#hes also my favorite villain so he gets privileges

[on-the-clear-blue]

The idea warms are hitting extremely hard today, so outside of my usual DPxDC I give you, Spider-Man in Gotham...Not MCU Peter edition!

Give me a Peter Parker that is 18 going on onto 19, he has been Spider-Man for like, 5 almost 6 years, getting his bite very early, and dealing with all the things that happen to him younger.

And give me a Year One Batman. Who is still trying to figure out what the hell he is doing, and toting along a 9 year old Robin

Peter, falling out of a portal, and doing his standard check of surroundings, spotting Batman staring at him in clunky armor and a brightly colored child: Waves slowly

Bruce, who heard some freaky shit was happening with a cult near by and went to investigate: blinking at the blue and red being that got summoned

Dickie, who is trying (and failing) to do the Bat glare: still waves back.

And like, just the idea of this 19 year old Spider-Man taking a much older vigilante under his wing, teaching him the ins and outs of it all.

Like..

Bruce, Storming through a bag guys base gets suddenly pulled back by a web to his cape.

Peter, giving him a "bitch you dumb" look under his mask: Traps! LOOK FOR TRAPS?? AND LOOK UP? PEOPLE HID THINGS UP?

Bonus, Spider-Man bending himself into a human pretzels and Dick "I have no bones" Grayson is gleefully testing to see if he could do it too.

Jump cut, years later, Peter beats emotional intelligence into Bruce with Dick.

All the Bat kids grow up with Uncle Peter, (either Peter can't get back or has been told specifically that he can't by a higher being or something) and like...

Peter is the only one that catches Tiny Tim following them during patrol, he shows him all the places to get the best angles, even poses a few times for him.

Either is there when Jason dies and saves him, or is there mourning with Bruce

(Gotham lives in fear of the memory, Batman at his most brutal and Black Suit Spider-Man)

Teaches Jason how to control his pit rage after he comes back, what is Spider-Man if not control?

Stephanie is his bestie in puns and white girl music tastes.

Tim finds a partner in constantly staying up far to late as well as someone who likes to invent,( because I hc that Peter has pretty much worked with every scientist in New York, cus like since this is a blend of canons, he has worked with the Lizard, Doc Oct, Reed Richards, the only one he said no to an internship was Stark)

Duke gets a meta mentor that can help him with his powers, Spidey has been on more than one team with someone that had some form of light powers.

Plus I think Spider-man is Gothams daytime hero before Signal joins him, they are the daytime duo

Cass is his favorite (don't tell anyone because they already know) she can see him and he can see her in a spider sense, they do the point meme whenever they sense each other.

Little stabby Damian finds out that this person with his father has been trained by many an assassin (Wade, Daredevil, Natasha, Shield in general)

And Wade...Deadpool pops up occasionally, even he doesn't understand why or how lBruce gets a strange feeling he should punch the Flash in the face the next time he sees him)

Bruce having to deal with Deadpool is terrible for him and I sadly love it.

(Also on the point of Black suit spidey in Gotham...ESPECIALLY after Jason is murdered? Oh Peter is killing the Joker, or his arm privileges forfeit. I feel like Peter would try not to kill him but wouldn't try too hard.)

Spider-man being a founding members of the Justice League, them having to deal with Peter crawling on the ceiling, and scuttering through air vents!

Peter making Parker Industries, pointing inventions from other heros/villains from his world, he isn't above pettiness, and that's how the DC world gets some of Reed Richard's old designs he gave to Peter "Because they are practically useless" they arnt they save millions of lives. Not to mention Arc Reactors, Peter grinned the whole time claiming it was his idea.

Hope you enjoy my ADHD rambling brought to you be sleep deprivation

[smolcrow465]

just finished my 02 rewatch but alas. my assignments have caught up with me again

anyways uh. i think kari's malomyotismon induced hallucination is pretty accurate to summer dreams' future

[tropicalcryptid]

Ok so She-Ra pulled such a great hat trick with Hordak's characterization, and I LOVE it

One of my favorite things about 2018 She-Ra is Hordak's story and development (and Entrapdak cough but that's not the point of this particular post), and the cleverest thing is that so much of it is actually being set up and told to us in seasons 1 and 2 before we even realize that that's what's happening.

When we first see Hordak in the show, he's giving "generic evil overlord" vibes. Garden-variety baddie. Maybe a little more reasonable than some and clearly capable of long-term thinking, but that just serves to make him intimidating. Everything about him--the way he runs his empire, his armor, his color scheme, his minion, his Villainous Eye Makeup(TM), even his name--are all projecting to the audience "yup, Acme Bad Guy here. Move right along."

But then, backstory. And everything snaps into focus. Not only is it one of the first big oh SHIT moments of the show, where we suddenly zoom out and realize that there is SO much more going on than we realized--it's also the start of the audience seeing Hordak as a character rather than an archetype. Suddenly we realize that he's not conquering Etheria because he wants power, or hates happiness and sparkles, or whatever--he's doing it out of a desperate attempt to prove his worth to his brother/creator/god. This moment where Hordak lets Entrapta in is also the moment the show lets us in on what makes our favorite spacebat tick.

On top of that, we've also seen him bonding with Entrapta and opening up to this person that he respects and trusts...probably the only person he's ever respected or trusted apart from Prime. And she's Etherian--someone of a lower species, someone he's supposed to subjugate, someone who he has been raised and trained and programmed and mind-controlled into believing is below him in every way.

But instead she's brilliant and creative and mesmerizing. She's not afraid of him, and she's fascinated with his work. For the first time since being abandoned by Prime, Hordak finally has someone that he can talk to, who is on his level and both understands and cares about the science! (because he is a giant nerd). She's kind to him, a mere defect. And it just sends his whole worldview into a spin, and that's all before--

Bam, mans is a goner. Entrapta's "Imperfections are beautiful" comment punches right through all the toxic bs that Hordak has been steeped in his entire life. You can see on his face here--I think it's the moment Hordak fell in love with Entrapta, but this is also the face of a spacebat reevaluating his entire worldview. If Entrapta, who is amazing, believes something different from Prime...what does that mean? If Entrapta, who is brilliant, believes that he is worth something, and that she herself is a failure...

Well. We know what happens after that, and how Hordak begins to doubt, and eventually fights back against Prime (and remembers his love for Entrapta after TWO mind wipes help my heart ack). But we also get to see what life in the Galactic Horde looks like: the only life Hordak ever knew before coming to Etheria.

It's not nice.

It's really not nice.

Prime operates in a very specific way, and we learn a lot about it in season 5. Prime expects complete obedience, devotion and worship from his clones. He allows no individuality from his subjects, not even a name. Failure or deviations are punished, mind-wiped, or destroyed. We even learn from Wrong Hordak that facial expressions are considered a privilege reserved for Prime (apart from, presumably, expressions of rapture caused by being around Prime).

And once we learn all of this, suddenly thinking about season 1 Hordak becomes very interesting indeed. The time we spend with the Galactic Horde and Prime throws absolutely everything that we know about Hordak into a whole new context. Now all those traits that made him a generic villain are actually hugely effective characterization! And what that characterization is telling us is that Hordak had already moved much farther away from Prime than we (or, probably, he) had realized, even long before he met Entrapta.

Horde Prime does not allow his underlings to have names, personalities, or any differences of appearance. Not only does Hordak allow this among his own troops, he chose a name for himself as well! Season 5 tells us that his very name is an act of blasphemy against his god. And yet Hordak took one for himself, and that name is part of the core identity he is able to hold on to when rebelling against Prime.

Horde Prime cast Hordak out when he showed signs of physical imperfections. Hordak not only keeps Imp (who is by all appearances a failed clone or similar experiment) around, he treats Imp more gently than we see him treat anybody or anything before Entrapta. Imp is not simply "generic evil guy's minion," he is proof of Hordak's capacity for compassion, and evidence that Hordak cannot bring himself to cast aside "defects" as easily as Prime. Considering where Hordak came from, Imp's existence is a huge, flashing neon sign telling the audience this guy here is better than the hell that molded him, and we don't even realize it until 4 seasons after it's been shown to us!

Very cool, ND.

There's more, though. Hordak's red and black color scheme? His dark eye makeup and lipstick? Very Evil Overlord chic. But nope! Actually these are actually expressions of individuality on a level that Hordak knows would be abhorrent to Prime!

Reading between the lines, I see this as Hordak desperately trying to reconcile two diametrically opposed beliefs in his head: (1) devotion to Prime, whose approval he desperately craves, and (2) maintaining some degree of unique personhood, of Hordak, from which to draw strength. Because a failed, defective clone cannot survive on a hostile world, cut off from the hivemind and from Prime's light. A failed clone cannot create an empire to offer Prime as tribute, nor build a spacetime portal from scraps and memory to call Prime back. A failed clone cannot create cybernetic armor to keep his hurting, weakened body alive; to force himself to keep going no matter what, to fight through the pain and the doubt by sheer force of will.

But maybe Hordak can.

And so there it is. Hordak had plenty of time to gain and explore his individuality while separated from Prime, but I think the reason he did it so effectively (while still deluding himself that Prime would forgive him for these little sins, if only Hordak could prove his value) is because he had to.

Wrong Hordak gained his individuality surrounded by kind, quirky people who took care of him; Hordak was ripped from the hivemind by Prime himself and had to fight for his survival against all odds. And that produced a dangerous and damaging foe for Etheria. But it also produced the one clone with the strength of will to defy Prime himself.

