#i just think very little about robin would actually change between those verses so it's easier just to tweak her canon on a case

[scoopstrooptm]

maybe if i post a to-do list here then i'll actually be productive.jpg

• spring clean my drafts • write up erica's bio • figure out specifics for d&d verses for robin & dustin • write up an apocalyptic au outline for robin & dustin • finish the robin & russian bunker trauma meta i have sitting incomplete in my drafts • modern verse ????? idk where to start with that aside from giving robin her long-awaited middle aged lesbian icon modern verse • starter call ?????? • write ?????????? • profit

[witchcraftandburialdirt]

For the relationship prompt, which interactions or friendship do you think affected Robin the most ?

Send my muse anons about their relationships. ANON ASK

Oh man, I'm going to have to answer this one as a mun because this changes a lot depending on where in the timeline you're asking. There's also A LOT of muses that Robin has interacted with! Please note that for this I will be mostly sticking to threads/interactions that have been developed in writing, almost all of Robin's relations have had an influence on him, but as for MOST--It'll be things me and the mun have developed/written together. I assume you mean in general but even that is a loaded question, so I'll be breaking this up into specific parts of his life or AUs because I do consider those quintessential for helping me as a mun develop him. (I will NOT be discussing Abel or Bel in this post as it is WAY too much and I could write a novel on their relationship. If you all would want this explained in a separate post, just let me know because it is extremely extensive).This is going to be LONG FYI, there's no way I could condense all of the wonderful relations Robin has made. So! Lets get this long post GOING!

POST-DEATH CANON VERSE:

Who would have thought being a revived corpse wandering for 2 straight years within Ionia would bring so many people into his life? One of the first and immensely influential relationships he had was when he left Ionia to travel to Bilgewater during the Harrowing, where he met Akio (@aquatic-hybrid) by coincidence, and the two worked together to clear the docks of the lost souls traveling from the Shadow Isles. Their relationships started off suspicious and unsure, but has led to one of the warmest, sweetest friendships Robin has had in a long time. It's a little stupid, but Akio gets hurt a lot and Robin has really been able to reconnect with the magic he's actually good at by healing him. Akio has pushed him over and over to be a better person, he hasn't asked too much about his past...and he just...accepts him. Robin really loves Akio as if he were his own brother, one of the people he truly feels at home with.

Another relationship that has humanized Robin is his friendship with Noelle (@songofsilentechoes), something about her kind nature just immediately drew him in and sparked his urge to protect her. This is one of those relationships that started off quite well and only got better as time passed; there was no judgement between the two of them and Noelle, like Akio, simply accepted him as he is. They meet together often for tea and a weekly book club where they read together and chit chat about life, Noelle's travels, any advice she might need in regards to magic etc. She is an extremely sympathetic and nice person--genuine to the point that Robin lowered his walls quite quickly with her, and now considers her close to his heart. This influence was much more passive on her end, as her own curiosity in terms of magic has reignited Robin's love of learning. He wants to be someone she can depend on, and be better. Side note: Bel actually finds Noelle VERY charming, it knows she won't harm Robin and has decided that she's worth protecting to keep its food happy.

Something more recent in terms of interactions falls to Lee SIn (@ionianelder), where Robin's fears and lies for himself have just melted away. Where Akio and Noelle fall into friends, equals and even students of magic, Lee Sin falls into a category that Robin has desperately needed since he was younger; a mentor. His memories of other figures like this are jumbled at best and lost at worst, but Lee Sin is one of the first to truly connect with him emotionally and tell him, from the heart, that he will be okay and get through this torment. Robin sort of...broke when he met Lee, granted he was already on his way to the edge of the plateau but the monk really pushed him over the edge and now he's hanging on desperately--when in reality he needs to just...let go. Lee Sin, although it hasn't happened yet, is going to really help Robin drop the past pain he's carried with him. It'll be a very good change, Robin may even learn to forgive himself.

Another one, man this is really never ending Robin stop meeting people, is Sett...Oh Sett, angry, traumatized, pained Sett (@pitgritted). This interaction definitely takes place a bit more in the future once Robin has left his burrow and is ready to speak with people again, and he found himself working as the chief medical staff for the pit fighters. This is another case of "he can practice healing magic for its original intended purpose" and has become a mentor figure to the younger, less experienced staff members. Not only this but his actual connection to Sett himself is an immensely interesting study into how people suffer the consequences of causing trauma, not just experiencing it themselves. Jojo and I have spoken in length about how they both have toxic qualities that bleed into their everyday lives, but they are trying so hard to dampen the harshness of these affects. Sett who can't use physical intimidation on Robin, and Robin who can't use emotional manipulation on Sett--because they do genuinely care for the other and don't want to scare/hurt them. There is, well, a certain peace I think that they feel with eachother--there is no antipathy for what the other has done, no need to "fix" the other, after all what hypocrisy would that be? It is an equally terrifying and comforting feeling to see a reflected inversion of yourself within another person, to want to be there for them but also knowing that they are acutely aware of your shortcomings because they, too, experience them. Robin has remarked, not outloud of course, that Sett's heart is fragile, I'm not sure Sett would ever be able to defend that from Robin; how could he when he sees the same fragility within the mage? They're very sweet. It'll be a very confounding, yet satisfying, arc in their lives, I'm sure.

In another timeline, something I call the bad ending (where Robin does heal but ends up falling into bad habits again), he actually has a quite captivating relationship with Jhin (@curtain-cxll). This also takes place moreso in the future, but where Robin has stayed in his burrow and has not abandoned it yet. Although the thread is just taking its first steps, Raven and I have plotted that it will fall into a game of cat and mouse that is intellectually stimulating for both Jhin and Robin. And also...something else happened by accident. Once again these two do not try to "fix" one another, but rather nurture what life has molded them into. From their first meeting there was a strange predilection that invaded both of them, I honestly think this is what made them want to burrow inside of the other one--its rare to find someone you instantly spark with (romantically or otherwise). Jhin really allows Robin to open up in terms of accepting the darker parts of himself, a part of him he will never fully get rid of, a specific toxicity Jhin can play off of, he just...accepts this part of him, and continues to encourage Robin's interests and it is shockingly quite sweet. This isn't to say Jhin is immune either, how he has craved someone who will not mock his ideas and actually listen to what he has to say, he is still human after all--and holds all of the insecurities of one. Even though the beginning is majority manipulation, Robin's reverence and appreciation of Jhin's thoughts is just intoxicating. "It isnt time yet, after all, I'd prefer my performance to be a duet." has me by the throat, the one person that has ever valued him in the same light that he values them. As art, as beauty despite all of his faults. Hell we've even discussed them living and traveling together. It's very much crafted around the poem of "Life and Death are lovers", and as a mun I really wasn't expecting to plot such a...weirdly pleasant story about self love with these two, both souls lost in solitude finding solace in one another. With a lot of murder on the side, of course. Side note: Bel and Jhin actually get along quite well too--it's very very funny to me. Bel legit gives him advice--best wingman. The demon will eventually also decide to protect Jhin as a way to keep its food safe--lord have mercy upon Runeterra.

MODERN VERSE

Oh Miss Evelynn (@agonizedembrace) do you even know how much you've shifted the course of his life? Modern verse is a...weird one, I originally wasn't planning on having Robin be a reincarnation but it led to so much deliciousness I can't imagine it any other way. For Evelynn, this is the second time their souls have met, but now she truly understands what it means to care and even love, and what she was not able to recognize within the long ago past. As such, when she meets Robin again, she makes the rather emotional instantaneous decision to pseudo-adopt him into KDA and her other nefarious activities. She wants to keep him safe, perhaps due to past guilt of not being able to save his life before, and actively funds not only his life, but is emotionally invested in him, even if he doesn't remember her. Robin's family is still alive in this verse, and he can't deny that Evelynn has become part of his family within his own heart, he adores her and considers her one of his closest friends, despite the fact that she is his boss. He feels an exceptional depth of emotion towards her that he cannot explain, perhaps he will never be able to explain why he trusts her so much, why he knows almost instantly that he loves her, and that she, despite not showing it, loves him. I think this relationship captures the essence of how love transcends time and never truly leaves our souls, it is like a stain--impossible to scrub away no matter how roughly we scrub and bleach and try to erase. It is apart of us-- forever, even if we did not categorize it as love at the time, and affects us from that moment onward. Their interactions in Modern verse show what could have been if life had been kinder, if they had understood how to feel properly when they first met, a second chance to embrace and love and cry and feel so much more than they ever thought possible within their own lives. I think they are two souls that will continue to find eachother over and over again, they are sure to follow one another...maybe even after the sun burns out.

There are certain relationships that just...help one shed the stresses of life and expectations, and Robin finds that relaxation within Danny (@bells-of-black-sunday). In this timeline Robin has less so fallen into a dark pit, and moreso walked into it willingly, and this allows him to fall for someone who is by no means a good person--but makes him laugh and smile and is healthy for him. In all verses, but specifically Modern, Robin is stressed out beyond belief, he is constantly working, constantly trying to be the best WITHIN his work, and has a very difficult time accepting himself as he is. He's a very lonely mind often plagued with delusions of imposter syndrome and never feeling very good about himself--and Danny has this uncanny ability to just make him feel at ease and help wipe that all away. Perhaps it is his casual nature, his ability to just...speak how he feels and be honest with Robin about things, but coming home feels like letting 50lbs off of his shoulders. He can enjoy a quiet, simple little life with his boyfriend who, unknowingly, erases the thoughts of "never being enough" by confirming and showing how much he loves him, as he is, and that he actively wants him in his life. They know what the other does, what evil deeds they perform, and openly communicate that it doesn't matter--their desire for the other doesn't have an expiration date. Danny shows Robin how to enjoy life's simple pleasures, and Robin returns that in the affection Danny craves. Their communication methods have also influenced Robin immensely, he doesn't have to worry about arguing with Danny or being imperfect, since they tackle disagreements as a team. It's really healthy for Robin, and has taught him a lot of self love.

PRE-DEATH ROBIN: ACADEMIA DAYS

I've left this one for last because where it is heading is still a huge coin toss and it is exceedingly exciting to divert from Robin's pre-established canon. While the thread is also in its baby steps, I already know that Viktor, Silco, and Jinx (@misstantabismuses) are going to steer Robin's storyline in a completely different direction than was previously explored. It's a blank slate with a version of Robin that hasn't full let himself descend into wickedness. I've often stated that Robin just needed one person to walk beside him in his darkest hours, and maybe he would have actually healed when he needed to, and Abel is pushing him to open up to Viktor. He feels comfortable around the surgeon, and wants to bond with him since he does admire him quite a bit. Who knows if this will be good for him? Who knows if he won't follow the Machine Herald down into Zaun's depths? How will this jump into darkness be different? I can't help but feel that Viktor's own empathy for people will rub off on Robin, he may fall into using "good" magic way sooner than anticipated. I'm rubbing my evil little fly hands in anticipation. Silco and Jinx will most likely affect him in a negative way, although I can't say for certain because there's so much to explore. It's been revealed that Robin has an accidental saviour complex towards Jinx as well since he sees himself in her, so that's a whole other can of worms to dive into and explore. While not much has happened in terms of threads, I KNOW this is going to drastically influence him in this timeline, and man oh man is it going to be a FUN exploration since Miss T is exceptional at writing and plotting. A "what if" timeline that will probably end up affecting his timeline with specific parts.

If your muse wasn't mentioned here, and you want to know more about how they've affected Robin, feel free to drop into my inbox and ask! I had to forcibly stop myself from writing more since this was already getting exceptionally long, LOL. He has had MANY interactions and it would be impossible to list them all here, so feel free to pop in if you want more info!

[bitimdrake]

Something I've noticed in Reverse Robins is how the impact in the broader Superhero community is never addressed. Like how the individual heroes function differently in their separate teams. If Damian was in a team with Wally/Roy/Donna/ etc etc. Admittedly I don't know if you're as well versed in this, but I wonder if you'd be able to help with that.

I haven't read a lot of Reverse Robins stuff, but I've seen a few. The idea of the rest of the universe staying the same with no major impact does not sit right with me!

Partially because, eg, Damian being on the team with Donna/Wally/Garth/Roy just feels absolutely wrong. Those are Dick's friends. Similarly, I wouldn't want to see Jason with Young Justice, or Dick teaming up with Jon, or whatever arrangement we end up with here. It seems way more suitable to me that all the other kid heroes should reverse too. (mia as the first speedy? donna the newbie wonder girl with older sis cassie? kon introduced when the superfam is large and clark is long-since a dad?)

But also partially because I feels like there should be some direct effect in changing out Robins. In particular, Dick is such a pillar of the community, known to everyone, the iconic original side kick, arguably the best leader as an adult. And Damian, of course, is a very very different character--so how much does that change if Damian is the first sidekick, and Dick is just a little newbie uninvolved in the early formations?

Does the concept of sidekicks become as popular without Robin!Dick's cheer and loveablility (and with Damian's brusque/rude attitude instead)? Does Damian still end up tight with many of the older heroes, or is he more distant and standoffish? Does Damian actually found/help found a team at all, when the idea of a team for younger heroes has never been established before him?

Personally--and partially just because I think it's neat to lean into making things different--I like the idea that Damian as the first Robin would keep much more to himself and not foster those relationships, which would in some way lead to a butterfly effect of the community not quite being as tight. But then Tim/Steph (depending on how we're ordering here), as far more social Robins, end up being the first to make a team of young heroes instead, and that's when "our kids are friends"-type connections get to form between older heroes too...

I don't know if you're looking for more specific help here, but yeah, I agree it should make a difference!

I'd assume the tendency to not have things change ties into the broader fanon tendency to treat the hero community as much more disconnected than it actually is--if a fic writer thinks the Bats are siloed off to themselves, of course they wouldn't realize the entire universe should be shifted. But dc constantly leans into superheroes being a community, and a thoroughly interwoven one. (and it is one of the things I really love about the comics)

[shireness-says]

Another Page

Summary: Belle doesn’t go looking for love, but that doesn’t stop love from finding her. A 5B Divergence ‘verse snippet. Rated G. ~3.7K. Also on AO3. 

~~~~~

A/N: I’m back! Remember when I threatened to pair Belle up with someone plucked from literature? This is that fic. I just really want her to get a happy ending, okay? 

Super thanks to @snidgetsafan for helping me come up with this and plot it, and then beta-ing last minute. Seriously, she’s the best. 

Tagging the interested parties/those I’ve been whining to: @thejollyroger-writer, @spartanguard, @phiralovesloki, @profdanglaisstuff, @optomisticgirl, @ohmightydevviepuu, @thisonesatellite, @let-it-raines, @scientificapricot, @aerica13, @welllpthisishappening, @kmomof4, @snowbellewells, @searchingwardrobes, @teamhook, @winterbaby89, @katie-dub. I’ve probably missed folks, but I don’t even remember my own tag list anymore. 

Enjoy - and let me know what you think!

~~~~~

The unfortunate truth is that it was probably always going to come to this - Rumple waging war on Storybrooke. Today, Belle and her unborn son are just an excuse.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel guilty that other people have been dragged into it.

She barely even knows the man who has been asked to guard her inside the library as David and Robin hold down the proverbial fort outside and Killian, Emma, and Regina face Rumple elsewhere. Well, at least she barely knows him personally; his literary reputation, small as it is, has preceded him. 

Colonel James Fitzwilliam, commonly called Fitz. Young, courteous, and handsome (or so she’d say if she were looking, and didn’t have a million other concerns on her mind). She knows he arrived with the rest of the inhabitants of the Land of Untold Stories almost 2 months ago now, doing his best to keep all his compatriots organized and calm amongst the chaos of their arrival (Rumple’s doing, of course, and Belle should have seen it earlier as the distraction tactic it had been). All he’d offered as his reason for stranding himself in the Land of Untold Stories was a desire to escape all the expectations his family had placed upon him; Belle supposes she can understand that. Whatever the case, he seems… honorable. Level-headed. Capable of endearing himself even to Emma and David, enough for them to recruit him into their fledgling sheriff’s department and assign him to watch over Belle as her ex-husband does his best to tear the world apart outside to try and seize her back into his grasp and control. 

“I really am sorry,” Belle says softly, and not for the first time. 

“I can’t imagine why,” Fitz says mildly as he peers out the front windows. Things are blessedly quiet here for now, but that will undoubtedly change at any moment. 

“This is all my fault.”

