#more like hero of the yeet

[local-limebug]

jason todd has so many underrated canon love interests. essence, isabel, artemis, and rose are all characters i love with him. like those are good ships. why is everyone ignoring them?

[disastersteps]

you may not be me, i may not be you, but we're one and the same.

[cpt-bananaboat]

How in the absolute flying fuck did I do this-

[bestshipsmackdown]

Did you like the ending ?

Oui oui

I kinda am a little bit tuckered out on save the world stakes so now I’m watching Toradora! because they took Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun off of Netflix and this was a suggested anime for people who liked GSNK. Also one of my besties likes toradora! so I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

GSNK is my very favorite thing tho 💕

[comicaurora]

Hey Red, sorry if this was asked already, but do you have any advice on writing a trickster hero? And do you have any favorites yourself?

Huh! This is something I've never really thought too hard about before, but I do have some loose and unformed thoughts!

So the trickster archetype is, broadly, a character who wins by being cunning and tricking the people around them. Typically this is because they are an underdog facing a powerful opponent, and if they face that opponent on the terms that opponent defines, they'll lose. For instance, a physically strong opponent might want to make everything into a contest of raw force; a politically powerful opponent might want to make things a legal battle; a commander of a large army might want to battle on a flat terrain-less battlefield and overpower the smaller enemy force through raw numbers; etc etc.

A trickster doesn't have the raw power to make a scenario happen. Instead, they achieve that scenario by making other characters make it happen, usually by misleading them into thinking it'll have some other outcome they want.

A classic example of this is found in a Brer Rabbit story where Brer Rabbit has been snatched by Brer Fox, and Brer Rabbit begs and pleads with him to not throw him into that briar patch, oh the torment he would experience in that briar patch would be unimaginable, drowning or burning would be bad but still better than that briar patch. Brer Fox naturally throws him into the briar patch, at which point Brer Rabbit vanishes into the underbrush and helpfully clarifies that he was born and bred in a briar patch. He was unable to escape through his own power, so instead he convinced Brer Fox that yeeting him into the briar patch would give Brer Fox something he wanted (Brer Rabbit's unimaginable torment) when in actuality it gave Brer Rabbit exactly the cover he needed to escape. It only worked because Brer Rabbit understood that Brer Fox was fundamentally not just hungry, he was cruel.

Tricksters usually achieve victory through lying, stealing, sneaking around and generally being dishonest. These are usually not seen as heroic traits, but the trickster hero is an archetype of character who is broadly heroic - and uses trickster tactics to win. It's an interesting suite of character traits to balance. In order to make a trickster heroic, them being the underdog usually needs to be played up. It's not really easy to root for someone with power to manipulate people for their own ends, but it's easy to root for someone scrappy and underleveled to manage to gumption their way to a victory over a broadly superior opponent.

A sympathetic trickster usually isn't someone who picks fights. Trouble comes to them, and then they need to find a way to escape or stop it. This is the paradigm that makes Bugs Bunny work as a trickster hero - he starts off basically every adventure minding his own business, and when someone comes around with a blunderbuss and a hankering for rabbit stew, their actions are what prompts him to unleash absolute hell on them by using toon physics and trapping them in ironclad social conventions to completely unbalance them until they're eventually defeated.

If we see a big, loud, powerful jerk try to stomp on someone small and innocuous, we're inclined to root for the small and innocuous person. This setup makes us very eager to see the small and innocuous person use tricks and shenanigans to make a fool of the powerful jerk, and it automatically makes us more okay with the sympathetic character doing on-paper unheroic things like lies and manipulation as long as they're doing them to someone we're primed to dislike.

So trickster heroes are usually fundamentally reactive characters. Something bad happens and they respond by unleashing hell. Another easy way to make a character instantly more heroic is to give them an even weaker, even more sympathetic character to protect or assist. Thus, many trickster heroes have a suite of supporting characters they're protecting who are not tricksters by nature, and are instead just there to be endangered or bullied by Nasty Mean Powerful People. Our trickster heroes stepping in to aid and protect other people thus gives their actions an even more heroic cast, because not only are they reactive to an outside threat, they're selflessly reactive.

This is the framing that's used in Leverage, where every episode has a victim of the week being cruelly taken advantage of by a jerkass of the week, at which point our team of liars, grifters and thieves roll up to ply their trade on the jerkass and award the spoils of war to the victim of the week. Because the person they're tricking is proven unequivocally to be truly awful and completely insulated from legal consequence a solid 98% of the time, we don't feel particularly bad seeing our team of heroes manipulate, gaslight and eventually absolutely destroy them over the course of a crisp 40 minutes. The vileness of the villain combos with the innocent powerlessness of the person they're advocating for, and thus their assorted unheroic qualities become reframed as absolutely heroic due to the circumstances under which they use them.

Crucial to the formula is the horrendous nastiness of the villain of the week, because if we were even kind of sympathetic to them, the schemes of the protagonists would be kinda scary. They are very good at quickly getting the bad guy to trust them and then taking apart everything they've built, and that's only fun to watch if the audience is 100% sure the villain deserves it and is not going to spend too much time thinking "wow, it would be terrifying if that happened to me." The fact that our heroes almost always take them down simply by leveraging (heh) the bad guy's badness is a big part of what makes the formula work. Almost every episode is functionally similar to a Briar Patch scenario - "oh gosh I sure hope no SOULLESS CAPITALIST VAMPIRES take advantage of how MANIPULABLE I am to try and get my MONEY and/or VALUABLES", and then the villain's own established cruelty cascades into their downfall when it runs into the dominos our heroes have set up to expose them. And that does a lot to make the audience sympathize with a crew of four self-admitted terrible people (and Hardison, who's an angel and we're delighted to have him)

Another way to get the audience to root for a potentially nonstandard protagonist is to set them up against a villain who is smug. Smugness is a very dangerous trait for any character to have, because it primes the audience to want to see them break. A villain who thinks they are too powerful or too strong or too smart to be defeated has the audience immediately rooting for them to be proven wrong just so they can watch the expression on their face. This is the strat they use in Columbo.

