#he's such a fun character and the only joker i can actually tolerate (maybe the harley quinn show joker i think he redeemed himself idk)

[alycosworld]

guys should i make my blog lego joker themed bc i love that lil blorbo so much. i don't know enough about kinning to kin anyone but if I had to pick it'd be my man the lego jokes himself. i love spamton but I feel like a new era for alyco is coming

[bandicoot88]

@featherrwbyrnjr, okay, but how can you expect me to see this if you blocked me? Anyway, this is gonna be long, so strap in!

Okay, but it’s not one person, it’s several. I said a friend, but that friend interacts with many like minded folks. I’ve seen it all. I understand what’s going on. I may not be in the fandom, but I’ve witnessed from afar. I’ve seen enough to understand the basics, something you still clearly lack.

Fine, if it wasn’t you, then I take it back that on this occassion, it wasn’t you, tho I’m still doubtful with how much I’ve seen of you and how many enemies you’ve made. It’s not farfetched to assume it’s you. Point still stands tho; don’t shame content creators for making content. Just say you dislike the ship and go (which is 100% valid btw, and if people hate you for it, then those are bad eggs you avoid).

Yeah but... it’s still canon, like, pretty much... While it’s not in your face “I love you”, it’s clear what the intentions are meant to be. One of the VAs did a whole stream, and in one moment, he was asked what he wished he could’ve said that didn’t make it into the game, the line being something along the lines of “we would’ve been great together.”

Sure, VAs are not the creators of the game, but this goes in par with a statement about how the Shuake relationship is supposed to be a love story. It’s not pretty, Goro being an antagonist who is problematic, but... ships are allowed to be problematic. And he even changes and becomes a better person, because of Joker.

Sorry, but that’s false. There are plenty of multi-shippers out there who don’t just “tolerate” other ships but downright engage with it. My friend is one of them, and she even has friends who also don’t like Shuake. What do they do? They mute it and move on, and nothing else is said on the matter. If you’re seeing people that are doing otherwise, then yet again, maybe avoid them and find people who won’t shit on you, which by the way, you seem to bundling all these people in a bucket and labelling them “problematic” when they’ve done nothing wrong. There’s a reason you’re well known...

People have even tried to reach out to you to help you because this is completely not healthy, but all you’ve done is smack away any offered hands. We can only do so much...

Gatekeeping, there’s that word again. Do you not even comprehend what your actions are doing? You’re the one gatekeeping! “Don’t ship Shuake because it’s a toxic ship! Meanwhile, I’m hogging Goro all to myself.” My friend is not a gatekeeper. In fact, she fought back against gatekeepers. She’s a very open person who welcomes all ships and things. She literally doesn’t give a fuck.

Again, if you run into negative people, block them and move on. Not everyone is out to get you, and if you’d only give them a chance, who knows, you might make some friends. Hell, if you realized what you were doing, they might still welcome you, but you are hell bent on burning bridge after bridge until there’s nothing but cinders.

Actually, let me you a story. Last year, there was a BIG ruckess in another fandom I’m in, and it was ugly. Very ugly. Why? Because many of the fans considered one of the characters to be 100% gay. While I also believed he was, I could see the potential of him not being. My friend (same as the above) was also very heavily involved, because she saw him as bisexual.

There’s little evidence that he was anything but gay, but that didn’t mean he just was purely on what we saw. Of course, many did not like this, and a lot of noise happened. I ended up blocking a lot of people and also being blocked in the process, because they couldn’t handle the possibility of a character being bi, even tho it was never stated he was gay, just hinted at.

Besides, it’s fandom, and things change. Sexualities change, gender changes, all things can change. But no, they’re of the purity culture brand, and if you said something that wasn’t the popular thing, you were shunned. It made me consider leaving the fandom, but I remained.

You see... I too have dealt with such people, and there may be a lot of them. If there are, then don’t give them a second look. Seek out people who are open to discussing all and other things. They exist. If you had a bad experience, then I am sorry, okay? No one should feel that way in any fandom. Fandoms are meant to be fun. I want you to have fun. I do. I don’t want you stressing and yelling and pushing people away.

So I had heard that you use to create content for it, but I implore... do it again. Create solo Goro content. By all means, if you truly aren’t ready or don’t wish to, then don’t, but also, don’t let people win. People will welcome your solo Goro content. There’s nothing wrong with solo content of anything. He doesn’t need to be tied a ship 24/7, but he’s still going to be tied to that ship quite heavily, but it’s not 100%. Nothing will ever be 100%, because you’re allowed to hate the ship, and others do too, and that is fine!

2 years then. 2 years... That’s still a long time. Perhaps tho... these people you interacted with have moved on from the fandom, and in turn, in 2 years, many people have since joined the fandom. Perhaps you are comparing people from 2 years ago to people today. If any of those people from 2 years ago are still around, then don’t engage. They aren’t worth your time if you were polite about an opinion that you have no control over. Liking a ship is like liking a genre of music or TV show. You can’t force it.

You are allowed to want to see solo Goro content, and people do, or ship him with someone else that isn’t Joker. It exists. It won’t be as popular of course, because that’s just the nature of their relationship so of course many are going to be drawn to it, but that doesn’t mean everyone is drawn to it.

You realize you don’t have to pay people within the fandom, right? You can just... approach literally any artist/writer and go “hey, this is what I want, yadda yadda”, they create the thing, you get your thing, badda bing badda boom. However, if you did wish approach someone within the fandom, then do so... So long as they aren’t a jackass about your dislike for the ship, they will most likely create the thing you ask for. People like money, so it pays to be open minded about other ships instead of just refusing said money just because they perosnally don’t like it.

To anyone who went after you, that’s still not a reason to lash on other people for them to witness you at your worst. You’re literally not giving any of us a reason to believe you are approachable, but you’re just angry. To anyone who made you feel like shit, then fuck them, okay? FUCK. THEM. But that doesn’t mean others are going to do the same. I don’t think a single fandom is immune to toxicity of some variety. It’s never going to go away, and that’s the price you pay for being in fandoms.

I admit, my sources are not coming from the source, but from what I’ve seen from others. So give us a reason on why you aren’t the person we all think you are. All I see from you is hate, hate, hate. I don’t want you to be unhappy. In fact, I feel bad for you, scared for you even, because there’s nothing but hatred and foulness coming from you. You can’t expect people to see you and go “yeah, this person is totally approachable.” No, you’re intimidating.

If people pushed you out of your lane, then take it back! It’s okay to not like Shuake or any popular ship. If people are dicks about it, then call them dicks, but the others won’t care if you don’t like it. We’re allowed to like different things.

I’ve said my peace.

[snailsaalt]

my only text post here and its about morrigan and lilith being gay

i feel like i have to talk about it here. like twitter gets to hear about it from me all the time so they know all my thoughts on the matter but you guys are lucky so you dont hear me talk often on any of my blogs. i should ruin that!! unfortunately for u guys tumblr doesnt have a character limit either. anyways every so often i show my morrigan/lilith art in nondarks spaces and someone always goes “ouh wai i thought they were sisters!????” an d i have to explain how foolish they are and that they should learn the shitty fucked up lore with a 10000 plotholes (but its allowed to because its dope as hell) like. this is like the sailor moons cousins thing but people actually fucking believe theyre cousins. darkstalkers fans stay losing anyways heres a high res of this fruity ass png bingus with an e drew in the 90s  

i know its obvious that peopl who think theyre sibs just have never touched a ds game or looked at any official images ever but. i think they should because ds arts amazing but more importantly morrigan and lilith are little fruits. morrigsn a grape and lilith is cherry.

i hate ressurections artstyle + artist whitewashed anakaris and felicia + drew jedah without heels. but ykno. i will take my wins.ALSO LOL.. BUTT WINGS FAIL MOMENT THIR WINGS OIN THEIR BACK!!!!!!! anyways

the titty press on the window. the breath. morrigans gaze. the hand hold. cishet games have no fucking idea what theyre up against. gona talk about the actual game now

its so fucking gay. anyways im gona jus talk abou my hcs now i think jedah is jus liliths mom. hes v open abou his fave child bu they still make lilitha da spagheti.... also i think its funny cauds like.  i think u guys kno i ship jedemi which i could go over why in this post but this isnt ABOUT THEM. its about MORRIGAN. and MORRIGAN 2!!!!!!!!! back to what i was saying jedah being liliths mom but also marryign demitri would make him morrigans father in law.. but also... since jedah turned ozom into fetus of god ozom is related to all of them too????? lol. i just think jedah turning his enemies into his children is funny and no one talks about that enough. anyways i feel like a lot of people just see two women (or in this case demigirls i think they r both nb) being close and instantly think “ouh theyre so close theyre like sisters HEHE!!!” and like. its so obvious they explored eachothers bodies. like i dont hate u if u intepret their relationship that way like maybe im an iddy bit concerned abou how you view your siblings but whatever i wont think about it too hard i think people think its cute and funny dynamic or whatever and thats it but like. i also dont wana see that cause..... i simply do not ! :] anyways i constantly feel like a freak caus of that but i think i am a freak for different reasons thatre morally ok but legally bad but lets not talk about that lets talk about the satanic subtext. jesus obviouslly was inspired by jedah w/ the savior and the rapture and the betrayal (ozom didnt betray jedah with a kiss hes homophobic and also has no lips :’[) but ALSO!!!!!!! god made eve from a piece of adam. lilith was made from a piece of morrigan. lilith was made a demon for thinking that she was equal to adam, lilith believes shes morrigans equal and betrays jedah’s little utopia attempt. they choose a life of being gay with stupid fucking goth bimbo and hedonism instead of saving the world and they benefit from it... i dont think ive ever seen anyone talk about that at all an when i bring it up to the 8 other ds fans with rights theyre all like “ouh ive never thought about it like that!!!” i think people kinda just avoid looking at morrigan in a deep way in general even though shes one of if not the most important character and theres so much interesting stuff you can look into like her struggle to be herself and have fun or giving that up to make makai less of a shithole, her power being taken away in a society where power is EVERYTHING, her relationship with demitri going from “lol this dudes so fucking stupid and easy to make fun of” to “ew this rat fuck is trying to make me his mindcontrold servant because the only way he could possibly think of someone as anything positive is if theyre below him” i say that but people kinda avoid looking at ds lore in a deep way in general so yea. lol. ds turned me into the joker theres so much cool shit you can talk about but NOO most of the bs is porn boobs titty asscheek balls and NONE OF ITS EVEN GOOD. I SAID IT!!!!!! DESPITE WHAT THE SO CALLED “TOLERANT LEFT” MIGHT THINK ABOUT IT... like how makai is made out of gods corpse and no one knows how big it is and the fucking door that killed jedah also killed a fruit noble (his name is persimon the door kills fruits....) anyways i have a ds server ive never posted a link to here.... i’ll drop it in this post i guess https://discord.gg/wMBGrda theres probably a lot i forgot to talk about despite the fact i wrote so much LOL. anyways the servers mostly lore discussion or jokes but there are 2 people there that play the video game.... crazy ik.....

[popculturebuffet]

Toons For Our Times: The Loud House: Strife of The Party/ Kernel of Truth

Lana plans her and Lola’s party with copius amonts of dirt and garabage while Lola tries sabotaging it and I struggle to figure out which one we’re supposed to be rooting for exactly.  Meanwhile Lincoln and Co find an abandoned news room and attempt to start their own news show with the immediate threat of cancelation hanging over their heads. You know like most shows on nick. Also Rusty gets hurt a lot which automatically makes this a winner. News Team Assemble, under the cut. 

Well this week was a mixed bag.. which granted could apply to this week as a whole but I meant it specifically for this episodes. Like last week one of them is a true classic that uses the series new status quo to create something intresting, and the other... is the worst episode i’ve reviwed so far. Yes not even one week and the show managed to go from having a boring episode to having a truly odious one. Both metaphorcially and literally as there’s a lot of grossout gags this time around. And unfortuantely since i’ts first in the pairing and the airing, I have to talk about it first. Pitter Patter, let’s get this over with. 

Strife of the Party I”m not exaggerating either. I admit I was hard on Schooled! and Family Bonding, but the former sitll had some good content and the latter was .. well it’s still a boring lazy retread with a bonkers ending, but I admitted to having seen worse. But “I’ve seen worse” is never the best defense. I’ll admit usually I avoided the worse episodes of the loud house. I haven’t seen some of the more infamous episodes of the show like “No Such Luck” or “Kings of the Con”.. because as just a viewer I could skip an episode if it sounded like toilet dinner. Sure i’ve still ran into them: “Study Muffin” was just eh when it aired but now both post me too and post chris savino being rightfully fired for being a harassing dickweasel thanks to said movement, it’s realy fucking creepy, has Lori at her worst (Actively trying to cheat on bobby), and .. I have no third thing. All we really got out of it was Lynn Sr’s obsession with the British. And “The Green House”’s reputation proceeds it and there’s a reason I couldn’t finish it. Point is i’ve been lucky to only step in a few cowpies in the field of this show, and now i’m watching it as it comes out i’m accepting the hard truth that with the show’s hit and miss quality, i’m going to have to go panning in shit creek some weeks if I want to find the nuggets of gold.  Now I will grant this episode doesn’t sound NEARLY as bad as “No Such Luck”.. but as opus would say....