This is long and rambling, but ultimately my point is that 1) I love Hordak, and 2) I love love love love that the show was so clever about his characterization. We learn so much about him and how much progress he's already made in breaking from his psycho abusive cult upbringing, and we don't even recognize it until the show wants us to. Hordak had come so far, all on his own, before he met Entrapta. She just helped push him over the edge and finally realize (at least consciously) that Prime's worldview might not be the correct one.

Idk, I just don't know if I've ever seen all the trappings of Basic 80's Villain(TM) so successfully subverted, where looking back 4 seasons later is actually a smack in the face with the "effective character building" stick. Amazing.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

OMG RAVEN YOU’RE INTO EVER AFTER HIGH? I love it but can’t talk about it bc none of my friends have seen it 😭 I wish it was talked about more, especially with how deep their lore runs. I love EAH’s dynamics with the complexities of destiny. If twst followed the same logic as eah’s world it would be so interesting. How would you feel if the worlds were to mesh together and how it would work? You can interpret that in any way you want; the characters meeting or twst being bound to the same rules and societal expectations of eah, or whatnot.

Also who’s your favorite eah character compared to your favorite twst character (Leona)?Jade, right?

And have you read the eah books? I haven’t, but I’m going to try to sometime!

Eah alt account when?

I'm still salty that the Monster High x Ever After High crossover movie never saw the light of day-- Part of the reason why I don't like Disney (I mean the faceless corpo, not all Disney products) is because they have such a strong association with fairy tales that it pushes other interpretations out of the market or it leads to people assuming Disney "owns" those fairy tales. Ever After High's lore and themes run so much deeper than most other fairy tale reimaginings I've seen (and I've seen a lot). It's such a shame it doesn't get the respect and recognition it deserves even though EAH is the one out here challenging the status quo whereas modern Disney is content with mediocrity that appeals to the masses.

I think EAH and TWST, at their cores, share similar ideas so combining them would work well. Friendship, self-identity, defining your own future, questioning what "good" and "evil" truly are... It's all there. I'd imagine that if Twisted Wonderland (or at least NRC) followed the same rules as EAH, then everyone would be descendants of their Disney counterparts. (This is actually a common misperception of what TWST was to new fans; people mistakenly believe the TWST characters are children of the classic Disney villains. This has never been canon.) Unfortunately, I'd have to take away the Disney villains being twisted to be "good" guys in Twisted Wonderland's world in order for this to work by EAH rules, so... There's that to consider. This, in turn, can result in the student body splitting into Royals (pro-following one's destiny) and Rebels (anti-following one's destiny). Perhaps RSA and NRC could be one school in this AU...? Just so we have a mix of "good" and "evil" descended children in the same vicinity as one another. A must-have are the constantly bickering Narrators!! It's only really when Yuu shows up that the majority opinion starts to shift. Maybe then Crowley becomes concerned with students rising up and fighting back against the system that relies on them being complacent to keep the cycle of stories going. I've seen some readings of EAH which theorize that Royals guaranteed a happy ending is a stand-in for privilege, and that interpretation leads into very interesting conflicts when we also consider that magic in Twisted Wonderland is a privilege afforded to few.

To cover just the dorm leaders (because covering all the TWST characters would make this post way longer), I definitely see Riddle, Kalim, Idia, and Malleus as Royals and Leona, Azul, and Vil as Rebels. Here's my thought process:

Riddle is pretty self-explanatory. He comes from a background where he's used to being told what to do by his mother and so he also heavily relies on her strict, unyielding teachings to play by the book when he goes out there in the real world. Riddle is inflexible and hesitant to go against the grain--and, more importantly, he fully believes that following the rules will lead to his happiness... that doing as his fairy tale ordains will lead to a happy ending. What happens to the Queen of Hearts is dubious in the end since it's framed as Alice's dream, so I think that vagueness gives Riddle hope that by behaving himself, he'll earn the happiness he desires.

Leona is a Rebel, and not just because that's the aesthetic of his dorm. Being that he is highly intelligent and demonstrates a lot of foresight, he'd be aware of what future is in store for him and aggressively fighting against that. It would make him more desperate than ever to prove his worth, because not only does everyone see his powers as terrifying, but they also see him as a future brother murderer and dictator that will bleed the land dry of resources. It'd make the situation with his family even more strained than it already is, not to mention the extra jealousy he must feel toward Cheka, who is still too young to understand what's going to happen later.

Azul is someone who acts like a Royal but is actually a Rebel. He acts polite and like he plays by the rules, but clearly he doesn't behind the scenes. I see Azul as the kind of Rebel akin to Duchess Swan... as in, he believes he can steal away someone else's destiny for himself. Azul would constantly be looking for loopholes to save himself. He's put way too much stock into becoming a better, stronger person and he'd want to defend this new life he has made for himself. His obsession with protecting his contracts could translate well here.

Kalim is a Royal because he's mega rich and has been sheltered from the concept of bad things that happen to normal people; he has nothing to worry about. It also helps that Kalim is twisted from a character that doesn't meet a bad ending. I think he'd be aware of Jami's doomed destiny, but Kalim is so ignorant that he thinks it'll just be fine and it'll work itself out. Part of his growth could be being forced to reckon with the reality that Jamil is suffering under the legacy assigned to him and accepting the role that he plays in that by not acting.

Idia is a Royal--or at least pre-book 6 Idia is. He's a very pessimistic guy and repeatedly expresses hopelessness about the future, bemoaning the curse he and his family have to bear. Idia doesn't want to try to fight his fate, he's already accepted that it will happen and so closes himself off from others to save himself that heartbreak. Post-book 6 Idia will have swapped over to the Rebel side thanks to Ortho reviving the hope in him.

Vil is a Rebel simply for the fact that he fights social conventions. He's already out here shattering gender roles, but finds it much harder to breach that expectation that villains are just villains and nothing more. Vil keeps getting rejected at every turn, told that it's impossible to rewrite his story, that his frustrations are the natural result of jealousy and an ugly heart that festers in side of him. He steels himself to prove that notion wrong, working himself to the bone to get up on that stage and stay on it, waiting to be lavished with praise that he truly is the fairest one of all. I feel this would be so fascinating for Vil's own arc about self acceptance; maybe he wears himself down emotionally because he HAS to basically be perfect due to his job but also denies himself normal feelings like anger and jealousy because confessing that you have such "ugly" feelings only validates that you're shallow just like the stories say you will be.

Malleus is a tough one, but I settled for Royal in the end. Maleficent is doomed to be slain by a sword, right? So am I saying that THE Malleus Draconia, who is infamously arrogant about his magical abilities, would lie down and take a stab like that? Of course not! However, I do think that Malleus is initially someone who values tradition and living up to noblesse oblige. As the future ruler of a nation, people's stories are relying on him to play his expected role out, which he'd be fully cognizant of. I also think Malleus would be afforded the luxury of not having to face his destiny as soon as his peers are due to his long life span. This is in part because the person destined to slay him doesn't come into his life for literally hundreds of years. Then when book 7 arrives, Malleus has to deal with his loved ones leaving and/or betraying him as well as the realization that this is his destiny: dying alone and unloved. That'd just break him.

ahdbiqwdbqwli I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS AU FOR FOREVER BUT I'LL CUT IT SHORT OR ELSE I'LL NEVER SHUT UP 😭

EAH has so many good characters and interesting storylines, it's hard for me to pick a favorite! I of course love Apple and Raven's dilemmas, but I feel like it's cheating to pick one of them as my favorite. The whole Wonderland gang is also fantastic... I'm a sucker for their aesthetic, but they're so fun and silly in general. Kitty, Lizzie, and especially Madeline are 👌

Mmm, when I think long and hard about it, I think my favorite EAH character has to be Briar Beauty, daughter of Sleeping Beauty. Firstly, I love all the pink, roses, and bramble in her design. Secondly, I love the layers to why she is the way she is. Briar's a party girl not because "lmao, wouldn't that be a funny haha subversion of Sleeping Beauty" but because she wants to live life up before she falls asleep for 100 years and literally loses all her friends and family to the natural passage of time. That's seriously so smart and such an inventive way to think about the trauma a descendant of Sleeping Beauty might have. Seeing Briar transition from one of Apple's besties and biggest supporters to an outright rebel is satisfying as heck. (Gotta take a moment to shout out this classic moment :3)

I don't know if I would compare Briar to Jade since they're entirely different characters. However, looking at the source material, I'm actually surprised I like Briar as much as I do since I have never cared for the story of Sleeping Beauty. A part of me finds this ironic since Malleus harbors a similar fear as Briar (losing loved ones) yet I see Malleus's desire as way more selfish and self-serving than Briar's. I believe that's because Briar doesn't have the same arrogance as Malleus, so I'm more forgiving with her. EAH's actual equivalent to Malleus is Faybelle, daughter of the Dark Fairy, but I don't like her as much as I do Briar (hence why I'm comparing Malleus and Briar, not Malleus and Faybelle).

I haven't read the EAH books but I want to one day! I'd prefer to borrow them since I don't have enough space in my room for more physical books, so as soon as I find copies at a library or something...

This blog has kind of become a place where I occasionally talk about my other interests, generally as it relates to TWST, my main interest. I'd like to keep it like this since managing multiple blogs can be so draining. It already takes quite a bit of time to regularly write responses to asks just on one blog!

[rayroseu]

Happy 100 Years Disney!!🏰🌠💐

"Tsunotarou, follow my lead! And don't shower me with flowers this time!!"

