Stephen Walbrook church in the City of London. The writer “sat in the front row with his stone basilisk stare”, Sands recalled.

Not all his work was so highfalutin, and a good deal of it fell into the category of boisterous, campy fun. In Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986), he played the poet Shelley, who indulges in sex, drugs and séances with Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) and the future Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson), and is prone to recite verse naked in thunderstorms.

In a similar vein but far less deranged was Impromptu (1991), which brought together other notable 19th-century figures including George Sand (Judy Davis) and Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant). Sands, who played Franz Liszt, described it as “Carry On Composer”.

Born in Otley, West Yorkshire, he was raised in Leeds and Gargrave, near Skipton; he later described his childhood as “part conservative and part Huckleberry Finn”. His mother, Brenda, was a Tory councillor and leading light of the local amateur dramatic society, while his father, William, who left when Julian was three, was a soil analyst. Julian made his acting debut in a local pantomime at the age of eight.

At 13, he won a scholarship to Lord Wandsworth college, Hampshire. He moved to London to study at Central School of Speech and Drama, and while there became friends with Derek Jarman. He played the Devil in an extended promotional video that Jarman directed in 1979 for Marianne Faithfull’s album Broken English. The role had been intended for David Bowie, who dropped out at the eleventh hour. “You’re devilish,” Jarman told Sands. “You can play it.”

The actor’s first film appearance came in an adaptation of Peter Nichols’s stage comedy Privates on Parade (1983), starring John Cleese and Denis Quilley, from which his one line of dialogue was cut. There was more rotten luck when he won the lead in a new Tarzan movie, only for the financing to fall through. It was eventually filmed as Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), with Christopher Lambert donning the hallowed loin-cloth.

On television, he starred with Anthony Hopkins in the miniseries A Married Man (1983). In Oxford Blues (1984), he was a rower butting heads with a Las Vegas parking attendant (Rob Lowe) who has tricked his way into a place at Oriel College. He was in The Doctor and the Devils (1985), inspired by the Burke and Hare case. “I had a roll in the hay with Twiggy which took about 15 takes,” he said.

Following A Room With a View, he agreed to play the lead in Ivory’s next Forster adaptation, Maurice (1987), before abruptly dropping out and fleeing to the US. In the process, he left behind his wife, the journalist Sarah Sands (nee Harvey), who described him as “restless” and “dramatic”, and their son, Henry. “I’m not the first person to create stability and security and then dismantle it even more effectively than I created it,” the actor said.

Once in America he took on an array of film parts. In Warlock (1989), he played the son of Satan, wreaking havoc in modern-day Los Angeles. Investing this pantomime villain with lip-smacking brio, he was likened by the Washington Post to a “hell-bent Peter Pan” and nominated for best actor in the Fangoria Chainsaw awards. He reprised the role in Warlock: The Armageddon (1993).

As an entomologist in Arachnophobia (1990), he was called upon to have as many as a hundred spiders crawling all over his face. Alternating these mainstream projects with arthouse ones, he played a diplomat in pre-war Poland in Krzysztof Zanussi’s Wherever You Are … (1988) and a monk in Night Sun (1990), the Taviani brothers’ adaptation of Tolstoy’s short story Father Sergius.

For the Canadian horror director David Cronenberg, he starred in the warped and witty Naked Lunch (1991), which disproved those who had declared William S Burroughs’s original novel unfilmable. Just as outré but less accomplished was Boxing Helena (1993), directed by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David. Sands played a surgeon who keeps a woman captive by making her a quadruple amputee.

After starring as a young classics teacher in his friend Mike Figgis’s film of Terence Rattigan’s The Browning Version (1994), Sands worked a further six times with that director, appearing in his movies even when he was an unorthodox choice for the job in hand. One example was the part of a menacing Latvian pimp in Leaving Las Vegas (1996).

Later roles include a mysteriously unblemished Phantom in Dario Argento’s version of The Phantom of the Opera (1998), Louis XIV (whom Sands described as “the first supermodel”) in Joffé’s Vatel (2000), a crime kingpin named Snakehead in the Jackie Chan vehicle The Medallion (2003), a computer security wizard in the comic caper Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), a younger version of the businessman played by Christopher Plummer in David Fincher’s take on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and a sadistic paedophile in the gruelling wartime odyssey The Painted Bird (2019).

