#honestly the only thing stopping them from outright murdering them is dick

[undertheredhood]

the people in the hero/villain community really need to stop sexualizing nightwing before the other batkids lose their patience and break the no kill rule

[jess-the-vampire]

Sooooo whatya think of the new episodeee?

Oh it’s definitely my favorite episode of the series so far, i was having such a good time at every turn. I’m glad i went out of my way to avoid spoilers, cause i was glad to actually be surprised by some elements on first watch.

I think this had by far the best opening for an episode so far, we finally get back to the villians, we meet the coven heads, we get insight on belos’s plans-

and then belos gets constipated, which starts getting into the more character driven lore, which is the best part. You instantly can tell GG and Kiki have some bit of tension between them to be Belo’s favorite, though granted i wonder if hunter is the only one to know belos is cursed and actually just always insists to help belos with his fits to prevent others from seeing them.

Including kiki.

It’s honestly unclear how aware anyone is that belos is cursed, like him eating pailsmans is apparently not something he hides, but like....i feel him being cursed is something that people would know universally if it got out...so i’m left wondering if anyone knows besides hunter.

Regardless, belos turns into a goop monster with an angry side, and i guess his mask doesn’t transform with him compared to the rest of his body so he breaks it again because i guess he goes though masks like crazy.

Hunter turns away in this scene from his outburst and even though he’s masked here i can already tell he’s most likely pained in these scenes. Like he’s probably seen this happen so many times, and i can’t imagine it gets any easier for him, it’s probably awful to watch belos suffer like this for him (Regardless of the abuse)

And to be honest, it seems pretty painful for him, i think this ep seems to at least confirm whatever this thing is that takes over belos’s body.....belos never actually wanted it in the first place. 

Yeah so after Hunter tells belos there’s not enough trees to medicate him anymore, we’re hit with the “UNCLE”. Which, when i first watched it i needed a second to even process the fact they confirmed their relation.

and i was like “CLOSE ENOUGH”, not his kid but uncle still works just fine for me, i’m just happy my assumption they were related actually came to ahead.

And i rewatched this episode a few times, and on second watch i realized more what happened in this scene. Hunter was talking about his interest in wild magic, and making more pailsman to help belos, and some method that could heal him and as soon as belos looked at him he instantly shut down.

He was clearly rambling about wild magic cures for belos because of his interest in it, and then suddenly remembered his uncle hates wild magic and felt super awkward.

It seems highly likely his interest in wild magic came from trying to cure belos and spending a lot of time reading up on the stuff. 

And then we get hit with the whole “Our family is dead because of wild magic” line, which.....i’m curious to know what happened there. But it does at least explain why belos feels how he does, if wild magic both killed his family beside hunter AND cursed him in the first place. We’re just gonna need more info on what exactly happened.

Also while Belos is def abusive and does not treat hunter how he should, this scene actually does read off to me like belos does care about hunter to some degree. If belos is cursed and his curse works in similar ways to how Eda’s curse works, then it’s worth reminding ppl that eda mentions early this season how stress can amplify the curse even more.

And sure enough, belos goes goopy on hunter’s shoulder all of a sudden when he grasps him. Which could be considered a sign of stress and that the idea of hunter dying or being in danger actually does stress him.

You could very much also assume this is just due to his curse not being fully handled and just getting worse, or that belos only cares about hunter for selfish reasons....but i’m not taking anything off the table here.

Belos can still be a shitty uncle, and still care about hunter, these aren’t mutually exclusive traits. But we need more episodes for now on this.

But anyways he asks hunter if he can rely on him, kiki is pissed......and we move on.

So i’m glad luz’s impulsiveness is addressed a ton in this episode, they actually bring up a lot of good points. That luz has no plan, that the time she’s spending here might render moot if she goes back to earth, ect ect.

Hunter even calls her out a lot later for not thinking things through, it’s a whole deal in this episode. I’m glad it was brought up cause it’s actually worth asking a lot of these things.

the set up here works, they actually made a good reason for why a pailsman didn’t bond with her. Speaking of which the adoption thing is cute and i love it, it’s a great idea. The designs are all very cute and fun.

Bump face reveal was a lot for me to process, but i find the idea of his pailsman being a pet that can help with his disabilities a good idea.

Also like, i did find it odd that they got staffs so early because we’ve never seen kids their ages with them before, but i guess it’s a new tradition? Does everyone at hexside now have one?

Honesty not sure why batqueen left the nest there overnight, i meant i guess she assumed they were safe with that shield but in context i dunno why she didn’t take them home after the school day was over.

but whatever, luz stays there overnight hoping  a pailsman will bond with her and GG just kidnapps them cause of pure luck on his part a bunch of pailsman were in a vulnerable spot tonight.

So GG continues to be charming, by whistling the theme song and then being blasted off his ship hilariously, before cockily teleporting himself right back on it seconds later. Like he and luz have great banter, he’s so extra like this it’s so funny, and god he’s so FAST with that staff it’s scary but so awesome.

Yeah so then hand dragon crashes them and i was so excited cause it meant face reveal. Poor dude looked so in pain and then we find out kiki tried to effing murder him because of course she did. But like, i think killing your boss’s nephew is the WORST way to get a promotion tbh.

(Also i got confused for a bit cause his mask has always been drawn as a mask, but now it’s a helmet in this scene for whatever reason but-)

Anyways, face reveal, Like honestly ppl weren’t too far off with their guesses, really the only thing people didn’t get was the tooth gap (That was fair tho, we couldn’t have guessed that). But it did make him even cuter.

like the banter is funny, he licks her hand, she slaps him, he looks SO pissed at her for this mess.

and i guess that outfit is his under armor apparently.

He’s lucky she didn’t run away immediately and followed him, but maybe he assumed she would since she had no where else to go.

Also his expressions in this ep are glorious, these had to be fun to draw.

Also we find out that the coven team members have never seen his face i guess? They just assume he’s a silly kid and are awful to him, so i guess he’s not only the youngest member of the coven but he never really shows his face much.

(”Call your parents”, ha ha.....whose gonna tell them who his uncle is?)

He is however, REALLY good at parkour and he’s fast even without his staff, so he’s well trained alright.

And then they reveal he’s not magical and i was SO happy cause i was so sure something was up when he wasn’t doing magic like the other witches despite his pointy ears. So they outright confirmed what i thought.

Hunter is pretty smart tho, like he can tell luz wouldn’t hurt him and wouldn’t flee so he knows he has the high ground here. Like he might be being a bit of a dick, but to be fair luz has been nothing but a dick to him throughout the whole episode (Everyone in this episode has been a dick to him tbh)

They team up and i get excited cause i love this kinda stuff and it gets more wholesome because hunter is super interested in her magic, he thinks it’s cool and you can tell how much he actually loves wild magic but then again...shuts himself down because of belos making him fear the stuff.

An then because luz asks, he tells her his backstory.

honestly with how this world treats people who aren’t magically powerful, living and growing up in a world that would find you useless sounds....awful. Hunter must be an anomaly around here, human blood or not.

Luz coming here to learn is different then growing up in a world and being the only one with no abilities and no future without them. Belos provides him with magic and a future, it’s no wonder he stays with him despite everything.

the whole “Found me” thing is weird, cause belos implies they’re blood related and hunter makes it sound like belos semi-adopted him. Which....if he did i dunno why “Uncle” and not “Adopted dad”, but ok....guess that’s for later.

Apparently hunter is important for something tho with the “Titan has big plans for me” thing, not sure what, but-

But yeah as soon as Hunter talked about wanting to make his own future and Rascal tried to land on him i knew EXACTLY where this was going, it was so cuteeeeee. The lil birb wanted to be with hunter, that’s so wholesome.

And he’s so terrified because of belos and what wild magic did to him, the poor bab.

But yeah, luz then trusts him with his staff back, because again....impulsive. But hunter does actually ask if she’s sure, so he might as well be asking if she trusts him.

The plan goes ahead, and hunter nearly betrays her.

though granted, hunter never promised her he’d stop and let her take them away, the truce was supposed to last till kiki was stopped and they were gonna fight out who got the pailsman. But it does bother luz cause she was hopeful he was better then this.

But just like he did before, she calls him out and he doesn’t betray her, because he’s ALSO too nice to do it, just like he said she was. He says his name (Which also took a moment to process), and then beats the crap out of kiki while letting luz get away and protecting her like a badass.

He might not have magic, but he’s good at fighting

like he can easily teleport to luz and take the pailsman, but he doesn’t, he lets them get away and luz knows this. Even though she also knows hunter has to go back to the emperor too and they have to separate.

It’s only slightly bitter terms, because in the end he came through for her and she knows it.

honestly, the worst part is i can’t even be mad at hunter for it, i’m sure he was terrified to fail belos. Both because he loves him and doesn’t want him to suffer....but also because of well...being punished. Really says something when his near betrayal doesn’t even make me mad at him, and i can understand why he nearly did it.

He let her go, knowing he’d be in SERIOUS trouble and that it would hurt someone he actually loves, so....ouch.

so yeah at this point i knew rascal wanted him so it was only of matter of what happened next.

Which was, luz getting the wood, which i like more anyway. Eda and King doing this offscreen and coming home like this is actually very funny, and honestly i appreciate the message of it being ok to wait.....means a lot to me.

yeah so belos is like...being an ass, like the kid tried his hardest, you don’t need to hit him with the “Is this the thanks i get?”. He’s a kid and he’s trying to cure you you dick, give him a break he doesn’t remotely have to help you like this.

Also apparently belos has not even told hunter HOW this happened, like...dude. Hunter is trying to be entirely reasonable here and belos spikes at him, which does imply some physical abuse though the only reason hunter doesn’t get a new scar is because he moves.

but how he reacts implies this has happened before, he is bracing for impact and he flinches. It’s pretty sad tbh, especially since hunter loves him and belos’s respect means something to him.

Belos is such an idiot, like c’mon dude, hunter is trying to help you and you don’t listen to him you dick. Kid shouldn’t have to say sorry for anything he did nothing wrong, he was just trying to help.

Anyways, he gloats at kiki (So at the very least she knows what he looks like under the mask), which he deserves a chance to do anyway. So i guess he didn’t rat her out for trying to kill him, personally my guess why is blackmail.....he was gonna hold it over her head to keep her from doing it again and threaten to tell belos.

But kiki quickly tells he LET the pailsman get away since he was the one to fight her (Curse his cute loose hair strand). So i guess now they have dirt on each other, so that’s fun.

His room is adorable, though the med kit by the bed is concerning.

Rascal comes for him and it;s so cute....though you can tell hunter nearly hurts him on instinct because of force of habit, but it’s so cute how he cares and how the birb loves him and is his new staff.

it was well hinted to as well, it’s so subtle, but the bird being cheery, curious, and his constant habit of escaping boundaries was perfect for hunter. He represents what hunter wants to be and why they got matched is done so well, all without explaining anything.

Hunter indirectly stated his deepest wish, to make his own choices, and rascal resonated with that. 

can’t wait to see where this goes.

great ending shot, love me some conflicted shots looking out of windows like trapped birds.

also this title was a pun the whole time i can’t-

[lostinwoods]

A different take on SessKag relationship or why it would be more realistic than InuKag.

Let me begin with

Sesshomaru's and Kagome's past and how they are similar.

Sesshomaru had always been a very sentimental and emotionally receptive being. He had loved and cherished his dad the most. Loving and competing with him, wanting to surpass him, desiring recognition and acceptance so much so that his entire world revolved around his father. He did not want the swords because they were powerful or the bs about supreme conquest. What is that shit? Sesshomaru never needed that. The swords, especially Tessaiga was the most important acceptance to Sess. I will get back to this later.

Now Kagome. This kid was born and then we never saw her dad even when she was a kid. Another classic case of growing without a dad? Perhaps. But I feel her grandpa filled her missing dad's place. That is why the kid grew up in a lovely household, filled with love and peace and made Kagome what she was later on, a selfless girl who wants to love and protect her friends. Because that is what she learnt. Her grandpa, mom, everyone and her own family dynamics taught her how important it was to cherish the ones she loved.

What they initially thought of Inuyasha in their life

Now back to Sess. When his dad died, he dies saving Izayoi. What is the thing he feels at the time I wondered. Surely devastated? Yes, but even worse. His most important person, his goal, the thing his life revolved around was gone. And for what? To protect a weak, useless bitch like Izayoi? Here is a thing, he never knew Izayoi but knew the hut had collapsed on his dad when Izayoi had escaped. What can a teen feel when they hear such a thing? 'That useless bitch, ran away when my dad was in danger and cost him his life. Fuck that bitch and that kid they made. Useless, all humans are useless and weak.' This was really where his hatred came from. Probably.

Kagome on the other hand from the beginning was shown as a selfless kid, who loved both humans and demons alike. Reason? She had never lived in the feudal era. She was a kid grown in a society where everyone is placed on a equal pedestal. How would she, a modern kid understand the bad blood between demons and humans? If she were ever born in Feudal Japan, would things have changed? Maybe. Then she falls into a world where nothing was similar to where she was from. She was frightened, unsure and confused. And then Inuyasha came into her life. Honestly their first meeting was not romantic and pretty terrific in a sense. That was a weird day for Kagome. She fell into an alien world only heard in fairy tales, got involved in a weird prophecy, learnt she was a mythical sort of being herself and then got attacked by a guy who had saved her only seconds before, all ready to rip her heart out. In such a case, the 'osuwari' was probably a safe word for her. Why she uses it later in the series? Probably because she never trusted Inuyasha and felt more comfortable using a word which gave her power over him. Honestly, what would you expect? Kisses and love showers?

Analysis: Kagome was still scared of Inuyasha for a long time and did not trust him completely.

Before Inu no Taisho's tomb battle

Kagome before this went home and then cane back because she felt that fixing the Shikon was her duty. More honestly, she just returned coz Yura attacked and she wanted her family to be safe. Here I want to take some time to gush over how cool Kagome is. Intelligent, smart and extremely powerful. How she understood that Yura's skull was her weakness and breaks the god forsaken thing with just an arrow. That is some level of OPness. Who says Kags is useless?

Anyways, after that when Inuyasha called her 'Kagome', a lot of the viewers thought that Kagome was ecstatic because it was romantic and she was in love. But that is bs. It is not possible to love someone a week later they tried to gut your heart out. It is masochistic and unreal. Kagome over here felt a sense of acceptance from a guy who she felt previously hated her enough to kill her. And that to Kagome was a sign of friendship and more like, 'don't worry, I am not at least gonna attempt to kill you anymore.'

Kagome, inheritently a person who gives a hand when given a finger. She accepts Inu as her friend and they were far from being lovers.

It is exactly this time that Sess attacks them. And quite cruely might I say. Bringing Inu's dead mom like that was not funny and Sess was an outright jerk for doing that no matter how much he hated Inu and Izayoi. He is all weird and sarcatic at high levels. And Kags hated him. She hated how he was attacking this one friend she had made in the era. She hated how cruel this bastard was and how much pain her friend was going through. And her own lovely bond with her brother did not help her to look into their complex brotherly bond which seemed to her more like some battle royale. She probaably hated the bitch for showing up and hurting her friend like that even when he, being the older brother should have loved his younger brother and nurtured him like she would do for Souta.

For Sess, it was really weird and shitty all over. A basic human bitch, standing behind Inu like she was weak fawn. Reminded him so much of Izayoi. Someone who never even tried saving his dad. That was why his sarcastic words were like, "Inuyasha, it suits you so much to have a human behind you". Ya and he was irritated by looking at how helpless af the bitch was. He was narcisstic, filipant of Kags presence and all around indifferent to a 'weak human filthy woman', who he felt was just like the one for whom his dad died.

Surprise is how he did not outright murder her. Perhaps he felt like they were worthless and beneath his boots.

Lol, these two are the best.

Inside Inu No Taisho's tomb

Kags was really angry with this bitch who just chained her up, clawed a pearl out of her friend's eye and then jumped into a black hole. That is why she followed with, "This sort of a person, with no blood or humanity in his veins, I cannot forgive him" and then she chased. Even Inu was like, WTF bro. It was fun. Then she spouted lines like, " Take the sword Inuyasha, it will be like a hit to his pride, what a shame!"

How tf did she know about how much his pride hurt him. Lol felt like Kags knew Sess more than Inu ever would and they only met. That was some soulmate level shit right there. Lol!