Every Columbo villain is rich and powerful and very insulated from legal consequences, and we start every episode seeing them arrange and execute an attempt at a perfect murder. We know from the start how they did it and usually why, and because they are smug - they are almost never regretful or reluctant - we become invested in seeing how Columbo figures out what they did, how they did it, and how he can prove it and get them arrested. Columbo is a nonstandard kind of trickster hero, because he is deeply and fundamentally a Lawful Good archetype, but he is also a very casual liar. The only time the audience sees Columbo almost certainly telling the truth is when he's dealing with background characters, his fellow policemen or his dog, or when he's by himself silently putting the pieces together; at all other points in the episode he will typically conceal how much he knows, how he knows what he knows and why he's asking specific probing questions. The audience has a tremendous amount of dramatic irony in terms of information about the perfect murder Columbo has to disassemble; we'll see Columbo zero in on exactly the one small detail that pokes a hole in the supposed airtight alibi, but instead of saying "I think you killed them and I am determined to prove it" he'll dance around why he's focusing on those details - just curiosity, just a desire for completeness, his superiors told him to continue the case and he doesn't know why, his wife is just such a big fan of their work, etc etc.

As a rule, the first time in any given episode that Columbo admits he's suspicious of the villain is the beginning of the last scene of the episode when he proves that they did it and they subsequently surrender. When Columbo is dealing with the villain, absolutely nothing he says can be trusted until that final scene - and it's a rare treat to get a glimpse of Columbo showing an honest emotion, especially something like genuine fury. Most of the time he maintains a very harmless and affable attitude, but sometimes when the villains are very smug and they know he's suspicious of them but can't prove anything yet, his righteous anger peeks through and we see why he does this.

He's a trickster hero because he can't unravel the case, the villain's motivation and the shape of the crime if the villain knows everything he knows and can correspondingly keep up with him. But he is 100% committed to exposing the truth of the situation and making the murderer face justice. Their perfect alibi is supposed to protect them from everything, but it's their confidence and certainty that they could never be caught that Columbo leverages to win. They never know entirely what to make of him, and he's never wholly honest with them - and with the audience - until the very end of the episode. It's good, cathartic payoff to an episode's worth of lies and manipulation from both main players, and it's always fun to see the non-smug party on the side of justice come out on top.

Some trickster heroes are more like standard heroes with trickster tendencies that occasionally surface. These guys are usually pretty straightforward, but in a pinch they can bust out a surprisingly cunning scheme or two - one such moment hits at the climax of Across the Spider-Verse, and it's a great moment of characterization for Miles, who has thus far been a pretty typically heroic guy who has unfortunately spent the entire movie thus far being lied to by people he trusted. It kicks off an enormously long and complicated chase sequence that takes the entire spider-community out of the home base chasing him through an absolutely massive complex and eventually onto a space elevator. It's such a fluid scene, you kind of just accept that it's a desperate chase sequence - Miles is just running. It doesn't occur to the other spider-people that Miles might have a plan beyond running until he basically tells Miguel that, hey, he did just get every other spider-person out of the facility that has the portal to get him home. He wasn't just running away, he was luring everybody away so he can leave.

And this moment is fantastic on a meta-level, because Spider-Man is traditionally a bit of a trickster hero. Most of his enemies are able to physically outpace him, and he needs to use mobility and strategy to take them down, often luring them into environments that work against them - like a fun moment in Spectacular Spider-Man where Spidey defeats the Rhino by luring him into a steam tunnel and basically giving him heatstroke through his armor plating. But because the entire core theme of this movie is "Miles isn't a real Spider-Man," it literally doesn't seem to occur to the other spider-people that Miles's seemingly panicked running might be him pulling a Spider-Man on them. We're so used to being in Miles's head and knowing when he's got a plan or a ploy that this is a very fun moment to watch. He's successfully deceived an entire army of spider-people, and the audience is just as blindsided as Miguel - and a little less electrocuted, so it's a lot more fun for us.

So yea, trickster heroes are a fun little space of character, but you gotta be careful to put them in the right kind of situation, lest their fundamental dishonesty come across as alarming rather than extremely rad.

[purring-tiefling]

storytime/vent in the tags

[byoldervine]

How To Always Have Writing Ideas…

For A New Story:

1. Keep a list. Any time you have one of those sudden bursts of inspiration in the middle of writing a separate story, don’t quit your current WIP or pretend you’ll ‘just remember it’, put it into a separate list. You can always go back to this later on

2. Writing prompts. Look them up, use random word generators, pick a random object you can see, whatever helps you come up with any idea at all. Write a few paragraphs. Can it evolve from there?

3. People watch. Go to a public place and make up backstories for the strangers you come across. That man in the hat is using it to hide his elf ears. That woman with the bright pink hair didn’t dye it, she’s secretly the main character of an anime trying to dodge all the tropes and cliches. That toddler is actually a guardian angel reincarnated to watch over their new baby sibling. What brings them to this place? Where did they come from? Where are they going next?

To Continue An Existing Story:

1. Act it out. Say the words aloud, act out what your characters are doing, get props or people to act off of if you need to. See what feels like the most natural progression of the moment

2. Coffee shop AU, or other substitutional one-shot. Good for establishing dynamics between two or more characters, or even just working out a lone character’s day-to-day. Just write a few paragraphs about your characters entering a coffee shop or similar appropriate establishment/ordinary location. What do they do? What do they order to eat/drink? What do they say to each other? How do they treat the staff and other customers? If all else fails, write what they do after they leave, as if it were an ordinary day for them

3. Rubber duck it. This is something programmers use to work out where they went wrong in their code, but I’ve found it can work for figuring out story stuff as well. What you do is get a rubber duck, or any other object of focus, and start explaining your problem to it out loud. In this case you can read your chapter to the duck, or even give it the full run-down of the plot so far. Warning; side effects may include getting frustrated that the problem was right in front of you and subsequently throwing the duck

For Both:

1. Writing graveyards. I talked a bit about them in a previous post, but writing graveyards are basically just the folder you store your deleted scenes in instead of yeeting them into the void. Reread those, see if they have anything you can recontextualise or repurpose

2. Combine ideas. My WIP Byoldervine is a combination of two separate plots I had that I realised I’d be able to combine - twice. I first realised I could put together my ‘angel and demon heroes protecting humans from a war between heaven and hell’ story and my ‘quest through the fantasy realm to find the ingredients to a cure for a dying god’ story into the same universe as two sides of the same story as a duology. Then I realised I could just remove a few characters, tweak a few plot points and mash them completely together into one book. Combining them works wonders and minimises worldbuilding

3. Go out with friends or family. I guarantee that the one time you’ll be flooded with inspiration is when you don’t have an opportunity to write it down

[celaenaeiln]

i mean this in the most neutral tone, but, im genuinely confused with this eldest daughter syndrome dick thing? as far as i know, he never lives in the manor with other batsiblings and personally take care of them except damian, and just "yeets" from any possible trouble or tension within the siblings or when they have issues with bruce

No worries I totally get it! And I'm here to deliver!