"How audacious to order me around... Did Prefect taught you that manners?"

I STILL CANT GET OVER IT OKAY. THE "Grim, I shall allow you to hold the flowers." FROM MALLEUS TO GRIM. ITS EVERYTHING. 😭😭😭💖💞💗💗It wouldve been silly to add the Mickey wand for the card animation but eh... I guess Grim's paws really doesnt make it work 😂😂

Also referencing my favorite Grim voiceline hehe🤭💕 I want to hear Malleus laughing out loud!!! 🥺🥺✨✨

©️: @mysteryshoptls

I teared up hearing Grim is so hopeful we'll be there with him even after 100 years... ahaha... 😭😭😭 He also asked Deuce what they'll do after 100 years... 🥲🥲 He really trusts that Ramshackle home will be there for more than a century...😭✨

Also his wish to the Sea Witch was that he wants to be taller than Yuu LMFAO 😂GRIM NUH UH-- YOU'LL STAY CAT SIZE!!😤😤

Also his voicelines towards each Disney Villain points out to his "potential overblot form(the phantom from the Prologue)" like "I'm growing out my mane like the King of the Beast!", "I want to have the Sorcerer of the Sands' staff!", and "I want to be as big as the Thorn Fairy's dragon form!" all of those traits that he wants to be are present in that phantom!!!💥(Grim noooo)

I hope next year we'll be given Grim vignette🙏🙏🙏 its probably not given right now because any lore about Grim might spoil whatever they're cooking🥲🥲

maybe the theory that "Malleus will end up at Ramshackle because he'll lose his dorm's spirit(nobility and elegance) since he overblotted" is true.... you know,,, bcs Diasomnia is the most privileged dorm you can be sorted in (they have special dishes at the nrc cafeteria iirc) and Ramshackle is obviously the most unfortunate one 😂😂 pspsps malleus if u get dethroned by being the king of the abyss Ramshackle will always be your sanctuary!!

[cruciomee]

Why do you like the Greens so much. You seem very kind and it’s weird to me you like the clear villains/usurpers of the story (especially because they die out).

Honestly, I would normally be upset at this kind of question simply because I hate discourse. I am a people pleaser & in my heart I want everyone to be happy in the fandom. So normally, I would ignore this but not gonna lie. This question was kind of funny.

First & foremost, I was really neutral before I joined Twitter. I did not care about the silly who has more right to rule nonsense. I read fire and blood before the show came & the only thing I was looking forward to was “The Battle Above the Gods Eye” & Sunfyre coming back (because that dragon comes back!) Characters on both sides were equally interesting, but also equally boring for me. It was a specific part of the fandom on twitter to turn me so team green

On a sheer engagement level I have found that anything I draw with team black does not get very much interaction. You would think that ifRhaenyra is the most popular character in the show, if you draw something of her you will get some from of engagement but that is most definitely not the case. so sometimes I wonder if she actually has fans or is this fandom just full of people looking for a fight & use her as their excuse. Either way, I like drawing team black characters but what’s the point if no one wants to actually see it.

Now onto my personal opinions, I like my favorite characters to suffer. I hate cookie cutter happy go lucky stuff. The better a character is made to seem the more I don’t care about them. They become extremely boring to me. Im someone who likes a messy character. The more toxic the person the better. just because I like that kind of character doesn’t mean it has any effect on me as an actual person. fiction is not the same as reality! I don’t like discord in reality, but I love it in fiction! I hate toxicity in reality, but I love it in fiction! Aegon ii is a pathetic trashcan & I love to see him suffer. I can’t wait to see him burnt & broken! I also can’t wait to see him force himself off of Milk of the poppy & for his dragon to come back to him against all odds. I’m so ready to see his death, he needs to be alone & miserable. The fact I’m a kind person who honestly loves drawing kids & family interactions more than anything has nothing to do with what I want to see/read. I read some crazy toxic fanfic & the character I like the most is always the one getting emotionally destroyed in them. Everyone has their thing that they are into & I would never judge them so why should you judge me for liking a bunch of miserable losers who wear green in a show about dragons fighting for no good reason other than on who has more privilege to sit on a metal chair made of swords.

[darkshrimpemotions]

Stede Bonnet Deep Dive

(aka repository for all the fucks I refuse to give to all the terrible takes on this hellsite after season 2)

I decided to do a deep dive into Stede's character finally, because I keep seeing the absolute WORST takes about him since season two aired.

I'll preface this by saying I don't agree with the majority of the negative or critical takes I've seen about season 2. I don't think the harsh readings of Stede's character are based in a good faith or often even in a sensible reading of the source material. And I don't have the time or inclination to spend all my time refuting bad Stede takes on tumblr, so this one meta in explanation and defense of my goofy little guy will have to suffice.

This is not a carefully crafted piece of creative writing. This is basic five paragraph essay shit, but with way more paragraphs. Claim, supports, transition, repeat to conclusion. Don't say I didn't warn you!

First off, no, Stede is not the villain of this story.

Yes, that's a take someone actually put into my notifications with their full chest. By no definition of the word is Stede positioned as a villain in this story, and he isn't even a compelling case for an accidental villain. This show has done a wonderful job of setting down clear and specific criteria for what makes a character villainous or not in a fictional world operating on a very different moral and ethical framework from our own. And while you could maybe argue Stede would be a pretty bad guy by real world standards, to be this is a moot point. By that measure every character in the show is a pretty bad guy. It's a nearly useless metric.

Within the show, villains are people with privilege and power who use that power to harm others and refuse to change for the better. Stede begins the story with an immense amount of privilege and power and gives all which is in his power to give up at the end of season 1. He gains a different kind of power in season 2 and by the end of season 2, he's relinquished that as well. He rarely uses his power to hurt people, and never does he intentionally seek to hurt innocent people for no reason. That isn't to say no innocent people GET hurt. But he's never trying to hurt people unless they've hurt or threatened the people he cares about. He in fact uses the power he has to stand up for the people he loves, repeatedly.

From the very beginning, he uses his wealth and power to create a space where he, and by extension everyone on his crew, has the space to be themselves. In 1x05 he uses his class privilege and knowledge to punish the partygoers who denigrated Ed simply for not being "one of them." In 1x08 he uses his power as captain to stand up for Buttons against Jack's callous cruelty and remove him from the ship after Karl is killed.

In 2x03 he uses his relative familiarity with Zheng Yi Sao (second only to Olu in terms of members of his crew who have any such familiarity) to plead mercy for Ed's crew. In 2x05 he uses his position as Captain to convince the crew to give Ed a second chance, while also hearing and working to address and mitigate their concerns as much as possible. In 2x06 he takes the responsibility for rescuing his own crew from Ned Low, negotiates a peaceful resolution with his crew, and punishes only Ned as the admitted and obvious orchestrator of the attack and torture of his crew. In 2x07, he doesn't start picking fights to show how big and bad he is. The only two people he shows any violence toward at all are someone walking toward him with the stated intention to kill him and someone poaching a third of his crew right before his eyes.

These aren't the wanton abuses of power characteristic of a villain. These are the understandable actions of someone who feels a lot of attachment and responsibility for the people around him.

No, Stede is not a cruel person who likes hurting people.

Jesus fucking Christ. Like I get that we all have our favorites, but I swear to god some of y'all think that means that you need to turn every other character into pure evil just to justify your character's existence. This isn't even remotely true.

Stede does NOT like hurting people. He hates hurting people, in fact, often even when they kind of deserve it. He really hates it when they obviously don't deserve it! Nothing he does in all of season one is motivated by a desire to harm other people. Yes, even piracy.

Stede enters the show with a very romanticized view of piracy. The violence isn't the point for him, the point is adventure and wanderlust, and possibly primarily, escape. Escape from the confines of a life he didn't ask for and has never wanted. Escape from a marriage he didn't choose and didn't want to be part of. Escape from the rigid strictures of a social structure that doesn't make room for people like him (whether we're talking about his queerness or his neurodivergence). The point is to create a space where he can be himself, and then extend that to others as well. If I wanted to get real sad, I'd say the point is the hope that by creating such a space, he will finally find people willing to tolerate him, or even be his friends.

He also doesn't leave Mary or his children to hurt them. He leaves them because Mary makes it clear they won't be going with him, and he knows he can't bear to stay. And he's riddled with guilt about it, it's not something he looks back on with pride or with glee.

And let's get real dark for a second and acknowledge: for a man in Stede's time and position, if he was actually a cruel person who enjoyed hurting people and he wanted to hurt his wife and children? There would be very little if anything to stop him from doing exactly that. If he wanted his children and his wife to live in fear of his cruelty, he could do that without consequences. But the one instance where he does something that does make Mary afraid--attacking Doug in 1x10--is something he does on instinct and immediately regrets, apologizes for, and feels awful about. He then goes a step further to continue making amends with both Doug and Mary for the rest of the episode.

And that's another thing: Stede's reaction to finding out he's hurt someone is to be upset by that, and then to try and rectify it immediately. When Lucius calls him out for not asking how he is, Stede immediately re-engages with him and starts looking after his well-being, encouraging him to talk about what's bothering him and not to shut out the people who love him. When Ed tells him how much Stede leaving without a word hurt him, Stede accepts that and tries to correct Ed's assumption that it's because he, Ed, wasn't enough or wasn't cared about. When Ed voices uncertainty and regrets about the pace of their relationship, Stede--though quite obviously hurt by what he thinks Ed is saying--immediately puts his focus on making Ed feel secure again, telling him this relationship can be whatever they want it to be.