Then there was Sess who was outright dismissing Kags and she was not even a spec of dust in his eyes. Then she went and pulled that sword out. Remember the scene where he was so surprised that he stopped the battle with Inu and turned around and LOOKED. Like really LOOKED. It was such a heart stopping moment and for good measures as well. He saw a girl, a woman standing there, holding an inheritance which was supposed to be his and she did something he could not. Did Tessaiga accept her then, did his father accept her more than him? He was baffled, confused and low-key awed. That was why he said, "What are you?" And legit measured her top to bottom. That was some turning point for Sess. Something that proved to him that all humans cannot be dismissed. But he was in rage. How can a mere human be worthy of Tessaiga and melted her along with that sword. I wonder if it was his second test to see whether Tessaiga would protect her or not. And then it did!

Sess went ape-shit crazy after that. A sword he desired for so long (The sword used to protect Izayoi was a thorn in his heart. Made him feel like his father had chosen a human over him. But if the sword had accepted him, it would have proved that his dad had still loved him, thought of him). That was the significance of Tessaiga to him. Power sure, but more of an acceptance. His dad's acceptance. And then what happened? The sword preferred a human who then gave it to his damned hated brother.

Aftermath of tomb battle

Kagome never really liked Sess's guts and probably had no form of sympathy towards someone like him. On the other hand things picked up with her and Inu's relation. She came to know some facts about Kik. And her inferiority complex began with her incarnate. But having a part of Kik's soul in her, began her obsession with Inu. She strived to understand him, make a better person of himself. But their relation was still not there to lovers.

Then Sess came across Naraku. He probably just wanted to dick around more with Inu and accepted the human hand.

2nd battle for Tessaiga

Sess's desire to possess the Tessaiga had increased at this point. His rage of having his arm cut off by that sword felt like the worst rejection from his dad. He was going insane and might have wanted to kill Inu for real in this fight. He was in no mood for theatrics in this one, unlike the tomb where he actually watched some InuKag drama and even applauded (lol). He was absolute business this time. He snached the sword and showed Inu exactly why he should not get that sword, 'You cannot even make the wind rift, why should you be more worthy?'

He meant to kill Inu and then Kags arrow sailed in, charging with enough power to even cancel the demonic energy filled into the sword by Sess himself.

His thoughts were for the same reason, " She canceled Tessaiga's transformation? Who is this girl?"

His respect scale jumped for her here. He truly had never met anyone who could rival his power to such extent. He had never met a girl who stood so powerfully in face of danger to protect this some half-breed scum. She was like the embodiment of everything he had hoped Izayoi to be to his dad. A strong woman who would wager her life to save the one she holds dear. Sess had learnt this fact from his dad's death. To sacrifice in name of love and then in this fight he understood how much that meant both for Inuyasha and Kagome. He probably somewhat understood what this feeling was after seeing these two.

Sess had an idea of love and protection and Kags became its centre. She was this vague expectation Sess had of human love and an absolute loyalty towards whom you love most. He felt complicated towards her. He respected her.

3rd Tessaiga battle

Sess's most sceptical battle yet. Why break the tessaiga? 'I will break it if I can't have it!' Desperate much?. Then the wind drift appears and for the first time Sess acknowledges Inu. For maybe being a somewhat worthy of having Taisho's blood, only if a little bit. He is saved by Tenseiga. Oh, how he hated this worthless sword more. This sword could not cut throught things and saves his life. What a worthless shit.

Kagome's narrative here was important. "How can he weild the Tenseiga? He needs a compassionate heart for that." Always wondered why Kags was the one to say this. But realised the reason later on.

Rin

Obviously the most controversial topic of Inuverse. What Sess felt for Rin, why was she there.

Rin has often been compared to be the Kagome version of Sess. And that is the only truth. She came in like a ray of sunshine when he was in most need. He was in self doubt, hate towards Inu and complex emotions towards Kags. And then Rin was there with the exact same face and the same warm feeling like Kags. Even he knew what InuKag were to each other then and no matter how much he respected Kags, he was not really interested in a further relation with Kags. But his deeply unsated desire to understand his dad's mentality and reason behind saving a human was what made him think of Rin. As she was his chance to understand that. His chance to understand why his dad could do that, why Inu could do that and why humans like Kags and Rin could save and love demons. It was not romantic in any sense. He had a confusion and Rin was his way towards a solution. Though it was a different fact that he loved her later on and cherished and protected her. Enough to feel that there was no meaning to his anything if she was not there.

So yes in a way, she is Kags embodiment in Sess's life, a picture of Kags selfless love. His desire to truly understand such beings called selfless humans and the result of his single minded belief of human women being trash and unable to love shattering.

And for fun just to contradict Kags speculations, for first time ever, Sess uses the sword and we viewers realise how wrong Kags was. Sess had every bit of compassion in his heart.

Later events

The events went on with Kags finally understanding her position in Inu's life and her single-minded chase to be accepted by Inu as just Kagome and not Kikyo's reflection. I do not even know if this could be called love or just a misinterpreted need of attention from someone you hold dear. But whatever, we realise Kags is in love with Inu now and still cannot stop from feeling compassion towards Kikyo. Honestly she and Sess are truly two opposite sides of a spectrum.

Sess on the other hand gets Tokijin and attacks Inuyasha. This time around, I highly doubt he was still chasing Tessaiga. It had more evolved into his need to show he is more powerful than Inu. 'What you do best, I can do better.'

Stopping Inu from transforming

In this the most debatable question was whether he was there to stop Inu or not.

Sess had wanted to see and experiment the limits of Inu's blood beast.

After some fighting, Kags jumped in. Sess stared at her, like forever. That staring tho. Even when she was like, "Stay away, you idiot." Sess stared. For Sess, that was what he admired the most in Kags. Her selfless devotion. He was staring at that fearless figure who once again surprised him by being a sacrifice to save her loved ones. She was to Sess what he had always thought of 'love' to be. She was the embodiment of the term 'love' to Sess. For a guy who knew nothing of how to define emotions, it was Kags who showed him what love was. And thus he jumped over and over again in front of Rin to protect her. She taught him how to cherish even the even the most weak individual in a group, and thus he protected Jaken.

Rin was there to show him the same thing everyday. But no matter how much Rin showed him her own loyality, love and warmth, Kags always remained that shining beam to him. I will say later on how I understood this.

Kag's love was the validity of his dad's sacrifice. A way for him to make sense of his dad's mindless death over protecting some weak human.

And in this scene for the first time ever, Kags saw Sess as more than an insufferable pest to her friends. She saw his noble ideals and realised why he was there and thus she thought, "Was he here to save Inuyasha?"

It is very curious as to why Kags was again given these lines. It was probably because her opinion mattered, to Sess it did. And we will see more why in the future.

Random encounters

There was one time when Kags saw Rin while Jaken was trying to steal Tessaiga and she had asked herself, "Why is a little human girl traveling with Sess?' It was again a small thing which she did not need to feel but was very imp. for her development towards Sess. How she started to understand him more.

Kohaku incident

Here we saw how was the first time Sess listened to Kags.

Kags opinion mattered. Inu's mattered and when he realised that Kohaku was being used he let him go. There was one reason that he did not want to be used, the next I am sure was for Kags and Inu. He knew then that Kohaku was imp. to them and he stopped. Big character jump for him.

Then the most curious fact was how Kags knew what the girl meant to him, "Please let him go Sesshomaru, the girl is fine."

Kagome: Thanks Sesshomaru!

Sesshomaru: I just never wanted to be used by Naraku and fall into his trap.

Lol...

Then after Rin left, Kags thoughts about how she had left with Sess and was awed . An important point for her change in feelings towards Sess. She understood the guy was changing and Rin was changing him.

The fun fact was how she was instantly in love with this little girl and that would become important later on.

More random events..

After that it was shown that many times Kags was the only one who could stop a fight bet. the brothers. Example that time when he fought with Inu to get some direction for Naraku. And then Kags came and told him to go north or something and he was like, "That is all I wanted to know." And left.

What is to be seen in these parts is how RT made only him and her interact like this. He listening to her like they have been friends forever.

The saving of Kanta's father was also an example of how much she affected him.

Her plea to save Kanta's dad even when no one believed and no one bothered to ask him. Tensaiga moved because he felt deeply moved by her plea. He might have never wanted to voice it but since Tensaiga only worked when the weilder felt compassion and a need to save someone. Sess must have felt it subconsciously and Tensaiga had stired. Or it had stired because it is a SessKag shipper as well. Lol!

Mukotsu

I wonder how Sess knew Kags was in trouble. Another fun fact like how he appears at times when Inu is not there to save Kags. Sess is there. Probably he knew her scent too well and hence could even distinguish between that and the poison. After that was the gruesome death of Mukotsu. The thing to notice over her was how large Sess looked in that hut doorway, it was a symbolism to how big and huge his protective self looks when he is protecting Kagome. A very romantic thing indeed. The first time he protects someone who is not under his protection. A complete selfless act if considered from his pov. Sess being a very private person and while saving Kagome showed her place in his heart. Yeah and that was very visible from how he killed Mukotsu.

The takeaway from this episode is not this though. It was the fact that Kags defended Sess. For the first time ever, all the good deeds she had seen him doing had outplayed her hatred for him. She accepeted him as a friend with these words, "No Inuyasha, he was here to protect us, he saved us." It was a completely unnecessary detail in the whole scheme of this episode but very important for Sess. Her acceptance matters, her opinion matters and Sess is a Tsundere.

Sesshomaru: I did not save YOU, I just killed him coz he did not answer me properly.

This proved how much she affects him, rattles him and how much her life means to him. And an unspoken promise to himself to protect her when Inu was not around.

Fight with Shishinki

No one ever mentions this fight. But there is a very important SK interaction in here. Something which was important for Sess. Kagome's understanding.

When Sess was lost in the same darkness of never being accepted by his dad, Shishinki made things worse by saying Tenseiga was a cast out of Tessaiga and it was given as a leftover to Taisho's least fav. son. Sesshomaru was hurt, lost, and his daddy issues, his biggest weakness was sharply opened by a knife, cruely and Kagome's words saved him.

Kagome: But there might have been a reason their dad had done this.

Kags belief that Taisho had infact not rejected Sess was like a balm to his soul, the only thing he had needed to hear throughout his life. The thing which made him accept in the end that Tensaiga was there to protect Inuyasha, the thing that was needed to sort of activate Tessaiga and then he finally formed his biggest and truest meido. It was romantic, touching and outright heavenly. Then it was made cute with Inu's awkward concern. It was the best ep. as of yet.

Kagome's deep concern and her understanding of Sess's pain was brilliant and alien level insane. She should not have, but she did and that's why they felt more like soulmates.

Battle with Magatsuhi

Sess had gone batshit crazy when Magatsuhi had hurt Kagome and that had only been worsened by him questioning Sess's honor and pride. Sess had turned full on doggy mode and lost control in that way for the first time since the tomb. And the strike at Magatsuhi's eyes was another symbolism of his revenge for doing shit to Kags eyes and mindfucking her.

RT has always thrown these small hints in between IK drama. Which are brilliant and lovely. Even that one scene where he stands protectively inbetween Kags prostrate body on Kilala and Magatsuhi. Beautiful symbolism, really.

It was also fun to see how Kags half power was sealed by Magatsuhi and Sess's half power was returned via Bakusaiga. I felt that Sess's true acceptance of his protection to Kagome and his detachment from Tessaiga was what made him the true daiyokai and surpass his father. Since somehow Tessaiga has always been linked to protecting Kagome and somehow protecting her might have also been the thing to finding Bakusaiga. The desire to protect her perhaps.

Soul mate mind link theatrics

This is something only some people realise. Sesshomaru and Kagome have been shown not once, but twice to be doing this. Once while fighting for Kohaku's life and the last shard and the other in Naraku's body. Kagome and Sesshomaru had been shown to think in absolute synchronisation. He thinks half the sentence, she completes the rest. Absolute soul mate shit.

SessKag power combo

Shown a lot of time in Inuverse. Sess attacks and Kags completes. A small thing but their timing is insane. And is defintely the best power combo, far better than an InuKag combo.

Fight in Naraku's body

This was the time when Sess finally shows what Kagome means to him. Where she stands and how much he cares for her. She is his FIRST priority. Proof? When Rin and she are in simultaneous danger, he stands there infront of Kags for God knows how long, removing those snake things like he had all the time in the world and once she is awake he is concerned about her well being.

Sess: Those wounds, are those Inuyasha's doing?

And his disappointment in Inuyasha not being able to protect Kags.

Sess: As expected of a half-demon. He lost himself in the bloodlust.

Kags obviously considered Sess to be a friend at this point. A very close friend at that. Family perhaps? Their familiarity here was not missed by anyone. Her defending Inu and then still prioritising Rin over Inu were only somethings we realised this chapter.

The most important was her belief in him.

Manga exclusive,

Kags: I believe that you would be able to do it. Do not fall into Naraku's trap and play his cards that is what he wants. Only you can do this, I know.

Wow, Kags wow...just wow... It is the best actually. She does not believe Inu in this situation but she does Sess. She believes in his protection and she knows her influence on him. This speaks volumes. This shows her unreal connection to him and how they match each other instinctively.

Sess knows her influence. This is his weakness.

The mokomoko scene was truly Sesshomaru's best confession. For him who cannot say much in words, allowed her to fly on mokomoko. Something which everyone of us know has a heavy weightage for Sesshomaru. It is his weapon, his forever companion and his support when he is injured and tired. Offering such a thing to her for whatever reason was truly his way of showing what he exactly feels for her. He cherishes her the most and I could say even more than Rin. Trusts her the most and would jump in front of danger to protect her.

Which is only seen more when he asks her to stay away from the fight because she would be a 'hinderance'. Which means he could not fight if she is in the middle. He would be vulnerable and weak. Intersting, very interesting. Another time where he stood between her and a dangerous blood beast that Inu had become.

The best part was truly him getting concerned when she fell down from the top while removing Tessaiga and then when Magatsuhi tried to possess her.

His anger was so vibrant. "Get away from her!"

What a brilliant thing to say. The possessiveness. The will to protect her. The absolute anger. Brilliant. So much was spoken in those lines.

The best ending though was the SessKag power combo of Bakusaiga and holy arrow. Best ending. Inu was not even much involved in ending Naraku. It was weird how the titular character failed in finishing the main villain with his meido. Shows a lot what SessKag meant to RT.

Big brother

Yes, the iconic scene where fans of all ships shout out that SK is not a romantic ship.

Well over here I want to say that Kagome truly saw Sess as a big brother figure at this point. Part of it was because she still felt that she was in love with Inu and part because she was not receptive to her reactions to Sess and what he truly meant to her at this point. She feels an intimate connection to him but cannot justify the weirdness because she still feels a closeness to Inu so she thinks of him as big brother. Which was a very intimate thing for Kagome to say. She loves him like family and clearly places him higher than the rest of her friends only second to Inu. That was more of a declaring her closeness to Sess rather than a confirmation of her and Inu's relationship. Kags is not a vain character who does things coz they are convinient. She would not call a friend if they are not a friend. And certainly not a big brother if she does not feel so.

Sess actually was relieved, ecsatatic and happy when Jaken informed hin of Kags arrival as was seen in his expression. Very funny actually. Because next second he was called big brother and he was hilariously ticked off. He could not believe what he was being called. Lol that interaction though. It showed how close they ended up being. Even more close than he was to his own brother.

But he accepted the title even if with much pain in his neck and then was really offended when Jaken badmouthed Kagome.

Conclusion: No one badmouths Kagome.

Haaha....end of this long analysis. I tried to analyse it from the character's pov and found some interesting small tidbits and detail that RT had hidden in this story.

Thus I felt that SK would be a more natural ship maybe not outright. Since Sess loves her truly but does not understand the nature of the relation and Kags is still too much blinded by Inu filter a.t.m. Maybe given years when Kags will realise exactly what sort of love she feels for Inu. Which will happen because such a toxic relation like IK should not exist and then she will probably see Sess's love for her.

My Conclusion: SK is a defintive. It will happen with some time and care. When both would mature. But it will happen for sure. All the ingredients are there, the stage has been set just the players have to realise what they feel for each other.

[kim-ruzek]

The unit beyond Hank Voight: or, why Hailey being corrupted and/or changed isn't unique or special to only her. (Part One)

This is a meta that's split into two parts. There's this, which is an introductory one, really, that addresses who Voight is and why the greater fandom opinion of him is misunderstood. Setting up for part two: how life for Intelligence should be if/when Voight is written out. Because this is a topic I think people miss the nuance on as well.

Enjoy!

There's been a lot of talk on whether or not Voight, in this time, should really be the face of Intelligence. I, personally, do think no. I get why he first became it, and I get why he still is and in many ways I appreciate it. He's not the kind of cop this world should have, even in the eighties and whatnot, but he is-- especially for Chicago-- a "good" cop. Please take that word with a grain of salt, there's not a precise word in the English language which sums his mix of good and bad in the way he is-- even "morally grey", to me, does not quite describe him.

