#i hope no one is killed but with the network move and tim being back… it feels more real than it has in a while

[seddair]

.

[creetchure]

Please tell me about your ideas for the fallout for like everyone post gotham war (if not everyone than just Jason is fine too, i am very curious about your ideas for an arc for him)

hi hello!!! my thoughts are more directed to jason because he's the one who went through the brunt of things, BUT i have thoughts on all of them. i also have sort of separate thoughts because of the detective comics anouncement, but they contain spoilers for the future issues of detective comics, so if you don't want that, i'm putting it under read more after this.

also typing this and realizing it's REALLY long, so i'm gonna put a tldr at the end of each character LMAO

first off, dick is never forgiving bruce for this. we know exactly how protective of his siblings he is -- he killed joker for implying having killed tim -- and i can't see him letting this slide, no matter how much bruce pleads the "it wasn't me i was being influenced by the personality i created as a backup". Of course, because they're bruceanddick and they're always in a cycle of coming back to each other, eventually, little by little, dick is going to start working with him again, but i don't think this is something he'll ever *forgive*. or forget for that matter. so to me, this should spark an arc of nightwing becoming more separate from batman than he's been in years.

TL;DR: Dick isn't forgiving bruce for this, but will eventually work with him again

second off. there are a lot of things i would like to see for jason, some more likely than others. ill start by what i *know* won't happen, but would be best for his character imo.

Jason is a character we've seen move forward and backwards so many times, mostly because he sells well, and so the writers keep him stuck in this red hood limbo of eing a loner and making friends, and hating bruce and forgiving him, and it's been the same arc since his resurection, and i'm tired. which is why i think what'd be best for him is an Oracle arc, for lack of a better term.

Jason will never leave Gotham for an extended period of time. it's home to him as much as it is to Bruce. he might go away for a bit (id like to see him in Blud but ill get into that later), but he'll always come back. he also will never give up trying to protect Gotham and the people in it, because he never has. But he can't be a vigilante in the same way anymore, functionally, what Bruce has done to him is profoundly disabling in day to day life, let alone doing things that are made to trigger the panic response.

I don't think that should stop him. Personally, my vision for it is to put him at the head of a spy network, to render Batman obsolete and stop major crime before it even happens (potentially also feeding batman fake info to make him look bad), but like. you could do other things. it's just the idea that i'm going with.

But I do think that unlike Dick, jason is going to forgive bruce for this (against his better sense or wishes. he does understand how fucked this is) because he understands altered states of mind (NOT talking about the pit. talking about good old fashioned brain fuckery). but it's also going to cause a rift in their relationship that i don't see them bridging anytime soon, and Jason *will* be extremely uncomfortable for a long time.

Thats only if they don't walk back the panic thing, though, which i firmly believe they will. a Red Hood solo has been in the works for ages, and is supposed to come p soon, and i doubt they'd start it off with Jason unable to *be* Red Hood. They might not fully fix it, but they'll make it much more manageable.

overall, i'd like to see Jason in Bludhaven after this for a bit. I kind of just want a focus on him and Dick for a while, though I dread what Tom Taylor might write of the two of them. I'd also like a mantle change, but that's just me dreaming.

TL;DR: if it was up to me, Jason would have an Oracle arc and be the head of a spy network. it's not, and all I can hope for is Jason moving to Bludhaven and detaching himself from Bruce for a while

third off, tim. I don't have many thoughts about him, if I'm honest, mostly because he's one of the least directly affected by Bruce's actions, imo. i'm also less of a fan of his character, making it harder for me to see all the implications that this arc will have on him. I do firmly believe that he'll stick to his siblings rather than Bruce, because he does know how to look at reality and call out Bruce's bullshit.

TL;DR: i don't know/don't care enough about Tim to have that many thoughts. he'll pick his siblings side.

fourth! Cass! She isn't really present in the event much (doesn't sell as well i assume) but this is important to me so. To me, this causes damage to her and Bruce's relationship as well, that he'll have to work to fix. She is loyal to the Bat and what the symbol represents before she is loyal to the man wearing the suit, and I think that to her, this is betrayal of the ideals Batman stands for. bruce isn't a hero in this arc, and he's not a symbol of hope like the bat stands for. What I would like for Cass is for her to keep going on the missions, keep doing good, but doing so independantly from Batman. She stops answering to him entirely up until she feels he has made amends and has worked himself back to the standard he used to be. I want her to stay in Gotham, and keep protecting it the way the Bat should, even from the bat himself.

TL;DR: cass should stay in Gotham and be batman and not return Bruce's calls.

Damian is the one i'm not exactly sure i know where the writers are leading, but i can still speculate and tell you what *id* do.

we know that him and bruce are still going to be friendly and on the same side by the end of this from Batman and Robin #1. we also know Damian in that issue is kind of distant, doesn't really stick around Bruce much. Williamson's damian always reads sort of. depressed. so idk how much of that is in reaction to Gotham war or just from the way Williamson characterizes him, but there's that.

Imo, Damian will forgive bruce, but is also internalizing a lot of the bad shit that happen in Gotham war. Bruce leaving him needs to be something that stays, because he's 14 and his dad is his hero and he left him behind *anyway* and that's bound to fuck you up.

So I think Damian is staying in Gotham, and he's staying with Bruce, but he's also going to be dealing with the aftermath of that for a while, potentially up to a boiling point, which i'd really like to see. Also i'd like to see this compound with the fact that Talia left him with his father, and how that computes together in his head etc etc.

TL;DR: Damian will stick by Bruce for better or for worse, and might have a shit time mentally dealing with the aftermath of this.

I don't have many thoughts on steph, babs, or selina, since 1) i don't know selina and babs well enough to speak on their character, and 2) steph hasn't been there much, and i don't have a Vision for her like i do for Cass.

okay. those are my thoughts. Now for those on the tec announcement

right so. forget literally all i've said about bruce, because he's going to die.

I'm not pulling this out of thin air, in issue 1080 of detective comics, it's said that Bruce is killed by the orghams, leading to the entirety of gotham city forgetting him. Now, I have no idea how this is getting implemented, so I can't say much about how the members of the Batfamily will react. But I can say that this is, in fact, the natural progression for bruce's character.

in the past year or so, both Zdarski and Ram V have been talking about how Bruce is getting too old, and putting more tangible, permanent consequences on what he does (losing a hand, zur, etc).

On top of that, he has been made to make amends with Dick, Tim, and Jason over the course of that same year (nightwing 100, cheer, failsafe arc, etc)

To me, this arc is the culmination of months of foreshadowing.

Though i'll admit, i thought they were going to just retire bruce for a little while, not fucking *kill him*. it won't last for more than a few years, he sells too well, but i genuinely thought this would be like a knightfall situation.

when it comes to the question of who gets to be batman (i swear, last paragraph and i'm done), i think that gotham war also serves to tell us that *no one* will be. I don't see Dick picking it up in those conditions, Jason won't either, Tim is scared of becoming batman, and Damian might but they won't really let him. ofc they won't let Cass take up the mantle either.

Woo. hope you're happy with this and tihs wasn't more than you bargained for. i'm a bit insane about this.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

i love thinking about how wally’s definition of a hero changed and evolved over time.

every kid thinks their parents are heroes, at least at first. for a couple, that hero-worship lasts well into adulthood. for others, it fizzles away in mutual laughs when they sit behind a wheel for the first time and shush their parents’ backseat driving, or when they take successfully take control of the kitchen for a night. and for some, it slips away much earlier. because rudy talked loudly at dinner about the trust his boss was placing in him at work, smiling smugly at wally as though telling him to take notes. but wally noticed him yelling at his mother when coming home from work, his steps stumbling, his posture menacing over the smaller but no less angry form. and wally had to bite back protests when rudy sneered about aunt iris, spitting the fact that she was adopted in her face, nevermind that she seemed to care for the west family more than anyone else in it. (saying this aloud would only end with a backhand to the face or a belt to the back, though, so wally kept quiet.) and, anyway, when wally grew up and helped the green lanterns slam the doors of a prison cell shut on his fathers face, wearing a manhunter uniform and looking for all the world like the traitor to humanity he was, wally was grateful his hero worship had drizzled down the drain early.

aunt iris was brilliant, aunt iris was kind, aunt iris was beautiful, but aunt iris was human. she stuck bandaids over wally’s scraped knees with gentle fingers and danced in the kitchen of a little apartment while she made wally’s favourite version of mac and cheese. she was real and present and there, but she wasn’t really a hero. because the world seemed to have a new definition of “hero”. there was a man with a cape and a symbol of hope flying unattainably high over metropolis, there were arrows sticking out of steel walls in star city, there were hushed whispers of a leather-clad demon and a beam of brutal light fluttering around him in gotham. but central city? wally’s home? had someone who could run faster than the speed of sound with lightning crackling in his wake, had someone who exuded sheer power, had someone who laughed in two-second television appearances, had someone who made jokes with kids he was saving to calm them down, had someone who cared about the city so goddamn much. he was everything wally had ever seen in a hero, and when aunt iris and her new boyfriend barry (wally kind of liked the guy so far) took him to the flash museum, wally stood in the center of it. he made a slow turn, taking in everything he could see and hear and feel. “s” could mean hope and a bat could mean vengeance, but that red and yellow bolt of lightning meant power��to wally, benevolent and uplifting power that made the lives of everyone it touched brighter. 

it took a christmas when wally was in 5th grade for him to realize that the flash was a hero of the people. central city loved him, and the flash loved them right back. but when wally was zapped with lighting, feeling unimaginable pain coursing through every single nerve in his body, barely even registering the chemicals that had gotten into his mouth, it was his uncle barry’s face looking down at him. it was uncle barry that never let go of his hand in the hospital, it was uncle barry that held him up every step of the way when his new powers (his new powers!) left him a stumbling, newborn foal. it was uncle barry that explained every single part of what happened to him, then at wally’s shy insistence, happily showed him around his lab. it was uncle barry that scoffed at his homework and wrote up some much more engaging problems for wally to do for fun. and it was uncle barry that presented him with his very own suit for christmas during that memorable 5th grade, and lifted him up easy as breathing when wally barreled into him for a hug. the flash was the hero of the people, but barry was wally’s hero.

of course, with his new name and new identity and new powers, he was exposed to a network of more super-people. superman was kind, if a bit bumbling. wonder woman’s biceps were bigger than wally’s entire head, but her laugh was as kind as aunt iris’ when wally told her that, and her grip was strong yet gentle when she scooped wally up and let him ride on her shoulders. uncle barry, no, the flash pouted theatrically when wally told him green lantern was funnier than him, but he cheered up when wally gave him a hug. batman was...well, first of all, real. wally honestly hadn’t believed he existed, and stepping cautiously into the batcave for the first time, wally couldn’t reconcile the near-invisible black mass moving silently around an outrageously high-tech cave with a human being. the reason for batman’s invitation became clear soon, though, because if the darkness was real, that meant the light had to be, too. robin was everything wally had ever imagined and more. he one-upped wally’s jokes with puns of his own and broke a man’s nose with a backflip and balanced on top of a telephone wire like he was walking on concrete and ordered curly fries exactly the way wally liked them. wally couldn’t do anything but marvel. 

over the years, he realized a couple things about his best friend. first, dick grayson, from the very beginning, had cast aside the notion of being “batman’s sidekick.” robin wasn’t a continuation of batman. robin was different, in everything from costume to demeanor to fighting style. dick wasn’t following batman’s legacy, he was creating his own. second, no matter how many times dick’s world burned down, he would always rebuild it. nightwing was a fitting name, a sort of poetic justice to it that wally himself never would have considered had dick not pointed it out. when robin was taken away from him, and the two of them lay huddled together, seething and devastated on clark kent’s couch, he built himself up again as nightwing. when jason todd was murdered, the robin suit cast aside as if caught up in a curse, dick wept at his mistakes, then did everything possible to correct them, gently but insistently shaping tim drake into a damn near perfect vigilante, an artist turning soft clay into an unbreakable vase. when dick’s memory was ripped away from him, with time he clawed his way back; when his father was killed, he built up batman again and honoured him the only way he knew how; when the feeling of touch and sensation and love that he used to adore was brutalized into the opposite by a spider, he broke apart in the presence of the titans, placing his trust in their capable hands, then with their help, stood taller than he ever had before. the amount of strength that took was awe-inspiring to wally. finally, third, dick never lost his light. the warmth that draws everyone to him, the kindness that healed their wounds, the mischievousness that broke their chains of despair and buoyed them upward in laughter. he never once lost it. he didn’t let many people see his breakdowns or his temper, but no matter the witness, he chose light over succumbing to the damning, over and over and over again.

a hero is someone you idolize, someone you aspire to be. wally had been trying to embody what dick stood for almost the entire time he knew him. from the way dick hugged him, the way the titans supported him unconditionally, the way the justice league respected him, the way central city loved the flash fiercely, and he loved them right back, wally liked to think he’d been successful.

that post about central city having a flash museum was the inspo for this. it did,,,,,get away from me a little at the end, and i got swept up in birdflash feels, but oh well. you get what i mean.

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @bonkybearjpeg @bikoncon @maplumebleue-blog-blog @sundownridge

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Hiii!! I really love your tumblr posts and I'm pretty new to the Batfam (meaning I have only read fics and textposts about them, no comics) and I wanted to ask about the year Bruce/Batman gets "lost in time". I know general things of what the kids have been doing–Dick became batman and fired Tim from robin, giving it to Damian, everyone thinking Tim was crazy for believing Bruce was alive, (don't really know what Jason was up to though, was he still murderous towards Tim? Does the pit still affect him? Also I have no idea about Cass and Duke, were they introduced at this point??) Anyways, my real question was why was Bruce lost in time, what villain put him there? And how did he get out? And how long was he "dead"? Was Bruce in another reality or like just asleep the whole time? Oh! And how soon did this happen after Damian got introduced to the family–a couple months?

I'm so sorry this is so long, but I hope you answer and thank you!!

(I’m going to try and cover all my bases here by going into how exactly Bruce “died,” what went down during the Battle For the Cowl, what the Batkids did while Bruce was gone, and how Bruce came back. Hopefully it all makes sense?? We’ll see how it goes lmao.)

Part 1 - What Happened to Bruce:

So there was this event called Final Crisis (which I won’t go completely into since it would make this post a million times longer than it already is), but the bottom line is that Darkseid wants to overthrow reality and release his Anti-Life Equation, which would overthrow the whole planet and turn everyone into slaves. (If you’re interested in knowing more about the storyline, here’s a Reddit thread that explains it WAY better than I could.) 

What I CAN tell you is that during his final confrontation with Darkseid, Bruce is hit by an Omega Beam and turned into a burnt chicken nugget killed. Poor guy.

Final Crisis #6

Clark and Diana bring the body back to the Batcave and break the news to the Batfamily. Batman #687 covers a good portion of the aftermath such as Bruce’s funeral, the Batfamily grieving, and Dick coming to terms with his new responsibility of becoming Batman.

Batman #687

Part 2 - Battle For the Cowl: 

Musical chairs time, fellas! After word gets out that Batman is gone, Gotham erupts into chaos. Dick doesn’t want to take over the mantle, Tim needs Dick to take over the mantle, and Jason says “fuck it” and takes over the mantle himself because somebody around here has to. He becomes this murderous psychopathic Batman and starts taking out criminals with deadly force because someone’s gotta do the job, so it might as well be him.

Batman: Battle For the Cowl #1

(Okay honestly, this series had some pretty bad characterization overall, which sucks since it’s such an important storyline. Jason is portrayed as this violent psychopath, which...okay, he was kind of insane after the Pit and all, but not to this degree. Personally, I choose to owe the bad characterization to Bruce’s death because as much as Jason resents Bruce for all he’s done, he does still love him and losing him would be devastating, which would exacerbate his already fragile mental health. As for Damian, this happens roughly three years after his first appearance, so we can assume it’s been a few months since he first joined the family. He’s still relatively new at this point, so nobody knows how to write him yet. He ends up being depicted as if his main two personality traits are Bratty and Assassin-Child and that’s it. It’s all just a mess.)