First, to be fair to Dick, no one lives in the manor aside from Damian and sometimes Tim.

Dick lives in Bludhaven, Steph lives in Gotham U? She's been in and out of comics but otherwise her own house. Cass lives in Leslie's clinic, Tim alternates between the Titans and the manor, Jason lives anywhere that doesn't have Bruce, and Duke lives with his uncle.

However that doesn't mean they don't all rely on him.

I think the confusion comes from scenes like this-

Batman: Urban Legends Issue #10

Where it seems like Dick just left Tim to deal with Bruce on his own. But-

Batman: Urban Legends Issue #10

Dick called him. When Tim when to him for advice, he gave him advice but also knew it couldn't just stop there. So he called Bruce to get it through his thick head that he's allowed to be happy. If there's anyone that can change Bruce's mind on anything it's Dick.

Which brings me to my next instance of Dick acting as the mediator and emotional burden lifter of his family. When each batkid dies (or almost dies in Dick's case), Bruce grieves in a different way. With Jason he took it out on criminals, with Tim he took it out on himself, with Dick he took it out on criminals and heroes, and with Damian, he wanted to undo what happened. He torments Jason about it, goes too hard on the criminals, gets worsened by Barbara, gets helped a little by Selina but also feels a billion times worse about Damian's death so-

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #23

He locks himself in a simulator for days trying to see and fix where he went from when Heretic killed Damian. Nothing gets through to him so Alfred pulls out the Big Guns - he calls in Dick.

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #23

"Richard just came in from Chicago to--"

"Talk some sense into me?"

"Yes, I've implored you to shut this...thing off and join the living, but you have turned a deaf ear for days."

"This calling in the cavalry routine is getting old, Alfred."

Since the dawn of Batman and Robin, Dick has always acted as the mediator for Bruce and the family. Always.

With Dick's help, finally, after days, Damian's saved.

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #23

And Dick finally brings Bruce back to life.

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #23

He took a destructive, dead-man-walking and breathed life and hope back into him to stop him from taking his grief and anger out on his family and criminals.

Also-

LOOK AT THE WAY THEY'RE SEATED. DICK IS LITERALLY BRUCE'S THERAPIST.

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #23

Calling in the cavalry always works.

Of course there's times when Dick doesn't help mediate. But the issue is not that he doesn't want to or he pushes it off, it's that he can't. What the hell are you supposed to do when the mediator who mediates all your problems is themself broken?

Dick really wants to help Tim but he can't. He can't find it in himself to barely live right now because Donna-his platonic soulmate-is dead.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files

He really can't.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files

She was his sister too. Pretty much blood.

I actually think the fact that Dick doesn't live in the manor makes the fact that he still takes care of all his siblings and their problems with Bruce even more important. To calm and rationalize down Bruce and take care of his siblings, he's constantly flying or driving back and forth between different cities, dropping his cases and work, ignoring his problems, just to be there for them.

For another example, when Dick hears that the newest Batman is causing problems in Gotham and Bruce just abandoned Tim to deal with everything and Tim nearly got hurt, he comes all the way back to Gotham to rail Bruce out for doing that to him.

Robin (1993) Issue #8

When Bruce teams with Damian their relationship so tumultuous but once again Dick steps in.

Batman: The Return

"I need a partner who can stay focused and keep up."

"Bruce, come on! I made a career out of not doing anything I was told when I was Robin. He gave up everything for this. You can't just take it away...you can't cut him out."

He keeps Robin from being fired and continues being Damian's support system.

It's not just mediating though, Dick fully steps in to take care of the batfamily whenever Bruce absconds or there's trouble.

Batman and Robin Eternal Issue #24

He's like the command center of the family.

This picture just embodies his role.

Batman (2011) Issue #15

And as Bruce once said-

Batman: Urban Legends Issue #22

He's really the eldest daughter and caretaker.

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Bad Batch: What's left from the trailer?

I wondered this earlier and then fell into a haze of going frame by frame through the trailer and screenshotting what I think hasn't appeared in season 3 of The Bad Batch so far, as of episode 6 and 7.

All of the shots to do with this scene of Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair escaping in the big truck thing (juggernaut?) and Phee flying in to save them.

Coruscant! Whose ship is that?

The Empire and the mystery clone assassin invading Pabu, which @gamelpar pointed out in this post.

Someone's hand pushing a handle forwards. Whose gauntlet is this?

More of the Empire and the mystery clone assassin on Pabu. Is this Tech. Or Cody? Either way, more pain 😭

Hunter pushing a handle down.

More of Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair escaping from the same scene at the start of the trailer.

There's a number of shots that I'm pretty sure we've seen, like this one. I think this was in episode one?

A very fast and blurry shot of what looks like a LAAT/i flying down in a tight spiral over a large body of water.

Fennec looking all badass in a bar somewhere.

Cad Bane and his hat.

This shot where Wrecker says the line "Give us a real challenge." The bridge structure in the holo in the bottom left looks similar to the bridge Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair drive over in the big truck thing when they're escaping in the shots from the start of the trailer. My guess is that this is a briefing about that mission.

Hunter being eaten by a space crocodile and Wrecker jumping in after him. What's interesting about this is that Fennec is there. She's on the boat in the bottom left of the second frame. That's a very distinctive helmet and coat.

That's the clone assassin's ship. I think we just saw this during episode 6?

Hunter squaring up to fight someone.