On television, he was a Russian entrepreneur in the fifth season of 24 (2006) and the hero’s father, Jor-El, in two episodes of the Superman spin-off Smallville (2009). For the BBC, he played two very different actors in factually based one-off specials: first Laurence Olivier in Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005), then John Le Mesurier in We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story (2015).

His recent work includes Benediction, Terence Davies’s haunting study of Siegfried Sassoon, and the thriller The Survivalist (both 2021), which found him back in the company of Malkovich. One of several titles still awaiting release is the drama Double Soul (2023) starring F Murray Abraham and Paz Vega.

Sands never stopped wandering, walking, running and climbing. “I am on a perpetual Grand Tour,” he said in 2000. Asked in 2018 about his eclectic career, he explained: “I was looking for something exotic, things that took me out of myself. I think I found myself a little boring.”

He was reported missing while out in the San Gabriel mountains, north of Los Angeles, in mid-January 2023. His remains were found in June.

In 1990 he married Evgenia Citkowitz. She survives him, along with their two daughters, Imogen and Natalya, and his son.

🔔 Julian Richard Morley Sands, actor, born 4 January 1958; died circa 13 January 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[oaxleaf]

mag 200 - last words

this is the first time i've been able to relisten to this episode in full. whenever i've tried to before the dread has overtaken me and i've had to bail ten minutes in. looking at it through an analytical lens does actually help lessen that a bit, though. honestly, part of what has been so great about joining in on this relisten is that actually taking time to analyse the characters actions and motivations helps me understand a lot of their final or pivotal moments so much better. i think so much of what really hit the first time listening to this episode was just that i couldn't understand why jon would do this. or, well, i could, but it was really hard to actually fully dive into it. my view of the situation has shifted quite drastically since

i will always stand by the statement that whilst taking his place in the panopticon is the more ethical choice, choosing not to do so is what is right for him, individually. there's an issue, in fiction, where if you make your stakes too high, your audience won't be able to truly understand them. it's why the risk of a small but deeply personal loss can be so much more impacting on the audience than the threat of the world ending. us humans can barely comprehend the threats to our own world, how are we supposed to do that for a reality we're not a part of? i think this final act takes such great advantage of that issue by presenting us with an option that is really really hard to argue against morally, and still make us side with the opposite. because we care about jon. we know him, and we've followed him, and we want him to live and be happy. so much of jon's arc has been about desperately trying to hang on to his humanity, and we don't want to see him give it up so willingly. nevermind that he could probably never live with himself had they gone with their original plan. nevermind that they are probably dooming billions of people. we don't know who 'billions of people' are, but we know who he is, and we care about him

in the end, we are given a compromise - a genuine possibility that things might have worked out fine for them. let's be real, the show could have never ended with a guarantee for that. tragedy is woven into its very bones. but i've always been partial to stories that end with at least a glimmer of hope. despite the undeniable tragedy of this ending, i do consider it pretty much perfect. it wraps up all the characters and themes so increbibly well, and although i loved tma all throughout my first listen, this final episode is what really solidified it as truly changing my perspective on horror, tragedy, and story-telling at large. i cannot over-emphasize how deeply it has embedded itself into my brain

anyways, as an end note, cheers to this wonderful show, and cheers to the fantastic mods of @a-mag-a-day for running this relisten. i don't naturally go back to media i like in full, from beginning to end, but this has been a delightful experience

[waspredteeth]

list of the character dynamics I plan on writing for the TAXONOMY!verse. Mostly here in order to remind myself of the ideas I have.

Bette Kane/Tom Bronson

Have they ever interacted in canon? no. Will I still create a crack ship that probably no one else will like? yes. Unfortunately my brain has latched onto them, so expect to see more of them in the au.

