#not the writers completely sweeping it under the rug

[landonkirbyappreciation]

PRISON WORLD/POSSESSION TRAUMA MOODBOARD

[flamingpudding]

do you still take requests? if you do can you write your take on this idea https://www.tumblr.com/ilydana/746501696852819968/cloneclonedbatman?source=share

Thanks for the Ask! That's is an interesting one!

Also as long as I can write something to it I don't mind getting requests, if I can't I will let people know if I can. So no worries about that K?

Out of courtesy and because I believe its is the right thing to do here the Link and a Tag to the original writer @ilydana I hope you don't mind that I am taking inspiration from you for this.

Also I don't know Conners Timeline well and I like to base my writings on the Wayne Family Adventures settings so.... yea sorry if I got some facts wrong....

-------------------------------

Clone double Wamy

Thinks were never easy for the Waynes, Bruce realised that when he sat in the meeting room. Usually he would have confronted his best friend in a more private setting, like when it was just the two of them or only Diana with them. But his best friend had been grating on his nerves with this for a while now. Bruce had honestly believed Clark had gotten better with the whole Clone thing but apparently he hadn't.

"All I am saying is that Conner is a person and to stop referring to him as 'it'." Bruce wasn't sure what had this brought on but maybe it was also having listened to his own kids rants about the way Conner had been and sometimes still was treated by Clark. Usually when someone called his friend out on it he would laugh awkwardly and say it was a slip of the tongue. That he still wasn't completely used to the idea of having a clone.

It's been years and Bruce wasn't buying that excuse anymore.

Well his persistent nagging had now caused this petty fight in front of everyone. He knew his children present, Dick and Tim, would have his back as well as most of their friends. But he also knew that those that prefer to keep the peace would try to argue in Clarks favor to sweep this hole problem under the rug once more.

"You don't get what it is like to be cloned or how long it takes to get used to it!"

His eye twitched under his cowl, he could also feel his kids tense up, especially Tim. His entire family had expirence when it came to cloning. The number of labs from the LoA they had shut down and destroyed was a testament to it. But there was one thing his entire Family aside from Alfred didn't know either.

"I actually do."

He stated calmly watching Clarks reaction as he stared unwaveringly at his best friend. He could see the colour drain, the paling and the pure look of disbelief he was getting, while Nightwing and Red Robin stood up to stand behind him with crossed arms. They probably thought he was referencing the time they had to fight Damian's Clones that sadly couldn't be saved like Conner had been.

"What do you....?" His best friend started but wasn't able to finish his question as Bruce decided to rip the bandaid off.

"The original Bruce Wayne died before he even was one month old. My parents, unable to cope with the loss cloned the baby with the help of a pair of scientist from Illinois." If the situation was different he might have laughed into the faces the people around him were making, not very Batman like of him but it was kind of funny. Still he was thankful for the comforting hand his son, Dick, placed on his shoulder or the way his other son, Tim inched closer protectively like. These two while probably shocked still stood by his side.

"And i was not the only clone that resulted from my parents original grief."

He left it at that as he stood and left the meeting without any further explanation. Bruce had made his point clear, now the ball was in his friends court. He was thankful that his kids followed him out as he went straight to the Zeta-Tubes to return to the Batcave. He knew his kids had questions for him, but he was not willing to answer them in front of the other heroes and thankfully his kids knew that that. So they silently followed him until they were back to the cave.

"B?" Dick asked tentatively once they were back in the came.

"It is as simply as I stated. My parents grieved the loss of their original son and unable to cope they cloned their own child with the help of a pair of scientist." He reiterated his earlier statement not looking at the two at first. For a brief moment he was thankful his other kids were out and about busy with other things.

"A pair of scientists?" Tim propped further and Bruce sighed wondering how much he should tell or if he could keep some things secret.

"Family actually. Estranged but they were... are family." He nodded. "The Fentons. Jack Fenton was my fathers cousin. Because of his field of research he got estranged from the family, not fitting into the perfect image my great grandparents had in mind for the Waynes originally. My father contacted him for help regarding the cloning back then."

"You said you weren't the only one?" He gave Tim a small smile, it was just like him to catch on to the small details and focus his questions on that.