Wrecker also squaring up to fight someone.

This shot of Crosshair (or at least his Firepuncher), Hunter and Wrecker where Hunter says the line "We're not big on following orders."

Hunter leaping onto a LAAT/i and yeeting a stormtrooper out by his ankle.

Ventress! She's being shot at by blue blaster bolts here. Who's shooting those?

This shot that pans across Hunter and Wrecker aiming at someone, though they both lower their blasters slightly.

I find all this stuff rather interesting because there's so much going on in trailers and there are so many decisions being made. Disney has a habit of mainly including footage from the first half of a series in their trailers, which makes me wonder how soon we're going to see all of these shots.

It's also a good idea to take trailers with a large grain of salt as they're often full of misdirects and footage or audio that doesn't even appear in the show. This was really obvious in the Rogue One trailers but TBB trailer has done it already as well. @icantlivewithoutdreaming correctly pointed out in this post that Rex says "not with the Empire imprisoning the kid" at 0:35 in the trailer but the line he actually says in episode 7 is "Not with the Empire being after the kid." There's also shots that are flipped, like the one of Hunter and Wrecker at 0:52 where Hunter's tattoo is on the wrong side of his face, and the hero shot of Rex at 1:22, which was at the end of episode 7 when he's staring down Wolffe.

I've hit the max number of images in a post so I'll put a link my post about the short trailer/TV spot here when it's done. Edit: Here's the link to my post on the shots from the short trailer/TV spot that haven't appeared in TBB yet.

[olichat-reads]

Imagine | ProHero!Bakugou x Villain!Reader

a/n: i'm on the brink of a panic attack at 7am on a monday morning sO-

🌟

imagine prohero!bakugou x villain!reader BUT they're childhood bestfriends. and and they're STILL bestfriends despite everything. sure, nothing personal on the job and sure they go head to head sometimes but at the end of the day they're each other's safeplace and comfort.

its weird but it works.

its not everyday, but sometimes your paths cross while you're both on the job and bakugou, that bastard, NEVER holds back on you. and to be fair, neither do you. given that the two of you grew up and trained together, you were pretty evenly matched. both knowing each others' moves and strengths and weaknesses.

which essentially, you two took advantage of in attempts to murder each other on the job :D

-

"you used that move i suggested you try 🥺"

"hell yeah it fucking worked!"

"i know, katsu. my shoulder is dislocated."

":)"

"you're buying me ice cream, you ass."

-

the press has a field day whenever you go against each other- deeming you ✨️a r c h r i v a l s✨️. it sure was an ego boost when your bestfriend was the number one prohero. also you got to terrorize him with the media. win fucking win.

-

*dynamight slams you into a wall*

"ohh~ harder daddy~"

"STOP GIVING THEM IDEAS YOU FREAK"

"BUT I WANNA READ ALL THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS FANFICS LET ME HAVE THIS"

-

and the thing is. it didn't scare you, either of you, to let loose when you come face to face in a fight. you knew katsuki was strong as much as he knew how hard you worked to keep up to him. no one could come close to hurting either of you, besides each other and even then, you each could hold your own.

that didn't mean you don't get injured though. one of you stumbling into the others' apartment beat up was way too common of an occurence with the nature of your professions.

-

"red riot hit me so hardddddd"

"tsk. thats on you. could've gone against me but you had to test your luck with red."

"BITCH STFU WE BOTH KNOW YOU'D FUCK ME UP WORSE THAN ANYONE ON THE FIELD-"

"of course i would. gotta try to knock some fucking sense into lil miss villain somehow. now come here let me see your ribs, they're probably bruised."

"AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT"

"yours."

"YOU- OW FUCK. KATSU GENTLE-"

"calm down you baby. you got stabbed last week and you're whining about some bruised ribs."

"I HAVE A LOW PAIN TOLERANCE YOU ASS BE NICE TO ME"

-

as much fun as it is smack each other in the vicinity of a public audience, you enjoy the occasional mission where you were both on the same team. perks of being a morally gray villain- you're flexible like that.

it should be noted though- you two're somehow even WORSE than when you fight each other. the amount of unhinged chaos should be a public and health hazard.

-

"we have a problem..."

"let me guess. you caused it."

"you have no faith in me. i'm offended."

"answer the question. did you?"

"...i did."

"and you ask me why i don't believe in you. fucking die, tinkerbell."

">:O"

-

"whats our escape plan?"

"our what :D"

"omg we're going to die."

-

"HOHO WE LIVED BITCH!"

"YOU COULD'VE WARNED ME BEFORE YOU YEETED ME OUT THE FUCKING PLANE YOU PSYCHOPATH"

"WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT D:"

-

the two of you don't actively try to hide the nature of your jobs and relationship with each other outside work- you don't bother pretending. he's a hero, you're a villain and both of you were bestfriends. as simple as that.

it makes life way more fun, you think.

🌟

a/n: this is fun i might add more to this hehe

[halfagone]

So I remember we once had a conversation about Danny radiating protagonist vibes, so my prompt is having one of this friends telling him something to that effect? I feel like if anyone could pick up on his main character vibes, it’d be one if his friends, lol.

In one of the chapters of Insomniacs Anonymous, I did have Danny remark how he would be a 'background character' to Marinette and Tim's detective show (albeit a beloved background character, in his own words) but for someone else to mention to him how much of a protagonist vibe he got... I can kinda picture it going somewhere like Hleb's piece of fanart where Tucker wonders if the Fenton parents could be considered mad scientists/supervillains... and Danny has a bit of an existential crisis over it.

Just like:

"This isn't an anime," Danny remarked doubtfully, giving his friends his best skeptical look. Inwardly, however, he's sweating like he'd just been yeeted into the sun. "I do not give off protagonist vibes and- no, no! Sam, I do not-" Except the more he insisted the more Sam seem to think about it, and Danny could already tell he's lost her to Tucker's argument.

"I mean... You've already got the Sailor Moon magical girl transformation going for you," Sam reminded him with an apologetic look.

"I was thinking more Boku no Hero Academia, but that works better," Tucker replied thoughtfully, nodding. As if that made everything alright.