Anyway, Tim tells Dick to become Batman and stop Jason’s reign of terror. Dick says no, so Tim follows Jason’s lead by saying “fuck it” and putting on the cowl himself. He goes to confront Jason, which ends in Jason beating the crap out of him (again) and leaving him for dead after Tim declines his offer to become Jason’s Robin. Dick goes to save Tim and ends up fighting Jason. 

Battle For the Cowl #3

Dick wins, Jason disappears, Tim is fine, and Dick finally gets his head out of his ass and becomes Batman. 

Part 3 - What Happens to Each Batkid While Bruce is “Dead”?:

Dick: 

As I said, Dick becomes the new Batman a month after Bruce’s death. He’s got big shoes to fill, and it takes some time for him to get used to his new role. He and Damian end up flipping around the classic Batman and Robin dynamic, with Batman now as the fun counterpart to Robin’s edginess. Dick, Damian, and Alfred relocate to the penthouse above the Wayne Foundation building, operating out of a secret Bat-Bunker in the basement.

Batman #688

Jason: 

After Battle For the Cowl, Jason is still batshit insane and determined to make Dick’s already stressful life even harder by becoming a supervillain with an ugly costume and an even uglier hairstyle. (I know it’s just because the artist sucked, but still. Jason is horrifying to look at during this time.) He mostly just gets on Dick’s nerves by running around Gotham with his new sidekick Scarlet and killing criminals as Batman and Robin wannabes. Eventually, Dick has Jason committed to Arkham Asylum and he hangs out there until Bruce returns.

Batman and Robin (2009) #5

Tim: 

Tim...doesn’t do great after Bruce’s death, mentally. Dick makes Damian Robin, his reasoning being that Robin is more of a sidekick and he sees Tim as his equal. By making Damian Robin, Dick hopes that it will give him the stability he needs to keep him from straying back toward the “bad” side. (It’s the right move ultimately, although his execution was pretty messed up since he didn’t discuss it with Tim beforehand, but he’s allowed to make mistakes. Dick’s father just died and now he’s in charge of picking up the pieces of their broken family. It’s a lot to handle.) 

Long story short, Tim has a breakdown, realizes that Bruce is alive, dons the Red Robin identity, and cuts ties with his family to travel the world in search of proof. It’s a rough time. 

Red Robin #1

Damian: 

Our little guy becomes Robin! So proud of him! As I explained earlier, Dick makes Damian his Robin with the assumption that it will keep him out of trouble, and he’s right on that account. He mentors Damian, teaching him how to channel his violent instincts into something productive, and it works! Slowly but surely, Damian makes the transition from bratty assassin to actual hero!

Batman and Robin (2009) #22

Cass:

Duke sadly was not introduced at this point in time, so he missed out on all the pandemonium. Cass, however, has been Batgirl for years by now, but she got kind of pushed aside by the writers after Bruce’s death. Bruce disappears shortly after adopting Cass, but once he was “dead,” the writers sort of moved Cass around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with her. First she was with the Outsiders. Then they got disbanded and Cass tried forming a new network of heroes to take over for Batman if needed. Then she helped out in said network during Battle for the Cowl, taking care of a newly ravaged Gotham. Then Cass gave the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown after she became disillusioned with the role, thanks to the loss of her father and mentor. Then Cass picked up and moved to Hong Kong to “follow Bruce’s plans” by continuing whatever work he had set up for her there. It was all very vague and confusing, and Cass more or less got swept under the rug during this time. Thanks, writers.

Batgirl (2009) #1

Part 4 - How Bruce Came Back: 

When the Blackest Night storyline happens, the Justice League realizes that the corpse buried under Bruce’s grave is apparently not the real one and that he’s actually alive out there somewhere! How wild is that! This is further proven by Dick after he places Bruce’s body in a Lazarus Pit to revive, which has the same result because it’s very clearly Not Bruce and they should have listened to Tim from the start.

Batman and Robin (2009) #9

Anyway, what actually happened is that the Omega Beams that Darkseid shot at Bruce didn’t kill him, but rather blasted him back through time to the prehistoric era with his memories wiped. The Omega Energy inside of Bruce ends up catapulting him through various time periods, which is all part of Darkseid’s plan. With each time-hop, Bruce builds up more Omega Energy in his body which, when he gets back to his original time period, will be unleashed and destroy everything.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

It’s been a little under two years since Final Crisis, though in-universe it’s uncertain exactly how long Bruce has been “dead.” We can assume it’s been a year, give or take. The way he comes back is too scientific and complicated for me to understand, so uhhhh the bottom line is that Tim and a few Leaguers save Bruce at the Vanishing Point and the day is saved! Hooray! 

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6

(If you want to read about how it actually goes down, then I seriously recommend reading Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. It’s only six issues, so it’s a quick read and it explains the situation far better than I ever could.)

Bruce eventually reunites with his family after spying on them for a period of time as Insider to see what has changed in his absence:

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

After that, things quickly settle back into their new normal. Dick and Damian stay on as Batman and Robin. Bruce goes back to being Batman as well, with him handling Batman Incorporated business and Dick continuing as Gotham’s defender. Tim keeps the Red Robin outfit, Steph stays on as Batgirl, and Cass becomes Black Bat. Jason stays in Arkham for a while before filing an appeal to be moved to a regular prison. He kills 82 inmates in less than a week and gets transferred back to Arkham, which he promptly escapes from. It’s a ride, I tell ya.

Aaaaand that’s about it! I hope this answered all of your questions!

[kimberly-spirits13]

Batboys with Ambitious S/O HC:

Dick Grayson:

·      He met you one day while you were on the phone rushing to a meeting

·      Neither of you were paying attention

·      You bumped into each other and after apologizing and exchanging names cause both of you were both immediately like “hot damn” lol

·      Once you were finally out of your meeting, you saw that he had given you his number

·      It was dropped in his bag

·      Like Jesus you needed that trick with business cards or something

·      You texted him a few days later and he asked you out for a coffee

·      That was when he realized who he was dating

·      Your schedule was FULL and he understood that but like wow girl

·      Once you guys started dating he realized how dedicated you were with work

·      Was lo-key worried that you’d replace him with more work

·      You promised him, and yourself that you couldn’t do that

·      He’s really supportive

·      He is also always telling you to go tf to sleep

·      Doesn’t want you to end up like Bruce or Tim in that sense

·      Always there for moral support

·      Basically, like your personal cheerleader

·      The best person to go to when you get good news or even bad news but like

·      He goes nuts when you finally get where you’re going

·      Over all, a very supportive mother hen type, 10/10

Jason:

·      You guys had known each other before he died and were taken in together by Bruce

·      Needless to say, when Bruce found you and Jason, he had one wheel and you had the other

·      You guys had a great bond and he always knew you as the dreamer kind that always wanted more

·      You were so exciting to start school actually

·      You saw it as a step forward

·      Bruce knew about what you wanted to do because Jason would always talk about it

·      “Yeah Y/N wants to do *rambles for an hour*.”

·      Bruce wants the best for you and so he lets you do some more schooling first and then BOOM business is booming baby

·      Well sort of

·      I mean it obviously took a bit and then Jason died and that slowed things a TON

·      When Jay came back though, you were at the top

·      You hadn’t totally moved on from him at all and when he came back you were a mess for a few reasons

·      Took a vacation with him when schedule permitted

·      He doesn’t technically make you go to sleep

·      He just greatly encourages it

·      He is aggressively supportive

·      “Hell yeah Y/N, that’s my Gf/bf kicking the competition’s ass!”

·      “Jason, this is a formal event, don’t say that!”

·      “Sorry babe.”

·      You two are moved in together pretty much the moment he’s back

·      You two were best friends and always will be so yeah that was simple

Tim:

·      You wanted to make it big in the music industry

·      You’d come from a terrible position too

·      Grew up in Chicago with a very powerful family who was killed and went into an orphanage due to the mob

·      The moment you got out, you were making music

·      Good music too

·      You sky rocketed to the top of the charts

·      That’s when you started dating someone, got your heart broken and made a sad album and then after that a very independent kind of marching to the beat of your own drum album

·      He met you on the tour of that

·      You were his favorite singer and he related to you a lot

·      Met him as Red Robin when your hotel room got robbed in Gotham

·      He went to the next show to make sure you didn’t die or whatever and caught the bad guy sneaking on stage before taking him out

·      He got your number for that

·      After that you guys started dating and quickly you knew who Tim was

·      That’s when socials went W I L D when you posted a picture kissing his cheek

·      You dropped an album called “Lovely Little Mess” about catching feelings and whether or not it was a good thing or not

·      He goes to the studio with you and you have an apartment together

·      You’re both up late working whether it be you writing or planning out things

·      He helps pick album covers sometimes if you’re really stuck

·      Listening to new songs

·      He isn’t good with tour outfits or putting songs onto albums because he loves them all

·      Doing interviews together or always waiting for the other to get out of interviews

·      omg the pap LOSES it when you two go to events together

·      Actually, everyone loses it so yeah 🤷‍♀️

Damian:

·      You were class president of the grade you two were in at the time

·      You were the first student he met at Gotham Academy that he didn’t hate up front even if you didn’t catch that

·      You had to show him around the school

·      Came with curly, half up, half down hair, uniform pressed, and basically stood like a president or queen

·      He really expected you to be a pretentious snob but you were everything but

·      He noticed that even if you hated someone, you were still nice if they could give you a step up or anything really

·      “So, what else do you do L/N?” He asked as you two walked down one of the hallways when you were showing him around

·      “I’m not really a sports person, I have my own business about to start right now though.”

·      *shook*

·      “And are you class president because you want to be or is this also a step up?”

·      “You ask a lot of questions Wayne.” You laughed, “Actually I do like this position but it also helps me get more opportunities at GA. Even when other colleges come around, they like to look at the class officers.”

·      He started making sure he was outside when you would go on morning bike rides since you live in the same neighborhood that he does

·      Or close enough to bike at least

·      I mean, you saw that every successful business person has a good schedule so now you hold yourself to that especially during summer

·      Bike ride before 9 am, cold shower, breakfast, some reading for school, any summer school work if you get any, and basically just having a good day (This applies except for weekends)

·      He got to know you more and more and fell hard

·      You were the dreamer type and it was beautiful

·      You had this look in your eyes every time you’d talk about something you wanted

·      Genuine rare person and he loved that

·      You guys stay up late together but he does eventually make you go to sleep

·      Gets worried when you don’t

·      He thinks it’s incredible, the things you do on top of a busy as hell high school life

·      He likes to show that off about you a lot

·      “My beloved is class president, president of 4 different clubs, runs her own businesses, and she is an over -all genius and will probably take over the world.”

Duke:

·      Is very proud of you and tells you often

·      Basically, that very supportive best friend

·      He’s someone that you can just go to whenever you’re stressed or just need a quick break

·      Will always make sure that you’re okay even if it’s just ranting about work

·      Goes to everything with you

·      He also lets you network at galas and stuff and is there for moral support cause that crap gets annoying

·      Talks about you 24/7

·      If you two are working late, I stand by this that he’s either playing Lofi, Khalid, or just chill vibey music

·      He is overall the perfect breath of fresh air from everything that goes on in work life and just life in general

·      Whenever something works out you guys go to a cool coffee shop and celebrate

·      Or a date somewhere

·      He’s also always putting notes or music recommendations in your bag so you find them when you go to work

·      “I noticed you seemed nervous so listen to *song* today when you can.”

·      It’s always the perfect song btw

Luke:

·      Both of you are very smart and ambitious

·      You two are probably running something together

·      Both working late

·      Very competent people

·      Put together lives

·      Best planners

·      Everything

·      It’s couple goals whenever you’re around each other

·      Even when you’re not tbh

·      He loves that you’re a hard worker and are always aiming for the top like he is

·      Very supportive

·      You have a very mature but youthful relationship

·      I don’t think he could be with someone that was really lazy and didn’t do anything at all

·      You’re perfect

·      Probably planning to propose already

·      He just knows you’re the one

·      He introduces you to the Batfam after a while and his father approves of the relationship which is amazing

·      Tag team couple

·      If one of you is down the other automatically goes into pick up mode

·      It’s really nice just to have someone to help you bounce out if you burn out

·      He totally won’t judge you when it happens or you just want a break from running full speed

·      He totally gets it

I hope you guys are having a great day and have had a great week! I stayed up wayyyy to late last night but I was watching a Yale lecture, doing my wall stuff, and then I got an entrepreneur toolbox from Dave Ramsay and I was really excited to get into it so that happened. I’m also so ready to be off my woman issue time so that I can go on a bike riddeee. I miss being outside but I’ll probably go tomorrow, we’ll see. Anyways, I hope you’re all doing great

[northoftheroad]

The Robin 80th Anniversary Special

It's not a secret that I'm first and foremost a Dick Grayson fan, whether he comes dressed as Robin, Nightwing, Batman or something else. But I try to be charitable and be happy for fans of the other Robins that they got a pice of the birthday cake, i. e. the Robin 80th Anniversary Special.

For your enjoyment (?), here are my thoughts about the book. Spoilers ahead, obviously – don't like, don't read!

I honestly thought almost all of the stories were ok – but pretty forgettable. Marv Wolfman's spin on Dick leaving to become Nightwing, in "A little nudge" (art by Tom Grummett and Scott Hanna), is probably the only one I will remember and reference in the future. I don't know if or how it is supposed to fit into the (any?) continuity, but as far as I can see, it works nicely in the current setting.

Dick's parting from Robin and Bruce was successively portrayed as more and more hostile. When he originally left Robin to become Nightwing (1983–1984), the two still had a good relationship. This changed in comics to, first, that Bruce decided to retire Robin, and then to that Bruce outright fired Dick and kicked him out of the cave. This lead to that their relationship was portrayed as poor, antagonistic even, for a good many comics years.

The bad mood was picked up by Batman The Animated Series, where Dick left being resentful of Bruce and his methods.

I don't have a lot of good things to say about what has happened to the Bat-family after Flashpoint. But from what we've seen from scattered panels, Dick was the one who decided he wanted to leave Robin. You can read Marv Wolfman's story as confirmation of that. Which is nice.

Bruce is only a little bit of a jerk in this story, being utterly rigid about that Robin has to follow orders. Dick, however, chooses to stay with a kid that had been shot instead of following the criminals.

Dick has had it with Bruce's rules and leaves the cave, but he says "later" rather than "goodbye".

It's made clear that those strict rules were Bruce's way to say, "I know you've grown up, and you should move on; I'll be fine without you."

Batman # 408, where Bruce decides to retire Robin because he got scared when the Joker shot Dick, is firmly established in my mind as the "correct" leaving story in my mind. It was the only one I had read and knew of for many years, and the two still part on decent terms. But Marv Wolfman's 80th Anniversary version has a lot going for it.

On to the rest of the stories...

"Aftershocks" By Chuck Dixon, art Scott McDaniel and Rob Hunter.

Set during Cataclysm (a storyline from 1998) where Dick lived in Blüdhaven before he moved back to Gotham and became Batman. It's an action-filled story where (fingerstripe) Nightwing comes to Gotham after an earthquake has hit the city.

It's interesting to read this, living through the corona crisis that is going on right now. I don't know how it is where you live, but where I am, people are setting up networks to help people who can't go out to shop or walk the dog, University students are helping kids do their math lessons with the help of Facebook, people make masks for health workers etc. But when Chuck Dixon writes what happens after a catastrophe, Dick has to fight his way through masked thugs who are trying to rob an ambulance of "painkillers and tranks" when he tries to save a cab from falling with a damaged bridge. A woman is giving birth inside the car, and the story ends with that the mother wants to name the boy after Nightwing.

"Well...Robin works, right", he says.

"Team building" by Devin Grayson, art Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapund.

Well, I'll always soak up everything that has to do with Dick and the Titans – Teen Titans, New Teen Titans, Titans, any Titans...