Neither of them are the type to be open with their real feelings, but are casual with intimacy. Maybe a little too easy with it, but they understand each other's need. Bette is straightforward, determined. Tom avoids personal conversation, especially about himself, but he's very observant. They both will feel something, both will side-step and redirect. Bette is inherently lonely, Tom always feels out of place. It takes a while before they actually confide in each other. Tom is still mourning Grant and the idea of what could have been, Bette is tired and lost and still figuring out what to do with her life when so many others reject her resolve. Bette needs to be a hero, needs to feel like she has a purpose. Tom never wanted to be a hero, but he needs the company that being one provides. Gotham is a terrible place to land when you're hurting, but they make the most of it. (Also they have a terrible child to co-babysit on top of all of this.)

Bette Kane, Damian Wayne

Bette takes none of his threats or jabs seriously. Damian is horrified that they're related. Bette loves Damian bc he's somewhat easier to communicate with than other children (who act their age) but also he's a bundle of nerves and trauma - so she's still careful and and little bewildered. She lets him have space, but she's always ready to pay attention to him at the drop of a hat bc no one did when she was a child. She respects his opinion, and tries to reason with him. Because Bette has only heard of the League, not become involved with it, she's able to have a less biased view on his childhood. Damian is aghast at her supposed ignorance. He does not recognize her strength of character. He's used to the fearful or emotionally closed women of the League. In the end, Bette recognizes that she has to set limits and boundaries and Damian learns to accept a life with a degree of normalcy.

Bette is sad to see him go, but she knows how important a name like Robin is. She wants Damian to find purpose on his own, but she leaves him the gift of "normal things" like sports and acting.

Tom Bronson, Damian Wayne

Damian will say the most gory threat imaginable, Tom will reply: "haha ok, little buddy" they are one step away from duking it out. Tom simultaneously thinks of Damian as a little brother and a pain in the ass. But they're not related, so Tom will not feign complete responsibility over him. He observes and waits, wipes his hands clean and sets him loose. Maybe he dispenses harsh truths once in a while, maybe he cuts too deep once. Damian will return the favor. Tom allows himself to be vulnerable rarely, and explains absent fathers and mothers who are there and then gone too soon. Damian reluctantly sees himself, and hates it. Tom recognizes his sarcasm as an emotional outlet similar to his own, and encourages every insult Damian makes. Maybe its too enabling, but frankly Tom doesn't care. Let the kid be an asshole once in a while, as a treat. You do not want to be on the receiving end of both of their ire.

Tom gives him a kitten as an inside joke, an acknowledgement of his personal growth - before Damian goes to live with the new Batman and become Robin.

Damian Wayne, Chris Kent

Way more plausible than the one above. I am a Jon Kent hater. I fully believe in the made up interactions in my head between these two kids instead. Everyday I cope and seethe that they never interacted in canon bc they were introduced so close together!! in 2006!! They have so many parallels and interesting conversations to be had! Damian is angry that Chris is allowed to move on from his trauma. That Clark and Lois are able to give him closure, when Bruce is dead and Talia needs to stay separated from him. He is angry that he will forever suffer the what ifs because he can never confront his grandfather or parents the way Chris did with Zod and Ursa. Chris cannot fathom taking out his anger on other people. He can't imagine pushing others away because he was always alone in Fort Rozz, he wants a family. He is horrified of this aggressive boy, but he's still kind nonetheless. Maybe punches are thrown initially, but in the end they understand each other in small ways other people just can't. They are not their parents, but some people can't look past that. Chris forever denounces his biological parents, Damian is shackled by their expectations and the weight of their romance turned into a battle of wills.

Maybe in the future it'll become a ship but that's a long way off. It would need way more development, more time in-between fics, and Damian needs to mature and figure things out. Their potential friendship is more important than anything romantic.