The world does not exist in a vacuum. We'd love it to, because then it makes life so much more simpler, and it's easy to act as if life does. But the truth of the matter, the world is not a vacuum, everything is complex and messy and grey. And so our shows aren't in a vacuum either, even if they try to be-- which, for the most part, Chicago pd tries not to act like they are, unlike so many shows.

It's very easy to boil things down to being black and white, good and bad, pure and evil. This is human, and something humans have been doing for years. But the world is nuanced, and to ignore that is to misunderstand what life itself is.

Setting a show in Chicago, especially a police show, was always going to be a complicated thing. And there's always going to things they exaggerated and things they overlook, but at the end of the day, Dick Wolf did a rather good job at getting the complexities. I'm not going to go into all he didn't quite get, especially as it's not my place too, it's just my place to look into this myself and learn, and this is not the point of this meta. And because at the end of the day-- it is a show.

Voight isn't morally bad, or good. He's this mix, a man who did bad things to try and get a good outcome. And it's the age old debate-- is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons morally good or bad? I think it's neither, something more complicated but either way you stand, you can't say it's cut and dry. Because it's not.

And I don't even think he's someone who does the wrong things for the right reasons, because that's too simplistic and doesn't show the full picture. What Voight wants is the outcome, and he'll do the wrong things for all the wrong reasons to get it. He'll even do the right things for the wrong reasons and vice versa.

We don't know how our actions are cosmically tallied, that's why we have our own beliefs. And we can want him to not be the lead for those beliefs, but we also need to be true. We need to look at everything, the whole picture and assess it that way-- we cannot just pick and choose.

And that's what a lot of fans are doing. And I hate that, because it's not fair to what makes humans humans. In a way, I don't even care about Voight, but this lack of understanding is what normalises some things, normalises demonising behaviours in your own peers that should be understood.

Media has an impact of real life, not just in what it shows but how the consumers respond to it, and some of this fandoms responses annoys me-- but the thing that pushed me to make this, is that it can sicken me because it's misunderstanding what life is.

I do not like Voight's policing style. It is outdated and it never should've been allowed and honestly, that first scene in the cage nearly made me not watch this show. If I wasn't going in already in love with Burzek, I probably would've stopped.

But you cannot say that he does not care. He does. Chicago is his city, and he cares about it in the way anyone employed by the city should. Everything bad thing he has done is for the city, to make it better. His methodology is not good, and it is counterproductive because it relies on the city being how broken it is. But it does do good, and he does that because he loves the city.

And he cares about the cops he works with. Not just his unit, but everyone. His unit has become his family-- the people he puts first-- over the years but even before then, he cared. In a way, it was very blue line type of way, but in a good sort of way. Still flawed, because he'd protect them in a way he wouldn't others, but much better than peers his own age. This should be appreciated, even in it's flaws-- because if you're going to judge him, take everything into account.

Voight is a bad man, in how he's achieved his outcomes. But he is not a bad man because he's an abuser. He cares, and he should not be emulated but he cares. And he is not a fucking abuser.

To get to the my starting point-- Hailey being changed or "corrupted" by Voight is not special or unique to her.

I see a lot of people saying he manipulated Hailey. And that shooting of Roy-- yeah. There was no way Roy was ever going to get out there alive, but Hailey is not blameless in that. Everyone has been telling her who Hank Voight is from day one, and she dug in her heels and thought she understood that, yet when it came to it-- when she went into that warehouse, she did not.

Voight wants the best outcome. And if we're putting things into a vacuum, Roy being dead is the best outcome. Dead = he can't physically hurt them again. And the world can always do with loosing one more awful person. Of course,out if a vacuum, murder has it's own moral assignments which makes it not the best outcome-- but that doesn't factor in for Voight and some people might agree.

I don't but if the man I fear the most was murdered by someone dodgy but cared about me, I wouldn't complain. I'd actually be able to breathe and not worry that one day I'll be a statistic. And-- it would ensure that everyone's efforts to keep me alive would definitely be worth it. Any time life is kept is good, but if I was just to die at his hands after everything, then my saviours actions... It just would be preventing the inevitable. And they worked so hard, and that's like with Kim. The unit struggled to find her, they fought, the doctors are fighting and if all that Roy survived and managed to get her and Makayla killed.

This shooting is the only time he has outright manipulated her. And he's not an emotional abuser.

But Voight is an arsehole. He can dictate how his unit is ran, but he does do dick things. And this can be infuriating when it's to your faves, especially when you perceive it as corruption. It's not, but for arguements sake, let's say it is. Hailey is not fucking unique in that-- this has happened to EVERY FUCKING MEMBER OF INTELLIGENCE. Even sumners.

So he's not evil-- and if he was an "abuser" it's not because what he's done to Hailey. It's what he's done to them all. In fact, he's done the least arsehole things to Hailey.

And yeah, Hailey projects her daddy issues onto Voight (which, like, same girl) but he doesn't take advantage of it and also-- that whole fucking unit (excluding Antonio and Al, but then they have their own problems) had parental issues that they're clearly seeking validation for. Most notably, as shown more explicitly in the show-- Adam.

So to conclude: Voight isn't some evil abuser who has manipulation on mind and doesn't care about his unit. He does, and would do everything to protect them. And yeah, it won't be in the most easiest way to protect them, but he does want the best outcome and he'll do anything to get it.

That's part one done, because this needs to be broken up into parts. Part two should hopefully be coming soon.

[popculturebuffet]

Prince of Wishful Thinking (Tom Retrospective): Tough Love or The True Monster

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Prince of Wishful Thinking, what is usually my look at the life and times of Tom Lucitor but since I NEED to cover the season 3 finale as vital part of Tom’s story, we’re taking one last look at the tragic tale of Meteora Butterfly before the finale sends these two stories hurtling together. You’d THINK this would be the last detour of this already sizeable arc.. and you’d be wrong as i’ll also be covering Kelly’s World, as I feel it’s vital for both “Curse of the Blood Moon” and “A Boy and his hard to remember title”, as it provides extra context for Marco’s anguish in the former.. and provides extra evidence for why a CERTAIN MOMENT in the latter pisses me off to no end.. seriously even when as universe dies and the only people left are Frankllin Richards and Galactus, there will still be a little note reading “Fuck how they treated Kelly” written in all caps so Galactus remembers to yell it. 

So sadly that DOES mean it’s been three entries in this retrospective in a row that either haven’t feature Tom at all or in the case of the last episode only had him in short cameos. I mean we did get his love affair for pie but we also got a creepy goblin man forcing his girlfriend and best friend to kiss each other, his best friend being WAY to eager to jump to that conclusion, and neither considering using Marco’s Scissors because the writers only remember he has those half the time in Season 3... and clearly I ddn’t either as I forgot to mention that plot hole, something @jess-the-vampire​ brought up to me. Sadly I DID forget to consult on this when we talked earlier this week , and she’s not online as I write this so I won’t have her insight for this one. 

But if you want some Tom content, i’m happy to share my crossover ship for the boy with you. I’ve been shipping him with Octavia from Helluva Boss lately.  Because of course it’s Helluva Boss, i’ve not been at all subtle with my obession with it and much like Letterkenny, X-Men and Dragon Ball Z Abriged it is a love I never plan to be subtle about. 

But I just think they compliment each other well: They have contrasting atittudes, and tastes in music, but seem like they’d share hobbies. Like taxidermy.. I could see Tom buying this... demonic combination of a badger, a skunk, a deer and my nightmares Octavia is preciously holding up.

Granted I also feel tom would both animate them with their dead souls.. and then use his new woodland friends of the dammned as a chorus to sing “Can You Picture That” from the Muppet Movie, because that’s what my mind does on a regular day. I think the contrasting attitude creates great chemstiry and it made me also realize I have a thing for ships with directly contrasting home lives.  Tom has two loving decent parents who deeply love one another and at worst simply didn’t reign in his worse behavior because it was standard for demon stuff. Octavia in contrast simply has two parents, one who DOES love her and tries his best, but his best includes calling his side piece “My big dicked blitzy” right in front of her and hiring said side piece to guard them, and her mother who clearly thinks so little of her daughter’s emotional well being she hired a cowboy to shoot her daddy dead in the middle of a large crowd. The point is I think they’d be adorable and they both badly need to be happy after being emotionally fucked over by people they care about. 

But  alas my new ship will have to wait as we marginally important things to get down too.. things that will impact both this season and the next’s endgame and utterly destroy Eclipsa and Moon’s relationship for good. Sound fun? Well if so join me under the cut won’t you?

We open in the Pidgeon Kingdom.. and things aren’t exactly great.. and by that I mean Meteora stomped a hole through it and ravaged the place and Rich demands blood.. and vengance.. and possibly blood vengance. But not Tekken Blood Vengance.. he already has like 5 copies of that on dvd. Still needs it on Blu Ray though, hook him up if you got it. 

So Moon and Eclipsa are trying to smooth this over/find out which way did she go George which way did she go, and are angrily dismissed after they try Rich’s patience, not helped by Eclipsa not being familiar with the Pidgeon Kingdom because they hadn’t slaughtered everyone who used to live there yet. Look that’s what happened, Star outright mentions in the Big Book of Spells that htey suddenly sprung up where another kingdom was and no one knows what happens. There was some bird murders up in that place.. or birdur if you will. Some birds drank some human blood. This is what Alfred Hitchock tried to warn us about with his film built on horrifying actress abuse. 

The point is with some more pidgeon-led murder stabbings on the cards our heroines are trying to find her since their attempts to convince Rich not to go on an Archer Style Rampage fell on deaf ears. 

But it’s clear from the second the two are alone both have diffrent priorties: Eclipsa desperatley wants to find the daughter she lost and talk her down from what sh’es become, help her become better and hopefuly heal from the pain she’s been in. She’s lost her husband, her kingdom and centuries. She can’t loose her baby girl too.

Moon on the other hand... clearly has no intrest in helping Meteora or stopping this peacefully. Her first thought is stopping Meteora. Her living through it is not necessary. It’s also clear her racisim isn’t REMOTELY gone depsite Buff Frog and Star’s best attempts and despite learning just how deeply and horribly Mewni’s engrained racism has hurt eclipsa and destoryed Moon’s own family history. To Moon this is just a big monster to fight.. i’ll dive into this more in a bit.

For now our heroines encounter an angry mob. This time their not here for Homer Simpson, but for Meteora as her rampages have destroyd their towns, livelehoods and given some weird guy a hat. It’s the best bit of the episode and i’m embarassed I forgot it happened. 

So with them being no help our queens back out but end up finding some actual help: Eddie! You know the guy from the episode I skipped over... River’s cousin or something like that. He dosen’t have a wiki entry, I do not know why. He’s voiced by Rhys Dharby of Flight of the Conchords Fame whose since made quite the career as a voice actor. No major roles yet that i’m aware of, but a lot of delightful minor ones like this. It’s good to see him he was one of the highlights of that show and not just because he sang this..

Eddie showed up in the Bog Beast of Boggabah and I honestly forgot he was in this episode.. but again, it’s Rhys Dharby. It’s not like suddenly finding out “Aw god dammit Pauly Shore is in this”. So Eddie agrees to help as he’s been tracknig Meteora.. and we find out something troubling: Meteora is getting BIGGER. Gradually, to the point the bog from said episode Is skipped over is drained because she DRANK IT. We also get a great exchange “I’d hate to see the size of her mother” “Actually her father more than helped with that”

Awwwww.... seriously Esme Blanco is a national treasure and has some great deliveries in this one.. and some heartbreaking ones. But before we can get to that it turns out Meteora sucked the powers out of Eddies family.. who he misses..e xcept one guy> That guy can fuck right off. Seriously Eddie is also a national treasure and I wish he’d shown up in season 4. I mean he couldn’t of HURT it. For one it’s Rhys Dharby and for another that season shot itself in the face, both feet, the groin and then the face again enough that I don’t think anything could hurt it as bad as the writers already did. 

But sadly we say farwell to Eddie as he goes out how men have since the begining of time.. deciding to poke a strange creature till it murdered him. Or took his soul out in this case, speaking of which...

Yeah while I couldn’t get Jess in time for this review, she did bring this up in the past: Meteora’s ablility to pull a 

Comes right the fuck out of nowhere with no build up and no explination for it. She DID drain personalites and according to this episode youth.. but that was with a big ole machine. It MIGHT have been intended to be one of Globgor’s powers.. but that makes zero sense, as if he COULD do that, as we saw with Toffee last season when he had that power, also out of nowhere but at least it made a touch more sense given his power was draining magical energy anyway at the time, so adding souls to that isn’t a huge stretch, but as we saw that would’ve been game over for the comission, especially since we DO see him fighting them one on three next season. If he had this power, he wouldn’t be in crystal and I think they realized that, but just tried to act as if his daugther COULDN’T do that and assumed everyone would casually forget. And I get not accounting for me writing about this years later, even I wouldn’t of thought that, but not counting on fans both young and old to latch onto a continuity error? Have you met fandoms Disney, have you? It dosen’t bring the story down entirely and I get WHY ti’s there, so she can nonlethally kill people so we’re not down most of the cast for Season 4, but it feels like an easy win button and one she barely uses despite it being eye beam activated. It should be easy enough to pull, boom, soul suck, win, rinse and repeat. It’s okay to have uber powerful tequniques but they have to have a drawback. For instance the Kaioken from DBZ. It’s a really damn cool technique that gives the user a neat red aura and amplifies poewr.. but the more you amplify the more strain it puts on your body and the more likely you’ll die, and Super later creatively explained why it hadn’t been used since Super Sayian was introduced because said form would’ve sped it up so much it’d be too much for a body to take. Here whie Meteora dosen’t use it in EVERY fight, she uses it enough that it makes no sense this isn’t just her first move for every fight she gets into, mental breakdown or not. 

That being said Meteora’s current mental state as she talks to her mother, having regressed to talking in only a few words and acting like a child, makes perfect sense. Henious already wasn’t in great mental shape to begin with, having a slow sustained breakdown since Marco overthrew her. and now on top of this she remembers her whole life has been a lie, starts to mutate into her natural state at a rapid and likely unehalthy pace, and then finds out on top of all of this Mewni is rightfully owed to her. Given she ended last episode blowing a guy up for rejecting her, it’s not a stretch that given even more power and no time to process anything, Metora would deteroate further. 

Esme and Jessica really knock this scene out of the park as Eclipsa presents Metora with her old doll Bobo and gently trying ot talk to her.. but you also get the fear Eclipsa feels as she tries to awkardly manuver around the fact her daughter is far more unhinged than she was prepared for, even threanting Eclipsa simply because Eclipsa wanted to be called mother instead of mommy. But despite this fear.. Eclipsa wants to help and Walter beautifuly captured metoera as a hulk like tragic figure:a being with low sanity and too much power desperate to be loved by the one person it cares about. And it makes it even more heartbreaking as Eclipsa explains what happened: bad people trapped her , a disfunctoinal society with a racist queen and even more racist subjects has taken hold in her absence... and it’s clear both want opposite things: Meteora wants what sh’es owed, her family back on the throne and Mewni back in her graps, but has lost herself so much to rage, anger and insanity she can’t see it’s not hers to take, while Eclipsa.. just wants her daughter back. She’d be happy just settling down with her and having a LIFE after hers was taken away. Eclipsa just wants a chance to be with what family she has left. It just HURTS to know that despite RIGHTFULLY hating the comission, despite having eveyr reason to take the crown from Moon by force and make the world better by force.. she dosen’t want that. She just wants some peace. It’s selfish... but it’s hard not to be when you havealmost nothing to hold onto. Eclipsa has lost her legacy, her husband and her crown... Meteora is all she has and all she wants and sh’ed of been happy if she just accepted that. If that was enough. 

But the real telling part, and the thing that ultimately makes this go as bad as it does.. is Moon’s reactions to all of this. Sh’es CONFUSED by Meteora having a toy as if that’s foreign to her a monster would, and she’s cleaerly livid , if restrianing it, at both Meteora’s deire for the crown and Eclipsa RIGHTFULLY calling out the state of how things are, and mildly at that. Despite seeing how much damage Mewni’s inherent racisim has done, how it lead to her living a lie, ruined Eclipss, Globgore and Metora’s lives, despite how DESPERTLY her daughter struggles to fight against it, despite seeing firsthand that Monsters can have famiies and lives... she can’t let it go. She can’t see monsters as people. SHe dosen’t see a flawed person who was turned into a metpohrical monster by years of brainwashing and abuse and is slowly unravling under the weight of her true self.. she just sees a threat to her kingdom. She dosen’t see her kingdom as racist, just as it should be. And she dosen’t see herself as stepping down like hse damn well should’ve the MOMENT she found out everything. Because at her heart Moon can’t accept the truth and clings to her racisim. 