Fitz turns back to face Belle. “Perhaps I’m mistaken - I was under the impression that the Dark One was responsible for this current…  tension, shall we say.” It’s kind of him not to say attack, even if that’s a more accurate word; she could do without that particular reminder. “Are you actually the rampaging maniac I’ve been warned about? Because if so - I must say, madam, that your rampaging needs work.”

He says it lightly, as a joke, but Belle has trouble finding the humor in it. “The maniac wouldn’t be, as you say, rampaging if it weren’t for me. He’s doing this because he thinks he can steal me back.”

“That may be so,” Fitz shrugs, “but from everything I’ve heard, he would have found another reason to strike. The only difference would have been your compromised safety, and I can’t believe that you believe you deserve that. Let alone your child.”

“But maybe if I hadn’t been so willfully blind - if I hadn’t been so quick to trust that he’d changed — ”

“There’s no use fixating on such things,” he tells her firmly. “Maybe things would have been different; maybe they wouldn’t have. But you wouldn’t have your child if things didn’t happen the way they did, and I have to believe that your son or daughter will be a bright spot to come from all of this.”

“Son.” Fitz’s brow wrinkles in confusion at Belle’s declaration, and she abruptly remembers that he’s still so new to the Land Without Magic that he doesn’t know yet of all its new technological capabilities. “There are machines now that can tell before the baby is even born. It’s a boy.”

“That’s wonderful,” he smiles. “This realm will never cease to amaze me, I’m sure of it.”

“It is wonderful.” Inside her belly, the baby moves and kicks, as if he knows they’re discussing him. 

Fitz gentles his tone for a moment. “You deserve that, Ms. French. Every bit of happiness that little boy will bring to your life. I know this is all a mess, but he came from it too, and no one blames you for a moment. You shouldn’t blame yourself either.”

Belle blinks back tears at his kindness, choosing to focus on the easiest bit of it. “You know, after all this, I think you should call me Belle.”

“Belle, then,” he smiles. “Well, Belle, I think this will all be over soon, and you’ll have so many good things ahead of you.”

“I hope you’re right.”

——— 

All things considered, it’s a very good day. 

Sure, bits of her body she didn’t know were capable of pain are sore, and no one has ever claimed that hospital beds are comfortable, but Belle has a son now. And he’s perfect. 

Her greatest fear in all of this has been the prospect of having to do it all alone, but if the last hours are any indication, that’s not something she has to worry about. The people of Storybrooke had seemed determined to collect her and her son into the fold, starting with Emma and Ruby holding her hands throughout and a parade of friends (who just might be family now) coming to check on Belle and meet little Gideon. 

(It’s a little fanciful, she knows, to name the baby after one of her favorite books, but Belle has room for a little fanciful in her life. Besides, she’s determined that her son be all the “handsome hero” that she needs.)

Of all the people she expected to drop by, however, James Fitzwilliam isn’t one of them. He looks very out of place in the hospital - this tall, solid man, who shuffles his feet as if he’s not sure how to act in this setting. 

“I���m sorry to intrude,” he hazards, but Belle waves him off with a cautious smile.

“You’re not intruding at all,” she assures him. “There’s been several visitors today. It’s rather nice, actually.”

“I’m glad you think so,” he smiles back, before thrusting a bouquet towards her. “These are for you.”

Belle thumbs at the soft yellow petals, delicately. “Daisies,” she murmurs.

“Sheriff Swan’s son seemed determined that roses would be a bad idea. These looked… cheerful.”

“They are, thank you.” Bless Henry for his advice; roses are still tainted for her, at least for the moment.

“I take it this is the little one?” Fitz asks, nodding towards the cradle at the side of her bed. Her son lies inside, happily asleep, lips making little sucking motions in slumber.

“Yeah, that’s him. Gideon.” Belle can hear the soft awe in her own voice, but finds no reason to temper it. 

Fitz bends over the cradle for a closer look. “He’s a handsome lad,” he decrees with a wide smile. “I see a lot of you in his features. You must be very proud.”

“I am. Thank you.” Truthfully, she sees a lot more of Rumple in her son, but they’re comforting words to hear all the same. Gideon will grow to look like his own person in time, anyways. 

“I know you must be tired,” Fitz says, “but I wanted to drop by, just for a brief moment, to congratulate you. Especially after our little adventure holed up in the library,” he winks. “You’ll let me know if you need anything?” 

Belle nods, and Fitz nods back, almost like a nervous tic.

“Good. Well then, I’ll be…” he jerks his head towards the door. 

“Thank you for stopping by,” Belle offers. This has been a bit of an odd visit, but cheering, somehow. 

“Of course.” Fitz is nearly out the door before he turns back around to say one last thing. “I’m happy for you, Belle. No one deserves this more than you do.”

And then he’s gone.

(The flowers don’t last forever, of course, but Belle takes care to press one between the pages of a book to preserve it just a little bit longer.)

———

Belle has never been much for "going out", whether by circumstance, inclination, or lack of invitation. It seems like she's been rushing, rushing, rushing, ever since she first stepped out of the asylum beneath Storybrooke Hospital and into the town proper. There's been monsters and demons and death and criss-crossing the realms and a baby, of all things, but little to no going out. Belle could probably count the instances on one hand.

But there's high reason to celebrate this time. Emma is finally getting married, after all, and Ruby has arranged a bachelorette party. Belle is a little wary about any Ruby-planned event, but at the same time, she's excited. It'll be nice to have a little break, to experience the concept of a "girl's night" for herself.

It's less clear how she ends up asking Fitz to babysit. Truthfully, it would have made more sense to leave Gideon with Killian and Charlie, or David and the rest of the Charming brood, or even with Granny. Gideon is so very fond of the colonel-turned-deputy sheriff, however, which is probably why Belle finds herself asking the favor without any prior thought.

(She's rather fond of him herself, she must admit. In the past few years, their acquaintance has strengthened into a strong friendship, built upon morning breakfasts at Granny's and his easy willingness to assist at the library whenever she needs and quiet movie nights in her apartment below the clock tower when she just needs some low-key adult company. Fitz is always there, with his easy going smile and his gentle sense of humor, happy to help and never asking more of her than she can give.)

(More and more lately, she's found a new kind of excitement and nerves brewing whenever Fitz is around, but Belle is doing her best to ignore those feelings.)

"I'm sure you must be busy on a Saturday night, and I know it's a lot to ask - it's perfectly fine if you say no -" she'd rambled, but Fitz had cut her off with a gentle hand on her arm and a warm smile.

"It's really not a problem," he'd assured her. "I'd be happy to watch the boy."

Sure enough, Gideon had squealed with glee and rushed across the room with all the boundless energy a boy just shy of two years old can possess as Fitz had appeared in the doorway. His giggles had filled the room and warmed Belle's heart as Fitz had swept her son up into the air and upside down. 

"Go have fun," he'd said. "We'll be fine here."

And she does have fun. There's dancing, and drinking - so much drinking - and plenty of laughter. Belle just might like this going out business; she's certainly not opposed to a repeat sometime, if they can arrange it with all of their wild schedules. There'd been passing concerns throughout the night about how Gideon is doing, but she trusts Fitz with her son. She's sure they're having a lovely time, and Gideon is long since sound asleep. 

She expects a quiet home after climbing the stairs to the little flat above the library - which is more treacherous than usual with her balance compromised by the combination of a variety of brightly colored drinks with ridiculous names and high heels - and she's not surprised to find it. What's more surprising is to see both Fitz and Gideon curled up on the couch with the tv playing softly in the background, her son plastered to the older man's side. 

It's such a simple, domestic little thing, to see how comfortable Gideon is with Fitz; it shouldn't affect her the way it does. Gideon is a trusting child, anyways, by some miracle of fate, immediately everyone's best friend. What really melts her heart is to see the protective arm Fitz has slung around his waist and the soft smile he wears, even in sleep. He's happy to be here, just existing with her son in the heart of their domain. It's jarring in the best way, near revolutionary. 

She loves him, she realizes in that moment - loves the way he's always there in his unobtrusive matter, that he fits into the little family unit that she and Gideon comprise. The problem is that a friend can do those things too, and even if Belle knows her own feelings, she can't speak for his, and her heart is still too fragile to try.

She tries to pry Gideon out of Fitz's arms as gently as she can to properly put him to bed, but Fitz wakes up anyways as his arm falls away.

"Sorry, darling, we got a little caught up in a movie," he whispers with a sheepish smile. Belle tries to ignore the way her pulse picks up at the little endearment, though she can’t help but sway - a combination of her drunkenness and a sudden surge of emotion. Fitz’s hand quickly flies out to brace and steady her, pulling himself to a sitting position as he does so. "Do you need any help?"

"That's alright, I've got him." By some miracle, her whisper doesn't shake as it trickles out. "Thanks for doing this."

"It was my pleasure, truly," he assures her, prying himself off the couch. 

They stand for a quiet moment, just staring at each other. Can he feel this same tension, these same feelings? She's not nearly bold enough to ask; maybe he can just see it in her eyes.

But no such luck. "I'll let you get to bed then," he says to break the silence. "I'll see you tomorrow? A late breakfast, perhaps?"

"Tomorrow," she agrees. "Goodnight, Fitz."

"Goodnight, Belle."

Even if he doesn't live here, the apartment feels emptier without him in it. 

——— 

Fitz comes by every morning to help Belle with the outdoor book drop, rain or shine, 8:30 AM, unless he’s ill or caught up with some kind of inescapable deputy business. He’d started after Gideon was born, when it seemed like half the town had taken a turn helping her out at the library when she was exhausted with her newborn and still couldn’t lift any weight. Nearly four years later now, it’s their routine, and if pressed, Belle will admit that she treasures these minutes they share each morning, retrieving books, checking them back in, and sorting them back out at the circulation desk. If he has time, Fitz often even stays to help shelve them.

(There’s something especially touching about the way he so carefully handles each volume every step of the way, especially knowing that he’s not much of a reader.)

Belle needs his help more when the weather is accommodating, but she loves watching him on sunny days like this, where the early sun shines in his hair like burnished gold. He’d cut his hair a couple of years back, and as fitting as the short ponytail at the nape of his neck had seemed, he’s impossibly handsome with his hair cropped short at the sides and just long enough to bounce and swoop at the top. 

(She’s got it bad, truly, and none of the bravery required to act on it.)

Maybe the sun on his hair hypnotized her. Or she finally just burst with feelings in a display of foolishness. Whatever the case, even as Belle feels like she’s watching a car crash in slow motion, she can’t stop her mouth from blurting out words like some terrible word vomit.

“Ruby thinks I should start dating,” she declares suddenly. Like that was even remotely a thing she planned on saying.

(It is the truth, at least; Ruby does think she should start dating. The fact that Ruby thinks she should start dating Fitz is the real crux of the issue at hand.)

Maybe anyone else would miss the way that Fitz stutters for a moment, his entire body freezing up before he continues unloading books. Then again, Belle isn’t most people, and she’s almost painfully aware of his every breath and movement after nearly five years spent dancing around one another.  It gives her a bit of hope, that maybe she isn’t quite so alone in this pining. “And what do you want, Belle?”

She shrugs casually before reaching in beside him, their arms brushing along the way. “I’m not really sure, truthfully. Gideon and I have always been fine by ourselves.”

“But?” 

“It would be nice, wouldn’t it? To have someone to care for me like that,” she replies wistfully. “It’s easy to feel a little lonely, when everyone else around here seems to have found their true love, their person.” Are you my person? Would you ever want to be?

“You’re not alone, you know.” Fitz’s voice is almost too casual, like he’s trying to conceal something else. 

“I know.” She lines the books up neatly on the cart as an excuse not to meet Fitz’s eyes, spines facing upwards. “I’ve never really done it before, though. Dating. Or even really proper courting like we might have done in the other realms. There was nothing really ordinary about what happened between Rumplestiltskin and I. There was a little in between when Rumple was banished beyond the borders, and I tried to move on, but… Will was never properly much for dating. A quick drink and kissing behind the bar? Yes. Courtship? No. Maybe it’s foolish, but I’d like to at least try. Be taken to dinner and pampered a little. I think I deserve that.”

“You do,” Fitz tells her gently, prying her hands away from where they’ve been nervously alphabetizing. “And it’s not foolish.”

“I don’t know that anything will come of it,” she says, blushing in the face of his compliments. “I’m a bookish single mother with enough baggage for a world tour. That may be too much for many men.”

“But you do want this? Dating? That’s a step you’re ready to take?”

Belle inhales, gathering her courage in a great breath before nodding. “I do.”

Fitz visibly swallows, as if he’s got his own nerves. Still, he squeezes her hands where they’re still clasped in his. “Then I’d like to be the first to take you to dinner. If you like.”

Belle can feel a smile start to spread across her face, her eyes crinkling as her mouth catches up. “You’d want that? Truly? Not just to be kind?”

“Truly,” he nods. “And very much. I’ve been terribly smitten with you for a long time, Belle, but I never wanted to overstep my bounds. I didn’t want to be some pushy bastard so soon after everything he did.”

He doesn’t need speaking. It’s terribly considerate of Fitz, and maybe even necessary. After all, it brought them here.

“Would it be horribly forward of me to kiss you?” Belle murmurs, stepping further into his space as happy, anticipatory butterflies take flight in her stomach. 

“Maybe,” he smiles back. “But I say we make our own rules.” 

“Then I’d very much like to kiss you.”

(And reader - she does.)

———

“Darling, could you spare a minute?” Fitz calls from the bedroom. “This tie is giving me trouble.”

It’s such a simple domestic request, but it still sends little flutters of happiness through Belle’s veins. Even after three years together, and four years before that as friends, Fitz is still ever inch the gentleman in every way. Loving him is warm, and gentle, and comforting. Loving him is home, in a way she hadn’t realized was possible.

Home these days, at least in the physical sense, is no longer the little apartment above the library, but a cheery yellow bungalow on a quiet street lined with lush trees. It’s a good place for Gideon to grow up, with a peaceful backyard and kids just next door right around his age, but it’s a perfect space for the three of them to grow, too - her, Gideon and Fitz. There’s space for a small study lined with bookshelves, and a spacious bedroom for a young boy to make his own, and a bright kitchen for family meals - not to mention, a master bedroom far enough removed from young ears at the top of the house in a converted attic space.

Climbing those stairs now, she finds Fitz fiddling with his necktie in the full length mirror they keep along one wall. It doesn’t look like he’s struggling that much with the garment, but it is lovely to see the way he practically lights up when she walks to him. 

“Now I know you’ve had to deal with much more complicated neckties than this,” she scolds lightly, reaching for the silk ends. “You just wanted to see me.” 

“Guilty as charged,” he admits with a smile. “But can you blame a man for wanting to see his wife, especially when she looks so beautiful?”

(That’s a welcome change, too - a ring and a white dress and so many other promises that she’s confident, finally, will be honored as a personal gospel.)

“Kiss-up.” Still, she blushes. 

“Just honest.” He leans in to softly kiss her forehead, perfectly in reach with Belle lifted up on high heels. 

“Nervous?” she asks, pulling the last loop of fabric through and down.

Fitz shrugs. “Not particularly. It’s just a formality, really. Why, do you think I should be?”

“Not at all,” she smiles back, tweaking his lapels for good measure.

And he shouldn’t be. Because this really is a formality; just a piece of paper. Fitz has been Gideon’s dad for years, happily, and both her boys had been ecstatic when she suggested they make it official. Today is just the day that a judge makes it official, with a small party with their friends to follow. 

“I love you,” Belle murmurs. It’s still wonderful even to say the words - a warmth and a peace that suffuses her entire soul.

“And I love you,” Fitz echoes back, leaning down for a brief kiss. It’s not anything particularly involved, but that’s nice in it’s own way - comforting, a promise that there will always be time for more and later and anything they want. 

It has to be short, too, because Belle can already hear feet pounding up the stairs. “Are you ready yet?” Gideon demands. His soft brown hair has somehow been tamed into submission, and she’d wrestled him into a nice shirt just before Fitz had called her upstairs. 

“We’ll be down in just a moment, bud,” Fitz tells their son. “Go ahead and wait by the door, we’re right behind you.”

As the footsteps rush back down the stairs, he offers her a chivalrous arm. “Shall we, darling?” 

“We shall.”

The rest of their life is waiting, after all. 

[dontbreakstride]

I wanted to write about the Tigger Movie so I wrote about the Tigger Movie.

The Covid-19 pandemic, admittedly, has caused me to revisit a lot of older films and shows that I remember watching when I was much younger. I remember one night in the Xth week of lockdown where me and my friends dug deep and searched for all the old intros of shows we remembered on Youtube, just to get that hit of nostalgia, to retreat to features and shows that reflect more straightforward times of childhood where the weight of the world and responsibility weren’t so heavy, or confusing.