"I didn't know until many years later when my parents died." He smiled a little remembering back to his training with Lady Gotham and how she asked him if he had siblings and then proceeded to introduce him to his clone twin. Ever since then Danny had become quite the fixture in his life, a reconnected family member. Though they had needed a lot of help when it came to actually speaking with each other but that thankfully Danny's sister Jazz helped.

He couldn't help the laugh that escaped him when he noticed Dick's stare of realisation. "Uncle Danny!"

Bruce just smirked, chuckling lightly as he gave his eldest a slight nod. "Danny."

Dick was the most familiar with Danny having meet the other a couple of times when he was younger and just started out as Robin. Bruce wasn't ashamed to say that Danny and Alfred had been the two he had asked for advice the most when he had taken Dick in back then. Danny had already expirence in raising kids from an even younger age than Bruce had. That their two cousins Dan and Danielle were in a way clones too was however something he would not be telling his kids yet. Frankly it wasn't his place and honestly if Danny hadn't become as comfortable as he had with this fact over the year he wouldn't have outed his clone twin to his kids either.

"So...." Tim started, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "...what now? Not that it will change anything now but uh...."

"Nothing really? I mean if Clark still got a problem then well I guess we don't have a super uncle anymore? But hey maybe we could introduce Uncle Danny to Conner?" Dick shrugged turning to Tim.

"But that would mean we admit to Uncle Danny that B let us in in the secret and that could make things awkward and..."

"Tim you are overthinking! It will be fine!"

Bruce smiled as he watched his two sons start to argue wether or not to introduce Danny to Conner. Well even if they did Danny wouldn't mind it. In fact Bruce had kept his clone twin updated on a lot of things that happened with his work as Batman. One of the reasons was that Danny had started out in the hero business way sooner than Bruce had but also because Danny was his last resort contingency plan against everything.

His twin would probably laugh in their faces and ask why it took them so long to introduce them and then drag his own daughter to meet Conner so they could have some 'clone'-bonding time and knowing Danielle, she was going to drag Dan along and then Bruce himself too. Bruce chuckled at that thought, he also knew that if Clark doesn't clean up his act than Danny would most likely swoop in and adopt Conner right out of under Clarks nose.

Well all he had to say if it came to that was that his best friend wouldn't be able to blame anyone but himself then.

[punkeropercyjackson]

The thing about Jason is that he IS a feminist and racially inclusive character but because he treats the women and poc in his stories well,not because he's 'female-coded' or a substitute for canon poc.Now i do support transfem readings of Jason or Lina as i like to call her and consider him canonically afrolatino but that's because i love trans women fictional and real and am afrolatino myself so Jason reads as afrolatino to me from personal experience.And a big part of the latter is the diversity of his cast!!

His adoptive mom is an arab-chinese woman,his love interests are a wasian/half cambodian woman an egyptian woman and a darkskin black woman,his brothers he gets along with are that mom's bioson and his eldest brother on his dad's side who's romani and the remaining brother he's on good terms with is THE FIRST EVER BLACK ROBIN who is also the ONLY one he's always liked and been nice to and the only white character he actively likes is also a girl and has a completely platonic relathionship with him.This along with Jason's personality and other individual traits is why i have such a black view of him,because he feels afrolatino to me

That's what gets me about fanon Jason being claimed as a minority!!!Canon Jason actually works as one with a design update only but it CAN'T be just him!That's not representation or good writing!Instead of Talia bashing or some random ass white woman replacing her,she should have her pre-Morrison history employed and act like a typical brown/asian mom in a positive relatable and accurate way.Instead of sweeping Jason's girls under the rug for BEING girls and acting like it's not misogynistic because you're shipping him with Roy as if og Rhato dosen't have racialized misogyny fused into it's formula,explore their romantic dynamics with him and how they diffenterate and have in common and fucking care about Rose,Artemis and Dana as their own characters too as they're much,MUCH more than just 'DC's failed attempts to make Jason straight'.Instead of infantilizing Dick and animalizing Damian,make Dick Jason's cool reliable older brother he was close to as Robin but never mollycoddles him as Red Hood which JASON dosen't want as seen by his dislike of Roy and give him and Damian equal respect if not Damian way more since he's done way less bad fore more understandable reasons.Instead of lying about their age difference,aknowledge that Stephanie in current canon is 19 at the oldest while Jason is 23 at the youngest and in pre-reboot he was 19 when she was in high school and very specifically NOT a senior so yeah,it IS a minor x adult ship in almost every scenario they meet in the ship content