Exactly my Pengy pal. Again not being worse than the worst episode of the show, still dosen’t make you a good episode. It just makes you marginally less terrible. It’s like saying Creed isn’t as bad as Nickelback. While tha’ts true they both still sound terrible, it’s just playing Creed isn’t a warcrime in some countries. And yes I just compared two episodes of a children’s show to bands my audience thankfully likely weren’t aware ever existed, I don’t care. If you haven’t left my blog running and screaming your either new here or tolerate me being an obscure weirdo.  

Before we get in proper, I haven’t covered the twins yet so let’s do that quick. I haven’t really watched a ton of Lola and Lana’s episodes, their not bad characters htey just don’t intrest me much as i’ve seen their gimmicks a lot, but I will say lola’s slightly better and I will say I like Lana more when she’s doing animal antics instead of grossout. Not terirble characters and their acted well, just not my cup of tea is all. Okay enough stalling , pitter patter!

We open with Lola planning the twins upcoming birthday and talking to her stuffed animals which is cute and all.. before a POSSUM CHESTBURSTS OUT OF LOLA’S UNICORN DOLL. 

The.. the fuck. Look i’m all for scaring the crap out of kids in children’s entertainment. I loved Courage the Cowardly dog as a kid and as a grown ass man writing about children’s entertainment. I love the lich from adventure time, i’m okay with scaring kids. But this is just.. a bit too realistic. Yes really. While  doll that size probably can’t fit a possum it could sure fit something else and i’ve seen stuffed animals big enough for a posssum, so yeah.. this could actually happen to one of my nieces and that thought terrifies me. It happening to me also terrifies me but I’m a grown man not a small child who’d be scarred for life. Christ.  The episode does get better, for a second I didn’t bitch for a few paragraphs for nothing. Lana comes in, claims the demon possum, and tells Lola she’ll fix the doll. Uh Lana i’m not sure she wants it back.. you’d be better off burning it and setting the possum free in a republican center’s home where it belongs. 

Anyways Lana has a good point, Lola’s been plannig their parties ‘since before they were born”.. literally as the image above shows which is just.. fucking amazing. I cannot belivie they got to go there and it’s glorious they did. I can’t think of many, if any, other chlidren’s cartoons that showed a fetus on screen so kudos. 

But yeah that was the one good moment of the episode. Next our twins go to a party suply store where Lola, clearly knowing the host well because these kids have connections, has her stash all the poop colored stuff away... which backfires as lana instead goes to the garbage for party favors and decorations. It fails to get better: Next they go to a bakery where Lana makes her own literal garbage cake and then go to flips for entertainment i.e. a bull. NOw i’ll grant both stops have good bits: The cake store guy asks if Lana’s a cop when she asks for grime and Flip has them sign a waver for the bull. And the bull being lana’s idea of entertainment makes sense.. but overal it just comes off as gross and mean spirited. I mean yes Lola’s about to do some terrible stuff herself and yes Lola ouvershadowed lana.. but she dosen’t deserve this abuse and none of this is healthy or tolerbale for.. well anyone, and could get the Loud Parents in serious trouble, which also leaves the obvious plot hole of “why don’t they step in in either situation. “ 

The episode would’ve made more snese if Lana went to them to get them to let her host the party and their guilt over letting Lola always do it means they don't’ reign her in despite wanting to. Instead their just.. there at the end for a great bit we’ll get to. It’s always the bad episodes that paint the loud parents as terrible parents honestly. No Suck Luck had them cast their son out into the cold over nonsense, On Thin Ice had Lynn Sr decide forcing his children to embarass themselves was more important than teaching one of them that maybe sometimes you don’t always get to force your family to obey your whims for dumb reasons, and the april fools eps have Lynn Sr so terrified of pranking retribution instead of you know.. GROUNDING Luann for going full joker on their asses. IN most episodes their kind and reasonable but it’s always the bad ones where they instead make Homer Simpson look like a good parent. 

But yeah my rant aside the episode COULD work if Lola, encouraged by one of her other siblings, Luann would be a good bet as she could easily slide into the party setting when appropriate without being too distracting, realizes she’s been selfish and tries to hold her tounge for lana’s sake. Maybe then she tries sabotage.. or better she DOSEN’T, but both of them realize something; Lola realizes she’s been doing this to lana their whole lives by forcing her into a party she doesn’t  like so LOLA can be happy while Lana realizes she’s being no better. Hell even if Lola did complain, which is in character, this plot woudl still work. instead.. Lana is just as bad as Lola while Lola is still pretty terrible.  See the big problem is that NEITHER girl is likeable. As I’ve made clear Lana pushes a gross, dangerous party on her sister she clearly doesn’t like, and Lola, instead of trying tot alk to her parents or get Lana to tone it down.. tries to guide her to what she wants, then when that fails sabotages the party, makes it so Lana has nothing and gets her party. Both sides are being really bad, but instead of them realizing this, lana is treated as the one we should be sympathetic to when she gets mad when she finds out about Lola even though NEITHER of them are sympathetic or likeable and deserve to win 100%. But Lana does, lana gets her way, Lola apologizes and hte paradigm just shifts from one sibling being unhappy to another. We do get that one gag I talked about where when lola goes to make things right she has Lynn Sr stall and he pulls out a cowbell “You thought I wasn’t going to need this”. No bud, Rita HOPE you wouldn’t need this. There’s a difference. Thank god it’s the end. 

Final Thoughts for Strife of the Party: They should be obvious but to be clear this is hippo excrement. i’ts not funny, it makes both it’s leads look bad, the parents look worse by inaction and  just isn’t pleasant ot watch. I do GET the show has a young audience, and they like grossout, I get i’m not the target demographic, so I probably would just be okay with a good version of this episode.. but even with that in mind both twins come off so unlikeable it’s just not fun to watch or to see Lana win as she didn’t feel like she earned it. It’s bad and it should feel bad, and i’ts the first truly odious episode i’ve had for weekly coverage. I’ve had okay or eh ones, but this one is truly bad and belongs in the pantheon of bad loud house episodes.. or at least in the honrable mentions. Good gravy this blew. 

Kernel of Truth

Okay now we’ve panned the gold nugget out of the crap creek, we can get on with the GOOD episode this week. I was excited for this one.. I was excited for both actually, even not being a huge fan of the twins I liked the idea of a loud birthday but as we just saw,.. didn’t work out so good. But this one while I thought it would just be average, promised another lincrew shenanigan and I like most of those i’ve seen, and plus I knew it’d allow me to refrence anchorman a bunch so i was llike :Fuck it let’s go”.. and this one ended up being REALLY damn good and probably one of the best episodes with this group i’ve seen, right up there with “Be Stella My Heart.” I’ts good stuff. But before we get into it you probably noticed my ranting about girl jordan but turns out, while I haven’t watched that episode, she’s in the sand field trip episode from last season hanging out with stella so I have an answer to if they forgot abotu her, they didn’t they just need to use her more, and a new ship so i’m satisfied and I apologize for bitching about it. Next time i’ll just check the wiki and see before I bitch about something. ON with the review. 

We open with our motely crew searching for a hidden Game Room rusty’s cousin claims exists, with Stellas as lookout and the guys.. er all in stacks that make it look like their doing a team up move from donkey kong country 2? 

I mean I have been playing the game a lot since it came to switch online, seriously if you have the service go play it, but i’m not hte only one seeing this right? Right.  So yeah the kid stack fails and Zach doubts Rusty’s story.. because when has rusty ever been right.. well apparently just this one time, but we’ll get to that. They even checked the boiler room. 

And then promptly vowed never to go back to the boiler room while Principal RAmierz just sighed at having to deal with a freddy kruger infestation again. They loose more children that way and the school board JUST got him out of the high school.  Liam also gets the line of the episodes when he calls the group “Fellas and Stellas” Which is just objectively amazing and needs to be used every time this group appares from now o. Luckily= Stella noticed another closed door, this one taped off instead of just with a keep out sign and the Fellas and Stellas make their way inside and find themselves in.. a news room! But it’s nto a fox news room so it actually had news in it once and not Tucker Carlson, the answer to what happens to an 80′s or 90′s yuppie scumbag villian after they fail to get the orphange paved over for condos

Anyway, our heroes alll ohhh and all while Zach thinks this is where children are harvested. Nah Zach they just call them up on the pa system.

So everyone does what’s natural to them: Zach and Liam inspect the cameras, Stella looks at the old mic because she’s a natural for being an on camera personality and Rusty.. oggles an old group shot of the news team. You know I may not hate him with the hatred of a hundred suns, but he’s still objectively the worst. Zach gets mad at him over it because “That’s my mom”. Rusty defends himself by calling her hot and while th. no please god no dont’ talk about women like that you creepy little weatherbeaten Chucky doll that somehow became a real boy, or had dustin diamond transfer his soul into it befrore he died. Either is possible. The point is Ewww. The other point is while Rusty’s being his usual living proof of while he’ll die alone Zach has no right to get upset , AT FIRST because how the hell would Rusty know that’s hsi mom. You two have the combined braincell of a dead feret. Stella is the only one out of all 6 of you evenmy boy liam who has more than one brain cell. This argument is stupid and I hate you both,  just settle things in the most humane way possible.. or at least THIS is what I consider the most humane way possible. 

So while those two are being as stupid as expected, Lincoln suggets fixing the place and becoming the new school news crew. I mean they’d need new equipment since even if the stuff there still works’ it’s all worn out 80′s tech none of you know how to use but given their seen with a modern camera later int he episode, I assume they just sold this off and got new cameras. Even if the show flopped, more on that in a minute, the principal could still use those for other projects so it’s a win win. Stella Zhau agrees.. and FINALLY has a last name. Like holy shit i’ve been waiting a full season for this and it feels like that bit was JUST to give her a last name. Now they just need to do Liam but still, I needed this one more. Plus it also means we can now firmly say she’s chinese. Neat!

So after that blockbuster reveal Stella wonders where Rusty is, because fuck if I know, and they all find him continuing to oggle zach’s mom at their age....

Zach snatches it away and crumples up understandably annoyed. Rusty’s response is about what you’d expect. 

So once Liam’s done throwing that calender into the school furnace, and saying hi to freddy as he passes the boiler on the way, our team heads to the principal to plead their case. They run into Meryl, the identical in personality, plot function and apperance outside of wearing pink instead of yellow to Cheryl, the receptionest at the elementary school who I really liked and it’s a clever way to keep the character at both schools and pays off the runnig gag of Cheryl asking liincoln or clyde who looks better her or her sister by having said sister show up and ask the same. Good stuff. 

Meryl ends up agreeing to let them go see the wizard, I mean Principal Rameriz, because her soap is on. Also clyde’s a fan to his friends blank stares. Come on guys he watches romance movies, of course he’s going to love drama shows, even the non teen ones. I now imagine he joins the loud sisters on their riverdale nights. Riverdale the clusterfuck that has something for all of them: Teen drama and shirtless hunks for Lori and Leni, Music and scantly clad “teens’ of both genders and neither gender for Luna, something to laugh at for Luann who probably loves mst3king stuff, and violence for Lucy.. dosen’t seem like it’d be Lynn’s thing honestly but I rest my case. Also the rest of the sisters are too young but the parents figure Lucy’s desentised enough to violence and blind enough to sex to make an exception. 

Now that fun headcanons out of the way our heroes pitch the principal whose skeptical, as the 80′s news show ended because it was boring, much like why that 80′s show ended. That and it was a bunch of 80′s pop culture refrences strung together. I do have a minor nitpick that it seems odd a school room would be in disuse for this long, but given the Principal has apparently spent years looking for aformetioned game room as we find out in the end, the school blueprints are apparnelty lost to the ages or if they exist are some sort of ancient treasure map buried beneath the school drawn in blood by an old witch. I mean this universe has cherry hating peach loving spies now, i’ not ruling anything out. 

But our heroes beg them: Clyde has journalism experince on the school paper, Stella has the dedication and heart and Rusty .. thinks people need to see his face on camera. Rusty as far as we know your face functions like the vdieo from the ring and everyone in school is going to die 7 days after seeing it on film. That’s my theroy and i’m sticking to it. Thankfully everyone else is just as annoyed with him as me for once, and we get the glorious shot above of everyone just looking.. done with his antics and wondering why they keep him around. Finally for once I agree iwth the characters on something rusty related. Let’s show that agian. 