Winnie the Pooh itself is a series that bases itself around the finiteness of childhood. Christopher Robin has to grow up. The theme tune suggests that he has already grown up and all the adventures are viewed with that same nostalgia of one’s own childhood. Previous films of the Winnie the Pooh series muse on the What Comes Next of growing up and leaving your childhood fantasies behind.

I’ve not met a person yet who hasn’t been at least slightly familiar with Winnie the Pooh while growing up, whether that be the original stories by A.A. Milne, the animations and films by Disney, or even through online memes. The one feature that I’d say exemplifies how nostalgic the Winnie the Pooh series is to me is Disney’s The Tigger Movie.

The Tigger Movie never really left me, I think. I remember the banner adverts at my local cinema, where the main cast, clad in Tigger-orange-and-black-stripe liveries, were on springs and would ‘bounce’ with every movement behind concessions, and it was one of the last VHS tapes on my shelf before they were all moved about and ingloriously exiled to boxes under the bed. I remember watching it in Screen 1, where I’d be leaning over the edge of the railings and watch as the songs boomed, and the avalanches fell around the cast.

As you can probably tell from the title, lockdown summoned The Tigger Movie back into my memory, and with the advent of Disney+ and the library of Disney and non-Disney stuff it had, it was on my Watch List very quickly.

THE ONLY ONE

The Tigger Movie is pretty stunning because it centers around the deeper existentialism of the character Tigger. Tigger himself is the archetype for chaotically cheerful and energetic characters, a patron saint of upbeat innocent child-like arrogance, a source of optimism, he is the personification of BOUNCE as a word.

But the movie takes the concept of Tigger’s own theme song and tips it on its head. Tigger brags and boasts that the most wonderful thing about tiggers is that he’s the only one. But… is that truly wonderful? Of course it is, he’s wonderful and unique, but… he is the only one. Tigger’s own uniqueness puts him at odds with his more sedate friends who lack his energy, he’s an outsider. Tigger himself was introduced after the rest of the main cast, and as a result was not namechecked in the Winnie the Pooh theme until 2011’s Winnie the Pooh. Even in spite of being one of the most iconic characters from the series, he is still an outsider.

There is an innate sadness in the film through this investigation. The animation of Tigger through the emotional moments uses every line on his face to push his sadness to extremes especially considering that this is Tigger, the established energy ball of optimism. The movie is set in the liminal space of autumn’s change to winter, matching Tigger’s own orange and white palette and giving the whole film a warm, nostalgic glow, but this also allows the film to fully invest into the inevitability of change, and the loneliness of growing up.

FAMILY AND THE PAINS OF GROWING UP

Tigger waits in the snow for a letter that will never come, he walks through a snowstorm, the juxtaposition of Tigger in his height in the warmth of autumn against his low in the cold of winter makes his loneliness even more palpable.

The film’s theme is about family. Tigger wants to find his family - to find others like himself - but doesn’t recognise that he has a family in his friends. Roo looks up to Tigger and hangs to his every word, and wishes he was his little brother. Kanga and the others all decide to be the family that Tigger doesn’t have by pretending to be tiggers like him, their determination to make Tigger feel better supersedes their own preparations for winter.

But it’s also a coming of age story. Tigger grows up. He is exposed to some harsh truths throughout the narrative. He is the only tigger, his friends deceived him through good intentions, the idealised family tree he dreams of is fantasy, he feels the weight of his world on his shoulders… BUT… he is not alone. His friends all come together to remind him that they are always there for him through his highs and lows.

THE SUPERFICIAL vs. THE REALITY

The story also has a lot to say about superficial expectations vs. reality. In Tigger’s Dream Sequence Musical Sequence ‘Family Tree’, Tigger dips into the fantastical history of his imaginary family, which includes Tigger-themed pastiches on the Birth of Venus and other paintings, the Brady Bunch, Jackson 5, Don Quixote, a Marylin Monroe ‘Tiggerella’ Seven Year Inch-ing into the stratosphere from her billowing dress, and ultra-skinny supermodel Tiggers, replete with the Tigger lantern-jaw. The outlandish nature of this pop culture imagery amplifies how much of a superficial fantasy Tigger’s dream is and shows how out of place it is in the world Tigger inhabits.

The animals of the Hundred Acre Wood all try to come up with a plan to live up to this fantasy. In the song sequence ‘How To Be A Tigger’, the friends spend the first verses musing how to become Tigger to more superficial aspects of Tigger as a character. Upon reflecting, they realise that the reality of being Tigger is not in his stripes, his idiolect of ‘TTFN’s and ‘hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!’s, or his dislike of eating honey, it’s in his ability to fill everyone with happiness with his cheery nature.

Tigger’s family tree itself fits this theme. After a conversation with Owl; Tigger, being naive and innocent, presumes that a family tree is a literal tree for the whole movie, rather than it being the metaphorical branching lineage that family trees actually are. In the final act, Tigger finds a tree striped with snow and determines that it’s his Family Tree, a location he should wait at for his real family.

The stripes on the tree, much like the tigger costumes his friends adorned and the ‘family heirloom’ locket, are superficial. But, in choosing it as his Family Tree, and Tigger using it as their shelter from the avalanche, the literal becomes the metaphor as the tree he chose as his family tree protects his friends, the family that he chose as well. The ‘family heirloom’ locket is also imbued with meaning through Tigger’s own determined attachment to it, and eventual use of it to store a picture of his ACTUAL family. Tigger chooses his family and the things that protect and represent them and I think the finding the meaning in the meaningless things by giving it to them yourself really fits the themes in the movie.

TO ANIMATE A TIGGER

The animation, of course, is wonderful to look at with the more discerning eye of adulthood. Going frame-by-frame through shots allows you to appreciate the artistry on show and understand what it was about it that captivated you as a child.

The rough photocopied line art of the original shorts is reflected in the animation and, much like Aardman’s stop motions having evidence of thumbprints, the imperfections add to the style and beauty. It’s through watching it in not-VHS quality that you notice that Tigger’s stripes have a strobing animation boil texture to them, where each frame has new linework shading of the stripes, which fills him with energy even in his more subtle scenes.

Tigger himself is a veritable powerhouse of animation. Frame by framing his movements, you can see him squash and stretch with every bounce and pounce. The largeness and looseness of his jaw allows for very fluid arcs to be created in his head.

WHOOP-DE-DOOPER BOUNCE OF FAITH

In the final act, an argument between Tigger and his friends triggers an avalanche that threatens all of them. This sequence is the accumulation of the story, with the final scenes of the movie after it being the denouement resolution.

Tigger’s own self-centered search for his family immediately gets put to the side when his friends are in danger, leaping into action and helping his friends to the high branches of his tree. He even waits, arms outstretched to Rabbit, who had called his search for more Tiggers ‘nonsense’ and acted as a catalyst for his upset throughout the film. This puts Tigger’s positive nature on full display, he leaves no one behind, and this is in turn reflected outwards by Roo, who launches after Tigger as he gets swept away in the snow.

Throughout the movie, Roo idolises Tigger and wants to do anything to cheer him up, wanting him to be his big brother. Roo’s decisions and choices help drive the story alongside Tigger, and it’s a lot of his choices that end up building Tigger up for disappointment, but Roo is a child with stars in his eyes. He imitates him vocally and physically, and tries, and fails, to do the Whoop-de-Dooper bounce so that Tigger can have someone like him, tying back into the superficial against the reality. It is only when Roo acts on impulse with the determination to help someone in the same way as Tigger would that he succeeds at ‘being a Tigger’ and accomplishes the Whoop-de-Dooper bounce.

Similarly, Tigger doesn’t pay much attention to Roo, he enjoys his company but is looking too far beyond to see those who he already has as his family. But it’s when they both perform the Whoop-De-Dooper bounce in unison to escape danger and defy gravity that Tigger finally sees Roo properly.

After the avalanche, Tigger still looks beyond the horizon for more tiggers, but it’s when the other characters recite their letter that he is brought back to earth by being reminded of the family he chose. Tigger grows up, he realises he is The Only One, but that doesn’t mean he is without those who care about him and are his family.

He grows past his innocently-self-absorbed mindset and comes to project his energy outwards in a more benevolent and less chaotic manner by providing his friends with winter supplies, and celebrating them. Roo especially. Tigger finally acknowledges him as his little brother, and gives him his ‘family heirloom’ locket. Both characters have grown and have fully realised who their family are.

OTHER NOTES

The movie also works visually to bring Tigger into the main cast so he is no longer an outsider. This film is the first one to my knowledge that shows Tigger’s house, a chaotically hoarded, sporty treehouse, compared to everyone else’s more subtle housing. Prior films in the Winnie the Pooh series had Tigger simply appearing and disappearing out of the blue, but now Tigger has an official location that is his own, like everyone else in the cast.

Pooh, quite rightfully, is often depicted to the extreme of ‘bear of very little brain’. And granted, there are still moments where Pooh falls for the tricks and gets lost sometimes, but in this movie, Pooh is actually quite cunning and devious. He sneaks up a tree to get some honey because he tells the others that they are potential Tigger family members. He is the character Roo goes to when Tigger goes into the snowstorm, and comes up with the expedition to find him. He also knows to get Rabbit to lead as ‘he’s the only one who ever says he knows what he’s doing’. I think the memory of Pooh usually paints him as more ditzy, but it’s nice being able to revisit and relearn that Pooh has an extra layer of emotional depth to him.

Tigger himself is portrayed as being significantly less ditzy than in other Pooh media. He’s not as ‘book smart’ as Owl or Rabbit, but Tigger figures out the exact point he should hit the boulder to make it move, he frisbees records so they land exactly on the pin, he is the inventor of the Whoop-de-Dooper Loop-de-Looper Alley-Ooper Bounce, if the expertise and diagrams suggest anything. Tigger isn’t always a chaotic whirlwind, there are hidden depths of precision. The character is allowed fairly mature growth beyond face value.

Rabbit yelling at the others, who are determined to present themselves as the Tigger family of Tigger’s dreams, for not preparing for the winter by saying ‘At least I haven’t forgotten what’s REALLY important’ got a very loud laugh out of me because it’s such a Rabbit line.

Whenever the book transitions to a new scene, it’s fun to pause and see the story of the film being written out in Milne-esque prose. It even includes the Emphasis Capitalsation to specific Important Things. More on the book, I like Tigger arguing with the storyteller at the start and changing the direction of the story through sheer tiggerific chaotic energy.

The songs are wonderful in this. The decision to give Tigger both an upbeat number (‘The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers’) and a downbeat number (‘Someone Like Me’) is genius. I like that, for his sad song, it is mostly just guitar and piano compared to the fully orchestral theme to emphasize his loneliness. 

The songs that surrounded the film are great too. Kenny Loggins’ ‘Your Heart Will Lead You Home’ is one of those things that always gives me shivers from that rusty acoustic string reverb at the start. This is also the film that indirectly introduced me to ThirdEyeBlind’s ‘Semi-Charmed Life’ through the trailers of it.

CONCLUSION

The Tigger Movie will always hold a special place in my heart, and I am glad to have had the time to properly articulate how I feel about it. It is a film that I appreciate a lot more as an adult looking back, given its themes and the way the visuals capture them.

In some ways, in these uncertain times, I feel a bit like Tigger when he’s looking out with uncertainty over the horizon for more tiggers. It’s a lonely and uncertain visual as he looked out for What Comes Next.

And even with this movie acting as a blanket against the coldness of the real world, the moral of facing whatever’s next by protecting those who are your family, whether that’s the family you’re born into or the one you choose, will always be appropriate.

[writerseven]

hey if you're still doing commentaries could you maybe do one on the conversation dick and alfred have in the most recent chapter thanks

 I am always down to do commentaries!

This got long, so I will put my rambles about this bit from brother chapter two under the cut:

so when plot was just starting to happen in the series, I actually debated for a bit whether or not Alfred would know, and how much. Ultimately, I felt like him knowing would make more logical sense and feel more grounded, and some version of that reveal has been in my outline ever since I had an outline. I have been waiting for the chance to write that, like, five second moment of one of the kids having a stomach-dropping realization that alfred has known this whole time. I think early on it was much later in my outline and it was Tim? But in terms of plot machinations and where things are headed and characters emotional states, it ended up fitting perfectly for Dick in this moment.

Setting that up was tricky. I figured some people would already suspect, but I still wanted it to be potentially shocking for readers who anticipated a nicer Alfred? I really tried to figure out how to tune that entire chapter to feel like it was building up to Good Guy Alfred, and add in little mentions from Dick’s PoV of Alfred being great/kept in the dark/etc that would set expectations without being too obvious as red herrings.

Honestly, I’m not sure I really succeeded on that, but as long as that moment is still horrifying and awful, that’s more important that being shocking. If I were to go back and edit this series as a whole, I would probably try to set that up for longer to really pull the rug out from under people.

asdfjk I’ve written a bunch and I haven’t even gotten to the actual convo you asked about yet

OKAY. So Alfred doesn’t have a lot of lines because it’s not a very long scene all things considered, so I tried to really be thoughtful about what he did say. Right before Dick “tells” Alfred, we get this:

Alfred doesn't complain, glancing over his shoulder. His mouth gives a wry twist at the display. “Ah, well. You know Master Bruce. It does not matter what logic or decency or I say when he's determined to wallow in guilt.” 

They’re talking about the Jason Robin suit display, but that’s also setting up everything that comes after.

“Were I capable of stopping Master Bruce from every foolish idea that gets into his head, he wouldn't be gallivanting about each night to risk his life dressed as a flying rodent,” says Alfred, pushing the kettle back into its designated place. “I can protect him from many things, but not himself.”

And that’s kind of the basis of Alfred’s feelings here. He doesn’t approve of Bruce abusing the kids; of course he finds it indecent and misguided and perhaps, if he can admit it to himself a tiny bit, wrong--but it’s not his doing, and, gosh, well, he’s tried his best to steer Bruce right and you can’t win ‘em all, right?

He’s also, like, super focused on Bruce above all others. Alfred calls Batman a foolish idea because of the way it endangers Bruce, and even frames the idea of stopping him from being a pedophile as “protecting him from himself.” Alfred cares about his pseudo-grandkids and would rather not have to chose, but Bruce is his baby and will always come first.

A lot of enablers of this kind of abuse are romantic partners, and because of the unusual way the Robins were raised, that’s not a far off comparison from their side of things; Alfred took somewhat of a parental role for Dick and Jason especially. But in terms of Alfred’s psychology, I think of this more like an enabling parent--the kind who wants their kid to be good and well-raised, but ultimately just cannot accept the concept of their precious child having done something truly bad. And if that kid ever did, they’d be helping bury the body instead of asking questions.

Alfred's eyes are low—No. Alfred's eyes are averted. His lips are still pinched, brow still creased. Dick doesn't get it at first. But something cold creeps into his chest. “Alfie...?”

[fixed typo count: 1. how am i so bad at this]

One of the most annoying things about describing facial expressions (or body language) is that you can describe it textbook-perfectly for a particular emotion, and still have it not convey the emotion you mean it to. Part of that is that we only have so many words for the ways faces move, part of it is that individual facial movements can convey multiple expressions (e.g. frowning can be for irritation, disapproval, disappointment, sadness, etc), and part of it is that if you’re not using words that convey obvious emotion (’scowl’ ‘smile’ ‘grimace’ etc) readers kinda have to take a second to actually picture what you’re describing before they can discern an emotion from it.

...on the flip side, if you want characters and/or readers to misunderstand an expression, that means you can still get away with a lot of describing.

All that lowered eyes, pinched lips, creased brow could be the sign of someone taking in horrible news and trying to suppress a strong reaction, which is what Dick thinks at first--and then a little word choice of flipping the vaguer “lowered” to the distinctly guilty “averted” and Dick starts to get it.

“Perhaps,” Alfred says, carefully selected words, “you should let it not be true.”

And there we get to, like, the entirety of Alfred’s justification. Love for Bruce is why he lets this continue, but the how is just a straight up I Do Not See It. From a little later:

“There are things in his life,” Alfred says tightly, refilling his cup, “in any loved one's life, that are simply separate from our own.”

I don’t know if this is ever going to come up, so I don’t mind mentioning it here though it hasn’t been explicitly shown in the story--but this is the first time Alfred has ever really discussed this with anyone. Dick is the only person who is fully aware Alfred knows.