"I am not a protagonist, anime or otherwise," Danny told them through clenched teeth.

"You are totally a protagonist, you've got all the vibes for it," Sam laughed at his expense. And quite gleefully at that. "I bet you'd have a wicked theme song and everything."

"Yo, Danny Fenton he was just 14 when his parents built a very strange machine-" Tucker started spitting lyrics as if he'd been born to do it. Sam hollered like a professional hype-man, adding acoustics to his beat.

Danny slammed his hands over his ears and screamed. It was a miracle he didn't accidentally Ghostly Wail on them both.

[holleighgram]

Hold onto your keyboards, cause I'm about to get ✨️controversial ✨️

I'd like to preface this by saying all interpretations/ headcanons/ readings/ etc. Are valid and I'm in no way discouraging anyone to change their ways.

I watched (and enjoyed) Baloney's "The Truth About Kingdom Hearts!" And I absolutely adored their take on the series, but one line stuck out to me that I really want to expand on because I don't see it being talked about as often as it should.

Kairi doesn't like Riku.

And I think this is a very RICH and IMPORTANT aspect of the Destiny Trio dynamic. It adds to the complexity of these characters, but especially Kairi.

(Another shout out to @violethowler and their INCREDIBLE Constructing Kingdoms series. The video on"The Girl Who Never Grew Up" made me like and understand Kairi so much more. Highly recommend checking it out.)

Kairi doesn't like Riku, and with some pretty valid reasons, but I'll get to that after I compile all the evidence towards this:

In KH:

Kairi likes her life the way it is. She doesn't desire change, but Riku wants nothing but change. He wants to grow up and move on and see the outside world.

And because Sora looks up to him, Sora has jumped on the bandwagon too. Kairi is going along because Sora is. But it is clear that for Kairi, change =/= good. So what does she say?

"You know, Riku's changed."

Sora asks her how, and she kinda bites her tongue. Clearly she had opinions, but doesn't want to badmouth Soras best friend to him. Later she says, "Sora, don't ever change."

Later, after everything, when Kairi is restored and in Travers Town, she doubts that Riku can be saved, despite the fact that she LITERALLY saved Sora from being a heartless. She almost seems like she's trying to convince Sora not to go, or to at least let her come with-- not to save Riku but because she wants to be there with Sora.

At the end of the game, she obviously return to destiny islands and draws the paopu.

During Chain of Memories, everyone forgets about Sora, but the memories of Riku stay intact. For a year. Kairi is well aware that her "friend" is missing. In fact, last she knew of him, he was still taken by Ansem and presumably dead or at least suffering. She doesn't know.

She knows she's a Princess of Heart and has powers thay can help (as she restored Sora after being a heartless). But the most we get is "he's far away, but I know we'll see him again." Like, do you?

I mean, SELPHIE is the one that says "I sure miss him." That's way more than we EVER get from Kairi.

So for a YEAR, she doesn't spare Riku a single thought. But the SECOND she remembers Sora, she is willing to do anything to see him again.

Here's a little bit of speculation for WHY she doesn't like Riku:

1) Perhaps when she first met them as kids, he reminder her of Xehenort, who kidnapped her and yeeted her into space.

2) Kairi wanted to be best friends with SORA, but not Riku. She's afraid that Sora will follow Riku to the outside worlds (where she doesn't want to go) and leave her behind. If it wasn't for Riku, Sora wouldn't want to leave at all.

3) He (as far as we know) opened the door and damned their home into Darkness. That's probably a point of contention for her. Even though Sora so forgiving.

4) He hurt Sora in KH1, but Sora is still loyal to him. She probably sees that as him taking advantage of Sora-- the person she cares most about.

5) He's the reason Sora never came home. If it wasn't for him, they would have gone home at the end of KH1 together.

I can't say for sure how Riku feels about Kairi. He DID drag her corpse around and give into the darkness to save her, but that can be interpreted as solely wanting to "beat " Sora at being the hero. Even still, we get moment in COM where he reflects on missing her. We even see Namine come to his rescue in her form. I definitely feel like there is less animosity there, but who knows.

That's all.

Roast me, Kairi stans, but I love the depth this reading gives to the story and the potential for arcs and character growth for her and she is forced to face who she is without Sora.

[comicaurora]

In the latest trope talk you used Odo as part of your examples. I think You've talked about Star Trek: The Next Generation before but not Deep Space Nine and I just had some questions about what you thought about the show.

What did you most/least enjoy about the series?

What did you think of DS9's syndicated episodes compared to contemporary trek's (TNG, VOY) episodic nature?

How do you feel about the Dominion storyline as a whole? Did you feel like it went against Star Trek's utopian future?

Which characters stood out to you the most/had the most engaging development?

What do you think gagh tastes like?

Any other thoughts about the series?

Oh man, DS9.

I have this very consistent pattern of thinking that the star trek I have most recently watched is the best star trek. When I watched TNG it was the best because of its standout episodes that let Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner show off. Then when I watched Voyager it was the best because Janeway was incredible and 7 of 9's arc was a beautiful iteration on the "inhuman character explores humanity" star trek trope. Then when I got to DS9 I was like "Oh, so this is what actually good Star Trek looks like." I do think I'm actually right this time, though.

I think they really took advantage of how different the core premise of the show was from previous Star Treks. Because the setting was very consistent, the episodic variations on the formula weren't dedicated to seeking out Weird New Shit, but to focusing on the characters and their dynamics with one another. Correspondingly I think the best thing in the show is the character writing and how everyone's arcs are built up. This was something I think they were building towards with the previous series; TNG would occasionally have character-focused episodes, but for the most part everybody on the ship operated like a well-oiled machine, inputting the Weird Thing Of The Week and outputting a solution. Voyager destabilized the formula by yeeting the heroes halfway across the galaxy and well outside the safe confines of federation space, so you got a lot more opportunities for drama caused by limited supplies or existential despair, and a lot more character-driven conundrums without clean or flawless solutions. DS9 is kind of the apotheosis of this shift away from "seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly go etc etc" because instead of our heroes briefly interacting with Bajor and then fucking off into the end credits, they're sitting right on top of a planet undergoing tumultuous social restructuring after the end of a long and horrible military occupation, and they're there for 7 seasons. Because they aren't following an adventure-of-the-week formula, absolutely everything they do has consequences they have to deal with later down the line, and that lends itself very well to longform character arcs.