And that my friends.. is what ultimately leads to Tragedy. Not Meteora’s unraveling mental state, not Eclipsa’s naitvite. What happens next is ENITRELY Moon’s fault. Whle Eclipsa was failing to get through to Metora, she was trying her best and might of gotten somewhere.. but Moon was already settling to attack.. and does so, making it look like Eclipsa set her own child up. 

A fight ensues, a suprisingly even one... but Eclipsa breaks it up and PROVES her way could’ve worked. In one of Esme’s best performances sshe tearfully tells her daughter she loves her.. that ALL she wants is time with her to make up for what she’s lost.. she dosen’t need a kingdom or her crown or her wand, all things she DESERVES... she just wants her daughter. She just wants to help her baby girl before she goes so far down this path of hatred and vengance she’s alreayd well trod upon there is no point to return to. 

It gets through to Meteora, makes her stop... and Moon TAKES ADANTAGE OF THAT. She then restrains metoera with a magical rock barrier and starts palpatineing her to death. It’s a horrifying moment that ultimately shows who Moon really is.. that when given the chance to let Meteora go, let her CHANGE and grow as a person and help the kingdom.. she instead tries to kill her. When she’s no longer a threat,  hasn’t seriously hurt her in their fight, and could use her power to RESTORE the damage she’s done, fix what she’s broken and help the kingdom grow and mend the bridges racisim has torn down. But all she can see is a monster, and something to destroy.. not someONE to save. 

So Eclipsa does what Moon would do if it were star about to die and saves her daughter, desperatly trying to stop mooon.. and allowing Meteora to get a clear shot and take half of moon’s soul. While Eclipsa is able to stop her from taking the full thing, Moon is left disoreinted and half alive and leaves on insticnt to parts unknown while Meteora escapes. Eclipsa is left alone, devistated and with her daughter truly lost. And the worst is truly yet to come. 

Before we get into final thoughts i’d like to talk about how this scene impacts Moon’s betryal later. To me having rewatched this scene.. it only makes it work MORE making it clear Moon simply can’t fahtom racial equality and that she can’t fahtom that eclipsa had very good reason for doing what she did ... to me it comes off as her using Eclipsa betryaing her as a very flimsy justifcation to not validate her rule and to first retire and then try a coup. That “Well she “BETRAYED” me so i’m fine. “ But in truth... she betrayed Eclipsa first. She attacked her daughter TWICE when Eclipsa was close to getting through to her Her reasons are flimsy.. because i’ts not ABOUT eclipsa, but what eclipsa represents: equality with a race Moon dosen’t see as people. It’s about Moon’s racisim coloring everything tills h’es truly blinded and should have lost everything She didn’t because the ending is a fucking disgrace, but we might get to that at some point, the point here is for all that disgrace’s faults... it did get it right here, and Moon was always portrayed as being unable to let go of her racisim no matter what it cost her or how much her daughter despteratly tried to change her. Trust me as someone whose Dad used to argue that gay marriage meant he should be able to marry his cat, and who still argues against trans people using the bathroom of their choice, I get trying desperatley to change someone who don’t wanna. “Sigh”. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is truly excellent. The writing is top notch as is the voice acting for all involved and the climax isa true, well led up to tragedy. The animation is also on point, with the characters emotions on perfect display. This is an episode I now realize is one of the series best and worth ar ewatch if you haven’ts een it. Truly amazing stuff that gets me pumped for the finale.. and disapoints me in how the series could reach these highs for one finale.. but would sink to it’s lowest point for next seasons.  Next Time on Prince of Wishful Thinking: Star tries depseratly to find her mom, while Marco, Tom and a motely crew of misfits try to take down Meteora and Tom learns the awful truth from the photo booth and wears a zuko ponytail which weirdly looks good on him. That boy can rock anything let me tell you. 

If you enjoyed this reviews, please consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As mentioned my 30 dollar stretch goal includes a review of the cluster fuck that is the series final arc, and the goals up to that , me making 20 and 25 dollars a month repectively, have their own nifty rewards: At 20 i’ll review Darkwing Duck once a month, the two remaning Ducktales 87 mini series I have not covered and the Danny Phantom film The Ultimate Enemy. 25 meanwhile gets you reviews of the Proud Family Movie, the theatrical recess movie and the Kim Possible almost finale movie so the drama. And 30 also gets you reviews of every episode of gravity falls season 1 at least one a month till I finish it at some point, so as you can see you get a lot of bang for your buck and these reviews will be public for everybody. Not only that but joining my patreon gets you a review a month if you pitch in 5 dollars and evne if you can’t swing THAT much just 2 bucks gets you access to my discord, a guarnateed pick in my shorts, votes for patreon exclusive reviews, and SAID patreon exclusive reviews. It’s a lot of bang for your buck is what i’m saying so please help me out so I can make a living off this and sign up today. I even JUST ADDED an exclusive and utterly insane scrooge mcduck review, The Great Wig Mystery. So throw in a buck to check that out. 

And if your intrested in Tomtavia... please hit me up. I’m really proud of it and until then... i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[autisticcassandracain]

top 5 dc storylines / arcs? this is me asking for recommendations honestly

OH HELL YEAH LET'S GO

Robin: Son of Batman #1-6: Listen. I did a whole meta post about how good it is. I CANNOT recommend this enough. It's the best version of Damian's redemption arc there has ever been, probably the best version of Damian's character period, it's a modern comic series that actually uses Talia in a way that's pretty good, Maya is a FANTASTIC character, and the way it examines redemption as a concept is brilliant. Like half of this arc lives in my head rent free there's SO many brilliant moments in here I can't even list them all. Please read this.

Blue Beetle (2006) Reach Arc: The Reach arc is what superhero stories should be, namely an extremely fun romp against a stupidly overpowered enemy showing you just how badass our hero is while providing meaningful character development and giving the side characters some real time to shine. Everything leading up to it was great as well, and this is a perfect finale. From the top of my head I think it's the first 25 issues? No promises though.

We Are Robin #1-6: Less a coherent arc than like, the stuff pre-Robin War that I actually really like. Robin War itself sucks and the stuff afterwards is decent, but the first six issues are where this series truly shines. I was very skeptical going in, but found myself pleasantly surprised at the examination on what the Robin mantle actually means, as well as the depth of the characters. If you're interested in Duke Thomas or Robin as a legacy mantle, I highly recommend reading this.

Who Is Donna Troy?: A single-issue arc that's famous for all the right reasons. Dick Grayson does detective work to figure out where Donna Troy came from. It has a very unique style, brilliant plot progression, and actually made me pretty emotional. It later got some sequels that were deeply mediocre imo and completely missed the point of what made this issue so good: its solid focus on character, and a departure of the traditional superhero form for a detective story. Other storylines keep giving homage to this or outright ripping it off and every time I'm like, no, you will not be Who Is Donna Troy, stop trying to be Who Is Donna Troy. It's in New Teen Titans (1980/volume 1) #38.

hnnnnng there's really tough competition for this spot but I'm going to give it to The Shiva Arc (and everything leading up to it) in Batgirl (2000). The actual arc itself is short, only about two issues long, but for full effect you have to read what leads up to it. I think this is the part of Batgirl (2000) that's the best, and this arc in particular is a fantastic examination of Cass's character with some very memorable visuals (the panel of Babs sitting, paralyzed, staring at a still image of Cass's murder haunts me). It's actually also a great use of Shiva's character, and one of the few times that her being beaten doesn't feel like a cheap way to up the stakes/show how cool a hero is; although I do have mixed feelings on the elements introduced in her character in this, but still, I feel like they had potential if they'd actually been expanded upon (which, sadly, they weren't). The things that really hold this one back is a) the fact that the colourist insists on colouring Cass yellow, and b) the orientalism, which is of course inescapable in Shiva's character (her name is Lady Shiva, and she's very much not Indian), but I do feel like this was one of the most egregious examples of it. If you want to read this, just start reading Batgirl (2000), you'll hit it naturally.

[crossdressingdeath]

You mentioned Sera, whats your take on her?

Honestly I can't say a huge amount because a) I haven't played Inquisition in A While and b) even before I stopped playing it I had stopped recruiting Sera (because she's Just The Worst), so. Just to be clear, I'm working off what I remember of her character, which may not be entirely accurate to what actually happened although I'm pretty sure it is.

That said, she's just... awful to Lavellan. Just horrible, all the fucking time. She insults their people, insults their culture, if they're a mage pretty much insults their entire existence (and the mage thing extends to Trevelyan and Adaar). She gets mad at Lavellan for refusing to abandon their beliefs having LITERALLY JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEIR GODS because SHE thinks Mythal was actually a demon! I have a post somewhere about it, but if Lavellan points out that it doesn't actually matter what they believe because the Inquisition has made it clear that they'll insist on calling them "Andraste's Herald" even if they've outright denied it and come as close to saying "don't call me the herald of the religion that has persecuted my people for centuries and all but destroyed my culture" as the game will allow she disapproves of that because, again, they're not willing to convert to the religion using them as a glorified figurehead against their will! If a female Lavellan romancing her does this she will break up with her! And you'll notice that I only mention Lavellan; she will not break up with any other Inquisitor if they suggest Mythal might have been real. Oh, she'll still disapprove, but it's only an offence worthy of breaking off their relationship if her girlfriend actually worships Mythal. In other words, her girlfriend being Dalish and holding to the Dalish faith after being given empirical evidence that her gods exist in at least some form is worth breaking up with her over. Because she can't prove Mythal wasn't a demon and that makes choosing to believe in her a huge problem. In a game that is largely about faith. And of course there's the whole "elves and mages aren't little people" thing when they're literally the bottom rank of all of human society that we see (and certainly in Ferelden, which is where Sera grew up, and Orlais, where we meet her); you don't get more little than that! Also (speaking of relationships) from what people have said she comes across as outright objectifying towards a female Cadash or Adaar Inquisitor, but having never played either of them with her in the Inquisition I can't say whether or not that's true.

And she just will not take anything seriously! If memory serves she wants to play pranks in Halamshiral during a very important diplomatic event that the Inquisition CANNOT RISK BEING KICKED OUT OF FOR FEAR OF CORYPHEUS WINNING! She will murder a man to assuage her own feelings without considering the impact that could have on the organization trying to prevent the end of the world that she is ostensibly part of (a man who if memory serves is useful to the Inquisition if you make the right choices) because he's a bad person and she thinks she has the right to be judge, jury and executioner without so much as asking anyone else including the person whose orders she's SUPPOSED TO BE FOLLOWING (because murdering a noble won't piss off the Orlesians at all...)! The fate of the world is at stake and she's just dicking around, playing pranks on the people in charge of keeping it together! And some of her pranks are downright cruel, or even dangerous! Like, dumping a bucket of water on Josephine and humiliating her in front of her people so that they'll laugh at her is just uncalled for, especially given there's as far as I recall nothing to suggest Josie is anything but good to those serving under her; hey, maybe her people don't want to laugh at her! And if memory serves her "prank" against Vivienne involves putting a venomous snake in her underwear drawer! Vivienne turns it around because Vivienne's badass, but that could have killed her! What the fuck is wrong with Sera that she thinks putting someone's life in danger is funny?! I don't think she even offers any assistance that we see outside of her own presence even though the Red Jennies should logically be useful!

And you know the worst part? You can never call her out on any of this. From what I remember the closest you get is the option for some ableist insults that in no way even begin to cover any of the actual issues an Inquisitor would logically have with her, and from what I understand even if you kick her out you don't get to tell her "Your refusal to take this seriously is putting us and the world at risk and I cannot allow that" or "I cannot and will not work with someone who refuses to so much as not openly insult my culture and religion" (at least Solas, bad as he can be, will apologize and reconsider his stance if your approval gets high enough and has understandable reasons for responding the way he does) or "You have made it clear that you think my magic makes me at best less of a person and at worst a monster and I will not tolerate that any longer"! Basically Sera is horrible to the Inquisitor if they're an elf or a mage and Bioware said "What's a reasonable response to this when we give the player an opportunity to react negatively? Ableism? Yeah, let's go with ableism" and it pisses me off.

[nenestansunsthings]

@spectatorspectacul4r i- i wrote a story???? for your art????? that was unfairly cute art, chim! and i hope you know that!

.

Clef is pulling some shit again.

Kondraki can hear the junior staffers whispering about it in the hallways, knows full well that Bright and Iceberg had pulled the man aside to see if it was true and if he was serious. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little interested himself, even if it was just to see how far Clef would really go.

See, it all started with that cat.

Nobody actually knew where the cat had come from, or who it belonged to, or why it was there. Everyone was pretty goddamn sure it was Clef’s– it wore a silly, flowery boater hat sometimes, for one thing, and it was always hanging around his usual haunts– but whenever they asked him he always said it belonged to someone else. Kondraki had lost track of how many times it had been shoved into his office, with someone saying Clef had told them he owned it. The same went for Gears, Crow, Rights, Bright, Glass– even Roth had been approached by someone who’d been told it was hers, as awkward as that had to have been. It knew the site so well they swore it had an ID card and a map, and every time someone had tried to catch it the cat had always barely managed to slip from their grasp. It wasn’t bad, compared to some of the things they had locked up, but it was weird, and things only got weirder when they couldn’t find anything on it. So it was almost a relief when Clef stopped playing around with them all and just said outright that it was his cat.

Of course, though, it was Clef. So there was no way things would be that easy.

It’s almost fitting that Kondraki hasn’t heard the actual announcement. He’s not even sure if there was one. Clef’s challenge feels like it was meant to be spread only in rumours and whispers, until everyone in the site can’t help but know it.

“I will leave a key on my cat. If one can get the key, then they shall know everything about me.”

Damn, did that spur people to action.

But the cat is fast. Cunning, too, enough that sometimes Kondraki wonders if Clef doesn’t share a mind with it. It dodges and disappears and attacks, when people get too close. It makes people bleed and run, and that’s only if somehow they’d managed to find it in the first place. A few enterprising researchers put up traps and find them dismantled, with a smug cat licking its paws clean just a few feet away. He avoids it where he can. He really doesn’t want to get sucked into this whole cat mess.

 .

Kondraki’s first proper encounter with the cat is in his office.

He walks in and the damned thing is curled up in his swivel chair, eyes closed and tail settled around itself protectively. The hat isn’t on its head today; it’s on his desk, discarded on top of some paperwork he hadn’t finished. It doesn’t move even when he opens the door. He can’t help but notice the slow rise and fall of its chest; is it asleep? Really?

It’d be hilarious if he wasn’t beginning to worry about it trying to kill him if he came too close.

But he’s got to finish something today, or Gears is going to kill him before the cat can, so Kondraki steels himself and closes the door behind him.

“Hey!”

The cat jolts, shooting up so quickly it nearly falls off the chair. It hisses, claws digging into the foam dangerously. Kondraki backs away, holding up his hands in surrender. “Whoa! Don’t- I don’t want any trouble, okay? Don’t bite or anything.”

That doesn’t stop the cat from glaring up at him like he’s going to gut it.

“Just get off,” Kondraki hisses back. “I have work to finish. I don’t want your goddamn key, okay? As much as I’d like to know everything about Clef or whatever he apparently said, I’d prefer to do it alive. Just let me finish signing everything before Gears and Iceberg have my head.”

The cat pauses, its eyes flashing dangerously, before it jumps onto his desk and picks up its hat in its little mouth. It flips the hat onto its head in a single smooth motion before meowing to itself and hopping onto his windowsill next.

“… Damn. Okay.” Kondraki shakes his head, taking his seat and grabbing the unfairly tall stack. He’s got a lot to do today, cat be damned.

When he turns to the windowsill again, almost half an hour later, the cat is gone.

 .

The second time he encounters the cat, it’s in the cafeteria, hat-free and perched on the rafters dangling its tail gleefully down towards a group of interns who’ve made a wobbling stack of chairs to try and reach it. It’s clearly having fun, taking pleasure in their futile attempts with a wide grin as sharp as its owner’s.

Kondraki isn’t taking the same pleasure, because the poor asshole at the top is going to fall off. “What the hell are you idiots doing?!”

“Shit!” One of them panics, their hold on the chairs slipping. It’s only their companion’s quick movement that stops the whole thing from collapsing in on itself. “D-Doctor Kondraki! We’re so sorry-!”