Devin Grayson wrote The Titans 1999–2000, which is the setting of this story. Most of it takes place inside a H.I.V.E. locale, where an exasperated boss (Damien Darkh) chews out his soldiers after a fight with the Titans. But Darkh decides not to kill the lot of them, because they did distract the Titans while he stole a red crystal/power source. Of course, it turns out Dick is the soldier who has kept his helmet on; he takes the crystal with him and gives Darkh a bit of advice on team-building on his way out.

"Generally speaking, fear of execution isn't a great motivator. I've found basic team-building and morale-boosting to be much more effective. Like, I'm just spitballing here, but... You ever consider a pizza night?"

Well, it did keep me amused, and it shows us that Dick is a good leader and strategist, (and a great acrobat who manages to get out of the H.I.V.E. uniform with one hand, on the way out), although it isn't exactly a surprise that Dick was in the building when you get near the end.

"The Lesson Plan" by Tom King and Tim Seeley, art Mikel Janín.

Now, I do like some things about the Grayson run, but with a bit of distance, I've realized it was mostly the art. The sexualization of Dick and how King and Seely wrote him as a guy who jumps first and plans never got tiresome. This story is in-character for Grayson; Dick is accompanied by a girl (Paris) from St Hadrian's on a mission, and on the way, he remembers the lessons Batman gave him and imparts his own interpretation of them to Paris. As is Batman says, "plan everything", and Dick says "Improvise. Leap first... figure it all out on the way down." Ergo, classic King and Seeley. Also, it is possibly implied Dick made out with a beautiful girl that turned out to be gorilla in disguise...? Yep, vintage King and Seeley.

Other than that, I don't have a big problem with the story. Some things ring true to me – as when Dick remembers Batman saying, "At their core, people are cowardly and self-serving. Trust no one until you know them. And even then, never completely". And what Dick says is, "Give the benefit of the doubt until you gotta knock 'em out."

For my own peace of mind, I'm reading this as Dick is half-joking with his advice. It's not like we've never seen him make plans and be suspicious post-Flashpoint.

On a side note, one of the best characterizations of Dick Grayson to my mind is a panel from Black Mirror. When Dick explains he had injected James Gordon Jr with a subdermal tracer, and says about himself, "I am a softie. And I do try to see the best in people... but that doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Detective Comics # 881. By Scott Snyder, art Jock and Francesco Francavilla.  

"More Time" by Judd Winnick, art Dustin Nguyen.

Jason has a cute story about him repairing Thomas Wayne's watch as a present to Bruce. He started the work as a tiny Robin (too tiny, in my opinion, but with Dustin Nguyen on art it probably couldn't turn out any other way) and finished the work as Red Hood. Jason delivers the present to Bruce on his birthday, placing it on the Batmobile while it is parked in a Gotham alley.

"Extra Credit" by Adam Beechen, art Freddie E. Williams II.

Tim has an appointment with the guidance counsellor at Gotham City High School. Tim sees a future in law enforcement (that's the first I've heard of that, but I'm no expert on Tim) and he's adopted (again, something I haven't seen post-Flashpoint). But the counsellor doubts that Tim will be admitted because he has nothing to show when it comes to extracurricular activities. It's kind of a fun few pages where the counsellor suggests things that Tim could do, and Tim thinks about what he does as Robin on his spare time.

"Boy Wonders" by James Tynion IV, art Javier Fernandez.

Tim, Red Robin, is unsure what he wants to do with his life and goes to his brothers? fellow Robins? for advice.

I know emotions have been running high because Dick tells Tim that he is "demonstrably smarter" than he is, which makes it sound as if Dick is not really smart at all.

Again, for my peace of mind, I choose to read this as I want: that "big brother" Dick is encouraging, he has always thought highly of Tim, he has no ego to preserve. This doesn't make Dick a reliable narrator on the subject, and the page ends with that Tim thinks "He was the first. He's the best. He's always going to be the role model. "So, two brothers who admire each other.

Tim also talks to Jason and Tim, and the story ends with that he tells Batman he wants to start Gotham Knights protocol, the team in Detective Comics (Rebirth.) 2016-2018.

"Fitting In" by Amy Wolfram, art Damion Scott.

Stephanie, as Robin has problems because Tim's Robin suit doesn't fit her female body. But at the end of the day, Bruce gives Stephanie her own "changing room" in the Bat-cave, because she's female.

...are Bruce and Alfred idiots? Did Dick, Jason and Tim have exactly the same body type when they were Robin? Stephanie deserved a story worth being told, not this one.

"My Best Friend" by Peter J. Tomasi, art Jorge Jimenez.

Jonathan Kent writes a school essay about his best friend, Damian. As he writes the words on his laptop at home, they are illustrated with pcitures of the two as both Robin and Superboy, and as Damian and Jon in civvies. Tomasi and Jimenez worked with Super Sons (2017–2019), and though I didn't read that, I'm pretty sure this story is an extra chapter in that series.

"Bat and Mouse" by Robbie Thompson, art Ramon Villalobos.

It's not the worst story in the book, but somehow the one I disliked the most. It is part of what is going on in Teen Titans and Bat-titles right now; we see Alfred's tombstone and how Batman and Robin have a strained relationship and difficulties in communicating. I'm not keeping up with what is going on with Damian and Bruce in detail, so I really can't say whether this story is consistent with how things have been going lately. I'll let Bruce-and-Damian fans take that ball.

To be honest, my reaction to "Bat and Mouse" is probably due to that I really, really don't like what's happened in the Bat titles lately. I firmly hope that the current situation will be changed and Alfred will be alive again, and I wish I could go back and re-read this book years from now without being reminded of this very dark time when DC seemingly doesn't want any money from me for new comics...

Being who I am, I probably take it waaaaay too seriously to try to understand where/if these stories fit in the DC continuity... The writers have probably (rightly) thought more about writing a good story than making it consistent with any grand plan for a timeline for all of the DC universe. But whatever.

The Grayson story clearly happens in a post-Flashpoint universe, as does Damian's and Tim's stories. But Tim says he's adopted, which I believe has never been said outright post-Flashpoint. And Stephanie has as far as I know not been Robin in this continuity. Chuck Dixon's Nightwing story is explicitly set during Cataclysm (a storyline from 1998) where Dick lived in Blüdhaven before he moved back to Gotham and became Batman. Post-Flashpoint, he moves to Blüdhaven for the first time in Nightwing vol 4., so Dixon's story should take place in the old continuity.

On the other hand. The last pages of the book are made to look like profile overviews in the Bat-computer and use pictures from different Robin runs. If the snippets of information are supposed to be the current continuity for the Robins, a lot from the pre-Flashpoint universe is back in canon.

Shortly, Dick was adopted (that's the word they use), formed the Teen Titans, moved to Blüdhaven and was Agent 37 for a while. Blüdhaven comes before Agent 37, but it's not explicitly stated when he first moved there. Because if Dick was in Blüdhaven before his time with Spyral, it is inconsistent with parts of Rebirth Nightwing. (Which I can live with...)

Jason's story starts as the street kid who tries to steal the tires of the Batmobile, his stint as Robin was short, and today, Red Hood has formed a tenuous alliance with Batman. Tim uncovered Batman's secret and made a bid to become the new Robin – and his new moniker "Drake" is acknowledged. Stephanie was Robin for a very short while. Damian was created with genetic material that Talia stole after a romantic tryst with Bruce, and he was bred to be an assassin.

Personally, of course, I think that Dick Grayson was worth more of an effort from DC on his 80th anniversary. But on the whole, the things we got were decent, "A little nudge" gave me something I will keep with me, and several of the covers are great.

(The cover photo is still pinched from Dan Jurgens' Twitter – I haven't bought all of the variant covers.)

[bountyofbeads]

Qassim Suleimani, Master of Iran’s Intrigue, Built a Shiite Axis of Power in Mideast

https://nyti.ms/36l1n3r

Qassim Suleimani, Master of Iran’s Intrigue, Built a Shiite Axis of Power in Mideast

The commander helped direct wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, and he became the face of Iran’s efforts to build a regional bloc of Shiite power.

By Tim Arango, Ronen Bergman and  Ben Hubbard | Published Jan. 3, 2020 Updated 8:37 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 3, 2020 |

He changed the shape of the Syrian civil war and tightened Iran’s grip on Iraq. He was behind hundreds of American deaths in Iraq and waves of militia attacks against Israel. And for two decades, his every move lit up the communications networks — and fed the obsessions — of intelligence operatives across the Middle East.

On Friday, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the powerful and shadowy 62-year-old spymaster at the head of Iran’s security machinery, was killed by an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport.

Just as his accomplishments shaped the creation of a Shiite axis of influence across the Middle East, with Iran at the center, his death is now likely to prove central to a new chapter of geopolitical tension across the region.

General Suleimani was at the vanguard of Iran’s revolutionary generation, joining the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in his early 20s after the 1979 uprising that enshrined the country’s Shiite theocracy.

He rose quickly during the brutal Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. And since 1998, he was the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ influential Quds Force, the foreign-facing arm of Iran’s security apparatus, melding intelligence work with a military strategy of nurturing proxy forces across the world.

In the West, he was seen as a clandestine force behind an Iranian campaign of international terrorism. He and other Iranian officials were  designated as terrorists by the United States and Israel in 2011, accused of a plot to kill the ambassador of Saudi Arabia, one of Iran’s chief enemies in the region, in Washington. Last year, in April, the entire Quds Force was listed as a foreign terrorism group by the Trump administration.

But in Iran, many saw him as a larger-than-life hero, particularly within security circles. Anecdotes about his asceticism and quiet charisma joined to create an image of a warrior-philosopher who became the backbone of a nation’s defense against a host of enemies.

He was close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who on Friday issued a statement calling for three days of public mourning and “forceful revenge,” in a declaration that amounted to a threat of retaliation against the United States.

“His departure to God does not end his path or his mission,” he said.

The first years of General Suleimani’s tenure in the late 1990s were devoted to directing the militant group Hezbollah’s effort against the Israeli military occupation of south Lebanon. General Suleimani, along with Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mugniyah, drove a sophisticated campaign of guerrilla warfare, combining ambushes, roadside bombs, suicide bombers, targeted killings of senior Israeli officers and attacks on Israeli defense posts.

At the end, the price for Israel was too high, and in May 2000 it withdrew from Lebanon, marking a major victory for General Suleimani, his Quds Force and Hezbollah.

The Arab Spring in the Middle East, and later the fight against the Islamic State, turned General Suleimani from a shadow figure into a major player in the geopolitics of the region, said Tamir Pardo, a former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

“Suleimani’s professional life can be divided into two periods,” he said. “Until the Arab Spring, he is commander of a force that has branches in various parts of the world, active mainly in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, but at the end of the day is a secret operational organization whose main purpose is terrorism.”

“From the shock that befell the Middle East following the rise of ISIS, he is changing course,” Mr. Pardo continued. “He becomes a kingpin regional player, knowing with great talent how to exploit the secret infrastructure he has established for so many years, to achieve noncovert objectives — to fight, to win, to establish presence.”

In recent years, the man whose face had rarely been seen became the face of Iran’s foreign operations.

In Syria, he oversaw a massive operation to shore up the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose own troops had been depleted by widespread defections and fierce fighting with rebels seeking to topple the government since 2011. His command of Arabic helped put local commanders at ease as he welded them into a support network for Mr. al-Assad.

Over a number of years, Iranian operatives guided by General Suleimani recruited militia fighters from countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, who were airlifted to Syria to back up Mr. Assad’s forces in key battles.

Many of these militia fighters received training at military bases in Iran or on the ground in Syria by operatives from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an organization General Suleimani had helped develop over the years.

When Iranian and Iranian-backed forces became major combatants against ISIS after the group took over roughly a third of Iraq in 2014, pictures of General Suleimani, often photographed on the battlefield in fatigues, began being widely shared on social media. The publicity spawned rumors that General Suleimani was trying to widen his fame for a possible run for Iran’s presidency; he denied them, saying he always saw himself as just a soldier.

That conflict, from 2014 through 2017, was a rare instance of Iran and the United States nominally fighting on the same side. On a number of occasions, Americans were hitting Islamic State targets on the ground while General Suleimani was directing ground forces against the militants.

It was unclear what direct role General Suleimani played in Yemen. But Iran’s patronage of the country’s Houthi rebels, which intensified when Saudi Arabia intervened against them in Yemen’s war in 2015, had all the hallmarks of the Suleimani playbook: above all, to support local militants as a way of expanding Iranian influence and foil Saudi Arabia, the region’s Sunni power.

Iran had long offered similar support to the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, creating decades of new security headaches for Israel. And with the support of the Quds Force, Hamas was able to take over the Gaza Strip, capable of firing rockets that can reach into most of Israeli territory.

Previous American administrations had resisted striking General Suleimani directly, either because of operational concerns or out of fear that killing him could destabilize the region further and lead to all-out war between the United States and Iran.

At least once, though, Israeli officials ran the possibility of attacking him up their command structure. That was in February 2008, while Israeli and American intelligence operatives were tracking Mr. Mugniyah, the Hezbollah commander, in the hopes of killing him, according to senior American and Israeli intelligence officials. Operatives spotted the Hezbollah commander talking with another man, who they quickly determined was Mr. Suleimani.

Excited by the possibility of killing two archenemies at once, the Israelis phoned senior government officials. But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied the request, as he had promised the Americans that only Mr. Mugniyah would be targeted in the operation.

Perhaps more than any other individual, General Suleimani was the foil for American plans in Iraq, which like Iran is predominantly Shiite.

After the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Iranian militiamen and their Iraqi allies fought a clandestine war against American troops, launching rockets at bases and attacking convoys. The militias also played a large part in inflaming sectarian tensions that led to Iraq’s sectarian civil war in 2006 and 2007 between Shiites and Sunnis, leading President George W. Bush to order a troop surge there.

General Suleimani and other leaders of his generation were shaped by the brutal war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, a conflict so cruel, with trench warfare and chemical weapons, that some compared it to the devastation of World War I. Nearly a million people died on both sides, and General Suleimani spent much of that war on the front lines.

For him and his fellow soldiers, the war was a “never again” moment. Ensuring that Iraq was weak and unable to again pose a threat to Iran became the primary goal of Iran’s policy toward Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, whom the United States supported during its war with Iran in the 1980s.

“For Qassim Suleimani, the Iran-Iraq war never really ended,” Ryan C. Crocker, a former American ambassador to Iraq, once said in an interview. “No human being could have come through such a World War I-style conflict and not have been forever affected. His strategic goal was an outright victory over Iraq, and if that was not possible, to create and influence a weak Iraq.”

Sometimes, American officials secretly communicated with General Suleimani in an effort to ease tensions in Iraq. In 2008, the American general, David Petraeus, was trying to find a truce in a fight that American forces and the Iraqi Army were waging against Shiite militias loyal to Iran. In Mr. Petraeus’s  telling of the story, he was shown a text message directed to him: “General Petraeus, you should know that I, Qassim Suleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan.”

Years later, General Suleimani personally, and mockingly, addressed another American leader: President Trump, who in July 2018 warned Iran’s president not to threaten the United States.

“It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you,” General Suleimani declared in a speech in western Iran. “I, as a soldier, respond to you.”

“We are near you, where you can’t even imagine,” he added. “We are ready. We are the man of this arena.”

For years after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran railed against what it saw as American aggression in the region, worried that the United States would turn its attention to regime change in Iran after Mr. Hussein was gone.

American officials have blamed Iran for killing hundreds of American soldiers during the war, many with sophisticated, shaped-charge bombs that could slice through American armored vehicles.

As the United States sought to negotiate a deal with Iraq that would allow American forces to stay in the country past a 2011 deadline, it was General Suleimani who relentlessly pushed Iraqi officials to refuse to sign, using a mixture of threats and the promise of more financial and military aid, American and Iraqi officials say.

On his orders, Iraqi construction crews in 2014 began building a roadway for Iranian supplies and militiamen, a small piece of what was perhaps the general’s most important project: establishing a land route from Tehran to the Mediterranean, across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, where Iran has long supported Hezbollah, a primary threat to Israel.

