#i think jason just has so many inconsistent things that you could form two versions of him. wait no like actually probably more

[dolldefaced]

going into the tags and seeing both 'this is some of the best red hood writing we've had in a long while' AND 'this is once again more garbage writing for red hood' back to back about the beast world thing is so funny

if i were new here i'd be so lost.

like it isnt new i think this happens every time there's a jason comic that isn't totally out of pocket for him, but seeing one after another a few times makes me snort

[thattimdrakeguy]

Weirdly enough Red Robin is the series I’d be most scared to review, because for obvious reasons I imagine more than any other character it’s the Tim fan base (I won’t say fandom, because I feel like that gives a different connotation nowadays. and it’s a bunch of chill, un-interactive but very passionate, chaps) that follow me.

And I’d just get sooo many people giving me nit-picks, and telling me stuff I already know.

Cause I can say anything against Teen Titans 2003, New 52, Rebirth, and Wonder Comics stuff cause that’s the generally agreed upon stuff that you can complain against for Tim. Cause like, to not play dumb to it, this whole Bat-Family fandom acts like there’s freaking laws to abide by if you don’t want a bunch of batty (not a pun, not even saying not a pun in sarcasm lol) fans and stans down your neck. Normally involving certain characterizations or comics that, honestly, aren’t even usually the more accurate ones, but the contradicting ones that don’t make a lick of sense, and that’s not even talking about the straight up fanon ones.

Not to say I wouldn’t get why it’s the Red Robin series that’d get people to give me crap out of all the Tim stuff, because I do. It’s a lot of peoples entry to Tim, and it’s pretty heavy implications of suicidal ideation, and more so obvious mental breakdown journey across continents means a lot to people. I can get why, and if it wasn’t those characters in it, I’d think it was great too.

Also I know for a fact people would act like I’m just bias for 90s Tim, and point out Timmy’s in a teddy bear hoodie in my header. Cause it’s the most weakest defense someone could possibly make cause they’re lacking an actual point. Like they know everything a fucking ‘bout me, when they don’t, I’m just allowed to think my own stuff, and I’m allowed my dang comfort art, so blah blah blah. I’ve proved myself enough. I don’t need some random dismissive guys random approval or not, but man can it be annoying when someone thinks they’re smart about it.

Like basically put, it would be very exhausting to go through the many different series and years of comic book content to explain why I think the way I do, when all the other person has to say is “I like this series a lot, and it means a lot to me, it’s story about depression, and plus it’s Tim being at the button of his sanity so-- And I think this person is stuck on 90s Tim” cause like I freaking get it, and acting like cause I prefer a different Tim comic means my opinion isn’t valid, is the most childish thing ya can really do. Like I love 90s Tim the most for a reason, and I started reading Tim as Red Robin first, ya ninny.

But to just be honest, it is an incredibly flawed series that has overall, in the long game, soiled the character of Tim Drake, and directly influenced the New 52 and beyond depiction of him. Not to give Lobdell an excuse, I just find it really odd that people getting praising it as the peak of Tim content when it’s even caused some really freaking toxic fandom beliefs.

When some of the most important scenes in the series are so botched that it has genuinely made people despise other characters when I don’t even think they were portrayed well for that to make sense. The messy inconsistent writing as it went between two different writers causing some absolutely terrible characterization for Tim that isn’t even always consistent within the series itself because FabNic is just awful, and how forgettable most stuff after the first story is.

That first story I can understand the love for it. But people treating the whole series as a whole like it’s a great journey of long-term story development just feels like a real bad describer for it. Because to me by the end of it’s run it caused Tim to be put in the terrible spot that he’s only now escaping from little under a decade later. As well as only really starting cause people in the company didn’t like Tim and the characters around them as much as you’d hope.

In total, I honestly feel like if it wasn’t released during a time were the common tastes were very edgy and emo-esque, as well as around the time the online fandom spaces were only really then being formed in a way that was practical for casual interaction and discussion, and being the only series titled “Red Robin” therefore people seem to think it’s Tim’s variation of “Nightwing”, when it’s honestly not, it wouldn’t be a series that highly regarded.