If you go back, you can actually see brief mentions in Bruce’s PoVs of keeping things hidden from Alfred, e.g. debating if he could convince Alfred that short-shorts for Robin are a tactical decision. I think I dropped that in the first time before I had actually considered Alfred’s role in a longer story, but I ended up liking the idea that not even Bruce is certain whether Alfred is aware of his abuse. He goes back and forth between thinking maybe Alfred doesn’t know and he must hide it (because clearly Bruce is such Clever Genius Sneaky Man that no one could ever learn his secrets), and suspecting closer to the truth: that Alfred knows, but the silent condition for his enabling is that Bruce never ever brings it up and lets Alfred feign ignorance.

I realize I’ve talked a whole bunch about Alfred here and said almost nothing about Dick, but to be fair, we’re already in Dick’s PoV so there’s not as much new stuff to cover.

What if he doesn't? Dick can say something stupid instead, watch Alfred's face clear and that smile return. They'll go upstairs, maybe, have tea with Jason, laugh and reminisce. Bruce and Tim will return later, change back in the cave, and come upstairs where they can all be together. This little messed up family in the kitchen, happy and unbothered. Alfred won't have his heart broken, and Jason can warm up again, and Bruce will smile at Dick, and Tim won't resent him. And all Dick has to do is pretend he was wrong and never say anything, until he starts to believe it himself.

They could be a good, happy family. The blissful life of ignorance.

I feel WEIRD talking about my own feelings on my writing (because what if they’re completely off base from how it reads??) but I think this was the most crushing bit to me. Dick so badly wants the good family that he deserves, wants his dad to love him, wants everyone to be happy. And, without knowing it yet, he’s basically described what Alfred actually did. Dick is going to push past this moment of weakness, do the right thing instead of pretending, say something so incredibly hard--and then find out it was all pointless because someone else already made that choice.

Sad. Alfred looks sad. Dick doesn't understand, he doesn't understand. It's the wrong sadness. And Alfred's—being—gentle.

“Let's get you some tea and a chat,” Alfred says. Dick means to refuse that too, but the words get choked up and the next thing he knows Alfred is guiding him up that long staircase. That hand on his shoulder is so gentle and the words are so gentle and the pace is so gentle and Dick can't seem to resist any of it and he doesn't know where his—body has gone.

I kind of realized after I wrote the previous chapter that I would never be allowed to use the word “gentle” in Dick’s PoV without it carrying a very specific connotation. And on the bright side, I can just drop a single word and have already established the emotion behind it!

Alfred is now placed alongside Bruce (and Catalina Flores, and the BPD, and those appeared-for-two-seconds traffickers...) He has the upper hand, and has no need to be cruel.

(also that “he doesn't know where his—body has gone” my dudes, Dick must have, like, so many issues with bodily autonomy after all the shit he’s been through, even in a ‘verse where Bruce isn’t an abuser, and I could do a whole post about that y’all)

Alfred gets him some tea. Dick stares at it until a soft sound and Alfred sipping his own in demonstration stirs him to follow suit.

They're sitting at the kitchen island. Dick is sitting at the kitchen island, dangle of his legs off the bar stool making him feel like a kid again. Alfred stands on the island's other side, patiently watching him. Tea. Kitchen. Alfred knows. Dick has the vaguest presence of mind to wonder if they passed Jason on the way up. He's pretty sure they didn't; Jason must have moved.

[dissociation intensifies] adjf honestly I was like “oh no am I using dissociation too much in this series” because part of me always wants to highlight the different ways people can react, but IN MY DEFENSE dick has a canonical history of reacting to traumatic events like this so. yeah. Errbody dissociating.

(For the record, Jason did indeed move and they did not pass him.)

There’s a middle bit to this conversation that I don’t have to much to say about where Dick is just trying to come to terms with the revelation and completely failing to understand how Alfred can not do anything. because Fundamentally Good Person Dick Grayson reigns supreme in my heart.

and then that tension escalates to:

Dick hands clench on the tiny teacup. “He's raping kids.”

“Richard.”

From getting to chat a bit in the comments, it’s not just me, but I’ve always found that initially naming a thing can feel more shocking than the thing itself. Bruce grooms his victims (Dick included, though Bruce never raped him), and gradually submits them to more and more discomfort, and gaslights them, and that sort of slow ramp up can make things seem...less awful, or less definable, or less abusive than they actually are.

I’ve always found things seem a lot clearer in retelling (or, for fiction, in telling at all), when in the moment, in real life, there’s a lot of second guessing and ‘is this really happening?’ and ‘what exactly is happening?’ and ‘is this really what i think it might be?’ And then you don’t want to get it wrong and be jumping to conclusions.

So there’s also a power in my mind of being able to name things? The first time is really shocking and hard, but then suddenly there is this title you can group it under. And maybe you don’t know what to do about “my adoptive father who i love but is sometimes difficult is maybe carrying on a sexual relationship with my not-brother who swears that it isn’t happening and also seems to want to be there, and i don’t want to hurt anyone,” but you probably have a much clearer reaction to “this man is raping children.”

I think it takes a lot from Dick to name it as such--And there’s a reason why that is the moment Alfred snaps. “My employerson who I love has a complicated relationship with his kids” is a lot easier to be willfully ignorant towards.

Finally, the end of the conversation is just Alfred laying out why Dick can’t do anything about it and how no one will help. And also trying to guilt Dick into believing this is for the best. Alfred is happy to have all four of his boys around, and he would prefer that illusion of being whole and happy to losing any of them for the sake of helping the others.

...and, I’ll be honest, that ending explanation is also for me the author to be able to explain it. If you’ve got a purely logical viewpoint here, there’s a question of, like “why doesn’t Dick just ask Diana to use her lasso, or ask a telepath to read Bruce’s mind?” etc etc, and my hope is that it will be clear to everyone that emotion is about a million times more important than rationality when it comes to trauma reactions, and that Dick actually does even have good reason to doubt talking to any of those people would help!

Because the person he trusted most in the world to have his back re: Bruce already knew, and doesn’t want to change anything.

[firefrightfic]

(1/?)So this anon didn't know who Billie Eilish was either and listening to that song got me in a major T&H mood (yet again). So what I've been thinking about lately is the days when Jason was still Robin and he and Dick first started meeting up so there was still a level of reserve between them (and slight intimidation on Jason's part), but at the same time they were developing intense crushes on one another.

2/? I wonder what was going through Dick's head then since he was experiencing feelings which were absolutely new and foreign to him and was he able to understand what they actually meant? And their first kiss, it's so endearing how chaste and innocent all that was; quite uncharacteristic for Talon if we look any other kiss that he shared with Jason after that.  3/? He's usually quite....*enthusiastic* sort to speak but here he was so sweet and tender with Jason (though a bit clumsily so, and I love how that never quite changed), giving him those barely-there little kisses as though Jason was something very delicate; and it's quite a contrast because any other time we see him, Talon really doesn't shy away from being quite passionate and intense in expressing his feelings for Jason.4/? And I can't tell how much I adore this bit: "He takes the cookie in his mouth, but even that spice doesn’t compare to the heat at the corner of his lips, where the imprint of Talon’s lips will linger on his skin long after they’ve parted ways tonight." Like??!! Aaaaagh!!! What a beautiful and elegant way to drop such a bomb seemingly in passing, and only in a few words instead of going for detailed description which makes it all the more impactful in my opinion. 5/?But I was surprised when you said that events from Warmth in Winter weren't the last time they saw eachother and that they kept seeing eachother for some time before Jason died so I hope there will be at least some snippets if not more of prequelly pieces from that time,that show how things progressed from there; it's fun from this point of the story where they're much older and a couple as good as married to see how they were when they were just babies who are crushing hard on one another. 6/6 Apparently I've written so much that Tumblr wouldn't let me send you this last part so I apologize for the rant, but literally my in-depth thinking about this verse is a monthly occurrence and sometimes I can't help but share it XD 

Do not apologise for the rant. I loved reading the rant. Your rant is excellent.

Talon was, well, I think a lot more flustered than he let on at first. He is very good at concealing his emotions most of the time, an important and learned skill from when he served the Court. That was very much a testing the waters move from him, which would have picked up with increasing confidence as time went on (Talon/Blue’s later aggressiveness when it comes to kisses is also a direct effect of what happens when the person you love and is your only direct emotional connection to the world dies and is gone for four years. He’s never letting go of Jason again.) I’m super happy you found that line so impactful too!

Warmth in Winter is set roughly four months before Jason dies (his canon death date is April 27th), so they did get a few more opportunities to see each other before it happened, and yes, I will likely write some more flashback stories about that time. There is so much still I need/want to write for this series now I’ve gotten past the Bottom of the River hurdle, both in terms of past and present-set fics. We’re far from done yet.

Thank you for the lovely ask!

[theeeveetamer]

Extended Three Houses Thoughts

I’m about two chapters from the end of the Blue Lions route but I do have some extended thoughts on the game that I wanted to type up and share before I get back to it. Spoilers below the cut, in case that wasn’t obvious.

So first off I want to say that I have far more positive things to say about this game than negatives, but I do think this game has some negatives. These aren’t in any particular order I just kind of typed them as I thought of them.

I feel like a lot of what this game does was in direct response to Fates. There was a lot of swinging the pendulum back in very noticeable ways, and for the most part I think that’s a good thing.

The seriously slimmed down cast, for one. I was kind of surprised and a little worried when I first picked up the game and I found out that each house only had about seven core characters, but I like it. Fates had too many characters, and most of the time they ended up being redundant. You had, what, eight fliers in Revelation including children, with at least five more characters potentially able to become fliers through their normal promotion paths? When, at most, you probably needed three. And some were significantly better than others, so obviously you went with those and the rest kind of rotted away in your barracks.

With Three Houses each character feels important. Since you can now train basically any character to be anything it also means you can have some fill specific niches. You can have Sylvain be a sword cavalry unit, and Dimitri be a lance cavalry unit, and Ingrid an axe cavalry unit if you want, drop their breaker skills on them, and they can all be useful and important on the same team.

The supports also feel more meaningful. Don’t get me wrong there’s still a lot of re-hashing of already covered territory (basically all of Dedue’s supports involve either cooking or the fact that he’s from Duscur, most of Ingrid’s revolve around wanting to be a knight or marriage contracts, etc.) but the fact that there’s less of them makes this feel like less of a problem. And it’s nice that, now, they don’t try to force every conversation into a C-B-A-S format. Some characters only have C-B, others have C-B-A-A+, etc. I think it makes sense. Not every character will be as close as others, and not all support conversation threads need three parts to be meaningful and impactful. Some need more, some need less. Trying to squish them in or stretch them out always hurt more than it helped.

That said, I’m a little disappointed there’s no match-making to be had. Everyone in this game gets brother-zoned/sister-zoned so fast it’s kind of comical. There are a few A supports that hint at feelings but you can’t actually make them S-support. Also, a character might indicate feelings for more than one other character in their A supports so it’s not definitive. Maybe there’s more once the game is finished, but within the actual main story there’s nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, it makes sense to me. As young teenagers in school there wouldn’t really be any reason for any of them to get married. I thought that might change after the time skip but it doesn’t. I don’t necessarily hate that it’s gone, it’s just a feature I enjoyed fucking around with in Awakening and Fates (and I was looking forward to, hopefully, more gay representation. I was really hoping that they might allow characters to be gay for each other and not just the Avatar character, especially since they included so many lesbian options this time around. But alas, maybe next game).

The exclusion of child characters was a good call. Barring the fact that the exclusion of S-Supports would automatically exclude child characters, I still think it was a good call. Unless the game had a significant time skip (15+ years) then they just wouldn’t have made sense. They worked in Awakening because the central narrative included time travel, but they didn’t work at all in Fates. The narrative only had tentative connections to the “multi-verse/multiple realities” thing. And, let’s be real, it’s fucking weird to have kids walking around that are the same damn age as their parents (and parents that didn’t look a day older than 17). In Fates they’d just needlessly ballooned up the cast of a game that was already way too big anyways. If they did it then they needed to do it like Genealogy, where the main cast was essentially replaced by their children instead of strapped onto the game alongside them.

I was worried that Fate’s poor handling of them meant the series was doomed to include them regardless of relevance. Glad I was wrong on that one.

The calendar progression is pretty cool, as is walking around the monastery. It was pretty fun to run around and figure out where each character liked spending their time, which characters interacted with which, etc. I’m always a fan of a little flavor text and having each character say a few lines about current events was really cool and helped give each one a little more personality. The more structured pace of things makes sense for the school environment. Though it does take out some of the urgency when the mission is “FIND FLAYN IMMEDIATELY” and then you have to wait until the end of the month anyways to do it. But for other things, like a mission to march on enemy territory, it makes sense (your entire army isn’t ready to go immediately, there’s preparations that need done).

The designs of the characters themselves were pretty well done. I especially appreciate how they toned down a lot of the sexualization that Fates became pretty famous for. And considering basically all of these characters are between 15-18 all I can say is THANK GOD. Even their aged up versions don’t seem too bad, though I’ve only really seen the Lions (because I was dumb and didn’t recruit very aggressively).

I’m still NOT a fan of this “silent” protagonist thing. It just makes some of the cut scenes and dialogue sections feel really disconnected and awkward. From what I can tell a lot of your dialogue choices don’t particularly matter, anyways. You only have two options, and for the most part they have the same meaning (”You shouldn’t talk that way!” versus “I wish you would calm down.”)  and the character you’re talking to responds the same way regardless of your choice. Or you pick between two different options (”Tell me about the officer’s academy” and “Tell me about the church”) and the characters proceed to explain both anyways.

I think the biggest issues I have with this come from the fact that the game itself is fully voice acted. I think Three Houses fell into the same problem that Breath of the Wild did. Dropping a character that never speaks aloud into a cast of characters that are fully and beautifully voiced feels unnatural. I think they had two options here: Either go back to what they did with Fates (No full voice acting, just some lines spoken here and there) or they needed to have Byleth fully voice acted. After Echoes did full voice acting I really don’t think they would have been able to go back without some serious backlash. 

Personally I would have preferred it if Byleth were fully voice acted but they got rid of some of the dialogue “options”. They don’t feel like a meaningful feature, it’s just a thin veneer so they can say they had dialogue options, because that’s what every other game on the market is doing. Part of me wonders if they did this as a response to the Corrin hate after Fates. It’s hard to hate a character when you pick all of their dialogue, right? If that is the case, then they clearly didn’t understand why people hated Corrin so much.

Overall I don’t really feel any connection or attachment to Byleth. That might just be me, though. The three “lords” of the game are clearly meant to be the main focus, especially when it comes to character development. Maybe I’ll change my mind on that after I beat the game.

That said, thank fuck they toned down the avatar hero worship. Circling back a little bit, I just feel like the character of Byleth is handled much better than Corrin. It’s kind of unfortunate that Awakening, Fates, and Three Houses kind of have this avatar hero-worship vibe to them but if we’re going to have to live with it then I guess I’ll explain myself.

In Awakening the hero worship worked. Robin was, essentially, a brilliant tactician that brought a lot of success to Ylisse’s army. There were at least a few characters that were initially wary of Robin, but they were treated respectfully by the story and it’s presented as though they are just exercising a healthy amount of caution.

In Three Houses the hero worship works. It feels much less like worship and more like genuine respect and admiration. Byleth is a professor and a mentor to these young people so it makes sense. There are a few that were initially skeptical of him/her (which is totally justified in the story because Byleth appears to be barely older than them with zero teaching experience) but they come around after Byleth’s skill is demonstrated to them throughout Part 1. The only character I’d say seems to blindly worship Byleth is Rhea, and that’s justified because she clearly knows something about the main character that no one else does.

In Fates the hero worship was excessive. Corrin as a character is nothing really special. He/She isn’t particularly intelligent or particularly skilled at anything. The most you could say is that Corrin is probably supposed to be charismatic (since every character falls at their feet the second they meet) but Corrin doesn’t feel charismatic to me. They have multiple characters that seem to exist for the sole purpose of worshiping the ground they walk on (Camilla, Ryoma, Sylas, Jakob, Felicia, etc.), to the point that I felt it ruined otherwise interesting characters (Camilla mainly). Any character that doesn’t immediately worship Corrin is either forced to come around, brainwashed by the big bad and turned into a villain, or just wanted to love Corrin so much but circumstances made it impossible so they had to be evil. I could make an entire post about how much I hate Corrin but I’ll stop it here since this is supposed to be about Three Houses.

So considering where they were coming from... Byleth is fine. I don’t know if I like them more than Robin, but I definitely like them more than Corrin. I’ll feel more definitively about them after I’ve finished the game and played some of the other routes.