One telling episode that illustrated the depth of Iranian control came in 2014, when the Islamic State was rampaging across Iraq. General Suleimani paid a visit to Bayan Jabr, then the country’s transportation minister.

According to a collection of Iranian intelligence cables published recently  by The Intercept and The New York Times, General Suleimani came to Mr. Jabr with a demand: He needed to use Iraqi airspace to fly planeloads of military supplies to support the Syrian government of Mr. Assad. Despite lobbying by the Obama administration to close Iraq’s airspace to the flights, Mr. Jabr quickly said yes.

“I put my hands on my eyes and said, ‘On my eyes! As you wish!’” Mr. Jabr told an Iranian Intelligence Ministry officer, according to one of the cables. “Then he got up and approached me and kissed my forehead.”

The same trove of documents contains evidence that General Suleimani is not universally admired within Iran.

A bitter rivalry between his Quds Force and the other main Iranian intelligence agency, the Ministry of Intelligence, played out over the course of the cables. Many criticized General Suleimani’s proxy campaign in Iraq, and the way his militia allies abused the Sunni population there, as weakening Iran’s long-term interests in the region.

“This policy of Iran in Iraq has allowed the Americans to return to Iraq with greater legitimacy,” one cable read.

In others, ministry case officers portrayed General Suleimani as a relentless self-promoter who used the battle against the Islamic State to bolster his potential political aspirations in the future.

Iran watchers sounded alarm that General Suleimani’s death would unleash unpredictable regional mayhem from Syria to Iraq that would be difficult for the United States to contain. Several Iranian diplomats said that the prospect of diplomacy with the United States, being quietly negotiated through Japan and France, was effectively dead. The talk was now of revenge, not negotiations, they said.

“This one life lost will likely cost many more Iranian, Iraqi, American and others,” said Ali Vaez, director of Iran program for International Crisis Group. “It is not just Suleimani’s death, but likely the death knell of the Iran nuclear deal and any prospect of diplomacy between Iran and the U.S.”

Qassim Suleimani was born in 1957 in Rabor, in eastern Iran, and later moved to the city of Kerman. He was the son of a farmer, and began laboring as a construction worker at age 12. His highest level of education was high school, and he later worked in the municipal water department in Kerman, according to a profile published by the Iranian state media.

According to a 2012 profile in The New Yorker, General Suleimani’s father became burdened with debt under the Shah. When the revolution came he was sympathetic to the cause, and joined the Revolutionary Guards soon after. He was married and had children, although there were conflicting stories in the Iranian news media about how many.

Within Iran, he was widely seen as exerting more influence over the country’s foreign policy than even the country’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

General Suleimani, in death if not in life, appeared to have united Iran’s rival political parties to rally behind the flag. Iran’s expansionist policies in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon have been contentious at home among ordinary Iranians and some reformist politicians who saw money and resources diverted from Iran to fund General Suleimani’s missions.

But on Friday, there was only praise and grief. Iranian officials across the political spectrum issued statements of condolences and condemned the United States.

The powerful Revolutionary Guards, of which the Quds Force is a component, said plans were underway for a huge public funeral.

“He was so big that he achieved his dream of being martyred by America,” wrote a reformist politician and former vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi.

General Suleimani had received the country’s highest military honor, the Order of Zolfaghar, established in 1856 under the Qajar dynasty. He became the only military commander to receive the honor in the Islamic Republic.

Ayatollah Khamenei pinned the medal on General Suleimani’s chest last February, and in remarks that now seem prophetic, said: “The Islamic Republic needs him for many more years. But I hope that in the end, he dies as a martyr.”

______

Tim Arango reported from Los Angeles; Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv, Israel; and Ben Hubbard from Beirut. Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.

[armageddon-generation]

Starting the DCEU right: fixing BvS and its lead-up

BvS is really frustrating, so I rewrote it, re-ordered the existing movies and inserted in a Batman movie

1. Wonder Woman

Start the DCEU off with  a ‘bold’ statement with the first female led superhero movie, and the first chronologically.

2. Man of Steel

Bright colours, bloody hell

Cut the heavy-handed Jesus/Messiah symbolism. Superman was created by Jews anyway, Christiansing him feels disrespectful

Put it in chronological order starting in Smallville, so we’re invested in Clark’s struggle

Pa Kent doesn’t die in a tornado, that scene is ridiculous

Move the Krypton sequence in the beginning to when Jor El is explaining Clark’s origin to him in the Arctic ship, so we maintain the mystery and don’t repeat ourselves

Focus on Clark trying to live a normal life – his relationship with Lois, becoming a reporter, while he fights regular crime in secret (the Smallville blur trope)

Zodd attacking disrupts that peace and forces Superman to go public for the first time

Thematically, classic ‘regular guy doing the right thing’ Richard Donner Superman is fighting off the ‘detached alien Messiah figure’ Zack Snyder Superman Zodd wants him to become

Metropolis’ destruction and Clark being forced to kill Zodd still happens, but show Clark trying to avoid populated areas and save bystanders instead of fight, Zodd just won’t let him.

3. Batman: Under the Red Hood

Under the Red Hood (UtRH) with a depressed robin-less Batman

Follow basic outline of UtRH animated movie (75 mins) in a 2-hour movie, incorporating elements of The Killing Joke

UtRH is a mystery that lets us focus on Batman’s detective side

Talia resurrected Jason as an apology to Bruce – allude to Damian’s existence when we visit the League of Assassins and establish their past romance

UtRH is the perfect story to introduce the batfamily - Bruce still isn’t talking to Dick after kicking him out to become Nightwing, the Red Hood pushes them to work together, but uncovering Jason’s identity fractures their relationship further (fight?)

Killing Joke happened recently and Barbra is still recovering. Show the events leading up to and after it in PTSD flashbacks, but framed through Barbra’s empowering story of recovery, not the traumatic incident itself. Maybe introduce Leslie Thompkins as her therapist.

Bruce is also estranged from Commissioner Gordon as a result of Killing Joke. When Jason finds out the Joker paralysed Barbra after he died and Bruce still let him live, he’s even angrier

This story is the perfect set-up for the DCEU’s (recast) Joker; he’s a secondary villain to Jason, but by mixing both UtRH and Killing Joke, his two most famous/heinous crimes, he immediately becomes a terrifying bogeyman with an established relationship with Batman

Stealth set-up for Birds of Prey (Oracle), Nightwing, and Red Hood and the Outlaws movies

By the end of the movie both Jason  and Joker escape and Bruce is left isolated and questioning his no-kill code after Jason’s arguments, Joker escaping yet again, and all his recent trauma, setting up his emotional state for BvS

The only ones to stay by his side are Alfred and Lucius Fox

4. Batman vs Superman

Clark is our protagonist, Bruce the sympathetic villain who’s redeemed by the end

After killing Zodd in MoS, Clark is determined not to kill – CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT through an opening action sequence

He and Lois are newlyweds 

Clark wants to be trusted, and that means conforming to government control (like in The Dark Knight Returns, except this time it’s sympathetic) – his moral dilemma is whether them controlling Superman is a good thing

Clark hates Batman because Bruce is becoming more and more recklessly violent (The Dark Knight Returns) since UtRH and The Killing Joke and his support structure collapsing. Clark reports on how the Bat-Brand is causing criminal deaths (which is now a big No-No for Supes, without him being  a hypocrite) - cut the unimportant conflict with Perry White

During the Metropolis attack Bruce loses someone. I don’t like killing a black character, but it makes the most sense that Lucius Fox would be in the Wayne Tech building and die. The audience has a history with the character – not only was he in UtRH, but also the Dark Knight Trilogy.

Alfred loses a leg, as in the Earth One graphic novels – that gruffer version of the character is similar to Jeremy Irons’ portrayal anyway

Bruce now has legitimate reasons to fear Clark, and he has no support network left.

Wayne Industries is funding the rebuilding of Metropolis, in collaboration with Lexcorp (like in the No Man’s Land comic event). Lex (recast) is presented as an ally to Bruce, sympathising with and stoking the flames of his Superman hatred

Insert the Diana subplot in here – BUT DON’T SPOIL HER BEING IN THE MOVIE IN THE TRAILERS. Bruce catches her snooping around at one of Lex’s fundraisers for rebuilding Metropolis. 

Lex doesn’t just have her photo – in the hundred years since Wonder Woman, Diana has become a protector of mythological beings (Nick Fury for the Gods). Instead of the email attachment of Justice League teaser trailers, Lex has stolen information from Diana that reveals the locations of Themascyra and Atlantis, the sister cities.

Bruce and Diana can have a philosophical discussion about new gods outmoding old gods without it being out of place – Diana is unsure of her place in this changing world

Lex is also planning to run for President – he encourages Bruce’s anti-authoritarian sentiment. The GCPD have started a manhunt for the more brutal Batman. Legitimise this sentiment further by having Clark’s main contact to the Government be morally corrupt Amanda Waller (replacing Holly Hunter’s Senator) who wants to use Clark in black-ops missions.

We see one of these missions. Amanda wants Clark to kill, which he refuses to do, only for her to kill the targets anyway. (a version of the drone strike scene that opened the original BvS)

This causes huge moral conflict for Clark – show he and Lois debating and supporting each other at home – Lois doesn’t trust Waller and starts investigating her.

Bring in the Sons of Batman subplot from The Dark Knight Returns – Batman’s brutal new tactics inspire a gang of, deadly copycat vigilantes. Possibly you could turn them into the We Are Robin gang from Scott Snyder’s comic run

We learn about the gang from the POV of one kid – Tim Drake (or Duke Thomas, but we’d have to give him Tim’s origin – figuring out Batman’s identity as a child detective)

Tim experiences the terror and violence Batman’s new brutality is inspiring on the streets of Gotham – he goes to Wayne Manor, only to find it abandoned. Alfred lets him into the Batcave to shake some sense into Bruce, and Tim gives his pitch about Batman always needing a Robin to balance him. Bruce kicks him out.

A scene where Lex inducts the wheelchair-bound Metropolis victim into his scheme.

The conflict and tension is driven up by Superman breaking up a Sons of Batman rally, then confronting Batman while he’s torturing some criminals.

Bruce is working on his power armour, exhausted. Here we see a version of the Knightmare sequence:

Future!Barry runs in, grabs Bruce and zips into the post-apocalypse to show him the future. This is the only time we see Batman kill in the movie – driven over the edge. He is fighting Evil Superman, bearded in the black suit, looking a lot like Zodd. Darkseid looms as a dark, unidentified figure in the distance. Barry runs Bruce back, yelling to find him in the present and watch out for Luthor, but Darkseid’s Omega beams hit and kill him just as Bruce is thrown back into the Cave.

He passes out, then wakes up later, convinced he’d had a dream about Superman destroying the world.

Lex lets Batman steal the kryptonite – he’s getting desperate

Finally, with the Batman crisis worsening, Waller orders Clark to take Bruce down.  Bruce is waiting with his power armour.

The fight should be a pastiche of fights from the comics – sonic weapons and kryptonite gas, but also Red Sun lasers and that moment in Hush where Bruce electrocutes Clark with the mains supply of a whole city.

Meanwhile, Lois’ investigation into Waller has uncovered that the government agents ordering Clark around answer to Lex Luthor. She realises Lex has been manipulating Superman and Batman into fighting in the hopes of killing both (supplying the kryptonite etc). Mercy Graves shows up to kill her but Lois escapes.

Meanwhile, Tim breaks back into the Batcave and steals a Robin suit.

Both Tim and Lois arrive at the scene of the fight and stop Bruce delivering the final blow. Instead of MARTHA!, Tim and Lois talk their respective heroes down, Lois explains Lex’s role. Bruce remembers Barry’s warning – was that dream real?

Lex realises what’s going on and releases his Big Bad, Metallo (replacing shit Doomsday), a kryptonite-powered cyborg mech created from the wheelchair-bound Metropolis victim and  Kryptonian-killing weapons technology from Zodd’s ship. This way the fight ties in with the consequences of Clark destroying Metroplolis.

Diana, having been in the Lexcorp facility to steal her information back, arrives to fight with Clark and Bruce. She’s decided she’s still a hero.

The power is out in Gotham after Bruce used the mains to fight Clark, and the city is in chaos.

Bruce enlists Tim to evacuate the city and stop rioting while Clark and Diana fight Metallo – adapting the Dark Knight Returns sequence where Bruce rides through Gotham on horseback, enlisting the Sons of Batman to do some good.

This is the culmination of Bruce’s arc; accepting Superman is needed while stopping a repeat of Metropolis’ destruction by damage-controlling his fight. He’s also taking responsibility for his impact on Gotham through the gang.

Lex remotely sets Metallo to self-destruct when he starts losing the fight. Clark tries to save his enemy (DEVELOPMENT from MoS) but dies in the explosion due to the fatal dose of radiation poisoning. This death sets up the next 'phase’ of movies

We’ve set up several threads for future movies – we are aware of Atlantis thanks to Diana’s information, without having Aquaman thrown in our faces.

Lex gets away – Bruce breaks into his office and confronts him, but Lex is untouchable and still running for President

Bruce is now privately investigating what he saw in the Knightmare, including finding Barry Allen

Tim starts training to be the next Robin – Bruce is learning from his mistakes with Jason.

Amanda Waller sets up Suicide Squad

Lois is revealed to be pregnant with Clark’s child at the end, paralleling Clark’s natural birth in Man of Steel

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Best of this Week: DCeased #3 - Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo and Saida Temofonte

Hope is dead.

Tim Drake, Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne lie dead on the floor of the Batcave as Alfred makes his way to the Batwing, unable to mourn their deaths and wanting to help stop the zombie threat. Harley Quinn finally gets the catharsis that’s she’s been looking for by pumping an infected Joker full of lead. With her face full of glee, it soon turns into a look of determination as Batgirl, Catwoman, Huntress and Batwoman are set upon her, bloody and rabid with infection.

These first few scenes are horrific and shocking to the extent of which this infection is spreading. The Batfamily is normally the most prepared for things like this to happen, but in one fell swoop, they’re almost all gone. That’s the brilliance of Tom Taylor’s plotting with this story, the inability to know what the hell is going to happen next. Batman would have come up with a cure, a plan, but with Tim and Dick being infected and him unable to fully prevent himself from succumbing to his wounds, the world's greatest planner is no longer a factor. Barbara would have been an excellent second, but any hope of that was lost the moment she showed up covered in blood.

The world has turned to hell and even Superman can’t bring himself to smile or be hopeful as he looked into the faces of friends and companions, their eyes replaced with the rabid rage of infection and none of the love that they once had. He removes the infected from the Daily Planet office and shores up defenses on the outside before promising Jonthan that everything will be okay before he flies back home to Smallville.

The best way to describe Clark’s emotions as he makes his way through the Planet is hope being replaced by despair. The captions say it best, the hardest part of dealing with the infected is dissociating. These people are no longer Clark’s colleagues. They’re rageful monsters bent on killing, thankfully none of them can make a scratch on him, but the internal scars are far more painful than anything on the outside. Even when he promises that he’ll be back to his son, there’s this underlying feeling of doubt. We don’t know that he will, he doesn’t know that he will, but he’s Superman, right? He has to have hope?

Elsewhere, Garth and Mera are working to make his magic stronger before noticing the sky grow darker, dark with blood. They watch as Aquaman tears through Atlantis’ warriors, infecting and spilling their blood as it flows through the water and gets Garth. Mera barely escapes, but the fear on her face is palpable, she knows that all is lost.

Even Atlantis isn’t impervious to all of this, granted it’s because Aquaman was attacked by infected diving out of a boat, but that doesn’t make things any less terrifying. This also helps us to learn that the infection can spread through blood and given how fast Aquaman and Tempest can swim through water, and how far spread the infection already is, nothing is safe.

