#it's my original content blog which probably doesn't make all that much sense

[nights-at-crystarium]

i just wanted to pop by and gush about how incredibly well written vivi is because GOD. his story unfolding has made me reconsider several story beats about my wol and thats an amazing thing

theres two things that i think uve done especially well with his storytelling, being that vivi feels like an almost complete enigma to the reader, despite how intimate this story is, and the fact that vivi feels incredibly human - almost TOO human to be comfortable with

so to elaborate on the first point - i think a lot of us (and certainly i can) echo thancreds sentiment that he doesn't know vivian rell, because as intimate as this story can get with his pov, in the end, much like someone you'd meet in real life, we don't know much about him before the point we meet him, and any glimpses we get just signal that theres so much more to him than we get to see. and as much as we DO know about him, i find that every time he does one of his blank, furrowed stares that signal he's thinking something, my brain practically lights on fire trying to figure out what he's considering. to that end i really like how enigmatic uve made him from a storytelling perspective, because it makes him feel so much more real!!! i honestly look forward a lot to learning more fragments (heh) of him and slowly piecing together a puzzle of him as the story goes on. i just want to rotate him in my head lol

but also, this does segue into my other point really well, which is the fact that vivis position as wol really seems to wear on him, and he seems for lack of a better word, completely exhausted! i know (myself included) write their wols with a trait of an almost unbreakable, iron will, which is very much still true in vivis case (again, anyone who gets to the point of shadowbringers without flat out giving up is incredibly strong by default) but showing him at his wits end, exhausted with the burdens of a hero, someone just so throughly *done* with what is, realistically, a pretty shit job is well... yeah! of course he is! he's only human, and he's what, saved the world 3 times now? seen countless die before him, powerless to save them, of course he's numb. the fact that the most defining experiences of the first for him are filled with mostly such... benign experiences, and that the major, climatic moments of shadowbringers get as much fanfare as a forlong gaze, or a like. him hanging out with his fairy bestie is such a cool storytelling decision. (also before i ramble about this the decision to not even show tesleen is such an excellent decision bc like. it makes sense for him for this to not be such a significant moment. shes just another death, another tally to the thousands hes already seen. or maybe im reading WAYYY too hard into a decision to not highjack this love story with plot) basically, what i've been gushing about is the fact that vivi feels very much like a whole person, and is probably one of the most well realised wols ive ever read about. and his relationships with the world leaders, and this impossible burden hes forced to shoulder has gotten me to reconsider how i write my wol, because yeah! any hero might be strong-willed and resilient, but theyre still human, and the burden of a warrior of light is maybe, a little too much for anyone to bear.

i hope u could at least make something out of my rambles, but honestly to sum it all up i am incredibly captivated by vivi. i originally read fragments because i like ANY wolgraha content but now, i come back almost exclusively to see how vivi's story unfolds, and how graha eventually comes into the fold too. hes such a fascinating character, and i think youve done an incredible job of creating a well rounded hero, full of humanity!!! (also, if you want, feel free to post this on ur blog!!)

I think I shat myself like 5 times while reading this (positive)

Vivi being an enigma wasn't really part of the plan. We have a pool that's his lore, things I wanna tell, and a bottleneck through which it has to go. The comic format forces me to consider what bits of info to deliver when, there's only so much I can tell at a time. One deliberate choice I made is completely burn the bridge between ARR and ShB, skip, leave it empty. That already sparks questions when we see a different Vivi at the beginning of ShB (and gives me leeway, time to write with more nuance, I didn't Think about HW-SB in such scrupulous detail as ShB).

I wanted to tell a primarily ShB story from the start, but had less ambition, and planned to condense the angsty bits that you're reading nowadays into an infodump told by Vivi to no one (to the reader). Changing the receiving party to a tangible character who's eager to learn (Exarch) made the info easier to digest and anchored it in the world. This change, fwiw, happened in like 2022 while I drew the ARR arc, saw the warm reception, and got more excited about my thing. I constantly learn and try to improve, writing's a new toy that brings me tons of fun.

So, when I learned the new trick - telling things through other characters - I thought, why not make everyone slightly wrong, or rather, with a specific snapshot of Vivi in their head. Same happens irl, people only know the version of you that they're exposed to, the only person who knows the full and real you is you.

That brings me to the next point, why Vivi feels so human: I made him not as a wol/hero, but a guy I wanna ship with Exarch, his foil. Obligatory note it was dumb of me to ignore Emet's existence in that case, but that's already changed. Exarch denies himself the simple human joys, he plots his own fucking death, so I thought I'd give him a guy that teaches him how to enjoy being alive again. That was THE foundation of Vivi, his core. He's a manic pixie dream boy.

Then I started asking how and why: why he falls for Exarch specifically instead of ARRRaha? He's confident, selfish, casual (these traits are what Exarch lacks), emotionally intelligent, where did that come from? He must've had an utterly normal life and loving family before he became a hero. He grew up being appreciated and happy. OH, then his ass must LOATHE the current situation because he can't go back to that normal life! So on, so forth.

i find that every time he does one of his blank, furrowed stares that signal he's thinking something, my brain practically lights on fire trying to figure out what he's considering.

This's me carefully dropping the breadcrumbs and hoping that you notice them, and you go HOLY SHIT BREADCRUMBS, this's so validating ;w; <3 This's overtly called a story hook, though I prefer "door". So far this story's only opened doors, as in hinted at more stuff without immediately showing it. I love it when questions get delayed answers, when you get time to stew on it and build up anticipation, then, when the door finally closes, it's much more satisfying. I keep in mind all the doors I've opened, if something provokes a question, it's by design.

(also before i ramble about this the decision to not even show tesleen is such an excellent decision bc like. it makes sense for him for this to not be such a significant moment. shes just another death, another tally to the thousands hes already seen. or maybe im reading WAYYY too hard into a decision to not highjack this love story with plot)

You're 100% correct!! I'm not retelling the canon ShB story from a default wol pov, this's a custom thing focused on ships, therefore anything that doesn't contribute to said ships gets cut. You may read what's NOT shown as what Vivi doesn't pay attention to.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, this gave me so much motivation like you wouldn't know ;//////;

[btr-rewatch]

Big Time Rush Season 1, Episode 18: “Big Time Concert” (Part 1)

Well, it only took me (checks blog) 35 weeks, but I finally made it to the last episode of season 1. Much like "Big Time Audition," this one will probably be posted in multiple parts. Let's jump right in.

Highlights: Like one paragraph of actual episode content, followed by me spiraling into a rambling over the original unaired BTR pilot

The boys run into Gustavo's office all excited. Their first album is finally complete!

They're also going on tour!

Their first show is in two weeks, and we get a daydream sequence where the guys imagine what the performance might be like. The footage from their fantasy is actual footage from a concert they performed in Times Square. I think it might have been their first-ever actual performance in front of an audience like that?

I remember watching that concert special when it premiered on TV.

Just like when they first arrived in Hollywood, Gustavo enlists the help of Mr. X to put them through some grueling boyband boot camp. But with an added twist.

After a montage of the boys bumping into each other, running into walls, and falling off the stage, they make a break for it and run to a nearby supply closet to hide. Sensing his buddies are close to throwing in the towel, Kendall launches into what might be my favorite opening lines to one of his pep talks.

Leave it to Kendall to be like, "On top of his terrible personality, you know what else Gustavo is? Ugly."

At the urging of the other three, Kendall puts his speech into hockey terms, and that made me think about how several of Kendall's pep talks this season have included hockey analogies. I wonder if that carries on through the rest of the series. I know they continue to sprinkle in reminders that the guys are into hockey, but I don't remember it being quite so prevalent as the series goes on.

Onto the Katie storyline. She's up in 2J, hard at work making BTR shirts to sell for the upcoming concert tour. Mama Knight isn't thrilled with the idea of her daughter becoming a bootlegger, but she's swayed once she hears how much money Katie stands to make. I do like her initial reaction to hearing Katie's plan. "How did you get like this? I never dropped you. Not once."

We go back to the guys, who have returned to their concert training where Dak Zevon is ready to teach them all about the art of dealing with rabid fans.

I don't think I've mentioned him much, but I love Dak Zevon. What a fun, goofy character. Curt Hansen is great in the role, and I am always SO GLAD that he was replaced as the original series lead. He's a wonderful Dak, but not such a great "Curt Knight." I remember watching clips from the original pilot back when they were first leaked, and it was like catching a glimpse into a weird, alternate universe. The audition scene especially!!

(this is something I probably should have included in my posts on Big Time Audition, but I didn't think to at the time)

LIKE!!!! Everything about this is so off. Even Gustavo doesn't "feel" like Gustavo. He feels reserved. Not nearly as loud and angry and exasperated as the Gustavo we all know and love. Where's his fire??

It is nice that James got to sing more of his audition song, though!

But the entire scene is off. All of it. Curt is talented, but BTR needed Kendall. I genuinely, truly believe the series (and band) wouldn't have gone on to be successful without him. I'm not sure it even would have survived season 1.

Curt has too much swag?? That's the best word to describe it. He's too pretty boy. Plays the character much too confidently, like he KNOWS how cool and handsome he is, which is so. Not Kendall. Even just the mannerisms. It's hard to put into words, but there's something almost...dainty (?) about Kendall Schmidt's performance throughout the whole series. Like...his mannerisms at times, the way he moves. He's Mr. Captain of the Hockey Team Jock Guy, but he's also delicate? Does anyone know what I'm talking about???

↑ this

Basically, Curt is no tall, blond, and eyebrows. I don't see him having been able to pull off the same level of physical comedy that Kendall does or having that same level of anxiety Kendall carries with him—that constant frenzy of fixing everything and worrying about everyone and holding things together.

(and don't get me started on the original Knight family. That whole scene feels like something out of a bad Disney channel movie)

Well...that was a fun little rant. All that to say that I DO genuinely enjoy Curt as Dak, and I think everyone ended up exactly where they were supposed to be.

Let's pull this massively derailed thought-train back on track. Dak has the guys practice running along the stage to high-five fans. James goes first and is immediately pulled off stage and disappears into the sea of rabid fans. The response to this is delightful.

And because I got so sidetracked while making this post, I'm going to put a bookmark in it right here. Guess we'll find out James's fate in the next one.

[aleksanderscult]

so. First of all I love your blog. Seriously I think you are one of the person who have comman sense in this fandom. I like everything you post. While scrolling through Tumblr I came across the usual anti darkling post ( he is groomer , murderer etc etc ) i did the thing I usually do when I came across such thing : I skip. A tag caught my eye. I don't remember but it's say something like : the only reason you like him is that he is Ben Barnes if darkling is a girl you couldn't like him. Which made me think what if darkling was a girl and alina as a boy. I just image a sexy hot black hair women with pale skin and grey eyes and morozova genes. Which..........is enough to made me think if I am a Bi 🤔. That image has not left me for a week and my dreams. So my question is

What do you think might happen if darkling is a girl and alina is a boy. How might the events of SaB and SaS will be affected. And m*lina too,of mal is a girl too. You thoughts 🤔

Thank you so much, anon! It makes me happy to know that others enjoy my blog and content. 😍

First of all about what that anti said: I personally didn't like Ben Barnes as the Darkling so it obviously doesn't apply. And even if the Darkling was a girl I would still root for her. I root for any character that fights for something better, for a positive change to happen among such oppression. And I think that's one of the major reasons his fans love him as well.

Now about your question: Boy, I would love to see that. I was always attracted to dangerous women, especially the ones that combine beauty and slyness (like Milady in "The Musketeers" or Morgana from "Merlin" post season 2).

But I don't think the story would be affected that much with the only exception that Alina in a male form would probably not be slut shamed for his attraction to the Darkling (in this version she would be called Aleksandra which is a fact that I love!)

The Darkling would remain an interesting character but, God, does that mean that Alina as a man would still avoid his duties?? 😭

And Mal as a girl. She would obviously be popular and well-liked by everyone but imagine that: she would sleep around with many guys and then attack her best friend for falling in love with a girl that isn't her. Well, for one thing it doesn't stick. You see if Mal as a girl fucked around then she would be called a whore (just like Alina was indirectly called one by Mal for wanting Aleksander) while in the original story when Mal did that no one raised a single eyebrow. So we live in a fictional world where if you do that as a guy then you're okay but if you're a girl then you should be called a prostitute. And Leigh had Mal get away with his behavior so she was more willing to let Mal pass with his sexist behavior than the Darkling who had enough and tried to put end to his people slaughter for good.

Anyway, I believe Mal's character would change a lot if he was a girl (primarily his fuckboy nature because the author doesn't allow a girl to have sexual liberation in her books) and I have a feeling she would be boring (again). And I don't think she would be a tracker?

Alina as a man wouldn't be slut shamed (because he's a man 🤷) but he would still avoid the Darkling. Nevertheless the chemistry would be off the charts. And the Darkling would slay like always. She would be the personification of femme fatale but her goal would be selfless and true like always. For some reason, I imagine her as a very seductive figure (although my wishful thinking might be speaking here).

The real question here is how the relationship between the Darkling as a girl and her mother, Baghra would be. Would Baghra want a daughter in the first place but she got stuck with Aleksandra because it was her only child that shared her powers? Or if Baghra had no problem with her child's sex, would she still be that possessive and controlling over her?