Cassandra Cain, Jason Todd

Mostly here bc of differences in philosophy, they're the central conflict surrounding the idea of Batman. Cassandra doesn't care about the city, she cares about the people. No one dies. Ever. Not in her watch. She could care less about complicated morality, because if she could change (she, the murderer, the sinner) then everyone can. Batman is not about Bruce Wayne, it is about saving everyone who can be saved. Bruce is the ideal, but Cassandra is better. She wins, no matter what. Batman is instinct, action and duty. Jason cares about the city, this wretched place where he was born. The people are negotiable, ranked and categorized by his own arbitrary rules. You are good, or you are an evil that must be wiped out. Batman is tied to Bruce Wayne, it shouldn't be. It is about controlling Gotham. Batman holds the reins, anything that happened on his watch is Bruce's fault - Jason will be better. Batman is planning, watching, and culling. Both can be right, both can be wrong. They were messy and complicated. They need to beat each other senseless before they can reach a conclusion. Cassandra gains Batman, and Jason gains a fragile understanding.

[bellysoupset]

and another question because when I hear someone is anxious and needs distraction I go into “fixer” mode. What is the worst job each of your OCs has ever had?

hope you’re feeling better - as someone who regularly wakes up at 4:30 am in a full-on panic attack, I get it.

Hi Lis! Honestly, I don't know what our brains want us to be "accomplishing" at 4:00 AM, its terrible.

So this is the ask where I reveal my characters are quite spoiled? You be the judge.

--

Leo: worst job was a candy factory he worked at that had him on his feet the entire day, doing extremely mechanic and repetitive tasks, wearing full body suit in Oklahoma's summer weather. He'd bike there after school and then do his homework on his 30 mins break and then back to the production line. Obviously they couldn't eat any of the products, so this is probably why nowadays he's got a huge sweet tooth. He also has a bit of tendinitis to this day thanks to this job, even though it was only 1 year he stayed there (his senior year). Even though he has worked retail and food serving before, he still ranks this one as the worst.

Bella: Bell has done everything under the sun. She's worked every retail you can think of, which was uh... Horrible, but mostly for her clients? This is a woman who has no chill and no patience, she'll not tolerate some Karen yelling at her. Period. Hence why she worked so many jobs, because she kept getting fired/quitting lol. Because of her "take no shit" attitude, a lot of her horrible jobs were actually not as bad in her opinion, simply because they didn't affect her. Her worst one was when she was 14 and her mom decided instead of Bella working for someone else she should come do nails in the hair salon she worked at. Since it was her mom's workplace Bell had to be nice, because it was one thing to be fired/quit, an entirely different thing to have her mom be fired as well. It fucking sucked, but this job had slightly less shitty hours than others, so it was when she started coding and that's how she ended up getting her scholarship. So yay?

Vince: Vin has been a frontliner of his mom's homemade food business from the get go. He came to the US at 10 and by age of 12 he was already doing sales to his classmates. He has worked the shop and done deliveries since always and he's genuinely really good at it, because he's very likable. When he was 15 he decided to get a job in a mechanic, around the time he started to get interested in motorcycles, and they put him to do front desk stuff, but he could venture to the back to learn some. In both jobs he actually thrived. He had bad clients, so he's got some horror stories, but no actual "horror jobs".

Wendy: Wen has never had a bad job?? She's done all sorts of stuff, because she's the type of hyper person who's got 200 hobbies. She's done her own little clothing line, she's been a receptionist to her parent's friends' business. By far the one she liked the least was doing reception work at her mother's clinic, mostly because her mother micromanaged her to hell and back and the other girls hated her guts. But even then, I think she'd have liked the job if it wasn't for the company.

I need to preface that both Jon and Luke never had real jobs until the ones they're in currently. They just didn't need them.

Jonah: He acted as an assistant to his father in the clinic procedures, which was a lot of washing equipment's and following around the real trained technician, and getting to watch his dad do minor surgeries. He's got covered in blood a couple of times and snapped at, but as for as Work goes this was his only real experience until he started interning via the university and then stuck around. He despised the part of college where they put him to intern with the G.I people, just gross.

Luke: he's my little baby pillow millionaire, this man has never worked a real job. He's done a LOT of volunteer work and we all know volunteering IS real work, however what I mean is Luke has never EVER depended on the money he's making for anything. He's always been the guy who could just walk out. He's lucky he's so competitive, otherwise he'd be a serial quitter tbh. He's got his stories with volunteering (worked at an elder's home once and boyyy, worst experience of his life), but I think the closest I can say was doing some menial desk job for his mom and his ADHD kicking his ass. He cannot sit still, period and Veronica never really realized that and got pissed when he'd wander off and just zone her out entirely.