On his way to Smallville, Superman does his best to save anyone not infected along the way. He catches up to Jefferson Pierce, aka Black Lightning, and his daughters, telling them to head to the planet before reaching the home of the Kents. Martha is okay, but Jon… Superman makes one final act of kindness before flying his mother to safety, leaving any hope that he might have had in the barn with his father.

That’s what I loved about this book. It is hopelessly nihilistic because of how tragic everything is and how all of it can even break Superman. Hairsine’s art invokes the feeling of terror that I felt the first time I watched 28 Days Later, seeing these ridiculously fast and violent killing machines tear through everything in their path. The shading on everything makes the inkers inks feel even more dark and bleak especially as Aquaman is slicing through Atlantis in a nice double page spread with a black background.

DCeased is definitely much better than I initially gave it credit for. With Hairsine’s art and Taylor’s bleak writing, this is definitely worth checking out, high recommend!

---------------------------------------------------

It finally seems like the Batfamily troubles have finally met Batgirl.

Runner Up: Batgirl #36 - Mairghread Scott, Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund, Hi-Fi and AndWorld Design

For the last few months, Batgirl has gone through something of a transformation in the way that her stories are being told. Back in 2015 she received an upgraded costume and status quo during the DCYou era, but with that came this unfortunate lack of seriousness and gravitas as she remained hopeful through all of her problems. She had a good support network and being the owner of a multimillion dollar start-up, she was absolutely set.

But that era came and went, DC Rebirth happened and I don’t know, her books just sort of foundered to me because they lacked the importance of other Bat-books, until Mairghread Scott took over. She’s been putting Batgirl through the ringer and has been bringing her back down to the gritty and hard nature that the rest of the Batfamily has been going through and this issue is no different.

After being put up for an auction to see who would finally kill Batgirl. Barbara escapes, defeating the Terrible Trio’s Shark as the auction house catches fire, trapping everyone inside. Batgirl fights her way through to a metal gate that she can maybe cut her way through, but The Trios Vulture throws a knife into her back. She states that letting these people go would be bad for business and that Batgirl sealed their fates when she escaped their trap. Vulture is willing to let herself and many others die to protect her reputation.

This kind of callousness stuns Batgirl because villains usually want to live, but Vulture is absolutely on the side of culling weakness from the world and the Terrible Trio failing to kill Batgirl is something she can’t abide and will take everyone down with her. Fox betrays Vulture, allowing Batgirl to free everyone, including the carrion villain. Shark, however, is unable to move after his beating and Batgirl, still wanting to be hopeful and helpful tries to save him. With everything crumbling down around them, Shark pushes her out of the way of debris, killing him as Batgirl watches on.

As she crawls out of the ruins, nose bloody and face full of dejection, she heads to a meeting that she was supposed to attend in order to talk with her investors. Her friend Alysia, who she placed in charge in case she wasn’t able to attend meetings, tells her that the investors forced her to make a decision that ultimately led to Babs being pushed out of the company. Now, broke and homeless, Barbara’s thoughts drift to Shark and in the face of everything, she still sees positivity.

She gets her stuff from Jason Bard, the guy who she worked with on a Mayoral campaign or something along those lines with in earlier issues, and seeing how caring he’s become since their last few encounters, she actually kind of sees him as a friend. Black Canary hooks her up with a dingy apartment in The Narrows, but Babs sees it as a good start, thinking of Shark and Jason, even as her life is collapsing, she still has hope.

I know earlier I said that the stories prior to this also had hope as the ultimate ending to everything, but at the same time, Barbara also had a safety net of things to fall back on. She’s not calling on Bruce to help her, she doesn’t have Dick to confide in and she doesn’t have the money that she used to have and to her, that is perfectly fine.

With her Year of the Villain tie-in coming up soon, I can’t wait to see where things go for her.

[you-a-southpaw-doll]

Another One Bites The Dust (AOBTD) ~ Chapter 12

Warning(s): Language. Angst. Slight violence. Slight fluff. 

Taglist: @negans-network , @thamberlina , @prettyboynegan , @mychemicalimagines

Previous Chapters: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.Nine. Ten. Eleven

Chapter 12 ~ Landmine

 I take a deep breath in. I can’t believe it. I’d know that haircut anywhere. I jump outta the truck before Negan has a chance to stop the vehicle and me. I take off running towards what caught my attention. Amidst a pile of dead’uns, is someone I’d know anywhere. 

I fall to my knees beside the person I thought I’d never see again. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen her, my best friend, Alyss. The only reason it’s been so long is ‘cause she lived on the other side of the country, and it was hard to get to see each other due to school, and a couple other reasons on both our parts.

She seems to be unconscious, and I panic slightly. I can’t lose her. She’s been there for me through thick and thin. She’s my best friend and she means the world to me. I nudge her shoulder, and get a groan of pain in response. At least I know she’s alive. 

I let out the breath I’d been holding in as I lean over her, making sure she’s ok, and looking for any bites. As soon as I know that she’s free of bite marks from the dead’uns, I look up. Negan’s finally stopped the truck right ‘round the spot where I jumped out. 

He, Tim, and Jeffrey all are running towards me. I hear the groaning of the dead’uns from behind me. I reach for my knife and quickly kill the dead’un that’s closest to me.

“Leigh! What the fuck do you think you’re doin’?” I hear Negan scold me as soon as the men get close to me.

I look up at Tim. He looks shocked as he glances between Alyss and I.

“Honey, is that?” He asks.

I nod. “She’s alive. We gotta get her back home.”

I hear another groan come from my best friend. I look down and see her eyes fluttering open.

“Alyss!” I exclaim.

She looks up at me. “Hey, kid.”

I smile. She struggles to sit up, so I help her. I sit down next to her, letting her lean against me. I know that neither of us really like being touched, but for the most part, we are the exception for the other.

“What happened?” I ask.

“I got bombarded by ‘bout twenty of those fuckers. I took ‘em all out by myself, but the last one I got managed to grab ahold of my ankle. I lost my balance and fell. I guess I hit my head pretty damn hard.” She replies, slowly. “I’m ok, though, kid. You know me. I’m tough.”

I chuckle. “I know you are. Believe me, I know you are.”

She laughs. She moves around so that she’s no longer leaning against me. I raise my eyebrows and nod at her unspoken question. We have our own secret language between us that doesn’t actually use words. At my nod, she flings her arms ‘round me. 

I laugh and hug her back. It’s been far too long since we’ve hugged, hell, since we’ve seen each other in person.

“Half pint, I hate to break up this reunion, but do you care to explain what the actual ever-lovin' fuck is goin’ on here?” Negan asks.

I look up at him, over Alyss’ shoulder, and I notice that Tim’s grinning from ear to ear. He knows I’m happy. Plus, he’s happy to see Alyss too. I look back at Negan, realizing that he’s still waiting on my answer. I feel Alyss start to pull away, so I lower my arms. 

I help her stand up. Negan’s eyes widen slightly when he looks at her. I figure it’s ‘cause of the height difference between my best friend and I. I mean, she is 5’11”, which puts her at well over half a foot taller than me.

“Negan, this is my best friend, Alyss.” I say, grinning.

Alyss drapes her arm ‘round my shoulders. I look up at her.

“Bud, this is Negan, Jeffrey, and well you already know Tim.” I say.

She laughs and goes for a high five from Tim. He chuckles and returns the gesture, before my best friend pulls him in for a hug. Alyss turns to Jeffrey next.

“I’d say it’s ‘bout fuckin’ time I met you.” She tells him.

Jeffrey laughs. “I could say the same fuckin’ thing. It’s nice to finally meet you in person. FaceTime calls only go so far for meeting someone.”

Alyss’ laugh cuts through the air. “You’re right.”

“You up for a hug?”

“Sure. Why not? You mean the world to Leigh here, so you must be alright.”

Jeffrey chuckles. My husband and best friend hug each other. Alyss steps back beside me. She looks at Negan. Her eyebrow raises, and she smirks as she glances at me.

“You didn’t tell me that there were two versions of Jeffrey.” She teases.

I laugh. “That’s his twin brother. I know I’ve mentioned him before.”

“I didn’t think they were identical! You could’ve told me that.”

I smirk. “I didn’t know.”

She laughs and turns to look at Negan. He’s got an odd expression on his face as he bites his bottom lip. He shakes his head, clearing his thoughts.

“Well, shit, doll. I don’t think I’ve heard Half Pint laugh this much before. You must be pretty fuckin’ special to her.” He says, in a playful manner.

“Damn fuckin’ straight, I am. This kid here’s my best fuckin’ friend. And I’m hers.” Alyss says, slinging her arm ‘round my shoulders.

Negan smirks. “God damn. You’re a feisty one, ain’t you?”

My best friend chuckles and nods. I grin. She really is. She knows how to handle herself, defend herself, and doesn’t let anyone step all over her. She is a complete and total badass. I hear groaning and moaning coming from behind us. I turn to see three dead’uns making their way, slowly, towards us. 

I look up at Alyss and she smirks at me, giving me a nod. I step back slightly to let her do her thing. She pulls the aluminum baseball bat she has hanging from her hip up and into her grasp. I watch as her fingers curl ‘round the handle. She brings it up to her shoulder as she stalks towards the dead’uns. 

She gets ready, standing with her feet shoulder length apart, bat drawn up into a batting stance, and she prepares to swing. As soon as the dead’uns are close ‘nough to her, she swings the bat mercilessly into the sides of their mushy skulls, one right after ‘nother. 

They fall to the ground at her feet, truly dead. Alyss swings the bat to the side, flinging the blood off of it. Once most of the blood is gone, she reaches down to rip a piece from one of the dead’uns shirts. She wipes the bat clean and tosses the bloodied cloth down onto the ground.

She places it back in its holder on her hip as she walks back over to me. I give her a high five, grinning. Negan lets out a low whistle.

“Sweet baby Jesus. Lord have mercy. You sure know how to handle a bat, girl.” He says.

Alyss laughs. “Of course I fuckin’ do.”

Negan’s eyes twinkle with amusement and something akin to lust. A smirk plays on his lips.

“Well, shit, doll. Remind me not to fuckin’ piss you off.” He says.

“You’d do well to remember that. I’d hate to mess that pretty face of yours up.” My friend retorts.

Negan chuckles. “You think I have a pretty face?”

Alyss rolls her eyes. I chuckle. Negan has no idea who he’s messing with. I glance over at my husbands. They’re both smirking.

“Doll. I’ve got an offer you can’t refuse.” Negan starts.

“Try me.” Alyss says.

That smirk of Negan’s gets bigger. “Well, you see, doll, I’m the leader of this compound, called The Sanctuary. We could use someone like you there. You’re a badass, easy on the eyes, and you’ve got a got sense of humor. Normally, people only get two options, but I’ll give you three. One, you come back, work for points, pay your way, and I’ll keep you safe. Two, you work for me as a Savior, similar to what these three here do, and you don’t have to work for points. You take what you earn. Or three, and this is by far my favorite of the choices. You agree to be one of my wives, and you can have everything your pretty little heart desires. You don’t have to work. I’ll keep you safe. All you have to do is look pretty, and be willing to come to me whenever I call for you. Now, keep in mind, if you go with door number three, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to. I don’t believe in that shit, and if someone tries it, I’m quick to shut that shit down. So…what’ll it be, sweetheart?”

“Wives? You have more than one?”

“Fuck yes I do! I’ve got three. You’ll be lucky wife number four. If you say yes, of course.”

“I’ll stick to being a Savior, thank you. I don’t share my men with other women. As attractive as you are, I refuse to be just another notch on your bed, Negan.”

My brother-in-law bites his bottom lip, and nods his head, slowly. I know that wasn’t the response he was hoping for, but I know my friend. She wouldn’t put up with having to share him.

She pulls her bat up into her grasp once more, and points it as Negan. “Like I said, you’re a pretty boy, and while I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what you fuckin’ do in your own fuckin’ time, I don’t share my pretty boys.”

Negan’s eyes widen for a split second before the biggest, shit-eating grin covers his face. I shake my head at him, as my friend slides her bat back into it’s holster on her hip.

“Fair ‘nough, doll. Just know that the option is always available for you.” Negan says, smirking at my best fuckin’ friend.

Now that I know for a fact Alyss is coming back with us, I can’t contain my excitement. I’ve missed the shit outta her, and now we’ll be able to hang out more. She tells us that she’s got her bike with her. Negan, Jeffery, and Tim all load the motorcycle up into the bed of our truck. 

The boys pile into the front seat while Alyss and I settle into the backseat. We joke ‘round, talk, and tease each other relentlessly until we get back home.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Nightwing #80 Review

woot woot i’ve kept it up for three issues lets gooo. i liked this issue more than the last one. there’s a lot of fanon dick characterization peppered in, but not so much that it puts me off entirely. also, i’m getting increasingly concerned about bitewing. but i did like tim in this one, very nice

look at all the blue and purple and pink. honestly at this point, i’m a broken record but come on come on come onnnnnnn. the blue and pink is very pretty though. this cover’s a bit offputting at first, and a bit spiraly, which i’m sure was the intended effect.

this is a genuine concern of mine. dick’s a vigilante, and he doesn’t have the same sprawling network and resources that bruce does. (even if he is a billionaire now, he hasn’t amassed the same collection of crime-fighting equipment that bruce has.) 

i’m not sure if he’ll be able to take care of bitewing. damian’s got plenty of pets, but alfred used to take care of them, and now bruce plus the rest of the batfam is taking care of them. as far as we know, babs only drops by occasionally, and the same goes for dick’s family and friends. will dick be able to give bitewing the love and time and affection that a traumatized puppy like her needs? i really hope so.

she does look adorable in this panel tho.

dick. richard. richie. baby. why are you shirtless.

you have scars upon scars. probably chemical burns. bullet wounds. weird fucking squiggly lines from knives that only psychos with blade fetishes use. no normal person has the body that you do. and you don’t think that showing up shirtless in front of the police is going to raise suspicion? you don’t think that the people accusing you of murder are going to look at someone who looks like they’re a fucking mob enforcer and go hmm that’s a bit suspicious?

put on a SHIRT jesus CHRIST it’s like you’re not even trying to hide your identity.

look at this pompous little princess demanding only the highest quality head pets i’d burn down latvia for her. (no offense latvians it was the first country that popped into my head.)

pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy-

no seriously kudos to the artist here. his expression is so human i wanna cry. dick, right now, is sheepishly asking a question. he knows he’s not going to get into any real trouble, he knows that he’ll be able to talk his way out of or somehow maneuver his way off this mess. but he’ll play nice for the police, so he’s asking a friend for a favour, part self-condescendingly and part oh-well-what-can-you-do.

and his expression reflects that. rather than a stoic expressionless face most male comic characters have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), rather than the weird desperate supposedly “seductive” face that most female comic characters plus dick grayson have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), he’s making a face that i pulled like yesterday. or the day before that. it’s kind of silly, kind of casual, very much human. i like it.

thank god. proper (in character) acknowledgement for officer grayson. yea, fuck cops in general, but i like that they included this line.

obviously, he’s not talking about the actual criminals, he’s talking about the police force itself. the bpd was too corrupt, and dick realized that he wasn’t helping. not only does one clean cop not make a dent in an overall dirty force, but dick was putting his allies in danger too. not only that, but it wasn’t good for dick’s mental health either. he was spreading himself too thin, and surrounding himself with some of the worst of crime 24/7 did a number on him. dick’s got a history of self-sacrificing tendencies, and i’m just glad he’s not a cop anymore.

dick has a gotham rogues mug. they make gotham rogue mugs, and dick has one.

what kinda city looks at it’s frankly horrible crime history and long list of certifiably insane serial killers who are all still alive and actively committing war crimes and goes “oooooh yea imma put that on a coffee mug!” gotham, that’s who.

this isn’t important i just like how all of bitewing’s barks are blue

back straight, hand on his hip, cheerful smile on his face as he says he’s being accused for murder. love that for him.

they couldn’t have said “yea it’s complicated” in a better way even if they put the words “yea it’s complicated” right there on the page in bold red letters. literally all the love to the artists.