My own answer is yes and Baghra would most definitely leave a trauma to the Darkling even if she was a girl. That woman has no parenting skills in any universe. Just like I can't see the Darkling be anything else other than a fighter and a survivor in any other scenario.

[eggoatt]

Hi! I know I left a comment on my reblog, but I felt the need to send something a little more heartfelt. I'm going to try to be normal about this lol

That picture you drew was the first thing I saw this morning, and it has been sitting on one of my monitors ever since, just so I can glance at it any time I want—which quite honestly has been incredibly frequent.

It might seem like I'm a little too excited about this, but it's a huge deal to me. Before I started putting fics out (just south of a year ago now) I hadn't written anything in nearly a decade, so I didn't really have any expectations for what I put out. Of course, I thought about how cool it'd be if someone drew something directly inspired by something I wrote, but I always considered that a kind of a lofty thing? Would be nice if it happened, but I wasn't expecting it. And if it did happen, it'd probably happen much later on when I'm a little better at writing.

All of that to say this is the first time I've inspired anyone to make art from my material. That means so much to me and I am unbelievably grateful to you for that. Also, WOW, it's from someone who has also drawn one of my absolute most favorite SciSet pics ever too?? I adore the way you draw Sunset, so when I saw this was from you I actually gasped so loud my wife heard me from the other room lol.

I mentioned this briefly in my reblog, but I really love the way this picture is composed. When I write scenes, they tend to play out in my mind in full motion with great detail, so what I envision can be incredibly specific, yet I really feel like you managed to capture details I hadn't really put words to. The color scheme in particular—lots of blues and purples, but with just the right amount of saturation to match the pink. Visual arts are not my forte, so I apologize if that doesn't make the most sense.

Lastly, I would like to ask just a couple things:

Would you be alright with me posting a blog about this on fimfic? This might seem like kind of a weird question, but I always like to make sure I clear this kind of thing with someone first. Naturally your username and links to everything would be prominently featured.

May I put this in the author's note of Chapter 8(b)? Just like before, your username and links will be prominently featured alongside it (also, if you'd like to send me a watermarked version, I'd be alright with putting that up too). I just really love this picture and would love it to be the way people visualize that part of the chapter, but I want to make sure that's alright with you first, and I also want to make sure you get the credit you deserve.

Anyway, I won't ramble any longer than necessary. Sorry for throwing a book in your inbox, but thank you for the picture, and for ensuring that no matter what else happens today, I have something to be happy about 🥰

hi!!

we've actually been mutuals for a little while (you reblogged something of mine, and i liked your taste in horse content) but back in april by complete coincidence i stumbled across your fimfic account as well and kind of fell in love with your work. the way you write sunset, your inner voice for her, speaks to me on an insane level to the point where it's informed some of my personal projects (ocs) a bit. i also really enjoyed seeing how rapidly and drastically your writing had improved over the works you had up at the time-- it made me really excited to see what you would do in the future! i even made a new account and started using the site again just so i could keep up :3 if nothing else, you've touched this creature's heart very deeply

like i said in the original tags, i've been meaning to make fanart of this scene for MONTHS and finally releasing those brainworms felt a bit like an exorcism, lol. i'm so happy i hit the mark and brought you as much joy as you've brought me !!!!

to answer your questions!:

sure!! it is fanart For You after all

same as above, go for it :3 (it is actually watermarked already! i prefer making it difficult to see so it's not distracting. take a closer look at sunset's elbow)

silly bonus trivia about the drawing: i needed a visual reference to help me with the poses, and the best ref i found just so happened to be a picture with obama in it. it's not my fault they look so tender

[lemonhemlock]

So it seems that the executive producers/writers couldn't agree on certain things (evident in Alicent's characterization being all over the place). Perhaps Helaemond falls here. One side wanted to make them a thing and the other didn't. They included some hints but still ambiguous. Up in the air for s2. Just like Daeron's inclusion (it's obvious they initially hadn't decided if they were going to keep him or cut him). If I had to guess, Helaemond was probably an idea from Miguel's faction (apparently his wife came up with the Alicent and Rhaenyra same age/best friends storyline). So I don't think it's gonna be a thing in the end.

so this question made me go fishing for this old ask i didn't get a change to reply to about an helaegond love triangle (see below). in the meantime i already went more in-depth into the helaegon portayal on my blog and i do agree with the anon below on that & the fact that our aegon is not a clone of aegon iv

i do think it's possible that the aegon/helaena/aemond dynamic took its inspiration from the infamous aegoniv/naerys/aemon situation, not in the sense that it's meant to be a 1:1 recreation, but bc it would be a pretty rich playground for a lot of angst and pathos. it's not as likely we're going to get a whole show about aegon iv - it would be a "problematic" adaptation, so to speak, because a lot of his story is rooted in pretty lewd misogyny and i'm not really sure if modern audiences would necessarily enjoy a revolving door of mistresses while aegon iv terrorizes naerys in the background. the market is quite saturated with henry viii content as is (the same story at its core) - as we know, The Tudors was already a very popular show that went on for many seasons and there's also the more recent The Spanish Princess.

so i can see them thinking that they might as well extract the love triangle aspect of it and use it for HotD

disclaimer: i have no way of fact-checking which faction decided to include helaemond, but to relate this back to the ask above, i don't think ryan should be sidelined as a contender for introducing helaemond either. i say this bc he says he's been a fan for 20 years, so, as opposed to miguel, he would be more aware of the aegon iv / naerys / aemon dynamic than miguel would have been. unless this decision was just a huge coincidence & no one bothered to open TWOIAF at all. though i remember ryan saying he made everyone read FB + the 5 ASOIAF books, i don't know if he included TWOIAF on the reading list

Anonymous asked: Obviously a ton of speculation for there being a love triangle between the green siblings stems from a claim that the writers wanted to apply the Aegon4/Naerys/Aemon triangle. And there's definitely the fear that because of that they'll just end up making Egg2 just as bad as Aegon4 and continue to heap abuse onto Helaena when she's already the victim of so much violence. buuuuut the more hopeful interpretation would be that the writers are only planning to apply the love triangle in its bare bones. Since in the books it's never implied that a love triangle was present, the fact that a set up of "older brother and sister married unhappily plus younger brother being close to sister" exists at all for Egg2/Helaena/Aemond is already clearly taking a page from that pairing without needing to stick to the details. Basically the green siblings don't need to be a 1:1 parallels to the other love triangle for the similarities to still exist, nor do they need to end up exactly like them. In fact, their show characterization is significantly different than that of Aegon4/Naerys/Aemon, so if the writers want to smart and original I think they should resolve the helaegond drama through dysfunctional polyamory. I don't think that's been done yet in Targaryen history (except for maybe the conquerors themselves, but then that would give the green siblings even more parallels to them which is cool and sexy!) Also Helaena doesn't seem terrified by Aegon at all, just pretty indifferent. And considering how Alicent reacted to the Dyanna situation, if Aegon was as bad to Helaena as Aegon4 was to Naerys I don't think she would just slap him, she would've beaten him within an inch of his life. So like, besides the sex aspect (which neither of them seems to be into so it's like... Mutual non-con?) there's nothing in their relationship that implies severe abuse or even an escalation to that, because they both seem very disinterested in each other.

love the suggestion of dysfunctional polyamory though!!!

[dogtoling]

Do you ever get tired, or annoyed, of these questions? Because I can sit here and come up with more questions all day, and watch you answer them. I can slow down, or stop if you like. Just want to know if this is bugging you.

Besides Splatoon, any other games you like?

Side thought: I feel like games like Splatoon break the immersive lore by calling everything "ink". It's a trap that games like Pokemon fall into, where Pokemon has everything starting with Poke. By calling so much stuff "ink" or stuff like that, you break the immersion. Do you really think that Inklings would name everything starting with ink? Or Splat. No, they wouldn't. That would be as weird as humans calling everything "human" or something. It just doesn't make sense. Inkopolis, Inkadia, Splatsville, and more.

No I don't really, I like excuses to write essays. The only time asks get on my nerves is when people come to my askbox to try and use me as a publisher for their own completely unrelated theories, in which case MY GOD, get out of MY ASK BOX and just go post it on your OWN BLOG. I think this is just a general PSA at this point for people thinking of sending asks... before you send an ask, take a moment to think if it's actually a QUESTION, if it's something i'm likely to be able to answer, and if the answer to both of those is "no", ask yourself why you're sending it. I don't mind the occasional non-question asks, but sometimes there's just stuff that's like... what am I supposed to say about that? And it might just get the delete treatment. I don't really like saying this stuff because I don't want to discourage people from sending asks (because I like receiving them and seeing people's thoughts!), but there's been numerous times before where I've gotten an ask that's got like nothing to even do with me and could've easily been a reply or an original post! But as far as asks go, I don't mind as long as it's... actually an ASK most of the time. It usually makes my day seeing an ask notification, actually, so no, I don't really mind repeat asks. In fact I'd even encourage them if my previous reply raised more questions.

As for game series, I like Pokemon (regrettably), although scarlet and violet were incredibly disappointing to me and I played the game for like... a week. I don't see myself going back to it honestly lol. But Pokemon is definitely my second-largest interest. Battling is my least favorite part of it. I just really like creatures. I DON'T like the inconsistent (or hard to decipher, rather) worldbuilding and for that reason, I haven't bothered making content about it. (But I am part of some PMD groups on other sites...) I like Zelda a lot but I wouldn't call it something I'm REEEAALLY into. Twilight Princess is my favorite, I've only really played 3D Zeldas... I like them, but my GOD the timeline is a freaking mess and I can't be assed to get into the details of the world and lore (there's a lot) so I also don't do zelda content, lol. It's something I enjoy occasionally whenever a new game comes out, but Tears of the Kingdom hasn't sold me so far, to be fair. I'll still buy it and I'm sure I'll love it, but what the hell, man. I already spent 300 hours exploring every single inch of Hyrule in BotW, I hope the main objective isn't exploration again. Other than those two it's mostly smaller games, and I don't really play a lot of games, honestly. Night in the Woods continues to be one of my all-time favorites over stellar characters, a really immersive story, gorgeous art and music. Like I can't think of a single thing I don't like about it except how it will trigger an existential crisis literally every time (which is also the point). It's like the one singular indie game I would say I'm "into", I've played (VERY FEW) other indie games in my time, but pretty much all of them have been a case of "ok cool" and moving on. Night in the Woods tho? Every time the end of the year comes around I WILL think about it and probably play it. Obviously Minecraft is on this list and it might honestly be the best game of all time, but I can barely consider it a game because it's so much more than that, lol. With that being said though I CANNOT be assed to actually play it myself almost ever due to how time-consuming it is (and also building is really hard lol). But honestly? If I had to pick only one game to play for the rest of my life it'd be Minecraft and that's not even a contest... that game can be anything you want it to be!

Splatoon's naming conventions. True, they are, um... unique. I don't think they break the immersion though, depending on what brand you're immersed in. For Splatoon as the funny game it sets itself up to be, it's perfectly in line - I find some of the weirder stuff breaking my immersion VERY OFTEN but that is solely because I build my image of the Splatoon world to be much less cartoony than it actually is, and then you get sucker punched by the silly elements that are just normalized. I think in Splatoon's case (at least with Inkling societies) ink- and splat- are just one of those cultural naming conventions that isn't strange at all in-universe because they're like, used to it. I do wish the localization team got even a little more creative with their naming of places, though... the one good thing I can say is that it makes it really easy to come up with authentic-sounding place names if you're coming up with original locations. Just slap "ink" on it and it's done.

[mourning-again-in-america]

@centrally-unplanned said: As someone who doesn't follow law too closely I individually hear a lot about his decisions being unsupported and ill-considered, sort of a "just isn't that good at the law" compared to Alito's "he sure has some hot takes", but as someone who only reads opinions as-needed for other non-legal topics I ofc don't hold that opinion myself, just things you hear. I see the distinction you are drawing, which makes sense!

first of all, i am, how you say, crossfaded right now, second of all, i have barely read any of his opinions, third of all, i am extremely not a lawyer, fourth of all i am a known ~will baude simp and he might be characterized as such wrt thomas tho i would not say so. furthermore, some qualifications i would like to make: I am not trying to defend his opinions in the criminal justice sphere, I think he's overreacting to a trend among the Dems that was dead for 20-30 years, was temporarily resurrected, and appears to have been quashed (see: "victimology"); this especially goes for capital cases, I disagree with him on the necessary and proper marijuana case Randy Barnett argued, I also think that he overreaches when he posits the powers of the Presidency (esp the exclusive and *non-overridable* powers of the Presidency) via Article II and welcome much more scholarship on this before various aspects of this are set in stone (see state secrets cases and many many others), as well as the qualifications on the other post, and so many more and yet furthermore, I reject argumentum ad Bostock, textualism before original public meaning and original legal meaning before "original public meaning", and I'm anti-Borkian on the 9th amendment, and probably so many other things AND YET.

i think that he has done a real service to law by demonstrating how one can try to struggle and do originalism. if it had been just him, or just scalia, people would have dismissed it as eccentrism, an odd quirk. but with *both* of them on the court, duelling and concurring to their heart's content, people took it seriously! and now we see gorsuch, kavanaugh, and barrett are each trying to show to the country that *we can do it*. we can *actually* live under constitutional government. i especially appreciate him disagreeing very publicly with the supposedly settled precedent of the Slaughterhouse Cases. i also think that contrasting New York etc. v. Bruen (authored by Thomas) with Dobbs (Alito), one sees a much sharper view of how to provide a determinate view of ascertaining rights, rights supported by text and the history of the founding etc., and less susceptible to the critique by libs that originalism is just "yadda yadda i got five votes, here's some bullshit that's sorta related that happened in the past, here's some social conservative moralizing, fuck you!". There's some more that I could go on, but I'm not sure what would be relevant to you (or any readers of this blog).