And for fuck's sake,STOP LEAVING OUT DUKE!!!!!!!The blue eyes Batkids rule isn't real,it's never been brought up in canon or joked about in official sources,it's segretation y'all made up!'Honorary Batkid' my ass,he's so literally Robin-coded the writers gave him light powers and 'The Signal' as his mantle!You know NOTHING about superheroes if you actually think Duke's not a core Robin,a Batboy AND a Batkid-Or if you think Jason's supposed to be a normie,a power fantasy or an abuser!He's a tragedy and commentary and an adventure and a comedy and same goes for Talia,Rose,Artemis,Dana,Dick,Damian,Duke AND Stephanie!Jason wouldn't wanna be Jason without them and they also do NOT exist just for him because they're his loved ones,not his tokens!Y'all want Jason Todd?Ight,then you want the Red Hood cast too because they're a package deal.You don't?Then keep that shit to yourself and invest in a dating app since you clearly can't write anything except white ass porn

[fandoms-and-salt]

the thing that annoys me about the fandom and vivziepop is the popular claim that "haters dislike stolitz because they can't handle messy gay relashionships!"

Because not only is it not true, it's the complete opposite of the truth. Most of the anti-stolitz crowd came after "The Circus", an episode that actively tried to sweep all Stolas' shitty behaviour in s1 under the rug and portray him as this spottless innocent victim of everyone around him. The Stolitz ship turned from an "unhealthy relationship where both parties are taking advantage of eachother but catched feelings along the way" to "a childhood friends to lovers trope about a poor guy who is just so in love with a tortured emotionally closed-off bad boy".

The writers themselves are actively making the ship less "complicated and messy", and not through actually developing the characters no no no! We have a retcon flashback and characters with amnesia about any of the past problems and conflicts they had.

It's seems like it's the writers who have a problem with "messy gay relashionships", not the antis.

[thief-of-eggs]

HELLO LOVE <3

Brainworms have been worming extra hard since I stumbled upon your Bruce and Jay post (plus the doomed narratives one,, BELOVED), honestly those two make me so fucking ill oh my god. The tags on ur post? So true. Kith ur tags on the head. LO VE LOVE <3333 adding a little to the discussion since I am ill (and if you don't mind!!)

LOVE THE DOOMED NARRATIVE because their reconciliation is never possible imo. Grief is a wretched force that has twisted Jason's memory from the image of his beloved son into a detached, reckless amalgamation. Bruce compartmentalises to such a degree that if he has to keep functioning (both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne) that he can't possibly face the fact that his actions killed his son. His mission born out of the death of his parents couldn't have killed that bright child who was albeit a little angry at times but so full of compassion and life, right? Right?

But he has to continue. And because he does, he has to, on an internal level, make himself believe that Jason was doomed from the start. That he was too reckless. That he was too much of a mess. That he should've never been Robin (which is true in a different sense, but this line of reasoning is not it) and was destined to die. Bruce's messy cycle of grief has concluded. Acceptance comes in the form of his cherished son now being seen as 'his greatest failure, a reckless Robin, a good soldier.'

And unfortunately, the whole thing about Jason is that he is continually trying to communicate with the Bruce he remembers before he died. They're both on completely different pages in this conversation, and Jason is so mentally ill—oh my god, PTSD?—and he's trying to communicate with someone who doesn't remember him as he was. Plus, Gotham is such an intrinsic part of him that he can never pull away from it. He just gets stuck in a cycle, continually pulling away and then reaching out, and then pulling away—essentially in Limbo.

SJSJOSAOSKSOS I DO LOVE THE BRUCE AND JAY RECONCILE NARRATIVE 😭😭 THEY'RE BOTH NUANCED CHARACTERS, I BELIEVE IN THEM BUT GOD... the amount of growth they'd have to show from both their sides for that to ever happen??? YEAH. NO. 😭😭 AaaaaAAAA

ANYHOW. RANDOM WORDDUMP. U HAVE COOL AF POSTS !!!!! much love !!!!! Thank u for appearing on my tl :D !!!!!

HELLO HELLO!!! WELCOME !!

PLZ add on omg RAHHHHHH !!! Nothing makes me feel more loved as a writer and poster than seeing people get inspired by my silly little words and seeing them expand on !!!!