Poetry. You can just feel the levels of “So done with this crap” seeping from every poor.. except for Poor Lincoln who just wishes his best friends and rusty woudl stop using him as furniture, and Liam whose covered but probably very much on team “Rusty Stop Being Yourself your blowing this for us”. They even have an action news pose.. which is botha dorable and breaks the principal’s bust of herself, so she relucntantly agrees to get them out of there. Plus as I said there’s really no loss for her here. If their sucessful the school gets a new elective, something to put on the tv’s every morning, a way to do announcments so she dosen’t have to, and free good publicity for her next bonus. If not.. then she has somehwere to store her new cameras she can use for other stuff, and come up with something else to do with the media lab. Either way she wins. Plus iwth phones and stuff noawaydays they only need the one new camera.  Okay before we move on confession time: I was on a school tv news show’s crew myself. Not in middle school, we werne’te that lucky but in high school we had video media, an elective where seniors edited news segments and what not for the school’s WhamTV program. I hope i’ts still around honestly. I started on a field crew doing stories but my awkardenss and a blow up at my partner where my awkward rage prone ass threatned him by accident, got me bumped to doing credits.. which I genuinely loved. I got to something fun, creative and unique, I was still part of hte intros every week, and I got plenty of time to goof off and watch videos. It’s how I found channel awesome and first got to watch atop the fourth wall since it wasn’t on youtube back then, back before you know, it turned out Doug was abusing all of them and younger me was just unaware of it. But it was still good times so this episode does feel a bit nostalgic for me. But enough teary eyed reminciings of ten years ago, back to the plot. Our heroes air their newscast. It’s the Middle School Action News with with your Anchors Lincoln Loud and Clyde McBride, Stella Zhao in the field, Rusty Spokes on Sports for.. some reason, Cameraman Liam Wedon’tknowhislastname and Zach Gurdle somewhere out of the way. Middle School Action News, always on, always free.. no wiat tha’ts pluto. Middle School Action News, Taste the rainbow. Middle School Action News.. The Good Guys Always Win, Even in The 80′s. Yeah that’ll do! 

But yeah while our heroes try their best, and to their credit this does feel like a middle school news show. The writers not our heroes. Anyways Lincoln and Clyde banter and we get our first segment Stella trying to interview mr. Bohlmer about his birthday.. which goes about as well as doing anything for him on ron swansons’ birthday. 

Next we have Rusty on sports.. which I questioned when I first say this but as obonxious as Rusty can be.. yeah this is the best place to have him. Stella has the drive and the talent to be their field reporter, Clyde and Lincoln have a lifelong report that does well for the desk, Liam is nice and patient enough for camera work, and Zach is a paranoid weirdo so he probably has experince editing since thats where I assume where he is since htey ddon’t do weather and even if they did Liam’s just not the right shade of oblivoiusly nuts. 

I do however at least get why they keep him around as Rusty needs someone to get fed up with him.. but as the above moment showed Clyde and Stella can do that easily, as can Lincoln, so he really has no functional purpose other than as a B-Grade dale gribble. ANd I know kids don’t know who that is but they frankly deserve better. Seriously Zach...

Okay getting back to the segement. For starters Rusty does a breath spray first.. but suprisingly despite interviewing a lady, specifically Lynn, he DOSEN’T hit on her and is actually professional and manages to get a quote despite her disintrest. LIke I know it’s the bare minimum but you’ve met rusty right? the Bare Minimum is hard for him to grasp. Earlier this episode he was oggling old pictures of his friends mom and saying he should take it as a compliment which, Hard No. So the fact hours later he’s talking to a woman without radiating creep after that is an achivment. For him and him alone mind you, most kids should know better. But still I may be hard on the kid, because DAMN is it fun and damn if he dosen’t give me plenty of joke fodder, but I will give him credit even if it’s the bare minmum. Good job rust you passed the very basic plateau of human decency. 

Stella wraps things up with a look at the cafteria that’s about what you’d expect from a kids cartoon, shoe int he beans etc. Unfortuantley bean shoes, sportz and angry assholes aren’t enough to float the show and the principal is ready to can it.  On hte bright side they have their first lawsuit from Mr. Bohlmer. I mean John Olvier idnd’t start getting sued by dickheads with no real case till he was 30, nicely done kids. And it’s not even why, it’s just boring and the kids aren’t enjoying it. So Stella, being again the one with her own brain cells here, proposes to let them find a big story, and Ramirez reluctantly but graciously agrees. And that’s why I like her so far. Don’t get me wrong having Steven Tobolowsky as principal was great, but I like Rameriz better: she’s smart, weary of the crap she puts up with and tough but fair.. which is a cliche btu fits here: She’ll be honest with her kids but will give them an honest chance and sees our news team really doees want this bad and her giving htem one more day to find something actally intresting is more than fair.  So our heroes spitball about what to do for news. LIam suggests alien because again he has about one character trait, so everyone tells him for hte last time no. I mean it isn’t much worse than his last suggestion. 

So once agian it’s RUSTY who saves the day, bringing in beet snacks.. which he tries to get them not to stone him over over the fact the popcorn was all gone.. which okay 1) I get the show’s tring to be healthy so maybe ther’es not chips, but I have a hard time buying that there’s no Chez Its, snack packs or other goodies between “Popcorn’ and “something with beetz that only two men would eat” For the record those two men are Dwight Schrute, for obvious reasons, and this guy my boy Tony Chu. 

I highly recommend this comic, Chew for the record, to anyone. Just.. anyone whose not a children it gets voilent, but it is sublime. We’re not here for that, but I thought i’d plug it. It also has a spinoff currently running, Chu, following his criminal sister. Also real good and dosen’t really spoil anything for hte main series thus far so you can hop in there instead. Either way your in for a ride.  Back on topic, while Rusty failed with snacks he actually brings up a good point: The popcorn isn’t just gone because it’s late in the school day, but because as the kids notice, it’s just missing in general despite the trucks arriving. They have their story and head out to investigate.  And suprisingly, unlike last week’s investigation they find something: A mysterious hooded figure bribing the driver for popcorn, and taking it off somewhere. They fail to catch her, as Rusty dives over her telling Liam to “Make sure you get this”.. he instead gets a shrub and video of him attacking a shrub. I’ts a good runner and shows the writers are leanring to use Rusty better.  They take the footage to the principal, who is impresssed, but states they need to find out who dun it for the story to be complete which is fair enough. They stalk out the nexxt delivery time later that night, but find the drivers have been switched and the mystery person has fled to canada. Rusty once again tries catching her and fall sin the water. Liam once again responds with a cheerful “Don’t worry rusty I got it”.. okay this dynamic is honestly better than him and Zach: Cheerful oblivious Liam and scheming dumbass rusty. Why isn’t THIS the “Those Two Guys” dynamic in the group, honestly. 

Anyways Lincoln is dispondent the next day as iwth no leads, they have no programa nd prepares to do a spider-man no more with his anchorsuit.. which okay 1) you can use that for other things man. Peter Parker can’t really use a spider-man suit for anything but spider-manning but you can use that suit for dates and dances and stuff. and 2).. whya re he and the clyde the only ones with outfits? I mean.. it’s clear from this episode there will be more school news stories nad it just looks weird that they get to play dressup in suits but the rest of the crew isn’t. Liam at leat is working the camera and Zach is Zach but rusty and Stella are field reporters. Field reporters, while not always, usually get nice suits too guys. 

ANyways Lincoln finds something in the garbage. And not his sister this time, as Lana oscar the grouched it up lat episode in sadness. Which to be fair will be her future career mark my words. At least I think that’s a career. Anyways, our heros find a ferry ticket meaning whoever fled to Canada is in the building. They trail some popcorn from the ticket to the locked door from earlier, which Rusty, finishing the rule of three, tries knocking it down hwile Liam gets it. Stella, again proving to be the real hero of this tale, uses her hair as a lockpick. Is.. is there anythign this child can’t do? She and Marcy should swap notes sometime damn. 

And the culprit is MERYL! She was using the popcorn for insulation to get a quite room to herself and begs the kids not to tell which. is the weaker part of the episode> We don’t have the investment in Meryl we do in Cheryl, and she did you know.. steal school property.. or at least buy it off under the table. But the kids being the sweet kids they are understandably, schemes or not don’t want her  to loose her job, and agree to not tell on her even if they loose their show. And to their creid and what keeps this from sinking the episode Meryl is genuinely greatful for this gesture, and gives them the scoop.  And as i’ve been mentioning turns out RUSTY WAS RIGHT. Yes Rusty. That Rusty. Was Right about something. The Game Room exists. They find it thorugh a hidden locker entrance and unlock it from the inside, with af lodo of viewers coming in. Granted at first I didn’t know why Meryl didn’t just use this room but then I thought “Oh yeah she’s a full grown adult and can’t fit in the entrance and i’m assuming it was locked from the other side to the rest of the school”. So the kids have a new hangout and as the principal joins them, they havea  show! Turns out she’d been looking for this place for years.. and doesn’t turn it into something else. What a legend. She plays Air Hockey with Meryl, is there something going on there or are my shipping goggles acting up.. probably both. Anyways our heroes have genuine thanks, a fun new hangout at school, their own headquarters and their own news show. It’s a heck of a day but it’s no time to rest as Rusty tells them he has another tip and i’ts off... to pick up a broom to sweep up the gumball machine they knock over.. THEN they can go find the hot tub for the teachers lounge. 

Final Thoughts:  OH me mow, this was a great one. For one the main complaint I had I mentioned at Schooled! of it not feeling like Lincoln’s friends were given enough personality sometimes? Gone enitrely. Everyone except Clyde and Zach get a moment and Clyde is still fully present and has gotten several focus episodes at this point, while Zach again should just leave already. But the rest of them? All on form. Stella continues to prove her competence, energy and adorability, Rusty is not only actually useful for once but was actually really funny his episode. The gag with Zach’s mom was actually pretty hilarious, my jabs at him aside, and the runner of him trying to do some epic stunt, telling Liam to film it and then humiliating himself while his pal cheerfully tells him he got it is just great and Lincoln’s Spider-Man no more moment with his suit was both said and kinda funny and I love him and Clyde’s reporter outfits. It’s why I wanted everyone to have them, especially since this will be a recurring theme and looks to be a fun one. It was fun, creative, and took me back a decade. It was a REALLY damn good one and I’m glad I watched this one first, a true highlight of the series and a true good sign that the season can, even with some hiccups, will apparnetly have some REALLY great episodes on average even with the weaker ones.  That’s it for this week... and somehow for loud house coverage as, for now, their doesn’t’t seem to be any new episodes in October, but that could change. Until then, follow this blog every Monday for regular ducktales coverage and come back in October for more loud house, more the Casagrandes  and some spooky spooky fun Until then, Go team venture. 

[justacomedy-archived]

☀ What's your rp pet peeve? ✿ What do you think about public call out posts?

salty munday meme @sabrinaeileensnape also asked about the call out posts! I've already listed a pet peeve here about neglecting rp partners, but since I'm on my tangent, I'll give you another pet peeve of mine! One of my other pet peeves are people who refuse to read your rules and bio pages. Like?? The audacity. The second I see a blog follow me or come across a blog I'm interested in, the first place I go to is the rules page and the second place is the bio page.

While I certainly cannot possibly remember every single rule on every single blog I follow, I think it's very important to know their boundaries before I follow. What if we have clashing rules? What if there is a rule that I can't possibly follow for some reason (Like maybe they HATE Joker and it's in their rules page? I obviously wouldn't follow bc 1. it's respectful to their rules and 2. I don't want to see any joker hate on my dash and from experience- not fun to interact with bc they take it out on your character and you.) I periodically revisit my mutuals rules pages just to refresh my memory because I give my mutuals the same respect that they should give me. And as for the bio page, how can you possibly know the character they are writing if they are an OC if you don't actually read their bio? It's disgustingly obvious when people only follow bc they are thirsty for the face claim as they don't acknowledge any lore behind the character itself and I think it's very problematic. This can also go for canon characters too. Even on this blog, it's been made very obvious to me that someone hasn't read my bio. They expect some crazy chaotic comic book Joker with a bunch of goons murdering anything that moves and completely ignore that this is an Arthur Fleck blog. Like he's not even anything like the other versions of Joker even when he becomes the Joker himself. And if you don't read the bio, then how do you know about any possible canon divergency? Call outs, that's a really touchy subject here in the rpc as it's become a really big thing here. I do not participate in the callout culture. Of course I am often times aware about a call out and I can understand them in the sense of using them to warn people that this person is a literal danger to people within the RPC (as in they are a sexual predator or something very serious along those lines). But I've noticed that callouts have twisted into something petty rather than actually keeping the RPC safe. Like people are calling people out over irrelevant things that could be resolved with an apology or by blocking and blacklisting. I don't believe that callouts are a good thing for the RPC if we are using them just to take a stab at someone over the simple fact that they just don't like that person. Not everyone is going to get along, but again, that's what the block button is for. So, when it comes to drama, I do not tolerate it. It makes me very uncomfortable. It makes me anxious. If your blog is a constant hub of drama and negativity and if you're consistently posting such things (as in constantly posting untagged anon hate, sharing call outs, spreading rumors or spreading overall negativity), then I'll most likely soft block you because I come onto here to escape my own real world problems and have fun writing with friends, not to sit here and see an ass of drama and become overly stressed in a place that’s supposed to be an escape of my own. I will follow who I please and if you make me uncomfortable in any way, shape or form, I am not obligated to follow you.

[susandsnell]

it's been bugging me for a while now, but five worst parts of the dark Knight and one good part. bc I know you hate the movie 😂😂

boh. oh my gosh. b please don’t hate me.  😂😂

Five worst parts of the Dark Knight: 

5. The Filmmaking. More specfically: LONG AND WASHED OUT PALETTE. IT’S SO FUCKING LONG. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE OVER TWO AND A HALF HOURS WITH TEN PLOTS TO WRAP UP AND HAVE NO FUCKING COLOURS IN IT. WE GET IT, NOLAN, A MAN DRESSED UP AS A BAT BRINGS YOU NO JOY AND SO NOW WE HAVE TO NOT HAVE ANY JOY IN OUR HEARTS EITHER, THANKS A LOT. HERE I THOUGHT I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE FUN AT A MOVIE ABOUT BATMAN, BUT YOU SURE PROVED ME WRONG. 