They re-use maps in this game. A lot. I noticed it pretty quickly about five chapters in, but IMO it’s a serious problem that this game never quite seems to shake. If the battle is in a city, they pick one of two city maps. If it’s in a forest they’ve got one of three forest maps. And I’m not complaining about Auxiliary battles because I only did a handful of those (and they always reuse maps for those, even in Fates and Awakening). I’m talking about main story and paralogue mission maps.

Sometimes they have a unique map (like the tomb/catacombs) but it invariably comes back later for a paralogue or another main mission. Sometimes it comes back less than two chapters after it first appeared (the monastery fight right before the time skip and then defending the monastery two chapters after the time skip.) I could understand if they re-used maps across different routes (because Fates did the same thing), but so far I’ve only been in one route and it’s the same maps over and over.

Finally, I have no idea how I’m going to survive playing this game two (three?) more times. I mean, I like it. It’s fun. But it took me like 40 hours just to complete one route I have no idea how I’m going to do all three (possibly four, since I’ve been told the eagles route can be different depending on if you side with the church or not).

[spectral-musette]

So I saw the new live-action Aladdin last night.

Like Beauty and the Beast (2017), this was a direct remake of the animated musical from the Disney Renaissance, songs and all, with a new script following the same storyline. BatB (2017) worked a little better for me, personally, I think, but that’s quite subjective, and I can definitely see people preferring Aladdin (2019).

This movie faces the similar trouble of BatB in that Aladdin (1992) is such a beautiful film that it would be very difficult to improve on it without just making a unique film rather than a remake (more in the style of Cinderella (2015), for instance). But the degree to which we follow the storyline of Aladdin (1992) and faithfully re-stage those songs makes direct comparisons inevitable, and, in terms of my own preference, Aladdin (1992) is usually coming out on top.

Visually speaking, it’s very colorful and appealing, but it doesn’t quite have the same distinctive palette that Aladdin (1992) does. A lot of the settings (while beautiful) seemed to be CG, so while having a sense of not occupying the real world wasn’t necessarily bad for this type of over the top fantasy film, I think I could’ve used a little more grounding.

The one thing that 2019 has over 1992 is casting people of color. I thought the cast was great, and any nitpicks I have with characterization come down to the script, not the performances, which were excellent.

I’ve marked any plot points that significantly differ from Aladdin (1992) as (SPOILERS) and with a strikethrough.

By musical number:

 Arabian Nights:

I actually quite liked this. The friend that I was in the theatre with said she was a bit thrown by the recognition of Will Smith’s voice, but it didn’t bother me. The new lyrics were good, and I loved the use of the verse from the old animated tv series (“take off and take flight/may shock and amaze” etc.).

One Jump Ahead:

This was the song I struggled the most with. The slow down of the tempo absolutely didn’t work. To me, this needs to be a fast-paced song to convey the adrenaline and momentum of the scene. By tying it to a slower, heavy beat, it felt positively plodding. The singing was certainly fine and I liked Aladdin’s voice a lot, but the tempo was killing me.

Jasmine’s New Song (Speechless):

Jasmine absolutely needed at least one more song. This one was fine; it sounded a bit pop, but I’m sure the original songs sounded pop at the time too. I think I’d have to give it another listen to see how it fits with the musical themes of the new score and with the other songs.

Friend Like Me:

Not much change in content from the original song, but different delivery, of course. If you are able to like Will Smith’s take on the Genie despite it not being the same as Robin Williams’, you’ll probably be okay with this.

Prince Ali:

Somehow felt very stagey, not in a bad way? Again, pretty similar to the original song, though I did note the “correction” from “brush up your Sunday salaam” to “Friday salaam”.

A Whole New World:

Pretty singing of a pretty song, no major lyric changes. The friend I was with complained about the slow tempo of this one, but it didn’t bother me the way that One Jump Ahead did.

Prince Ali (reprise): DIDN’T HAPPEN D: and I missed it a lot. Reprised “Speechless” instead, which was certainly dramatic, but the lyrics seemed lackluster here. A big feature of the classic Aladdin songs is that they tend to be wordy and eloquent (Howard Ashman’s touch, I guess, and no doubt Tim Rice too), so it felt a little out of place.

Surprisingly, we didn’t even have a pop cover of Speechless for the end credits. Maybe I was spoiled by three new songs that I liked in BatB (2017), but I felt like there was room for more additions in this film.

By major character:

Aladdin: Mena Massoud was excellent, loved the boy. Adorable as heck (the eyes and the smile), and very charming. His singing was good, though I felt like he could’ve used a little more of a chance to impress. The physicality of the role was amazing, both in his parkour scenes in Agrabah, and with the (SPOILERS) dance number in which the Genie is controlling Aladdin’s movements. The performance of doing complex dance steps while selling that he wasn’t in control of his own body was superbly done.

The thing I missed most about the animated version of the character was that this Aladdin didn’t quite seem to be quite the quick-thinking trickster that Animated Aladdin is. There’s an element there, but it didn’t come across as strongly to me. Animated Aladdin takes to the role of Prince Ali pretty handily, and his missteps are when he overacts it, being too much like how he thinks a prince should be. In contrast, New Aladdin is pretty paralyzed by nerves, which was charming in its way, just different. There’s also a change that we see New Aladdin stealing valuables to make a living, (though clearly not a great one) as a pickpocket, compared to Animated Aladdin who we only ever see steal food for himself and others (despite his klepto monkey). The dynamic with Genie is different too, less openly affectionate, but that’s also a factor of Genie’s change in characterization. I think it also is factor in inter-character dynamics that Animated Aladdin skews a bit younger, still a teenager, while New Aladdin is more grown up, a young man.

Abu: Abu’s CG face was a little uncanny valley to me. I think I would’ve preferred to see something more like the performance of Jack the Monkey in the PotC films, even if it wouldn’t have been quite as expressive and human-like as animated Abu. However, I do get that working with animals is pretty tough, and I see why the choices were made.

The Genie: Will Smith was doing his thing, and I didn’t really expect anything else. I warmed pretty well to his take on the character. He absolutely doesn’t do the quick-quippy motor-mouthed slapstick style of Robin Williams’ Genie, and it’s probably better that way. His performances of the iconic songs were solid, I think, striking a balance of nostalgia and novelty. How an individual viewer might want that balance to lean is going to vary, though.

I thought the film might’ve undersold the Genie’s longing to be free of the lamp. This was especially noticeable in the scene where Aladdin tells him that he can’t use his third wish to free him. Original Genie reacts with hurt and betrayal, New Genie redirects the conversation to be about Aladdin continuing to lie to Jasmine about his identity, buying his own con, as it were. Part of it is that New Genie is a little more emotionally reserved, plays things a bit closer to the (absent) vest. I think the case could’ve been made that Genie never really expected Aladdin to follow through on that promise, but as it was, it just didn’t quite ring true.

(SPOILERS)

I did really like the storytelling framing of the beginning of the film, but I thought it was underused! It would have been charming to Princess Bride the whole narrative, with the kids interjecting occasionally, and seeing the story through their eyes with their father playing the role of the Genie. Let the audience buy the storytelling device, and at the end when the kids are expressing their incredulity that such a story could be true, the reveal to the audience that their mother is the princess’s handmaiden would’ve been enough to leave the ambiguity – is the Mariner really truly the Genie, or is it just a story? I think that could’ve been lovely.

Princess Jasmine: Naomi Scott is beautiful, has a lovely voice, and gave a charming performance. I do wish they had cast someone who looks a little more like Animated Jasmine, but I don’t dislike New Jasmine. Giving Jasmine a strong motivation to become a leader, be her father’s successor, and make a positive difference in the lives of the people in her city was nice.

Jafar: While still menacing, Jafar lost some of the gleeful mustache twirling evil of Animated Jafar. I missed that high, cruel laughter and the disdainful aristocratic bearing. I do understand avoiding some of the iconic lines, but unfortunately the replacements weren’t… as good. New Jafar had interesting aspects, but it seemed like some of his story arc might’ve gotten left on the cutting room floor. It really seemed at first that we were implying that Jafar had actually murdered Jasmine’s late mother, but the movie just never picked up that thread. It wasn’t a bad performance, just a different character.

Iago: Iago seemed sort of in limbo between being a true magicians familiar, a fully realized character as in the animated film, and just being a parrot. I think going entirely in either direction would’ve been an improvement over what we got (mostly parrot behavior with occasional phrases that seemed to show independent thought). I think Jafar suffered a bit from this reduction of Iago’s role too– is it harder to have a dark comedy double act with an actual realistic parrot? (Parrot owners probably disagree)

Dahlia: An original character, and an interesting addition: Jasmine’s handmaiden (allowing Jasmine to pull some Padme-style who-is-the-real-princess shenanigans early in the film). She was charming, sweetly awkward at times, and (SPOILERS) though the b-plot romance between her and the Genie wasn’t quite pulled off with the panache it could’ve been (it’s no Lumiere/Plumette, okay?), it was cute and I liked it okay. Interestingly, her features were probably a closer match to animated Princess Jasmine.

Carpet: Probably the most faithful to the characterization in (1992). I have always adored Carpet, and I thought the gestures and movements of the CG version nicely captured the spirit of the original, though I think with comparatively less screentime? I genuinely reacted with anxiety every time Carpet was in danger even though I obviously knew everything was going to be all right in the end. #I can’t believe it, I’m losing (my heart) to a rug

There were definitely moments that I felt like a sequel was being set up, which is an interesting choice considering how notoriously bad The Return of Jafar is. That said, I do think you could absolutely pull some story elements from that hot mess and Aladdin and The King of Thieves (which is charming in its way but still direct to video quality) and actually make a film that would be able to flesh out this new version of the story and blossom outside the shadow of the original animated film. I’m not sure that’s going to actually happen, but it would be interesting to see.

[12freddofrogs]

An Episode of a Batfamily TV Show

 Hey, everyone. I’ve been writing out what I would do if I was the scriptwriter for a Batfam show, and this is an extract from ‘Season Two’, the Robin!Jason era. 

I have a much fuller fic on Ao3 here, which includes episodes detailing how Jason got the job, a bit of Dick’s jealousy and uncertainty how to treat his new little brother, Sheila Haywood’s story being refined to fit television structure, that incident in Ethiopia, several flashes of dramatic irony, and tiny book-nerd Jason who despises Alice In Wonderland, much to the annoyance of both Babs and Jervis Tetch. Plus this episode, which is far more readable on Ao3 than tumblr, especially if you’re on mobile.

Season Two, Episode Nine - Double 

In one episode, Two-Face robs a casino.

Complete with hostages.

Batman is on the other side of the city, already busy breaking up a kidnapping.

Robin had been halfway home from the patrol, excusing himself to finish a book report for class, when the call comes in.

He’s close, and isn’t so easily lured by homework that he’d ever ignore people in danger.

Robin goes in alone.

The casino is styled with one main room, complete with a stage and dining tables across the floor from the slot machines.

Two-Face is standing in front of the stage, gun hold high. The crowds are huddled up, most of them still collected at their tables.

His speech is interrupted by someone singing, the chosen song starting slow. 

He turns around to see the Boy Wonder on stage, stepping lightly around the stand-up comedian who is sitting hunched at the back of the stage.

Robin had picked up a microphone from somewhere and is taking full advantage. 

He doesn’t do his whole song — three minutes is a lot of screen-time. He finishes a verse, just long enough to get everyone’s attention, before taking a seat on the edge of the stage.

Two-Face is unimpressed.

“You’ll excuse me if I don’t applaud.” He points his gun.

“Well, if I end up punching you today, it’ll probably be for different reasons.”

“So you’re Robin number two.” Two-Face sneers. “Heard so much about you.”

“What makes you think I’m new?”

“Gonna claim that you got shorter?”

“Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen in Gotham.” Robin drops the microphone with a remarkable lack of respect for other people’s equipment and bounces to his feet. The stage means he’s looking down on Two-Face as he grins. “Or maybe I just got new boots, either-or. You gonna come quietly, or do I get to kick your ass first?”

Two-Face does not come quietly.

“You know you’re not getting out of here,” Robin warns. “The GCPD has the building surrounded, and Batman is — well, it defies the point of a secret if I tell you where he is, but he’s very close. Let these people go.”

 “I’m not done yet.”

 Two-Face grabs a man from the crowd — young, couldn’t be older than his early twenties, a small child with the same hair colour sitting at the same table. He drags the hostage up in one quick movement, a gun suddenly pressed to the man’s temple.

 Immediately there’s a batarang in Robin’s hand. “Let him go!”

 “And why should I do that, Boy Wonder?” Two-Face grins, as much as he can manage with his scarred face. “You asked how I’m getting out of here, and this here is part of my plan.”

  The man whimpers, a beg on his lips before Two-Face tightens his grip. “Shut up.”

 “You want a hostage?” Robin says, not moving. His mask eyes remain trained on Two-Face. “Take me instead.”

 “What?”

“I’d be much more valuable if you’re trying to get leverage over Batman.”

Two-Face pulls out his coin.

He has to yank the hostage in closer to himself, wrap the man’s neck in the crook of his elbow while holding the gun so that he has a free hand. It’s the kind of trap that would potentially be possible to break free from, but no smart civilian would attempt it with a gun to their head.

Robin is still standing on the stage, batarang at the ready, as the coin flips.

“Fine,” Two-Face growls. Robin slowly lowers his hand. “But you’re not staying armed.”

Robin’s expression doesn’t change, but he tucks the batarang away.

“No. Leave the belt.”

His glare darkens.

“I said—” Two-Face presses the gun tighter to his hostage. “Drop the belt.”

“Fine.” It takes one moment to unbuckle it. Robin drops it on the stage, kicks it behind himself. Then he glances away from Two-Face to look at one of the stage managers cowering in the same area. “Don’t touch that. It’ll electrocute anyone who’s not me or Batman.”

“And your earbud. And I know you’ve got lockpicks in those gloves, loose them too.”

Robin obeys, dropping his comm unit on the stage. He takes off his gloves and tosses them towards his belt. “So you know, there’s a limit to how much I’m going to strip.”

Two-Face releases his hostage.

The man rushes back to the table where his family is sitting.

Robin steps off the stage, dropping a distance taller than him without wincing. “Let’s go.”

Two-Face raises the gun to him. Robin doesn’t blink.

The two of them walk away.

 “What exactly is your plan for getting past the cops?” Robin asks as he’s escorted downstairs. He’s careful with his bare hands, making sure not to leave fingerprints.

“Shut up.”

“What am I going to do with this information? You made me leave my earbud,” he protests as they enter the underground carpark. “Besides, hostages tend to notice how you travel.”

Several of Two-Face’s thugs are already downstairs, packing a van with stolen money.  “Uh, is that Robin?” one asks.

Robin glances at him, waves his fingers like a ghost. “Boo.”

“Kid’s the best hostage we’ll get ‘round here.” Two-Face reaches into the front seat of the van and tosses a pair of handcuffs. “Put these on.”

“Since you asked so nice.”

Robin cuffs himself. Two-Face gestures and one of the thugs tightens it, to the point he winces.  

They drive off.

Robin is startled to notice Two-Face had a car meticulously degraded so that exactly the left half is scratched.

“What do you think?”

“It’s… a lot.”

He’s impressed despite himself that it turns out to be a distraction. One of the henchmen crawls in behind the tinted windscreen. Two-Face promises they’ll meet up soon.

Two-Face gets behind a much more ordinary two-door car, forcing Robin into the passenger seat.

The car drives off.

The decoy car goes first, tearing out of the service entrance.

Two-Face’s actual car is waiting patiently behind as several cop cars chase after it.

"So did you hire a racer or was it always part of your plan that guy goes to jail?” Robin leans back in his chair, looking more like he’s at the movies then a hostage.

Two-Face grunts. “If Henry makes it back, he makes it back.”

“Oh. Chance. Right, your whole thing. Gotcha.” Robin rolls his eyes as the car continues out. “There’s still plenty of police out there.”

Despite his observation, the two waiting police cars don’t do anything to stop them, leaving Robin confused and Two-Face smug.

They escape into traffic.

Robin keeps up a steady stream of smart-ass commentary throughout the drive.

“How does Batman put up with you?”

“I’m a lot less of a brat when I’m not handcuffed.” Robin lifts his wrists. “Wanna give me the keys, let me prove it?”

“How bout I try a gag, instead?”

 “Ooh, are you going to stop driving and leave me unattended while you check the back?”