Now, Stede gets a lot of flak for his reaction to Ed's fishing job news, but let's be real here: it IS incredibly random. It comes out of nowhere and genuinely makes not a lick of damn sense. And it's a wild thing to drop on someone you've been building a relationship with, a wild thing to have decided in a single afternoon before you've even talked to them about it. I'm not going to take Stede too harshly to task for not reacting perfectly seflessly there. It doesn't erase all the times when he DID react by immediately putting the other person's feelings in focus. And those aren't the actions of someone who enjoys hurting people and revels in cruelty to those around him.

Hell, Stede doesn't even revel in hurting people who've actually done something to warrant it, most of the time. Stede isn't excited or gloating about killing one of his childhood bullies in 1x01. He's horrified by what he's done. He wasn't even trying to kill him! He was going for the "stun move." He's so racked with guilt for it the entire season that he hallucinates the man berating him. He takes clear pleasure in manipulating the French partygoers and turning their own game against them, but he's still primarily motivated by making Ed feel better (and fine, that's his one time out of ten, I guess). He also takes no joy in Chauncy's death, in fact he's horrified and traumatized by it. The Badmintons are two people who tormented him throughout his childhood, but he shows an incredible amount of regret and guilt about both their deaths, especially considering Chauncy's really wasn't his fault in any possible way.

The final scene with Chauncy on its own would counter the idea that Stede likes hurting people! Stede is distraught by the thought that he hurts people, sobbing about it in fact. He doesn't leave Ed to hurt him! He leaves Ed because he thinks that is IS hurting him, and wants to stop.

Even Ned Low in 2x06 is not something Stede savors or revels in. Sure, he enjoys the fame it brings, later on. But he doesn't kill Ned in service of that, and he doesn't revel in killing Ned. He isn't smiling, gloating, or smug when he does it. He's deadly serious, and protective of the people he loves, in a pretty blatant mirror of his confrontation with Jack in 1x08. And even once it's done, he doesn't derive satisfaction from it. He's blatantly and obviously distraught by it, flashing back to one of his most traumatic childhood memories. It's the rest of the crew that cheer when he pushes Ned overboard. Stede is silent except for excusing himself to go to his quarters. When he pulls Ed into the room a few minutes later, there are tears in his eyes and his expression is well...agonized, frankly.

Stede's also quick to forgive even pretty serious transgressions against himself, like Ed plotting to burn his face off in 1x06 or Izzy selling him out to the navy in 1x09 (yes, there was a time gap there, but Stede began acting friendlier toward Izzy and showing concern for him basically as soon as he realized Ed wasn't actually dead). That's not the behavior of someone cruel who enjoys hurting people, either.

Yeah, Stede revels in piracy and doesn't have big compunctions about hurting people who threaten him or hurt the people he loves. I'd say the latter, at least, is true for a lot of people even in real life. And as for the former, well. If we're going to say Stede is cruel for enjoying being a pirate, I think we'd have to throw a lot of other characters into the cruel pile, too. Like almost all of them.

Stede is not lacking in care for the members of his crew.

I've already written an entire meta on this, so I'll just link that here and reiterate that if this were true, at minimum, Jim, Frenchie, Izzy, Fang, and Archie would all be dead.

So he's not a villain, or cruel on purpose, or careless.

So who is Stede Bonnet, actually?

Stede at his worst is somewhat thoughtless and oblivious. We see this throughout both seasons, but it's far more prominent in season one. Stede at his best is generous and gracious and forgiving and kind. Stede when provoked acts to protect himself and those he loves without hesitation or pulling any punches, as already referenced several times in this meta.

Stede is, textually, canonically, a gay man forced into marriage with someone he couldn't love who also couldn't love him. Stede is a survivor of a childhood filled with emotional abuse at the hands of his father and physical abuse at the hands of his peers. He does not know how to reach out to people, both because nobody ever reached out to him and because any attempts at all that he did make were met with the kind of shit we saw from Nigel, Chauncey, and his father.

But Stede wants, so very much and so obviously, to have people to be kind to and generous and loving with. Look at how eagerly and excitedly he opens up to Ed, when he sees Ed meeting him with interest instead of mockery or scorn in 1x04. Look how readily he shares his things with Ed and with the crew throughout season 1. In fact he voluntarily left an economic system where it was acceptable for him to hoard wealth for himself, and entered into a system where it was expected for him to share any and all spoils among his crewmates. He loves to share things with people! He loves to try new things with them and show them new things. He's so eager to have any kind of friend.

Stede also begins learning almost immediately how to reach out to people, once he has an environment where he feels secure doing it. And he loves doing it! He'll even do things he doesn't like to make someone else happy, like take Ed to a party he really, really wants to go to even though Stede knows it will be awful (1x05).

He is quick to take feedback and course correct when someone points out to him that he's been hurtful to them or wronged them, like with Lucius in 2x02. Arguably this would also apply to Izzy egging him on to do the fuckery in 1x06. Izzy appealed to his sense of obligation ("I stuck my neck out for you") and his affection for Ed ("he adores you") and it worked! It worked because Stede cares about other people, about their feelings and their needs and wants, and what they think of him. He cares so, so much.

He has flaws, too, of course. As stated, he can be thoughtless and oblivious. He's new to having friends, and new to love, and he makes a lot of mistakes. But he also corrects those mistakes, once he realizes them or they're pointed out to him. And it rarely takes much urging. If anything, Stede's more stubborn when he knows he's right in a situation, but even when he's technically right, he ultimately prioritize other people's feelings (as with the probably-not-actually-cursed suit in 2x05).

He's a goof. And he loves beautiful things. But he's not the entitled, lazy shit his father accuses him of being. He doesn't have a lot of physical or combat skills, but he can learn those skills simply by doing it enough. We see this in season one with how he gets better at getting on and off the ship over time. He's also great at putting a positive spin or an optimistic face on difficult things. We see this with how he treats the patrons who come into Jackie's in 2x01, and also with how he approaches challenges throughout the season. He's someone who, nine times out of ten, looks on the bright side and tries to problem solve, rather than despairing.

He's much more skilled when it comes to coming up with and executing plans, even on the fly...something we see throughout the show. First with getting into piracy in the first place. Then with his first defeat of Izzy in 1x03. Then there's the quickly thought up and delightfully executed revenge on the French partygoers in 1x05, the quite ridiculous but ultimately successful fuckery in 1x06. The fuckery to fake his death in 1x10!

This characterization carries over into season 2, with Stede's nearly successful execution of a robbery at Jackie's in 2x01. In fact that likely would have gone off without a hitch if it hadn't been for Ricky's nonsense, and ultimately did put Stede and his crew in a much better position than they were before regardless. Then in 2x03, he planned the escape of his and Ed's crews and it went off beautifully!

He came up with the plan to escape Ned Low and his crew in 2x06 literally second to second, improvising on the fly as the situation developed until he and his crew were safe again. He successfully got the drop on the two British soldiers in 2x08, he just couldn't actually fight two well-trained men on his own. And it was his plan, ultimately, that got his crew and ship out of an entirely besieged and surrounded Republic of Pirates.

(That plan did not go off without a hitch, to tragic results. But I don't think that overrides Stede's skills in this area. Many of his plans do not end perfectly, but they end remarkably well given the odds. And given the odds he was presented with, the numbers they were up against? One single casualty is wildly successful (even if I'm wailing and gnashing my teeth about it and will be unless and until David and Co. fix it in season 3).)

And finally--and this is the one single gripe I have with the season, that Stede and Ed both said this and seem to actually believe it--this man is not fucking whim-proned. Ed. Ed is fucking whim-proned. That's a pretty core element of his personality, actually. And it's not always a bad thing, and sometimes it's quite fun. But Stede? No. Stede isn't whim-proned. Stede is motivated. Stede is decisive. Stede is tunnel-visioned, perhaps. But he actually doesn't just change up his entire life on a whim. He makes a decision about what he wants, once he realizes he can actually do that, and then he fucking sticks to it like a mosquito in tree sap.

He decided he wanted to become a pirate, so he took the time, expense, and effort required to commission a ship, have it built, outfit it with supplies, and hire a crew. He realized he was in love with Ed and rowed a dinghy from Barbados to wherever the fuck (if you go with history it was Topsail Island, which is nearly three thousand fucking miles away), rejoined his crew, and set about working in a place he was miserable, trying to slowly save enough scraps of money to buy a ship to get back to his beloved. He wrote Ed letters, it's implied every day while they were at Jackie's. He had his goal, and he didn't stop working toward his goal until it was met and they were back together. And once they were back together, he didn't quit just because Ed didn't "melt back into his arms," and--*gesticulates wildly at all of season 2*.

Where Stede thinks he's whim-prone has less to do with caprice and more to do with trauma responses. Every single time we see him do something impulsive, it's as a response to something traumatic. Braining Nigel with the paperweight? Impulse in response to Nigel triggering memories of his childhood bullying. Running back home? Impulse in response to being dragged out of bed at gunpoint, having every single one of your deepest fears and insecurities thrown at you, and then watching the person throwing them basically prove them true by shooting himself in the face trying to kill you. Pulling Ed into his room? Impulse in response to the trauma of being invaded, tortured, watching Ed and all their friends be tortured, and thinking they were going to die (and yeah killing Ned too).

All of this to say...Stede has layers, y'all. He's got good and bad points. He's got strengths and many, many weaknesses. But he is in no way the one-dimensional mustache-twirling villain or bumbling total incompetent id-driven asshat people are trying to paint him as for whatever ridiculous reason.