If I could offer some hypotheses as to why I think such a belief may have been propagated (and may Allah forgive me for attempting "realism" and possible assertions of bad faith), although this is a bit before my time, I believe a lot of people who are more Democrat inclined were burned hard by Bush v. Gore, and the concurrence by Rehnquist, joined by Scalia and Thomas only rubbed salt on that by suggesting (quite rightfully imo, but thankfully cabined in Moore v. Harper (2023)) that a state legislature could declare by law how that state shall delegate its electors to the Electoral College before the election, superseding the voters, and *possibly* (but now no longer as per Moore v Harper) superseding a state's constitution and the state courts (I shall refrain from speaking as to whether there could be any such emotion from the confirmation hearing and Anita Bryant). Also, I don't think that people really "got" what Alito's deal was like at his confirmation, or until possibly even a decade later when it became so obvious that Alito wasn't just a wingnut libertarian, he was a cranky sonofabitch much further to the right than John Roberts, who I have heard the media focused their fire on much more, allegedly (source: insinuations on FedSoc podcasts) because of his view on the amendments to the Voting RIghts Act during his time in the Reagan admin (I personally think there's a quite humorous analogy between the initial reactions to Gorsuch vs Kavanaugh, Josh Blackman iirc has said that Kav probably wouldn't have gotten in had not the Senate majority leadership felt it had to go "nuclear" for Gorsuch). Also, a lot of my evidence for my respect for Justice Thomas comes from the questions that he would ask during oral arguments, which he only began doing recently, because of, I believe, first the change in argumentative procedure during the remote COVID days, and then the outcry from the general listening public that his questions were much more than welcome -- and I separately respect him for his reason why he didn't ask questions much before: he didn't like interrupting people for his own purposes.

Even beyond this, I have *much* hatred for Alito, who I have never seen an opinion I've liked from, and from listening to 2+ years of oral arguments, I have *very rarely* heard an argument where Alito asked better questions/made better use of his time than Thomas, and based on a frankly very limited sample of opinions and shadow docket stuff, I don't think I've ever found Thomas saying something or agreeing with something that Alito didn't also agree with, when I found it outrageous. Also, Alito just generally strikes me as at least a bit of a political hack (a very broad umbrella that also covers Kagan, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and maybe Thomas, Jackson, and Sotomayor, and maybe maybe Gorsuch). Also also, he seems to have very little to say about abstract issues that aren't also political (this being something I quite respect the *actual* originalists, such as they are (Thomas and Gorsuch imo), for), see the previously referred to opinion about the govt acq'd entity that is Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac as a point for Thomas. Also also also, as sort of argued above, his opinion in Dobbs is just so *meh* if not straightforwardly disappointing in Dobbs compared to Bruen. Alsox3.5, I think that he brings "turnabout is fair play" to a harmful level of "tu quoque -- it seems that if you've ever been a hypocrite in a way that he disagrees with, you may be forced, just for that reason, to suffer his wrath! But *really*, putting aside my terrible fears that eventually Alito & Barrett can get the votes endorsing *truly* theocratic rule (and putting aside as well that I think that this has a 0.25-1%ish likelihood of happening, maybe up to 5% if strategical political assassinations are normalized), my vociferous objection to Alito comes from a comment of his during oral argument in either SEC v Cochran or Axon v FTC, where he suggested that the eventual winner, trying to get the ability to challenge the constitutionality of the administrative so-called "judge" (if i'm remembering the cases right) via their allegedly unconstitutional removal restrictions in a federal district court before submitting to/requiring finalization of possibly interminable agency process, could have gotten what they were looking for via a writ of mandamus, which is supposed to be *extraordinary relief* to correct an injury under *clearly established law* (the supposed "clearly established law" that Alito suggested was Seila Law, which was itself suggested as being a drasting break from how things have been, and I think, having not read that opinion, it was not necessarily settled how the decision should impact the SEC and FTC esp given Humphrey's Executor). I could dismiss this as a one-off comment, were he not also similarly arguing on the shadow docket (stays, injunctions, etc.) in either motions granted or the newly-so-called "dissentals" (dissents from denials of X where X may be an injunction, a grant of certiorari, etc.), in a similar way, for such hasty new application of very strong changes to the law, and i have not heard a good theory or explanation for this -- in fact, when i've heard will baude forced to take a position on these things, iirc he has described it as "not great", and I have heard very little/no discussion of this from my feed of FedSoc's YT channel!

To prevent it very simply, I think that Thomas offers a vision of judging that, while ofc susceptible to critique and improvement (like all human reasoning), in my view, offers analytical tools that can be used regardless of partisanship and my main issue with him is that I don't think he goes far enough -- I really cannot wait to hear his ideas on the original meaning of the 14th amendment. Alito, however, what does he have to offer? Fear of being a chump? Advanced game theory? I do not expect to weep if he is easily forgotten.

[isadelt]

Cough Drops, Bee Glue, and Bitter Tea

A Jehanparnasse fic where Montparnasse catches the flu

I came up with this while trying to distract myself from chills and coughing, and then wrote about half of it while running a fever. I don’t know what this says about this fic, but it was so much fun to write!

Montparnasse never got sick. It was almost a point of pride. He had his own methods for preventing any form of contagion. He would avoid getting too near people, especially during the winter. It also helped that he often wore gloves (no fingerprints), therefore he was protected when touching possibly contaminated objects.

This made the presence of a small irritation in his throat strange.

He shrugged it off. It was probably just the dryness of the air. He wrapped a scarf around his neck and, just for good measure, put a slice of lemon and a spoon of honey in his black tea that evening.

Jehan, as observant as ever, noticed. “Are you getting sick, Parnasse?” they asked, as Montparnasse sat down on the couch beside them.

“No.”

“Then why…” Jehan motioned to his mug. The slice of lemon was floating around gently, already soaking up the colour from the tea.

Montparnasse just lifted an eyebrow at them, his expression remaining impassive, as he took a sip. “It tastes good,” he replied.

Jehan pulled back a little and studied his face, narrowing their eyes slightly. Montparnasse knew they were looking for traces of a lie. He was a professional liar and fooled everyone. But not Jehan. Never Jehan. Somehow, his silver tongue had not once deceived the poet.

Jehan finally shrugged, though they did not seem entirely convinced, and rested their head on Montparnasse’s shoulder. They said nothing, but Montparnasse could almost hear the unspoken words between them. “We’ll see.”

*

It took two days for Montparnasse to finally admit that he was sick.

It started out with a cough. A single, involuntary expulsion of air, accompanied by a rather retched sound. At first, Montparnasse did not want to believe it was anything in particular. He must have choked on some incoming air. Things like that happened.

He swore internally. He had just unintentionally revealed his hiding place. He slipped away silently before he could be discovered, then found another place to hide.

No sooner had he found one that he coughed again. This time, he could feel the depth from which it came, scratching at the inside of his throat almost painfully and bringing up some unwanted substance (Montparnasse tried not to think too hard about what it was).

Fuck. He couldn’t stay here. There was no way he could finish this job, not if he was involuntarily, randomly, and unpredictably going to divulge his whereabouts. He slipped away and pulled out his phone, texting Claquesous without revealing the reason why he couldn’t linger. (He supposed it sounded ominous and dramatic, but wasn’t that exactly the meaning of being sick?)

When he got home, he didn’t even bother removing his jacket and his scarf, and just flopped down on the sofa. It was perhaps not the best idea—he began coughing into the cushion, and had to turn around to avoid suffocation. “I’m going to diiiiiie,” he moaned.

“I thought you’d be out late,” came a voice above him.

Montparnasse looked up. Jehan stood at the threshold of the kitchen, holding a book and a tea mug. They gazed down at Montparnasse with a confused expression. Montparnasse opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted with another fit of coughing.

Jehan’s eyes widened in understanding. “You’re sick.”

“I don’t get sick,” Montparnasse replied, though he knew that at this point, it was a lie. He coughed again.

“You’re sick,” Jehan repeated, more forcibly.

“I’m dying.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Jehan said fondly. They walked up to the sofa, set their book and mug down on the coffee table, and sat at the edge. They put their hand on Montparnasse’s forehead, then on his cheek, frowning.

“What is it?” Montparnasse asked, dreading the worse. “I really am dying, aren’t I?”

Jehan made a small tsk sound. “No, you’re not, I’m just checking for fever. I’m not sure, so I’ll get the thermometer.”

“Fever?” Montparnasse repeated, aghast. “I am dying!”

Jehan ignored him and stood up, heading towards the bathroom. Montparnasse’s pocket vibrated. He pulled out his phone. Claquesous had answered his text, wondering what the fuck was going on. Before he could reply, Montparnasse’s whole body scrunched as he began coughing again. It felt deeper this time, as if the cough was digging in his chest. He felt something rise to his mouth, and with slight panic, just swallowed it.

“You know you should spit it out,” Jehan chided, as they emerged from the bathroom, a thermometer in their hand. “Get all the bad stuff out. À t’entendre, on dirait que t’as une toux creuse.” Your cough sounds deep. As they reached Montparnasse, they plucked his phone from his hand, setting in on the table, and sat back down onto the sofa. “This goes under your tongue,” they continued as they lifted the thermometer.

“Under my tongue?” Montparnasse repeated.

“You’re not a child, Parnasse,” Jehan scolded gently. “It’s for a more accurate temperature. Haven’t you ever done this before?”

“I don’t get sick,” Montparnasse replied.

Jehan smiled. “Well, now you do. Open up.”

Montparnasse reluctantly did as he was told. Jehan inserted the thermometer in his mouth, sliding it under his tongue. It was strange and a little uncomfortable, and Montparnasse was about to say so, but Jehan shushed him by placing a finger on his lips. “No talking,” they chided.

Montparnasse glared at them. Jehan just smiled and stood up. “This will take a few minutes. I’ll go make you some tea while we wait. Something to soothe your throat.”

Jehan came back with a warm mug and set it on the coffee table just as the thermometer beeped. Montparnasse took it out of his mouth and silently handed it to Jehan. He was too nervous to look at it, expecting the worst. (He also wasn’t sure how to interpret what he would see.)

“You might have a slight fever,” Jehan concluded, “nothing too bad. How are you feeling? Any chills? Muscle pain?”

Montparnasse coughed again before he could reply. “Not yet. I feel horrendous though. Is this how I die?”

Jehan smiled. “I thought I said no dramatization.”

“It’s not.”

“You’re such a baby. Come on, take off your coat and your scarf.”

Montparnasse gave Jehan what he assumed was a sultry look (who knew, really, since he could be delirious from illness by now) as he sat up and removed his coat. Jehan laughed as they took his jacket, then his scarf. “Apparently you’re not doing too badly if that’s what you have in mind. And no, I really don’t want to get sick.” Jehan kissed Montparnasse sweetly on the cheek. “When you feel better. I promise.” They stood up and went off to hang the winter apparel. Montparnasse crossed his arms unhappily. Being ill was so stupid.

Jehan turned around and smiled. “Don’t pout like that,” they said, as they settled on the sofa beside him. “You’ll see, I’ll take very good care of you. You should drink your tea while it’s still warm.”

Montparnasse obliged.

*

“It’s getting chilly,” Montparnasse complained, as he sidled closer to Jehan. His head rested on the poet’s shoulder, moving only to cough (away from them, he was not going to do it in their face). On his knees was an afghan, one Jehan had knitted. The yarn was a mixture of orange, red, green, and brown, and the blanket had a white crocheted decorative edge. It was not the prettiest, but considering some of the other things Jehan had knitted (not to mention their wardrobe), it could be worse.

Jehan looked over and put their hand on Montparnasse’s forehead. They hummed thoughtfully.

“What?” Montparnasse asked, expecting the worst.

“Relax, your fever might just be running a little higher,” Jehan said as they stood up. “I’ll get something to keep you warm.”

Montparnasse let out a small whine as Jehan walked off. “I’m coming back,” the poet assured him. “You’re so needy,” they added. Montparnasse could hear the smile in their voice.

Montparnasse brought his legs up onto the sofa, hugging his knees to his chest. It really was starting to get cold. His body seemed possessed by chills, and he pulled the afghan tighter around him. It barely helped, considering the cold almost felt like it came from within him. He shivered, then coughed again, all the muscles in his body crisping. “This is the worst,” he moaned.

Jehan emerged from the bedroom, with two sweaters draped over their arm. “Here,” they said, gesticulating towards Montparnasse.

Montparnasse’s insides went cold (colder than they already were, at least). “Non, absolument pas. Il est hors de question que je les porte.” No, absolutely not. It is out of the question; I will not wear them.

“They are the warmest and most comfortable sweaters I own,” Jehan replied, as they walked over.

“I refuse,” Montparnasse persisted. A shiver went through him.

