#not character meta

[sethnakht]

darth vader (2020-), #26 (pak/ienco)

it’s a podrace! darth vader pilots a podracer through an artificial sandstorm to save sabé, the former double for queen amidala, who has been lost in its center. vader flies alone through a maelstrom manufactured by the empire; as he steers and slices his way past dark obstacles, his mind dwells on the podrace he won as a child slave to help queen amidala, then represented too by sabé while padmé masked herself as a handmaiden. 

before he won that race, vader remembers, he could find his mother even in sandstorms, and promise her he would never leave her. in the subsequent panels, we see the contrasting results of winning: it meant separation from his mother, interrogation by the jedi council over his fear of losing her, his mother’s death, his own subsequent choice to murder the villagers who’d held her hostage, and finally, separation from padmé again because of jedi and sith. specifically, vader remembers how she’d fallen out of their ship into a sand dune, and his jedi master obi-wan ordering him to leave her behind (so they could pursue the sith lord count dooku instead). surrounded by sand with his mother, he was never closer to her; alone in the jedi temple, before his mother’s grave, a smattering of sand kernels was all he had left.

[image caption: panels from two different pages showing vader’s memories of losing his mother - first when he was taken to the temple, then when she died. anakin’s hand is shown in close-up, stray grains of sand in his palm.]

vader wins this race as well. as he once helped queen amidala and her handmaidens leave tatooine, so too does he now save the queen’s shadow. when he arrives at the site where sabé disappeared, he finds anakin’s childhood friend kitster (more context below), who learned how to build pods from anakin and put together the pod that vader has just raced. kitster shows him that sabé has been buried alive under a toppled cylinder. vader lifts it with the force; as she rises from the shallow grave, he remembers his power from before he won the tatooine race and was taken to the jedi - the power to tell his mother, “don’t worry, we’re going to be fine,” and, “I’m not leaving you.”

[image caption: vader saves sabé with kitster’s help, and remembers finding his mother in a sandstorm.]

but it’s not that easy. generated by an energy-eating machine (I think? again, don’t ask me about the lore), the storm doesn’t respond to vader’s attempts to quell it with the force. he realizes that sabé will be consumed by it - he thinks back to leaving padmé behind, her body half-buried in sand - if he fails to call on machine power.

using the cylinder-gravestone from which he’d just freed sabé as armor for himself, sabé, and kitster, vader directs his orbiting flagship to fire upon his location with maximum incinerating force. the result: all the sand in the storm fuses and flattens into a smooth ground of glass. 

the sand still caught in his glove slides down his palm; vader looks at it, looks at it for a long time. this time, it seems, it is not all that he has left: he has saved sabé from death. letting the sand fall from his hand, he lifts sabé and carries her over the glass into the light horizon. 

[image caption: vader steps out from an armored shell into a landscape he’s had incinerated; sand has transformed into black glass. some sand that was caught in his glove falls from his hand; he lets it, then takes sabé from kitster and walks towards a sunlit cloud.]

so ... why is kitster here? vader has come to this place because sabé is as haunted by his mother’s death as he is. troubled by the fact that anakin, a child slave, won a podrace to help royalty, and that his mother was nonetheless left behind in slavery, padmé had directed sabé to find shmi on tatooine. never having met shmi before, as queen amidala did not leave her starship on tatooine, sabé failed to locate shmi on that mission. she did manage to free a small number of slaves, however, including anakin’s childhood best friend kitster, and relocate them. the more immediate context is this: these ex-slaves are now under threat from a crimson dawn operative masquerading as an imperial, or something (don’t ask me about the lore-related details of the plot, I can only grasp at relationships between images). and since vader has vowed to end crimson dawn in the name of restoring “order”, sabé was able to convince him to visit this community, and work with people like kitster to destroy the imperial/dawn weapon that caused the sandstorm in the first place. 

in summary. we are here because of shared grief over shmi and padmé, over shared grief about the results of that first podrace. we have a second race with a parallel result - vader has helped the former queen, again; helped padmé, in a way, again - and a contrast: there is no jedi betting on vader’s freedom, now. but in some sense this is another parallel. for as winning the race led vader to coruscant and the jedi temple, the comic now cuts to the former temple, now the imperial palace, on coruscant.