“How exactly were you planning to get down from there?!” Kondraki demands, and the one on top pales. “What, were you going to climb? Do it. Climb down from there right now. I’d like to see you try that.”

“Sir-”

“I said,” he repeated, “climb down from there.”

The intern gulps, looking down and very carefully grabbing the legs of the chairs. They’ve stacked them well enough, but it’s a dangerous climb regardless, one that’s only made worse by how the person climbing down is shaking. Kondraki walks closer, readying himself to catch them if they lose their grip. Somehow, the fall he expects doesn’t come.

“I’m sorry,” the intern apologizes quickly, their breathing uneven and panicked. “Please- Please don’t tell Doctor Glass, he told us not to do this, please don’t-“

“Oh, I won’t be doing that.” Kondraki turns his gaze to the group still standing by the stack. They flinch. “No, you all apparently decided to- what? Disobey Glass’s orders to not stack chairs to the ceiling to grab a fucking cat? No, you’re telling him yourselves.”

They nod quickly, practically tripping over themselves to get out. Kondraki sees them out of the cafeteria first before turning to the cat. The pointed grin has fallen from its face, and it’s looking down at him with a faint interest in its eyes.

“And as for you,” Kondraki continues, because god damn if he’s not going to call out the cat, “what the fuck was that? Clef is going to get into so much trouble if his little game kills someone, you asshole. Did you think it was okay to let them climb that far? I saw you playing with them, you dick. Get down from there right now.”

To his surprise, after a moment, the cat complies. It plops itself down on the chairs, one by one, hopping its way down with an unfair grace. It settles down finally just a foot away from the stack, clearly ready to knock it down onto Kondraki if he tries anything.

Kondraki huffs. “Honestly, you’re such an asshole cat. No wonder Clef picked you.” He approaches slowly, reaches down not for the key around its neck but to grab it by the scruff of its neck. It doesn’t stop him, only watches him warningly with mismatched eyes. “Okrutny kotek. Okropny kotek. I’m dumping you in Clef’s office before you murder some idiot researcher.”

It grumbles at him, as if to say carry me properly, dumbass, but it bats away his hand when he moves to support it from under so he leaves it alone. He doesn’t try for the key, either. As enticing as it is, brass nestled under the cat’s fluffy fur, he doesn’t think the cat’s going to trust him with it. And he’s not exactly playing Clef’s game seriously, either. So the cat makes its way to its owner’s office without incident.

 .

The third time he encounters the cat, it’s because the little thing is weaving its way between his feet in the hallways.

“Hey!” Kondraki barely manages to stop himself from falling, throwing out a hand to steady himself against the wall. “Fucking- what do you want? Do you like tripping people in the halls or something?”

The cat just purrs at him, the fucker. It’s infuriating how cute it is. As much as Kondraki’s not really a cat person, there’s something about this one that gets to him.

“Oh, shut up.” He picks it up, ignoring its angry yowl when he does, and he carries it in his arms as he makes his way to his office. “What, are you having some fun in between dragging people to hell? Am I going to have to stop someone from getting their eyes clawed out today?”

Clef’s cat huffs, settling down in his grip. It lets him pet it, lets him rub its tiny little forehead and the curve of its spine. It’s fluffy. “Puszysty kotek. Malutki słodki mały kotek…”

“Does Clef know you baby-talk his cat?” Iceberg snarks as he passes. Kondraki would flip him off if his hands weren’t occupied.

He nudges the door to his office open with one foot when he gets there, heading over to his desk and depositing his fluffy companion on it. “You can stay in there for a bit. At least I can keep an eye on you. No-one needs another chair incident.”

The cat pauses for a moment, then settles down with an indulgent purr. Kondraki has to stop himself from smiling at the sight. He sits down in his own chair and gets to his work.

 .

He loses track of how many times he encounters the cat after that. It’s taken a liking to him, he thinks. It likes to follow him around or show up in his office sometimes, winding its way between his legs or scratching at the door until he lets it in to sleep under his desk. Rights asks, at some point, if he’s going to take the key from it. In all honesty, he doesn’t care. So long as that cat doesn’t stop liking him, he’s fine with anything.

The cat seems to know that, too. It’s gotten more and more comfortable just being around him, letting him scratch at the crook of its neck and falling asleep on his lap despite the risk. Throughout all that, the brass key hanging around its neck goes untouched, except when he nudges it by accident when he picks the little cat up.

So he really doesn’t get it when the cat approaches him in the break room one day, stalking forward slowly with determination in its eyes. He doesn’t get why it looks so apprehensive.

“Morning,” he says to it, turning to it and watching as it stiffens at his voice. “Is something wrong? You’re a lot quieter than usual. Do you want to come nearer? Kici, kici, kici, kici…”

The cat’s claws are digging into the stuffing of the couch. It nudges the elbow he has resting near it, meowing plaintively.

“What? Did I do something wrong?” Kondraki reaches out to pet it. It makes an angry little mrrp noise when he does, grabbing his hand with its little front paws and pulling it to the key still nestled comfortably under its fur.

“… What the hell are you doing?” Kondraki tries to tug his hand away. The cat doesn’t let go. “You know I’m not supposed to have this, right? This isn’t my key. And as much as Clef talks a big game about this being a test and not just him trying to get us off his back about his past, he probably wouldn’t like me having it.”

The cat stares at him like he’s the stupidest man alive. It’s a very expressive cat.

“Honestly.” Kondraki huffs, letting it bat at his fingers angrily. “Don’t scratch, asshole. Like I said, I’m not actually supposed to have that thing.”

The cat growls.

“Fine! Fine! Will it shut you up if I just take it?” The claws on his hand stop digging quite so much, and Kondraki groans. “Fucking- ow. I’m going to need to clean all these cuts you left, little asshole. If you leave any more I’m going to punt you out a window.”

His fingers close gently around the key.

The cat doesn’t move as he carefully takes off the necklace it’s wearing, letting him remove the key with no fight at all. It’s weird, Kondraki thinks. Everyone he’s ever seen make the mistake of trying has always left with a bloody hand cursing Clef and his cat to hell and back. And yet he’s perfectly fine.

He shakes his head, setting the key and its necklace beside him and going back to petting the cat, which has already settled into a familiar position curled up on his lap.

There’s a sudden hiss, not from the cat’s throat but from the cat, and in a flash of blinding light the weight on his lap is suddenly doubled. Kondraki yelps, shoving the thing on its lap down instinctively.

“Ow! Jesus, Konny-!”

Kondraki blinks, shocked, at the figure in front of him. Clef pokes at the back of his head carefully, wincing at what must be a spike of pain where he touches. “Ow. And you say I hurt you. God, you’re terrible.”

“I- Wh- Clef?! What the fuck-?!”

“Honestly, Konny.” Clef huffs, crossing his arms. “Did you have to shove me? First you refuse my key. And now this.”

“… Your key?” Kondraki starts, checking for the cat. It’s not there. Realization hits all too suddenly. “Wait, you’re-?!”

“Yeah!” Clef grins, smoothing down the mess his long hair’s become. It’s messy because he’s been petting it, Kondraki realizes, horrified. “You know, Konny, I really didn’t think you’d be that comfy.”

Kondraki makes an incoherent noise, chucking the key at Clef. His coworker only laughs.

He- He’s been-

Clef is a cat. That he’s been petting.

… Kondraki’s gotten in way too deep, hasn’t he.

[where-s-all-blue]

Okay so I've entered the Alabasta Arc now (I am actually pretty close to the climax in my rererewatch) so here's some thoughts:

Reverse Mountain:

I personally adored the mishaps the crew has on their way to the GrandLine, and the entire reverse mountain is very intriguing to me to this day. One day, I'll figure out just how on earth that thing works.

Laboon's story, tear jerking, absolutely devastating. Luffy being able to talk sense into a WHALE tells all you need about his ability to befriend beings. He also was the first one to hear Laboon, foreshadow for his later on found ability to Hear All Things or Haki?

Whiskey Peaks:

Ahh the time Vivi tried to be a villain. And Mister 9 is an absolute sweetheart. Honestly they made a pretty good team even if neither of them actually knew how fighting works. Personally I would've loved to see more of them, Mister 9 and Miss Monday seemed like interesting characters.

I keep forgetting about Zoro having supersonic speed in these, I kind of miss him just disappearing only to reappear right in middle of the group to mock their reaction of looking at the place he just was sitting on. The speed of him and his ability to momentarily cut through things he later on can't pretty much just tells you that he does have it in him, but it just isn't conscious thing yet. Also unconscious usage of haki spotted?

Vivi being The Vivi Nefertari is one of the more interesting and intense sequences in the pre-timeskip era, even if it takes less time than for example the Arlong Park does and shows just how devastatingly strong both Luffy and Zoro are. I can't believe that these idiots would retort to a fist fight mid battle.

Mister 5's ability is very unhygienic and I'd like to drown him in sanitizer, Miss Valentine needs to be silenced forever, her laughter creeps me out and she honestly doesn't add any value into the conversation. This is a duo I'd like to murder slowly.

Igram blowing up still gets me, the reactions of the characters, the devastated facial expression of Vivi, the sound design, the shocked looks, it's just so well executed.

Vivi's reaction of mixed feelings regarding Miss All Sunday/Robin, albeit just, is very confusing for me. I remember when I met her the first time and all I could think of was "She's a nice person" just based on her facial expression and the words she used.

I forgot that Luffy broke the eternal log pose Robin gave them. Not because he didn't trust her but because the choice Vivi would've been forced to make after the shock of loosing Igram would've been too much. Also because he didn't want anyone to dictate HOW they get there, he's the captain and as such it's his job to make the final decision, he also appears to have been convinced that this way Vivi would be safe.

Little Garden:

Aah, Little Garden, the island I'd simultaneously love and hate. Love because dinosaurs, hate because loud and probably insects large enough to use me as a quick caffeine filled pick-me-up. I might have a problem.

The fact that I can understand the thought process of these giants concerns me greatly. Is this the power of the Monkey Brain?

Mister 3 would be an amazing character if only we could see his self proclaimed genius in action and hear him go through plans etc. I feel like he's just trying to compensate on his lack of battlefield knowledge and experience. Miss Golden Week is highkey a mood and I love her. I, too, want to paint whatever I want and get paid for it.

Zoro actually started to hack through his own leg because he wanted to fight so badly, what a mad lad. Usopp honestly is flexing with his quick thinking and reflexes here. We love that for him. Go you funky little sniper.

Luffy might've used observation haki instinctively in the Mister 3 crowd.

Sanji managing to outright fool Crocodile to believe that he is Mister 3 indicates that Crocodile has never heard the voices of his underlings before and just assuming that the man who answered is Mister 3. The two also apparently have similar sense of humour. That Crocodile is aware of based on what Robin has told him.

Sanji both taking down the Unluckies without any hesitation nor stopping to think about where they came from really tells volumes about him. He also apparently lied so convincingly that Crocodile was 100% sure that it was Mister 3 fighting Luffy and not a chef beating up his long distance murder pets.

Nami was bitten by a bug, which was the carrier of a rare, nearly dead disease. Based on the amount of time one would usually need to wait for the sickness to develop, I'd say that they were about a week on the ocean before Nami developed the fever.

None of the crew members, Vivi included, thought about doing a full body check on her to see if there were any other symptoms than fever, ie her body actively fighting against the infection/sickness. Also her sickness isn't apparently something that spreads, so it's very unlikely for it to be virus based or spread similar to flu.

Drum Island/Sakura Kingdom:

Nami is capable of sensing the weather, and act upon her feelings, under 40C fever. If I have any level of fever, I am rendered near vegetative state until my fever either goes down or raises past certain level. What I'm saying is that Nami is some sort of Goddess or superhero because of being able to do anything with that fever.

Vivi needing to think about whether or not she can afford waiting extra days for being taken to Alabasta or to change the course to find a doctor is one of the stupidest things ever especially since the person who is sick with such a high fever happens to be the navigator.

Warm welcome by residents is warm. And by warm I mean freezingly cold. I can't believe that Luffy thought about yelling to the person before Vivi bowed her head prompting Luffy to do the same (though heavily "encouraged" by Vivi). Vivi saying that Luffy isn't fit to be the captain reflects very strongly her own views and beliefs, but she keeps forgetting something very simple, yet important. Background. She has no idea about Luffy's past nor how he grew up, she hasn't been long enough with the crew to be able to tell just why people follow Luffy, nor is she aware of how he communicates with people. She doesn't realise that when it comes to Luffy, humility isn't a word to describe him with nor that he would be able to set his own pride aside just yet, Luffy is a 17 year old, a mere child, who has just set out on the sea few months ago, who only knows the harshness of the world, where to survive, you must take things with force or be aggressive. She also isn't familiar with Luffy's way of helping others and going all in no matter the situation.

It's interesting to see how from the time Vivi is with them, Luffy is clearly paying attention to how she does things and how she presents herself, the mannerisms and the likes. It's not as clear idolisation and wish for being equal/better than someone as it was with Katakuri's use of haki, but he is striving to learn. If not because he acknowledges how important manners and humility are, but because it makes things easier on certain places. He especially starts to pay more attention to it once Ace joins them.

By the way the sickness Nami is struck with? It's most likely the same as the one that cost the life of Captain Yorkie of the Rumbar Pirates. After all, the ship doctor couldn't heal it, he didn't know how to, he could only prolong his death for a little while, few days max.

Chopper is a joy to have around and I'd physically fight Doctor Kureha at first sight because WOMAN! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ATTACKING YOUR PATIENTS JUST BECAUSE THEY GOT OUT OF THE BED! What if they need to use the restroom. I don't care if you're a youthful 139 year old lady, you can't just do that. Also how the hell are you still able to move that well? Most people I see start to slowly loose their mobility at 60 as their joints are starting to wear out causing pain and their muscle mass is lowering due to the inability to move as much as during their prime.

I am surprised that a reindeer even cares about something like a blue nose. The devilfruit thing? Yeah sure, but not the blue nose. These local reindeer are dicks with human level of obsession to look like the "norm". News flash, there is no default anything. Your appearances are purely dictated by a set of genes that decide to either activate or deactivate as they please without any warning and genes can skip multiple generations. That's why I apparently look identical to my great grandmother.

Nami is kind towards other women and animals. Men not so much, my assumption is that she is carrying a trauma from the Arlong time that she hasn't yet processed and as such she is even now a bit guarded against the rest of the crew.

Hiriluk's character is closer to that of a mad scientist or a very enthusiastic chemist who keeps forgetting that people aren't test subjects. His curiosity and and enthusiasm are something to strive for even if his methods are questionable, all he does want is to bring people sense of hope, wonder and awe. Though I can't help but to wonder about his story. The thief (him) having a serious incurable heart condition and seeing cherry blossoms that cured him. A metaphor for his past self being relentless and uncaring while thieving, but the indescribable beauty of the scenery he saw changed his heart to be more generous and kind?

Hiriluk's death is one of the most important ones in the series if you ask me, it defined Chopper and who he became; Doctor hoping to be capable of curing any disease there is.

[morgana-ren]

A Little Respect (Shigaraki x Reader)

Summary:  Life is hard for a outlaw down on their luck. Especially hard when you're cold, starving, and desperate. As fate would have it, the League of Villains just might take you in. If you can survive their temperamental leader, that is.

Rating: This particular chapter is E for everyone but Shig is rated R for Real Fuckin’ Rude. Mild cursing and sexual innuendo from Dabi. Will advance in rating as the chapters come out.

A03 mirror if you prefer to read it there

Sorry guys, it’s not the Filthy Smut™ I promised earlier but I got an idea at like 3am and wanted to get it out. 

Tomura Shigaraki does not like you.

Wait, that’s an understatement.

Tomura Shigaraki does not like you at all. It might even be fair to say he hates you.

From the moment he first saw you, he was decidedly unimpressed. Beady, vermillion eyes narrowing in irritation, lip twitching almost indiscernibly behind the shadow of his hand-mask. He’d only looked you over for a brief moment before casting down his judgement, deeming you unworthy of his attention.

It didn’t matter to him that you had taken time out of your day to be here. Seems a bit ungrateful, if you were honest. After all, he was the one looking for new recruits, not you. That was why you were standing awkwardly in the middle of this dingy bar that smelled like cheap liquor and ashes, prostrating yourself before this man-child in hopes of a job. Yeah, you’d seen him on TV and heard of his exploits, but nothing could quite capture the sheer arrogance of the real thing.