“It will help with the chills,” Jehan insisted.

“One of them is a Christmas sweater!”

“So?”

Montparnasse sighed. “Can’t I wear my jacket instead?”

“Chérie, your jacket may be stylish, but it’s uncomfortable. Just put on the sweaters.” Jehan, seeing Montparnasse’s resolute expression, added rather menacingly, “I’ll wrestle them on you if you don’t.”

Montparnasse huffed. “Alright, but no making fun of me.”

“Why would I even do that?”

“And no pictures.”

“Of course not.”

“And don’t tell anyone about this.”

Jehan sighed. “I won’t, I promise. Now put them on.”

Montparnasse gingerly grabbed the sweaters from Jehan. He blinked at them, gazing at them with slight disgust.

“The Christmas one goes on top of the other,” Jehan said. “It’s bigger, so you don’t have a choice.”

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Montparnasse grumbled, as he pulled the first sweater over his head. Jehan said nothing, just smiled at him and sat back down beside him.

Montparnasse, now clad with two incredibly tacky sweaters, leaned his head back onto Jehan’s shoulder, pulling the afghan over him. He had to admit he felt warmer and more comfortable. Despite his periodic coughing, sleep dragged him under.

*

Montparnasse spent the next day on the couch, still wearing those horrid sweaters, covered in not only the afghan, but also a duvet, stolen from their bed. Jehan supplied him with a box of tissues and a garbage can—Montparnasse had begun, to his great dismay, to have a stuffy nose, though it was hardly more than a nuisance. The poet tended to him all day. They gave him plenty of tea with honey and lemon and some cough syrup. They even applied VapoRub, which felt incredible (though perhaps a good part of this was due to Jehan rubbing his chest, back, and neck). Jehan also tried to get him to eat some soup, but Montparnasse just moaned and burrowed underneath his blankets, claiming to not be hungry.

In the middle of the afternoon, Joly—probably alerted by Jehan—dropped by. Montparnasse pulled the covers up over his chin and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep. He absolutely did not want to be seen wearing a Christmas sweater, of all things. He hoped he wouldn’t cough; they would know he was awake.

“I heard our favourite criminal is ill,” Joly said. “I brought some stuff. It might make him feel better. Here’s some jook. My mom used to make this for me when I was sick. It’s very soothing.”

“Some what?” Jehan asked.

“Jook. Or congee. It’s a sort of … rice porridge, I guess. I put some little pieces of chicken in this one to give it a bit of flavour. You can warm it on the stove or in the microwave I suppose. And this is foo tcha,” Joly continued. “That means ‘bitter tea’. You’ll see what I mean. My grandmother would make this whenever we were sick, and usually the whole family takes it as a precaution. It’s not the ah … tastiest, but it does work. I had my mother get me the appropriate ingredients in Chinatown. I made it just before coming, though you should probably reheat it on the stove. You should have enough for a few cups.”

“Thanks, Joly. You sure you don’t want to come in?”

“I’d rather not. Exposure to germs, you know?”

“Of course. Thanks again.”

“My pleasure!”

Montparnasse heard the door close and Jehan shuffle off into the kitchen, but he did not open his eyes. He stayed like that a few minutes, until suddenly the smell of something rather disagreeable wafted towards him. He opened his eyes and sat up. “What’s that?” he asked, before beginning to cough again. He sighed. Being sick was horrendous. Coughing was so strenuous. His whole body seemed to be involved in the movement, and every little cough left Montparnasse feeling wrecked and exhausted.

“Joly’s Chinese remedy, something tcha,” Jehan called. “It has quite a strong odour, doesn’t it? I wonder what goes in it. I didn’t think to ask.”

“It smells horrid,” Montparnasse replied. “Am I to drink that?” He coughed again, then sighed.

“Yes.” Jehan appeared at the doorway with two mugs of some fuming dark liquid. He brought one to Montparnasse, who took it despite his better instinct. His intuition wasn’t often wrong, and something told him to stay away from this stuff.

“Who’s the second cup for?” he asked.

“Myself,” Jehan replied. “Joly mentioned everyone drank it when his grandmother made it. So I thought, why not. It might prevent me from catching your sickness.”

Montparnasse sniffed the dark liquid, then pulled back quickly, as if stung, and made a face. “I’m not drinking that.”

Jehan clinked their mug against Montpernasse’s. “Come on, we’ll do this together. Don’t be a coward,” they added teasingly, as Montparnasse gave them a half-sceptical, half-worried look.

They both drank. Jehan finished their portion rather quickly, but Montparnasse grimaced after the first gulp. It tasted terrible. The term ‘bitter’ was an understatement. It was worse than the bitterest coffee Montparnasse had ever drunk. The taste lingered in his mouth, an echo of the foul liquid that just wouldn’t fade, and flu or no flu, there was no way he would finish this disgusting drink.

Jehan frowned at him. “You’re not going to finish it?” they asked.

Montparnasse grimaced.

Jehan smiled. “It’s true, it wasn’t the tastiest. But please finish it? For me?” They made the most endearing face and bent down to kiss Montparnasse on the cheek.

Montparnasse felt himself redden. He shot Jehan a sombre look. “See you on the other side,” he said dramatically. He pinched his nose and gulped down the horrid drink. As he lowered the empty mug, he let out a shudder that was not due to the chills. “Uuuggh,” he moaned.

Jehan beamed at him. “Joly also brought some food. Some sort of rice porridge. I’m sure it’ll be more agreeable than this bitter tea. You need to eat, Parnasse,” they added, shooting Montparnasse a stern look.

It turned out Montparnasse did enjoy the rice porridge more.

*

Montparnasse already felt better by the third day. Nevertheless, he was still not in the best shape. After keeping him up half the night, the chills were, thankfully, gone, which meant he no longer had to wear those horrendous sweaters. Instead, Montparnasse’s nose became incredibly stuffy.

He woke up feeling like something was pressing on his face, like his nostrils had been stuffed rather aggressively. He tried breathing through his mouth, but all he could feel was the air burning down his throat. He let out a moan, which made Jehan stir next to him. “I can’t breathe,” he complained. “I’m going to die asphyxiated! This is terrible!”

Jehan didn’t even open their eyes. “Blow your nose.”

“What?”

“Blow your nose.”

Montparnasse grabbed a tissue from the box on the bedside table and blew. His nose was still as incredibly stuffed, and the pressing on his face just felt worse. His teeth were even beginning to ache. “It didn’t do anything.”

Jehan opened their eyes. “You’ll just have to keep doing it all day.”

Montparnasse let out a frustrated groan.

*

Mucus, Montparnasse discovered, was the worst. His nose was stuffed, usually but not always one nostril at the time, and when he tried to blow it, almost nothing was expelled. Then suddenly, he sneezed, and his arm was covered in—well, he’d rather not think about it. Sufficed to say that he let out a scream at the sight of his shirt.

Jehan, who found the whole incident much too amusing in Montparnasse’s opinion, brought him a new shirt and assured him the other one would survive; there would be not a single trace. The shirt Jehan had brought, Montparnasse realized, was older; it had been out of fashion for years. “You won’t break my eardrums again if you get stuff on this one,” Jehan explained, amused.

Montparnasse grumbled but secretly agreed. Besides, it was not as if he was going out today. He was not in his best, presentable shape. Being sick was anything but dignified. He was feeling gross, having no energy for his usual many hours of grooming that were part of his morning (or early afternoon) routine. He’d barely even had the energy to shower, though the steam seemed to do immense good for his stuffed nose and sore throat, even if it was only temporary.

In mid-afternoon, another friend of Jehan’s dropped by, Grantaire. Montparnasse did not pretend to sleep this time (he was, after all, not wearing a Christmas sweater). “I bring some wishes for better health and a remedy,” Grantaire announced, as he sat on the armchair beside the sofa. “And also an apology from Éponine. She would have come, but she hasn’t had a minute to herself. Gav’s been staying with us for the past few days and she has extra shifts at work this week.”

Montparnasse groaned. “Please tell me it’s not some sort of family remedy again.”

Grantaire chuckled. “The only family remedy I have is alcohol. It kills germs, you know. Did Joly bring his bitter tea?” Montparnasse said nothing, but the expression on his face must have answered Grantaire’s question. “Yeah, I can sympathize,” he said. “He makes some every time one of us catches anything worse than a cold. That shit is disgusting.”

“It was OK,” Jehan said.

Grantaire shot them a surprised look. “Either you have the worst taste buds or incredible resilience, because I’ve never drank anything as bad as that.”

Montparnasse coughed. He let out a soft whimper. His whole face hurt. It felt like something was pressing down into his nose and cheekbones. He desperately wished it would all go away. He was feeling so wretched.

Jehan only shrugged and smiled. “Why is this the first time I hear of this?” they asked.

“You don’t really get anything worse than a cold,” Grantaire said, “and if you do,” he added thoughtfully, “you certainly hide it well.”

“So what did you bring?” Montparnasse asked, as he narrowed his eyes at Grantaire. He suddenly sneezed (thankfully managing to grab a tissue in time), and Grantaire scooted away slightly.

“This thing called propolis?” Grantaire’s tone conveyed his uncertainty. “I don’t know exactly what it is. The label is in Italian. It’s from Musichetta. She said you should spray it on the back of your throat. It helps with the coughing.”

“Let me see,” Jehan said. Grantaire handed them the bottle. It was small and dark, with a rather long nozzle. Montparnasse supposed it was meant to reach the back of his throat. “Four squirts, three times a day,” Jehan translated. “Simple enough. The actual description of the product is not very specific. Does Musichetta bring it back from Italy?”

“Yes,” Grantaire replied. “You can’t really find it here, so she always brings some back for Joly whenever she goes.”

“Nice of them to spare some for us.”

“Grantaire, what are you doing here?” Montparnasse asked rather bluntly. He had no energy to be charming in his present condition. He grabbed a tissue and blew his nose, disappointed to realize he was still as congested as ever, if not even more. The skin of his nose was started to sting, and he guessed, without looking in a mirror (honestly, Montparnasse did not want to look in a mirror, lest he see his terrible state), that the whole area must be red and irritated.

Grantaire shot Montparnasse a mock wounded look. “That stings,” he said. “Besides being the deliverer of medicine that is, frankly, so much better than that foul poison Joly left yesterday, je suis venu te tenir compagnie.” I came to keep you company. “I figure you might like a break from that daydreamer over there,” he added, motioning towards Jehan. “Their head is probably in the clouds half the day.”

“Hey, I resent that,” Jehan said.

“I happen to love that daydreamer,” Montparnasse said.

“Stop calling me that.”

“Sorry, mon amour.” Montparnasse leaned into Jehan’s shoulder affectionately. No sooner had he settled down that he sat back up to cough in his elbow, the muscles from his whole body crisping with effort.

“Just don’t cough or sneeze on me,” Jehan said, amused.

Montparnasse moaned and sank into the sofa, leaning back onto Jehan. “I hate this. This is the fucking worst. Just let me die.”

Grantaire snorted. “You’re so dramatic. Has he been like this the whole time?” he asked Jehan.

“Pretty much.”

Montparnasse rolled his eyes. “Come on, I bet your boyfriend is as bad,” he told Grantaire.

Grantaire’s cheeks reddened. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Sure.”

“And he’s in fact quite the opposite. He stubbornly tries to deny he’s ill and continues all his usual activities despite being exhausted and sick. Last time Combeferre had to almost tie him to his bed for him to actually rest.”

“Typical Enjolras,” Jehan said fondly.

Montparnasse coughed again, making sure to turn away from Jehan. He groaned.

“I think your Parnasse feels like shit,” Grantaire said to Jehan, smirking.

“Mon Parnasse ?” Jehan repeated, tilting their head. My Parnasse.

“Get it?” Grantaire said, much too gleefully. He looked at Montparnasse. “Parce que tu es ‘son Parnasse’.” Because you are ‘their Parnasse’.

Montparnasse groaned, this time not because he was sick and fed up. “Your friends are horrible,” he told Jehan. “Yesterday, one of them tried to poison me and now this.” He coughed. Again.

Jehan just laughed.

*

“Why are all your friends dropping by?” Montparnasse asked Jehan that evening.

“Why not?” Jehan replied. “What’s the problem with people caring? Even if it’s just the flu.”

“You told them I was sick?”

“Well, Joly found out when I said I wasn’t going to the meeting. He asked me if I was sick. I told him you were. And I think he told a few others, including Musichetta and Grantaire, and who knows how much it spread from there.”

Jehan paused as Montparnasse blew his nose (it was not as if he could hear much with all the noise).

“You haven’t told your friends you were sick, have you? You didn’t even tell Éponine,” Jehan accused.

“I texted Claquesous, but I didn’t really specify anything.” Montparnasse suddenly remembered he had never responded to Claquesous’s text the other day. He wondered where his phone was. He let out a cough. “Plus, they’re not my friends, they’re my colleagues.”

Jehan raised their eyebrows. “Sure they’re not your friends,” they said sceptically.

Montparnasse huffed and burrowed underneath the quilt. “Just drop it, Jehan,” he said. He wasn’t sure why he had so much aversion to telling people he was sick. Of course, this was something rather new (he supposed he had probably fallen ill as a child, but this was the first time in about twenty years). It was a moment of weakness, a time when he was vulnerable, and he didn’t really like others seeing him that way. It had taken him some time, after all, to fully open up to Jehan.