4.  The Writing. Holy pretentious dialogue Batman! Where do I begin?Harvey Dent’s “I will state the theme of my arc in the most lazy and blatant foreshadowing speech until Emma Stone literally says she’s gonna die in the opening of The Amazing Spiderman 2″ gets quoted all the time and yes, superhero movies aren’t known for their subtlety, and not all great movies need to be subtle, but the “die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” is egregious not only for the reasons I stated, but is a nauseating indicator of the film’s cynicism (despite what the boat climax purports to be proving!). Alfred’s “some men just want to watch the world burn” speech is similar albeit less facepalmy and Theme Stating. It’s blunt and heavy-handed, overly expositional, and very hit-you-over-the-head with regard to commentary. 

And here’s the thing! It could work in the context of the type of movie it is - The Shape of Water pretty much opens with a statement of the “who the real monster is” idea, but it works because the film is a fairy tale and presents itself as such, whereas this movie wants to have its cake and eat it too as a “super adult DEEP subtle COMPLEX movie” with incredibly clear and simple shit like this. Beyond that,  Nolan really has a dialogue issue in a lot of his works where nobody just has a fucking conversation. Everything has to be the most serious issue in the world or a ten thousand word treatise on the fundamental dichotomies of human nature or some shit you’d hear in a freshman philosophy 101 course from that guy nobody can tolerate who thinks he’s G-d’s gift because he wears glasses or some shit, I don’t know. Even the Joker, an agent of chaos, gets wrapped up into it! Like he is a showman, but the yammering and rambles of shit that isn’t even that deep but pretends to be gets on my damn nerves. And the worst part is that it comes at the expense of the characters. 

They don’t really…develop emotional bonds (even with Rachel, the token woman And Therefore the Object At Which Emotions are Thrown). I’m not invested because none of these characters are real or relatable or have human interactions. The script shouldn’t be an anchor that drowns the actors and suffocates the characters to the point that there’s no chemistry, no connection, no believable core. Alfred is practically Bruce’s father and I get no love out of them! Harvey and Bruce don’t connect at all! Lucius Fox, the only POC in the entire movie, is literally reduced to a plot device despite having moral concerns! 

3. That damn third act. This one takes special mention because it just pisses me off. It’s just too much! The chase with the Joker would be fine, but that’s not the end. His plot already extends way beyond where it would logically end (hence the bullshit runtime), but on top of that, on top of the drama with the escape ferries hammering you over the head with the point they’re trying to make about humanity and the obnoxious moralizing, and then you have Harvey’s fall to the dark side which I’m sorry, needed a lot more time than just getting crammed in to the back end of the movie. His descent into evil happened way too quickly. Two-Face is a great villain! But take Batman the Animated series (to me, the best adaptation of Batman there is, while not perfect) as an example: he’s established as a character and his descent into Two-Face receives the full focus of entire episodes and impacts the characters later on! Having him play sideshow to the Joker is a huge mistake, especially with something as huge at play as threatening Gordon’s family; it completely disrupts the focus of the plot and unnecessarily prolongs the film as a whole, but he goes down pretty easily in one of the movie’s shitty-ass fight sequences that I’d make their own point if there weren’t worse things because I can’t tell who’s punching who. And if you’re gonna rush Dent into villainy only to kill him, that makes his whole plot kinda a waste.

And The Dark Knight Rises was a lot more criticized than the Dark Knight, so how’s this for a fix for the entire trilogy? Don’t kill Two-Face. Keep Joker getting carted away gloating about having corrupted him, but then have Two-Face get away too.  Don’t make whitewashed lamely written Bane the villain of the next movie - instead, let the tail end of this movie build Two-Face up as the main villain for the final part! That way, you have more time for development, cohesiveness, consequences, exploration of themes, and you don’t waste characters. 

2.  Batman / Bruce Wayne’s entire character. Okay, so whenever I fawn over the Lego Batman movie and how it confronts the issue with modern portrayals of Bats and rightfully points out it’s not deep, he’s just a humongous dick, this feels like the source material of that popular portrayal. Of course, it pre-dates it in the comics - Miller and company are to blame for Grimdark Asshat who Batmansplains, but I feel like Dark Knight especially, for its success and greater accessibility as a film, is what widely propagated this portrayal. 

Secret identity or cape and cowl, there is a serious issue in your Batman movie if your Batman is terrible. He’s the protagonist, the titular character, and he’s fucking terrible! At best, Bruce Wayne is like…completely deadpan and not even there (I don’t give Bale shit because I think a lot of the fault lies with the writing/direction, Ledger was pretty much the only lively performance in the movie), placeholder of a protagonist. At worst, he comes off as deeply self-centered, self-aggrandizing, entitled, and violently unstable. I don’t care how bad the Joker is, when in custody, he still had legal rights, and Batman fucking tortured him. Even brutal criminals should not ever be tortured for information! And the film never engages with Bats reaching the point of beating people to a pulp as means of interrogation; he just feels conflicted about who’s worse and broods over it after the fact instead of, I don’t know, maybe thinking twice about torturing someone. The darker Marvel Netflix shows have their characters doing a lot of grim things, but the narrative or other characters almost always holds them accountable for it in ways beyond “aww, I feel kinda sad that I beat mentally ill people to a bloody pulp” – it challenges them often, or has other characters call them out. Batman just does this shit and people are like “oh you shouldn’t do that” and he’s like “AHHH I’M A MONSTER” and it borders into uncomfortable real-life implications with regard to authority and violence. There’s something to be said for introducing grey morality into superhero media, and I get the anti-hero thing, but Dark Knight codified the “white guy grimdark antihero being actually just a terrible fucking person who is the good guy in name only” deal we see in a lot of our media today.

It’s one thing to have a complex and flawed protagonist, but you have to balance that out with redeeming qualities, otherwise, he’s not even a fucking superhero! Again, I refer back to the 90s animated series: Batman has his moments of ruthlessness, but it’s balanced out with the philanthropy work we see in Bruce Wayne, and moments of genuine compassion that he shows many of his enemies – he apologizes genuinely to Two-Face, often tries to give them an out, and is frequently super kind to Harley Quinn, bringing her the dress she was accused of stealing when she was sent back to Arkham in the episode where she tried to redeem herself, and frequently trying to get her to acknowledge that the Joker is abusive towards her, as well as convince her she can still start over and be a good person. On top of which, Batdad is super popular in both the show and the comics. He’s frequently shown as having an especial soft spot for children; addition to all his adopted kids, you also have a lot of his interactions with children, whether as Bruce or as Batman, marked by gentleness, care, and compassion, largely based on what he went through as a child. 

You get no such moment in the Dark Knight. I cannot for the life of me think of kids who would go to see this as a Batman movie and leave looking up to Batman and wanting to be like him except on the surface level of wearing a cool costume and punching bad guys. There is nothing heroic or admirable about this Bruce. He fights crime as a vigilante - brutally, I might add -and this time, it comes off more as a desire for vengeance than a desire for justice, a point which the film raises, but ultimately doesn’t resolve or engage with in a satisfying character arc. 

The closest thing we get to humanizing this character is his relationship with Rachel, and even then, his interactions with her have heavy shades of Friendzoned Nice Guy which is especially bullshit because he won’t pursue a relationship with her yet is bitter about any decisions she might make about her own love life. He doesn’t even care about her that much as anything more than a conquest! He really doesn’t, and Alfred tearing up the letter proves that – with regards to how he behaves towards her, it really feels like it’s not so much that the letter would break his heart as it is that he’d resent her beyond the grave! 

Worse yet, he gives no shits about anyone else. This has a lot to do with Nolan’s scripts having a toxic masculinity problem where it’s not cool for guys to sympathize with or have emotional bonds amongst themselves, but like… he’s allies in a shared venture with the other characters, and nothing more. Alfred is practically his dad but you wouldn’t know that. Gordon, as revealed in TDKR, was kind to him after his parents’ deaths, but they’re just partners. Harvey is a rival for claiming a woman!  In other adaptations, Bruce and Harvey’s friendship is fleshed out a lot so the guilt and shock of his transformation into Two-Face is really impactful! Here, Bruce doesn’t really give a shit beyond it just being another thing to do. 

And that’s what heroism and motivations are to Batman in this - just a thing to do. I don’t want to watch a hero who’d rather bitch about doing good than actually just fucking do good, this is the safety of your city, not a school essay! He doesn’t really seem to want to help people, he wants to complain about people, but then thinks he’s so fucking special and such a snowflake martyr for still helping them regardless! It’s such a deeply childish and yes, toxically male mentality. I know it’s become a meme, but the ”I’m not the hero Gotham needs, but the hero that it deserves” line pisses me off so much for this reason, as well as the fact that he thinks that Gotham’s flaws justify the fact that he beats the fuck out of people and roars in their face to get answers; I think the perfect refutation to both that line and how a superhero protagonist that explores what heroism means can actually be found in Wonder Woman – “It’s not about deserve, it’s about what you believe.” In fact, that’s what made Wonder Woman so good (and feminist!) – it’s rejection of toxic masculine ideals and emphasis on love, compassion and vulnerability being one’s strength, and that people are inherently deserving of being saved if you believe in the good of the world - a much better treatise on good and evil than “see, people sometimes don’t explode boats but they still suck so it’s okay for a billionaire in furry cosplay to beat the shit out of mentally ill people because that’s what this city deserves, a guy who’s more into violence than saving people.” He just doesn’t care, so why the hell should we?

And there’s just no arc. He just reacts to shit and that’s it, which makes him boring when he’s not being a fucking maniac. Despite the script not allowing him to have feelings for other human beings, having him break his no-kill rule with Harvey at the end would have been impactful….had he not already broken it in Batman Begins by leaving White Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson I love you but there is no reason to have whitewashed him or Talia the way Nolan did in the series - same as he did with Bane and arguably Catwoman since she’s been portrayed as a WOC many times before, actually come to think of it, there is a LOT of whitewashing in this trilogy) to his death. 

The film comes up with no real way to challenge it’s hero, have him grow, or change, or even show consequences for his failure to change, making him come off as stunted, unlikeable, and yeah, not much of a hero.

1. The sexism. (You knew this was coming, and yes, it is the worst part). I already mentioned how the men in this movie all fall prey to toxic masculinity as is common with Nolan characters, then even more characteristic of a Nolan movie is The Dead Girlfriend, Wife, or Daughter (you know, the only three things women could ever be!) of Sad White Guy(s). Rachel is the only female character (strike one) and she is handled nothing short of atrociously. Her entire job as a lawyer, intelligence, and hard work established in Batman Begins (which is also too grimdark but actually doesn’t piss me off half as much!) is hardly even mentioned and takes a backseat to her being a prize for the men (including her boss!) to throw feelings at and squabble over. While the male characters have no personality except for one characteristic and a goal because this script was written by an edgy thirteen year old boy, Rachel has no personality except to be a living emotional crutch/plot device. She does not exist as an autonomous individual outside her relationships to the men in the movie. Shit, she’s barely autonomous within these relationships! Bruce is a bitter little shit about her not wanting him back and we’re supposed to feel for him despite him literally offering her nothing relationship-wise for two movies and actively pushing her away at times! He feels he can’t be with her, but the framing is such that she shouldn’t have the right to be with anyone else, either! What the hell? I would even go so far as to say that her choosing Harvey just as she gets blown up, as well as how both of them got to that point, almost feel like the narrative punishing her for not wanting Bruce. More male entitlement bullshit. 

 And her fate…well, I mean. There’s a damn reason The Dark Knight is my go-to example when I want to explain what Fridging/Stuffed in the Fridge means. After having every possible stereotypical pigeonholed white girl trope tossed at her, Rachel is killed off callously for the character development and man angst of not one, but two self-obsessed stubbled white guys who make it about themselves and their right to act like phenomenal turds. She’s Helen of Troy – a woman blamed for people’s reactions to her (Harvey becoming Two-Face, Batsy or Bruce being saaaaaad, etc). She’s the Lost Lenore; a person reduced to how their death impacts their romantic interests.  We have reached peak Nolan here, and frankly, peak Batman too, because the franchise (comics, movies, etc) has always had this same problem with its treatment of women. Her fucking death isn’t even about her! It’s Harvey’s fucking villain origin and Bruce’s sad ending and Alfred’s resentment and note-burning and would she have waited, oh boo hoo, how about, did she have a fucking family, what would have happened if she hadn’t been murdered young, et fucking cetera. 