He had turned his nose up at you so easily, ripping his focus from you without a second thought. When he spoke, he didn’t even bother addressing you. You were a waste of his time. He instead turned to Giran who stood nearby, sucking down his cigarette as if the acrid smoke filling the bar didn’t add unnecessary drama to the already tense atmosphere.

“Where do you find this trash?” Shigaraki waved you off, mind already made up that you were nothing but a nuisance. “This NPC is really bottom of the barrel.”

His uneven, scratchy voice only served to spike your agitation. Admittedly, you were a proud one on occasion, but this was outright ridiculous. This low budget comic-book-villain-reject looking fuck was calling you trash? Now that was funny.

Giran had moved to speak up on your behalf, but you just couldn’t help yourself. You’d always had a hot temper and an even bigger mouth. It had gotten you into trouble quite a bit, and it was probably responsible for the current financial predicament and various bruises you found yourself saddled with now. Despite that, you had a really hard time controlling the venomous thoughts that came out of you. Sometimes, it just tumbled out before you could consider stopping it.

“What’s with all the hands? Compensating for something? Or is it just a fetish?”

Giran flinched as the words left your lips, mouth closed in a grimace as he exhaled the smoke from the most recent inhale through his nose. You knew you were making his job difficult, but this second-rate walking lotion commercial had already made up his mind, right? You didn’t feel you had much to lose.

Shigaraki visibly stiffened, fist clenching into itself as he held his thumb out to the side. You’d made him mad. What a bitch.

“Rude and bratty with no manners. I’m starting to think you just dumpster dive and bring whatever you find at the bottom to me.”

Even though his tone was sharp and held an edge that hadn’t been there previously, he still refused to look at you, even as he flared at your disrespect. Your antics hadn’t been entirely unappreciated, however. There had been a slight chuckle from the figure standing beside him. A man with charred skin and striking blue eyes with wild black hair was looking you over, eyes glimmering with amusement.

“I like her.”

“You would. You’re just as annoying as she is. But at least you can be useful on occasion.” Tomura scoffed, visibly irritated now as he tapped a long, pale finger on the wooden surface of the bar.

“I really think you ought to give her a chance, Shigaraki. I honestly believe she could be beneficial to your organization.” Giran gestured to you, maintaining a nonchalant smile. You knew he got paid either way, but he did consider himself a professional. He’d work his magic until this breathing temperamental tantrum decided he’d had enough, and then it would be back out on the streets for you.

“We don’t need another loser in our party.” Shigaraki crossed his arms over each other, pointer fingers carefully hovering above the fabric of his black shirt. You knew what he could do, what those fingers were capable of. One grip on your bare flesh and calling you fish food would be generous.

You found it unfair that kind of power had been given to such an impudent dick.

Giran motioned for you to step forward. “Go on, show him.”

You rolled your eyes but obliged, moving into the forefront of the room. You felt like a dancing monkey, but if it would put money in your pocket and food in your mouth, you’d play along. Even if it meant kneeling for one of the biggest jerkoffs the underworld had to offer.

You closed your eyes, focusing for a moment before releasing a breath and bringing your hands together. Light began to shimmer in front of you, swirls of color blending, stitching and intertwining. Bright flashes of blues, reds, and yellows formed a pattern and came together, slowly taking form. Seconds later, a perfect recreation of All Might was standing directly in front of the bar, mimicking his stereotypical pose. The mirage turned its head to the toward the villainous duo seated nearby, legendary smile gleaming in the dim bar lights. It raised an arm, giving a thumbs up.

“I am here!”

The voice was so loud and lifelike that Shigaraki recoiled, looking absolutely feral. His eyes shot open, widened in a mixture of confusion and rage. He had lurched himself half-way out of his chair, posed to lunge at the imposter before him, hands at the ready and poised to attack. “What is this shit?”

A small smile cracked on your face. You focused again, summoning another illusion from the air, this one comprised of mainly blacks, whites, and reds. It wasn’t long before a flawless imitation of Shigaraki himself appeared behind the illusory hero, creeping up behind it, hand outstretched and reaching. It made eye contact with the authentic Shigaraki, grin spreading past the boundaries of the decomposing hand placed over his face.

“Not anymore you’re not.”

The duplicate’s hand made contact with the All Might mimicry, all five fingers pressed against the blade of its shoulder. As the spindly fingers dug in, All Might’s uniform and skin began to decay, spreading and unweaving the flesh and muscle until bare bone was visible beneath as the body began to decompose rapidly. Tendons snapped and plasma leaked to the floor, sending the usually impervious hero to the floor in a whimpering, grimy mess.  Soon enough, All Might’s likeness was nothing but a whimpering pile of dying, ashy viscera beneath fabricated Shigaraki’s red sneakers.

Eventually the illusion faded, and not one person spoke. It took effort for you to hold back a triumphant sneer. Your little production had been no Hamlet, but it garnered the desired result no less. The real Shigaraki was paralyzed in place, eyes still glued to the spot on the floor where the fake All Might had perished, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

And he was right, he couldn’t.

Real All Might was still out there, traipsing around and being a massive pain in someone’s ass, but Giran had hinted to you that something like this might get Shigaraki’s dick hard. His hatred of All Might was all encompassing and exploiting it might give you a fighting chance. Apparently, he had been right. You had a feeling that if you let him, Shigaraki would just keep staring in disbelief until someone actively shook him from his stupor.

“I couldn’t get your voice quite right but it’s the best I could do on short notice. I’ve never met you before today.”

You were the first to break the silence, since everyone else with the exception of Giran was dumbfounded. Might as well get the ball rolling. Either you were in or you weren’t, and if you weren’t, you had a corner store to rob before it got too late.

Achingly slow, Shigaraki turned his head back to you. You couldn’t quite get a read on him, not with that giant hand on his face, but judging by the fact that his hands were shaking, and he looked murderous, the prognosis didn’t look too good.

“What is it?” He hissed, copper eyes narrowing on you. “Your quirk. What the hell is it?”

“Illusion. Tricks of light and sound. Basically, I can mess with light and sound waves temporarily to create whatever vision I desire.” It sounded way cooler than you explained it like that. “I can’t do it on a large scale, and I have to understand the exact representation and mannerisms of whatever it is I’m creating if I want it to be accurate, hence your voice. Also, they’re incorporeal. I can’t create a physical form.”

Shigaraki was staring at you blankly. You’re losing them. Play it up.

“Other than that, I can create whatever I want. As long as it’s not too exhausting, I can hold it for a while too. As you can see, there’s not a whole lot else I can really do with it since the visions can’t actually touch or be touched, but it’s great as a distraction.” You shrugged, letting your shoulders slump as you realized just how ridiculous this entire situation really was. “I figured maybe you could use it for subterfuge or something.”

“Doll, you have got no imagination at all.” The blistered one spoke up again, simpering mischievously. “I can think of plenty- “

“Shut up!” Shigaraki growled, flexing his hands by his sides and clearly not in the mood for either one of you. His invasive stare was studying you again, eyes resting a little too long on your face to make you comfortable. You wanted to make another smart-ass remark, but Giran smelled that a mile away like a dumb-shit detecting bloodhound and opted to speak first to keep you from ruining your chances.

“So? What do you say?” He leaned over, smashing the butt of his cigarette into a nearby ash tray, waving away the excess smoke that rose. “You think that’ll be helpful?”

You could see deep frown lines and the shadow of a scowl on Shigaraki’s face. He didn’t answer immediately, choosing to glare you down instead. You weren’t sure you wanted to be a part of the League anymore, anyway. Not if it meant working under this broody, angsty little-

“She can stay.” He turned, storming out the doors without sparing you a second glance. “But if she gets on my nerves, I’ll dust her.”

Well, a job is a job, even if your new boss is the world’s biggest blowhole. If it meant a warm place to sleep and clothes on your back, you’d take it.

“Guess we’ll be working together. See you around, doll face.” The scarred guy gave a slight indifferent wave in your direction before heading out through the exit. You weren’t quite sure how to feel at the moment. It wasn’t exactly the definition of a warm welcome, but then again, you were working with a criminal organization that was currently at the top of Japan’s most wanted list. You couldn’t really expect a hug and a welcome tour.

Giran, on the other hand, seemed ecstatic. He slapped you on the back, grinning wide and no doubt pleased at the bonus commission he’d be ringing in. “See? I think that went great!”

“That was great to you?” Your brows furrowed in confusion. That had to have been one of the single most awkward experiences of your life. The infamous Shigaraki had the charismatic presence of a flaming pile of dog shit.

“Definitely. He didn’t even try to kill you.”

Your mouth dropped. “That’s a thing that happened? That’s a fuckin’ thing that happened and you didn’t tell me?”

“Oh yeah. The last two I brought his way didn’t sit well with him either. About 2 minutes into the meeting and he tried to kill them both. Would have been a real mess if it hadn’t been for Kurogiri stepping in.”

You rolled your eyes, huffing out an exaggerated breath. “Thanks, man. A warning would have been nice. I know he’s temperamental and all, but it would have been good to get a little bit of notice if I had to get my affairs in order.”

“Oh, come on, it’s not so bad. He’s an alright guy. A little rough around the edges but he’ll grow on you. Just try to keep that mouth of yours in check?” He smiled nervously, reaching in his pocket for another cigarette.

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s worked out so well for me in the past.”

“You’re a smart girl. You’ve can do it. Just do your job and stay out of his way if you can.” He flicked his lighter, inhaling the smoke deeply before turning to you again. “The last people I introduced to the League worked out well for him, and while he talks a lot, they seem to get on just fine. I know Shigaraki can be difficult, but maybe you’ll find some comfort in the others.”

“They’re villains, Giran. How amicable can they really be?”

He laughed, giving a small shrug. “I don’t know. You’re technically a villain, and you seem fine to me.”

You opened your mouth to speak but stopped short when you realized you didn’t exactly have a retaliation to that. “Fair.”

“Come on, let’s get your stuff and get you settled in here. No sense in keeping anyone waiting.”

“Your paycheck, you mean.” You side-eyed him, following him out through the bar doors.

“Yes.”

[angelofbloodlust]

Stu Macher & Billy Loomis Expressing Love To Their S/O

(A/N: I randomly lost motivation to write so I decided to try and kick myself back into it by writing some headcanons for Billy & Stu and how they express their love towards you lol I didn’t have anything planned out so it’s a bit random but I still like it, so)

Stu Macher:

This man has been an open book when it comes to how much he loves you from the moment you two started dating

Will constantly hold your hand in public and make it clear to his friends that the two of you are together, if they don’t notice the physical signs he will not hesitate to say it right to their faces-

“Isn’t my s/o so wonderful?? I’m so lucky to be with them!”

Lowkey will get extremely pissy if someone isn’t happy about your relationship

It takes some convincing him to realize it’s not a big deal and doesn’t affect you two in the slightest

Once he understands, he only likes bragging in front of that person even more

He’ll be a dick if he wants to be 😌 you’re his and they need to put up with it

But when you two are alone, he’s not any less vocal about how much he adores you

He’ll buy you things often and even try to cook for you

Even though he can’t cook for shit, he tries his best bc you’re his s/o and deserve every ounce of love he can give you

There’s no denying he’s a complete cuddle monster

Happy? So’s he! He’ll wrap his arms around you so tight you can’t breathe. Sad? He’ll hold you and shower you with kisses until you feel better. Sleeping? You bet your ass there’s no way you’re getting any space that night.

There’s no escaping his love.

And honestly? That’s not even slightly a problem

As long as you live, he’ll be right there by your side, making sure you feel like you’re worth the entire world

He would buy you the world if he could

No matter what, you’ll forever be perfect to him

Even if for some reason you ended up despising him, he’s still got big heart eyes for you

Honestly seems a bit obsessive, but.. why would he care

Billy Loomis:

It should be pretty obvious he’s not as extreme as Stu when it comes to showing you off

He likes keeping his hands on you if he can at that moment, even if he doesn’t yell in someone’s face that you and him are together, he still enjoys the look on peoples’ faces when his hand goes over your hip to pull you closer against him

He’s especially touchy around other men, there’s no way he’s letting anyone else get any ideas about you while he’s around

He enjoys hearing people talk about you two, he knows you two are great together and loves hearing it from other mouths

But when it comes to someone outright insulting you or your relationship?

He will throw hands ASAP, don’t you dare doubt him

You can’t even count how many people you’ve had to tell him not to murder at this point

He’s extremely overprotective and 90% of the time your words go unheard by him and you’ll see that same student on the news dead the next morning

There’s nothing you can do to stop him, so you may as well accept it

He’s still very touchy when the two of you are alone, just not in so much a cuddly way

But he’ll accept cuddling if that’s what you really want

He does his best to make you happy, even if he struggles himself sometimes

He’ll take expensive items from his victims and give them to you

“This was limited edition, Billy. How the hell did you get this?”

“I got it from that guy I decapitiated the other night. It was on his shelf, and I thought you’d like it.”

“....Billy, n o”

You still take his gifts, you appreciate the thought and keep them on a shelf inside your closet so that you can look at them every now and then without them being out in the open. He gets extremely happy every time he watches you add the newest item to your collection.

It’s weirdly sweet, honestly. Like a crow collecting gifts for the person that feeds them.

He has odd ways of appreciating you, but it only makes you love him more

He really loves you, and it doesn’t take much to see that

You make him soft,, love him forever

[madam-miss-fortune]

Albus Dumbledore.

Like, I get where the man is coming from, but seriously, jeez, most of the things he does borders on psychopathy. He literally has 17.5/20 on a test I found. It's pathetic, honestly. Now, for the reasons....

At the beginning of PS, he left a baby on a doorstep in November in nothing more than a basket and note to tell his aunt that her sister is dead and that she now has to take care of her sister's child who just saw his parents get murdered. Also, I'm, like, 98% certain that Dumbledore knew exactly what sort of person Petunia was, and not just because McGonagall told him that the Dursleys were "the worst sort of muggles imaginable."

And the letters. Like, I know they're automatically addressed, but, that many letters couldn't possibly be sent. Dumbledore did that on fucking purpose.

And about Mrs Figg... Surely she saw Harry working like a house-elf. He was so thin and he always worked so much. So when he did some painting or gardening for hours she should have noticed. And she did, clearly.

And sending Hagrid to get Harry? Seriously?! That man is a bumbling fool (He's great, but still) that hasn't even completed his education!

And the whole Hagrid getting the stone from Gringotts thing... That's obviously a setup.

And when Hagrid stopped Harry from getting a book on hexes to use on Dudley? Well...looks like someone didn't want their weapon to be knowledgeable...

And first year.... Well... That's a shitshow.

First, there was the Weasleys at Kings Cross and Ron... He said that there was no more room on the train. Liar. It was a magical train. And he could have sat with his siblings.

Now, I don't think that was outright malicious of the Weasleys. Course not. But it was likely that Dumbledore asked them to befriend Harry. Probably to make sure he was a Gryffindor. And Light. He didn't want another Tom Riddle.

And as for the troll, surely there would be creature repelling wards on Hogwarts, or else the creatures in the forest would be coming in nearly all the time! Dumbledore must have wanted that to happen for Harry and Ron to befriend Hermione, so Harry wouldn't want to research and study things himself.

And the trials at the end, those were easy. A first year did them! And surely Snape knew better than providing the antidote and a way to escape during his riddle. Idiot.

Also, what are the odds that a staircase could send Harry and Co right to the third floor corridor? Hmm? And Dumbledore telling everyone that the corridor was forbidden is like asking the group of reckless teenagers (Gryffindors) to go there.

And showing down with Voldemort... Well, that was just no...

Dumbledore didn't react like a normal adult when finding out that an 11-year-old boy faced down with the terrorist who killed his parents and then killed one of his teachers. Harry should have gotten therapy!

And surely Pomfrey, or anyone, could have seen that Harry was malnourished. Neither one of his parents were that small, and his ribs could clearly be seen! He could barely eat right!

And second year...surely Dumbledore knew then that Harry was abused? There were bars on his window and the Weasleys had to rescue him. They clearly spoke about how he was treated!

And what with the whole Chamber of Secrets thing... Dumbledore was over a century old and the Chamber was already opened once. And he probably had an idea of where it was, what with Myrtle and all. He knew damn well where and what the basilisk was.

And really, couldn't they buy mandrakes from someone else instead of waiting for theirs to grow? We're talking about comatose children here!

And Dumbledore knew damn well about Lockhart. That man was a clear fraud and the fact that he didn't fire him was clear negligence at best and maliciousness at worst.

And Snape too. That man didn't teach a thing! He bullied everyone he was Neville's worst fear! Take that in, Nev's worst fear was not Bellatrix (the woman who tortured his parents into insanity), but his teacher instead.