Montparnasse looked up at the poet, wondering if they would push it. But Jehan said nothing and just smiled.

*

Montparnasse was hungry when he woke the next morning.

“That’s good,” Jehan said. “It means you’re getting better.”

“I don’t really feel any better,” Montparnasse grumbled. His nose was still as congested as ever (he’d had another rather disgusting episode, probably due to ah … accumulation) and he was still coughing quite profusely. The muscles in his arms and legs were hurting, though his face felt better. How long was this horrible sickness going to last? “Don’t people die from the flu?” he added.

“Those are rare cases,” Jehan replied patiently. “Come on, let’s eat breakfast. I’ll make you some more tea for your cough.”

*

Montparnasse had to admit that he had an easier time resting. The coughing, though it had not reduced in quantity, had at least diminished, for the most part, in intensity. His stuffed nose, though, had not gotten any better. Indeed, he felt, at one point, both his nostrils block completely, so that he had no choice but to breathe through his mouth, which caused him to cough rather intensely, even gag. He clamped his lips shut, suddenly panicked.

“You OK?” Jehan asked, worried.

“Non, je vais vomir,” Montparnasse moaned. No, I’m going to throw up. Or at least that’s what he tried to say. It came out as “Don, he vais vobir.” He felt himself choke, cough, then gag again.

Jehan seemed to understand what was happening because they handed Montparnasse the box of tissues. Montparnasse, not entirely convinced, grabbed one and blew his nose. He coughed again, but already it seemed to be getting better. He continued blowing, and his nose cleared up a bit, just enough for him to be able to breathe at least a little.

Jehan suddenly appeared next to him with a glass of water, which Montparnasse took gladly. “That was a bad one,” they commented.

Montparnasse nodded. “I hate this,” he moaned.

Jehan scooted up to Montparnasse and wrapped their arm around him, pulling them close. Montparnasse’s head lay on Jehan’s shoulder, as they ran their fingers through his hair. Normally, messing it up would have bothered him, but he was beyond caring. After all, it had been a few days since he had properly styled it, and the poet’s fingers in his hair felt incredibly soothing.

“Thanks, Jehan, for taking care of me,” he mumbled.

“For you, Parnasse, anything,” Jehan replied earnestly, kissing the top of Montparnasse’s head.

*

The next visitors, to Montparnasse’s surprise, were none other than the members of the Patron-Minette.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. Though he addressed the question to the members of his gang, his eyes were on Jehan. The poet just shrugged and smiled.

“Jehan told us you were sick,” Babet replied.

“You told them?”

Jehan lifted their eyebrows. “I can ask them to leave,” they said.

Montparnasse shook his head. “No, it’s fine.” He grabbed a tissue and blew his nose. It made an almost wet noise. Montparnasse grimaced.

The Patron-Minette settled around the living room. Babet took the armchair, while Gueulemer sat on the floor, and Claquesous leaned against the wall (Jehan offered to get them chairs, but they refused).

“Why didn’t you mention it?” Claquesous asked. He was wearing a medical mask.

“It’s just the flu,” Montparnasse mumbled, then coughed. Jehan snorted.

“Why is it I don’t believe you?” Claquesous said, sounding amused. Montparnasse could only see his eyes, but he could tell he was grinning at him.

“You look like shit,” Gueulemer added.

“Thanks,” Montparnasse said dryly. He knew it had not been meant as a slight but a mere observation. He did feel like shit. His nose was deeply irritated, both inside and outside, and his face still hurt. He wasn’t his usual well-groomed self, sitting there in an outdated shirt, Jehan’s hand-knitted quilt across his lap.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you without makeup,” Claquesous added.

“My top priority right now is survival,” Montparnasse replied, followed by some rather violent coughing. Jehan rubbed his back soothingly.

“I brought some brioches,” Gueulemer said, as he produced a box and handed it to Montparnasse. “I thought they might make you feel better. Or at least might improve your mood.”

“Homemade?” Montparnasse asked, almost hopefully. He opened the box. The irresistible smell of cinnamon and glazed sugar wafted up.

“Of course.”

Had Montparnasse been feeling better, he might have hugged him. Or maybe that was just the illness talking. “Thank you,” he said. “Your homemade brioches are the best.”

“I also brought some cough drops,” Babet said. He placed a small box on the coffee table. “They’re made from Manuka honey, which apparently has great healing properties. I don’t know if they’re better than the stuff you can get at the pharmacy, but they are popular with my kids when they are sick.”

“And I have some kind of chewy ginger candy. It’s not much, but it’s also good for the throat,” Claquesous added, placing a package next to the box.

Montparnasse sneezed, then blew his nose. “Thanks, Babet, Claquesous.”

“I’m sure Parnasse will like them better than what Joly brought,” Jehan said.

“Don’t remind me,” Montparnasse moaned.

“What did the small doctor bring?” Babet asked.

Montparnasse closed his eyes as Jehan explained about the Chinese medicinal tea. Already he was tired from his day. His sinus was giving him a short respite, though the skin of his nose felt as if it was covered with a thin layer of crust from constantly blowing it. His throat was still irritated, and he was frustrated that after three days, he still sometimes coughed with enough intensity for his eyes to water and his body to shake.

Jehan absentmindedly traced circles on Montparnasse’s back. Montparnasse smiled despite everything. At least, there was Jehan. Not only had they taken care of him, but they’d done it with immense patience and attentiveness. Montparnasse counted himself lucky to have them in his life. He didn’t know how he would have survived without them.

*

The Patron-Minette stayed all afternoon. Because Montparnasse requested they not speak of anything work related (in order for Jehan to at least have plausible deniability), they ended up, of all things, doing small talk, catching up on the various aspects of their everyday lives (though Claquesous remained rather quiet). Despite his exhaustion and irritation towards his illness, Montparnasse was glad they were there. He thanked them as they left.

“I really don’t understand why you didn’t tell us,” Claquesous replied.

Montparnasse lifted an eyebrow. Claquesous did not appear like someone who enjoyed being remotely close to the ill. He was, after all, wearing a medical mask.

“If you ever run out of cough drops, let me know,” Babet said. “I can always bring some more.” He shot Montparnasse a pointed look, and Claquesous and Gueulemer nodded.

Montparnasse smiled. “Thanks,” he replied, before dissolving, once more, into a coughing fit.

“You’ll survive,” Gueulemer said, giving him a rather strong pat on the back.

Montparnasse coughed again, but smiled.

*

“How long is the stupid flu going to last,” Montparnasse moaned as he burrowed his head in Jehan’s lap. He was tired of this, completely tired of feeling wretched and exhausted, of his nose burning from blowing it, of his throat aching, of the mucus, the coughing, and even the gagging. It seemed so long ago since he had had no blocked nose, no irritated throat, when he wasn’t always being interrupted by coughing, sneezing, or nose blowing. As the days passed, Montparnasse knew he was getting better, but only by small increments, and sometimes he would have a bad coughing fit or his nose would completely block, making him feel like any progress previously made was suddenly nulled. It made the day when he would fully recover seem so far away, almost unreachable.

“Well,” Jehan replied thoughtfully, “you haven’t had fever in a few days, which is good. You’ve also regained your appetite, and you definitely have more energy. You’re on the way towards recovery. You might be coughing for a while though. Sometimes coughs are difficult to get rid of.”

Montparnasse groaned. “It’s never going to end, is it,” he said morosely.

Jehan smiled. “Courage,” they said, as they bent down to kiss Montparnasse on the forehead. Have courage. “You will get better. And you won’t die in the process.”

Montparnasse said nothing, only huffed. He looked up into Jehan’s eyes. They twinkled with amusement, love, and caring. He loved those eyes, and had always loved them. They were soft and wide, giving Jehan an air of gentleness and innocence (though Montparnasse knew better). He felt the edges of his lips tugging upwards, and found himself smiling.

“If I get better,” he started. Jehan shot him a pointed look. “Fine. When I get better, I have something for you. I’m going to show you how grateful I am for all that you’ve done for me during the past few days. I’m going to thank you for everything, and I’m going to do it properly.”

Jehan smiled. “I can’t wait.”

[maleyanderecafe]

I read your post about YB, and I think that the reason why so many people in the fanbase are upset with his actions on Day 3 is because he doesn't behave as he was said to. Your Boyfriend has a blog that predates Day 3 by two and a half years. There's tons and tons of inconsistencies between his blog self and the game's. But it was stated there that despite everything, he does love Y/N and cares about their happiness, it's just that he also wants them to be happy with HIM.

I think you're mistaken on who wrote this post here since its by @videogamefandomdump, which is not at all written by me.

I've been following the original blog for quite a long time, basically when I started this blog in the first place (wow, has it really been two years already? 2020 feels like it didn't exist), so I'm pretty aware of what kind of stuff y0urb0yfriend usually entails. The general premise of the blog was essentially like Monkia from DDLC, where he loves the person on the other side of the screen, essentially loving everyone and only you at the same time (if that makes sense). A lot of it was his yearning to be with you, but not being able to because of the fact that he's... well, fictional. The tumblr itself is a lot more nsfw than the demo so far, filling in stuff like knife carvings, his past as emo, tongue, and dick size amongst other things, and also featured another character, y0urgirlfriend, who is similar to Peter, but not quite the same. There are some other things in there as well, but it's generally the premise of it.

I actually played the game fully for the first time (well, more like got my friend Cherry to do it for me while she streamed it, haha), since originally when it first came out, I only played one route of it before peacing out. It definitely is much different than the blog so far, with ybf being in the real world instead of being behind a screen. The game more or less comes down to the responses you have to him, whether you decide to lean into the more romantic implications, push him away or even berate his actions, which each giving him a different response. There's no sign of fourth-wall-breaking so far. though I do imagine that it will be a feature in the future, considering that's what the original tumblr was about. It was also surprisingly less horny than I thought it was going to be (I blame all the ybf fanart, since they depict him more as a dom for the most part, wherein reality according to his tumblr posts he's actually more of a switch, but whatever, I guess. Everyone really is horny for him, haha.), though I imagine since it's a horror erotic VN that erotic content will be coming up pretty soon. There are some easter eggs that allude more to the original posts, such as having disgust when being named Peter (which is what his creator called him, and he hates his creator), as well as mentioning yourgirlfriend and naming the creator's name itself will also yield a different reaction. I also recall that in his game a lot of the other characters will vie for the main character's attention, so I assume ybf will go straight on yandere for that, haha. For obvious reasons, I only know what happens on Day 1, so that's what I'll be basing everything onto, and everything else is simply speculation on my part.

Obviously, the post you're referring to is simply just an opinion, but I personally don't agree with the post either. From what I understand, the post mostly talks about how Peter is a bad person because of his actions of being a yandere/stalker and that he doesn't care about your feelings. Yanderes by definition are characters that are "sickly in love", meaning that do care about their loved one. The fact that these characters do things that are upsetting to their loved ones doesn't mean that they don't love them, but rather their methods of doing so are often not the best way to go about it. I'm assuming that by Day 3, ybf kidnaps the player, which is pretty standard for yandere stuff to be honest. I think that most people who play this game or understand the concept of yanderes do know that these kinds of behaviors are not good, but we enjoy the ideas in fiction or use them as a way to cope or relate to them (again, I relate this to how people will create murder ocs- obviously murder is bad, but the concept of them in fiction is interesting. This is generally how I think about yandere's). I also don't agree that sex is the only thing that ybf wants considering that if that were the case, he probably could find someone else more willing or easier to do it with him. That plus the content on the ybf tumblr very clearly shows that he also likes the romantic parts of the relationship and not simply just the sexual parts (though, that is a bonus).

Again though, that post is just an opinion, so it's fine to agree or disagree with it. I just thought it was interesting to read what kind of thoughts others hand on the game itself (that and I sort of absentmindedly reblogged it along with all the other fan art I did that day, so that's how it was.) Anyways, I hope that helps with my opinion on what that post is about.

[ginger-and-mint]

Hey, I'm wondering if you have any advice on writing kink stuff? Basically, it feels like I'm writing the same story repeatedly. Coming up with stuffing scenarios that both make sense, and aren't just retreads, is really hard. It probably doesn't help that a) I don't have much writing experience, b) my interests are really narrow, and c) I have no imagination, lol. How do you keep stuff fun and interesting? (Jsyk, I sent this to Tiny as well, I love both your blogs 😊)

Hey, anon! Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoy my and Tiny’s content and I’m flattered to be asked for advice! ♡ I have a lot of thoughts about this, so I’ll do my best to boil them down into something useful.
 ^^

Since you mentioned being pretty new to writing, I broke up my advice into a few different “stages,” starting with things that are easy to implement and moving to things that might feel more manageable as you get more comfortable with writing. Under a cut because Real Heckin Long.


Stage One — Don’t Sweat It

This might sound corny and unhelpful, but I genuinely think that especially when you’re first starting out, it’s best not to put pressure on yourself to write the world’s most original stories. Write to please your inner fiend and nobody else! If repeated versions of the same story continue to light your fire, there’s no shame in embracing that.

Doing this will honestly help you with originality in the long-term anyway, because you’re giving yourself the freedom to learn more about what specifics you really enjoy in kink writing. Later on, you can use that knowledge to put new twists on those specifics and invent new scenarios.