I liked the Dominion storyline well enough, and I think the existence of an evil space empire to fight doesn't preclude the Federation being a utopia. Utopias are internally perfect systems, not worlds that have absolutely no conflict. I think the part of DS9 that does undercut the utopia is the whole thing with Section 31, but I think that's part of a very intentional move on the writers' part to highlight that Section 31 is not as necessary as they think they are, and that doing all this stuff unethically is a moral concession and a shortcut that demeans the principles of the Federation. That's part of why I like that they serve as a nemesis to Doctor Bashir, who has very personal reasons to despise the idea of taking the easy way out.

Character-wise, I have very predictable favs. Jadzia Dax is fascinating to me, and I love the way they play with her past lives and centuries of experience to create this very layered character packed with plothooks. Also I have very simple tastes, and "woman fills narrative Man Role trope and nobody is weird about it" is an itch I so rarely get scratched despite how not complicated it is. Jadzia gets to be a swashbuckling romantic hero with a tragic starcrossed lover; she gets to be a wise yet cheerful mentor to Captain Sisko; she gets to be a noble warrior honoring debts from a lifetime ago. And I adore how her dynamic with Sisko plays out over the seasons - another completely uncomplicated trope I so rarely get to enjoy, male and female leads who are profoundly ride-or-die for one another and have absolutely no interest in making out. I am still so mad about how Jadzia gets iced, but that doesn't mean I don't like Ezri, and there is something very beautiful about how when she gets Dax'd and her existence becomes an absolute mess of confusion and conflicting memories and she doesn't even know who she is anymore, her single point of stability is Sisko.

That said, Garak is probably my overall fav. The man is an absolute drama hound and since he's not technically main cast it's a rare treat to get him focused on. He is so much fun on a rewatch when you can see exactly when and how he's lying and when he's telling the truth in a way that everyone thinks is lying, and what I think is most interesting about him is how absolutely everybody else on the station has him figured out. There's this "I know he knows I know they know" loop underlying almost every interaction. Everyone knows he's a spy, he knows everyone knows, and they're all just vibing anyway. It's like his entire character is built on telling the truth in a way that sounds like a lie, to the point where it always manages to surprise people when he does something absolutely ruthless. He's been saying he's a bad guy the whole time! People seem to keep forgetting!

Also, fun fact, the very first chunk of DS9 I caught was the back half of the episode "The Wire", and when I was mentioning this to my dad, I was like "yeah I don't remember their names but these two guys seemed extremely married-" and he immediately went "oh, Garak and the doctor?" so that's very telling I think

[munsonownsmyass]

Pain shared is pain lessened

Matt Murdock x reader

Summary: In a world where you share the injuries with your soulmate, it's not easy being you. With a reckless soulmate that seems to have no regard for his own safety, you have more bruises and scars than you can count.

Warnings: Mentions of injuries: bruises, blood, scars and wounds. Mild angst, a little mild hate. One kiss. But we end on a fluffy note. You know me 😅

Notes: Okay, this one is unbeta'ed and probably full of errors. I just had to yeet this into the tumblr-verse.

This is a request from the lovely @mindidjarin ❤️

Words: 2.5K

You’re grateful you’re with your friends when it happens. The pain is there instantly, so overwhelming that you start to feel lightheaded. Another wave of pain washes over you and thankfully Jessie catches you when your legs give in, sitting you down at the nearest table. For what feels like an hour, you can’t do anything but cry, hoping the pain will subside.

Your friends get it, they’ve been there too, but none of them have gone through as much pain as you have. It seems like your soulmate are reckless, not even caring if he gets hurt. You just wish you weren’t along for the ride.

“What the hell is wrong with this guy?” Jessie tries, not even knowing what to say. And what is there to say? Ever since you were a kid, you’ve felt every ounce of pain your soulmate has gone through, gotten every injury. Your only comfort is that your wounds are lesser than his, cause if you’d have to go through this life with all this pain AND blind? You would have lost it ages ago.

You google. You always try to google. ‘Man getting stabbed’. ‘Man losing a fight’. ‘Man being an utter asshole for putting his soulmate through shit’. Okay, maybe not the last one, but you are mad. Mad at him for not even caring, mad at yourself because you care. Cause the tears you shed every time aren’t just for you. They are for him too.

Why must he go through such hardship, such sorrow? What caused him to care so little about himself? Is he a hero? Is he a bad guy? In times like this, with Avengers and aliens, you wonder if he is somehow caught in the middle of that. Surely no normal person would have so many injuries. Unless he’s just a common criminal? Underground fighter?

Okay, you have to stop. You always do this. Sit for hours wondering. Your friends tell you to let it go, but it’s easy for them to say. They’ve all met their soulmates, some of them married for years. Jessie, the newest to leave the singleton island, still has a fresh pink scar on her forehead from when she tripped three weeks ago, practically falling over the guy who just hit his head, the same scar adorning his forehead. If only it was that easy.

“Are you okay?” Carmen asks carefully, handing you something to drink.

“No, I’m not okay. I haven’t even met my soulmate, and I already want to kill him.” You bite back, downing half of the beer in one go.

“At this rate, he’s probably gonna get himself killed before you meet.” Jessie mumbles to herself. You just shoot her a killer look, not even finding it remotely funny. “What?! You gotta admit it looks like this guy has a death wish.”

“Oh, I know! I got several scars proving that.”

“You should sue him.” Carmen, bless her heart, wasn’t the smartest girl, but she always tried her best. Still, you can’t help but throw your hands up in defeat as you continue to yell.

“Yes, great idea! Just gonna walk up to a lawyer and sue my soulmates ass for pain and suffering. That bodes for a happily ever after.”

“You know-” Jessie interrupts, caressing your arm softly, “-I have a friend. Karen. She works at a law office. Maybe they have some way of doing something? Maybe they could-”

“Thanks, but no. There’s no way they could find him and even if they did, I’m not gonna sue him. I just hope I never met him, cause I’m gonna kick his ass.”