dick please. you’re KILLING ME what the actual fuck IS THAT???? WHY DO YOU HAVE A MUG OF THAT???

anyway nightwing collects novelty mugs confirmed.

this paneling is so beautiful. 

tim’s the focus, but he’s not the first thing you see. he’s placed in a way that forces the reader to drag their eyes all the way up the page in order to reach him. it us know just how high up tim is carelessly crouching, especially close to the ledge of the building too. i cannot think of a single better way to introduce a character, and this character in particular: you instantly know this is a version of tim with plenty of experience and training, is comfortable in his body and knows his limits, but still hangs onto that civilian awe of being in a high place and overlooking a brightly lit city.

absolute classic robin. i love it. 

this isn’t even that important but it made me happy. this is how you train surf.

you don’t crouch or bend over when you get to a tunnel, which is oddly enough what most people think (at least from my experience). you bend backward. that not only 100% ensures that you’ll make sure you’re low enough to make it through the tunnel (because you can see the top of the tunnel, unlike when you crouch or bend), but it also makes it easier to get up: all you have to do is push up with your arms into a bent stance, and you’ll be in a ready, moving position. from a bend or a crouch, getting up is more awkward and more slow.

on a meta level, i like that this creative team knows what they’re doing when it comes to the small, almost unimportant stuff like that, because it makes the action more real. (as real as you can get with a guy running around stealing hearts.)

on a in-universe level, it once again drives home both dick and tim’s experience and professional level skill.

regardless of who you side with in the “should tim drake be robin again?” debate, you gotta admit that tim’s rebirth robin suit is r a d as fuck. if i’m not mistaken, this is the same one he was wearing in 2019 young justice for a little bit? it’s cute and hella cool i like it.

remember what i said about human expressions? doesn’t happen as often to tim bc he’s a Child, but it’s still nice to note when someone humanizes him, too. (that’s why i love the duckboy panel so much lol.)

me, at first: that’s not a “good call” dick that’s just common sense

me, now: sprinkled throughout the entire comic we can see dick bending to tim’s instructions if only briefly, joking with him to keep the mood light while still maintaining a serious mood and retaining control over this particular outing. this implies that dick’s doing it intentionally, purposefully leaving places in his sentences blank and offering affirmations, in order to encourage tim and train him in things bruce might not necessarily touch on, such as social chameleoning and misdirection techniques and love/affirmation from a family member. dick is not only a loving and supportive big brother, but he never stops training his younger brother in better vigilante tecnhiques because he wants tim to be better than him. in this essay i will-

d o g g o

also bitewing is getting so many head pats today i’m living for it

look at him, standing on a telephone wire with ease. nice flex, dick.

also look at how he’s silhouetted. the moon’s full bright, bright enough that the sky around dick is light, too. (at least. i’m like 99% sure that’s the moon.) not like most batman comics, where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish bruce from the background, which is entirely on purpose.

gotham is a dark gritty city, and so is bruce. the two of them are one. bludhaven may be a bit of a mess, but it’s being portrayed in all these different shades of blue and purple and pink, that are all light enough that dick stands out from the background. he hasn’t been swallowed up by the city, and chances are that he won’t ever be. also, the colouring helps establish bludhaven as a city too. there’s still hope for it. the light colouring means that it’s not going to sink into a pit as deep as the one bruce wove gotham into. the whole point of this nightwing arc in particular is to turn bludhaven into a better place, and it’s (most likely) letting us know early on that dick is going to accomplish that. he’ll struggle, but he’ll do it.

so dick??? dick designed his escrima sticks with a situation like this in mind? he created his signature and most iconic weapon (other than his chatty mouth), with a built in feature that turns his escrima sticks into tim’s signature and most iconic weapon???? just so that if he and tim ever got into a situation where tim didn’t have his staff, dick could make sure tim had the thing that would give him an edge over anyone he was fighting??? he’s such a big brother oh my goddd.

also tim’s smirk in this is just *chef kiss.* a staff is something he can work with, a staff is something he wields like an extension of his arm, a staff is means that someone’s about to get their ass kicked because tim’s about to beat the shit outta them.

this is my new phone background.

they really made sure we remembered that hey, those first few months when bruce was grieving too much to be any sort of a mentor to tim and was still unwilling to properly train him to be robin out of fear that he would end up like jason, dick was the one who stepped up (once he got over himself and his own fears and hangups with bruce) and trained tim to be robin, trained him how to fight and flip and fuckin fly out there, all while changing his own style a bit to be the more experienced one in the partnership while still trusting said partner to hold their own, so dick and tim have a very unique and cohesive fighting style that makes it hell for anyone who fights them together, didn’t they?

[onceuponaprincessworld]

CaptainSwan Neighbors Au

Hello CS fandom! I made a new list and it’s a long one because there are so many great stories with that trope. It includes stories where our favorite couple are neighbors. Hope you enjoy! 

If you are intrested you can find my other lists here.

Multichapter Complete

With Affection, @phiralovesloki

Emma Swan isn't a middle schooler. So why is she receiving notes from a secret admirer? She's also definitely not a romantic person. So why is she writing back? Modern!AU Captain Swan, with side orders of Snowing and Frankenwolf. Updated with second epilogue.

Knock, Knock, @charmingturkeysandwich

Emma Swan has made the best of her crappy apartment ever since she became best friends with her neighbor, Ruby. But when Ruby moves out and a loud Brit takes her place, the thin walls and lack of space are suddenly not so endearing. After a particularly stressful day, Emma decides to confront the nightmare next door, and entirely against her better judgment, she might just be making a friend.

The Pirate Next Door , @the-captains-ayebrows

A handsome stranger moves into the apartment right next to Emma Swan's. Emma isn't ready for romance, but what harm could come of making friends with the charming self-proclaimed "pirate" whose bedroom shares a wall with hers?

Unbreakable, @xemmaloveskillianx

What if Hook was able to go with Emma and Henry when they left to escape Pan’s curse? With no memory of each other or Storybrooke, Emma and Killian meet in New York as complete strangers, both with broken pasts, and both with clean slates for their future.

Sign of Attraction, @hooklineandswan

Some day she was going to find a way to kill him without leaving a trace. Hopefully it would happen before he drove her insane. 

In the Name of the Brother, @tnlph

Killian Jones not only finds out about his father's death, but about the brother he never knew he had. Rather than let another Jones boy grow up without a father, Killian takes the boy into his life. He'll do all he can to be the man for his younger brother that his older brother had been for him.

Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor, @kittennharington​

Killian and Emma knew each other in middle school before she was taken away to a new foster home. They meet each other again years later as neighbors in an apartment complex. Contains smut.

Can You Feel it Right Now?, @cutieodonoghue

When Emma Swan agrees to let her annoying neighbor Killian Jones join her to go to the grocery store, the last thing she could have ever anticipated is becoming his wife over the course of a conversation with some people from his past.

Some Sort of Neighborly, @shipping-goggles

They're not neighbors, not exactly, and they're not friends either. It's pretty hard to find reasons to bump into the woman who lives next door to your best friend, especially after your only interaction with her has been waking up on her couch one Saturday morning. Sequel to Rude Awakening.

Look What the Cat Dragged In, @athenascarlet

There are only a couple things Killian Jones knows about his neighbor, Emma Swan. She's a bail bonds person and she's attractive. Also, she apparently has a cat. And he apparently is now her cat sitter.

The Reason, @xemmaloveskillianx

he three of them share a laugh before they all look to Emma. She has yet to comment on the new addition because she isn’t sure what to say. She usually doesn’t like change, they have a good thing going there, just the four of them. Plus, they all know him and she doesn’t, but she trusts their judgement, and she’s sure any brother of Liam can’t be all that bad.

So, with a shrug and a smile she says, “Welcome to Storybrooke, Killian Jones.”

Make Some Noise, @fyeahcaptn

Emma doesn't hate her neighbour per say, she barely knows him. Killian Jones an irritating, insufferable ass who's far too cocky and confident for his own good but seriously, would it hurt him to keep the shower to a normal time like an actual human being? Before she kills him. Modern!AU.

Pay It Forward, @acrobat-elle

Breaking your ankle is one thing. Breaking your ankle three days after you moved into a fifth-floor walkup is something else entirely.

Wip

A Helping Hand, @hookedonapirate

My girlfriend just dumped me and I've gotten piss drunk and somehow managed to get into your apartment instead of my own. I'm trying to masturbate my feelings away and boy were you surprised.

Breaking the Hinges, @piratesails

When Killian Jones decides to spend his night off relaxing in his apartment, the last thing he expects is a beautiful blonde woman bursting through his front door. 

Neighborly Affection, @hookslovelyswan

Emma Swan's new neighbor, Killian Jones, is the talk of the neighborhood, and living next door to him is almost more than she can stand, especially since the man doesn't seem to own a shirt! But the tug she feels toward him is inexorable, and the genuine feelings that develop between them...quite unexpected. 

One-shot

Transatlanticism, @mahstatins

Emma Swan went to Britain looking for family. It should have been a Hallmark movie, a Christmas miracle waiting to happen. Instead she’s stuck in a grimy London ‘flat’, with the worst next door neighbor in the world.

Well, maybe not the worst.

What a Year (for a New Year), @high-seas-swan

Killian Jones, Boston Bruins right winger, needs a break from the questions and concerns over his career-threatening injury. He thought Storybrooke would be the perfect place to escape to. What he didn't expect was Emma Swan, her kid and a holiday season he never knew he needed.

Subtle and Nuanced, @phiralovesloki

Killian Jones has an unusual relationship with a neighbor in which they exchange notes via cat. He’s also slowly falling for his flower shop’s newest customer. Surely these two things are unrelated.

Tim Finnegan's Wake, @icecubelotr44

"You live in the apartment next to mine and you're always blasting music while I'm trying to sleep but you've been silent for the last two days, are you all right?"

Emma Swan never minded the music. Not until she broke her ankle and her shift moved to days. Now she just wants to sleep. But Killian Jones doesn't seem to notice. So when the condo next door goes silent, she's understandably concerned. When she finds Killian after he got the phone call about his brother he never expected, they'll have to figure out if everything is as it seems.

Smoke and Mirrors, @lifeinahole27

I was burning scented candles and fell asleep. You’re my neighbour who bashed the door down when my smoke alarm went off. 

The Perils of Firemen and the Food Network, @shireness-says

Emma Swan is not a cook. But maybe, with the help of her upstairs neighbor, she could be - if her feelings don't get in the way.

Keep On Fallin' , @resident-of-storybrooke

Emma Swan may be a successful bail bondsperson, but when it comes to her love life not so much. After several failed blind dates Emma is ready to give up, but Mary Margaret convinces her to give it one more shot. Is Mr. One Shot going to be the one? Or is she willing to risk taking a chance with her blue eyed gorgeous neighbor?

For the Story, nothandlingit     

If there's one thing Killian Jones is ruthlessly stubborn on, it's not letting Emma Swan know how many coffee/hot chocolate/bear claw combinations he's had to gift on to unsuspecting strangers when she doesn't show up at the little bakery near their apartment building. Turns out accidentally running into each other costs some money. A CS AU week submission - beloved tropes.

The Worst/Best Christmas Ever, @captainhookcaptainfreedom

When their flight home is cancelled, Emma is convinced that she and Henry are going to have the worst Christmas ever. However, their next door neighbor, Killian Jones, has different ideas.

That Guy Next Door, @a-fictional-life

M-rated AU one shot just cos it’s Saturday…

You Make Me Better, @ilovemesomekillianjones

CS Neighbors AU where Emma is a nurse and Killian is her definitely-faking-it hypochondriac neighbor who uses illnesses and injuries as an excuse to talk to her.

walking the high line, @losttalongthewayy

Captain Swan NYC neighbors AU – It’s Emma Swan’s 28th birthday and she finds herself stuck helping her upstairs neighbor —the very one she’s sure she hates.

seven for all mankind, @arexnna

“we’re neighbours and we do everything together and spend all our time together and that’s normal, but someone pointed out how we’re essentially dating, but we aren’t, are we?”

Postcards and Shower Songs, @nightships

Emma often finds herself wondering whether it's possible to hate a stranger. Despite never having met or seen him before in her life, she knows exactly two things about Mr. K. Jones — he gets a ton of mail from all over the world and he plays extremely loud music when he wakes up in the morning.

Too Hot (Hot Damn), @this-too-too-sullied-flesh

Emma just doesn’t know what’s hotter--the weather and the fact that the air conditioning is out in her building, or her neighbor.

The Savior's Spatula, @imhookedonaswan

Killian Jones hears his neighbor Emma screaming from her apartment, being the gentleman he is he grabs the first thing he can find to go try to save her.

how not to meet your neighbor…, @startswithhope

Here’s a bit of modern AU nonsense, starring Killian and Emma…

The Sabbatical (or how Emma Swan brought Valentine’s Day back), @lenfaz

Killian Jones abhors his neighbors. He really does.

Two-Shots

The Favor, @madjm

AU. Emma Swan doesn't do relationships, but her annoyingly attractive neighbor, Killian Jones, might change her views. Captain Swan. Previously on ffnet.

The Not So Neighborly Noise, @optomisticgirl

After an exhausting day, one which started with her annoying neighbor waking her up with his singing, all Emma Swan wanted to do was sleep. Little did she know when she crawled into bed that night that everything she thought she knew was going to shift dramatically. Can a closed off woman give a man a chance to prove her wrong?

Ten Minutes, @hookedonapirate

“The game's simple, really. In fact you, my love, don’t have to do a thing,” he ends with a click of his tongue, his silky accent sending shivers down her spine.

“Don’t call me that,” Emma warns him, but honestly her heart is thumping and her interest is highly piqued, “but please do go on.”

“It’s called Ten Minutes. You give me ten minutes to do anything I want to you—touching, teasing, kissing, biting, whatever I want. You so much as moan or make any sound of pleasure, you lose.”

Emma bites her lip at the idea of him doing all those things to her and feels heat creeping into her cheeks. “And if I win? What do I get out of this?”

“If you win, I will never bother you again.”

A grin spreads across her lips. “Okay, you totally made this game up, but sure, I’ll play along,” she decides confidently. She has no doubt she’ll win, so why not? Emma sits up and places the bottle on the floor, glancing over at him again. “You’re on, Jones.”

We Can Feel So Far (From So Close), @once-uponacaptain

Waiting until your best friend left for a cross country tour was a fine time to realize you're in love with him. Captain Swan.

Stray Hearts, @piratesails

He’s insufferable, and nothing, not even the fact that he’s laughing with childlike glee as he cuddles a litter of stray kittens, will change Emma’s mind about Killian Jones. Or, that’s what she thought, anyway.

Three-Shots

Please, Please, Say You Feel it Too, @cutieodonoghue

modern au; Emma pawns her son off to her neighbor Killian. Romance ensues. (Daddy!Killian feels abound!)

Spider Slayer, @startswithhope

"This is totally awkward considering before this the only interactions we've ever had have been casual nods to each other in the hallway but there's a huge fucking spider in my bath tub and you seem like the friendly neighbor type please help me."

[yourdailykitsch]

Taylor Kitsch Gets in Touch With His Inner David Koresh in ‘Waco’

Taylor Kitsch loves being Taylor Kitsch, and one of the charms of the 36-year-old actor is that if you meet him, you’ll love that Taylor Kitsch loves being Taylor Kitsch too. It was a crisp afternoon in late October, and Kitsch was sitting at a picnic table on the patio of the Mean-Eyed Cat, a Johnny Cash–themed bar on West Fifth Street in Austin. Kitsch was enjoying the sunshine. (“The weather’s been insane. It’s why you live in Texas, you know?”) Kitsch was enjoying his barbecued pork ribs. (“Eating a plate of meat is rare for me, but it’s fun right now.”) Kitsch was enjoying his sleek and very expensive-looking BMW GS Rallye motorcycle, which he’d parked in front of the bar’s entrance. (“That bike’s spanking new. It’s like my child. I love it.”)