Stage Two — Stuffing Scenario Cheat Sheet

I completely agree that believable stuffing scenarios are really difficult to invent. What’s realistic is a matter of opinion of course, but for me, this is a quick breakdown of logical reasons for a character to overeat. If you’re getting tired of using the same justification in your fics, try picking something new from this list:

Accidental stuffing:

Character is distracted by something during the meal

Character eats so fast they don’t realize when they’re full

Character has been hungry for awhile and overdoes it when they finally get to eat

Reluctant intentional stuffing (motivated by external circumstances):

Character feels social pressure to keep eating **

The food will go to waste otherwise **

Eating contests / challenges **

The character is trying to bulk up

Enthusiastic intentional stuffing (because the character wants to):

Character just enjoys the feeling of being full

Character and/or their partner(s) have a stuffing kink

Character has temporary access to good food and is indulging while they can

Fantasy Shenanigans:

Side effects of being a magical creature (e.g. a werewolf eating too much for their human form to handle, a vampire needing to feed all at once, etc.)

Magic that causes a character to overeat (e.g. enchanted food, curses, potions, etc.)

Magic that requires a full stomach and/or extra energy to work (e.g. my di-mage spell mechanics, the antidote in this fic of Tiny’s, etc.)

[free space because fantasy lets you set the boundaries of what’s realistic, so your imagination is really the limit!]

** If you’re aiming for realism, I would be careful of these scenarios. In my opinion, they can be done believably, but often are not. Some things I would look out for:

Most foods can easily be stored for later, so if you want to use the “avoiding waste” trope, make sure that you’re either in a setting without access to refrigeration or that the food is something that genuinely wouldn’t keep until the next day (or at least would be way less tasty after a night in the fridge.)

Social pressure works best in scenarios with people that the to-be-stuffed character 1) doesn’t know very well and 2) wants to impress or keep face around (e.g. formal events, business dinners, first dates that involve food, meeting their partner’s family, etc.)

Loving friends, family, and partners don’t pressure or guilt people into overeating! Characters stuffing themselves because their loved ones are really insistent that they have to taste-test everything or act so disappointed because they went to all this work on some extravagant feast always ring at best false and at worst abusive to me. What kind of loving relationship is it if you don’t feel safe to say “no thanks, I’m full?” That’s not to say social pressure with loved ones can’t be done well, but it usually indicates some kind of character flaw (i.e. an inability to say no and/or a steamroller-y personality) that in my opinion, has to be acknowledged by the fic’s end if you want the tone to stay light and fluffy.

Again, this may just be my opinion, but eating contests only come across as realistic with certain character personalities and in certain contexts. Like yeah, I can believe that a himbo with YouTuber Energy would take on a hot wing eating challenge in front of all his bros, but not so much that an otherwise self-respecting character would drop everything to eat themselves sick because a friend randomly challenged them.

Stage Three — Change Up Other Elements When Using Similar Tropes


Especially if you have narrow interests, it’s probably inevitable you’ll write same basic story structure over and over. I know I sure do! However, I would say that changing other elements of the narrative can give your writing an entirely different feel, turning it into a whole new story that will not feel like a simple retread to a reader.

One thing you can change up is setting. A lot of times kink writers will just plonk characters in the comfort of their own homes, which is valid — but setting hugely influences the atmosphere of a story, so the same Kink Plot will read really differently if it happens, say, at a campground or on a boat. Providing a rich setting can even become a feature of the kink itself. For example, setting your story at a lavish buffet could introduce an element of indulgence that hits you and/or readers differently than a story that involves casual takeout in the living room, even if the rest of the story is similar. Try bold settings! They’re fun!

Another element to vary is context. For example, the basic trope of “stress eating” would play out really differently if a character is about to go on an important mission vs. if they’re recovering from an emotionally difficult day; a story about about a character intentionally stuffing themselves will have a completely different flavor if they’ve been going hungry for awhile vs. they’ve been overeating all week; and so on.


Finally, consider changing up the focus. An easy way to do this is to switch up whether you’re writing from the POV of the stuffed character or a caretaker. You can also focus on different details of the stuffing — for example, lingering on how delicious the food looks and tastes vs. how the character feels as their stomach fills vs. physical details like whether they’re getting bloated or grumbly.

Stage Four — Connect to Character or Plot

The most surefire way to make kink stories distinct is to give the story an additional purpose besides just being kinky. This doesn’t have to be some big, extravagant plot (although it certainly can be) — it can be a simple as writing a kink story the way you usually would, and just finding something within it that you can use to reveal an aspect of your character.

Start with an ordinary kink scenario and try to dive a little deeper. For example:

Say you want to write a story about stress eating. Okay — what is the character stressed about?

Maybe you come up with something relatively simple and generic, like school. Okay, what about this character makes them so likely to be stressed out by school? Are they a perfectionist? Are they facing a lot of pressure from their family? Do they have a goal that requires excellent grades? Have they struggled with this subject in the past?

Let’s say you decide to go with perfectionism. Now, what scenes can you use to show this struggle? And optionally, can you give the character some kind of resolution by the story’s end?

And there you go! Your fic now not only has kink, but also shows how your character reacts in a certain situation.

Character especially is a treasure trove of uniqueness, in my opinion, because well-developed characters react differently to the same scenario. Stories feel more original because even if a reader has read this exact same plot before, they will not have seen how this particular person handles it. So one of the best ways to make fics distinct is to spend time developing your characters!

If the goal is to simply write solid distinct kinky stories, trying to create detailed plot is more work with lower return than investing in your characters, if you ask me. You have to enjoy the process of creating plots itself for it to be worth it. If that’s something you’re interested in, I have a whole load more thoughts about that -- but since this is already incredibly long, I’ll save that for a separate ramble if anyone is specifically interested.

---

I hope something in this huge infodump is helpful to you! Some of it may sound intimidating if you’re just starting out with kink writing, but it’s absolutely all something that can be worked up to. Please feel free to ask any follow-up questions if stuff I’ve written doesn’t make sense. Good luck with your writing, anon, and thanks for giving me an excuse to just go off. ^^’ ♡

[thyandrawrites]

You know sometimes I have the impression that the audience in MHA and the audience that reads MHA are alike.

For example the majority of the answers I saw regarding the development of Hawks and Endeavor are:

Endeavor: Redemption Without Forgiveness

Hawks: Pardon Without Redemption

If, for example, I can understand the lack of reaction from civilians to Hawks' actions, since the change and more criticism of the heroes comes in the long term, I am still quite disappointed with the lack of criticism from the majority of readers. who had a more omniscient view of the situation.

Anyway, it's just to say that I'm happy that you and some of the readers are more critical without loathing the characters.

I would also like to ask if you believe in Icarus theory and if so are there any takes that well explain this theory?

Mh, you're definitely not alone there, anon. There were times where I too considered the irony in the fact that a good portion of the fandom's standings on Hawks (and sometimes Endvr) tend to mirror the reactions from the civilians in the manga itself.

I think this can be easily explained away tho. Of course the readers should technically have an omniscient view on the themes of the story (and sometimes they do! I happen to follow all the right bloggers bc I rarely see bad takes nowadays, only complaints about bad takes for the most part). But, there's a but. And it's mostly Horikoshi's fault.

See, we get hints at the fact that hero society is shit very early on (most prominently in Stain's arc), but the first time we are actually shown the pov of an outcast, and the first time we see him in a sympathetic light, is with Shig during mva. Which only happens waaaaay later in the series. By that point, most of the audience is already firmly rooting for the main characters. So it's hard, by then, to welcome any sympathy for the villains, or to even concede that hero society isn't all it's cracked up to be. After all, even when Horikoshi tries to push forward that theme, he always does so clumsily and sometimes ineffectively. For example, framing Endvr to be an absolute shitbag but still making us cheer for him. Or framing Hawks as a villain when he kills Twice only for him to suffer no backlash at all from the public afterwards. how are you to think that the villains might just have a point about the corruption of hero society when the author himself doesn't want to commit fully to the idea that the heroes should work on their own flaws?

Anyway, I'm glad that my blog can provide some interesting content for you. I'm far from being unbiased but I try my best to read the series with regard for authorial intentions and themes.

As for the Icarus theory... Forgive me, I'm a little out of the loop since I put the manga on break. I'm not sure if a new theory is floating around or if you were referencing the original Icarus theory. I always believed Hawks to have a lowkey Icarus symbolism. I used to believe 1000% in op's points too, but then the war arc happened. I still think that Hawks will ultimately have a "fall", but I don't believe it involves a villain awakening anymore. I'm not sure what's the deal with Lady Nagant, but from what I parsed from the spoilers on my dash, I think she might've stolen that plot point from Hawks. So Horikoshi probably plans to do something different with him now (tho admittedly he's been retconned. It's pretty much a given that this plotline was originally his).

That said, idk what he's been up to as of late, and if that would change my prediction in any way... but imho for his character to make sense at this point, he needs to do something that goes against the greater good, and that can finally redeem him. Even if it's in his last moments. I see a huge death flag for him and I'm not even sure if he'll ever break out of his mindset tbh, but if he doesn't then what's the point of keeping him alive till now.

Plus, if Endvr gets redeemed by hopefully acting like a father and not a hero, I think it would make sense if Hawks got redeemed by finally acting like the boy who selflessly rescued people in need from a car crash, and not the utilitarian monster the Commission made him out to be. Ever since the war arc, Hawks has been paralleling Endvr as a corrupt hero from the top ten who refuses to see his own flaws while still preaching justice and heroism, so I think that for the manga to make sense, they both need to address the things they're trying so hard to run away from. In Hawks' case, I expect it to take the form of a self-sacrificial, selfless act because a hero who killed his negative foil doesn't have a big chance of making it out alive from the manga. But I could be wrong. Maybe he'll live and not change. Maybe he'll die and not redeem himself. Maybe Hori will say he's changed while he's still the same. It's all up in the air with how Hori has been writing things lately

[lozhashersay]

Well, well, well it's been a long time hasn't it!

I'm so sorry for neglecting this blog but so many things have been going on that I have been forced to make cut backs in areas I probably shouldn't have! But I'm making more time for me now, so in the words of Emperor Kuzco 'I'm back baby!'

Just a quick mention as well, I started up a sister blog for my Disney content which is a wee bit more active than this one, if you fancy a look into the mind of a Disney obsessed weirdo then go take a look at lozdoesdisney on Instagram!

What a brilliant film to come back to the world of reviews with! I have waited so long for new Ghostbusters content, as I'm sure has everybody else, and honestly I wasn't disappointed at all.

STOP NOW IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS!

ALRIGHTY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So we are approximately 30 years after the original Ghostbusters movie. Egon has recently passed away and we meet his family who he had left behind in both senses of that phrase. Focus is primarily on his Granddaughter Phoebe, she looks like him, she acts like him, and she's a bloody badass, no wonder she is our leading lady.

Now what I disliked about the first half of the movie is the fact that the Spengler kin have basically disowned Egon due to his absence. They claim not to have known him and painted him in a very negative light. I find this unbelievable, obviously the plot point is he ran away to make everyone safe from the wrath of Gozer and that is in keeping with his character, and I know that Callie is only saying that rightfully as any upset daughter would if you want to blame someone for leaving without understanding why. But surely she knew enough, especially as she knew who her dad was, to know he wouldn't have left her in the lurch in cold blood? Whatever.

The other bit which doesn't sit right with me is the fact that I didn't see Slimer once. He is an integral part of the GB brand and unless I missed it he wasn't in it for a second.

Otherwise I found the narrative quite compelling and entertaining. Seemed a little slow but that was purely down to needing to set an accurate picture of where we are and who we are with or else the explosive ending wouldn't have been nearly as climactic as it was.

I was due to see Afterlife on opening night but went out to a work meal instead so I was absolutely chomping at the bit Friday and booked the last screening. My poor brother got dragged along but he enjoyed it just as much as I did. High praise indeed especially as he has only seen the first film. I found myself explaining some relevant plot points in the car on the way home, like the fact Egon didn't have any dialogue was because Harold Ramis had died in real life, he didn't realise that was the reason we were missing a Ghostbuster, nor that was the reason I was bauling my eyes out during the final sequence. Goddamn Ghostbusters had no business making me cry like that.

I felt the dynamic between Phoebe and Trevor was lacking a little, the few times they interacted didn't overly seem like they were siblings until we started moving towards the end. There isn't much of an age difference between them for the movie but a huge difference in personality, but even then I thought I would see some bickering or teasing but instead it was straight up indifference and awkward interactions. My brother and I are awkward with each other, but it's usually followed up by a gesture of niceness or straight up sibling rivalry, we didn't see that on screen.

Gary and Callie on the other hand, woah. Get me a romance like that, banterships are the new mascots of healthy relationships and those two are onto a win. They are totally themselves and don't hide it, and Gary already loves the kids so he's a winner, not to mention the fact that he is a straight up nice guy (as expected from Paul Rudd) and Callie deserves some stability and true love like that. My only grievance with Rudd's character is his polar opposites. He did a great job of combining scientist with hot sorority guy but seemed a bit off. I got dick vibes as he was marching around that Walmart and putting horror films on for 12 year olds, he seemed like the stereotypical American jerk type but then has this great brain and amazing personality. Great this shows a depth as don't judge a book by it's cover and all, but still a weird thing as I felt like I was watching two different characters depending on the plot device. I feel like Gary is the type of guy to go smoke weed in his car on his lunch break only to go home and smash out an award winning thesis on tectonic plates and it's involvement in paranormal happenings.