[blueikeproductions]

Got to see TFONE last night.

Spoilers obviously.

This is more looking at the world building and references than the film as a whole though.

The theater I was in wasn’t exactly full. Initially it was just me and a mother & son. Later on another family and some college/high school girls trickled in, but that was it. The box office so far, despite the film debuting at #1 and positive reviews and word of mouth, is pretty weak.

It’s been pointed out that once more that casuals don’t really care if it’s accurate to Transformers or not, they just like seeing the shredded metal Bionicles smashing each other and transforming into cool cars, skeletal dinosaurs, & skeletal nonsense animals.

Like it or not, the Bayformers are still very popular, heck the audience for The Last Knight I was in years ago was considerably bigger than this.

Do not be shocked if at some point the movies go back to these guys:

Over these guys.

The TFONE toys have rolled out, and have largely superseded the EarthSpark toys, but so far they don’t seem to be budging. Now before you say kids don’t like toys anymore, the kids I saw in Ollie’s were excited looking at the toys, but even at Good Stuff Cheap, the kids didn’t buy anything because it was still too expensive for them.

It’s all about price, and I’m sorry to say the TF toys are just too expensive still. I almost got a Sentinel Prime toy because I liked him in the film, but the cheapest thing was 10 dollars and not worth the amount as a 1-Step Changer.

The toy aspect I’ll circle back to because it’s relevant, but as for the movie itself, it’s good!

I liked it well enough, it’s definitely the film hard cores claim they wanted. Personally I still kinda prefer the Bay films. DotM is my personal favorite, and the use of Sentinel Prime as the main villain echos some of that. As a new origin story, it does what it’s supposed to do, and it’s the only time Optimus and Megatron being friends actually makes sense. The old G1 episode that sparked it, Megatron was never Orion’s friend, he just feigned interest to get Energon. Cyberverse and Prime, despite what the writers pat themselves on the back for a showing a nuanced Megatron, no he was just an unstable idiot that threw a 4 million year hissy fit when Optimus got what he wanted.

Here, TFONE takes great pains to establish Optimus and Megatron’s relationship. It’s very believable they used to be close friends, and I think part of it is the movie ignoring the political aspect that drove Aligned, IDW, and Cyberverse, instead casting both as underclass Worker-Bots that mined for Energon in the bowels of Cybertron. They’re just a couple of college aged dudes bonding over their love of the Primes, their wide eyed optimism and their job. Simple as that. Honestly I think the political aspects that stuff like IDW went so hard on was what made Orion and Megatron being friends before hard to believe, especially when most stories made it clear Megatron had a corrupt, semi selfish agenda to put himself in charge. Regardless if this film does well financially, hopefully the goodwill will see Hasbro and other creatives go with the blue collar approach for Optimus and Megatron’s origins. That works so much better. Also a big change is Orion was the well meaning reckless go getter, while Megatron as D-16 preferred structure and routine. Usually past stuff had it the opposite, so this is a welcome change. Even a recent manga took this to heart with Optimus as the reckless prankster doodling on Alpha Trion’s statue and falling asleep during class, while Megatron was the more attentive, studious one. More of this please.

Similarly, the future Autobots all being the Cogless while the future Decepticons were the high society/corrupt High Guard also makes so much more sense, as it never made sense before how the Decepticons were bad if they were the ones standing up to an oppressive government and the Autobots were the privileged ones that seemed to be defending it. Netflix WFC even acknowledges in-story that’s what’s happening but doesn’t really offer a reason as to why things escalated this badly and why we should root for the Autobots if they’re supposed to technically be the rich we’re supposed to eat.

So yes more of this, more the AUTOBOTS were the oppressed underclass. That makes much more sense, than they were the ones who largely benefitted from the old system.

As for the general lore, this is pretty divorced from what’s been the norm so far.

The Primus origin story is the default with the Quintessons as an ancient alien enemy that attacked the Transformers years ago still in play. From there it spirals into its own thing.

The Primes are simply known as the Primes, they’re never called The Thirteen at any stage. They were the peaceful, benevolent rulers of Cybertron who were prone to epic speeches. Zeta Prime is among the Primes, and was the Matrix holder before Sentinel Prime. It’s unclear if Zeta is the replacement for The Arisen, since The Arisen being Optimus was such an unpopular idea (wouldn’t it make more sense if he was Rodimus?), but until an art book comes out to clarify it, I’m leaning towards Zeta Prime being the replacement member.

Zeta’s character model was a loose hybrid of his previous designs but with a G1 ‘toon bent.

Also, Primes die (except Alpha Trion) during a Quintesson ambush. Alchemist Prime never goes on to become Maccadam in this universe. Megatronus Prime is the most popular Prime among the youngest population and he has a lot of merch. Megatron had posters and a sticker tattoo he proudly wore gifted to him by Orion. Megatronus was the biggest, and most powerful Prime, but unlike most incarnations, he didn’t turn on his siblings for selfish, Unicron related reasons or was perpetually on fire as he was among the first to be killed. If anything they made him look more like a G1 cartoon version of IDW Tarn. I thought it WAS Tarn at first until I corrected myself.

The Primes have more unique designs, taking cues from the Aligned designs, though Vector Prime is more specifically based on his Galaxy Force design, but otherwise are their own thing. Potentially the upcoming Age of Primes successor to Legacy may use these as a basis. In particular they finally found a readable design for this monstrosity.

Taking the base idea and pushing it into an Ed-209 direction.

Sentinel Prime is the current leader of Cybertron, but he’s a fraud. Formerly an assistant to the Primes, he hated them and coveted their power and the Matrix. Making a deal with the Quintessons, he stages a coup that kills the Primes, with Sentinel slaying several himself, Megatronus (and much later Alpha Trion) among them. While having a certain charm, he’s a selfish, greedy weasel who sold out his people for power, robbing the newest generation (Orion, Megatron, Bumblebee and Elita among them) of their Cogs and making them into a worker class to mine Energon to pay off the Quintessons. It’s never explained WHY the Quints attacked Cybertron, though maybe that’s something for TFTWO to tackle if we get one. While described more as paying off debts to loan sharks, it comes more off as Sentinel paying them to leave Cybertron alone. Sentinel’s actions also caused Cybertron’s energy crisis, as in this universe, the Matrix itself is tied to the flow of Energon on the planet. When Sentinel ripped open Zeta’s chest to claim the Matrix, the babble disintegrated like it did in RotF, denying Sentinel the power he craved and starving the planet of free flowing liquid Energon. Instead, he took Megatronus’ T-Cog as a trophy. Like RotF, the Matrix only appears to those worthy of it. This again makes more sense than just having it laying around for writers to make Megatron be worthy of it instead when he absolutely shouldn’t be, let alone able to use it at all.

Despite the Quintessons being the background antagonists, it’s never clarified in the film if they’re still related to Quintus Prime or not. To an extent I’d sort of prefer if they weren’t related, I’ve always been mixed on the idea that the Transformers created the Quints, vs the more clever meta gag the TFs are in-universe product created by the Quints.

The Quints, what little we see of them, have unique designs that are way different from the tiki mask wearing eggs but still harken back to them somewhat. They took great pains to make them look scary, giving them a more bio mechanical look. Even their ship looks somehow alive, having the same bio mechanical design. The Quintessons aren’t usually known for their fighting ability but these guys are brutal. Their foot soldiers are crablike versions of these one offs from the G1 ‘toon:

No Sharkiticons for these guys, at least not yet.

A funny observation is while the Transformers have a written alien language, it flip flops between a Japanese looking script to just being straight up English. Perhaps English is galactic standard on Cybertron.

Circling back to the toys, the toys don’t take advantage of a unique gimmick within the story itself. The T-Cogs are a major plot point, and like in more modern media, are the reason the Transformers can Transform at all. Not having one is seen as bad, as some throwaway lines see some Cogless having tried to Transform without one, but twisting themselves into pretzels.

Despite being present when D-16 openly said he wanted to kill Sentinel dead for his betrayal (Megatron LOVED Sentinel originally, a big don’t meet your heroes moment for him), Alpha Trion saw fit to gift the four Cogless workers the Cogs from the Primes to shape their destiny and save Cybertron. Orion got Prima, Bumblebee got Micronus (cuz he’s small, geddit?), but the other two I’m not clear on. The other donated Cogs were Onyx’s and Alchemist’s, but who they went to I’m not super sure. I THINK Elita got Onyx and D-16 got Alchemist, but feel free to correct me. Later on, D-16 stole back Megatronus’ Cog from Sentinel, and installed it in himself after removing Alchemist’s. Doing so causes D-16 to evolve into his more traditional Megatron body, with a tricked out triple barrel cannon in place of his usual cannon. Sentinel also briefly turns into artillery laden battle mode using Megatronus’ Cog.

My point being is you could’ve had the One toyline be built around a Mini-Con/Powermaster like gimmick, where plugging in a Cog unlocks a battle mode and the ability to Transform. Even if it’s not 100% accurate, how cool would it be to have a toy of Elita where upon plugging in Solus Prime’s Cog causes a pop out Solus Forge Hammer to appear. Alternatively, the Cog itself Transforms into a Prime themed weapon, so Orion Pax gets a Cog that turns into Prima’s sword or Megatron gets a beastly clip on cannon from Onyx. Stuff like that would be really cool I feel. They kinda have a Cog theme in the current 1-Step Cog Changers, but it’s not quite right.