And letting Harry go into the Chamber? Only giving him a sword and a bird? Pathetic. And it was not "Harry's loyalty to Dumbledore" either. That's pure Albus Dumbledick™ bullshit.

And third year... All I'll say is that Dumbledore either knew Sirius was innocent or he wanted him to stay away from Harry. He was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot! He was able to call for a trial for a man who never got one if there was new evidence to be found. Just use Veritaserum, memories, and witnesses you dick.

Fourth year. That was less fabricated by Dumbledore, but surely he could have helped Harry in the tasks? All the other headmasters did. And yeah, I guess it wasn't fair with Cedric and all, but at least he could have arranged for extra lessons. Harry was only 14 and competing in a death match!

And during the end, Harry was clearly weakened and hurt, and Dumbledore still made him tell exactly what happened instead of immediately sending a clearly traumatized boy to Pomfrey.

And fifth year... The idea that Dumbledore thought Harry was possessed was bullshit. And an excuse to keep things from Harry.

That whole year was a bunch of bullshit. Dumbledore and McGonagall knew damn well what Umbridge was doing. It's why Minnie stopped Harry from finishing his sentence and telling her. She already knew.

The Occlumency lessons were bullshit as well. Snape didn't teach Harry a thing. All he did was rape his mind and that was it. It likely opened Harry's mind to Voldemort even more.

And about the prophecy, Dumbledore really went to great lengths to keep it hidden from Harry. For years.

It's simply pathetic.

And sixth year... Dumbledore didn't even properly train Harry! He barely knew how to fight! And Hogwarts's education was mediocre at best. Harry had no chance to defeat Voldemort in a duel.

And asking Harry to get Slughorn's memory was a stupid idea. Dumbledore could easily have gotten it himself instead of asking a teenager to do it.

And he didn't tell Harry he was going to die either! Why?!

And making him go on a Horcrux hunt was stupid, too. The Golden Trio were just kids!

That's about all I know, for the moment. Though there was also the time where Harry was a horcrux and Dumbledore planned his death ever since he was a baby.

He was just a boy! Dumbledork had no right!

And yeah, that's about it. Dumbledore is a manipulative, psychopathic bastard. There's a reason I bash the man. Kinda.

Yikes. This is long. It says a lot about Dumbledore's character though. And I didn't even speak about anything before the series.

Screw you, Dumbles.

💩 ~ a hater

[dilfdoctordoom]

Literally all the oc questions I’m 👀📝

Urs... you’re my favourite person ever. Let’s get into this.

scarlet - What would your OC do if they found a mysterious sack of money just left unattended?

Okay, before Coast City gets blown up... Autumn tries to return it to their owner. There’s probably a small moment where she considers keeping it for herself, but, like, she’s a hero. She’s gotta do the right thing here, she’s pretty sure there’s a rule about it somewhere.

After the Coast City debacle... she doesn’t hesitate to keep for herself. Does she need it? Not really. Does she care? Also not really. She’s at a very selfish point in her life & is kind of... apathetic to other people.

amber - What would your OC do if they found out their significant other(s) are cheating on them?

Oh... this would be a mess. It doesn’t matter if it’s before Coast City is destroyed because Autumn’s already full of trust issues & if someone cheated on her... she’s already mentally unstable, people, stop hurting her.

She’d go to Hal, no matter what. Would that end well for her significant other? Good God no. Hal does not need a satantic cricket taking him for a joyride to commit murder for his protege, okay, he was down for that like two weeks after meeting her.

There’s definitely a messy break-up, because Autumn is generally a dramatic person, but something like this? Yeah, she’s torched their place. It’s on fire and she does not care.

Absolutely follows it up by crashing with either Hal or Carol & if she does go to Carol, then Hal will arrive with her favourite take-out. May bring her to beat up bad guys.

honey - What would your OC do if they lost a treasured possession? Imagine that there is no way this item could be replaced or bought again, that it is 100% gone forever and they can’t get it back.

She goes insane and commits mass murder. Autumn would probably freak out. Like, she’s got a little arrowhead necklace from Roy & she doesn’t wear it anymore (she hasn’t since Coast City) but it means everything to her & if she lost it... she’d be a wreck. Roy doesn’t even talk to her anymore & it’s pretty much all she has left of their friendship, the only thing that remains & yeah, it’d mess with her if she lost it.

And, well. It’s firmly established that this girl cannot regulate her emotions in a healthy manner.

seafoam - What would your OC do if they ever got stranded somewhere or lost? They have only a few basic supplies with them and have no idea where they are and are completely alone with only themself to rely on.

As shown... a lot... if Autumn’s on her own for too long, she loses her mind and starts to blow stuff up. She’s stranded on some alien planet with no way off? Nobody’s coming to get her? She’s alone for an extended period of time? Her powers are going haywire. She’d probably try to calm herself down, but it wouldn’t really work.

Honeslty, pre-Coast City Autumn would actually handle it a lot better. She has literal endless faith in Hal, Guy, John, etc, & convinces herself within minutes that they’ll find her. All she’s gotta do is survive & since Ollie’s taken her on so many camping trips, she reckons she’s fine.

cerulean - What would your OC do if time suddenly froze only for them?

Like, okay, Autumn in the beginning? She engages in assorted shenanigans, really dumb pranks that’ll never be able to linked back to her. She absolutely frames Wally for a few. They’re all pretty harmless thiugh & it’d take her a while to freak out, even slightly, because she’s accustomed to weird stuff happening & is like... ‘oh is this what we’re doing today? cool i’m drawing a mustache on martian manhunter’s face’

Later, she’s using it for murder, I don’t care. Time freezes, she realizes what’s happened & is like, well, I guess I gotta kill Slade Wilson, don’t I?

lilac - What would your OC do if they found a baby abandoned on their doorstep in the middle of the night?

She freaks out! Like, I’m putting this when she’s an adult so... she doesn’t fully trust herself around kids? I mean, look at Rachel; she did almost kill her. And babies are so fragile, she’s almost definitely holding this one wrong, oh god, she’s gonna crack their skull.

She brings the baby to Guy, in the end, because a) she trusts him & b) he’s a social worker, he’s gonna know what to do with a baby.

(Guy, meanwhile, is genuinely amused that she seems terrified by a baby. Trigon? Fine, no problem, she can handle that. A small human? This is it, this is how the entire world ends).

peach - What would your OC do if someone confessed their love to them?

There’s been, like, three people to tell Autumn that they love her in a romantic sense... when Arisia told her,  Autumn was practically bouncing off the walls because her amazing, talented, beautiful girlfriend just told her that she loves her, oh my god, this is literally the best day of her life. To be honest, if anyone in her previous relationships had dropped the L bomb, she wouldn’t have been so okay with it, but her & Arisia have been friends for years.

Dick tells her that he loves her eventually &, uh, she doesn’t handle it that well. Like!!!! Autumn doesn’t think she deserves Dick in any way & she especially doesn’t think that she deserves his love, not after everything that’s happened. She’s also a lil dumb because every single ‘I could never hate you’ was a low key declaration of love.

When Kory tells her, it’s after Dick & Auutmn have suggested that idea of all of them beingin a relationship. I mean, let’s be honest, Autumn’s been in love with Kory for a while (seriously... Autumn, you don’t platonically think about your friends like that, there’s no such thing as platonic make out sessions, please grow a brain cell xoxo) & that goes both ways! And Autumn & Dick wouldn’t even be having that comversation with Kory if they weren’t very seriously committed to the idea of being with her, so... yeah, tht one goes down very well.

pearl - What would your OC do if a natural disaster hit their home? What would they do in the aftermath?

[insert wheezing here]

chocolate - What would your OC do if they were forced to sacrifice one of their most beloved people to save another of their beloved people? Only one can survive.

Okay, so!!! Matter of the fact is, Autumn, my sweet darling angel, would sacrifice literally anyone for Hal, even Dick. He is the single most important person in her life. Like, honestly, if Parallax had outright said that he needed Autumn to come with him... that’s it. She’s gone. He’s her family, in a way that nobody else really acomplishes, because he’s the only person that Autumn’s ever truly vinerable with.

So, yeah, if she whas to choose between Hal & anybody else, Hal wins. Hal & the universe? She picks Hal. He’s really not the biggest fam of this but, uh, he’s the same.

She would put Dick over a lot of people, too. He’s never gonna reach Hal’s level, but, yeah, she’d let a few people die for him. 

If it ever came down to her picking between him & Hal though... she’d hate herself, but she knows who she’d pick. She always does.

pitch - What would your OC do if they were being interrogated for valuable information? *bonus* What would they do if this interrogation turned down a darker road e.g torture?

It... depends on who’s doing the interrogation, to be honest. Because, like, it has happened to her a lot. Girl has been taken into government questioning over things like the GLs but she does not talk. Autumn is loyal to a fault & it’s very hard to get her to crack.

Unless you’re Sinestro, in which case... yeah, fun added bonus of easily being able to emotionally manipulate her.

When it comes to torture... hm. Before everything that happened with Casot City & Parallax, I’d say it’d eventually work on her. Like, faster in her younger years, slower when she’s older, but ultimately, yeah. She’s between the ages of 13 and her early twenties, so she’d definitely crack eventually.

After that whole shit show, though? Lmao, no. No form of torture is gonna get through her. Exception is, of course, Sinestro for the sheer emotional pain it’d cause, but beyond that? Not happening. Although, honestly, in the direct aftermath of everything... who the fuck is even gonna try hurting her. Who even has the balls.

[sarah1281-takethree]

Velma just up and takes a spatula land just...peels all the paint away. Everyone’s like “what the hell Velma” and she’s just like “Whoops, guess I got carried away, no fucks given.” Like seriously rude. And expensive. If they weren’t evil was anyone going to reimburse that? 

Fred thinks a lot of holographic technology in 1998. A lot more than he should. 

Daphne doesn’t realize her show about exposing fake hauntings is going to be a mega-hit. 

It’s so weird to see Scooby hate cats. Is that a thing? 

He’s not talking about it but I can just FEEL how hard Fred is thinking about traps right now. 

And I love how secure Fred and Daphne are in their love for each other that Fred feels free to point out when another woman is attractive and Daphne’s just like “that has nothing to do with our ghost.” 

Also maybe Lena should have asked them if they had a dog or anything. Mentioned the cats, it would have been pretty natural. 

Southern Mark Hamill just attacked Scooby and Shaggy with a giant pig. Cool stuff. 

Every single Scooby Movie has real life supernatural stuff. I love it. 

I think the gardener wasn’t just undercover but legit hates all these people. He was grumbling “gardener” was Lena said he was the gardener so could do it. Someone tell him that’s not some kind of slur, it was literally his job. Ethically what does he do with the pay? 

Why don’t the ghosts and zombies be more specific about warning people? I mean, they outright wrote “get out beware”? Preferably when the cat people aren’t around. 

“Are you sure it was a zombie?” Fred asks. Like forget “I know a zombie when I see one” because at this point there’s probably been plenty of zombies in movies that don’t quite fit into canon. But like. What else wasit supposed to have been? Hallucinations or zombies or people pretending to be zombies. No, Fred, hologram technology isn’t there yet! 

Velma suspicious that the gardener was outside. 

Shaggy attempting to trim his beard hair but he took a pair of safety scissors and opened and shut them real fast a few times without actually touching the hair part. 

Now there’s the ghost again all “Get away! Get away!” Not to judge but say something like “They’re going to kill you.” And how exactly are they supposed to go with no ferry? And also how are there not stories about how people keep coming there and no one ever comes back? Or maybe there are but the gang didn’t hear about it before they went. I mean, there’s certainly lots of bodies around suggesting murder no one ever dug up. 

Fred tried on then rejected his lucky ascot. Everything that happens from here on out is on him. 

Having a visceral negative reaction to Velma’s glasses getting dirty and her not having anything to clean them with so Scooby breathes on them then wipes it off with his tail. I have tried to clean sunglasses. That would make it so much worse. She could at least try her shirt or sleeve like everyone else. 

Also I’m concerned Scooby does not know that he is a dog. And why would Simone want Scooby to go eat in the kitchen with the cats? 

I knew it. Gardener straight-up pretended to be a zombie because he’s a dick and hates them. 

God, Velma’s voice in particular is SO OFF. 

Lena: Fred, do be careful. Everyone else can choke for all she cares. 

Fred, upon spotting the gardener just out walking with a lantern much like they are doing: You must be the bad guy! 

Okay, sure, not being around when ghosts and zombies appear might be suspicious if they hadn’t only seen him like three minutes total and also not believing in the supernatural you’re pretending to be and trying to convince people of isn’t very good. 

I hate to say it but I think Velma is villain-profiling again and this time she’s dragging Fred down with her. 

Gardener: Why do you keep treating me like a suspect?  Velma: Well there’s literally only four other people we’ve ever seen on the island and we haven’t seen Jacques since we were dropped off so there’s a good chance he’s dead already. Also stop whining we think you’re suspicious when you won’t stop being a dick.  Gardener: *feels villain profiled* Then heaves giant rock over his head just to fuck with Velma before unnecessary using it to demonstrate quicksand he knew was there. Like, what, she won’t believe him and will walk into it? 

Daphne single-handedly captured a zombie. Then Shaggy. Could have captured Scooby, too, if he hadn’t wandered in all on his own. Daphne, please wash your hands very thoroughly after pulling all over that corpse face and getting your hands in its mouth. 

“You’re not a skeptic, Fred, you’re in denial!” Very nice, Daphne, now go tell that to Velma instead. 

Wow this chase music is just so painfully 1998 lol

Velma, really not happy Daphne told you everything that happened but you needed Fred to say it did before you believed it. Believe women!  “Jinkies, sorry!” Velma says after she took the opportunity to just punch the gardener because Fred and Daphne were being voodooed into hitting things. 

“You say the zombies DRAGGED Simone away?” Velma asked, physically pained they’re not even trying as she pokes the perfectly calm and very obvious footsteps heading away from them. 

Fred awkwardly had his hand on Lena’s shoulder when Velma started accusing her and it very quickly found its way off of it lol

Not for nothing but I can’t believe they didn’t bother making voodoo dolls of Scooby. The dog. With all the cats. And all the trouble he’s caused. And also that Scooby and Shaggy didn’t take the dolls with them when they found them!

You know, when I first watched this years ago I just assumed like the pirate guy was super evil (but not SO super evil to commit an acts other than murder) but now I just bet that the reason that pirate guy killed everyone was because it was the late 1700s and they were worshipping cat gods. Religious tolerance whom? 

And if Lena and Simone were equals how come Simone gets to be the fancy mistress and Lena has to be the maid/servant/cook/whatever? 

You know, if Lena and Simone didn’t suck then they would have just accepted death after getting revenge and not gone out luring people in. Like, fine, if invaders come and try and attack you you get a pass but those were the most touristy of tourists in Hawaiian fucking shirts. How do they not see their the bad guys here now?

So do zombies like regularly dog-pile the cat creatures in order to try and save this year’s victims or is that a new thing they’re trying this year? 

And sure, Simone, insult Daphne for being a television reporter like you really understand what that even is. 

Not for nothing but if their faces were melting because the wax was melting how does their face, like, unmelt if the wax is moved from the fire? 

There was too much fear and too little “EW DEAD BODIES” when the zombies were around. 

Also how long has Jacques been in this? Decades? A few years? 

Why do they still worship the cat god who they view as having cursed them? Why don’t the creepy cats disappear too? They are clearly possessed at the end. 

Poor Mark Hamill. Just showed up long enough to be a dick. 

Honestly, I think Beau is a suspect to Velma until he pulls out his badge and doesn’t turn into a cat monster lol Speaking of, did he carry that with him everywhere while undercover? Seems pretty risky. And he’s going to ruin his reputation talking about cat monsters on Daphne’s show. 

Now it looks like Velma has a crush on him which is ridiculous because I’m pretty sure she’s 15. And I kind of ship her with Shaggy in some circumstances but other than that I’m pretty sure she’s a lesbian. 

Velma, stop fawning over the cop. It’s embarrassing. 

[mustardprecum]

27 for harringrove please 🥺 (it’dbe appreciated if steve’s the one that’s preggers thank you!)

[27 “I’m pregnant.”]

Steve had decided to try and get pregnant. The notion came to him shortly after El’s birthday, when Steve realized that all his kids were over twenty-one. The abrupt ache of an empty nest got the ball rolling, and after more researching and reading than he’d done during any one year of school, he made his decision.