The thing that really gets me is that Rachel is by no means the worst treated woman in speculative fiction (especially not those that make a claim to some degree of intellectualism); she’s white, so her death is beautifully tragic and she’s put on a pedestal rather than being subjected to racialized misogynistic tropes (being treated more roughly by the narrative, having her suffering ignored or erased altogether, her death being callously ignored except for a throwaway line of dialogue, etc), she’s not unnecessarily and gratuitously sexually brutalized for shock value (that looks uncomfortably like fetishism at times) like the women on Game of Thrones or in nu!Bond movies, or, if we’re still in the Batman universe, Barbara Gordon in any iteration of the Killing Joke (which is another tentpole of misogyny in the Batman universe and I fucking hate it and it clearly influenced the Dark Knight, so, chicken, egg). She isn’t forcibly sterilized and her inability to get pregnant treated as making her a freak like AOU Black Widow. She has no pointless and insulting fanservice scenes like Carol Marcus in her underwear in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Her suffering is not treated as empowerment like any number of women written by Joss Whedon, she isn’t used to be chewed up and spat out and destroyed in a romance with either a guy who terrifies her and in whom she’s shown no prior romantic interest or an outright villain who has caused her nothing but pain in some stupid half-assed not-redemption arc where she has to sublimate herself and be stupidly forgiving beyond the willing suspension of disbelief so some horrible man can evolve.

But why this sexism sticks out to me is that it’s so insidious; if it were more on the nose like the examples I listed above, it’d almost be less jarringly offensive, but it masquerades as her being an empowered yet tragic character and weaves into an overall narrative that validates all the tropes I mentioned, and legitimizes itself in a way that feels fundamentally dishonest about how sexist it’s being. Worse yet, there’s the fact that The Dark Knight is more than just self-contained; its influence on not just comic book movies, but all kinds of media as we know it, is undeniable. And as far as setting the example goes? This hugely well-regarded, influential film is almost entirely white, and tells us that women exist as distractions, tragedies, and extensions of men’s storylines, and this bullshit has been echoing in similar media works since. 

AND NOW, THE ONE (or multiple!) NICE THING(S): 

All this being said, I admit there actually are a lot of things I like about this movie if I can separate them enough from the main issues! 😂For one thing, Hans Zimmer’s work on the score is top-notch; I listen to Like a Dog Chasing Cars and Harvey Two-Face all the time and the music alone provokes stronger emotions for the characters than anything in the movie actually did. The opening heist is just fantastically entertaining, and up until the messy third act, the pacing and plot is pretty tight and engaging! Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is of course fantastic; although he’s not my favourite Joker, he really gave it his all, and is by and large the highlight of the film. Nolan is really good with visual appeal (with the exception of that damn colour palette) and the shots are fantastic. I really love the chase scene with the Joker and wish the rest of the movie held my excitement like that.  

Finally, it’s odd to say this, but I really like the world of the movie once I ignore the characters and plot. The Gotham that was built in Nolan’s trilogy, the contrast between the classes with the lavish receptions and dinners versus the underbelly, the corruption versus the goodness, how these disparate elements work in a terrible symbiosis, the architecture and technology reflecting this character – it’s incredibly vivid, both grounded in reality and yet sufficiently speculative fiction-y enough to be intriguing. I just wish that the people in it matched the quality of the setting. 😂😂😂

[lavalampelfchild]

Oghren and Banter

I swear, if I get one more portrayal of dwarves as nothing more than a punchline, I’m going to have a gasket or blow a cow. 

Listening to the banter conversations between the companions and Oghren is like all the most annoying stereotypes of dwarves coming to the surface.  I love Zevran and Oghren’s dynamic, because they reach each other on a level that is equal, and neither gives the impression that they’re only tolerating or condescending the other, even though they mainly bond through all those dirty jokes.  But Alistair’s entire conversation set with Oghren consists of Oghren spouting dirty jokes over and over, and Alistair responding in a completely uninterested, very dry tone. 

Morrigan’s are not better; she just seems to be trying to find the best ways to say something that’ll sting or drive Oghren away so that she doesn’t have to deal with him, meanwhile his obliviousness to it all seems to be played off as stupid, and he just keeps going, asking her things about sex and whatnot.  Because Oghren’s a drunk, he’s obsessed with sex!

But lo and behold, Leliana tries to get to know him, and talks to him seriously about Branka, and while he quickly deflects the discussion with a CRAZY STNKY FART, HA HA DWARVES ARE GROSS, he does respond to it with what seems to be genuine bitterness, revealing a different side of himself that does seem to be more genuine than the one that goes with the fart jokes. 

Leliana is also the only one whom Oghren actually asks a serious question; he asks her how the heck she stands it with all this open air, with this great open sky, which canonically makes him uncomfortable.  And Leliana doesn’t make fun of him for it, doesn’t give him shit; she gives him an honest answer.  I just think it’s interesting that because Leliana actually treats him with kindness and some respect, he’s more comfortable with straying from that “drunk, perverted, dirty joker” act to ask her serious questions.

And he listens to her story about how the sky came to be!  He listens and he responds seriously, without making fun of it or deflecting to a different topic with a fart joke or a sex pun! 

Here’s the unfortunate part, though: Oghren has four banter convos with Leliana.  Four!  And one of them is his typical use of innuendo and pervy remarks, though it is during the first conversation he has with her, before he gets to know her; meanwhile another one is entirely dependent on giving Leliana an optional gift (Schmooples the nug), and won’t occur if you don’t get her that gift.  Nice, BioWare.

All of the interesting interactions Oghren could have had – Sten on the different cultures of their people, Leliana on the stories of both of their worlds and the respect they can come to develop for one another, Shale about the dwarven culture surrounding golems – were trimmed down to just two or three banter convos, and it sucks.  Meanwhile, I have to listen to five banter convos rehash a version of what Zevran does with Wynne, except with Oghren (pervy flirting as Wynne gets annoyed and repeatedly puts her foot down about how, no, that’s not going to happen), and more of the exact same innuendos and puns with Oghren’s chats with Alistair and Morrigan.  The only other really solid convos Oghren gets are with Zevran, who very often partakes in the terrible jokes with him, establishing a rapport, and not just an “I’m tolerating you because the Warden wants you here, but I will make very obvious my dislike of talking with you” vibe, like literally everyone else, except Leliana.  

Hell, even Shale – who has some very interesting convos with Oghren – very easily falls into the same habit Alistair and Morrigan and Sten and Wynne when talking to Oghren: i.e. a lot of sighing and making disdainful references to how much he drinks and stop making inappropriate sexual references, you perverted dwarf, and oh, Oghren will be stinking up the joint now, better get some nose plugs!  Yes, that one is actually used in a banter convo.

(Though while Shale doesn’t hold back on the insults about Oghren, Oghren does get some zingers in himself; for example, when Shale compares Oghren to a human in its old village who wandered into a snowstorm and died, Oghren says, “I think I had a wife like you once.”  You know you’re doing friendly banter conversation wrong when I’m actively rooting for one of the two participants to get their asses handed to them, and hey, BioWare does that with five characters who chat with Oghren!)

And Shale and Oghren do have some beautiful convos that delve into whether or not the dwarves would use the Anvil of the Void to create more golems had they the opportunity.  And in those convos, Oghren shows an intriguing and impressive level of insight into the minds of his own people, being certain that they would line up to become golems were someone to learn the magic of the Anvil, and knowing that they’d be willing to subject themselves to that pain because of the decline of the dwarven population. 

And when Shale asks Oghren if Oghren believes the Warden to have been wrong to destroy the Anvil (in the event it was destroyed), Oghren says this:

“(Sigh) No.  Sometime people need to be kept from doing stupid things, even for good reasons.”

And then Shale asks if Oghren is referring to Branka with that statement, and Oghren gets defensive and closes up for the first time in all his banter convos.  Because it hurts to think about Branka in this worldstate, the one in which she died, and refused to listen, and called him worthless before showing how willing she was to watch him die after he spent two years throwing away his reputation amongst his fellow dwarves just to find her.  And we get a different side of him in this!  We see hints of the pain he feels when he thinks of his declining race, when he thinks of what happened to his wife; we see his views on golems and why he thinks they’re worse for the dwarven race than better for them.

But of course, Shale and Oghren’s convos fall right back into the same trend that Oghren’s convos with many other companions do because of course fart jokes and sex puns are all Oghren is good for, right?  And it ruins all that beautiful potential.  There is one more moment which looks like some positive development may be had – Shale admits that Oghren is a decent fighter and that there are worse things than fighting at his side – but that never goes anywhere!  The next convo they have is right back to Oghren deflecting with his usual brand of sex jokes, innuendos, and fart jokes, while Shale sighs and jabs about Oghren’s poor hygiene.  Yay. 

And of course, the dog.  Oghren is at first not a big fan of the dog companion, but he seems to change his tune a little more, and isn’t it goddamn interesting how he has more development in two conversations, and with the dog, than he does in five conversations with other fellow people.  Isn’t it interesting how the dog is the one with whom Oghren shares his dreams of achieving glory for his house (in however amusing a vision), of earning a good reputation among his people after having been shunned and tossed aside by them?  Isn’t it interesting how Oghren shares his abject disagreement with the use and creation of golems with the dog, even though the dog joins the ranks of the companions who don’t like Oghren and have no tolerance for him?  How fucking interesting.  Thank you, BioWare, for that.  Thank you for lowering all of your characters – with the exception of Leliana and Zevran, mind you – to a one-note punchline, or to being the idiots who actually believe this dwarf is only a one-note punchline.

Leliana, Zevran, this is why I love you.  Alistair, Morrigan, Wynne, Shale, Sten, hell, even Dog, y’all can go sit someplace where I don’t have to look at you, and stay there until you think about what you’ve done.  I love you all, but you never learn anything in your damn banter.  If a dynamic starts out bad or hostile, it stays bad or hostile (maybe with one or two red herrings of incomplete development); if it starts good and wholesome, it stays good and wholesome.  It’s only ever an unmoving line, a constant adherence to whatever status quo the first conversation establishes.  No one ever learns, tries to understand, or develops in any way with these other characters they chat with, and I’m tired of it.  And for the writers who thought that it was a good idea to give us a myriad of the exact same jokes over and over instead of developing the one dwarf companion you gave us, I bite my thumb at you.

[translationandbetrayals]

Hiromu Arakawa's

On our last class, we talked about women’s role not only in science fiction but in general media (literature, films, animation, etc) and with this we spent some time talking about strong female characters that are not only a sexualization or a portray of male desire, such as Elizabeth Bennet from ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

I believe that strong characters are indeed strong because they are complete and complex characters. However, we normally find these characters surrounded by not so strong, for not saying weak, characters and because of this they somehow shine in the middle of adversity. These characters do not have a balance in which they become noticeable just for being unique, balance is about having moments of weakness but being able to stand tall in the end. When I think about balance in characters Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist (FmA) comes to my mind. For starters, FmA’s main character is a 15 year old kid, Edward Elric, that strives to find the philosopher’s stone to atone for the sins of his past (attempting to revive his dead mother with the help of his little brother Alphonse, experiment that ends up with Al’s body being gone, his soul attached to a suit of armor and Ed’s right arm and left leg gone too). We can say that Edward is a strong character because even when he is not perfect and shows us time and time again that he is just a boy he manages to go through adversity by relying on his brother and friends. Leaving aside Edward as a strong main character, we start noticing that he is not the only strong one in this story, the one who is closest to the Elric brothers is Winry Rockbell, their childhood friend and the one who builds and attaches a mechanic arm and leg (automail) to Ed so he can walk and feel somehow normal again. Also, when Ed has trouble with his automail she does not hesitate to take the first train, alone, to go rescue her friend. If we ample the scope a bit more, we find ourselves facing the military, maybe you could think that just because of being part of the army they are strong, however, there we have Roy Mustang, in my opinion, one the most imbalanced FmA characters. He is a State Alchemist (SA) known as the Flame Alchemist and the one to find about Ed and Al’s experiment, also, he is the one to talk Ed into joining the SA and be a dog of the government as he calls them. In the past, when he was just a lowkey soldier and alchemist, he was used as a weapon to exterminate the Ishval people during the war, because of this he hates the feeling of being controlled and works his way to the top of the army situating himself as Colonel (with his eyes on being Fuhrer). He always shows himself as a composed and serious (when his working) kind of person and can be a little bit of a joker when he is at ease, however, he never lets his guard down, not even around the people he should trust and actually only really trusts a handpicked amount of people, among them are Riza Haweye, a Lieutenant Roy knows from before the Ishval war and re-encounters in the front lines as a sniper protecting the alchemists who infiltrated the city from ambush attacks; and Maes Hughes, Roy’s best friend from the military academy and the man who says that even he is not an alchemist will follow and help him to achieve his goals to change their country from within. During the story, Roy shows us strength in battle, wisdom in advice and goals to achieve, however, we can see how his decisions affect him and the struggles he goes through. Some of his main breaking moments are the following: Hughes funeral, where we see him shed a single tear as he says it has started to rain (in a clearly blue sky’s day) and when he faces Envy and loses control because of the thirst of vengeance and only stopes when Riza point at him with her gun making him remember that he chose her to be the only one who could backstab him and actually asked her to kill him if he ever strayed from the path to make this country a better place for the people living in it. To finish these recount of great strong characters, otherwise I could write for ages, I will mention Olivier Armstrong, also know as the Ice Queen. She is a Major General entrusted with the protection of the northern border at Fort Briggs. She is severe and has a fearsome and commanding presence and live by the philosophy of the ‘survival of the fittest’. She is a ruthless comparison to her younger brother Major Alex Luis Armstrong as he is mostly a warm and welcoming person while she thinks that only the strong are reliable and trustworthy. Her personality is a stark image of the place where she resides, a cold snow-covered mountain, harsh even to her own soldiers. However, she is tolerant and open minded when it regards her morals; in a time when no one trusts the Ishval people, her second in command is an Ishvalan. Once, when he questions her decision she states that he has shown her his worth repeatedly and for this she acknowledged his wit and bravery. Olivier may be the character with less weaknesses, however, her morals outstand any kind of situation and because of this she fights along sides Roy’s group for making the world a better place.