My only real complaint with the movie itself is the High Guard, the future Decepticons and soldiers that worked with the Primes originally, feel tacked on. Screamer, the Waves and the Jets occupy the Guard, with Starscream as the leader. They broke off from Sentinel after seeing his betrayal, but they also seem very keen on seizing power for themselves, as Starscream has no Nobel intentions, he simply wants to be in charge as those in charge have the power and luxury. The Guard are responsible for minor attacks and inconveniences to stick it to Sentinel, but the movie only tells us this when we meet the group. It might’ve helped if there was a scene early on that better establishes them, like Orion and D-16 watching a news report about them, and D scoffs at their audacity or something. Nevertheless Megatron high jacking the Guard is a clever subversion on his and Starscream’s schtick: Megatron is the young upstart who took it over from the much older established Starscream. Future resentment should be amusing though despite being humiliated in front of his squad, and his voice box damaged, Starscream seems content to follow for now.

Shockwave is also more of a comic relief character here. He’s very emotional and silly, berating the others for not having Bee’s gag on tight enough so he’d shut up, and there’s a running gag about Elita punching him in his eye, that caused him to shut up and listen to her. Shockwave was also the one to try and help Starscream when D-16 beats the crap out of him, but Soundwave stops him. No logic from this version, so perhaps Shockwave in the future will be more like his traitorous Marvel G1 self? Skybound also entertained a huge departure in Shockwave as a highly emotional mad scientist, so we’ll see if this bares fruit.

All and all, this is a solid entry and as it’s own thing (Lorenzo was finally forced to admit One is a new universe unrelated to Bayformers), but with the movie currently struggling to make back its budget, it’s functionally a flop right now. It will probably do far better on Streaming like RotB (besides P+, it also did really well on Netflix in other countries) but with people generally being okie-dokie with the film’s premise, hopefully that sees Hasbro using this backstory going forward for other projects as this is what we should’ve had for Aligned, Cyberverse, EarthSpark & IDW, not the crappily written moral ambiguity we’ve been stuck with most people hate.

[queenboimler]

finally got to 3b of my teen wolf rewatch and here are my thoughts so far on seasons 1-3a

Literally every bad thing that happened in seasons 1-3 happened because the Argents are actual monsters

EVERYTHING is because the Argents are psychotic xenophobic killers who cut people in half with broadswords in the 21st century

So far, none of the villains for each season are worse than the Argents-in fact!!!!! every Big Bad from seasons 1-3A are villains because of the direct actions of the Argents!!!!!

Allison shot Boyd (her classmate) with a million arrows while her other classmate cried begging her to stop and Allison just smiled

Allison also goes insane and tries to kill Derek because *checks notes* yeah because her Mom was a racist bitch who killed herself because she fucked around with werewolves and got bit while actively trying to kill her daughter's boyfriend

Chris threatened to kill a literal teenager HOW MANY TIMES

I hate the Argents so much, you just know all of them are republicans and are the supernatural equivalent of white supremacists

Seasons 1&2 Scott is the most insufferable character I've ever seen, all the kid cares about is getting his dick wet

Scott was the literal worst BUT he redeemed himself in 3A so I love him now

Allison is an INSUFFERABLE pick me bitch (I honestly don't think she's going to redeem herself to me before she dies either, turns out I like fanon Allison way more than canon Allison)

Also the fact that Allison has fully drunk from the Hunter Kool Aid makes her so much worse because she fully doesn't care that most of her family are monsters

Derek is so fucking weird in the beginning but he has so much pretty privilege that I overlook a lot of his creepiness (but also sirr, the narrative has placed you as a 22/23 year old, why are you lurking at the high school so much and how are you getting onto campus??)

Derek has absolutely terrible taste in women

Resurrected Peter is my favorite

Completely unrelated but whenever Peter turns up my roommate and I scream "PETER!" like Lois Griffin from Family Guy because he's our favorite freaky little zombie wolf

Before she becomes a Certified Freak Lydia is also insufferable but I love her from 3A and onwards

and lastly,

Stiles is beautiful and amazing and the only character worth a damn and he is always correct and EVERYONE SHOULD ALWAYS LISTEN TO STILES

[bloodymary83]

“Batman the Caped Crusader”

It’s “eh” my favorite character was honestly Selina Kyle’s maid. I like the classic 1940’s Batman design. I really hate that they gender swapped the Penguin. It’s just weird. I’m not sure why shows like Gotham and the Caped Crusader are taking the most privileged male chauvinistic character in the series and try to turn him into something modern or relatable that appeals to younger minority audiences. That’s not who the Penguin is. They should have made this Penguin Oswald’s daughter or mother; both of those women are cunning and have a mean streak that would have been far superior to a gender swapped Oswald.

This version of Harley Quinn is far more accurate to Dini’s original design than people think. Harley was introduced as a “lovesick” goofy sidekick to the Joker but, that wasn’t what Harley was supposed to be. In “Made Love” and “Harley Quinn Night and Day” Dini had designed Harley to be quite a Narcissistic character. She made her way into college on a gym scholarship and cheated her way through school, but she wasn’t stupid, far from it. She had intentions of becoming the Joker’s psychiatrist, seducing him to get all his secrets, writing a tell all book on him to become a number one bestselling author. Harley didn’t want to have to deal with the Joker’s anger from her betray so she plagiarized an old psychiatrist work known as “The Super Sanity Theory” that she was going to use to get Joker sentenced to the electric chair before she released her book. It was very cunning. This Harley Quinn is doing the same thing to her current patients.  With Harley being introduced without the Joker gives me high hopes for both characters. This is Harley as she would have ended up anyway. Joker didn’t make Harley a sociopath she already was one.  I am hoping to get pre-Harley Joker which is what comics have slowly been working Joker’s character back to.

Our glimpse of the Joker doesn’t give much away. I am a bit disappointed that Timm has never given the Joker his iconic acid green eyes he always goes for a darker color. This Joker seems to have brown eyes. I can’t tell what his smile will look like yet. The smile is what can make or break the Joker honestly. His skin is all white so I’m thinking he’s had the acid dip in this one already. Many fans have said he is dressed more somberly in all black but, if you zoom in his jacket is indeed purple, he’s just in shadow making everything look darker. He’s gone back to his roots of poisoning people with his laughing gas which is what he did in his very first appearance being the first Batman villain to k*ll people. Joker was also the first character to be portrayed in comics as gay. Harley was invented to make the Joker look less gay so families would not protest the original BTAS. Now that he and Harley seem to be their own individual characters instead of the “Bonnie and Clyde” they are normally portrayed as. I’m hoping to see the Joker return to his original character and see how it progresses without Harley’s influence. As horrible as the Joker was with Harley, she brought a more human element out in him. It will be interesting to see how he will progress without her with him.

[cboffshore]

isn't nadakhan like. a pedo. he tried to marry nya when she was a teenager (canonically). are you just willing to overlook that or..

Assuming this is a response to the favorite villain ask game thing - I'm going to need you to go back in there and show me exactly where I said I condone his actions. (You'll be looking for a while, just fyi. Because it's not there.)

Quick reminder: you can think a character is neat without supporting the things they do. I think he's got a neat narrative arc; I think he's an interesting foil for Jay; I think that there are layers to his character that are worth examining for a variety of reasons. Absolutely none of that means I condone his moral stance.

Also: I've gotten this specific question a few times in the past, always on anon, usually after posting something else summarizing why I think Nadakhan is interesting. I've deleted it from my inbox in the past because I generally don't like entertaining bad-faith views that fail to actually think about what I've said, but frankly I'm getting a bit tired of it, so.... congratulations on unlocking the exact sequence of words that gets Lila to turn off anon messaging privileges!

[kibbits]

Time to share some Starry lore because I’ve got a cute scene in mind. I love to vocal stim, sounds, phrases, but particularly songs. I’ll hear a song that feels just right and I’ll sit and chew it for hours til my throat’s sore. Currently favorite is The Valentine in Starfield (Is it still a sea shanty if it’s in space?). The reason I bring this fun fact up is because I can just see myself sitting for hours stimming with boys over new songs. Especially if it’s any new pieces for the theater. While the scripts and lyrics are predesigned by Fazbear, there’s something unquestionably their’s in performance that make it worth repeating. Worth remembering. Humming through daily tasks. Parroting their tone, their voice. Another sign of their existence that’s more then the capacity to destroy, then just simple property… They do end up being slightly upset when the Glamrocks try to introduce their songs to stimming sessions. (Sun/Moon: “That’s my human bonding time :(“ Monty: “Get cooler song selections then Sock and Buskin.” Freddy: “Pls do not misuse google search privileges to make insults.”)

- ✨Starry✨

Starry, hi!!! <33

!!!! HELL yes I echo songs a lot too!!!!

Unfortunately often 1-3 lines on repeat fgklgjkldfjg currently it's Villainous Thing, but I keep mixing "Let me see those smoky eyes" and "Let's remove those pretty clothes" and I end up singing "Oh dear, let's remove those smoky eyes" which. not the same fgkldjl

STARRY?! HELLO?! YOU REALLY GOT ME TEARING UP OVER THAT DESCRIPTION AAAA?!?! Also ABSOLUTELY -- for both the stimming, and making the songs their own.

God I'm imagining it so hard.