[image caption: it is night on coruscant; the former jedi temple, now the emperor’s palace, is shown in dark profile against a sky lit pink-purple from the city lights.]

the emperor is speaking, speaking to himself, ignoring his red-robed guards, who gaze at each other questioningly. vader, the emperor mutters, couldn’t save his mother, nor padmé. but now he thinks he can -- 

well, the emperor doesn’t finish the sentence. you might say the emperor is betting on failure; he is delighted by what he anticipates, for he closes the issue with his cackles. you can fill in the blanks.

[ayo-edebiri]

When's the new season of Séance Dog coming out? You mean the show? Probably not for another year.

INVINCIBLE (2021 - ) I 2.07

[biboomerangboi]

More reasons why Zuko being the Firelord is objectively the funniest thing on earth:

HES SEVENTEEN

He hasn’t been civilised in 4 years, his entire teenage experience consists of living on a boat and sleeping rough. The most stable bed he has was probably in Ba Sing Se he probably will just nap anywhere.

He has customer service experience which means he probably uses his customer service voice on his minsters.

Additionally he probably just wanders into to kitchen to get his own snacks and tea because he forgets what servants do.

He probably has no idea why he can’t just chase after an assassin he used to hunt the avatar for Agnis sake why is the captain of the guard demanding he stay in his room he’ll find the guy first (he’s probably right)

Katara probably has a free pass on Eco terrorism because what’s he going to do challenge her, she’ll beat his ass.

If he saw a minster doing something shady he will either invite lady Beifong to detect their BS or commit B&E and look for evidence himself.

He somehow found a baby dragon and raises it.

He will be far to willing to give Kyoshi island anything they want cause he feels bad and Suki scares him.

He randomly insisted on giving some earth kingdom village 100 ostrich horses.

The Avatar will just show up call him Hotman and demand the go on adventures and the Firelord will just dip because he’s been confined to long and has the Zoomies.

He takes far to much advice from Sokka and will genuinely believe if someone doesn’t get Sokkas plans they must be an idiot because Sokka is 16.

Sokka and Zuko also get into a lot of teenage rebellion phases by accident.

Toph just walks in breaks a wall of his palace and demands a field trip that always involves the Firelord having to explain himself to the cops.

He somehow knows every dangerous teen in the world and they all come for tea uninvited.

He has broken into both the NWT and Ba Sing Se.

He has a really well documented facial scar and official portraits but still disappears to be Lee the tea guy like no one knows.

HES SEVENTEEN.

[kenobihater]

tragedy enjoyers when a character perpetuates the cycle of violence they themselves were a victim of

[bruciemilf]

“Bruce is emotionally incompetent and can’t step outside his own morality” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“Dick is extremely stubborn and thinks he’s right all the time” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“Jason has hypocritical tendencies” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“ Tim is entitled and doesn’t think about people when seeking results, and often acts uncaring” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“Damian is rude and bratty” yeah, it’s a character flaw.

Also, some people may not even regard everything listed above as flaws.

Having negative traits allows incredible flexibility within your characters, what makes them intriguing, what makes them easy to relate to. If you want to write people, then write people. But they can’t be good and clean all the time.

[tiiramisu-cake]

Gojo Satoru visiting Kugisaki nobara while she is in coma, sitting next to her, and talking to her. Gojo Satoru swapping souls with Yuta okkotsu, teaching him everything he knows about his cursed technique. Gojo Satoru hiding Sukuna's last finger to indefinitely postpone Yuji's execution. Gojo Satoru who bore the burden of being a monster, killed all the higher ups alone because he refused to let his students watch such gruesome sights. Gojo Satoru who believed he would win right til the end. Gojo Satoru who died knowing his students had got it from there, that they would be able to save Fushiguro Megumi. Gojo Satoru who let his body be used as puppet after his death. Gojo Satoru who died knowing all his students would be saved.

[rosequart]

toshiro is also autistic and clearly envies how much laios doesn't mask and is able to say whatever he's thinking outright (he literally says so after their fight). and he was raised as like a minor lord or whatever in feudal japan so he learned to mask early on and that combination of masking + raised in a high-context culture + being in a foreign land with different etiquette means that he'll go through herculean levels of discomfort to not upset any perceived group balance and only snaps when he's like three days away from dropping dead. which is also something he sees in falin btw and is a big reason why he's drawn to her. imo

[nightbirdz]

It’s a bit unrealistic how Toph never made any counterfeit coins once she learned to metalbend

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[sethnakht]

darth vader (2020-), #11 (pak/ienco)