I’m not saying the whole thing is a pile of shit, cause it’s also frankly not. There’s some powerful stuff in there, and some moments that really do hit super hard in ways that don’t feel superficial. Cause another thing people don’t seem to understand that when I say his characterization isn’t good in it, does not equal me saying “He is not the same exact character he was 15 years before the series came out”, it legitimately just means I feel they took the character to places that felt more forced than genuine, or just had him stuff that goes against what he’d do for the sake of just being edgy as if it’s deep, even during his circumstances and it created people having a false understanding of who Tim is at his heart, that made it incredibly difficult for Tim to get a good story for basically a freaking decade.

It’s a series I want to review because I have genuine things to say about it, but when ever I do say anything about it I feel like I see several sub-posts that are almost undeniably about me (hasn’t happened for a while cause I don’t really bother talking about stuff I don’t like anymore, cause life's hard enough, and I’ve seen the worst end of a lot of people from it) trying to downplay me, because they got defensive about it, rather than actually trying to process what I meant by things instead of just assuming it cause it’s touchy for them.

Like I’ve openly shit on Damian’s most popular series’, and accepted fandom malarkey, because I legitimately think they’re overhyped as could be, not that great, and only have the popularity they do through bandwagoning and going along with things. And I did that while knowing how defensive the Damian fandom is, and how quick they are to just leak out nasty assumptions or outright suicide bait you (yes I remember someone tried to defend me by suicide baiting someone else, but fuck them too, I never defended them or asked them to. idgaf which fandom does it. i’m clearly not on anyone's team. this isn’t a fucking sports game).

I’ve even straight up shit on pretty much every single Jason story except Under the Red Hood, while defending some Robin Jason stories, and I haven’t even got crap on me for that, which is honestly strange. Surprisingly just got told “Ya know what. Fair point. I can accept that. I don’t agree, but I can accept it.”. Which given what I have been shown of the Jason fandom I expected much worse, but they’ve honestly been really chill with me. Me and the Jason fandom has been actually some of the most pleasant interactions I’ve had outside my own bubble.

The majority of Steph’s existence as a character I’ve criticized and gotten crap on it, but honestly I found the response of countless anons going “YEAH MAN I AGREE WITH YOU” and going way harder on her than I ever did to be pretty dang annoying, and even more annoying cause people kept thinking I said stuff I freaking didn’t out of it. So every now and again people will just straight up lie about me to my face. Like you try to talk to someone that’s been preparing to talk to you by fighting an imaginary version of yourself. It’s pretty difficult if I had to be honest. Talking ‘bout bias’s like I didn’t write TimSteph fan fictions before I realized they weren’t that great and didn’t work, while realizing that I honestly didn’t think Tim was into girls in-general.

But, to get back on topic, with the Tim fandom it’s less like, open faced attempts to make you feel like a garbage human being, and more just straight up rudely dismissive as quite often the ones I’ve seen do it try to portray themselves as some calm knowledgeable unbias source of Tim knowledge.

And there’s a different sensation of annoyance at that.

Like what is the point of trying to pretend to be some source of knowledge and for a few comradery, while also being a dismissive person that first has to make others seem lesser.

And there’s some that I’ve seen do it that I don’t even think are dicks honestly, and have no problem with it, cause it’s just so innocently “I just really like the series and still think it’s good”. That I’d be confused why people would think I have a vendetta against everyone else. I’ve never been like, straight up offended more than once over the specific topic of Red Robin. But it is a thing that makes me like “I’ll get so many people giving me crap over having a different opinion for this won’t I”. And get some people trying to validate just being a bit of a fucker to me for no good reason.

So like, may or may not write a Red Robin review, but I might not cause despite quite a few people in the Tim fandom being quite chill about it, there’s quite a lot of people that are low-key toxic about it, and a lot of bad fandom things came out of it as well.

[whitewolfofwinterfell]

My favourite Charmed episodes - season 6

This is the sixth part of my Favourite Charmed Episodes meta series all posts in the series will be tagged as #favecharmedeps.