Eyndr suggested I draw a 'Y/N repairing the coat' last magma, and I haven't posted it cause I never got done, but yknow what? You get a WIP sketch fgkldgj Imagine they're singing

(Goose by Eyndr! Sun is stimming with a ribbon, like I do, except that I like to wrap it around the pads of my fingers, but he doesn't have those, so he has the bad habit of letting it run between his finger casings. Also I wanted a domestic vibe for this and also thought it'd be hilarious to have 'fanservice' with Sun being shirtless. Also, a more masculine Y/N! First beard I've drawn I think???)

One of the three absentmindedly starts a song and the others join in almost immediately. Unless it's a headache day, the backstage is never silent between those three, there's always a bit of humming or singing or even just echolalia.

Which. Mood. I always immediately and absentmindedly want to join in on sounds or singing in vc -- which. being in vc at all, and talking?? is a new development for me fgjdgkl but my god it's nice to be vibing and singing with a friend while doodling -- shout out to my bestie @eyndr ! I love hanging out for games or project days so much aa One day discord and spotify won't make us sing rounds/canons fghdj

ALSO HELLO YES SPACE SHANTIES?!?!!? TWO OF MY FAVORITE THINGS LET'S GO I'M LEAVING RN TO GO LISTEN BRB

Ough that's nice!!! I loved it! ; w ; Ehehe, I tend to have work songs/sea shanties days where that's all I listen to, so I getcha and good choice! > :3 Haven't played that game, but I do play No Man's Sky and I wish there was random space shanty singers to find waugh!

Also now I'm totally imagining a Faz Space Opera yeeesss 👀👀👀

Back to BaL! Sometimes, for fun, all 3 purposefully mess with the cadence or pitch, either to make each other laugh or just to get creative or because it sounds nice, and they end up liking something and it's like "!!!!"

When they sing that version later, it feels like theirs -- like it's those moments spent together. Proof of their existence and how it affects the world around them positively. Reminders that they're loved, and they love (in a cosmic kind of way, but also it's a self insert so fuck it we BaLl (aaaay finally used the joke @lavenoon fgjdfklgjld).

Also yeee I can see them being really, ACTUALLY insulted when one of the animatronics, who doesn't know because those little sing-stimming sessions are private with Y/N, jokes about how those songs are lame and they should be singing some of theirs instead because they're catchier. Oof

Which, just now, made me realize that BaL Sun's anger runs cold, so he just goes totally silent, straightens up and get that intense stare. Maybe Moon's even the one who talks through the speaker to deflect and does that overly-sweet anger of like "Catchy, huh? Hopefully we don't catch those inflated egos of yours -- there's barely enough space for all of us and your big heads as it is! We'll come back later~!" to excuse themselves (and then prank them to hell and back of course! But there's no proof : )) ) (ALSO OH MY GOD SOCK AND BUSKIN THAT'S FUCKING GOLD. THAT'S SO CANON NOW AND THE BOYS THINK IT'S HILARIOUS)

Back to the singing, I think that another thing that they do especially well is that they can sing at the same time, so even for solos they can add back vocals to each other, or play around with the pitch since they do-and-don't share a processor and can adapt in microseconds -- wait actually they can definitely sing rounds, too!!

Oh my god now I'm imagining them singing rounds with vastly different moods at the same time, perfectly calibrated so that both of them come out loud and clear and also enhance each other's -- lining up or losing one of their voices at just the right moment to be chilling. It's like you're getting the song and the reprise but both at once

Thanks for the ask Starry!!! Always excited to see you in my inbox <33 And I'm going to be rotating this in my mind for a WHILE fkljdgjkld

[crusherthedoctor]

👛 your favorite rare pair?

♟️a character you feel is overrated?

🐇 longest fandom you’ve been in?

👛 - your favourite rare pair?

EggmanXMyPen

Because who else can I trust with him. :'<

♟️ - a character you feel is overrated?

The usual faces:

The IDW cast, cause they get hyped up as the best characters of all time despite them being idiots, cunts, or idiot cunts. Some of them could have been promising had things turned out differently, but others were doomed to be shite from the start.

Scourge, cause he's the lamest take imaginable on an already boring premise. (What if Sonic... WaS eViL???)

Nine and Thorn, cause these two are held up as defining examples of Tails and Amy, which makes me a sad-but-not-surprised panda.

Mephiles, cause outside of Dan Green's voice, he's another poorly written villain of many who people treat as though he's somehow better than the rest when he's not.

The End, cause it's as nothing and artificially hyped as the rest of the plot it's part of.

The Freedom Fighters, cause folk believe so vehemently that they deserve special privileges, and are somehow more integral to Sonic than the actual game-born characters. They go on about their perceived legacy, when you could say the same thing about AoStH characters, Underground characters, etc, yet they never get this level of deification.

Silver, cause despite disapproving of his off portrayals in the comics, I've never cared for his in-character portrayal either. And his design still doesn't work in execution.

Sage, cause she's as compelling as watching grass grow, and bastardizes Eggman's character all the while. (I don't care what their intention was, they really should have predicted how the fandom would react to it, and they've continued pandering to the Eggdad crowd on occasion even after the fact. Until Eggdad gets more thoroughly debunked in-universe, a lot of the rationalizations surrounding it currently sound like copium to me... like a lot of handwaves for Sonic "Best Story Since Black Knight" Frontiers in general.)

More controversially, while I do respect Shadow, even if he's never been one of my top favourites, I kind of resent how the attention given to him always comes at other characters' expense. I also don't appreciate when, in the process of fans hyping up and down how deep/complex/etc he is, they usually dismiss Sonic, Eggman, and most of the others while doing so, because they're perceived to be simpler, ergo they consider them lesser. Being the Eggfan that I am, you can imagine why I'd take offense to this.

🐇 - longest fandom you've been in?

I guess Crash and Spyro and Gex would qualify, since I grew up with a PS1. As Sonic-pilled as I would eventually become, my knowledge and firsthand experience with the latter was non-existent until 2003.

[soranatus]

Exclusive Interview with “My Adventures With Superman” Animated Series Co-Producer Josephine Campbell

Q: Clark and Lois are described as being in their 20s in “My Adventures With Superman,” how new are they to their jobs at the Daily Planet?

A: Clark, Lois and Jimmy are interns just starting at the Daily Planet – so they are incredibly new! We wanted to play with our characters�� origins, showing them at a stage of life most “Superman” media hasn’t fully explored. Plus, we love the idea of watching these three learn and grow to become the icons we all know.

Q: If you had to compare “My Adventures With Superman” to any previous version of the Superman story, which would you say it’s most like or draws most inspiration from?

A: Our North Star was the 1978 “Superman: The Movie,” especially the interplay between the incredible Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve. We loved their chemistry; we loved how smart and feisty Lois was, and loved the heart and altruism of Reeve’s Superman/Clark Kent. The movie was clever, fun, and modernized Superman in a way that felt organic to the time period, while also respectful of what came before. It truly is one of our favorite pieces of Superman media.

Outside of the classic ’78 movie, I and Co-EP’s Jake Wyatt and Brendan Clougher are all kids of the ’80s/’90s, so we’re also influenced by John Byrne’s “Man of Steel,” as well as the work of Jurgens, Bogdanove, and Simonson.

Q: What age group is “My Adventures With Superman” targeted at?

A: Much like the original 1978 film, we’re aiming for a wide co-viewing audience, where kids, teens, and adults can all sit down and watch together.

Q: What can you tell us about Jack Quaid’s interpretation of both Superman and Clark Kent?

A: Jack has been absolutely phenomenal to work with! He’s got great comedic timing as Clark, but he is also able to sell the kindness, strength, and dignity of Superman. It’s been a real privilege to work with him – and it’s also very funny to watch “The Boys” after a record. I really can’t look at Clark OR Hughie the same!

Q: Michael Emerson revealed that he’s voicing the role of Brainiac for the upcoming animated series, how much will we see of Brainiac? Will he play a large role in the series?

A: Michael is an incredible actor who we are excited to work with – I can’t say anything more outside of that!

Q: I believe a certain criminal “gang” will play an important role in the first season of “My Adventures With Superman” with a bit of a twist on the villains involved. Did you make a conscious decision to put your own spin on the villains who would show up on the series?

A: I can’t confirm what villains or characters people should expect to see. All I can say is that, overall, we were looking to modernize Superman while keeping true to the core of the characters, and we hope we’ve done that.

Q: With all the turmoil and upheaval at Warner Bros. Discovery in recent months, how concerned were you about “My Adventures With Superman” possibly being canceled?

A: We were very fortunate to learn early on that “Superman” would still be coming out on Cartoon Network and the app as planned. Mergers are always tumultuous, but we’re glad that we still get to bring our love for Superman to fans old and new.

Q: When will the series premiere on Cartoon Network?

A: No date has been announced as of yet, but stay tuned!

Q: What are you most excited for fans to see in “My Adventures With Superman”?

A: There’s a lot I’m excited for fans to see! I can’t wait for fans to see the relationship between Lois, Clark and Jimmy – these three are the heart of our show, and their friendship and adventures together drive the series and the character arcs for both season one and two.

I’m also especially excited for fans to see the romance between Lois and Clark unfold! Alice Lee and Jack Quaid have fantastic chemistry, and they bring so much humor and warmth to their characters. Lois and Clark/Superman are one of our culture’s most iconic and enduring love stories, so it was deeply important to us to give that part of the Superman mythos a lot of love and attention.

I’m excited for you guys to see the incredible action – we have a LOT of fun with Superman, his powers and his rogues gallery, and we went all out, 110% on every single fight in the show.