[image caption: darth vader is having a vision of the duel at bespin, only that his position and luke’s are reversed. where vader had leaned out with an outstretched hand and asked luke to join him, while luke inched away over the precipice, it is now vader hanging on to slippery piles by one hand, cradling a severed arm to his chest, and luke who asks vader to “search his feelings” to acknowledge the truth: that he can “destroy the emperor”. the vision has been brought on by a screaming, bleeding kyber crystal which the emperor claims to control. as he gazes at his son in a position of power from his own precarious one, expression hidden by his mask, vader hears the emperor speaking to him: “lord vader ... have you chosen?” indeed, the emperor seems to be invading his thoughts, with the second part of the question appearing in a black box, the kind the comic ordinarily uses to mark off vader’s own thoughts. what vader chooses exactly is not shown on the page, but he is next seen stumbling after the emperor and stammering fealty. this can imply that he has fled from the luke of the vision, just as luke chose death, to plummet into the abyss, rather than join vader.]

where is luke in darth vader (2020-)? it’s a question that could be asked of any story about vader set between esb and rotj, because of the unexplained, yet radical change in his character between the films; from hotly pursuing luke in the first, vader seems resigned to having lost him in the next, shocked to be told by his master that luke will turn himself in willingly. what's the story there?

in this version of events, luke is running. the first issue of the comic opens with the duel on bespin and luke jumping to escape vader, and vader watching him escape in the millenium falcon. luke has escaped, and the question is - what is vader going to do about it? 

instead of immediately trying to regroup, to strategize, to recapture him, pak’s vader has a gigantic meltdown - a meltdown that involves running himself. he’s supposed to report to his master; instead he forms a nonsense plan to “punish” the people who hid luke away, then rushes off. the plan is nonsense because vader a) doesn’t even have a destination, b) evidently knows those people are dead - he manages to bring along a forensic droid, suggesting he's desperate enough to examine corpses for any story they might still tell him about luke. (re: a, the droid suggests they start on tatooine, and he doesn’t protest.) retracing old ground on tatooine, coruscant, and naboo, vader obsessively plays luke’s escape over and over again in his mind, to the point where the memory becomes fevered hallucination. now luke is his mother. now luke is padmé, screaming, holding out her hand to him. again and again, they fall away from him.

so to get back to the question - where is luke? he’s everywhere and nowhere, a looming figure in vader’s mind and a curiously absent figure in his actual plans. luke is running from vader. but also, the comic seems to suggest, vader is running from luke.

not that vader admits as much to himself. the comic employs two conventions to show what vader is thinking: flashback or vision panels, tinged in red, showing scenes from his past or from present psychic visions; and caption boxes conveying his immediate thoughts in the present, the words themselves appearing in red boxes which are in turn enclosed in black boxes reminiscent of the suit. where thought captions in many comics will appear over images, providing connections between the image and the verbal message, vader’s thoughts almost never escape the black boxes; they are as divorced from physical imagery as he is from the world. at the same time, they don’t stand in complete isolation: other psychics in the story, most notably the emperor, can access them. (the emperor frequently cites from vader’s silent monologues to demonstrate his knowledge of his apprentice’s psyche. whether the emperor can see the images is another story.) all in all, the two devices are frequently shown to be at odds - what vader sees visually in his mind and what he says he’s thinking are almost always in some kind of tension, also with his actions in the present storyline. for example, as he obsesses over bespin, addressing luke with things he said and didn’t get to say, we see him think that only “power can save ...”, only to be confronted with the spitting image of padmé, whom his power expressly did not save: it’s the former handmaiden sabé, but for a moment, he really seems to think it’s padmé, that his power might indeed not have killed her.

you can see this dynamic in the image above as well - vader is having a vision mediated by a bleeding kyber crystal. he’s shown a version of bespin that never happened, where the words spoken are exactly the same. but in the images, we see that roles have been reversed. additionally, the emperor breaks into the sequence, his voice entering the narrow, coffin-like, black box that ordinarily represents vader’s thoughts. possibly he’s pulling him out of the vision; possibly he’s forcing the choice to fall into the dark abyss, to run from luke, to run from what we, the audience, know will turn out to be his actual destiny.

it’s a repeated theme. vader isn’t just running from luke, he’s also running from having to “search his feelings” - running from himself. working briefly together with sabé to uncover the cause of padmé’s death, only to learn she wants him dead for killing anakin and padmé, he chooses the lie - “of course I did,” he claims, even as he recalls his own body burning on a mustafar bank. after wiping out most of the army that sabé has mustered to kill him, raiding padmé’s tomb, and learning from an implant in her corpse that she had received medical treatment on polis massa, vader hears padmé’s last words about him. “there’s still good in him,” she says, as he slices the forensic droid, the death-reader, the machine in half. then he has another meltdown.