Season 6 is a strange season because for some fans it’s their most favourite season and for others it’s their least favourite. For me, I’m afraid it’s the latter. Whilst season 5 saw a change in the vibe of the show, season 6 felt like a much more dramatic change that simply didn’t work for me. The characterisation of the main character seemed to become inconsistent and their development flopped, the strong sister relationships were neglected more than any other previous season and despite the potential of Chris’ character and plot, the indecisveness around what to do with his character led to a bunch of plot holes and a character that simply didn’t fit or make sense within the Halliwell family or Charmed as a whole. Nonetheless, the season wasn’t all bad. I still like some episodes from the season and there are some that provide some good characterisation that’s consistent with previous arcs and episodes. I’ve chosen 4 episodes from season 6 - Little Monsters, The Courtship of Wyatt’s Father, Hyde School Reunion and It’s a Bad, Bad, Bad World.

Little Monsters (6x09)

Overall, I think this episode is very underrated and slips under the radar. The plot with the manticores, the baby and his father (Derek) is one of my favourites involving innocents from across the series. Charmed tackles the greyness of morality multiple times, but the shows emphasis at times is generally black and white in its representation of good and evil, so this episode is great because it’s a particularly effective exploration the greyness involved in good versus evil. 

By having a demon baby, it immediately forces the sisters to question everything they feel and believe about demons. Usually their approach is simple - demons are evil and they kill them. However, the baby is not only a baby, but he also looks human and develops a bond with Wyatt. This causes conflict for the sisters who obviously cannot justify or bring themselves to kill a baby, regardless of the demonic powers he seems to posses. He may have evil powers, but he’s not evil yet and they know that evil is made not born. And the fact that Wyatt takes such a shine to him causes further conflict since Wyatt’s instincts from a very young age have always been very good. He knows when he’s in the presence of evil or if someone is untrustworthy and wants to harm him or his family, and he demonstrates that by having his force-field up. So the fact that he never puts his force-field up around the baby means that Wyatt doesn’t sense anything amiss from him. 

For Piper this is a particularly interesting episode because it taps into her feelings and instincts as a mother. By meeting Derek and seeing his desperation to be with his son, she’s able to sympathise as a mother who would also do anything for her child. There’s something that I just love about the fact that a suspected bad guy and demon who the sisters believe wants to kidnap the baby to do him harm actually turns out to be a human man who simply wants to save his son and voluntarily transformed into a demon so he could do exactly that. It’s one of the most emotive and touching stories of any innocent on the show, in my opinion. And I love how Piper was able to connect so easily to Derek, even when he was in his demon form and she was still unsure about his intentions. Just like Wyatt, her instincts didn’t let her down and she quickly realised that she wasn’t in the presence of evil.

It still makes me sad that Derek and his son only appeared in this episode, because the chemistry between Derek and Piper and the little friendship Wyatt and the baby developed was incredibly sweet and I think there was potential there for a friendship to continue and for Piper and Derek to go on play dates together with the kids. 

Overall, this episode isn’t stand-out brilliant or amazing. The side-plots with Darryl being made invincible by Paige’s spell and Phoebe and Jason’s struggles in their relationship are forgettable and lacklustre, but there’s something about Derek’s plot that I find very compelling and endearing. It’s one of the few stories of the many, many, many innocents on the show that always sticks in my mind. 

The Courtship of Wyatt’s Father (6x16)

There’s only one reason this episode makes it onto my list and I’m sure you can guess what it is. It’s Piper and Leo.

Generally, I’m not a huge shipper of Piper and Leo, but I still have a strong attachment to them and always rooted for them to be together. After the turmoil they go through in season 6, this episode is much needed. There’s so much left unsaid and unresolved between Piper and Leo, and the way he leaves at the end of season 5 and how he’s kidnapped by Chris and placed in Valhalla is just two of many issues they don’t address in regards to how their relationship ended. 

This episode is simply an emotional, heart-wrenching and authentic glimpse at two people who have a long, complex and deep history re-connecting in the moments which they believe could potentially be their last. Finally hearing those words, “I never stopped loving you” is so gratifying, because we all knew that but neither of them had openly voiced their feelings. Piper and Leo overcame so much to be together and they were cruelly ripped apart by Leo becoming an Elder, and everything about what happens between them in this episode is earned. 

The fact that Chris’ very existence is dependent upon Piper and Leo having sex and conceiving him on the very same day only thickens the plot. What’s so beautiful about it, is that all through season 6 you wonder how Chris is possibly going to be conceived since Piper and Leo are split and for a long time I started to think it was going to be done magically. So the fact that Chris is conceived naturally and out of nothing but pure love is so beautiful and it’s exactly what he needed. He feels inferior to Wyatt and knows that Wyatt was planned and wanted, and although he may not have been planned in the same way he was born out of Piper and Leo’s love in exactly the same way Wyatt was. If anything, the moment Chris was conceived was even more romantic and special than Wyatt since we as fans got to see that experience and the emotion between Piper and Leo in that moment. 