 At one point, while chatting, Robin’s cuffed hands slowly creep towards the handbrake.

Two-Face has his gun in his face before he can try anything. “Don’t.”

Robin’s face sours, but he pulls back.

Meanwhile, Batman has arrived at the casino.

The man Robin traded himself for is giving a statement, and is appropriately startled when a black shadow lands in front of him.

Batman hears the story again and immediately swoops off.

The World’s Greatest Detective is able to find out how and when Two-Face got away.

He accuses the cops who didn’t chase of being bribed, and judging by their reactions (one tries to run), was right. When they babble that they don’t know anything more about Two-Face’s plans, he throws them at Gordon and gets into the Batmobile.

Batman’s chase is interspersed with moments of Robin and Two-Face.

“So do you actually know where you’re going?” Robin comments as they zoom through traffic. “Cause you seem to be doing about three loops to get there.” He wiggles his fingers, all the more obnoxious with his wrists bound. “I could recalibrate your GPS for you if you’re too old to work out how.”

Two-Face is driving with a gun pinned in one hand between the wheel and his fingers. The free hand lets go of the wheel and digs in his pocket. Without saying a word or looking away from the road, he takes out his coin and flips it.

He glances at the result, and puts it away without any further action.

Robin shuts up.

Batman tracks down ‘Henry’, the decoy driver.

He’d already been caught by police, so it wasn’t hard.

Henry gives his information up very quickly about Two-Face’s rendezvous point.

The first sign of Two-Face’s plan going awry is when they run into a road block.

He veers violently to avoid them.

“That wasn’t suspicious,” Robin says brightly as the rogue starts searching for another route.

Two-Face is getting more annoyed, which isn’t helped when the Batmobile shows up.

Cue a car chase.

Two-Face is too distracted to notice when Robin slips off his seatbelt.

During a particularly sharp turn, one that Two-Face had to hit the brakes to make, Robin takes advantage and flings open the door. He rolls, landing on the edge of the sidewalk.

Two-Face curses, but doesn’t go back.

Batman is more willing to stop. Robin leaps into the Batmobile and the tyres screech off again.

Robin’s belt, gloves, and earbud are sitting on the chair. He starts working on removing his handcuffs almost immediately, even as Batman starts talking about how risky it was. The lecture is occasionally paused with a particularly sharp obstacle as they chase a supervillain.

They eventually catch him.

Two-Face is arrested, the thugs are similarly caught, and most of the cash is recovered.

Later in the Cave, Bruce and Jason talk.

The general gist is that what he did was reckless, but overall, Bruce is proud of him. “Don’t do that again, though.”

The episode finishes with Jason finally starting on that book report he should have done hours earlier.

Ao3: Here

Tumblr post for chapter one (also involving a hostage situation - specifically, billionaire’s child Dick Grayson, rather than in costume): Here

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (semi-stream of consciousness) Thoughts Part 1: Mind = blown!

I saw Into the Spider-Verse tonight.

SPOILERS below the cut, but the SPOILERS free tldr version is that this movie is...

·         The Marvel/superhero movie I enjoyed most this year and there were a lot of contenders

·         The most (at least spiritually) faithful Marvel/superhero movie this year

·         The best animated Marvel movie of all time, and I have seen most of them

·         The best theatrically released animated superhero movie ever exempting Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which is equally good but in a very different way

·         The single most unique animated Marvel/DC superhero movie ever made and I mean that in a good way

·         Worth sitting through to the end of the credits for

·         A feast for the eyes

·         Side splittingly hilarious

·         Easter Egg laden for Spider-Man fans

·         The best version of Miles Morales and of his origin

·         A bazillion times superior to Spider-Man: Homecoming

·         The best Spider-Man movie released since Spider-Man 2 by Sam Raimi, which (like Mask of the Phantasm) is equally good but in a very different way because the stories and styles they are employing in telling them are chasing different things

·         A love letter to Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

·         Potentially revolutionary

·         The perfect way to cap off 2018 for Spider-Man

In other words this movie comes with my most aggressively high recommendations.

I expected this movie to be a fun enough time.

I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.

And when I say love it as much as I did I mean ‘walked out the theatre with a new entry in my top 10 favourite movies of all time’

Not top 10 comic book movies or  superhero movies.

Top 10 movie movies!

As I said this is something of a stream of consciousness and that’s partially because I do not know where to start.

I guess I should start with the things I didn’t like.

The movie ended.

There you go I’m done.

I’m dead serious maybe stuff will come to me in time but as of this writing...I have absolutely nothing negative to say.

Those of you who’ve read my thoughts on previous Spider-Man cinematic outings in recent years will no doubt be aware this is a stark contrast to my usual outlook.

Whilst the live action Spider-Man films have alternated between overhyped, overstuffed studio managed messes (Spider-Man 3) misguided and shallow retreads with talented actors and action scenes (Amazing Spider-Man 2012), raw incompetent writing and filmmaking also with good actors and action scenes (Amazing Spider-Man 2), fun and half well written movies with talented actors, okay action scenes but fundamentally broken understandings of the character (Spider-Man: Homecoming and Infinity War) or else dumb yet fun/so bad it’s good dark camp (Venom 2018), here is a humble animated movie from neither Sony’s big budget live action division nor the Marvel Studios juggernaut that just kicked all of their asses.

Hard.

...And it wasn’t even a contest....

So superlative is this Spider-Man movie some people are hailing it as simply the BEST  Spider-Man movie outright.

And whilst this is very much an unfair and unnuanced perspective that doesn’t take into account changing standards or the different goals of different movies at different times...I can also entirely understand where they are coming from.

Lets look at just one example as a microcosm of what I am talking about.

One of the most frequently incited problems with Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the infamous (though now perhaps more fondly regarded as so bad it’s good) Batman and Robin.

Too many villains.

Each of those movies boasts 3 villains and this was attributed as a major reason for Spider-Man 3’s critical failure as well as ASM 2’s, both killing their respective versions of a Spider-Man film franchise. Batman and Robin of course killed the Batman film franchise for 8 whole years.

This failures served to insist a conventional wisedom within comic book/film fans and to a lesser extent the film makers that too many villains can lead to disaster. Whilst success stories exist it is still something regarded as best avoided. Spider-Man: Homecoming somewhat subverted this by featuring 3-4 villains but one of those was a replacement for the other (and served as a sub-boss) whilst yet another was ostensibly a background player.

In what surely breaks a record for a Spider-Man or an MCU movie, Spider-Verse boasts both six protagonists AND villains.

And they all work. Everything is organic.

Yes some villains take more emphasis than others but the context allows this to gel together and by the end of it, especially if you are a Spider-Man comic book fan, you do have to gaze in wonder at the fact that you are in truth watching a single movie giving several minutes of screentime to:

·         Kingpin

·         Prowler

·         Doctor Octopus

·         Green Goblin

·         Tombstone

·         And Scorpion

Oh and cameos from the Lizard and another Doctor Octopus!

That shouldn’t be possible!

I need to stress, these are not blink and you’ll miss them references. All of those characters get multiple scenes or else and extended scene of screentime!

And it goes this whilst ALSO featuring six main protagonists and at least four supporting characters!

Holy shit how did the film makers pull this off?

Well I can summise it via two ways:

a)      They know how to balance things out by giving certain characters more emphasis than others. That is to say that whilst this is an ensemble film, Miles and Kingpin are the PRIMARY hero and villain respectively even if they are not the main ones in the way they would be if this was a solo story

b)      It’s an animated movie.

 What do I mean by that?

Well I’ve recently come up with a little theory.

Animated film making and live action film making, whilst obviously having a lot in common, differ in critical ways.

Both are of course incredibly expensive and time consuming but if you really break it down, generating five minutes of footage for a live action movie is in general actually going to be comparatively easier than for an animated movie.

One of the key factors in this is the fact that live action movies have the luxury of multiple takes allowing film makers to select the best shots and takes to use in the final product.

They have in other words much more options than animated film makers. Scenes might be cut from an animated movie but typically there are not outright alternate animated scenes available.

What does this mean?

It means in short animated film makers need to make damn sure the writing for the movie is as polished as possible before they start animating anything.

And this is why, to be as brutal and blunt as possible, 90% of the time animated movies are honestly better written than their live action competition.

Look me dead in my metaphorical eye, put your hand on your heart and swear on your life that most Pixar movies, most Renaissance era Disney classics (Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc) and most modern Disney animated films are not in fact better crafted in their writing than the majority of the movies released those same years.

Often I think people praise the writing of animated fare almost to be hip or alternative. Like this thing for kids is actually better than this thing for adults, isn’t that funny, doesn’t that say so much about the sorry state of ‘adult’ entertainment?

The thing is it’s actually just common practice and entirely practical. An animated film is in many ways more costly and labour intensive than live action ones and since most of them are aimed at families more work is put into them in order to entertain multiple audiences with very different sensibilities.

And that is how we arrived at a Spider-Man film that has more heroes and villains in it than possibly any theatrical superhero movie and ice skated through it.

That is how we have a Spider-Man film that in absolute sincerity challenges 3 MCU movies AND Deadpool to the crown of best comic book movie of the year!

THAT is how we wound up with a Spider-Man film that is better than every live action Spider-Man film since 2004!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got to this point precisely BECAUSE it was animated and aimed at kids AND adults.

I will write more on this movie I promise but I need to go to bed dammit!

[epen409]

My Top 18 Favorite Movies, TV Shows and/or Cartoons of 2018 (in no particular order) Part Dos

10. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Ignore the neckbeards who have nothing better to do, so they complain about reboots of cartoons from the quote on quote "golden age of animation, the 80's". She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a really great show, that yes, is better than the original 80's show. It's able to create a more fun and engaging story, while also having a lot of memorable and likable characters. It also has a theme that I found very interesting, where the villains aren't born evil, they are just misled in the wrong direction and don't truly know wrong from right. It's quite a bold theme for the show. If there is a kind of big flaw, the animation is a little wonky. Some shots and scenes look great, while others are very easy to see where the animation mistakes are. That said, it's still a great show that takes advantage of all of it's fun and interesting characters, and brings them together in a new show that blows its predecessor out of the water. And yes, LGBT fans. It's very, very gay.

11. Spider-Man Into the Spider verse

What a comeback story. Who would have thought that the studio that made the whole world of animation cry last year would end up making the best animated film of the year? But anyways, Spider-Man into the Spiderverse is not only able to live up to all the hype it's been getting for the past year, but it also blew our expectations away. First of all, it looks GORGEOUS. It's able to make a visual style that's not only very beautiful and interesting, but it also happens to create a loving tribute to the original medium of comic books. Second, they put just as much effort in the story as they did with the visuals, which is not only a very fun superhero film, but also manages to be a very engaging emotional story as well, with lots of fun, interesting and memorable characters as well. If there is something to say isn't perfect, I did notice at least one plot hole that left me a bit confused, and they kind of blew the wad for putting in a few too many characters, where, while fun and memorable, don't have that much screen time and don't leave as big of an impression as the main characters. But still, it's one of the year's best movies, so go watch it NOW!

12. Flcl Progressive and Alternative

The first anime I ever saw was FLCL. It was insane, had gorgeous animation, memorable characters and I loved every minute of it. Do its sequel series' live up to the original's legacy. Well, let me put it this way. I very much enjoyed both shows, equally too. I thought they were very fun shows, and their themes, while sometimes a little hit-and-miss, still got their points across, the new characters were very fun and memorable, and the action scenes were also animated very well. With all that said, they still don't hold a candle to the original show. But that's okay, because I imagine it'd be very hard to. I still think that both of these new shows were very good, and although not as great as the original FLCL, was still lots of fun, and somewhat worthy successors to one of the greatest animas of all time. I still recommend both, since they still were good in my opinion.

13. Hilda

Miss Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall? Then have I got the show for you. Hilda is a great show from Netflix that manages to capture the spirits of  both those shows, but also having its own identity and voice. One thing I appreciate about the show is that not only can it be calm and laid back in more character and establishing moments, but it also can be equally as exciting and fun for its more adventurous and action scenes. The characters are all very charming. Hilda is a free-spirited and adventurous young girl, but she's not a pushover or overly cheery either. Her friends both regular and supernatural, can sometimes fall into familiar tropes, but also are very fun and enjoyable to watch. (Alfie's my favorite). It's a great show to watch, especially on days you want to cozy up with a cup of hot liquids of some kind, and take it all in. It's a great show, and I highly recommend giving it a watch.

14. Christopher Robin

I missed Winnie the Pooh. Yes, an 18-year old male misses the adventures of a talking teddy bear. Deal with it. But anyways, for a while it seemed that Disney had somewhat given up on the bear with little brains, but they've given him another chance with this new film, but this time, mainly focusing on his human friend, Christopher Robin. One thing this movie gets right is the feeling of Winnie the Pooh. Pooh has never been known for incredibly convoluted stories, just mainly simple tales that it's colorful cast of characters can bounce off of, and this movie nails that feeling down. It's also close to the original cast of characters, since deviating away from their personalities would be considered a form of blasphemy. Also, the performances here are great too. Evan McGregor makes a surprisingly good Christopher Robin, Hayley Atwell is charming as his wife, the girl who played their daughter was pretty good too, and of course, our friends from the 100 Acre Woods are played very well by the new cast, especially the one and only Jim Cummings, the only modern voice for both Pooh and Tigger. Now it does have flaws, like the story is kind of the typical "Dad's too busy for the kids", and although I've grown to like it over time, but sometimes it got a little too dramatic for some scenes, and at time Christopher Robin himself came off a bit as whiny and unlikable in some scenes. With that said, it's very easy to see that the whole film is a big love letter to Winnie the Pooh. No, it's not the best movie of the year, Or anything like that, but if you want a nice, enjoyable and cute movie to watch, then Christopher Robin is the perfect film to watch.

15. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I'll break my rule just this once to include a video game here. Super Smash Bros Ultimate was the biggest game from Nintendo this holiday season, and boy did it deliver. The last Smash Bros. game, was lots of fun, with it bringing all of our favorite (popular) video game characters together for a huge brawl. This next one, takes it up to 11. One thing I walkways admired from the games is that it's not the world's most complicated fighter game, while also still being oodles of fun. Only one big flaw: no Waluigi. Nah, just kidding. It's a great game, and a great farewell to the world of Smash from it's director, Masahiro Sakurai.

16. The Dragon Prince

Here's another show that didn't get that much attention on Netflix, The Dragon Prince. Made by the head writer from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the creator of the Uncharted games, comes a massive fantasy epic focusing on the Battle between humans and fantasy creatures like elves and dragons. One thing I really love about this show is just how complex the characters and their morals are. It's a show that takes a lot of advantage from this theme. It's also filled with lots of fun, yet also very interesting characters. You will probably get attached to them by the end of the show, which may break some hearts too... But yeah, might as well address the elephant in the room, the animation. In fact, I do think that maybe the reason it didn't immediately catch on was because a lot of people were turned off by the animation style. But I still recommend it and ask that you give it a chance, because not only was it lots of fun, and very interesting, but the story and characters help redeem the animation, plus it does improve itself over time. Please, please, please give The Dragon Prince a chance, it's a great show.

17. Ralph Breaks the Internet

Don't worry. It's not another Emoji Movie. Ralph Breaks the Internet is not only a worthy successor to the original film, but it also manages to expand a lot on the heart from the original. This time, instead of arcade games, it plucks our characters into the Internet, and unlike the Emoji Movie, manages to make more clever and creative ideas while being on the Internet. And yeah, maybe the scene when Vanellope visits the Disney website might be Disney patting themselves on the back a little too hard, but it's still a very funny and enjoyable scene that also helps move the plot forward. But one thing the movie was amazing at was expanding on its characters and their development. It even manages to avoid the typical happy ending, which, without spoiling anything, actually makes a change in the characters lives. If there is a flaw, like I said, it's 10 times better than the Emoji Movie, but I will admit, between the cameos from Youtubers and the one scene where Ralph becomes a meme, did kind of make me roll my eyes, but thankfully, unlike the Emoji movie, it doesn't dwell too much on these scenes all that much, and knows when to move the plot forward in the right direction. I still say it's a worthy sequel that's worth your time.

Also, Yesss is my new waifu.