[common-grackle]

hello i am here to tell you about my best friend alice dyer magnusprotocol .

so she is working at thje oiar office of incident assessment and response which is like. magnus institute part two. or something. she has this ex boyfreind called samama khalid (i love him <3) and thjey are also besties and she got him the job at the oiar and in the 1st episode she shows him how to do things adn shes so silly abiut it shes likw . hold on let me screenshot thje fucking. the transed cript

dont look at my tabs .

anywya colin is the it guy and hes so babygirl literally,, this isnt abt him though its about alice

alice shows sam the gay people on the windows 95 ALSO SHE NAMED EVERYTHING WHICH. FUCK YEAH I DO YHIS like the system thjey use on the old ass computers. it doestn have a name but also his name is freddie . because fr3-d1 . and she also named thje voices that the compiters read out statements(??) in she named them norris chester and augustus (i am so normal about norris and chester . however if i told you WHY that woudl spoil tma for you + idk maybe youvw already had it spoiled adn seen things about them . or you dont care . either way its a story for another time anyway) alice often gets scolded by gwen bouchard who is . also working there and also shes hot. who said that uhh yes alice loves to annoy her and also gwen is so interesting to me but THATS A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME !!!!! umm what else what else REMEMBER COLIN okay this is going to be a little bit about colin . he fucking . hes such a character. ok like he Knows somwthjing is wrong ?? like he can Tell . like the way the first tmagp episode ends is . interesting . to say the least . hes probably had a fucked up fear encounter . hes even scottish . and um thjeres a bit in the first episode when sam talks to him and its so silly becausw sam is like "hey colin how is the app going" and colin is like "THIS APP KILLED MY GRANDMA ))):< " or something . not that but like he got angyr You Get It and sam is like "oh my bad. i mso sorry alice told me to ask ." and colin is immediately like ". oh . (: ok then :D tell alice it was funny adn i laughed :smiling face with three hearts emoji: " LIKE . he hates everyone except alice <33 i lovw thjem so much ): AND WE SEE TJEM INTERAC T IN THE THIRD EPISODE . I LOVE THEM SO MUCH . AUGH . ummm augh the fucking conversation with sam and colin was so funny too sam is so awkward . poor boy anyway umm what else what else . YEAH UMMM AS A LOT OD PEOPLE HAVE OOINTED OUT. ALICE IS AWFULLY SIMILAR TO TIM STOKER MAGNUSARCHIVES FROM LIKE SEASON 1 . AND LIKE . god tim makes me feel shrimp emotions UMM LIKE IN SEASON ONE HES BEINGG LIKE REALLY FUNNY AND EVERYTHING . IN S2 HE LIKE. he starts getting a bit angry at everything because things have Really started to Go Wrong at the institute and also jon is being a little bitch . and at the end of s2/beginning of s3 he like . ok so theres anothjer archival assistant in like s1/s2(??) there her name is sasha and she and tim were best friends <333 some people ship them romantically some dont but either way. they were so so close and loved each other so much adn like they always come together like yk what i mean like you cant think of one of them without thinking of the other . thats how Two Of Them they were and i love them so much and augughghgh anyway ummmmm at the end of season 1 something . happens to sasha ! and its just ! not addressed until the end of s2 but like she starts acting different and everything and at the end of s2 we like learn that sasha fucking died bcause she was eaten by the not!them which is this thing thats with the fear entity known as the stranger . and um . basically it eats people and takes their place and almost no one can tell the difference like it alters everyone's memories and all the pictures and things of that person but like theres always like one or two people that can tell that it's a . whole other person . because they remember the way the real person used to be like the not!them appears in episode 3 across the street and eats this guy graham folger (love him) and amy patel (the statement giver) like remembers what og graham was like before the not!them got him yk . and in sasha's case it was this girl melanie that remembered her (i love melanie she is this youtuber she has a show called ghost hunt uk and she and jon hate each other and Cannot take each other seriously its so funny) anyway melanie was like "hgirllie that is not. sasha i?? are there two sashas" when jon assures her that sasha let her inside after she asked abt where sasha was . yk . and then jon does Researc h