There’s really nothing more that I can say about this episode, other than to say that the way the episode ends with Piper finally learning that Chris is her son is a huge cliff hanger and just adds to the gratification of the episode. 

Hyde School Reunion (6x17)

There are a lot of aspects of this episode that are cringey as hell, but what I like about this episode is how consistent it is with Phoebe’s characterisation (which is particularly important to me, since I feel like the writers lost sight of Phoebe a lot in seasons 6-8). I also enjoy the fact that it slightly parallels with Coyote Piper where Piper had her high school reunion and had to confront her past and the ways in which she’d changed but also the ways that she’d stayed the same. Coyote Piper also showed the dynamic between Prue and Piper, whilst Hyde School Reunion shows the dynamic between Phoebe and Paige.

As I’ve mentioned multiple time throughout this meta series, Phoebe has always been characterised as being the sister with the darkest nature. We know that she got into trouble when she was younger and she was somewhat rebellious, but this episode allows us to literally see that younger version of Phoebe as she becomes her. The opening scene between Phoebe and Paige is cute because we see them bonding and Paige expressing that Phoebe’s a lot to live up to as a big sister. It’s these kind of sister moments that are so important to me and they’re particularly precious at this point since they don’t happen as often in season 6. It’s also nice that Phoebe invites Paige to attend her high school reunion with them since Paige has expressed in the past how she sometimes feel a little out of the loop since she never had the opportunity to know Piper and Phoebe when they were younger. By allowing Paige to be part of her high school reunion, Phoebe enables Paige to journey back to her past and see the sides of Phoebe and aspects of her life that she didn’t know about. This is also important because seeing the flip side to Phoebe enables Paige to realise that as much as she may look up to Phoebe as her older sister, Phoebe isn’t perfect either, which is always a valuable lesson to learn about our role models no matter how old we are. 

Phoebe has come up against her dark side multiple times in the previous seasons, but what’s significant about this episode is that she isn’t under the influence of magic or evil, it’s just her. The young Phoebe we see is exactly who she was when she was that age and a spell brings her to fruition, but it’s completely authentic and true to the person she was. What this episode does by connecting Phoebe to her past and her younger self, is to allow her to remember the person she was, how she’s changed and to take responsibility for the terrible things she did and prove that she’s no longer that person. It’s one of the most effective episodes at demonstrating how far Phoebe has come because she’s a million miles away from the young Phoebe we see in this episode. 

In addition to Phoebe’s arc, seeing Piper trying to work through the fact that Chris is her son, Chris revealing that Piper is dead in his future and Chris and Victor meeting is all very moving and emotional. Piper can clearly see that Chris is closed off and she wants to remedy that, and we see that already she’s having those motherly instincts towards Chris. Since the family finally know the truth about who Chris is, he’s forced to confront his demons more so than before and him admitting that Piper is dead in his future explains a lot of his behaviours and attitudes throughout the season. As for Victor, although he made amends for being an absentee father all the way back in seasons 2 and 3, knowing that he develops such a strong bond with Chris and is so involved in his and Wyatt’s life is so lovely to know. This little sub-plot with the three of them works very well and despite it being in the background rather than the forefront of the episode, it provides a lovely bit of development for all three characters and their relationships. 

When you look beyond Alyssa’s somewhat cringe portrayal of young Phoebe and the fact that the criminal plot with her old high school friends is a complete miss, this episode provides some very good characterisation and development for the sisters, Chris and Victor and builds upon some of those important familial relationships with Phoebe and Paige, Victor and Chris, Piper and Victor and Piper and Chris. 

It’s a Bad, Bad, Bad World (6x22+23)

A lot of my enjoyment of this episode lies purely in the fact that we get to see a parallel world where we get to see the sisters’, Leo and Chris’ evil counterparts and the Demon of Hope. It’s also a memorable episode in terms of Chris’ death and birth, Leo’s turn to the dark side and the general moral message that the episode contains.