Most of the people in his life were well meaning when he told them, but also rudely disbelieving. After all, Steve was a single omega in his mid-twenties, mostly living off a trust fund from his parents and a hefty inheritance from his great aunt. Money he was very grateful for, considering he’d never be able to afford owning a house in the new development near downtown with his sporadic part time jobs. 

(Good ol’ Aunt Phyllis would have been stoked to find out that he choosing to be a single parent.) 

The issue with the public perception of his personality was the fact that it was largely based off the person he was in his sophomore and junior year of high school. Steve had grown and changed from the flakey teenager. One could almost say he was literally an adult. 

At least Dustin supported him. Mostly. 

“Steve, you can’t be serious.” 

Dustin sat at the island in Steve’s kitchen, eating a bowl of cut up strawberries that Steve had put out for him. Old habits die hard, and Steve had been one of the few people who could get a young Dustin to eat his fruits and vegetables. “I mean of all the people in Hawkins, in the world, why him?” 

Earl grey tea was kind of gross, but Steve was trying to stop drinking coffee for his caffeine fix. He took his time stirring in a packet of stevia while he considered his answer. 

Billy Hargrove had come along in Steve’s senior year of high school and had promptly become a massive pain in the ass. Although, one thing that set him apart from all the other alpha meatheads was the fact that his taunts and jabs were purely personal for Steve, and never once did he resort to misogyny. 

God, the bar had been so low at that time. 

Over the past ten years, Billy had mellowed out slightly but noticeably. He worked at the mechanic Steve frequented for oil changes and tune ups, and lived in the periphery of Steve’s life because of his association with Max. And he still seized every opportunity to try and rile Steve up by getting in his personal space and commenting on his ‘ugly’ shirts. 

(Steve didn’t know when Billy developed a hatred of polo shirts, but it was apparently long lasting.)  

In the grand scheme of things though, none of it mattered more than one thing: Billy’s genes. He was a dick of the massive variety but goddamn if he hadn’t spent the past ten years being the most gorgeous person Steve had ever seen in his entire life. 

He smoked like a chimney and often had a beer in hand, but his skin was clear, his hair was soft, and his abs were extremely enviable. 

“I don’t want to go through a clinic,” Steve started. He quickly held up his hand before Dustin could start ranting. “I’m not going to ask someone I babysat to donate. I’m not really close with any other alphas in town, and an alpha is my best bet.” 

Dustin knew all of that. As a male omega, Steve would have fertility issues with a beta for scientific reasons he didn’t actually understand. Mike and Lucas had both been presented as options in Dustin’s argument, but the idea was too wrong. 

“Billy is…close enough, but far enough. You know?” Steve set his mug down; he honestly didn’t want to drink his tea. “If he says yes, working on inception will be pretty easy. If he says no, it’s not really a big deal. We’re not friends, so it won’t have to be awkward.” 

Privately, Steve assured himself that it had nothing to do with the crush he used to have on Billy. Therefore, it wasn’t inappropriate to ask. 

“But he’s such a tool,” Dustin said around a mouthful of strawberries. “Do you think he won’t be a tool about it?” 

“God. I know he’s going to be a tool about it. But,” Steve shrugged. “Just think of how cute my baby would be.” 

Dustin raised an eyebrow. 

“I would have a really cute baby, Dustin. And you would have a really cute little baby pseudo-sibling.” 

Poor Dustin, the only child, twenty-three and still wanting that younger sibling. He perked up, still looking skeptical but finally chewing quietly. 

“Plus, it’s all going to be in a contract. No parental or financial obligation,” Steve added to sweeten the deal. “I’ll get a positive test, pay him, and he’ll fuck off to wherever he spends his time.” 

Dustin hummed, drumming his fingers on the table. “I’m still godfather?” 

“Obviously.” 

“Okay,” Dustin bounced, smiling broadly. He was excited for a baby, and when he smiled, he looked like a cheetah cub. “Well, Max said she’d text you his number so…good luck?” 

“Thanks.” 

-

Sending the text was nerve-wracking, even though all he sent was ‘can we get lunch?’ Steve had put his phone face down and tried to distract himself with scrolling through reddit and Tumblr, but waiting for a response was even worse than sending the message. 

He’d followed up with several messages explaining who he was, once it occurred to him that Billy probably had no idea who was texting him. Eventually, Billy finally responded telling Steve to stop blowing up his fucking phone. 

Despite Steve’s fears of Billy’s attitude after that response, he was invited to a Starbucks in between their homes. Steve distantly recalled Max mentioning that she was envious of the studio apartment that Billy was renting over a storefront. How privileged was he that he couldn’t imagine having the same room functioning as the bedroom/living room/public space? 

Billy was already there when Steve arrived. He was sipping a green frappucino and staring down at his phone. 

The last time Steve had seen Billy even in passing was the month before during the Hopper family’s Fourth of July party. He was even more gorgeous than Steve remembered even looking a little grimey like he’d come straight from work. 

“Hey,” he approached the table, trying to smile when Billy’s blue eyes snapped up. “Thanks for meeting me. Mind if I grab a drink real quick?” 

“Depends, pretty boy,” Billy leaned back, smiling in that special way that gave Steve a major sexuality crisis in high school. “Why did you ask me out?” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Steve whipped his head around as if anyone else cared about the two of them meeting up. No one was looking. He sat down heavily and sighed. “I’m…I have a favor to ask. But I kind of wanted to ease into asking.” 

“Interesting,” Billy drawled. “What could ‘King Steve’ possibly want from little ol’ me.” 

“I’m almost thirty, Billy. Please don’t call me that.” Steve looked down at his hands, maybe this was a bad idea. There was no way Billy would agree to being a donor. 

“Look Harrington, I’m leaving in five minutes so spit it out.” 

“Oh come on,” Steve whined, bouncing his leg. “It’s not the sort of thing you just spit out!” 

Billy slurped loudly at his drink. “You want me to murder someone?” 

“Obviously not. Kind of…the opposite?” Steve winced when his voice went squeaky toward the end. He cleared his throat, deciding to continue because Billy had wrinkled his nose. “Okay, so, I used to babysit a lot and I know how to take care of kids. I miss taking care of kids. And, well, I have money and time, right?” 

“Right,” Billy said blankly. 

“Right,” Steve nodded and took a deep steadying breath. “So I’ve decided that I want to start a family. With a baby. And me. Single.” 

Bringing up starting a family generally brought up the question of Steve finding someone to settle down with. The issue was that he didn’t want a partner or a romantic relationship; he didn’t feel that having a child should presuppose finding a mate.

“But I need a sperm donor and, uh, well,” Steve’s nerves were completely frayed at that point. Which was probably why he ended doing the saddest jazz hands. 

The blank look was gone and Billy’s eyes were practically sparkling, which Steve translated as trouble. He bit his lip, knee still bouncing noisily under the table. 

“A donor,” Billy practically purred. “You want me to get you pregnant.” 

When he phrased it like that, Steve couldn’t help but blush. He cleared his throat, wishing he’d just gotten a drink before bothering to speak to Billy so that he could sip it and buy some time. “Basically. You don’t have to sleep with me, the cup method works fine.” 

“And other than not-sleeping with you,” Billy sounded a little snotty. “What’s in it for me?” 

Only a little mocking was infinitely better than outright refusal. And he was getting to the part Steve was actually comfortable with. “$600 for each attempt,” he said. It was a lowball, but considering it was under the table, the supplemental income wasn’t half bad. “I’m tracking my cycle, so we’d only need to try about two days each month.” 

“And after?” 

Steve paused. “After inception I’ll give you an extra thousand.” 

“No, I mean once you’re pregnant, how does it work?” The serious look on Billy’s face was unnerving. Steve was briefly worried that he was about to say he wanted to stay in the picture. “You know how to take care of kids that don’t go home at the end of the day?” 

“Does anyone?” 

Billy’s face hardened. “You don’t just have a kid on a whim, Harrington,” he said lowly. “Can you actually take care of one for the rest of your life?” 

Living in a town like Hawkins and having a direct relationship with Max meant Steve was familiar with the Hargrove family history. How Billy’s mother abandoned him, how his father abused him, how long he’d lived in that toxic place before finally escaping and taking Max with him when it seemed Neil was turning on her as well. 

Despite how horrible that was, Steve couldn’t help the warm feeling in his chest. 

“I don’t yell, I don’t believe in corporal punishment, and I’m on book four of twenty on my parenting book reading list.” He didn’t add that they were all audiobooks because he had such a hard time reading. “I wouldn’t try to have a baby if I wasn’t ready to do everything I could to give them a good life.” 

Steve hoped his face was as open as he wanted it to be as Billy searched him. Of all the reactions he expected, this hadn’t been one. It made him feel better about Billy as a candidate. 

Finally, Billy slurped his frappucino again and grinned wolfishly. “When do we start?”

Continued on AO3

[bigskydreaming]

I just read that after Tarantulla raped Dick they were going to marry?! WTF DC THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPP is this true?

Yeah, in the issues following Blockbuster’s death and the rape, Dick was a total and complete mess, and Tarantula pretty much spent the next several issues taking advantage of his emotional state. She encouraged him to get drunk to feel better, and tried to use his more vulnerable drunken state to do a number of things which included targeting villains like Copperhead for the sake of her own personal agenda and almost getting married at a chapel. I believe she’d gotten a marriage certificate and everything, and the only thing that kept that from happening is right before it did, Dick got a call from Bruce summoning him back to Gotham to help with the War Games storyline, and the city-wide gang war that had erupted. 

(I honestly can’t remember if it was outright stated or textualized in the issues, but it was heavily implied that there was sexual interaction between Dick and Tarantula during this period…..I don’t want to call it them having sex, because Dick wasn’t in a coherent state of mind to be making the choice to have sex based on his normal priorities. My personal interpretation has always been that Dick let Tarantula drag him along from place to place during this time and ‘consented’ to having sex with her because he was kinda trying to….retroactively reframe what she’d done to him on the roof in issue #93, if that makes sense? Like, my take is that Dick was heavily in denial at this stage, and was kinda trying to convince himself that if he made the ‘choice’ here and NOW to have sex with Tarantula, then he could from there kinda convince himself that what had happened on the roof wasn’t any different. Like ‘well maybe I didn’t technically consent at the time, but see, I’m having sex with her now, and that means I probably would have anyway if my head had just been a little clearer.’ Make no mistake - I’m DEFINITELY not suggesting that this in any way makes what happened in #93 any less of actual rape, and there’s no interpretation IMO of the later scenes between them where Dick was making full use of his own agency rather than just unhealthily trying to cope with something he was still trying to process as him having been victimized by rather than a willing party too. It was all just messy as fuck, is what I’m saying. And Tarantula, whatever she thought she was doing, was very much manipulating the fuck out of Dick at his most vulnerable moments through all of this).

Tarantula went to Gotham with him, and even ‘helped’ the Batfam due to the fact that Bruce kinda just….took the fact that she was accompanying Dick and he wasn’t protesting it as a sign of him vouching for her, instead of like….the fact that Dick wasn’t remotely in the right state of mind of to be making healthy decisions, and was pretty obviously on a path to self-destruction. He was extremely reckless throughout the War Games storyline, getting shot in the leg by cops without it even phasing him, heedlessly risking his own life in order to go after Firefly (who just a couple weeks earlier had been hired by Blockbuster to burn down Haly’s Circus), and he basically gave the impression that he didn’t really care if he got both of them shot by the cops while he was going after Firefly - to the extent that it freaked Firefly out and he was yelling wtf are you doing, you Bats aren’t supposed to act like this. 

In the immediate aftermath of the War Games storyline, while still recovering from a gunshot wound in his leg, Dick left Gotham again without a word to anyone, just leaving his Nightwing costume abandoned in the Cave. He went back to Bludhaven, with Tarantula following him, and there he turned both himself and Catalina in for the murder of Blockbuster. (He turned himself in as Officer Dick Grayson, who’d been fired from the force before Blockbuster’s death, and basically presented himself as a cop who’d gone rogue rather than implicating himself as Nightwing, so as not to draw any heat back towards the rest of the Batfam by association). He was in jail for like a day or two, but then his former partner and now the captain of the precinct, Amy Rohrbach, had him released and said she refused to let him throw his life away out of guilt for something he didn’t even do. 

(She’d known his identity for some time, and its the reason he quit being a cop, she told him he had to choose and it was a conflict of interest….BUT the very night Blockbuster died, she came to him, knowing what Blockbuster had been doing and how he’d been targeting everyone Dick loved in his civilian life, and she offered to give him his gun and badge back so he’d be ‘covered’ if he had to shoot to kill Blockbuster in their inevitable confrontation. Dick refused to take them though.)

But anyway, when Amy made it clear that she wasn’t going to sit back and let Dick throw himself on his sword out of misplaced guilt for a murder he hadn’t actually committed, and was willing to drag herself down with him if he pushed it, Dick was released and he continued to spiral….and this is when he came up with his plan to infiltrate the mob and then from there the Society of Supervillains as Renegade. He first worked as an enforcer for the mob, nicknamed “Crutches” for the fact that he was still on crutches due to his leg injury, but this didn’t stop him from being effective….and then once he got what he’d wanted out of that he progressed to developing the Renegade persona and working for the Society and with Deathstroke. Basically, all of this was part of a plan he’d come up with to ensure Bludhaven’s safety in the longterm, without his presence….he was explicitly counting on not being around to protect Bludhaven himself, mostly because he didn’t deserve to be in his eyes, and it was heavily implied that he was at least passively suicidal at this time and was enacting this plan as kinda a form of ‘getting his affairs in order.’ 

Basically, the idea was he used his infiltrations to get leverage over the various mobs and make deals with supervillains notorious enough to ensure other villains obeyed a decree to stay out of Bludhaven….and ultimately his plan was to have Bludhaven become a kinda ‘no-fly zone’ for supervillains, the mob and superheroes alike, a city that was left alone for its citizens to live without outside interference. He’d gotten the leverage he needed to keep the mobs from operating in Bludhaven and had a supposed agreement with Deathstroke to keep the villains out….when Slade went back on his word and cooperated with the rest of the Society to drop the nuclear supervillain Chemo on Bludhaven and destroy the city just before Dick managed to bring his months long plans to fruition.

So, this is why if you’ve seen me post about the Blockbuster stuff before, I tend to say I hate how its been boiled down and reduced to just the rape on the rooftop by Tarantula. Yes that was bad enough on its own, but there was SO MUCH SHIT being thrown at Dick from EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE, simultaneously, with no reprieve. Everything he was working towards was systematically thwarted and dismantled in both his civilian and superhero lives and nothing was going his way, and nobody anywhere was showing up to help him, and he truly was at rock bottom, and I hate hate hate people thinking he only has one or two major traumas in his life because that was like….a good year long exercise in misery for him. He canonically spent months undercover working within the mobs and the Society to try and make his plans happen, months surrounding himself by the worst of the worst and convincing himself all the while that he BELONGED among them. That was part of why he was doing what he was doing, make no mistake…..he fully believed at the time that he’d become no better than them.

And its why I loathe Bruce’s ultimate ‘pep talk’ to him, when Dick was finally recovering in the Batcave after Superman flew him out of radioactive, destroyed Bludhaven, where Dick had RUN BACK INTO in an attempt to save as many people as he could. “I can forgive you for Blockbuster’s death, if you really need me to, but I can’t and won’t forgive you for losing sight of the value of your own life.” REALLY, Bruce? Like, what the fuck is that? First off, why the fuck would you make that conditional like “if you really need me to”….if you think your son needs to feel you’ve forgiven him for something that wasn’t even his fault, just SAY THAT, without qualifiers. But…how the hell do you expect him to keep sight of the value of his own life if YOU’RE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND WHEN HE MOST NEEDS SOMEONE ELSE TO REMIND HIM HIS LIFE HAS VALUE???

Ugh.

So eternally annoyed with the non-resolution to all of that.

Oh, and also keep in mind that in comic book time, relatively speaking, all of this is not that long after Dick killed the Joker and Bruce like….walked off and said Dick needed to figure out how to live with that on his own. With them pretty much never actually resolving this, or addressing how freaking much of the fallout from Blockbuster’s death and his bystander role in it was probably Dick overcompensating for still feeling like he’d disappointed Bruce and betrayed his ideals by killing the Joker, and that Bruce hadn’t and wouldn’t forgive him for that.

He thought he was responsible for Blockbuster’s murder because he was already convinced he was a murderer, because nobody after Last Laugh just went to him and said “Look, who the fuck cares what Bruce thinks, it was the fucking Joker, he murdered your brother and was trying to murder your other brother, anyone who says you were wrong to kill the fucker can fuck off.”

But I mean, hey maybe that’s just me. LOLOL.