i ran out of characters for this block wait

AND HE FUCKING FINDS WHAT SASHAS REAL VOICE SOUNDED LIKE BECAUSE THE NOT!THEM CANT FUCK WITH THE OLD ASS CASSETTE TAPE RECORDERS . YK and thjen he accidentally. Releases the not them into the wild lmao but um thats a whole other story the point is we learn that sasha was not. sasha . yk anyway back to tim . s3 is so bad for him and he gets like fucking . depressed . now like theres the one whole thing with sasha (thjeres this one bit where hes like "i dont even know who im sad for" UUGHGHGHGHGH) BUT ALSO we learn that the stranger also got his younger brother danny !!! traumatizing fucking experience also why is the stranhger targeting Him Specifically . one of the reasons i hate the stranger its fucking EVIL also tim hates jon now ! and he has reason to anyway um . tim is fucking . hes Sad and going through all the stages of grief aND HE DOESNT EVEN FUCKING FINISH . BECAUSE HE DIES . IN THE UNKNOWING . well trying to stop it . and UUUHUHHGHJGHJHGHJHGJHGJHJHJKJHBGHJKJHJKJHGJKJHJJHNJKJHBJKJHBMKJHBJNMKJHBJHB a bit more on this topic when jon goes to get jonah magnus' ass in s5 he like fucking sits him down adn just like fucking goes "that was for tim" "that was for sasha" AND I WAS HHDHSMDSHJDSM and then the fucking "i dont want to die" "neither did they" I AUAYUGYUHFGJHHGCFJNKNHFGVGBHJNFGH AND DONT GET ME FUCKING S T A R T E D ON THE BIRTHDAY TAPE. anyway. um. dear god how did i get from alice to this . anyway . um . YES alice reminds us so much of tim and she even has a younger brother.,,, but yes she reminds us so much of timWHICH MAKES ME SO FUCKING. WORRIED. IM GOINg TO RUN INTO MY WALL AT FULL SPEED i am so worried :thumbsup: anyway. um. uh. this was it i think i am hgoing to go play bideo games now goodbye and remember that bones are a lie peddled by big milk to keep you buying

HKDSBKJFBMNVSDJFKDBKFJH INSANE. HI

"one of the reasons i hate the stranger its fucking EVIL" is a rly good sentence

ugh i kinda want to listen to tma now. yuor fault. affectionate

ANYWAYYYY augh tragedy fans when the tragedy tragedies

UM. this was rly good and fun to read. i dont have like. words to say about the content. but YEAG BLORBOS IN LAW YOU GO 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[tonyschiavonesearring]

CM Punk - I generally dislike him as a person and most of what he's done since returning to wrestling, but he's unquestionably an important and influential figure in the business (for better and worse) and he was a big talent. The question is if he's somehow never received the credit or money he deserves. I think, at this point, he's gotten too much.

I know a lot of older male fans who missed CM Punk's original WWE run because they were watching other companies or weren't watching wrestling at all until AEW. Younger fans won't know this but "indie smarks" didn't like CM Punk. They saw him as inferior to a lot of indie guys who weren't big stars yet: Bryan, Steen/Owens, Generizo/Zayn, Omega, Devitt/Balor, AJ Styles. A huge list of guys who became stars filling in for Punk. So you can credit Punk for their success.

I was a big Punk fan. I was in the cult. I defended him and bought his side of stories over the decade of failures. But I checked out when he went to AEW. From the jump, I thought his shtick of helping the underdogs beat WWE was insincere. The politics he used to stay on top there made him the biggest hypocrite ever and destroyed the appeal he had in WWE. I'm not even talking about the 2 fights, which I think he deserves most of the responsibility for. But his unprofessionalism and Diva behavior in the Jon Moxley angle was just pathetic.