I have a lot of issues with Chris’ plot throughout season 6 and how inconsistent it was and how many plot holes there were, but in this episode he’s very sympathetic and his death is heartbreaking. He sacrifices himself saving Wyatt’s life, which was his main goal from the beginning. It’s good to see that he’s finally developed bonds with the family, and that he dies with Leo by his side given the turbulent nature of their relationship in Chris’ reality. 

As for Leo, him murdering Gideon is one of the most interesting things that ever happens to his character. Leo’s goodness can only extend so far and let’s be honest in season 5 and 6 he was screwed over majorly. After working his ass off just to be able to be with the woman he loved and earning that right from the Elders, he was ripped away from his wife and newborn son by a higher calling, he was isolated by Piper he didn’t even tell him she was pregnant and he had to endure the wrath of Chris who hated him for something that he hadn’t even done (Chris’ anger was with the Leo of his reality, not our Leo). After finding out that the very people that had caused most of the issues in his family - the Elders - were also responsible for trying to kill Wyatt and murdering Chris, is it any wonder it sent him over the edge? What I love about this aspect of Leo’s arc is how embedded it is in fatherhood. In fiction there’s always so much emphasis on motherhood and mother-child bonds, and father’s are often cast into the background and those relationships and bonds aren’t explored as much. But Leo’s arc in season 6 is one of fatherhood and I admire that so much, because few male characters have the opportunity to have that kind of storyline. Leo loved his children every bit as much as Piper and was consumed with their safety and happiness to the point that it pushed him to act completely against his morals and commit murder. You often hear how parents will do anything for their children including murder, and Leo goes that far. He proves that when it comes to the love of your children there are no limits on what you’ll do. And honestly, this plot is probably one of my favourites from season 6, it’s just a shame that it wasn’t handled properly in season 7 and was very inconsistent and then kinda randomly dropped to revert him back to the exact same pure, “good” character he was in seasons 1-4. 

Obviously throughout the episode there’s a clear moral message regarding the importance of striking a balance between good and evil. It’s a message that’s been conveyed on the show before and that’s symbolised by characters like the Angel of Death and the Cleaners (despite how inconsistent they are with the mythology of the show, but that’s a separate topic). Although the sisters fight on the side of good and kill evil demons, it’s never the end goal to eradicate all evil. There’s an understanding within the Charmed universe and from the sisters themselves that good cannot exist without evil and vice versa. We’ve also seen this within the characters themselves as they struggle with the light and dark inside themselves and the valuable lessons they’ve learned along the way about the interconnectedness of the two. Having evil in the world is how one is good; because they choose to act on their better instincts and morals to promote good. The completely “good” world that the sisters find themselves trapped in is actually awful. Phoebe is shot in the street for parking her car in the way of her neighbours drive, people can be physically harmed and even killed for cursing or simply expressing pessimism. It might seem comical on the surface, but it carries a deep and important message that pure “good” doesn’t exist. If you go to the extreme on either side of the good-evil scale the consequences and results will be disastrous. 

Likewise this episode contains a similar message about life and death, which Chris really symbolises. That message is simply that there is no life without death. And although death is unfair and it’s tragic and it’s heartbreaking, for every life lost there is another life being brought into the world. 

Overall, season 6 is the first season of Charmed that I can categorically say has more aspects/episodes that I dislike than I like. Like all of these posts, it’s completely subjective, but I don’t really get this season in terms of it’s overall message or the character arcs. Although Charmed always follows a monster-of-the-week format season 6 feels more disjointed than usual and a lack of continuity. You can read more about my thoughts on season 6 and why it’s one of my least favourite seasons here. But I don’t want to end this post on a negative note, so what I will say is that season 6 definitely isn’t all bad. I admire the writers for taking on such a huge challenge with Chris’ plot, I appreciate the exploration of Phoebe’s relationship with Jason as the first “real” mature relationship she had without the interference of magic and just like season 5, this season has a much more “campish” vibe with a ton of light-hearted episodes like The Power of Three Blondes and Witchstock. But in between that there’s exploration of complex issues such as Leo’s absence from his family, Piper’s continuing dilemmas and struggles as a mother, Phoebe’s efforts to strike a balance between work, being a witch and having a social life, Paige’s dedication and perhaps over-investment in being a witch at the detriment of other aspects of her life, Leo’s darkness which is awoken by his fierce love as a father and Chris’ pent up resentment, rage, grief and sadness due to decades of complex family history. 