What I loved most about this film is the parallel it draws to the first movie. Gozer, the gate keeper and key master. The dialogue which is repeated in those crucial scenes. The costumes, the set. They were bloody faithful to the original and god the nostalgia was killing me. This was a movie dedicated to the memory on our childhood and surpassed expectations at every point. I had an idea of what I was walking into and I was wrong. I thought I was going to see a film with a new threat, a tribute to our boys AND gals but more so a wave at a memory but moving on to a totally new story and the inevitable breaking up of a team in order to pass the mantle. I was not expecting a completely valid continuation of story, a beautiful ending, a team united to include, NOT pass on to the next gen, and a chance to worship and say goodbye at the same time. This was a creation worthy of our time, this was brilliantly done.

I'm not going to go too much into the ending as that is one spoiler too many and I'd be pissed if I had read it on the internet 3 days after the film's release. But what I will say is yes the heroes return in all their glory. Wasn't as long as I wished it could have been, but it was just as awesome and left me with the intense desire to binge watch the original movies the second I got home. It also broke my heart, the apologies which I know from research on all the actors extend to the real world and things they wished they could have said but never got the chance, the tribute to my favourite Ghostbuster and the fact the film hadn't even finished and it stated his dedication. I was a mess, I sat there sobbing silently for a good ten minutes and my poor baby brother had no idea why until I explained. With this in mind I implore you to go and see this movie especially if you are a fan, just for closure if anything else. It was a final nostalgic trip to pay respects and say goodbye to our childhood heroes. As let's face it, even if you weren't a kid from the 80s Ghostbusters have still found a way to enter the lives of every single person here to date. The movies are a legacy which here here to stay.

All in all, I give Ghostbusters: Afterlife an 8/10. If I am being truly honest with myself it was a little disjointed, a teensy bit rushed, but completely sugar coated by nostalgia so nobody minds. In my humble opinion it was not long enough to fit in all the pieces and I would have loved to see more of the original team, but it wasn't about them, not really. But I sure am happy with what we got.

Just finally I want to talk about sequel potential. We've got an open ending where naturally more films could come. But these would be films for the new generation of Ghostbusters and this is the reason I am in two minds. I full believe the mantle should be passed and the legacy continues. But at the same time I don't want it to, this is perfect as it is, this should be a stop, we have said goodbye in a fitting way as we are all grown. I just don't want the magic to be spoilt but at the same time would love an expansion. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this. I just don't think it would be right to have a future in this universe without the original team.

Well thanks for welcoming me back lovelies, let me know what your thoughts are in the comments and I'll see ya next time!

[ivory-sunflower]

Arty Art Things ✨

Hellooo!

I've decided to post some of the arty things I've done either recently or in the last few years, well the pieces I'm somewhat proud of at least. All my posts tend to be a lot more wordy than they need to be but hey it's what I do here!

Conchúr White

Anyone one who's been on this blog for a bit will have probably have seen me talk about this lovely Irish fella. The pencil drawing is actually a year old as of yesterday, I only know that because screenshots of me flipping out about Conchúr following me on twitter popped up in my memories yesterday. I think I'd sent it to him at about 3 in the morning (I was not in a good head space at that point in time), so probably not what he was expecting to see when he opened his phone in the morning aha

The biro version is much more recent: I got bored while sat at my desk and doing research about university courses, saw a biro, saw my old drawing of Conchúr, had an idea. I revisited my GCSE art techniques and here we are. Again, I put this up on Twitter and now (at the the time I'm writing this) when you google "Conchúr White" it's the third top image of him which is a bit mad really. I think I spent all of about 20 minutes on Conchúr but another 45 minutes on the words behind him. The words are the names of the songs on his EP 'Bikini Crops', he doesn't just really love the idea of Channing Tatum driving him around at night in a daisy print bikini... Well maybe he does but what he does in his spare time is none of my business...

TechDif

So I mentioned that the pencil drawing of Conchúr came from a rough patch in my mental health and this one is no different! In fact this one came from an even worse circumstance so we love to see it. I had a bad, bad time in July and this started as a way of distracting myself from what was going on in my head. Without it, I can't honestly say I'd still be here so even if the final product of this had been a terrible mess I would still love it for keeping me alive. However, it did not turn out to be a terrible mess!

Now that the origin of this is out the way, where do I start with TechDif? Unlike Conchúr, I haven't really talked about them on here (unless you count one brief post about Citation Needed) before so I guess I'll do it here. The Technical Difficulties are a wonderful group of 4 British fellas who have had their fair share of fun online and even before. They did a radio show at university together, which went on to become their Reverse Trivia Podcast, later moving on to a panel show called 'Citation Needed': and a game called 'Two of These People Are Lying'. All of which I would thoroughly reccomend, they're one of my go to things when I'm having a rough time. All 4 of them are excellent! Tom Scott (red top, blue jeans on the picture) has his own YouTube channel which does content aside from TechDif. If you're quite nerdy and like science, linguistics, computers, or any number of other things you may enjoy Tom's channel. He is probably best described as "The Moderator" of the group, much like a tired teacher he tries desperately to keep everyone on track with what they're meant to be doing, but usually it does not end well for him. Then we have Matt Gray (space top, holding an ice cream) who also has a channel away from TechDif stuff, he does techy electronic things and has a series called 'Will it Soft Serve?' where he puts all kinds of strange things through a soft serve machine. Matt brings a very specific energy to TechDif and I can't fully describe what that vibe is but I love it. Matt and Tom also share a YouTube channel where TOTPAL is posted and they had a series called 'The Park Bench'. Moving on to everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan (SATIRE hoodie, glasses) and can I just say, what a fella he is! He's just excellent! He is the one that will argue and rip into Tom the most (not in a malicious way) and hilarity ensues. There are some episodes where he is absolutely on it, getting all the points and others where he very clearly has no idea and that's where some of his funniest quotes come from. Given how badly I was doing at the time I made this, his response to it on Twitter was so so lovely. I specifically remember one tweet where he said I'd made him happy and although it was probably a flippant comment, it just made feel alright for a bit. Yeah I might be feeling awful right now, but I've made someone else happy so that's a nice feeling. Then last but certainly not least, we have Chris Joel (buffalo check shirt, beard)! I would be lying if I said he isn’t my favourite... His sense of humor is the one I vibe with most, he can get rather dramatic in parts and can chat bollocks like a champion. He has absolutely no online presence away from TechDif and, like Rens from Temples, I fully believe he’s a cryptid and lives off in a tree somewhere. 

The picture took me about 4 days to complete, well 4 nights because I did most of it between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7a.m. - I remember watching the sun come through my window each morning. It’s made up of lots of little pieces, all cut out and stuck on; even the sky and hills are made of separate pieces of paper. Nothing was actually drawn on the piece of paper it’s all stuck on, it’s not how I usually do things but if I messed up one little but I could just redraw it rather than ruining the whole thing. The most tedious parts to make were Chris’ shirt because I had to draw each square individually and then join the as well, and cutting out the ban-hammer in the bottom right was surprisingly hard. Every single detail of the picture is a reference to the podcast/shows, I still have the plan sketch and reference list knocking about somewhere. I listened to a lot of true crime videos while making it to the point that certain parts remind me of different cases: the brandy now reminds me of Peter Tobin, and the big spiral thing reminds me of Tim McLean (very harrowing case) - sorry that fact is a bit morbid but interesting nonetheless. 

I did post this for a little bit back in July, but I received some rather awful messages so I took it down. Generally, Tom Scott/TechDif fans are lovely but there’s been a few that have taken a disliking to me for some reason so I’m hoping they don’t resurface again. I’m in a better head space now though, so even if they do I’m more equipped to deal with it this time.

Hozier

This was a quick sketch I did in April, I was getting bored with lockdown and decided to summon the bog man himself. There’s not really much more backstory than that, no poor mental health story, no fun twitter story - he’s just here. He’s vibing. I will say I’m particularly proud of his nose, I just think it’s one of the best noses I’ve ever drawn. His hand is okay, but I think that the hands on my Conchúr drawings are better. So there is the Hozi-Boi...

The Corpse Bry

I’ve talked about Bry on here before as well, I love him, he’s excellent, top lad. He is a living Tim Burton character, he’s 6′6, very skinny, and his legs are longer than my will to live. I was watching ‘The Corpse Bride’ a few weeks ago and suddenly had an idea and so ‘The Corpse Bry’ came to be. I gave him a little panda friend because the panda has always been his animal - he used to wear a panda beanie all the time and his album had a panda on the cover. Again, there’s not really a fun story behind this one, I guess it’s somewhat fun because it’s the first art I made after finishing my psychology exams in October so it was nice to actually have the time to draw.

James Bagshaw

Ginger talking about Temples for the third post in a row? it’s more likely than you think! I did this one last week, I’d had a bit of a wobbly day and had group therapy on Teams in the evening and I just couldn’t concentrate on what was going on and I ended up doodling Mr James E. Bagshaw, the glitter crying fraggle man himself. It’s a bare-bones drawing that I could definitely work into more but I’m happy with it as it is to be honest. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit and add the individual bits of fringe to his jacket, just thinking about doing that makes me tired. Maybe I’ll get around to drawing the whole band at some point...

Alice in “Wonderland”

This one is from about 5(?) years ago, it’s not my typical style and was a “study” based on another artists work (basically i just had to copy this fellas work). I’ll be honest, this one has a sketchy backstory that I won’t go in to because it’s not exactly a nice one, and because of that I also won’t say who the artist is that it’s based on. Despite this, I’m still really proud of this one and I’m so sad that I never got this piece back after I got taken out the class. I’ve considered trying this style again, I’ve even joked about doing another Conchúr drawing in this style as a nod to my progression through GCSE art, eventually leading to Conchúr drawn in ink on music manuscript and stained with neon paint and dyes - it would be quite the project!

So this has been quite a lengthy post so apologies about that but life goes on. Similar to the vinyl post, I’ll probably add to this as and when I make more art. Even if no one is reading these posts, I’m enjoying making them so that’s the main thing. It’s just nice to document things and the feelings that go with them. 💕

~ Love Ginger xx 

29/11/2020

[psyclownsis-a-blog]

Can you elaborate a little on how Joker helps Harley because given their canon history it really doesn't seem like he does more than stunt her mental growth and harm her

okay well the thing you have to keep in mind when i’m talking about this stuff is that i’m talking specifically about my interpretation of harley and my interpretation of her relationship with joker, not harley in general as a character, and you also have to keep in mind that there is a difference between harley being emotionally stable and happy and harley overcoming her mental illness and living a healthy life with healthy relationships. as for canon interpretations of her relationship with joker, they’ve had just as many fun moments as they have un-fun moments, and the way their relationship is written varies massively from series to series. you can argue all day one way or another about their relationship using nothing but canon evidence and you won’t get any closer to having 100% agreement on whether it’s good or bad (“bad and acceptable/enjoyable” or “bad and must be stopped immediately” are probably more accurate terms). something else to keep in mind is that i am talking specifically about joker helping harley come back to baseline after some kind of mental breakdown or upset, as opposed to joker helping harley become a better person or something (he doesn’t). so i’m? not? really sure if you’re genuinely asking or trying to be passive aggressive? but either way i’m gonna give you a genuine answer¯\_(ツ)_/¯

harley is delusional, her delusions are extremely pervasive and warp her entire grasp of reality, reality as she knows it is built on the concept of Good Guys and Bad Guys that joker instilled in her when he was her patient, okay, we’ve established this. the factors we have to look at to answer your question are:

harley’s mental illness and how it affects her daily life

joker’s relationship with harley/joker’s feelings for harley/the revenge arc

how being around joker affects harley’s mental health

how people other than joker tend to handle her mental illness and emotional needs

1. okay so! we’ve already talked about that first one a lot, but i’m gonna talk about it a little bit more just to clarify. the Good Guy/Bad Guy delusions were shaped and fostered by joker when she was his doctor (however, they did not originate with him; the best way i can explain it is that she/her pre-joker trauma planted the seed of her own delusions and he watered those seeds until they bloomed), but i don’t think he intended for them to become so strong, and he certainly didn’t intend to have to deal with her delusional ass for presumably the rest of his life. regression as a coping mechanism is also something joker tends to encourage in her, but it is something she was already doing before she met him. both of these things contribute to her inability or unwillingness to fully comprehend death/her inability to fully understand that she is hurting people, but that issue was initially shaped by trauma that occurred mostly outside of her experiences with joker (guy kopski’s death and arnold wesker’s death). these issues manifest as a regressed and childish persona: she has a very simplistic, childlike worldview, and a very simplistic, childlike resistance to unhappiness. on the level of daily life, this puts her at odds with some people, because they require her to act like an adult and take responsibility for her actions (ie, batman telling her she needs to be serious because “this isn’t a game” or something like that). joker is perfectly content to let her act however she wants as long as it doesn’t interfere with his own work/plans/whatever, so in that sense, he “helps” because he doesn’t challenge her worldview. this is not a healthy dynamic at all, but it’s a dynamic that allows harley to function happily within the parameters of her delusions and psychosis.