To summarize, I could say that FmA is a very well-developed story, it has roots and ramifications, but it never strays from the main concept. And as for the characters, it is almost impossible to find one that is not a complete and complex one, therefore, they are strong characters even if they show weakness because to be strong acknowledge of fear, hatred and even despair is needed, and these characters keep showing this to all of us every time we read the manga or watch the anime (either adaptation). Hiromu Arakawa made her work a piece of art in the world of manga and anime to the point of being considered general culture in the topic.

As far as women’s works go, I believe that FmA is and always will be one of the best examples I can muster. It is thrilling, it is interesting, it is fun to the point of laughing out loud and it is sad to the point of tears don’t matter how old you are. And if you want to know more about these characters and meet other ones that are just as well-developed you should give Fullmetal Alchemist a chance, it could change your way of looking at life as it did to me.

  Alejandra Donoso

[smokeybrandreviews]

Mystery Bust

I’ve been giving Batman sh*t for months about what they’re doing with the character and mythos in the books. I’m on record as hating The Batman Who Laughs and Punchline but have also admitted that, in theory, they can be very compelling and, in all honestly, Punchline post-Joker War has a lot of potential. Hell, Joker War was a non-event in itself but that ending was straight beauty. I cannot say the same for TBWL. Dude has been the embodiment of diminishing returns since his introduction. I’ve been so focused on my despair with the Bat-books that’s I've neglected my Spider-titles. Despair and delays. The Wuha has f*cked so much up in 2020 but I'm back on my grind and finally got to catch up on the Spider-Man mini by JJ Abrams and his boy, Henry. I, once again, despaired. On the heels of the news that Marvel DC, and Sony have decided to extend the Pete deal in order to keep Spidey in the MCU, news I am absolutely geeking over, I wanted to address something Spider-Man adjacent that I am decidedly not geeking over.

The Abram’s Spider-Man comic is so bad, man. So goddamn bad. Nothing about this sh*t is coherent or compelling. I hate every character in this book and that’s not possible because i f*cking LOVE all things Spider-Man. Even f*cking Kindred has grown on me and i have just ALL of the problems with that characterization of Harry. More than that, the main villain and overall pathos is just so uninspired. Like, what the f*ck even is “Cadaverous”? What the f*ck kind of name is that? Zombie cyborg Avengers? Really? Unforeseen complications with a serum distilled from a literally mutated spider man, that happens to mutate it’s target into a spider man? Come on, man. You wrote Lost. Do better. You have this toy box of characters, this literal universe of delights, and the best Spider-story you can come up with was this? No wonder Hollywood is dying. F*cking yikes! But this ain’t even my biggest problem with that book. I can forgive bad narratives is i find the protagonist compelling. I do not find Ben Parker compelling.

One of my favorite things about the multiverse is the fact that we get to see the various Spider-kids. Mayday is obviously my favorite because I'm old and remember the 90s Clone Saga so i have a deep connection to the young May Parker. Mayday, and Mayhem to a lesser extent, are the benchmark for the Parker progeny for me but I'd be lying if i said that her alternate reality kid sister, Annie, didn’t endear herself just a deep with her run in Renew Your Vows and Spider-Girls. Spider-Girls and Renew Your Vows were really good and you should probably read those instead of this. Happy Family Pete is my second favorite Pete after Punished Pete, which is why I'm tolerating this Kindred sh*t. I do not like Ben Parker.

Everything that makes May and Annie so adorable is completely lacking in Ben. He’s kind of a sniveling wart of a kid. Dude doesn’t read like a real person, which is weird because, again, JJ Abrams literally writes films. I understand the angst I understand the rebellious nature. I understand the reasoning behind the strained relationship with his pops. This is definitely a Punished Pete story, for sure. But unlike say, The Clone Saga or Torment or Kraven’s Last Hunt, the pathos of this narrative don’t feel earned, just like Ben’s entire conflict.  I understand you only have issues to make an impression but i can’t help but feel like there are better ways to do what that what got published. Ben Parker is a borderline non-character and, objectively, he’s a really, really, terrible Spider-man. Like, holy sh*t is this the worst at that job!

Ben literally just tells everyone who he is! Everyone. It’s f*cking absurd. Aunt May knows. His little Asian maybe-girlfriend knows. don’t get me started in f*cking Ito Faye. There’s a whole sack of issues i got wither her character. I’m pretty sure the receptionist at Stark Enterprises knows the kid’s Spider-Man. It’s f*cking ridiculous and i kind of hate. I rather liked the brief cameo we got form the two Iron People. Old Man Tony was exactly how i imagined him to be at that age and adult Riri Williams who is absolutely done with Tony, after years of Tony being Tony, was spot on. Spot on and a completely missed opportunity. Why the f*ck they given more time to be developed? Why couldn’t we spend more time with them? They were arguably the best thing about the entire run! It’s wild to me that this was written by someone as prolific as JJ Abrams. I mean, I'm sure his son was the one who wrote the majority of this and he sold it to Marvel on his Pop’s name but you’d think JJ would at least give the kid some notes because this was a straight up slog to get through.

Saying i hated this book is kind of harsh. I absolutely hate Ben Parker as a character but this world is intriguing as f*ck. I just gushed about this version of Riri and Tony but the fact that Mary Jane now has Spider-powers is awesome. I love MJ and she’s at there best when she’s in the thick of it with Pete. I prefer when she uses her wits to out maneuver the baddies but i did enjoy her run in Spider-Island when she had actual powers. If we get more of that, a tag team with her kid, that would be fun to see going forward. Again, Renew Your Vows is spectacular. Speaking of spectacular, Sarah Pichelli’s art is, as always, f*cking breathtaking. She’s one of my favorite artists working today. Her rt is enough to give this run a cursory look but it’s a really hard read. It’s rushed drivel with a ton of potential going forward and that is enough to secure the bag i guess. I don’t hate this thing like i hate that whole Sins past or hold an abject apathy for it like i do with One More Day, but it ain’t good. I hope the younger Abrams gets better at his craft and i hope he gets the opportunity to clean up this mess a little in the future. As it is now, JJ Abrams's Spider-Man is one of the biggest disappointments I've read in years.

[smokeybrand]

Mystery Bust

I’ve been giving Batman sh*t for months about what they’re doing with the character and mythos in the books. I’m on record as hating The Batman Who Laughs and Punchline but have also admitted that, in theory, they can be very compelling and, in all honestly, Punchline post-Joker War has a lot of potential. Hell, Joker War was a non-event in itself but that ending was straight beauty. I cannot say the same for TBWL. Dude has been the embodiment of diminishing returns since his introduction. I’ve been so focused on my despair with the Bat-books that’s I've neglected my Spider-titles. Despair and delays. The Wuha has f*cked so much up in 2020 but I'm back on my grind and finally got to catch up on the Spider-Man mini by JJ Abrams and his boy, Henry. I, once again, despaired. On the heels of the news that Marvel DC, and Sony have decided to extend the Pete deal in order to keep Spidey in the MCU, news I am absolutely geeking over, I wanted to address something Spider-Man adjacent that I am decidedly not geeking over.

The Abram’s Spider-Man comic is so bad, man. So goddamn bad. Nothing about this sh*t is coherent or compelling. I hate every character in this book and that’s not possible because i f*cking LOVE all things Spider-Man. Even f*cking Kindred has grown on me and i have just ALL of the problems with that characterization of Harry. More than that, the main villain and overall pathos is just so uninspired. Like, what the f*ck even is “Cadaverous”? What the f*ck kind of name is that? Zombie cyborg Avengers? Really? Unforeseen complications with a serum distilled from a literally mutated spider man, that happens to mutate it’s target into a spider man? Come on, man. You wrote Lost. Do better. You have this toy box of characters, this literal universe of delights, and the best Spider-story you can come up with was this? No wonder Hollywood is dying. F*cking yikes! But this ain’t even my biggest problem with that book. I can forgive bad narratives is i find the protagonist compelling. I do not find Ben Parker compelling.

One of my favorite things about the multiverse is the fact that we get to see the various Spider-kids. Mayday is obviously my favorite because I'm old and remember the 90s Clone Saga so i have a deep connection to the young May Parker. Mayday, and Mayhem to a lesser extent, are the benchmark for the Parker progeny for me but I'd be lying if i said that her alternate reality kid sister, Annie, didn’t endear herself just a deep with her run in Renew Your Vows and Spider-Girls. Spider-Girls and Renew Your Vows were really good and you should probably read those instead of this. Happy Family Pete is my second favorite Pete after Punished Pete, which is why I'm tolerating this Kindred sh*t. I do not like Ben Parker.

Everything that makes May and Annie so adorable is completely lacking in Ben. He’s kind of a sniveling wart of a kid. Dude doesn’t read like a real person, which is weird because, again, JJ Abrams literally writes films. I understand the angst I understand the rebellious nature. I understand the reasoning behind the strained relationship with his pops. This is definitely a Punished Pete story, for sure. But unlike say, The Clone Saga or Torment or Kraven’s Last Hunt, the pathos of this narrative don’t feel earned, just like Ben’s entire conflict.  I understand you only have issues to make an impression but i can’t help but feel like there are better ways to do what that what got published. Ben Parker is a borderline non-character and, objectively, he’s a really, really, terrible Spider-man. Like, holy sh*t is this the worst at that job!

Ben literally just tells everyone who he is! Everyone. It’s f*cking absurd. Aunt May knows. His little Asian maybe-girlfriend knows. don’t get me started in f*cking Ito Faye. There’s a whole sack of issues i got wither her character. I’m pretty sure the receptionist at Stark Enterprises knows the kid’s Spider-Man. It’s f*cking ridiculous and i kind of hate. I rather liked the brief cameo we got form the two Iron People. Old Man Tony was exactly how i imagined him to be at that age and adult Riri Williams who is absolutely done with Tony, after years of Tony being Tony, was spot on. Spot on and a completely missed opportunity. Why the f*ck they given more time to be developed? Why couldn’t we spend more time with them? They were arguably the best thing about the entire run! It’s wild to me that this was written by someone as prolific as JJ Abrams. I mean, I'm sure his son was the one who wrote the majority of this and he sold it to Marvel on his Pop’s name but you’d think JJ would at least give the kid some notes because this was a straight up slog to get through.

Saying i hated this book is kind of harsh. I absolutely hate Ben Parker as a character but this world is intriguing as f*ck. I just gushed about this version of Riri and Tony but the fact that Mary Jane now has Spider-powers is awesome. I love MJ and she’s at there best when she’s in the thick of it with Pete. I prefer when she uses her wits to out maneuver the baddies but i did enjoy her run in Spider-Island when she had actual powers. If we get more of that, a tag team with her kid, that would be fun to see going forward. Again, Renew Your Vows is spectacular. Speaking of spectacular, Sarah Pichelli’s art is, as always, f*cking breathtaking. She’s one of my favorite artists working today. Her rt is enough to give this run a cursory look but it’s a really hard read. It’s rushed drivel with a ton of potential going forward and that is enough to secure the bag i guess. I don’t hate this thing like i hate that whole Sins past or hold an abject apathy for it like i do with One More Day, but it ain’t good. I hope the younger Abrams gets better at his craft and i hope he gets the opportunity to clean up this mess a little in the future. As it is now, JJ Abrams's Spider-Man is one of the biggest disappointments I've read in years.

[thatbutlerwriting]

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About Me

Alias: Astre

Age: 20+

Gender: nonbinary (he/they)

Faceclaim: Yamato Kurosawa (Sukitte ii na yo); icons from aihasuicons

Faves: Noah’s Ark Circus Troupe, Grell, Ronald

OTP: me x Joker lmfao

NOTP: Sebastian x Grell

Other: I will protect Doll with my gotdamn life, fight me. Sebastian is trash and I can’t stand him.

Rules

This blog is here so that people can have fun. If I see any sort of bullying, I will not hesitate to turn anon off and block the users I see doing it.

That being said, my rules are quite simple, and I ask that you obey them.

First and foremost, THIS IS AN ALL INCLUSIVE BLOG. You ship SebaCiel? Cool. You ship CielLizzy? Cool. You’re trans? Cool. Bi? Cool. Nonbinary? Cool. I will NOT tolerate hate of any kind, especially toward my followers. This includes ship hate, body shaming, and discrimination of any kind.

That being said, I will let it be known I am uncomfortable with otherkin for very, very personal reasons. Please do not reblog my art or writing with kin/ID tags.

I enjoy a good laugh, so I don’t mind the occasional silly question. However, I reserve the right to ignore something I find offensive.

I am caught up with the Black Butler anime, Black Butler II, Book of Circus, Book of Murder, Book of Atlantic, the musicals, and the OVAs. Because of this, I will only be answering asks about things contained in these until I have fully caught up with the manga.