Over the past few months, Kitsch had gone on a two-thousand-mile motorcycle trip through the mountain west, riding up Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road, winding along Idaho’s Salmon River. He’d visited Africa, “because I didn’t know what the **** was going on with all the poaching, and I wanted to know.” He’d traveled to San Diego to skydive with a bunch of Navy SEALs and his friend and mentor, the macho-man director Peter Berg. He’d gone to the “Harvey Can’t Mess With Texas” benefit show at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin—“a really great concert, like top five for me”—and afterward “tipped, like, 48 beers” with his friend country music star Ryan Bingham. Now Kitsch was preparing to leave the South Austin apartment where he has lived for the past decade and move into his dream house, a 6,500-square-foot bachelor pad on Lake Austin. His whole family—mom, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews—was coming down from British Columbia for Christmas, and Kitsch couldn’t wait to show off his new place. “My mom’s going to lose her mind,” Kitsch said. “We grew up in a single-wide mobile home, then moved to a double-wide—she’ll lose it.” Kitsch was going “full Griswold” on yuletide decorations. He’d already purchased a ten-foot-tall blow-up polar bear to put on his front porch, and he and his oldest brother, Daman, were planning to install an elaborate light display before the rest of the family arrived. “It’ll hurt your eyes,” Kitsch said. “Literally, I hope we get fined by the HOA. That’s our goal, so we’ll do it.” Kitsch became famous for playing the Dillon Panthers’ bad-boy fullback Tim Riggins on the TV show Friday Night Lights, and over the course of five seasons, he made the character irresistible to watch—a teenage jumble of empathy, anger, machismo, and freewheeling fun. When the show ended, Kitsch appeared to be on a rocket path to superstardom, but he still hasn’t quite gotten there. Instead, his career since Friday Night Lights has been defined by soaring expectations, big-budget disappointments, and consistently good acting. When Kitsch and I met in Austin, he had just finished back-to-back press tours for two fall movies in which he plays supporting roles—the espionage thriller American Assassin and the wilderness-firefighter drama Only the Brave. But we were there to talk about Kitsch’s latest part—“the best work of my career, for sure”—which forced the actor to command the screen as never before and might just turn him into a bona fide Hollywood leading man. On January 24, the first episode of this project, Waco, a six-part miniseries about the 1993 standoff at the Branch Davidian compound in Central Texas, will premiere on the newly renamed Paramount Network (formerly Spike). The show stars Michael Shannon, John Leguizamo, Rory Culkin, and Melissa Benoist, but Kitsch has the plum role. Kitsch is playing David Koresh. The Waco siege has been the subject of a dozen or so documentaries that range from serious-minded to crackpot, but the new series is improbably the first dramatic re-creation of the entire event: 51 days of stalled negotiations and rising tensions that ended in an inferno that killed Koresh and 75 of his followers. The project’s genesis is unexpected: it was written, directed, and produced by brothers John and Drew Dowdle, whose handful of career credits includes low-budget horror films like Devil and Quarantine and the poorly reviewed Owen Wilson–Pierce Brosnan thriller No Escape. (Harvey Weinstein was an executive producer on the series, but his name has been removed from the credits.) The Dowdles may not have had much experience, but they had a plan: though the Waco siege has been a political and cultural lightning rod for the past 25 years, the brothers decided that their film wouldn’t dwell on the controversies. They wanted to tell the tragic, human, “no-bad-guys version of the story.” To do that, they knew that their single most important decision would be casting someone who could bring tragic humanity to Koresh. “We thought Koresh as a character is a deeply flawed individual, but there’s something a bit everyman about him, there’s something about him that people liked,” Drew Dowdle said. “The Taylor Kitsch version of David Koresh is inherently someone you would enjoy being around.” When Kitsch first heard about the part, he had only a hazy memory of news coverage of the Waco siege. But the more he read, the more fascinated he became. After meeting with the Dowdles, he reached out to his agent and said, “If they want me to do it, I’ll swing. I just need prep time.” Shooting was set to start in Santa Fe in April 2017, and as 2016 was coming to a close, Kitsch steeled himself for the next half year of preparation and production. “I went to Telluride for New Year’s and just blew it out—like, pizza, anything you could drink, ski, just go all out, don’t even worry about anything,” Kitsch said. On January 2, he arrived back in Austin, ready to begin his transformation. When Kitsch first came to Austin, in 2006, to film the pilot for Friday Night Lights, he was 24 years old, “green and raw” and mostly in the dark about acting and the entertainment business. “I genuinely didn’t know what a critic was,” he told me. Kitsch had grown up four hours west of Vancouver in the city of Kelowna, British Columbia, with his mother and two older brothers—his dad was mostly absent—and until he was 20, he dreamed about playing professional ice hockey. When back-to-back knee injuries ended his career, he moved to New York to try to make it as an actor, beginning a scrappy period in which he took classes, modeled, and, for a several-week stretch, spent his nights sleeping on the subway. Kitsch had almost missed his screen test for Friday Night Lights due to visa issues, and when he arrived, Berg, the series’ creator, first made him improvise in character for thirty minutes. Berg was suitably impressed. “What you did in there, make sure you do in this screen test with all the execs, and I think we’ll be just fine,” he told Kitsch. Friday Night Lights never had a big audience, but to the people who watched it week after week, it might as well have been War and Peace, except about high school football, and way more fun. Kitsch was the heartthrob, and even while the show was in the middle of its run, he was getting movie work, playing Gambit in an X-Men movie and the war photographer Kevin Carter in The Bang Bang Club. After Friday Night Lights ended, in 2011, Kitsch was primed to really make it big. Going into 2012, he had starring roles in two massively hyped movies with enormous budgets, John Carter and Battleship, both of which seemed like good bets to turn into franchises. “I had two ten-year contracts,” Kitsch said. “I would have been going Carter, Battleship, Carter, Battleship, and maybe an indie somewhere in there if I could.” But both films fizzled at the box office, and Kitsch’s career was forced to become more interesting. “I still have my journal from when I was in acting class in New York where it’s like, ‘All I want to do is indies and these characters and Sean Penn, Sean Penn, Sean Penn,’ ” Kitsch told me. He got his wish. He’s spent the past four years bringing a coiled-up intensity to men as varied as Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy in Lone Survivor, Gay Men’s Health Crisis president Bruce Niles in HBO’s The Normal Heart, and patrolman Paul Woodrugh in the much-maligned second season of True Detective. Instead of conquering the world as an above-the-title star, Kitsch became our most finely featured character actor. When Kitsch arrived back in Austin after his Telluride bacchanal, he got down to studying. He read the memoirs of Branch Davidian survivor David Thibodeau, watched home videos of Koresh preaching, and made a stab at grasping the Branch Davidians’ end-times theology. “I literally had a beginner’s-Bible-study version of the Book of Revelation,” Kitsch said. Koresh was an enthusiastic rock guitarist and singer (followers wore “David Koresh: God Rocks” T-shirts), so Kitsch took guitar and voice lessons to pull off the on-screen performances. To physically transform into Koresh—who did not have movie-star muscles—Kitsch dropped thirty pounds, limiting himself to eight hundred calories a day and running around Lady Bird Lake while listening to Koresh’s sermons. As Kitsch dug into his research, he saw a clear path to playing the public persona of the Branch Davidian leader. “Before the siege, it’s his birthday every day,” Kitsch said. “It’s all about him. He’s got a go-cart track and a shooting range, and he’s a rock star—obviously the lead singer, obviously the lead guitarist.” In Waco, Koresh, as played by Kitsch, oozes charm and bravado and knows just how to manipulate the people around him. That’s not a stretch. The 33-year-old self-proclaimed “Lamb of God” was in the habit of waking up his followers in the middle of the night so that they could listen to him show off his savant-like recall of the Bible. He had about two dozen “spiritual wives,” including some who were already married to other Branch Davidians. After a claimed revelation from God, he commanded all men in the compound to be celibate, with the singular exception of David Koresh. (“I’ve assumed the burden of sex for us all, but not for my own kicks,” Kitsch as Koresh says in the show’s first episode.) He was good at a drawling, tough-guy act too: he drove a ’68 Camaro, loved his firearms, and famously sent a message to the FBI saying, “You come pointing guns in the direction of my wife and my kids, dammit, I’ll meet you at the door any time.” But Kitsch also had to reckon with Koresh’s darkness. Among Koresh’s wives were women whom he had married when they were as young as twelve years old, and even if you think the federal government acted disastrously at Waco, it’s hard to see Koresh as blameless in the deaths of the 86 people who perished in the initial raid and the final fire. “Taylor and I had long talks: ‘How do you play this guy in a human way?’ ” John Dowdle said. “That was a big part of the preparation, just trying to get through the ugly stuff so he’s not a monster from the get-go.” Kitsch seized on Koresh’s childhood to understand him, trying to find that part of the Branch Davidian leader that was still Vernon Wayne Howell, Koresh’s given name. During his research, Kitsch read about a phone call that Koresh placed to his mother during the ATF raid on the compound. Koresh had been shot twice, was bleeding profusely, and thought that he was minutes from the end. His mother didn’t pick up, but he left a message, telling her he was dying, asking her to “tell Grandma hello for me,” and saying, “I’ll see y’all in the skies.” “I broke reading it,” Kitsch said. “I was crushed. And after that, I was like, ‘I’m dialed in now and I’m ready to go.’ ” The call hadn’t been in the script, but Kitsch emailed the Dowdles and urged them to add it: “I’m like, ‘This will take fifteen, twenty minutes to shoot, guys, we’ve got to have this in there. This is not Koresh—this is Vernon calling his mom.’ ” The Dowdles agreed. When Kitsch arrived on set, cast and crew who were wondering what he’d bring to the role didn’t have to wait long. On the first day, the Dowdles had scheduled a scene in which Kitsch delivered a nine-page sermon on divine joy to his congregants. “It was pretty remarkable to see him get up and do that,” Paul Sparks, who plays Koresh’s deputy, Steve Schneider, told me. “I had heard some of Koresh on the internet, but to be in the room and listen to this person talk about these complex, different ways of looking at Scripture—it was like, ‘Right, that’s what it was like.’ ” Regardless of whether Waco is a hit, Kitsch has his next project lined up. He’s planning to go to a friend’s San Saba ranch in February to shoot a movie currently titled Pieces. It will be his debut as a screenwriter and feature-film director. Pieces tells the story of “three best friends who take an opportunity to change their lives.” In this case, that opportunity is to intercept a drug drop on the Texas-Mexico border, after which, as you might assume, “all hell breaks loose.” Kitsch wrote the script over the course of several motorcycle road trips, and he used the journeys not only to clear his mind for writing but as an opportunity to conduct research. “I remember being in Idaho and there’s this truck-stop hooker, basically, and I had a coffee with her,” Kitsch told me. “Don’t read into that, it was—literally, it was a coffee—and I just bombed questions at her, and she was just super cool. I put a character based on her in the movie.” Kitsch seems to have exactly the kind of fame that he wants. He can build a dream house and get a dream role, but he can drop by a truck stop in Idaho and bomb questions at people who don’t recognize him. He has famous friends and wild adventures, but every interaction he has doesn’t have to be about his celebrity. As we were sitting at Mean-Eyed Cat, Kitsch told me about turning down a role recently. It was a “little rom-com for five days’ work,” he said, and it was “stupid money.” He would have made more on that movie than he did on Waco, Only the Brave, and three Normal Hearts combined—“for five days’ work,” he said again. I asked him why he’d said no. He did the voice-over work for Ram Trucks commercials, after all. First he answered like an actor. “It’s just not where I want to be, it’s not the story I want to tell,” he said. Then he added a caveat that was pure Taylor Kitsch. “I mean, I’m for sale,” he said, a big smile breaking out over his face. “If you want to give me $20 million for something and my mom never has to work again and my family’s good for the rest of their life, yes, I’m going to do it—don’t care who you are. I come from nothing, so to give my mom that call would just be awesome. I mean, I wouldn’t do porn, but, you know?”

[shirlleycoyle]

Biden Antitrust Pick Is an Expert on How to Break Up Big Tech

On Monday, Biden nominated Columbia Law School professor Lina Khan to join the Federal Trade Commission as one of its three Democratic commissioners. Khan has emerged in the past few years as one of the more prominent progressive voices advocating for aggressive antitrust action.

Khan will replace Rohit Chopra, who Biden has chosen to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and who Khan worked for as a legal fellow in 2018. Over the past few years, Khan has served in increasingly prominent roles in antitrust debate and policy formation. She served as legal counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee, where she was one of the key architects of its damning report on how digital platforms were flagrantly anticompetitive. 

Now, with her nomination to the FTC, as well as that of fellow antitrust advocate and Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu to the National Economic Council, there is hope that Biden is signaling that his antitrust agenda will be an aggressive one. The reaction to her nomination was near-universal praise from antitrust scholars recognizing her impact, the focus of her work, and hope for the future.

"A generation hence, today will be remembered as one of the most important days in the fight to preserve and rebuild American democracy," the Open Markets Institute said in a press release. "President Biden demonstrated a true commitment to restoring the people's control over the American political economy by nominating Lina Khan to serve on the FTC.”

"She's not just brilliant and kind and incisive, she works unbelievably hard and listens harder," Fordham law School professor Zephyr Teachout wrote on Twitter. In an interview with NPR, Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is now chair of the Senate's antitrust committee, said "What I think is exciting about people like Tim Wu and Lina Khan is they're disrupters. I say we need some disruption right now, both in how we look at this in government, and how we can get more competitors going."

Khan has not shied away from harsh criticism of the most powerful corporations in America, and the world. 

In “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” a 2017 Yale Law Journal note, Khan lays out how Amazon aggressively pursues anticompetitive practices like predatory pricing and vertical integration to the point where it is so dominant that it is considered essential infrastructure for other businesses. Amazon’s case, she writes, shows how antitrust law is inadequate and indeed that “Amazon has marched toward monopoly by singing the tune of contemporary antitrust.”

A 2019 Columbia Law Review article titled "The Separation of Platforms and Commerce" centered on structural separation as a "key antitrust remedy in network industries.''  This would prohibit businesses from competing in sectors or platforms they already dominate or own, preventing them leveraging their position for an anticompetitive advantage. For example, that might look like Amazon being banned from both owning an e-commerce platform and selling its own goods and services on that same e-commerce platform. Building on her 2017 note, Khan advocates for this remedy as well as abandoning the consumer welfare standard (where Amazon’s predatory pricing would be considered “loss-leading”) and embracing one based on preserving competition. 

As an agency, the FTC is largely concerned with investigating claims of anti-competitive practices and enforcing federal antitrust law, but within the framework of consumer welfare. The question is: can the FTC actually achieve what Khan wants and has spent most of her time advocating for? 

"It could be huge, but it does depend critically on the third D," Hal Singer, an antitrust economist and professor at Georgetown University told Motherboard, "If it's someone in the Obama mold, then Lina and other true anti-monopolists could be thwarted."

Earlier in March, Leah Nylen reported for Politico that the Obama-era FTC simply refused to enforce antitrust law even when they had evidence Google was clearly violating it. According to the report, the FTC uncovered anticompetitive business practices designed to support Google’s search dominance. But instead of acting on it, they came up with a rationale to excuse the behavior that leaned on laughably bad predictions about the future and saw only a “limited potential for growth” in the digital ad space. 

This matches other post-mortems of the Obama administration’s antitrust regime, which antitrust advocates like the American Economic Liberties Project have sketched out as a failure. In its own report on the administration’s antitrust enforcement, the think tank summarized the approach as dominated by “enforcers carrying the consumer welfare banner” who “subverted President Obama’s public pledges to structure markets to be fairer and more stable.”

The uncertainty of the third appointee and the risk of an Obama-era hangover likely mean that Khan will need backup if she’s to act on her stated beliefs and push the agency back towards real antitrust regulation and enforcement, rather than behavioral remedies such as meager fines.

"Antitrust law is fairly hostile to enforcement, whether brought by the agencies or private plaintiffs," Singer added. "So even the most anti-monopolist appointee will be constrained without support from Congress."