A week later, the wounds had healed nicely, and the bruises faded, but the anger is still there. No, anger is the wrong word. You don’t hate him…. that much. You just wish you could have met him years ago, maybe spared the both of you some pain and suffering. Maybe his life would have been different if you had been there.

“We’re here.” Jessie stops in front of a door, and you sigh when you see the sign next to the door. Nelson and Murdock. Lawyers. Of course. You move to protest, but before you can say anything, she stops you. “We’re not here to sue, don’t worry. Our talk just made me realize it’s been a long time since I saw Karen, so I’ve invited her to lunch.”

When you enter the office, you’re met by a man handing a beautiful blonde some papers. That must be Karen. The man, who introduces himself as Foggy, disappears into his office with a smile. The two of you walk over to Karen, but Jessie quickly excuses herself, wanting to go to the bathroom before you all head out. Karen just gives you a bright smile, as she fixes some of the papers.

“You must be y/n. Jessie’s talked so much about you. Especially about that soulmate of yours.”

Of course, she had. You’re not even surprised, your many cuts and bruises always the subject for a good conversation.

“Yeah, he likes to fight, I guess. Always making sure I got a new bruise.” You laugh in defeat, knowing how you must look to other people. “People might start to think I’m being abused soon or something.”

“Have you tried looking for him?” She asks, putting away the rest of her paperwork as she looks to you with a curious smile.

“Well, it’s not that easy. New York is a big place.” You scoff, averting her gaze. Honestly, you’re not even sure where to start.

“Sure, it is. All you have to do is look for a guy who’s always-” Karen stops, looking at a point behind you, before her eyes dart back to yours. “-beaten up...” She almost looks like she’s seen a ghost. Just as she opens her mouth to speak, Jessie returns.

“So, by Karen’s horrified expression, I guess you’ve talked about Mr. Daredevil?”

“Daredevil?” You snort, “Is that your new nickname for him?”

“Well, he’s reckless, lives dangerously and keeps getting beat up, leaving you bruised.” Jessie crosses her arms, clearly not his biggest fan. You’ve always said you’d kick your soulmates ass when you meet him, but you’re starting to think Jessie might get to him first.

“Easy there, tiger. We can’t both gang up on a blind man.” You and Jessie giggle, but Karen doesn’t, her face white as she just stares at you. From the open office door, Foggy appears with an expression equal to Karen’s.

“Okay, what’s with the faces?” You ask confused, but before anyone can answer, the door opens and in walks what you assume to be the other half of Nelson and Murdock.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I went by the police station to-” Matt huff out, but stops as soon as he turns to face you all. “I didn’t know we had company. Matt Murdock.” He walks forward, extending his hand. As you take it, you notice the red glasses and the cane, So… A blind lawyer. That’s a first.

“How did you know?” Jessie asks softly, leaving the ‘since you’re blind’ part unspoken. Matt just smiles, probably used to questions like that all the time.

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve.” He just smirks, before gesturing towards his office. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Oh, Matt. Before you go-” Karen stops him with a grin. Foggy walks over to stop her, but she just brushes him off. ”One of the young ladies here want to sue her soulmate.”

Embarrassed, you take a step forward. “No, I don’t. They are just being dumb.” You push Jessie and Karen softly towards the door, just wanting to get away.

“What did he do?” Matt asks, tilting his head to the side with a questioning smile. If you weren’t so embarrassed by the whole thing, you definitely would have stayed, because he certainly was cute. Really cute.

“Nothing.” You lie, still making your way to the door, but Jessie just grin, turning towards the hot lawyer. “He’s reckless. So if you hear about a beaten up blind guy, let us know cause we wanna beat his ass”

You shoot Matt and Foggy an apologetic look, before pushing Jessie and Karen out the door. They just chuckle, not even apologizing for making you embarrassed. “I hate you guys.” You huff out, before walking out of the building.

Two months goes by and to your surprise, it’s without a single injury. You should celebrate, be happy over the missing bruises or cuts, but instead you worry. What happened to him? Was the last injury to much for him? Was Jessie right and maybe he’s…

You feel stupid, spending years complaining over the scars and bruises and now… You actually miss them. As painful and annoying as it was, it was a reminder that he was out there. That someday, somehow, you’d meet your soulmate.

Looking out over the neighborhood from your small window, you let your book fall, the fingers of your free hand idly tracing one of the scars on your chest. You often do that, touch the scars. It gives you a weird sense of serenity, knowing that despite all the pain, he is out there. Well, you hope he still is.

Truth be told, now that you think about it, you wouldn’t kick his ass if you met him. You just want him here, want to kiss away his pain or help him bear the burden of what troubles him. You’ve never been a believer, but ever since the injuries stopped, you’ve been praying he’s okay.

You’re jerked out of your strain of thoughts by a soft knock on your door. Looking at the clock on your phone, you wonder who it could be at this hour. You had no plans and weren’t expecting anyone. Putting the book away, you make your way over to the door. When you open, you see the cute lawyer Karen works for. But what he’s doing here, you really have no idea. “Uhm. Matt, right? You work with Karen?”

“Yes, I do. I’m surprised you remember me.” He smiles softly.

‘I remember because you’re hot’ you think but reason it’s better to keep that information to yourself. Still, you feel your cheeks flush red at the thought. But you brush it off. You shouldn’t be thinking like this.

“So, uhm… Why are you here?” You inquire, not even sure what you could help a guy like him with.

Matt sighs, suddenly looking uncomfortable. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, gripping his cane tightly. He looks to you, your image reflected in his red glasses. You wonder what his eyes might look like. Okay, this isn’t the time. Mentally scolding yourself, you open the door a little wider.

“Are you okay? Do you wanna come in?”

“I-“ he begins, but then stops. Clearly frustrated, he takes off the glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Okay, I… I think I’m your soulmate.”

For a moment, it’s like time stands still. It’s like all air leaves the room and everything turns blurry. Did… Did he just say what you think he said? You don’t even know how to feel. Overjoyed? He’s finally here, after all this time and your search would be over. But instead you feel confused and angry, filled with so many questions, like why the hell would a blind lawyer get beaten up so much? Why did he let himself get beat up? How long have he known?