18. Mary Poppins Returns

Here's one of the few live-action Disney films in recent years, I feel are very worthy to the legacy of their original film. Mary Poppins Returns is just a complete and utter joy of a film, not unlike the original classic. The performance of Emily Blunt as the titular nanny is a worthy successor the original by Julie Andrews, and character in general. Lin Manuel-Miranda not only does a great job in continuing the spirit of Dick Van Dyke from the first film, but also in writing a plethora of great songs that are amazingly performed and choreographed by the cast, while also giving tribute to the Sherman Brother's original songs. Even the kids, who I kind expected to get on my nerves, are actually pretty likable and fun, and are given, eh passable performances by their actors and actress. The animation sequence brought a tear to my eye, not only because it was lots of fun, but because I'm just happy to beautiful 2D Disney animation on the big screen again. If there is some flaws, yeah, the story is yet another Dad needs to spend more time with kids plot again, and it does bring some more action/suspenseful moments that I don't feel are completely in spirit to the original film's more laid back tone. But regardless, it's an overall great and very charming new film from Disney, and although I would like them to try doing some more original stuff with their live-action movies, I hope can keep the spirit of both this film,and a lot of the classic live-action Disney movies (like the original Mary Poppins, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island, Darby O' Gill, Swiss Family Robinson and some others you guys probably never heard of).

So that's about it. Thank you all for sticking around listening to me talk about all these Movies and TV shows are worth remembering from this year, and there's a lot I'm excited for next year, and I hope that this next year can be an improvement, with more kindness and joy from the world and from people. Yeah, it's wishful thinking, but it's not a bad wish to have. Thank you all for supporting this page for the last year,and I'LL see ya in 2019!

[justanoutlawfic]

Resurrected: New Places

Summary: Robin goes to see Regina's new place and lets out what he's been holding in.

Feel free to send me prompts or submit questions about the verse or even for the characters!

Also on AO3

Robin didn’t know what to expect out of Regina’s new apartment, but it was much nicer than he thought it would be. It was on Main Street, not that far from Granny’s. He remembered Artemis Gold wasn’t just a powerful judge in town, but also the landlord for nearly every property. After all Regina had done for him, Robin supposed the man owed her a few favors. Still, it was near the new artesian bakery and not that far from the park. She had been deliberate and clear in her choices. She wanted to make it work.

 It had been a few days since her reunion with their youngest and not a lot had changed with Roland. Margot and Henry would meet up with Regina for dinner or she’d pick them up from school to hang out for a bit. Robin didn’t feel comfortable with them going to her apartment just yet. A part of him was putting it off because he knew it would be okay. Regina would never live anywhere that the kids wouldn’t be safe in.

 This just wasn’t what he wanted. He never wanted his kids to be away from him for weeks at a time. They were going to be living like a divorced couple and he already had been there once. He and Marian had gotten married straight out of high school and were happy…for a while. The marriage was short lived when the high school sweethearts realized that as much as they loved each other, it wasn’t going to change the fact that Marian loved women. It had been easier back then, there were no children. They were both in college, they could just move on. As badly as Robin had wanted a child, he was almost glad that in those first few months of trying, that it didn’t work out. When he was a father, he’d be there every day. There’d be no splitting of custody or working around the holidays.

 It was exactly what he’d have to do with Regina. 

The simple solution would be to let her move back home, but he wasn’t ready for that. Three years had gone by and both of them were very different, as were the kids. Archie agreed that after Roland’s reaction to her return, it was best for her to stay in her apartment and let him come to her.

 Regina toured Robin around the building, showing him the pool that was on the first floor along with a gym. Her unit was spacious and filled with color, different pictures on the wall. There were three bedrooms, one for the boys and one for Margot, she explained. It wasn’t as big as their house, but it would do. She had even bought some books and toys, she said she’d be getting a desk for Henry as soon as she could get a job.

 “What are you going to do?” Robin asked, speaking up for the first time since he got there.

Regina shrugged, shoving her hands into her pockets. “My law license is expired and they’re probably going to make me retake the bar before I can get it back. I figured in the meantime I might do some paralegal work. Gold has been looking int openings for me.”

“That’s nice of him.” There was a pause. “Did he know?”

Regina shook her head. “No.”

“So…who did?”

“Let’s make some tea and we can…”

“Regina, I don’t want tea. I want to just talk about it.”

 Regina looked at him, a little surprised. This wasn’t like him, not at all. She could see that he clearly hadn’t slept well since her return and he was on edge. He didn’t like the way he was at the moment either. Like Roland, he wanted to go back to before any of this ever happened.

 “Jefferson Chapeau knew,” she said, softly. “He was the hitman that Zelena hired, one of my PIs that I used for cases. Other than that, the only people that knew were Victor Whale and the pilot that took me to Washington.”

 Robin cringed at the mention of Whale. He had been the coroner that had convinced Robin that he didn’t want to see his wife’s body.

 “You want to remember her as she is, not what she’s become.”

 He had been so distraught and just wanted to get home to his kids, that he hadn’t put up much of a fight. He had agreed it’d be in the best interest of the children if the funeral was closed casket.

 “What did I bury?” He asked.

“An empty casket.”

“And the personal effects they couldn’t recover?”

Regina reached into her blouse and pulled out the chain that hung from her neck. Around it were the rings he had given her. “I needed a piece of you.”

Robin shook his head. “I still can’t believe any of this.”

“Robin, I’m sorry. Looking back, if I could change some things…”

“But you can’t. You left us, Regina. I had to take care of the kids by myself for 3 years. I worked, I came home, that was my life!”

“At least you got to see them.” Tears filled Regina’s eyes. “I didn’t realize that caring for them was such a chore.”

“Is that how you think I look at it?!?” Robin’s eyes widened. “I love those kids with everything inside of me and I would do it all over again, but that doesn’t make it easy! It wasn’t like before you left! I had two grieving boys and a little girl who didn’t understand what the hell was going on! You said you got pictures, but do you know what was really going on during that time?”

 Regina was silent, so Robin barreled on.

 “Henry ran away from your funeral, he ran away a lot, period. He stopped going to school, a lot. It got to the point where it would be a game between me and Will where I’d drop him off and count the minutes until I got the call that he wasn’t there. No amount of grounding, taking things way or talking worked. He stopped talking to me, he stopped reading and writing, he wouldn’t go play with his friends! I had no clue how to help him, because I couldn’t blame him! I wanted to run away myself! I wanted to spend all day in bed!”

 He drew out a deep breath and could see that she was crying, but for once in his life, he didn’t care.

 “Then there was Roland. He refused to step foot in a car for months, months! I had to walk him everywhere and if I ever got in a car, he’d freak out until I called him to let him know that daddy was okay. It wasn’t until he talked to Archie that even started doing better. He lost his brother during that time too, because Henry couldn’t even look him in the eyes given how much he looks like you.”

 Robin took a step forward, so he was looking straight at Regina.

 “Over the years, I tried to explain things to Margot, but she didn’t get it. When she asked me why her friend Alexandra had a mommy but she didn’t and I explained, I was the one that had to hold her while she cried. I had watched our sons go through hell, and now I had to watch my daughter. That’s not even starting about what any of this did to me! I woke up every morning, like a zombie. I cried myself to sleep at night, the nights I could sleep. One night…I left the kids with Will and drove out to the ocean and debated walking until I couldn’t anymore.”

“Oh my God…”

“I started seeing Archie after that,” Robin clarified, holding up a hand. He felt a salty tear hit the corner of his mouth. “We all started to move on. We found our own way. Henry started doing better, actually went to school. Roland can be in cars again and act like a normal kid. Margot’s happy and well adjusted. I was going to…”

 He stopped himself before admitting what Will had talked him into just days before Regina returned.

 “Roland told me that life was easier when we thought you were dead and he was right. In some ways…in some ways I wish you hadn’t come back. I love you, Regina, I love you more than life itself but I also hate you for what you did to our family.”

Regina let out a shaky breath. “What do you want me to do?”

Robin batted at his eyes and looked around the boys’ room. “You can have Henry and Margot on the weekends, plus whenever Henry wants to come over. He’s old enough to choose. I’ll work on Roland.”

“And us?”

“I…I need more time.”

 He headed for the door until Regina called for him. He turned around to find her standing there, tear stained face and looking completely guilty. A part of him was happy because of that, the other part wanted to wrap her into his arms and never let go.

 “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“I know. That’s what makes it worse.”

[bookblogbake]

The annual end-of-the-year survey is hosted by Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner. I’m so glad she puts the work into making this every year because it’s always a highlight to look back over my reading and blogging for the past year!

**2018 READING STATS**

Number Of Books You Read: 94 Number of Re-Reads: One. Wow. I thought it was more than that, but apparently not. My one re-read was THE GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE, which I re-read twice. Genre You Read The Most From: YA contemporary. That wouldn’t be surprising normally, but especially considering I judged round 1 of the YA Fiction category this year for Cybils.

1. Best Book You Read In 2018?

Overall favorite 2018 release: Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

Best middle grade: Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake (. . . sensing a pattern here?)

Best adult fiction: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Best Comic/Graphic Novel: Check Please! Book 1: Hockey

Best Middle Grade

Best adult fiction

Best 2018 Book Overall

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson. To be fair, this came out in 2017, and I read Jackson’s 2018 release, Monday’s Not Coming, first. Allegedly was a let down though because I loved Monday’s Not Coming so much, and Allegedly didn’t quite stack up for me.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. Based on the summary, it didn’t look like my typical kind of book, but I thought it was beautifully written and I loved it. A rare five star read for me.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

Sadie by Courtney Summers. I tend to push Courtney Summers books anyway but Sadie seems to be an easy sell (and for good reason–it’s FANTASTIC).

5. Best series you started in 2018? Best Sequel of 2018? Best Series Ender of 2018?

Best series started-Check Please!

Best sequel/companion – Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Best series ender– The Way I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2018?

Well, considering she wrote my overall favorite book AND my favorite middle grade of the year, it’s safe to say that’s Ashley Herring Blake.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough. I don’t typically like novels in verse, but this was FANTASTIC and fierce and moving and emotional and ugh, I loved it.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

I stayed up waaaaay into the night to finish Monday’s Not Coming.

9. Book You Read In 2018 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Well I always like to start a new year by re-reading my favorite book of the previous year (that’s why The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was my one re-read of the year), so clearly that would be made Girl Made of Stars. But just so I don’t answer this book for every single question, I’ll also mention I’m very likely to re-read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018?

I’m sure some people would find this one off-putting because of the bright yellow, but I love the cover of Pulp by Robin Talley and how vintage it looks!

11. Most memorable character of 2018?

I have to go with Sadie from well, Sadie. I just found her fascinating.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2018?

Oh man, this one is hard. I think I have to go with Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2018?

Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2018 to finally read?

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. I only read one Sarah Waters book this year, but more will definitely come in 2019 because this book was excellent.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2018?

Even girls made of stars are captives, bound at the wrists and traded like property. Even girls made of stars aren’t asked, aren’t believed, aren’t considered worth the effort unless they can offer something in return. Even girls made of stars buy into those lies sometimes.

Yes, it’s from Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake, aka the book that has been my response to at least 50% of these questions.

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2018?

longest– Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule

shortest- The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

I think it’d have to be I Stop Somewhere by TE Carter (a completely underrated book, by the way)

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Jack/Bitty from Check Please!

And then, not quite OTP status but romantic relationships I rooted for in books this year: Alice/Takumi from Let’s Talk About Love and and Steffi/Rhys from A Quiet Kind of Thunder.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

I really loved the relationship between Clara and her dad in The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2018 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

I have a couple: Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire, Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli.

Best adult fiction

21. Best Book You Read In 2018 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:

Well, I would have never read it for it not been for Cybils judging, so I’m going with Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2018?

Don’t have any! Maybe if I had read more adult romance. . .

23. Best 2018 debut you read?

I’m going with Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough for this, but just know Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram was a very close second.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

I’m going to say the old-school Hollywood glam setting in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was very vivid.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

So for me I think graphic novels really took the cake here this year. Yes, Check Please! which I’ve mentioned several times, but also The Tea Dragon’s Society by Katie O’Neill and Moonstruck volume 1 by Grace Ellis.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2018?

I have two, both of which have featured heavily on this survey so far, not surprisingly! Those are Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake and Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Okay, since I don’t want to say Girl Made of Stars yet again, I’ll have to go with. . . Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World. Yes, by the same author as Girl Made of Stars. I had favorites this year, y’all.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. I know, I know, it appears once again!

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2018?

All of This is True by Lygia Day Penaflor. I did not necessarily enjoy it, but I can say it was very unique.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Okay, so first I was going to say The Perfect Sister by Jessica Knoll, which I did NOT enjoy one bit, but then I thought about it, and. . . The Universe is Expanding and So Am I by Carolyn Mackler. I’m particularly mad about that one because parts of the books are good, but I find the entire premise flaw and really upsetting. Also, it deals with a sister coming to terms with the fact that her brother committed a rape, and it’s hard when my favorite book of the year had a similar premise and dealt with it SO MUCH BETTER.

1. New favorite book blog/Bookstagram/Youtube channel you discovered in 2018?

I’m ashamed to say that going back over my subscriptions, none of them were new this year.

2. Favorite post you wrote in 2018?

I mostly wrote reviews (and I really want to get back into doing discussions and other features!), but I’m really proud of my review for Blood Water Paint.

3. Favorite bookish related photo you took in 2018:?

Again, something else I didn’t do very much of this year!

4. Best bookish event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, etc.)?

I didn’t really get to participate in any bookish events this year, but hopefully 2019 will change that!

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2018?

I have to say being a round 1 Cybils judge! It was a lot of work and reading, but it was such a worthwhile endeavor.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

Just finding time! I haven’t been nearly as active as I wanted because I graduated grad school, which I THOUGHT would give me more time, but then I moved from one end of Texas to another, started a new job, got settled in, etc. It’s just been a LOT.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

Well, my most popular post was from a few years ago: What do Do with Books You Don’t Want Anymore. My most popular post actually written this year was my review of Girl Made of Stars, which is not surprising since I’ve basically been yelling about this book for months.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

I posted one Saturday morning cup post this year, and I definitely wish that one had got more loved.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

Hmm, well, I got to visit The Strand in New York City for the first time so that was definitely a fun bookish discovery/adventure!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

I didn’t really set any challenges or goals, and I’m glad because this year was busy enough without those!

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2018 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2019?

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir. Not because I’m super excited about it (I mean, I want to read it, but it’s not a book I was anticipating), but because it’s due back to the library in eight days.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2019 (non-debut)?

Well, considering two of her books were two of my favorites this year, I’m gonna have to say The Mighty Heart of Sunny St James by Ashley Herring Blake.

3. 2019 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I have two: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver and These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2019?

In A Wayward Dream by Seanan McGuire. I’ve loved every installment in the Wayward Children series, so I expect this to be no different (and perhaps one of my goals this year will to be re-read the series).

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2019?

Blog more! I’ve missed it.

6. A 2019 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):

I’ve only read an ARC of one 2019 release, but I do recommend it! I read We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia and was enthralled.

2018 End of the Year Survey! The annual end-of-the-year survey is hosted by Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner. I'm so glad she puts the work into making this every year because it's always a highlight to look back over my reading and blogging for the past year!

[skalidra]

So in your earth - 3 verse the owl family seems more tight knit than the batfam - if I'm right. They even make sure Jason is more so in the group than the batfam. They also make it more of an effort to do that - even to the point of 'too much.' How else is the owl family different from the batfam. Besides the fact that they're bad guys. Like each character and how they differ between the alternat version of themselves. Also if the two were to meet what would they think of the other/respond?

I know you already wrote where Nightwing and Nightingale switch universes for a little bit but if they (had) to work together or something, even if that would be filled with conflict. Also do you think that some of them might be jealous in some way of their alternat self. Like Jason seems to have it somewhat worse in the batfam verses the owlfam. Tim perhaps as well. And how do you think after having to 'work together' they would end up veiwing the other?

It's not that I see them liking each other - no. But actually perhaps growing to resent each other on a more personal level. What do you think

Well, probably the simplest, biggest difference between the Bat vs Owl characters is just because of the variations on how they were raised.

Below follows a lot of discussion of my Earth-3 universe, Nightingale, etc.

Starting with the differences...

- Dick was actually pretty similar up until Bruce, though his childhood had more of a focus on show business, but Bruce encouraged him to get revenge for his parents and set him on a much darker path than canon Dick. The Owl version plays hard for an audience. He doesn’t let himself rely on basically anyone, and he views almost everyone as at least a little bit inferior to him. He saw his parents die, trusting each other and the rope, and he’s not going to ever let himself make that same mistake. He trusts his family, is viciously protective of them, and would burn the world and himself to make sure they survive. He’s still the workaholic, he’s still the one to make the sacrifice play if he thinks he has to, but he hides that loyalty because it’s also a sort of weakness.