Lastly, I’m excited for the show to come out because I’m a huge Superman fan too! Working on Superman has been a dream come true, not just for me but for every single member of our crew. People came into work with their favorite Superman comics and movies to share with each other, screened the Fleischer Studios cartoons during lunch, and dug up the audio of the original Superman radio show from the ’40s to listen to as we wrote and drew. I and everyone on the show adore Superman in all his forms, and I can’t wait to share with you our version of the Big Blue Boy Scout.

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, “My Adventures with Superman” introduces us to twenty-somethings Clark Kent, the bright and driven Lois Lane and their best friend Jimmy Olsen as they begin to discover who they are and everything they can accomplish together as an investigative reporting team at the Daily Planet. Promising a mix of action, comedy and romance, the new series is expected to premiere some time in 2022.

Described as a serialized coming-of-age story, “My Adventures with Superman” will follow Clark as he builds his secret Superman identity and embraces his role as the hero of Metropolis—and perhaps the world. Lois, now growing into a star investigative journalist, takes aspiring photographer Jimmy Olsen under her wing. All the while, Clark and Lois are falling in love, sharing adventures, taking down bad guys, stumbling over secrets and discovering what it means to be Superman and Lois Lane.

Source: Superman Homepage!

[ifyouknowmenahyoudontt]

canon sucks in the sense that there should be more characters of color than we can count on our fingers, more canonically queer characters, more disabled or neurodivergent characters. not everyone should be cishet, white, and neurotypical. ( and the "erm but actually dumbledore was gay and hermione was black!" bullshit doesn't satisfy this ) and i applaud the old fans for getting over the old faceclaims ( aaron taylor johnson, andrew garfield, ben barnes... i salute the many edits of them ) and the new age fandom for keeping up the poc headcanons!!

canon sucks in the sense that while we can have complex characters, morally grey leaning dark characters, those characters should not try to be slotted into "good or bad." those characters shouldn't have very brief redemptions that suddenly make them heroes and epic good guys after entire books of assholery and even bigotry. two guesses as to who i'm talking about here!

canon does not suck in the "my favorite character may have maybe a sentence of plot relevance doesn't get enough attention, so i'm going to ignore all the canon things that point to them being a bigot and instead woobify them and try to make them more important than they actually were" way.

like, fanon regulus black my ABHORRED. while he wasn't abused himself, was canonically the favorite of his parents because he aligned with their ideals, it's interesting to explore sirius' complicated thoughts on his little brother. one that many mistreated and abused older siblings have when it comes to their younger- could i have done more, could i have saved him, changed him, etc. but acting like regulus wouldn't have hated his guts and wanted sirius dead, literally became a death eater and fully agreed with voldemort's ideals?? did we read the same books?

and canon does not suck in the "i'm going to take these cool complex characters and dumb them down to a single personality trait or stereotype, and pretend they're not a complex person with flaws" way.

like, i love james and sirius, literally my favorite characters! they were not always the good guys. canonically, even if he turned out to be an exponentially worse person, they were the villains in someone's story. they used to be bullies, just for the sake of it. they used to be asshole teenage boys with big egos and privilege ( both coming from wealthy pureblood households ). and they don't have to use that privilege AGAINST anyone! they obviously wouldn't, both of them are considered "blood traitors" for a reason ( james marrying a muggleborn and sirius even associating with james and lily and remus ).

it's so much more interesting to explore how they would have been as privileged little dickheads in the 70s in the midst of war, rather than "sunshine himbo james" and "femboy twink sirius" ( or if we wanna go back to old fandom shit, "sexy, lady-killer, has fucked everyone and their mom sirius" ). i also just hate "big sexy strict alpha remus," i can stand him being sarcastic because it's funny but i can't with people who take away his shyness and kindness. give us quiet bookworm remus back PLEASSEEE

even peter, and i used to be a victim of this as well- THEY LIKED HIM! peter was a marauder, he was part of the group, he was their best friend too. i understand people who try to erase him altogether just out of hating him, but those who pretend that james, sirius, and remus didn't care for him are just wrong. it's okay to not like a character, but don't rewrite canon in a way that fully fucks up the story. peter's betrayal sucked from all angles, because he was their friend too.

and reading what you and multiple other people have said about lily is so right, she gets the "jealous straight girl that wants james but HATES REGULUS for stealing jamie!!" treatment, or is just cast out altogether. like, sorry, who did harry get his striking green eyes from? who brought him into the goddamn world? james sure as hell didn't do it alone, and last i checked, regulus was dead by then if we wanna be real about it.

this turned out to be an insane rant, SO sorry, but hp is my special interest and i LOVE the marauders era just as much as i love the golden trio era. they're interesting to explore as characters, ESPECIALLY james, in the same way a lot of people like rose quartz from steven universe? he's spoken about as this infamous, talented, really good dude who died protecting his wife and son and helped bring upon the savior of the wizarding world. but he was also like a huge asshole when he was in school, and harry probably would have hated to meet james and sirius from back then! but people dumb all of them down in the marauders era works just because we don't get explicit descriptions or tellings of what they were like. and it's so annoying!!

i strongly agree with this.

tbh regulus being one of the most popular character speaks a lot about this fandom. bigotry is a broad term and those who criticize JKR (rightfully tho) but go on again to do that to women? or the poc? hypocritical

and the fanon remus thing pisses me off so bad because the point of his character was that he was a soft and sensitive person contrasting with his “condition”!!!! he was human!!!!!!

i agree w this sm

[sea-owl]

Portia at seeing ABC with her pseudo children/niece: Death flags, death flags everywhere! I need to call in the reinforcements.

Cue the next ball where Simon, Michael, and Phillip help keep away their friends from the Bridgertons, much to the Bridgertons annoyance.

But also imagine just how unimpressed the spouses are with the Bridgertons in this. Kate has no interest in being a viscountess but thinks Anthony might make a decent match for Edwina as he was not on Simon's list of bachelors who would not suit Edwina. Besides, if push comes to shove, she and Simon have already agreed to just marry each other for convenience with Edwina's children being their heirs. Simon gets his wish of no children and Kate can continue to run her chai business. After all, someone needs to educate the British on how their tea is wrong.

Sophie swore to never rely on any man for financial independence and is content to work with Philip on making illustrations for his books on plants and helping balance the books for Kate's business. Plus she also helps model dresses for her friend Genevieve Delacroix and even does some lacework for her. She has a wonderful life as it is and while Benedict Bridgerton has a pretty face, she's heard much about it him and is less than impressed. This man is the very embodiment of wealthy male privilege and she has no intentions of being another notch in his bedpost.

Had Penelope not grown up with Simon, Michael, and Philip along she might have found Colin Bridgerton to be charming. Had Penelope not been raised in the company of a firm but loving mother, three wonderful protective and supportive sisters, she may have swooned when Colin Bridgerton came to sign her dance card. Had she not been friends with some of the strongest women she knows, she may have fallen in love with Colin Bridgerton the moment they met. Instead, Penelope danced her dances with him and walked away feeling just about as impressed with him as she had with every other man she'd danced with (aside from Philip that is). Oh he's more handsome than most to be sure and she can see how he may have charmed many a young debutante with his smile and laugh but the whole time they were dancing, he talked extensively about his travels as if she was someone sheltered flower who had never been outside of London. It's shame that he seems to be like most other wealthy men she's met: charming and handsome with no substance. She was honestly relieved when her mother pulled her away after the second dance. Penelope adores her mother looks up to her which means she's good at reading her her and she knows her mother has always been wary of the Bridgertons. Therefor, she has no intentions of furthering her acquaintance with Mr. Colin Bridgerton.

As Portia watches with relief as her precious girls dance with the young men she'd taken under her wing as children, she throws a smirk at a very disgruntled Violet Bridgerton.

Anon: But also imagine just how unimpressed the spouses are with the Bridgertons in this

Me:

That's gotta be my favorite part about this. The spouses are just watching these weirdo Bridgertons flirt with them and they're all just so unimpressed. Kate, Sophie, and Penelope are busy women running their tea, illustrations, and writing businesses. They've got work to do, and don't have time to waste on bloody rakes. Especially second and third son rakes who do nothing but throw away money. Kate should count herself lucky that her weirdo rake at least has a job to make money.

Simon, Phillip, and Michael aren't safe either because Bridgertons D, E, and F have taken an interest in them, much to Violet's delight, and Portia's horror. Is she in some kind of fanficion? She swears this is like one of those AU fanfics her roommate used to write in college claiming that the villains made better love interests than the actual love interests.

The boys aren't too impressed by the Bridgertons either. They have their own stuff going on like running (or soon to be running) their own estates, or gathering data from their experiments. Honestly the only reason they are here is because they want to make sure the girls are okay at these things. 

They all have understandings too (Simon and Kate, Michael and Sophie, Phillip and Penelope) that should they need a spouse for convince they would marry each. other. At least with one another they know what they are getting into. 

Portia nods her head in approval when all six of them tell her that they have no plans of courtship with the Bridgertons. She then proceeds to throw a victorious smirk towards a disgruntled Violet.

Felicity and Lucy are watching from behind the scenes, recording everything in letters so Gareth doesn't miss out on the drama happening. Honestly Lady Danbury should just get him tutors and have him learn at home like Phillip did. He's missing out on so much drama! They have no idea what awaits them in a few years when two other Bridgertons will finally come of age.

Mary only shakes her head, she knows it is not gonna be that easy. From what she has observed so far the kids and their respective Bridgertons have about as much tension as Portia and Violet do. She might be seeing things too but it looks like the Bridgertons like the chase.

Mary wonders how long it will be before scandal breaks out.