So now that he's in WWE again, WWE fans act like he's still the messiah of wrestling - even tho he's injured and in backstage drama again. One thing will never change about Phil Brooks: he's a natural heel. Since The Rock returned, I think its obvious that WWE doesn't need Punk. The only role he could've played well was Seth's role as Cody's backup. Punk has history with Rock and they're both on similar levels of health and athleticism. Both guys are talkers more than performers now. But Punk is missing the best angle that could've reintroduced him as a big star.

My prediction is Punk won't implode or do anything too stupid again, just because I don't think anyone is foolish enough to give Punk the diva treatment again. He abuses it every time. I think he will probably join HBK or take over for him as NXT's boss. He will stay in WWE's camp but won't ever have any real creative sway. The most positive effect Punk can make has already happened: he pushed HHH to prepare taking over WWE creative. And I think HHH is rewarding him for that alone. Punk will become HHH's "douchebag lackey Yes man"and thats really where he belongs.

[romanken]

8, 10 + 2 if you're feeling heinous 😈 24 if ur not 😇

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

well MY special little noble is actually the most inherently just and pure of heart and when they win the throne there will be a thousand years of peace. Wdym inherent violence of feudalism that's not real. And while there has been a downtrend in this belief throughout the last five years it HAS influenced a lot of other discource subtly... most people have realized that the way to start fixing westeros's problems is not thru a nice feudal monarch, but they dont understand that abandoning this framework for character/plot analysis also means abandoning a lot of other framework. In the arya v sansa wars people still use feudal patriarchal definitions of femininity to decide who is the Best Sexy Feminist (preteen girl). In debates about morality for certain actions people excuse things because it aligns with the feudal code of ethics- a deeply flawed and violent code. See: ned HAD to take theon hostage because well we live in a society. Like i think it's important not to hold characters to the same moral standards that we hold people in modern times to, because their circumstances are so wildly different, but we dont have to adhere to THEIR feudal values when analyzing them because its only a detriment to their characters. They live in a society but WE do not... cmon guys...

10. Worst part of fanon

no one fucking draws these characters ugly enough. Asoiaf fandom has a plague of sameface ig model syndrome and it sucks cause george puts so much distinct personality even in minor characters and then people are like hmmmmm what if they had the same button nose and good chin that everyone else has. Brienne is ugly let her be ugly!!! Arya and jon have long plain faces u dont have to draw the teen/preteen kids as super defined and striking! Let the kids look like kids. I don't care how beautiful dany is let her be a 15 yr old. OR the instinct to make everyone best friends forever and soften the complicated dynamics btwn these characters. like modern aus where the starks are the benevolent rich people who adopted theon from his abusive trailer park family grind my gears like hes a child hostage from a powerful noble house and u cant erase such a defining part of his character bc you want everyone to be nice to each other. Also related to this is people making jaime nice/acting like asos was a redemption arc or that he didnt commit some uniquely horrific acts in agot/acok. His actions thru out the last two books are not the acts of a changed man they are the acts of a man who realized he can make choices based on empathy and reason not instinct. LAST thing which is something i dont reaaaaally see here much but i know the cunts on ao3 are doing it: the post canon thing where people want brienne and jaime to get married and have twelve kids. Fuck you eat shit and die brienne is not an incubator especially not for that lannister SLAG

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

cersei is not necessarily my fave but shes a character whose sexuality i often think of. In canon the only time she's had sex with a woman she's topped and every time she fucks a dude she's disassociating so hard shes on another planet. Even when fucking jaime shes like imagining herself in his body fucking him in her body. In the bulldyke cersei universe he's stone. The pants stay on during sex and so does the shirt and probably also the shoes. Cis gay guy cersei universe he already thinks being gay is emasculating enough so obviously he's not going to let anyone penetrate him. Transmasc bi universe its like you've never been strapped until you've been strapped by a dude who's never cum once in his whole life. THANK YOU!