Nightingale, on the outside, plays to everything that makes people underestimate him. He’s pretty and he’s lithe and if you make the mistake of thinking his attractiveness makes him less dangerous, you’ll end up on the sharp end of a knife real quick. A blade is easier to hide when it’s smiling, instead of glaring at you. (And a flirt distracts and unnerves people; makes them sloppy.) Nightingale exploits every weakness in other people, especially the ones that he causes himself.

A Nightingale that met Nightwing would think that he was full of weaknesses, and Nightwing would be horrified at the potential that he could turn out like this, if things went just the right way. There would be a mutual respect of talent and skill, but Nightwing would want to jail/contain/neutralize Nightingale, and honestly Nightingale would probably want Nightwing dead. After all, Nightwing is a living, walking example of all the things that Nightingale doesn’t want anyone to know about him (that he loves his family, that he has a hell of a temper, that he works himself to the bone more often than not, etc.). No one would walk away happy from that, if they walked away at all.

- Jason is somewhat more stable in the Owls, but he’s also a lot more screwed up in different ways. Dick’s got him all twisted up around his fingers, and trying to go a different path from the rest of your family is a lot harder when the rest of your family are a bunch of murdering psychopaths instead of, you know, heroes. One version gets you stuck in jail, the other gets you stabbed and repeatedly dragged back to them. On the other hand, it’s harder to ignore someone killing when you don’t want them to, as opposed to the Owl version where every once in awhile Jason just does something heroic and/or not totally in line with family wishes, which mostly just provokes irritation.

So I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily got it better than canon Jason. It’s somewhat easier early on, but he doesn’t agree or like all the family tactics and those kind of dislikes build up over time. Sooner or later, Jason’s going to need time to not be around that kind of easy violence. That might not go well.

Canon and Earth-3 Jason meeting would go, I think, fairly smoothly. They’re both fucked up, but they’re both somewhere in the morally grey area and they share a love of the rest of their family. There would be some commiserating about being the respective black sheep of their families, but really Jason - in either world - I think is too grounded to want to try and change or interfere with another universe’s version of him. Once they got the situation figured out, things would go peacefully.

- Tim is... He was neglected, terribly, in Earth-3, but this tiny Tim didn’t have a Robin to look up to, he had a Talon. He puts together this information that Bruce Wayne is the Gotham urban myth/supervillain/terror of the night Owlman, and he watches Talon, and he sees an answer to all his problems. A role model. When Jason dies is really the tipping point. Bruce becomes unstable, he gets violent in rage instead of from calculation, and Tim steps in to offer himself as an apprentice to restore the order he’s seen come to life under Owlman’s rule. He doesn’t do things in halves either, so he goes to Bruce and he offers himself, and he asks for Bruce to kill his parents (who he barely really knows anyway) and take him in.

Tim in Earth-3 is a maladjusted, nearly sociopathic killer that sees people as either people that can be used, or are useless, with the rare exceptions of those that he truly comes to know and respect/be loyal to. (Bruce, Dick, and later down the line, Kon, Jason, and Damian as well.) Those are also the ones that actually treat him as someone close to them/loved, and he’s honestly so starved for that attention that even scraps of it are enough to keep him completely loyal to someone.

He hates being out of control, he doesn’t like other people having an advantage on him, and he’s learned that in a world full of people stronger than him, the best defense is to have strangleholds already in place for anyone that might be a threat. The rest of his family is, physically, more dangerous than he is, but Tim studies people and he pinpoints exactly how to beat them, and that makes him a terrible enemy to have.

Tim meeting himself would be... perilous. Canon Tim, like Dick, hates seeing how very twisted and evil he can get, given the proper motivation. Earth-3 Tim, on the other hand, probably just thinks that canon Tim isn’t worth his time. (Except maybe to pick his brain for any ideas that may not have occurred to him.) If canon Tim gets in his way, he’ll kill him; otherwise, may as well leave the threat alone and avoid it, if possible. Why take the risk?

- Damian really is more or less the same. In both worlds he’s raised in a family that’s trying to teach him one way of live, and then he comes to Bruce and he learns a different one. One that he thinks is difficult at first, or doesn’t fully understand, but quickly becomes accustomed to and enjoys, inevitably picking it over Ra’s’ side of things. Damian of Earth-3 might actually be a little bit less of a rage-ball. In the Owls, he’s accepted for any and everything he might be, with the only condition being that he remains loyal to his family. If that means he loves animals? The other Owls will gladly support that habit (even if there will be a bit of teasing). He wants to go out and take out all his bad feelings on someone? They’re there for that too.

The main difference? The Owls do not take shit from Damian. There’s no ‘he’s a kid, go easy on him’. There’s no Damian ousting Tim from his position. Pecking order (forgive the pun) is very well established in the Owl family, and Damian being Bruce’s son doesn’t mean that he gets to jump to the top. Dick earns Damian’s respect/slight fear right off, with his initial ‘let me test you’ sparring session, and when Damian tries to press his ‘blood son’ advantage over Tim? He gets his ass handed to him. Tim takes him down hard, and Damian is never stupid enough to try it again. Tim gives up his position willingly, and Damian becomes Talon, the latest apprentice.

I think if the Damians met, there would mostly just be unease. These are versions of themselves that, from their point of view, fell to what they rejected. If possible, I think they’d be best suited by parting ways as soon as possible, though neither would be willing to let the other run around in their universe. The only peaceful way that happens is if they can split and go back to their own worlds, otherwise it’s a ‘I must stop you’ situation.

[bearxclaws-archive-blog]

Arc Headcanons // PRE-SKIP PT.2

Flings more random thoughts and headcanons onto the dash! Heading into Water 7~ And again, there may will be hints of Sanji x Anita ‘cause I’m still as trashy as last time. Long af. Congrats if you get through any of it.

WATER 7 / ENIES LOBBY

— Arc Outfit

— Anita immediately takes to how odd Chimney is, showing off her incredibly soft side for children. Likely pays no attention to what Kokoro and the rest of the crew are saying because she’s too busy showing off for Chimney and Gonbe.

— Back on the ship           Anita: ................. Wait where are we going?           Nami: You listen about as well as Luffy does.           Anita: Thank you.

— She hasn’t been with Merry for very long, but she is the first ship Anita’s any time on. There is an attachment there despite only being with the crew for a few months. Almost wishes Gus ( the half-giant back home ) was with them. He wasn’t a great carpenter, but he was pretty damn good considering he had to fix most of the broken equipment on his own.

— Anita leaves the ship at the same time as Robin and Chopper but doesn’t go with them. As much as she liked spending time with them all, she kind of wants to find where she can get those cool masks she finds some of the people wearing. Ends up buying one that looks like a bear. Adds it to her keepsake box later.

— Runs into Sanji while wearing it, attempts to amuse him but sees he’s a little perturbed. Since she isn’t super close to Robin, she doesn’t share his unease once they find Chopper alone. She assumed Robin’s just off doing her own thing. At this point, she only sees Robin as an aloof mother figure. She’s, at least, a smidgen better than her own mother. Doesn’t dislike her, but doesn’t feel particularly close to her.

— She messes around with Usopp enough that she too is worried about what his reaction might be to hearing Merry is beyond repair. She’s heard plenty of his stories about home and Kaya and continues to ask to hear about them, so a small part of her feels worry settle in her stomach.

— Doesn’t help to find him, however. She stays on the ship with Nami to protect the remainder of their money.

— The argument between Luffy and Usopp does rattle her quite a bit because she thought she was the only one that felt useless. She would have never guessed that Usopp did too. Recalling how determined Luffy had been to get his friends back on Anita’s home island, it’s worrying for her to see him getting physical with a member of his crew. She hasn’t witnesses any sort of discord between them before now, save for maybe Sanji and Zoro but even then she’s quickly realized that they just behave that way. Seeing their cook actually kick Luffy doesn’t make it better, and — in a rare display of fear — she’ll shrink into a corner and watch.

— After her ringleader died and someone she thought was a friend betrayed them, the thought of abandonment terrifies her. Watching Usopp leave hurts. She’s one of the ones begging him to come back.

— It’s a habit of hers to shut down when she’s upset. She does and says nothing. Just sits on deck with her legs between Merry’s railing and looking out in the direction Usopp walked off in. She doesn’t know why this is having such an effect on her. People have come and gone from the circus more than a handful of times, and it’s never had her this upset. Doesn’t realize she’s becoming extremely attached to the crew.

— Losing Merry and Usopp is the first time she cries in years, if it can be counted as crying. There’s no sobbing or rolling tears, but she’s distressed to the point that she’s got a heavy knot in her throat and her eyes are wet.

— Even though she seems to be reluctant to do much, Sanji asks her if she’ll come along with him and Chopper after Zoro refuses. She doesn’t really want to, but he makes a valid argument that a reindeer and bear nose together are better than his.

— Anita isn’t the type to be subtle, so she intends to march right up to Usopp and tell him about Aqua Laguna because they seems like the smartest isea, but Sanji and Chopper insist they have to be sneaky about it. Shouting ‘off-handedly’ about it while being near Merry is totally sneaky.  .  .

— Anita’s still numb from witnessing Usopp’s resignation from the crew and, somehow, isn’t surprised to find out that Robin plans on leaving too. She doesn’t shout and attempt to get to her like Chopper and Usopp too, but her ears are back and she’s shaking while in her bear form.

— When Sanji tells her and Chopper to find Luffy, Chopper’s the first to go. Anita hesitates and presses her gigantic bear head against his chest. Lets out little huffs and makes him promise he’ll be alright. Losing three crew mates is hard enough, and she openly worries for the first time that he’ll end up lost too if he goes off on his own. All she needs it a few scratches behind the ear and an honest promise, and she’ll go.

— Zoro using the back of his blades is like Anita swatting at people with the back of her paws. Still hurts like hell despite their intentions.

— Compared to other zoan users, Anita feels inferior because he hasn’t made an attempt at her hybrid form. She has her human form and her full-beast form, and that’s it. She’s capable of it, but lacks the confidence and knowledge. So knowing Chopper can take on multiple forms and seeing how strong Lucci is as a zoan is a huge blow to her confidence.

— Iceburg’s manor being on fire causes panic in Anita and it’s harder for her to escape. It might take Chopper headbutting some sense into her before she ends up outside.

— Despite not being close to Robin, Anita is relieved that she didn’t leave them because she dislike them.

— She doesn’t go to save either Luffy or Zoro knowing Nami and Chopper have it handled, but laughs plenty knowing they were stuck. 

— Anita is already aware of Impel Down. Whether or not he had the actual authority to, Ashikaga often threatened to send people to Impel Down for obstruction of justice if they tried to help targeted pirates or stop the Marines from capturing them.

— Nami makes sure to get extra meat so Anita has something to eat alongside Luffy’s portion and Zoro’s sake. Gets her plenty of fruit too. Anita’s kind of surprised Nami remembered that she liked fruit so much.

— Second Outfit ( after they change on train ) Anita’s stubbornness with clothes is different in this verse than it is her main one because Nami is there to help her lighten up a bit and wear slightly more colorful / feminine things without making her feel overly girlie. Still has a tomboy look. Doesn’t think she looks cute, but she does.

— Anita is lowkey relieved to hear Sanji is alright. Shh. His scent from when she nudged her head against him still lingers and it’s giving her dokis. GDI.

— Dumb as she can be, she knows Sogeking is Usopp. Might ask for an autograph too just to be a smart-ass. If she gets one, it’s going right into her keepsake box.

— All I can see after Rocket Man crashes and Sanji and Zoro beat some of the Marines is Anita literally chewing on one of the Marines they defeated like they’re a toy.

— She hates Enies Lobby. Too many Marines, too involved with the Government. Her bias is showing and she sort of hates that Zoro, Luffy and Sanji are so strong. She wants to fight some of them herself purely because she’s loathes them.

— The situations are completely different, but there is one common theme between Anita and Robin; Marines ruined their home. If she ever finds any of this out, she’ll feel significantly closer to Robin and at least attempt not to avoid her. I mean, over time she’ll start to feel closer to her anyway, but knowing that would be like a short-cut to feeling more comfortable around her.

— The first time Anita sees fire destroy something in a beneficial way is when Luffy tells Usopp to burn the government flag. Still terrifies her, but she’s seen what she fears do something good.

— Everyone fighting to get Robin back learned something new with their combat abilities during this arc. I’m not entirely sure what Anita’s thing should be. All she does is fight in her bear mode, unless ( like Nami’s Clima-tact ) Usopp helped craft her those dial-gauntlets that she wears in her full-beast form. This might be her first chance to use them if she gets into more of a fight. Probably hurts like hell to use them, but they won’t hurt as much to a bear as they would a human. Helps knock people further / do a little more damage while being a tank.

I don’t want her to have a hybrid form because Chopper is already a hybrid for the most part. And most people don’t seem to use their full-beast form often. Not that I can remember, anyway. She’ll want to feel like she HAS to be like Lucci, Jabra and Kaku to be powerful like them, but she doesn’t. She’s plenty supportive and powerful in fights as she is. Plus, she gets stronger post-skip.

— Anita’s whole role in the fights with the keys is very minimal. I can’t have her take away any of the learning the Straw Hats do, so she might as well be trying to help Chopper calm down while not knowing just how much of a rampage he’s in. Or, to be grossly shippy, she could stay with Sanji when he’s bubbled up. At least until he was drenched and well enough to fight. She’s as confused by his code as Nami is and doesn’t reprimand her when she whacked him. She thinks it’s silly, but she doesn’t think he’s change who he is.

— If she manages to catch glimpses of Sanji’s new fighting style, a part of her will be slightly afraid of him. She knows for a fact that she would never use it on her because of who he is, but she won’t be able to fight near him. She will worry that her fur might catch fire if he’s too close. Doesn’t mean she’s always avoid him, but getting them to do any sort of combo together might be impossible if he intends to use Diable Jambe.

— Once Kokoro saves them all from drowning, Anita is absolutely going to collapse with Chopper and give him bear snuggles. Anyone that ever gets hurt gets a bear blanket / pillow. Robin gets a bear hug too. She’s gotta. Anita’s too much of a softie deep down to not be happy that she’s alright.

— Too much of a softie to not to get choked up during Merry’s funeral.

— Anita will be infinitely glad that they took all of their stuff off of Merry and that the people that took their stuff returned it to them. Her keepsake box is safe! 

— She won’t be the least bit happy to learn that her captain’s grandfather is a Marine, but even she can’t be suspicious because it’s blindly obvious Luffy doesn’t want to be like him.

— She may have a devil fruit and can’t swim because of it, but she will take an inner tube and use it in the pool. You cannot stop her!! Swimsuit 

— Anita get a bounty. She can’t be mistaken for a pet as easily as Chopper can, so she has a legitimate bounty. I’m just not sure how much it should be. She couldn’t do any real, significant fighting during Enies Lobby, so it might be less than Nami’s? She’ll have the second lowest bounty, Chopper’s being abysmal. But, at the same time, she’d be as ‘out there’ as the monster trio because tank. So would she be noticed more and seen as a threat? I honestly don’t know what the government would think of her. Aaah, I don’t know! I’m torn between it being either B 14,000,000 or B 17,000,000. Might need opinions on that.

— Her poster is probably of her bear form looking like it’s swiping at the camera. Probably actually hit the guy taking the picture too. Whoops. Did she have to pay for breaking it? Absolutely. Did she actually pay? Hell no. Nami would kill her for spending MORE money after the part drained them.

— Sanji, she secretly loves you, but she’s going to laugh at your poster. I think she’s always going to laugh at other peoples misfortune, but she doesn’t mean anything by it. He’ll get a little pat and she might let slip that she thinks he looks way better than the poster. Oops. What? Shh. No, she didn’t say that.

— She has no part in the mess with Franky’s briefs. No, thank you. Covers her eyes too because she’s shy about that sort of thing. Not a prude. Just inexperienced and unfamiliar. Plus, it’s Franky. She doesn’t wanna see his junk.

— Anita is one of the ones begging Luffy to let Usopp come back. She doesn’t quite see it the same way as Zoro does. People would leave and come back to the circus, and they’d welcome them back with open arms. It feels wrong to leave Usopp behind.

— She has no idea what to name the new ship but agrees with any of the names Luffy comes up with that has ‘bear’ in it. She’s biased. Likes Thousand Sunny, though.

— I should probably point out that Anita can drink as well as Nami and Zoro can. She’s an affectionate and silly drunk once she gets beyond being buzzed. Likes to lean on people and hug on them.