[audreycritter]

:o CAN YOU TALK TO ME ABOUT THE BATFAMILY AND TRAUMA because it feels like this is a subject in which you have a great deal of knowledge

Okay, I could talk for hours about this, honestly. There are so many lettered disorders that fit the Batfamily (OCD, RAD, FAS, SPD, PTSD, ASD, plus bipolar, depression, anxiety, insomnia, etc) and they can all be the RESULT of trauma or the result of innate brain structure. There’s so much that I’m actually tempted to write a few essays about it. But for the sake of answering the ask, I’ll hit a few major points and I am 100% open to questions/more specific asks.

Canon is a mess, obviously, but there are some things that either consistently track or show up regularly in fanon for each character. I think first we need to differentiate the kinds of trauma each character has experienced because both the type of and duration of the event and the age at which it’s experienced can make a difference.

Bruce and Dick both are portrayed as having loving, stable parents and backgrounds that were taken from them by abrupt violence. This means that they have event-based trauma like PTSD or other things that it can trigger but they do not have chronic or infancy-related brain damage (because this, essentially, is what most trauma is: brain damage). The age at which they were exposed was mid-adolescence so there are many crucial developmental stages that the probably hit appropriately.

Tim, while born into a home with money, is written as often neglected emotionally which is an important detail. Meeting physical needs does not prevent trauma when there is gross emotional neglect. If there is one stable caregiver, like Alfred with Bruce, it can resolve (to some degree) a missing parent even if there is bitterness or hurt. But with a rotation of attachments of varying interests or levels, the reality is that there are going to be long-term attachment issues. The kind of trauma that missing attachment creates in the brain can have all kinds of affects and trouble regulating sleep is one of them. It’s highly likely, in the context of realistic trauma depiction, that Tim’s coffee habit, sleep troubles, and anxiety predate his tenure as Robin and are rooted in the lack of attachment to a consistent caregiver. When a child’s emotional needs are not met, they often have trouble regulating themselves and in some personalities this results in the physical component of difficulty recognizing a need for sleep, water, or food or seeking them at odd times/in crisis states.

Cass, my darling. There is a very fundamental danger in separation from a mother at birth. Even infants experience grief and to be separated from the smells and sounds of the womb even within minutes or days of delivery severs the first and most basic attachment. This is why even children adopted at birth can have attachment issues, even if they are very mild in a loving adoptive home. But to be separated from a mother and then raised in a home with minimal language or comfort (remember, she tells Bruce, “he never held me” as far as her memory goes) does two things that are present in Cassandra Cain’s story. Children with that kind of physical and mental trauma often have sensory issues with input, so when Cass doesn’t react to pain the same way the others do, it might be that her brain actually doesn’t register pain. A common presentation of this is that actual pain (a broken arm, a deep cut) go unnoticed for hours while a soft hand on the back or a gentle tap are perceived as deeply painful. The other thing the absence of spoken language/dialogue does is affect memory. Memory storage relies heavily on repetitive recollection and the strongest positive/neutral memories are the ones that are discussed and shared. Her childhood, the most traumatic memories aside, is likely a blur or a composite.

Jason. Ooh, boy. Because his return is (relatively) recent and there are three separate but very strong iterations of him, I’m going to focus on his character pre-death just for this. Partly because we’re told the Lazarus Pit changed things significantly for him and each of the current versions have very different, equally valid explanations. So, pre-death, he’s a bit of a punk. We know that he dealt with, like Cassandra, a separation from his birth mom in infancy and then Catherine’s drug problems and Willis’ instability probably worsened those things instead of helping to heal them. Children with reactive attachment disorder and early trauma often have issues with cause and effect, appropriately placed blame, and emotional illiteracy coupled with stress hormone overdrive resulting in explosive anger and deep self-hatred/mistrust. They often pendulum swing between self-blame (“I’m an awful person, I don’t deserve anything, everyone hates me”) and violent shows of external blame (“this is all your fault! You just like to punish me!”). The problem is that with the missing cause and effect cycle and the high stress state of the brain, this means that most things that make the child even mildly uncomfortable are perceived as massive threats AND misappropriately blamed. For example, a child with a healthy brain may forget to do their homework and if the parent asks in the morning about it, may feel slight panic or annoyance in response. A child with RAD might snap: everything is stupid, nobody cares, this is all YOUR FAULT. They may throw or break things or storm off and then defend themselves with “you MADE me do that!” Decisions made to protect or help the child can be interpreted as threats or hate.