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

"Daenerys is basically george bush because she uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well its a post 9/11 metaphor and uhhh well astapor is basically iraq and uhhhhh nuclear arms" "dany has never done anything wrong in her life and criticizing her means uhhhhh you hate women and abuse victims" "dany is a RAPIST and a RACIST and wants ALL BROWN PEOPLE TO BE SUBSERVIENT TO HER" "mirri maz duur deserved to die horribly for killing (checks notes) her enslaver" "dany is a colonizer (that's not what that word means. you need to look up what that word means)" brothers. Lets all link arms and kill ourselves

Jesus Christ this is long as hell. Sorry I got a lot of beef

[agentrouka-blog]

So Stannis suggested Jon to become Lord of WF and take Val his wife. Jon at one point even consider it but rejected the idea. Even Sam thought that Val can make peace between Wildlings and North. But what I don't understand how can a Wildling be a Lady of WF? Especially when she knew nothing about running the castle. Why characters in books are over hyping her?

Hi anon!

Val's princess status is a fictitious construct, and most characters absolutely know this. It only matters because the person who is interested in upholding that construct is the guy with all the armed knights who blasted the wildling host to smithereens and captured many of them, and now holds considerable sway at the Wall: King Stannis.

I don't believe that Sam ever genuinely thought that Val had the ability to serve her intended purpose.

Sam reddened. King Stannis had plans for Val, he knew; she was the mortar with which he meant to seal the peace between the northmen and the free folk. "I don't have time for archery today, I need to go see Jon." (AFFC; Samwell I)

Sam is iterating Stannis' plan, not his own agreement.

The only characters in the books who are hyping Val as a "princess" with real political value are the people of Stannis' court who are deeply uninterested in actually understanding the way wildling culture functions. Their "Southern" understanding of kingship and claims to rulership makes Val a supposed princess. Marrying the highest royalty available to them to the future Lord of Winterfell is the kind of politics they are used to. They’ll pretend it into existence. They’ll “kindly” teach Val how she’s supposed to act as a princess, to make the fiction stick.  That's it.

Some wildlings actually take advantage of that willful pretense, like Gerrick Redbeard "descended from the line of Raymund Redbeard" (or his little brother), making him a "rightful king of the wildlings" and his daughters "princesses", which Selyse is very accepting of. It certainly gets them a cushier reception than the other wildlings. Everyone else thinks its nonsense, but it's a fragile fiction on which social advancement can rest in this new reality they all find themselves in.

Jon only briefly considers the option of marrying Val for the opportunity it presents to fulfill his own secret dream of being Lord of Winterfell. He creates an unrealistic fantasy that absolutely disregards Val as a person, and he rejects the entire idea long before he would have had to consider the issue seriously on its political merits. For most of ADWD, Jon tries to caution Stannis and Selyse when it comes to their expectations of Val.

Much later he himself begins to project certain qualities onto her, culminating in the utter height of blurry vision:

She may not be a princess, but she would make a worthy wife for any lord. (...) They are all convinced she is a princess. Val looked the part and rode as if she had been born on horseback. A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her. "I must inform the queen of this agreement," he said. "You are welcome to come meet her, if you can find it in yourself to bend a knee." It would never do to offend Her Grace before he even opened his mouth.(ADWD, Jon XI)

Only to have that fantasy shattered, and for Val to thoroughly offend the queen and follow up with the desire to kill her daughter, citing her wildling identity as the reason for both. She is not going to just disappear into a fictional title, she is a woman of the free folk, with her own values and customs and a stern lack of desire to change any of them for the benfit of an oppressor. 

So, Jon briefly fell into that hilarious trapdoor of Val being a “princess” and forgot how different their worlds truly are, only to be dunked into an icy water trough of reality right on the heels of it.

No, GRRM is saying, this would never work as easily as Stannis is pretending. Not individually for Val, and not generally for the wildlings as a whole. She is neither a princess in person, nor is she one politically. She will not keep any man’s castle and bear his children to be raised as Northmen. Nor would wildlings ride into battle in her name or inversely keep the peace for her, based on whose relative she is. She is not a beacon under which to unite the North and the wildlings. It’s nonsense.

And everyone knows it.