2. which brings me to the second point: joker and harley have been together on and off for about seven years at this point in my blog-canon timeline. they know each other better than anyone else. they can rely on each other. it hasn’t always been pretty, and it has certainly never been a healthy relationship, but they are more or less constants in each other’s lives. the fact that they have a relatively stable relationship at this point is entirely due to the revenge arc. the revenge arc takes place after the events of mad love and after harley’s recuperation time with poison ivy and catwoman. once she had recovered to mostly fighting-fit, harley took off, kidnapped joker, and spent several weeks methodically torturing him and inflicting every wound on him that he’d ever inflicted on her before dropping him off half dead at the gcpd. she was doing this out of anger, yes, but it wasn’t just anger. if it was just anger, she would have killed him. she still loved him. (is that healthy? no! this is fiction! relationships in fiction do not have to be healthy or unhealthy to be well-written or well-developed or interesting or even enjoyable! you can enjoy something in fiction while recognizing that it is unacceptable in reality and not wanting it to ever be reality! for example: zombie apocalypse scenarios!) her reasoning was that if he could go through all that and still want to be with her– if he felt the same way about their relationship as she did– then she would go back to him and they’d figure things out. if not, then she’d leave him in the dust. after some time, he did come back to her, and they’ve been (mostly) equal partners in crime ever since. their relationship is tumultuous and unhealthy, yes, but it’s more or less a constant in both their lives. they’re used to relying on each other and working with each other– they feel at home with each other in ways they rarely feel with other people. so in that sense, joker “helps” harley because they have a very well-established rapport, and he provides her with (relative) constancy and the sense of having a home she belongs to.

3. harley thinks and acts differently with joker than she does with other people. harley desperately needs to be liked and accepted, and in order to achieve that, she often compartmentalizes and puts on different “faces” with different people. (every human being on the planet does this, whether they realize it or not; it’s called facework and you probably have it to thank in part for getting your job, starting your relationships, and a bazillion other things). being with him, and thus being exposed to his mindset and manifestos, pushes her to adopt a more violent and less empathetic face. that being said, being with him encourages her to fall deeper into her psychosis, to view the world in extremely simple and child-like terms. she doesn’t have to think about who she is as a person or what she deserves or what she’s truly capable of doing; she can just fall into this old familiar role. and this role fits her. this role was created for herself, by herself. so in this sense, joker “helps” her by not putting her in situations where she feels some kind of internal struggle, which can lead to mental upset as i have discussed before.

3.5. note: being with poison ivy pushes harley to be a better person and adopt a less destructive and more empathetic face. joker may “help” harley by not challenging her at all, but ivy could help harley much more by constructively challenging her. however, their relationship (again, as i interpret it) does have obstacles to this end, and those will be discussed in the next bullet point.

4. people other than joker tend to react to her mental illness and emotional needs very poorly. they often expect her to be able to support herself completely on an emotional front, to function perfectly fine when alone on a mental front, and essentially seem to believe that harley is under some kind of evil influence from the joker which will magically remove itself with zero fallout once they break up. let me make this perfectly clear: harley had mental health problems long before she met joker. he did not somehow “make her crazy”; she had been prone to neuroticism and dramatic mood swings ever since she was a child, and the more severe psychosis she has today had been developing from the time of guy kopski’s death, several months before she ever met the joker. while the joker did influence the final shape and nature of harley’s mental illness, he was not at all the cause of it, and thus, his presence in or absence from her life is not going to dictate her ability to function. it is also worth noting that, due to her mental state, she would have fixated on anyone the way she fixated on joker-- she needed for someone to take care of her and make her feel part of something the way guy kopski did--, developed the same type of delusions and psychosis, and turned to a life of crime. all joker did was provide harley with an opportunity to act out the way she wanted to. so! that addressed, let’s move on to how people other than joker tend to handle her mental illness and emotional needs: most notably, batman, bruce wayne, poison ivy, and catwoman.

batman. batman constantly exploits her mental illness and her emotional weaknesses. while this is understandable as a way for the hero to get the upper hand in his conflicts with the villain, that does not make it okay, and it certainly does not do anything to make harley’s lifestyle healthier. batman does not come from a perspective of wanting to help harley. batman comes from a perspective of wanting to hurt and disorient harley enough that he can take her out quickly and easily. this happens so often that his go-to method for handling harley at this point seems to be “if i can’t take her out within the first three hits, i’m going to start pushing buttons until she breaks down”. it’s cruel. it’s unhealthy. it pushes her further and further down the rabbit hole of “i am just a Bad Guy doing my job and the Good Guys take things way too far and make everything hard for everyone else”. batman reacts in incredibly negative ways to her mental illness, and he dismisses her emotional needs entirely in order to reach his end goal of catching joker or ivy or whoever harley’s working with, seemingly with no care over how his actions are going to affect her mental or physical health. additionally, he justifies these actions-- which, personally, i classify as going past the realm of standard hero/villain damage and into the realm of straight up abuse-- by victim blaming her for her own psychosis and drastic emotional needs (both of which are almost entirely the result of some kind of trauma or neglect in her life), essentially, if not literally, saying “normally, i wouldn’t be this mean to somebody, but since she’s boning my greatest enemy, she must be insane, and we’ve been doing this for so long that she must be a lost cause, and since joker’s not here, i’m just gonna take out all my rage on her, and like, if she didn’t want me to do this, she should just stop being mentally ill and doing things in ways that are dictated by her mental illness and unfulfilled emotional needs”. (see: mad love, where he manipulates her into calling the joker even though he knows it will certainly result in her being hurt, and then does absolutely nothing to address the fact that joker pushed her out of a 4-6 story window which probably killed her. like, i’m not trying to be a villain apologist here, that’s the last thing i want, but that is? a really shitty thing for batman to do? and if he didn’t treat harley like that over and over again i would say it was super out of character for him to (a) let it happen in the first place and (b) not seem to care if it killed her at all? but he does treat her that way? repeatedly? constantly? i’ve made a post about it before and this is already getting super long so i’m not gonna list all the other times he pulls this shit on her but like. trust me when i say “batman exploiting harley’s mental illness in ways he knows will get her hurt and then not caring about how badly hurt she gets and justifying it with the grossest victim blaming logic” is pretty much the go-to routine for their fights now.)

bruce wayne. yes, bruce and batman are the same person, but harley doesn’t (consciously) now that, and the two personas react to her mental illness in drastically different ways. batman comes from a perspective of violent and impulsive exploitation, but bruce comes from a perspective that’s... well... almost a calmer and more calculated exploitation. does bruce want to help her shape up re-enter society? yes. does bruce put personal investment into helping harley do that? sometimes, yes. is he doing it more or less out of the goodness of his own heart? yes, absolutely. but here’s the thing: bruce only tries to help harley once harley is no longer perceived a threat to batman. bruce’s good will towards harley is entirely conditional. he has left her to rot in arkham just as much as, if not more than, he has come to her aid about parole. he follows the fallacy that joker has some kind of evil influence on her, and that once that influence is removed, she’ll be perfectly normal. that’s not how it works. a good example of this is in the detective comics issue where harley and batman team up to defeat ventriloquist ii: bruce, as a member of arkham’s board, denies harley parole at the beginning of the comic, despite her being clearly desperate to prove she’s ready to re-enter society. later, as batman, he has no sympathy for her mourning of the original ventriloquist or her anger that his title and m.o. has been taken by someone else-- not even with the knowledge that the original ventriloquist was her only friend in arkham, and were it not for him, she probably would have committed suicide. it’s not until the very end of the comic, after harley has acknowledged that arnold wesker was a criminal and turns herself back into arkham-- essentially, after she submits to batman as the moral standard who is always right in his eyes (not “after she admits that she has made poor decisions and is trying to atone for her actions as a criminal” or “after she explains to him that her perception of morality may be different but that does not mean it is entirely wrong and invalid”, both of which she does if i’m remembering correctly, but “after she submits to him as the moral standard who is always right in his eyes” by acknowledging wesker’s villainy and not resisting when he brings her back to arkham). again: bruce’s actions do fall into a pattern that is more or less default for hero/villain dynamics, but given the context of these interactions and the way they repeat over and over again, his actions begin to move outside the realm of standard hero/villain interactions and into the realm of abuse.

poison ivy. ivy loves harley! harley loves ivy! that does not change the fact that they both have their own individual problems that can foster an unhealthy relationship dynamic at times! ivy wants harley to break away from joker entirely because ivy has been in an abusive relationship (jason woodrue) and broken out of that abusive relationship and understands both how difficult it can be and how much better your life will be if you do get out. that’s awesome! that’s great! ivy loves harley and she wants to see harley grow as a person, to be more independent, to be stronger emotionally. those are all honorable and good and altruistic and healthy things for ivy to want for harley. however, in order for harley to achieve that, she needs someone who understands that the joker isn’t just her partner, he’s part of her backstory that cannot be erased. she won’t ever be able to leave him behind and say “i wish i never met him” or “i am what i am because of me and he had nothing to do with it”, and she would never want to, because it simply isn’t true. but, that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t ever want to leave him behind, period. the problems with harley and ivy’s relationship stem from ivy’s inability to understand the full extent of harley’s relationship with and feelings for the joker; thus, when harley expresses something to the extent of “this man was a huge part of my life and it wasn’t super horrible and it made me who i am so i’m not going to dismiss it and may even remember it fondly”, ivy hears something like “i owe this man my life and because of my perceived debt to him for ‘creating’ me i am reluctant to completely break away from him”. so ivy tries to force harley to cut joker out of her life, which harley can’t do, and since ivy does not understand the full extent of harley’s relationship with joker, she can’t provide adequate emotional support if harley needs it in the process of breaking away from him, and it is just. a huge mess. and i hope and pray with all my sapphic heart that one day harley and ivy will sit down and talk frankly and get this all out in the open so they can live happily ever after without joker coming in to fuck everything up. or ivy/harley/joker happens. like-- i’m not picky. i just want harley to be happy. but yeah, anyway, back to what i was saying: ivy reacts to harley’s mental illness and emotional needs pretty well, except when it comes to stuff about joker, which comes up a lot, and so whenever they come close to making any progress they kind of sabotage themselves and it all falls apart.

catwoman. selina and harley’s dynamic here is pretty similar to ivy and harley’s in this sense, i think, except that selina seems generally content to live and let live wrt harley and joker as long as he/his relationship with harley doesn’t become a problem in her own life. the problems with selina and harley come from harley being unable to reconcile selina’s gray morality with her own Good Guys vs. Bad Guys worldview. selina may not understand harley’s psychosis or her relationship with joker entirely, but she doesn’t have the same bias that ivy does about it, and that allows selina to be more supportive of harley emotionally. however, selina and harley have had various fights and falling outs over the years, and given harley’s mindset, it’s easy for harley to convince herself that selina is either 100% A Bad Guy And Safe To Be Around or 100% A Good Guy Who Is A Traitor And Deserves To Die. it also doesn’t help that harley sees selina’s relationship with batman almost the same way selina sees her relationship with joker: acceptable as long as the man remains at arm’s length, because if he gets too close, the woman will choose him over her friends. the basic issue between selina and harley, i think, is that selina does not address and often does not acknowledge harley’s relationship with joker until it becomes a problem, and by then, it is no longer a discussion, it is selina telling harley what her options are. harley sees this as a double standard, given selina’s relationship with batman, and from there it is very easy for her to see selina as a Good Guy in disguise and deem them enemies. it’s not something selina does; it’s harley’s inability to process what selina does in a healthy way. (note: imo, selina has every right to handle harley and joker’s relationship this way, and she is one of very few people in harley’s life who provide her this kind of “me or him” discipline in a way that’s not an ultimatum. she lets harley do her thing and she doesn’t want to be involved in that thing and when that thing is over she and harley can get back together again, and as long as that thing doesn’t infringe on selina’s life, she doesn’t really pay it any mind. compared to harley’s other relationships, that’s actually a pretty healthy dynamic.)

so! wowza! this got really long! now you see why it was in my drafts for months on end! to summarize: i am talking here specifically about joker helping harley return to baseline operations after some kind of mental upset, not about joker helping harley on a more holistic level, because he really doesn’t. however, there is a difference between him not helping her and him actively sabotaging her. he does not actively sabotage her (anymore). joker and harley have known each other for the better part of a decade, and they know each other better than anyone else; they have an established rapport and they are essentially each other’s home. because of this, joker often understands her mental illness and emotional needs better than others, and is better able to give her what she needs in regards to grounding and support after a mental breakdown. many people in harley’s life react to her mental illness and emotional needs very poorly or even exploit it for their own ends, or they may unsuccessfully try to support her because they do not understand her needs. this is not to say that everyone except joker is terrible at helping harley recover, nor is it to say that joker is the only one who understands harley’s mental illness and emotional needs-- for example, jonathan crane has known harley since she was in college, and given his profundity in psychiatry, he’s probably better at helping her recover than joker is. arnold wesker, when he was alive, also helped her just as much if not more than joker does. ivy could help harley much more than joker-- on all levels-- if she and harley addressed the miscommunications and misunderstandings between them.

i hope this makes sense and i hope it wasn’t too hard to read orz and thank you for sending this question and the other ones before it, they were very involved and have made me delve into harley’s character much deeper than i have been lately. peace dude ✌