“When did you… How… Why…” You try, but every question dies before they’re spoken. Where do you even begin?

“I know you must have so many question, I get that and I-”

“When did you know?” You ask, looking into his eyes. His beautiful hazel eyes. Fuck, you should focus.

“That day when you visited Karen. How many blind guys do you know who fights so much?” He shrugs, laughing softly. But you don’t laugh. You don’t even find it remotely funny.

“You knew for two months and didn’t tell me?!” You yell, punching his shoulder hard, but instantly flinch when your shoulder hurts. Fuck. It really was true.

“I didn’t tell you, because I was afraid you’d kick my ass, as you friend so beautifully put it.” He tries with a soft smirk and you hate to admit, that your resolve does vanish a little. Damn, he was charming and too cute for his own good.

“Okay. Okay…” You try to compose yourself, before looking at Matt again. “Why do you fight? Who do you fight? And HOW?! I mean, aren’t you blind?!”

Your voice borders on shrill as you stare at him, so confused. Matt looks in your direction, his eyes (his beautiful hazel eyes) not really meeting yours and he takes your hands gently in his. “I am blind, but I can see more than you can imagine.”

An hour later, your head is filled to the brim. Matt has told you his entire story, everything from his accident that left him blind as a kid to his night time activities as The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. A Daredevil indeed you grin, remembering Jessie’s words.

Along with the story Matt apologized so many times, never in his life wanting to hurt you like this. The reason behind broke your heart. He didn’t think he’d have a soulmate, never believing he deserved one. The guilt he had carried with him from he was a kid, believing he was the reason his father died to the people he had hurt along the way, intentionally and unintentionally, made him believe he didn’t deserve to be happy. 

“Matt, I… I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through. If only I could have found you sooner, I-”

“It’s not your fault.” He rubs soothing circles on the back of your hand, maybe more to his own benefit than yours. He has exposed himself, not only his entire story laid before you, but his secret identity. He’s vulnerable, waiting for your judgement over him and the thought makes your heart ache.

“I almost didn’t come tonight.” He looks up from your hand, his eyes searching for yours. “I was afraid you’d never want to talk to me after everything I’ve put you through. I can’t even imagine what you must think of me. How much you’ve hated me over the years. I’m so sorry.”

“Matt, you don’t have to-”

“Yes, I do. Do… Do you think you can forgive me?”

The tears in his eyes he’s been holding back, falls in a steady stream. In that moment, seeing him so broken over the hardship he’s put you through, you forget all the hatred and reach for him, cupping his cheeks. Without thinking, you lean forward and kiss him. It’s short and sweet, but it still makes your heart flutter.

Gently you pull away and hold his face softly until his eyes meet yours and right there you know. He is yours and no matter what lies behind you, is forgotten. You’ve found him and your heart have finally found its home.

TCF girls: @e-dubbc11 @itwasthereaminuteago @saintmurd0ck @pedrito-friskito @realfernmayo @idrinkcoffeeandobsess @mattmurdocksscars

Tagging: @lucy-sky @murdock-and-the-sea @murdockswh0r3

[gffa]

One of the best tings Andor shows is a theme I noticed on a recent rewatch of The Clone Wars, interestingly enough coming to my notice especially through the Onderon arc:  The people of the galaxy cannot stay asleep on a war that is about their very lives. In the Onderon arc, the Separatists have legally taken over Onderon, deposing the original king and putting their puppet in his place.  There is a rebellion brewing on the planet, lead by Steela Gerrera, Saw Gerrera’s sister.  A major theme woven into the episode is that they cannot win back their freedom, they cannot defeat the Separatist occupation, without the will of the people being on their side. Steela says it more than once, they need the will of the people. It’s woven into other moments in the story, like when Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka are on Felucia and Sugi tries to say the Jedi are at fault for not keeping the peace, Obi-Wan points out that the rift in the galaxy is not their fault, if the people of the galaxy actually stood up for themselves, this fight would have been over long ago. And that’s what Andor is following up on and really hitting home--yes, Luke Skywalker is going to join the Rebellion and ultimately save the day, but the big point of Rogue One and now of Andor, is that the galaxy cannot be saved through the Jedi alone, they never have been.  That’s what the real shitshow of the Clone Wars was, that the galaxy sat around with their thumbs up their asses and waited for others to save them. Now?  Everything in Andor is about everyday citizens realizing they have to stand up.  Sure, Luke Skywalker is going to battle the Emperor, sure, it’ll be Darth Vader who yeets Palpatine down the reactor shaft.  But it is Cassian Andor who delivered those plans to the Rebellion.  It’s every pilot who flew an X-Wing.  It’s every Senator who risked their life to throw their weight into rebelling against fascism. It’s about how the will of the people has to be there and that every day citizens have to stand up and fight the fascist regime, that’s why so much of the show has to be set on Ferrix.  It could have been any planet--it is any number of worlds, the more the Empire tightens their grip, the more worlds slip through their fingers--but showing us Ferrix being choked by the Empire and the people standing up to fight alongside the Big Damn Heroes of the story, that is what it takes to achieve revolution. It can’t be down to just the Jedi to save the galaxy, there’s never enough of them, they can fight and die and give everything of themselves and it will never be enough because they’re only one in six billion of the galaxy. You need the will of the everyday people. You need everyday people to be willing to say, “Fight the Empire!” You need everyday people to be willing to pick up a brick and hit a fascist oppressor in the face. Andor is the story of how the people of the galaxy are finally waking up and realizing they need to be the ones to stand up, too.  You cannot defeat oppression without the will of the people and the willingness of those people to stand up.

[prncssguya]

the end of that episode was wild. i think rick really underestimates the lengths michonne will go to for him. he told her to leave him behind and thought she would just obey? lmao my dude you deserved to be yeeted out of that airplane. michonne stressed me out so much this episode and i don’t understand why rick doesn’t just straight up tell her “if we try to leave, they will hunt down and kill everyone we love” like???

that “you’re a hero with a shit haircut” line had me in stitches. finally rick saying what the audience is thinking. also not her still trying to sleep with him girl pls

there’s no way they’re gonna wrap this up in three more episodes right?? there’s more coming right??