Okay, Damian. While it might seem like he is the most traumatized of the lot (and in some ways he is), he also has the benefit of being with Talia and Talia genuinely caring for him. She holds him, she talks to him, etc. It does important things for his brain. Unfortunately, he also has massive physical abuse and the war zone/refugee stress of being forced into dealing with adult violence and adult decisions while he is still small and developing. This is why he seems more mature for his age– he has huge social and emotional gaps as a result. His trauma means that his brain likely considers every input a threat, resulting in massively high stress hormones, chronic exhaustion, and defensive anger. Everything he does is coded as a survival mechanism.

Stephanie Brown! I’m guessing that she is dealing with some form of Fetal Alcohol/Drug Syndrome as well as basic neglect. Inconsistent care is dangerous because the cause and effect pattern in an infant’s brain is disrupted (healthy: baby cries, is fed and changed; unhealthy, baby cries, is SOMETIMES fed or changed– baby learns that crying doesn’t mean much and everything seems arbitrary). FAS means that there is physical brain damage she’s probably had to learn to route around, so mild learning delays. She isn’t stupid but she has to work twice as hard to retain the same academic things others do. Because of the cause and effect gap, she probably has a loose innate grasp of how dangerous things are. I’m guessing if she hadn’t gotten into crimefighting, she’d either be a thrill-junkie or have the reputation as being “wild” even though in basic self-care like sleep and food she’s very self-regulated and responsible. When Bruce or Tim tell her things are dangerous or beyond her skill set, it is probably not just her bravery at work– they might actually have accurate assessments that she cannot and does not see, but through sheer luck, force of will, or discipline she’s managed to escape more severe consequences. That isn’t to say that she isn’t good at what she does, just that she might actually NOT consider the worst-case (or even likely case) scenario when attempting something.

I could go on for hours– there are so many aspects of each of these that I haven’t even touched on but this is getting super long, so I should probably divide it up!

[geekpellets]