darth vader (2020-), #5 (pak/ienco)

[image caption: darth vader has seen and heard a recording of padmé’s final moments, including her words to obi-wan, “there is still good in him ...”. we are shown his reaction: he is back on bespin, staring down at the abyss where luke chose to fall rather than join him. but the one falling now is not luke, it is vader himself - first, fully armored, then, as the one-armed padawan who murdered a village and married padmé, then as the child who said goodbye to his mother. his figure morphs backwards into innocence, falling further and further away from vader; he is escaping himself.]

vader hallucinates. he’s on bespin and he’s losing luke. luke isn’t luke - luke is darth vader. darth vader is anakin, killer and newlywed. darth vader is a little boy who had to say goodbye to his mother. he watches himself from a perch high above, the panel colored fully to indicate his mental standpoint, and looks down through red lenses at his own evolution, devolving away.

what does vader do after this revelation? he returns to palpatine, who promptly works to try and make him forget everything. 

darth vader (2020-), #6 (pak/ienco). 

[image caption: darth vader has returned to the emperor after learning that padmé died on polis massa and hearing her final words. the emperor claims that vader, by wallowing in grief, has fallen back into weakness; he retaliates by lifting vader into the air with the force and choking him, turning a signature move against him. vader briefly resists, telling the emperor that he lied about padmé. in response, the emperor declares that he will teach vader to fear to bring him back to the fold as a sith, fries the suit, and dismembers vader. vader must either forget padmé, luke, and “everything but your emperor”, and again choose the dark path to power, or he must die.]

palpatine subjects vader to a number of tests of mind and body, including two psychic reframings of the bespin duel. the first of these is brought on by an abomination in palpatine’s service, a psychic squid that invades minds to destroy them.

darth vader (2020-), #10 (pak/ienco). 

[image caption: in the final stages of his “lesson” from the emperor, vader experiences a psychic attack from a giant monster squid that has evolved to “hunt its own kind” by breaking the minds of its victims. to break vader, the squid shows him not padmé, but obi-wan, luke, and the emperor, prepared not just to leave him behind but to kill him.]

vader is shown images from his past (mustafar) and recent present (bespin), but mixed up in a way that speaks to secret fears about luke and the emperor. the duel on bespin becomes the duel on mustafar, luke becomes obi-wan, the jedi he should have been, then assumes vader’s positions on bespin, taking his place as the sith he should be. instead of seeing padmé, whom vader now knows thought there was still good in him to her end, vader hears of past-tense loves: luke, like obi-wan, loves him no longer. the summa vermoth’s attack includes predictive elements - luke cuts off vader’s arm in exactly the same way he ends up doing in rotj - but as the squidly panel borders show, this is a vision mediated by a hostile entity, not to be trusted. the luke here is a projection without feeling - when vader clumsily appeals to his son from his downed and weakened position for help destroying the emperor, luke stabs him in the heart. where obi-wan could not end anakin, and as vader himself could not kill luke on bespin, this luke ends vader without hesitation before walking off with the emperor.

palpatine is more or less successful in recalibrating vader, who emerges from the ordeal convinced he is prepared to kill his own son to keep his position with the emperor. (other than shooting at him in a dogfight, though, he doesn’t exactly try all that hard; ultimately he concludes that projecting an effort to kill luke was fruitful because it revealed that palpatine actually wants luke alive, and gives up that project altogether.) 

but before palpatine reclaims him, vader has the vision at the very top of this post - occasioned by a living being that is suffering as much as he is. compared to the fear-inducing vision from the squid, what the crystal shows is kindly. luke has sheathed his weapon. he holds out his hand. he looks at vader (at the reader) directly, in a first person shot (contrast this with the squid vision, where vader was watching luke interact with another vader, an externalized version of himself, at a distance.) we’re seeing a re-enactment of the moment when vader reached out to luke not as a sith lord but as a father: luke is beseeching vader to come with him. it’s what he’ll do in actuality. though he has never stood in that exact position, though vader has not hung from a pipe, the words he speaks are true - that anakin will be the one to destroy the emperor. 

vader returns to the fold. he chooses, as luke did, to run from the outstretched hand. but when luke chose to run, he chose also to flee the offer for power, to flee the dark. falling, running, vader has seemingly chosen the darkness. and yet - because he made that choice from luke’s position - a choice to run that he, in his cramped thought coffins, has loudly declared to himself was the “weak” choice - is he not simultaneously undercutting that return to the fold, at the same time?