Some asks I receive may be offensive. If I think that there is a chance it could be offensive or triggering to someone, I will place the answer under a cut with the proper warnings.

This blog will not accept roleplay requests.

While some people may find it offensive, I will refer to Grell as female. I can relate to her character in more than one way, and have no intention of denying what I see as canon. I truly hope this doesn’t bother anyone.

This is a work of fiction and should be taken as such. I will NOT tolerate any anti vs anti-anti drama here. Period. The drama I’ve been involved with is toxic and damaging to my own mental health, and I will not argue with anyone over my stances for whatever reason. Don’t like something I post? Either blacklist the tag or block me and move on with your life.

In addition, there are a few things I’d like to list as disclaimers:

I am not responsible for a minor coming across content which is 18+. There are many warnings placed on this blog, and all 18+ content will be tagged as such. This disclaimer also applies for those residing in a place where the content of this blog may be considered illegal in some way.

All characters appearing in 18+ material have been aged up or deemed to be 18 years of age or older.

This is a ship safe blog. If I see ship wars, I will not hesitate to block you. The same goes for any hate I receive in my inbox.

FAQ

Who is Astre?

Astre is my Kuroshitsuji self insert persona, a demon shipped with Joker. I could get into more detail, but honestly, I’d rather not unless you guys want to send asks about him. I’ll happily answer them!

Who you write for?

Long story short, any anime/OVA-canon or musical-canon character. I’m not caught up with manga yet, but I hope to be soon so that I can add the plethora of manga-exclusive characters to my writing portfolio - especially Bravat! Until then I’m most confident writing the anime, OVA, and musical characters for all you lovelies to enjoy~!

Do you have a favorite character to write for?

Despite the fact that most of my confidence comes with writing characters I’m familiar with, there lies a single exception, and he’s actually the answer to this~! I absolutely adore writing for Bravat! He caught my attention from the minute he was introduced, and I’ve done so much research on him that I’ve debated making a full on roleplay blog for him. If I do, I’ll let you all know~

I also really, really enjoy writing for Grell. Her character is one that I can relate to, and back in my early Tumblr years I roleplayed her a lot. maybe if I can ever get into my old account, I’ll revamp her blog and we’ll bring Lady Grell and Sir Red back ;)

Do you, ya know, ship nasty stuff?

This blog ain’t about my ships, hun. I’ve been involved in the anti and anti-anti drama before, and it absolutely destroyed my mental health. I was sent some not-so-good things by some really shitty people on both sides of the debate, so I’ve learned it’s best not to disclose my feelings on the subject. If that bothers you, you can feel free to leave.

Does that mean you won’t write for ships?

Honestly, I’m game for just about anything that isn’t triggering for me - which isn’t much, honestly. That being said, this blog is meant as a “x reader” type blog, so I’d like to keep canon x canon ships away from here if I can.

But if what you’re really asking is “will you write my SebaCiel/SebaReaderCiel smut for me???”, then the answer is no.

So you don’t ship (ship)?

Again, I’m not answering questions like these. My views are my own, and yours are your own. Let’s leave it at that and move on with life, shall we?

Where do you stand on the Great Grell Debate?

Grell is a trans woman, a queen, and I love her. No, I don’t accept criticism.

Can you tag (thing)?

Of course! If you ever need anything tagged, be it a trigger or not, feel free to let me know! I want this blog to be enjoyable for as many as possible, and I know something as simple as tagging can make that difference.

That being said, all asks and scenarios will be tagged with the characters they contain, as well as any ships involved. If need be, I’ll gladly make a tags page so that you guys can figure out how I tag stuff in case my system isn’t easy for some to use.

Do you do matchups?

Yes, but only if you fill out and submit a form. If they get overwhelming, I’ll be limiting how many I accept at a time.

Why do you keep your reader gender neutral?

As someone who’s been in fandom their whole life and realized over 5 years ago that fem-identifying labels didn’t feel right, I understand the struggle to find inclusive content - especially for x reader content. My writing features a gender neutral reader so that others can have what I’ve longed for - inclusive content that hopefully doesn’t isolate them just because it uses female pronouns.

Will you write nsfw/triggering content?

Hell yeah! Dark fiction is my favorite thing to write, so I’d adore to get some darker themed asks here and there. Don’t worry, they’ll all be tagged properly so that anyone who doesn’t like that sort of thing can avoid it.

I use mobile, so I can’t blacklist!

Honey, mobile came out with a blacklist feature some time ago. If you can’t figure out how to use it, either enlist in some help or just avoid my blog altogether. I’m not going to stop writing what I enjoy just because someone doesn’t know how to use the internet.

I’m a minor, can I still follow?

Yeah, I’d rather you not. In my experience, even if I say “as long as you use the blacklist feature!”, we all know that the chances of that happening are very low. So, to avoid that problem, I’m gonna say plainly that I don’t want minors following me.

If I find out that you’re following me and you’re under 18, I won’t hesitate to block you. Period.

But-but-but Tumblr is 13+!

Yeah, well the app is 17+, and this blog is 18+. Life has rules, kid. Get over it and follow them.

[missblanchette]

Long Dream [6/7]

Series: Joker Game

Characters: Hatano/Jitsui

Rating: G

Summary: Hatano wasn’t one to read shoujo manga, but there was something familiar about this mangaka named Kunio.

Words: 4504

Notes: Modern AU/Reincarnation AU; Spin off to Déjà Vu (KamiMiyo); Phew, glad I managed to get this up before the year ended...!! Certainly less action packed than the last chapter but finally leading up to the finale haha

ko-fi //  Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | You can read this on AO3! Thank you guys so much for reading, I hope you all enjoy~ (*´∇｀)ノ

Ch. 6 - Jitsui III: Days of Searching 

Being a spy meant constantly presenting a new act to others, a new face, a new person; even the personality he wore now as Jitsui wasn't his true one. Though as time went on, the line between his "true" self and the man named Jitsui began to blur. Eventually, distinguishing which feelings and thoughts belonged to whom became nigh impossible. He supposed it didn't matter in the long run, especially now when he was to play the role of Morishima Kunio.

Such as it was, he found himself in the library preparing for his mission. Black frames sat on the bridge of his nose, his hair had been swept to the side, and a book of myths rested in his hands. It didn't hurt to get a feel of whom Kunio was ahead of time, just like every other part he'd been told to play. Not to mention, it was easier to trick himself into thinking that he didn't care about leaving the building and the people in it -- one man in particular -- if he was someone else.

Of course, he shouldn't have forgotten how persistent some people could be. He heard the footsteps behind him a little too late, something he mentally reprimanded himself for, but nonetheless braced himself for the "sneak attack." There was only one person he knew who would do such a thing, anyways, without fearing the consequences.

"Boo," Hatano said at the same time his hands slammed onto his shoulders. Jitsui jumped at the sudden contact but that was the only reaction he allowed.

"Can't you let me have my fun?" He heard the annoyance in Hatano's voice as he moved to take a seat beside him, but he knew him well enough to know that he wasn't actually angry.

"You're starting to sound like Kaminaga," Jitsui teased, a smirk on his lips.

"That's an insult if I've heard one." Scoffing, Hatano rested his hands behind his head.

"Don't worry, you're a lot more tolerable."

"Gee," he said, sarcasm dripping in his tone. "Thanks."

They fell into a lull of silence, not that Jitsui minded much considering this would be one of his last moments with him (For a while, he reminded himself, trying not to dwell on bad outcomes; he trusted himself, he trusted him, he trusted them ). Any time spent with Hatano was like a blessing with that notion in mind. It was funny, now that he thought about it, how quickly he'd grown attached to Hatano. He hadn't anticipated befriending anyone considering that this was a spy training facility. They were only supposed to be allies to each other and nothing more, and that was just how Jitsui intended on using Hatano and the others. Ironically, he'd never felt closer to anyone before joining D-Agency, nor did he ever feel... such intimate feelings towards someone. He'd once deemed relationships of any sort meaningless, but in times like these, he began to wonder how he'd gone without them.

"The glasses look suits you," Hatano said, breaking his thoughts.

"You think so?" As much as he appreciated the compliment, Jitsui took them off and ran a hand through his hair. He had no need for an act around Hatano, anyways.

"Mhm, fits a bookworm like you." Hatano's eyes drifted to the book on his lap. "Mythology, though? Didn't think you were into that stuff."

"Oh, I'm not." He was erring on the side of carelessness, sharing classified information, but Jitsui often made exceptions for Hatano. "But Kunio is."

There was a slight pause as Hatano let what he'd said sink in, no doubt having already solved the meaning behind it.

"Yeah?" Hatano said, putting two-and-two together. "Then what does Kunio think of it?"

"Enjoyable, but you probably wouldn't be interested."

"I'll take your word on that, but --" Without warning, Hatano took the glasses and put them on his own face, pushing his bangs up to change his appearance. It was strange, indeed, but he couldn't say he looked bad. "-- maybe Shimano would."

That name, too, was unfamiliar to Jitsui, but he didn't need any explanation as to whom it was. Seeing as this was how Hatano was going about it, he played along, slipping right back into his role as Kunio rather easily.

"Really?" he asked, his tone taking on a softer air.

"Try me," was Hatano -- Shimano's -- reply.

And so try Jitsui -- Kunio, rather -- did. With the introduction alone, he could tell he was already losing Hatano's interest despite how well he acted otherwise. Truthfully speaking, these types of tales weren't Jitsui's cup of tea either, but there was some appeal to story of Osiris and Isis. Perhaps he'd gotten softer during the course of his studies, but Isis' struggles managed to shrill out some sympathy from him. It was a harrowing affair, losing Osiris and having to track down all the pieces of his dismembered body, only to lose him once more as he'd become Death itself as soon as she'd found him again. The whole story left a bitter taste in Jitsui's mouth, though at the same time, it drew him in. As he'd been reading it, he couldn't help but imagine what he'd do in Isis' place, to what extent he'd go to find a loved one. Sadist he may be, but most sadists had a masochistic streak as well, didn't they?

"You were right," Hatano said when he'd finished recounting the myth. He took the glasses off and shook his hair back in place, and there was the Hatano he knew. "I didn't care at all."

"Shimano was the one listening," Jitsui said matter-of-factly. He held back a chuckle as Hatano gave him a look. "What did he think of it?"

Hatano hummed, drumming his fingers against the back of his head. It was rather cute, Jitsui mused, how he pretended to be thinking of an appropriate answer.

"Searching for a lost lover seems like a waste of time, doesn't it?" He shrugged. "Sure Isis brought Osiris back, but what's the point if they're going to be separated again?"

Hearing his answer, Jitsui wondered how much of Shimano was in that reply and how much of Hatano was in it.

"It depends on how you look at it."

"Wow," Hatano said, dragging the word out. "Didn't realize you were a romantic deep down inside."

Jitsui didn't respond immediately, somewhat stunned to hear that spoken out loud. If he had to be honest, he didn't realize so either. Once he would've scorn the sentiment, but as a spy, he'd learned how to adapt -- even if it meant accepting feelings he shouldn't have in the first place.

"I'd do the same," he finally said. Though posed hypothetically, they both knew exactly what he meant. "Wouldn't you?"

Hatano stayed silent for a moment, their eyes meeting, as if trying to find a lie in his words.

"Careful," Hatano said after some time. "Someone might think you're actually capable of love." And though he meant it as a jest, Jitsui knew his feelings were mutual.

Jitsui smiled, one that Hatano returned. Yes, their time together was limited, but Jitsui -- the man he'd become and embraced -- was a rather simple man. Having Hatano by his side was all he needed, and he'd do anything for that.

Upon first impression, many would describe Jitsui as calm, level-headed, and demure among other saintly adjectives. They always saw him as an angel, the picture of what a perfect gentleman should be. Little did they know that couldn't possibly be further from the truth, his sadistic, stubborn side coming to light as one got to know him better.

And now was one of his stubborn moments.

As sensible as he tried to be, there was no way he could sit back and let things happen -- especially with what was at stake. Maybe it was the shoujo mangaka inside him taking over, but he knew deep in his heart that Hatano would've waited for him, if not outright taken the situation into his own hands. In his ideal fantasies, things would've gone smoothly; he and Hatano would've been together by now, and he wouldn't be pacing a hole out on the sidewalk contemplating his next move. Though Jitsui didn't consider himself much of an optimist, he never imagined that the meeting yesterday would've gone that badly.

That was, unless, if Hatano hadn't gotten his letter.

Jitsui wasn't quick to anger, but the very thought of it made his blood boil because it was looking more and more plausible. He knew that making assumptions wasn't good either, but what little he saw of Hatano's father was enough to tell him that there was nothing good going on with him.

Nonetheless, Jitsui wouldn't let this deter him; his pride nor his stubbornness simply wouldn't let him. And, pardon the wishful thinking, maybe this time Hatano would answer the door. As he made his way back to Hatano's apartment, Jitsui comforted himself with those pretty thoughts. Doing otherwise would only make the seeds of hesitation grow more and more.

Unfortunately, reality wasn't like his shoujo mangas where everything would fall into place right after the conflict. What greeted him at the door were not those droopy, brown eyes he'd come to adore in his previous lifetime but the sharp ones he'd come to loathe in less than twenty-four hours. Come what may, he'd have to keep his cool lest things continue falling in a downward spiral and that was the last thing he wanted.