Night of the Remakes, part 1.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 I’ve been running from the remake for a long time, but I couldn’t run anymore. It was time to finally see if this film is truly as bad as people make it seem. I think the hate for Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake is a bit overblown (the first one, the second one is ultimate poop), and it seems only a small cult of sophisticated individuals that sling phrases such ultimate poop know that the Friday the 13th reboot is the best Jason movie in that franchise. A lot of the characters come off as inconsequential. They’re not very well developed because they’re going to die. I did really like this version of Nancy. She’s smart, brave, sad, frightened, empathetic, she feels like a complete person. The character of Quentin, while lesser, is pretty good too. I liked both of these characters. The rest of them are negligent. That is except for the new Freddy Krueger. He’s...functionally ineffective.  When he’s trying to be corny like the original Freddy in the latter movies, he succeeds at being corny. When he’s trying to be frightening like the original Freddy in the earlier movies, he succeeds at being corny. What he isn’t, in either case, is entertaining or charismatic. That’s not Jackie Earle Haley. I still maintain the he could have been a great Freddy, just as Jared Leto actually could have been a great Joker, but the material let them both down. Everyone actor does a good job with one exception. It’s always good to see some Clancy Brown. There’s a guy that dies like 5 minutes in, I didn’t care for his performance, but he dies five minutes in so what does it matter. I truly feel if it seemed like any performance was bad, it’s just because of what they were working with. I think the movie is well paced. I never felt like things were taking too long to move...along. Shut up! Because Freddy didn’t have the presence or effect that I imagine anyone was hoping for, the film definitely lacked in suspense. The movie has some lame jump scares. It plays loud music and makes Freddy vibrate with rhythm because they had just seen Jacob’s Ladder for the first time and realized that things that vibrate are always scary. ALWAYS. A lot of this movie feels less like a Nightmare on Elmstreet movie and more like a generic ghost movie, like a mediocre version of The Shining. The practical effects are alright. The CG effects vary. The transitions from real world to dream world, and from one setting in the dream world to the other, are fantastic. It’s the best thing this film added to the mythos, and if they had to lean hard on micro-napping to do it, I’m ok with that. The other CG effects? Mostly underwhelming. This movie copies many iconic scenes from the original, the original which didn’t have the money this movie has, and still pulled off the same effects waaaay better. The practical effects are good, but they’re quite quick and nothing is original or inventive as one might expect from an Elm Street movie. There aren’t a lot of kills in this movie, so there isn’t a lot of opportunity to show off, and I don’t think they made the best of it. Nightmare on Elm Street ought to be considered a dream project. Freddy can kill in any way you can imagine. It’s an opportunity to stretch one’s creative muscles and really show out, and that opportunity was passed on in this film. It’s hard not to compare this film to the original when it keeps doing homages to it, and those homages are often lacking. As the film continues all the good things coalesce to form a strong climax. It focuses on its strongest characters and its strongest additions. I really enjoyed the last 25-30 minutes of this film. Everything leading up to it, however, is either a bit wonky and uninspired, or a lesser version of what happened in the original movie. I think it’s an average movie. There are worse movies in the Elm Street franchise than this. I think it’s mediocre, and I think it doesn’t have an audience. It doesn’t appeal to people that don’t like horror, it doesn’t appeal to horror fanatics, and it doesn’t appeal to the Elm Street fans. This movie feels like it wasn’t made for anyone. It was just made. But yeah, go ahead and skip this one. Night of the Demons 2009 It’s interesting. Many of the characters in Night of the Demons and Night of the Demons 2009 are caricatures. No depths, one personality trait dominating the entire character, and yet I find myself like the original’s characters better. The originals characters were more varied and fun. There are two girls in Night of the Demons 2009 who both dress in cat suits, have the same personality, and have dialogue that either one of the could say and it wouldn’t make an ounce of difference who says it. Angela in the 2019 is actually the same as these two girls in the cat suits, she just has a VERY slight gothic bend to her. So basically, three of the four women in this movie are stereotypical college party girls. Then men fare slightly better. One of them has no personality and almost zero lines. One of them is like a stereotypical scumbag drug dealer. One is actually quite human, surprisingly. He ended up being my favorite. The protagonist is alright. She’s stereotypical college party girl, but she’s a little more reserved about it. That’s something. Unfortunately, Diora Baird’s acting is inconsistent, so even if the protagonist is a little more complex than the other women, I disliked her the most. It’s hard to even talk about the acting because the dialogue itself isn’t great. Edward Furlong put up a decent performance. I didn’t know he was still acting. John F. Beach put in the best performance, but again that’s not saying much given what they’re working with. The movie’s pacing was fine. The movie isn’t one that is attempting to spook you. It wants to be a fun, entertaining, turn your brain off 80′s throwback. It’s successful in much of this. This movie has a theme song that plays that’s not even good, but the fact that it even commits to a theme song is pretty impressive in my book. At first, the movie does a long of unique things. It doesn’t follow the same series of events as the original, and it doesn’t follow the same reasoning. Once the demons come out, it does do its version of a few iconic scenes. They not as good. Part of that is because the original still had a suspenseful atmosphere and these things add to that. Here, it’s all tongue and cheek. Part of that is, it just isn’t done as well. There are some CG effects. They’re bad. The practical effects vary. Some look like practical effects from the mid-80′s which, while not believable, is exactly what the movie is going for. Others look great. These are primarily the demons themselves. These demons are well designed, and they absolutely nailed the execution. The blood also varies for the same reason. Sometimes we’re dealing with throw back fake gooey 80′s blood, and sometimes they attempt to go for a more realistic thing. Mostly we’re dealing with goo. This movie did some good things, it did some bad things, but it was mostly entertaining throughout. I was ready to give it a nice average score. Then a bit of exposition happens, and it’s terrible. The way it happens is kind of insulting to me. I understand making a fun movie, but that doesn’t mean the audience is just going to mindlessly accept everything. This one scene made me think, “Wow, they really think I’m so dumb that they can get away with this.” Not only that, this film has rules. It repeats them too, quite a few times. A shame then that the movie couldn’t follow them. I’m always disappointed by a film that can’t follow its own rules. So is it worth watching? No. No it isn’t. It’s still better than any of the sequels though. Maybe that’s something for somebody.