[dolceaspidenera]

Thinking about this line from Cazador and what implies:

I keep thinking about how strange and new must have been for Astarion to finally be surrounded by people who actually listen to him and no one there to punish him for speaking up. 

How it must have felt for him to be able to freely joke around and find that Tav actually laughs at his jokes and even joins in the fun. How new it must have been to be able to express himself and have people who actually listen to him and don't treat him like he is a nuisance, but truly listen to what he has to say. 

I imagine a Tav who just listens, even when he is complaining and whining on purpose, they listen and maybe smile a bit between themselves because they've seen through him, and they never tell him to shut up, they let him vent, they listen to his stories about Cazador, they laugh with him at his jokes. 

No wonder he falls so hard for Tav or becomes very fond of them in a friendship route.

After 200 years where even the Gods didn't care to listen, he has found someone who sits down with him and hears him out.

[bloominglegumes]

i love normal guys doomed by the narrative

[letsduneit]

it's wild to me that people act as if chani's primary reason for leaving paul was bitterness about being a concubine like girl..... i promise that did not even register in her brain compared to the realization that paul had chosen to become her people's oppressor, to become her oppressor, to destroy the equality that was very foundation of their relationship. i promise her agency and her loyalty to her people, things which existed before paul and will exist after him, were more important to her than how "official" her relationship would be considered within a system she did not care about.

[gale-force-storm]

Thinking about the fact that, to pull Gale from the stone and get him in the game at all, you have to decide to try to touch an extremely dangerous looking swirling mass of unstable magic. Something that is, objectively, a terrible idea

Like, the options it gives you are to either touch the sigil or leave, and if you leave you just... don't get Gale in the party

You have to take the risk. You have to let your curiosity override your common sense. You have to look at this unstable, possibly dangerous malfunctioning magic sigil and go "...Ok, but what if I poke it?"

In short, to get Gale in your party, you have to do exactly what he would in that situation, and indulge in a moment of reckless curiosity. And I just think that's delightful

[fantastic-nonsense]

it's actually super funny when you think about how the Superfam 🤝 Flashfam 🤝 Arrowfam 🤝 Wonderfam = basically all collectively being friends with and/or respecting the hell out of Dick Grayson

You think it's just Clark but no. Lois loves him. Post-Crisis!Kara thought of him as a mentor and big brother figure. Kon canonically thinks Dick is cool. And Jon looks up to Dick a lot (and obviously Clark literally put Dick in charge of looking out for Jon while he was off-planet)

And then you think it's just Roy, but no. Lian calls him "Uncle Nightwing," Dinah thinks he's good for Babs, Connor's generally chill with him, Emiko thinks he's nice and hot (lmao), and Ollie's apparently fond enough of him that we're told Dick is the one who named the Arrowcave

And then you think it's just Wally but no. Wally's kids love him, Barry likes him, he's on good enough terms with Bart to get a focus panel at Bart's funeral, he's led Jesse on two separate teams, and Jay's willing to swing by NYC with the rest of the JSA to help him move out of the Cloisters after Final Crisis

And THEN you think it's just Donna, but no. Diana watched him grow up and thinks fondly of him, and Cassie respects Dick enough that she not only took Damian onto the Teen Titans on a trial basis just because Dick asked but he's also the first person she calls when she thinks Tim's gone crazy after Bruce's death

truly the linchpin character of the DCU, we have no choice but to stan

[biceratops7]

Here's a neat detail:

Not to talk about season 1 Good Omens in the year of our Lord and Season 3 announcement 2023, but I kind of just realized another little moment that's very sweet and true to real life.

I really like that Crowley isn't just fine again after he learns Aziraphale survived the bookshop burning after all. Normally in stories when there's a "surprise, I'm alive!" moment, the characters just kind of celebrate for a minute and then move on business as usual. But Crowley doesn't. He continues to be visibly be shaken and a little unfocused throughout his conversation with Aziraphale, and when he has to explain what happened, he starts crying again.

I don't know I just thought that was a really nice detail because anyone who's experienced similar whiplash in real life knows about that... residual grief period I guess? I think this was a core memory that informed a lot of Crowley's behavior in season 2, you don't ever really forget that moment you lost them no matter how brief. There's just something very loving and vulnerable in him being like "I thought you were gone, and even though I know now you're ok, I want you to know just thinking about it upsets me deeply."