One solution to this potential bottleneck that doesn’t rely on Congress was laid out by the Open Markets Institute in 2018 while Khan was the legal policy director: Section 5 of the FTC Act. Section 5, the institute argued, gives the agency "exceptional power to make and remake antitrust policy" through an expansive prong regarding competition. The agency just needs to use it. 

Section 5 not only declares "unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce" to be illegal, but avoids the pitfalls of other antitrust laws like the Sherman and Clayton Acts: the FTC, not the courts, is the primary interpreter thanks to authority delegated by Congress. The FTC, the organization argued, must use Section 5 to "overthrow the ahistorical consumer welfare approach to antitrust" and begin real antitrust enforcement by, for example, banning "horizontal and vertical consolidation in concentrated markets and exclusionary practices"

In her 2019 piece and in a 2020 essay co-written with former FTC Commissioner Chopra, Khan wrote that the FTC could pursue structural separation with or without Congress, although it would be much easier with support.  With congressional support, the path would be much easier as lawmakers could empower the FTC to pursue and enforce structural separation in a way resembling Glass-Steagall’s separation of commercial and investment banking. Without Congress, the path is "significantly more challenging" as it would require the FTC to pursue rulemaking with tools that have been weakened over time, within a legal system that is hostile in general to antitrust enforcement, and through cases with a limited scope that would end up "costlier, and take significantly longer" thanks to the high burdens of proof placed on plaintiffs to successfully show anticompetitive practices are ongoing and harmful.

For Khan, all of this could be possible if the stars align: If Congress supports her vision, if the third FTC Democratic Commissioner is aligned with her, and if Biden gets out of the way. On Tuesday, nearly 30 progressive groups urged Biden to do just this and nominate "aggressive antitrust enforcers" to key positions in the FTC and DOJ to "make a clean break from past leadership" of the Obama administration's antitrust regime.

"I worry a lot of Congress is afraid to make the cut themselves, that they don't want to be the one saying 'OK Amazon can do this, but it can't do that,'" Singer told Motherboard. "Another option is you tell them there's a huge problem, structural separation is the remedy, but rather than them making the cut, they can empower some tribunal in the FTC that's tasked with hearing these complaints to make the cut itself."

No matter what, Khan’s appointment is a big deal and her connections to legislators involved with crafting the Congressional side of antitrust policy is significant. If they work with her, listen to her ideas, and give her the power to enact them, we might see the beginning of a very exciting and robust set of policies that could radically alter the digital world and kill a few monopolies along the way.

But if they don’t, or if another commissioner is hostile to this idea, then it may be that Biden has figured out a smart way to offer a fig leaf to progressives and antimonopolists without actually moving against the business executives, lobbyists, and monopolists who staffed his transition team, are filling his administration’s ranks, or angling for a way to influence policy.

Biden Antitrust Pick Is an Expert on How to Break Up Big Tech syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[aiweirdness]

Neural networks + Kittens = !!!

It was inevitable that the neural network, having named all kinds of internet datasets, should turn its talents to naming cats.

And what an occasion! The AFK Cat Rescue of Huntsville, Alabama contacted me because they had an exceptionally adorable bunch of kittens (plus one magnificent Persian) who need names and homes. June is kitten season here in the USA, so shelters are inundated with new kittens right now, and AFK takes the very high-risk cases, kittens who are too small to survive in regular shelters, or who are sick or injured, or have neurological disorders.

To be sure, the AFK Cat Rescue’s kitten-naming game is strong. They’ve got a black and orange kitten pair named Shere Khan and Bagheera, and they have another pair of cats named Grindylow and Pooka. With their full list of the several hundred cat names they’ve used over the years, plus the list of several thousand cats registered in Toronto (thanks to Tumblr user @maverick-ornithography), I had comfortably enough to train a neural network with.

I fired up my trusty karpathy-char-rnn neural network framework, and sat down to watch it learn.

Colzyy Mumhan Tygrar Juolb Ggonooo Byn Malgacor Gatbewl Mrror Rglslwelph Aarla Teaw Mos Tilypsronvynkor

“Very good,” I said. “Coming right along. Nice work on Aarla, maybe not try so hard on Teaw Mos Tilypsronvynkor.” I said all this to myself, of course, because the neural network operates entirely without my input once training starts. I can shout “No, you fool!” at it all day if I like and it ignores me perfectly.

Soon, however, I began to notice that quite a few of these cats had last names, and sounded actually rather grand.

Jarlag Argon Mankith Cuttim Aeggerooy Jozga Andend of Karlans Irtenda of Tiyra Sittrobt Torg? Arten Sword Lord Magian Welu-the Manwys Parihen the Thawk Haldir of the Saleword Barga Mr. Yetheract Belfine Bracken Belis Goodbrook Bentone Ballywood Grim Wyyne Gorihand Molgo

I had, as it turned out, accidentally trained the neural network on another dataset, a list of character names from Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, C. S. Lewis, Robert E Howard, and Terry Pratchett (sent in by reader Thomas Pugh).

AFK Cat Rescue, however, decided to roll with it. First neural network kitten: Parihen the Thawk!

Parihen the Thawk: This guy was surrendered to an animal shelter after he hitched a ride in the engine of a car. He had a dislocated leg but it's healing well with rest. He's shy, tiny and misses his bff who is in the hospital right now for her much worse injuries. He's got a lot of energy and loves to show off his belly.

I finally got the neural network training on the proper dataset, but I was worried when, by the time I went to bed it was producing literally the following names over and over:

Hurter Hurler Hunty Hurty Hunter Hurker

Some who are not so fond of cats may argue that these are in fact the best cat names. Fortunately for the AFK Cat Rescue, the names did eventually become more suitable. I present to you:

Jexley Pickle - This little girl is a hoot and a half. She's full of energy, bounce and comedy. She loves to nurse on ear lobes and finger tips. She's about 6 weeks old and was found after being chased up a tree by a dog. 

Mag Jeggles - When you touch him he rattles from head to tail with purrs. He's so sweet. He was simply too young to be made available for adoption, and was rescued from a shelter that could not care for him.

Snox Boops - He was in a room with a lot of kittens that were too small to place up for adoption and even much smaller than the others in the room. When you pick him up he capsizes in your hands and starts purring. He's got a huge voice and a huge demand for love and attention. 

Mumcake - She was brought into a shelter as a stray, but she was too young for adoption and if she wasn't pulled by rescue she would have been subject for euthanasia. She's adorable, loving, outgoing and shoots sunshine right out of her butt. (Sunshine ejection not shown; you have AFK’s word for it.)

Tilly Mapper - This little girl also took a ride in a car engine and her rear leg was nearly completely severed as a result. She's been stitched up but she's had an infection set in. She is only around 8 weeks old and she's in very poor body condition from having tried to make it on the streets. We hospitalized her yesterday and she's doing much better. We hope to have her back to foster home by Friday.

Big Wiggy Bool - He is a doll-faced persian that was surrendered to a kill shelter when his family could not take him on their cross country move. He's five years old and has obviously been doted on. He's super affectionate, very easy going and a talker!  He's been recently groomed and trimmed up by Robyn Warner with Goin to the Dogs and Cats Mobile Grooming Service. And he loves belly rubs. Rubbing that fluffy, soft belly is an experience so wonderful it can only be discussed in breathless whispers.

Photos of the above cats by volunteer Amy Harrell.

And, since it IS kitten season, the neural network is happy to provide a list of cat names (some more usable than others), for use in naming cats, computer servers, firstborn, etc.

Jeckle Elbent Jenderina Roober Snorp Snox Boops Cylon Sookabear Frere Sonney Mrow Jexley Pickle Marper Foppin Toby Booch Snowpie Big Wiggy Bool Macha Boo Mr Whinkles Timble Macfallon Machaka Licky Cat Mr Bincheh Macnaw Maxy Fay Tim Hike Mr Gruffles Grips Liony Oli Lingo Lingley Conkie Lasley Goo Mr Took Linky Marvish Mag Jeggles Corko Maggin Mcguntton Mara Tatters Mr Tiggie Mr. Skuffles Mr. Hinkles Mush Jam Tilly-Mapper Mr. Jubble Mumcake Muppin Mr O

Perhaps backup choices:

Cutzerinda Galorub Pans Sofa Shotkie Ouiho Pope Kogon Ro Larky Rorka Bot leperaONtiea Malool Scagkaleoru Clagmlh Mice iiia Ha LuoleryPlogalasnfalon Hubla Ssrerosti Negflun Mery Booii Balllucidoux

Definitely backup choices:

Trickles Poot Moosh Papper Clotter Moan Toot Cloobie Slarkbir Jenky Pissy Schitty Retchion Pappy Dopia Pilly Scabbys Pish Mesladewench Souffungy Mr Tinkles

[i-may-have-a-point]

Review of 14x08 “Out of Nowhere”

I FINALLY sat down last night and watched the mid-season finale. I purposely didn’t watch live, but life kept me busy, too, so sorry for the delay.  

Before I get in to my thoughts on Grey’s, I want to ask does anyone watch Chicago Med?  I kept reading that Chicago Med did this storyline, so I found the episode to compare how similar they are.  Um…guys.  In no way do I think that Grey’s Anatomy needs to “borrow” ideas from other shows, but the similarities are eyebrow raising.  I have only watched a couple of other episodes of Chicago Med, so I don’t know the characters or their stories well.  I did notice that they have characters named April and Maggie, and that was enough to mess with my head in itself, but the episode had so many similarities, I felt like I was watching an alternate reality Grey’s.  Early in the episode, all of the monitors/tablets/etc. lock out the doctors and then a cryptic message pops up on all of them stating that someone else has control of their network until the hospital pays a certain amount of bitcoin.  Granted, this may be standard hacker lingo, but it made me squint pretty hard at my screen. The wise, older, chief of the hospital gathers everyone to explain the situation, and a doctor asks how they will get things done.  Our wise chief explains that things used to be done back in the day with paper and pen and the distribution of the clipboards begins.  A male doctor who, similar to Jackson, has a trust fund and is in an interracial relationship, chimes in that he thinks they should just pay the ransom.  And while I could explain all of this away with coincidence, there was one scene that was so similar to one on Grey’s that I watched it twice to be sure.  Remember Webber’s newspaper trick for the IV bag with blood in it?  Same thing happens in the Chicago Med episode.  I’m not kidding.  So is all of this coincidence?  I don’t know, but if you have time to watch the Chicago Med episode, let me know what you think.

Alright, let’s get to it.

Unimportant thoughts:

Every time I see the interns, I wonder which ones will be killed off this season.  So far, I am liking Glasses and Sam, and I hope they stay.

Was it intentional that Maggie’s patient had the same name as her Tinder date?

The idea that April and Owen worked in a war zone, but can’t figure out how to be doctors without computers is eye roll worthy.

IT guy Tim is either the hacker or just a genuinely socially awkward person.  

Carina and Arizona have chemistry.  Sam and Deluca have chemistry.  I know the showrunners are capable of seeing chemistry.  So, why…nevermind.  

Why was that birth scene so anti-climactic?  I wasn’t worried or excited or happy or anything.  It was missing something.  Build-up maybe?

Jesse.  What are you doing, boo?  This man can act.  He emotes every imaginable feeling with Sarah. He had hilarious, genuine scenes with Mark and Ben.  Is he tanking this on purpose or is the lack of chemistry that bad?

Ben/Bailey – This story didn’t get much attention besides Ben’s workout scenes in the opening voiceover, and Bailey telling Webber she was mad he let Ben use the fire academy as a fellowship year.  The only thing I got out of that line being dropped was that if the spin off fails, Jason George has an easy way to come back Grey’s.  Always nice to have a fallback plan, I guess.  

Meredith – “You win a Harper Avery, and you barely have any time for surgery anymore.”  Meredith is annoyed at all the attention winning this award is giving her, and I’m annoyed that she’s annoyed.  I just can’t feel sorry for her that people want to praise her too much.  Amelia saying, “Not a real problem,” in response to her complaining was one of my favorite lines of the episode.  Not only because it was like Amelia channeled my inner thoughts, but also because it is another example of how post-tumor Amelia is still exactly the same person as before and the writers have changed nothing about who she is besides her relationship with Owen.  

Jolex – I love that Jo is Chief Resident, but like I said before, I don’t feel like I can feel proud of her because she basically got it by default.  We all know if Jerrika had stayed on the show, she would have been Chief Resident, and there would have been multiple scenes of characters explaining to Jo that Stephanie is the better doctor.  That said, I laughed when Jo was telling the interns not to be stupid, slow or make her look bad, to which Webber says that her speech needs work. Jo may never be Bailey, but she has the potential to be a great leader.  I think their story, both the little boy and Paul returning, was the only interesting part of the episode, and the only story worthy of a mid-season finale.  

Deluca and Sam – I’m ready for them to give us more than them having sex all over the hospital.  I want to like them, but I need more right now. At least they have chemistry though. If they are going to throw a couple together without any explanation, at least, in this case, they have chemistry.

Awkward elevator scene – This recreation of the Mark/Derek/Mer/Addison/Rose elevator scene with Owen/Carina/Arizona/April made me half-smile, until I realized in the first scenario everyone was involved in the weird relationship mess, but in the second scenario April was only thrown in because she has no other story in this episode, but the show knows she is comedy gold.  Sigh.  

Webber/Bailey/Surgical Contest- Looks like Webber is going to be running the contest.  That is unless this ransom thing ruins the contest, which I sincerely hope it doesn’t because it is one of the few storylines in the past season and a half that I have a little hope for.

Maggie/Jackson – Do the writers actually have a plan here?  We have gotten so much conflicting information here that I have to wonder.  One of two plans are being played out, but which one is it?

Plan One – The writers are actually trying to make Maggie and Jackson a thing.  

Plan Two – This is all a terribly executed plan that will lead to Jackson and April finding their way back together.

But if we look at what we have to go on, there is no clear direction or answer.  Debbie Allen said recently that this is a love triangle, Krista certainly hasn’t had many positive things to say about Japril online, and Jackson and Maggie have had more scenes together than Bokhee and Meredith. At this point If something is going to happen with Maggie and Jackson, what are they waiting for??  There are only so many chemistry tests they can do.  Especially when they are failing all of them.    And I refuse to believe that the show thinks they see some magic spark that 99% of the fans don’t.  They call them family and siblings, but then have them say vague lines that make us wonder what they are actually talking about.  It’s like the show is trolling the audience.  They know they won’t work as a couple, but people are so against it, they are just trying to get a reaction now.  There is zero chance that they posted a photo of Jackson and Maggie with the caption, “This is creepy,” and didn’t expect a reaction.  Not to mention, none of the actors are promoting this ship.  Jeanine Mason has played Sam for like an hour and she has been online talking ship names with fans.  Jesse and Sarah, aside from a couple of Jesse troll moments, only like and share Japril tweets, while Kelly either ignores it all or likes ambiguous tweets about the story. If the actors don’t even talk about it online because they know there will be backlash, why in the world would the show go forward with it?  And now we have confirmation that Sarah and Jesse are filming together again.  So, was that planned all along?  Was there a shift in the story because they saw it was failing?  Was it meant to fail all along?  Then we have Maggie and April looking for dates on Tinder and Jackson moping about not being able to buy happiness, so he buys everything else.  And hey, while we’re at it, let’s bring in a stunt double for Sarah and bring Matthew back because things aren’t weird enough right now.  And if they are trying to create moments between Maggie and Jackson, why do they keep ruining those same moments? Catherine walking in on them talking and calling Maggie his sister is believable, but the helicopter would have been the perfect opportunity to move this along.  But they didn’t. Instead we got more flat, awkward conversation until the universe literally made them shut-up.  Why is the show getting in the way of these moments unless it is intentional?  Because it sure isn’t creating a slow burn.  I have never seen a non-ship crash and burn as quickly as this one.  

So, we’ll hang in there a little longer because that’s how much we love and appreciate Sarah/April and Jesse/Jackson.  Hopefully the second half of the season brings stories they deserve.