"Good afternoon," Jitsui said in the most sickeningly sweet voice as possible.

Mr. Ryosuke's response was to click his tongue. Jitsui resisted the impulse to strangle him right there and then.

"You again."

"Yes, it's me again." Though he kept his tone polite, even he couldn't bother to hide his annoyance. "You said Hatano would be around later and since it's later, I was wondering if he was around?"

Already expecting a negative response, Jitsui peeked through the space between the door in search for any sign of Hatano.

"Sorry, kid. He's not here."

"Then," he said, eyes still surveying the room. It seemed as though Mr. Ryosuke's words were correct, but Jitsui knew not to take things at face value. "Could you tell me when he'll be back -- exactly ?"

"I wouldn't be able to tell you," Mr. Ryousuke said, only irritating Jitsui even more. "He's back when he's back. Now leave."

He moved to close the door, but Jitsui was quicker. He stepped forward, not only preventing the door from closing but also giving him a better view of the inside. His stomach dropped when he didn't see anything of importance, but then he caught sight of black fur poking out from the hallway. Jumping to conclusions was foolish, he knew, but he couldn't help but wonder.

"I'm sorry, but --"

The tuft of black fur moved forward, yellow eyes meeting his.

A cat. A black cat with yellow eyes that seemed all too familiar. His heart lurched at the sight of it, though he could only guess whom it was. He could only spend so much time dwelling on the matter, however, having been pushed back and pinned down with sharp eyes.

"I said leave."

With that, the door was slammed into his face but Jitsui didn't find himself as frustrated as he'd been earlier, surprisingly enough. The desire to murder Hatano's father still lingered, but he needed to use his calculation skills for something else for now. Never before had he felt so much hope because of a cat of all things, but the sight of the feline sent his brain thinking. Surely, there was another way; surely, he would get to Hatano -- somehow, some place.

If he couldn't get in the directly, then Jitsui would just have to take another route. Based on his observations, the fire escape ran down the balconies in the back of the building. And if his guess was correct, then one of the entrances was on Hatano's floor. Whether or not it was outside Hatano's room was another question he had yet to figure out, but he supposed he would be finding the answer to that very soon.

Finding the fire escape wasn't difficult. One would have to be an incompetent fool not to notice the shoot. No, it was the matter of climbing up the shoot. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn't as fit as he used to be. He didn't really have reason to keep up a rigorous training regimen in this life nor did he find it necessary. Nevertheless, up was the only way to go, to Hatano, so up he would go.

The first few steps were clumsy, his feet slipping up and his grip on the walls loose, but he found his stride eventually. Soon enough, he reached the top but all that met him was the trap door. He hadn't thought it would be a problem, but he bit back a curse on his tongue when he pushed up on it to no avail. The damn thing certainly didn't appear to be so heavy. Regardless, he gave it another push, stronger this time, but that proved useless as well.

He'd already made it this far, so no way was he going to turn back now. Despite the cramp in his legs and the strain on his arm holding his body up, he kept banging and banging on the door until he budged it open. How great would it be if that'd been it -- Hatano would be waiting for him on the other side and they'd be together again.

But there was nothing. As far as his eyes could go, he couldn't see any other person. He couldn't hear anything either except for the afternoon breeze of spring. The balcony was empty, as well as the messy room connected to it --

Meow.

-- or perhaps there was something. His eyes flew to the source of the noise and landed on a black cat, which appeared to be the same one that he'd seen yesterday. The cat drew nearer as he hauled himself up, circling him and scrutinizing him. By all means, he should've hurried on inside. The balcony door was slightly ajar, presenting the perfect opportunity to go inside, but for some reason, he sat still on the edge. When the cat had finished its inspection, its yellow eyes met his and Jitsui knew this couldn't be a coincidence. Seeing that the cat wouldn't hurt him, Jitsui decided to test out his theory.

"Yoru...?"

At that, the cat -- Yoru -- meowed, his ears faced forward and tail straight up, quivering. Well, Jitsui thought, so it seemed that cats indeed had nine lives. Though he couldn't claim to be extremely close to Yoru in the previous life, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic at the sight. Allowing himself an instance of compassion, he scratched the underside of Yoru's neck before standing up proper.

"So then Hatano should be inside..." Jitsui thought aloud, not expecting an answer but finding some comfort in having a companion. But as he neared the door, he felt Yoru's paws on his ankles as if stopping him. He tried again only up be met with a similar response, even side stepping here and there but Yoru matched his steps.

He huffed, but it'd be shameful if he let his temper out on a cat. Counting to ten, Jitsui bent down so that he was eye level with Yoru. There was a reason they'd let him roam around in the Greater East Asia Cultural Society. Hopefully, nothing about that had changed.

"Yoru," he said, calling his attention. On one hand, Jitsui couldn't believe he was about to question a cat; on the other hand, this couldn't possibly be the most farfetched thing he'd come up with considering he was a shoujo mangaka. "Sway your tail once for 'yes' and twice for 'no.' Do you understand?"

Truly, he'd expected a null answer but thankfully, Yoru's tail swayed once.

"Is everything okay?"

Yoru hesitated, his tail still as if pondering the question. After a moment, his tail swayed 'no.' Jitsui's blood ran cold.

"Hatano is inside, right?"

One sway.

"What about his father?"

Yoru's tail swayed vigorously, accompanied by a hiss. Jitsui's lip twitched in frustration, taking a peek indoors once again. No wonder Yoru had tried stopping him from getting inside. It'd be a disaster if he'd caught him. Still, things couldn't be as simple as that. He tapped his foot furiously against the balcony floor, pondering the their circumstances. Inside the room, post-it notes were tacked onto various surfaces -- the walls, the books, even the headboard of the bed -- alongside forgotten, misplaced things. If he squinted hard enough, he could make out the characters on the notes. From that which he could see: "letter"? The gears in his head began spinning.

"Yoru, do you know if a letter I sent arrived here?"

Yoru's tail swayed once. All right, so the problem didn't lie there.

"Did Hatano get it?"

Two sways, to which Jitsui let out a swear. It was times like these that he hated being right. Even so, what was he to do about it? He couldn't send another one without the possibility of it getting intercepted again nor could he sneak in without fear of getting caught.

Then again, maybe he didn't have to do anything.

"Do you know where it is?"

Yoru's tail swayed twice, but Jitsui didn't let that discourage him too much. Judging by this interaction alone, Yoru seemed intelligent enough to follow through with his plans.

"Do you think you can find it then? And if you do, could you show it to Hatano?"

Without hesitation, Yoru meowed whilst his tail swayed ‘yes.’ It really wasn't much, he figured, relying on a cat of all things, but he felt some relief. As he pet Yoru, he knew still that he couldn't grow lax here. Even if Yoru managed to get the letter to Hatano, there was still the matter of meeting him. He still had his fair share of work to handle and Jitsui wasn't one to slack off.

Waking from his memory-dreams oft left Jitsui with feelings of nostalgia and tranquility, the fleeting moments of yesteryears ringing throughout his mind. But today, when he woke up, the icy feeling of dread washed over his body. And such was a feeling he didn't like one bit. Especially not when he'd dreamed of one of the moments he shared with Hatano before their goodbyes.

Perhaps it was just the stress of everything going on. Ever since he'd given Yoru his task, he'd yet to make progress on his end. It was much like trying to grab hold of sand -- the grains continuously slipping through his fingers no matter how much of it he grabbed. He didn't believe in any higher beings nor fate, but if they did exist, it was almost like they purposely found obstacles to get in his way. Every time he thought he'd managed to catch Hatano, something always drove Hatano further and further away. 

Try as he might to ignore superstition, he couldn't help but grow dismayed as the days passed. Still, there was something Jitsui felt like he needed to do despite everything that had happened. For some reason or another, his gut told him to take the direct approach today. Meaning, go right up to the front door of Hatano's apartment. He hadn't forgotten his two previous failures already, but it wasn't like any other way was working out either. After all, the saying "third time's the charm" must have held some sort of merit and so, figuring he had nothing else to lose, Jitsui followed his instincts.

He found himself in front of the door sooner than he expected, the white door staring him in the face. He raised his hand to ring the doorbell, only to find himself hesitating.

Nervousness wasn't something he experienced often, not to sound too prideful or boastful. Of course, he had his fair bouts of it every now and then, but his belief in his skills had always won over. Mayhaps it was an advantage of remembering one's past life, that he was so sure he could do everything all over again. But he'd never encountered anything like this before, all things considered. It was only human to fear the unknown, but it was times like this he wished he'd be more akin to the monsters that Sakuma had called the spies so many years ago. A monster didn't fear nor doubt; a monster would've gotten what it wanted by now.

Unfortunately, in this reality, he was very much human. He feared, he doubted, he'd yet to make his peace. But it was those same fears that pushed him forward now, that lead him on to Hatano's place. As nerve wracking as it was to be so close yet so far away, he would only hate himself if he did nothing about it.

Ignoring every doubt that screamed in his mind, Jitsui rang the doorbell and counted the seconds that passed.

Heartbeats reverberating throughout his eardrums was a sensation he thought only happened in fiction, but he figured by now he should've learned that art mimicked reality. He willed himself to stand still as he waited for the door to open, feeling the urge to pace around. It only intensified as he finally heard the latch being unchained and the lock opening. He braced himself for more disappointment, that hope would only aggravate him even more. Still, as the door swung opened, he held his breath and --

Time stopped when their eyes met.

It took a few moments for Jitsui to process the sight before him, unsure if he was still dreaming or not. All this life, Hatano had just been a fragment of the past -- only tangible through his memories and dreams. But looking at him now, he was just as he remembered him, every single feature from head to toe. Even in this lifetime, he was shorter than him, and he still had that middle part in his hair that framed his face nicely, and those droopy brown eyes that bore into his soul, and the cute, button nose that he'd grown to adore. All these little details were exactly that same as he remembered that it was almost as if they'd never parted ways in the first place. It took all of his will power not to take Hatano into his arms and hold him close, but even a part of him feared that he'd disappear if he did just that.

"Hatano?" Jitsui managed to spit out, the name but a breath on his tongue.

Hatano didn't respond immediately, his eyes widened as if, too, in shock. Jitsui remained silent and still, letting Hatano take his time. As uncertain as Hatano looked, their gazes met again, and there was that light of recognition in his eyes and that, for Jitsui, was enough.

"Jit --"

All of a sudden, Jitsui's collar hit his neck, choking him as he was pulled back. His mind scrambled, trying to figure out what was happening, but there could only be one answer to that question.

"Excuse me." Just the sound of that man's voice grated his nerves. Reminding himself that murder was illegal, Jitsui whipped around quickly to face Mr. Ryousuke but he was already halfway through the door. "We're not having visitors right now."

The door slammed in his face but after all that had happened, he wouldn't let that stop him. He ran back towards the door -- towards Hatano -- and began pounding against it with all his might. The rational part of his mind knew it wouldn't accomplish much, but it was the only thing he could think of to do in a rush. Under the midst of all the force, the hinges of the door loosened though not enough to get him in. Seeing that was the case, he finally let his arms take a rest, paying little attention to the soreness in his hands and arms. He didn't know how long he'd been there, but as he pressed his ears against the door he heard only silence. That, to him, was much more disturbing than the yelling he anticipated.

He needed to get in. Or, at the very least, he needed to know if Hatano was okay.

Not wasting a single second, Jitsui hurried to the back of the building. Quickly locating the fire escape shoot, he climbed his way up. How funny it was that what once seemed daunting was effortless in the midst of a matter. The only thing -- annoyance, rather -- was the weight of the trap door once he'd reached the top, but even he managed to swing it open in his hurry. Hauling himself up, he quickly assessed the scene.  

Only the sounds of the wind gushing by greeted him up there. The balcony was empty, as was the room connected to it, much like it had been a couple days ago. This time around, though, the door was shut close and not even Yoru was around. Peering inside, he tried to make out some semblance of life. Surely someone had to be inside. But then again, a lot could have happened in the time he'd spent trying to get here. Light poured in from the living room to the hallway and the door on the other end was closed tight. An argument or a fight, Jitsui could deal with, but the lack of activity was sending him on the edge.

He gripped the balcony door handle, but it didn't budge. He huffed in frustration, telling himself not to do anything rash. He then patted his pockets and scoured the balcony for anything he could use a pick lock, but as was the theme for today, there was nothing. It would have been easy to just punch the glass and break in but he didn't want to draw too much attention nor cause any more problems on top of this one.

Nevertheless, spending any more time here would be a waste. The sun was steadily falling west and glancing at his watch told him that it was already evening. He hadn't even realized he'd spent most of his time out here, having missed a few calls from Gamou and some texts from Odagiri when he checked his phone. But then again, he thought, what was there to do? Perhaps the silence meant that Hatano had left. But if he did, then where to? He hadn't the faintest clue, but he berated himself for even thinking of giving up. It might've just been a thought of false hope, but that thought was better than what he wanted to imagine what Hatano was going through at home.

Sometimes hope was all he had, and that hope was better than nothing. With that in mind, Jitsui set off again. Hatano had to be somewhere . He would be damned if he let things end like this.