Also yes yes YES Jason Todd is one of my favorite muses for doomed narratives!! Every single goddamn relationship that kid attempts to have is destined to fail. From his mom to his short-lived time as Bruce’s apprentice/son, to his fragile and tense relationships with his almost-but-not-quite siblings.

Jaw on the floor, first off. Do you write??? Please do you write???? I need to read more of your words if so bc you understand these characters on SUCH a deep level UGH

“-he can’t possibly face the fact that his actions killed his son” - THIS THIS THIS !!!! Bruce is an immovable wall with Jason because he CANNOT accept the accountability. It’s like Jason is having a completely different battle with him, because Jason sees things for as they are, if not a little tainted by his own begrudged feelings, but meanwhile Bruce is seeing things through a clouded lens of denial. Bruce doesn’t understand the pain he caused Jason because he cannot even see it. It does not exist in his mind. Because to accept the pain is to accept WHY the pain is there, which in turn would just spiral out of control and Bruce is forced to accept that his no-kill ideal ended up digging his son’s own grave.

Ugh LOVE the idea of Bruce gaslighting himself into thinking this was how it was always fated to be. Putting the blame not on himself or Jason or the Joker, but on some higher being that he doesn’t even believe in. It’s such a Bruce coping mechanism. Sweeping everything under the rug bc now he can’t see it. IM UNWELL

YES YES THEY ARE ON SUCH DIFFERENT PAGES!!! YOU GET IT!!! They literally are having two separate conversations and neither understands why their words aren’t sinking in to the other. They may as well be talking to their own hallucinations at this point- Jason at the memory of his father and Bruce at the doomed ghost of a boy who once was.

And YUP that’s why I write little “good dad bruce” fics and read so many too, because I WANT them to reconcile but… in the actual real world reality? I think the best they could do is an uncomfortable middle ground. Where Jason is no longer antagonized, but not exactly welcomed either. He’d have an expected seat at the table, but he’d never come. He’d be on every place card, every invite, but he’d never show up. He’d be included, but would choose to stay away. And that breaks my heart but also I truly don’t think either of them can go beyond that. In an effort to cling to familiarity and sanity and a guilt free life, Bruce pushed his biggest regret away. He could have had his son back, but instead he chose to believe it couldn’t be true. And like the greatest self fulfilled prophecy, he made it true.

ANYWAY THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY AND BLESSING MY INBOX !!! seeing so many words made my itty bitty heart so happy. biggest MWAH to you <33

[bestworstcase]

anyway its time for our irregularly scheduled reminder that destruction in rwby has always, with remarkable consistency, been associated with change and want, culminating in v9 with the entirely predictable revelation that the primordial cosmic force of destruction is… [checks notes] hunger.

so when the narrative says that salem is destruction incarnate or the writers reiterate that the pool of grimm imbued her with a destructive nature, Something That Has Been Stated In The Story so i don’t really know why we’re acting like this is new information, you do need to take that into context with

what

destruction

means

in this story. likewise the reality that salem is grimm must be considered in context with how grimm are described and shown to behave. (hint: they feel pain, have a survival instinct, learn from experience, live in packs, and die in captivity.)

salem’s affect is blunted (because she grew up in near-total isolation with an angry, violent father, and then spent most of her millions of years of existence completely alone; of course she struggles to express emotion) but she is an intensely emotional character; if her delivery in soliloquy didn’t make that clear then her abrupt mood swings—which start happening in volume four—should have gotten the point across. it didn’t, because fandom and because if you don’t perform emotion correctly nobody fucking believes you have them, but it should have.

the point is, salem has always been emotional—distraught outbursts at the gods, and everything—AND THEN she spent a few hundred million years going insane in isolation AND THEN she remade herself in the pool of grimm… grimm are drawn to, respond to, emotion. when a person becomes grimm, the grimm influence—such as it is—is not to corrupt, it’s to amplify. the mirror becomes a magnifying glass.

salem is the way she is because her feelings are SO BIG ALL THE TIME and she has no way to regulate or cope with them because she’s a flayed screaming bundle of trauma who kept getting brutally punished every time she shows emotion or lets her guard down so she just doesn’t anymore.

back someone into a corner and flay them alive for long enough and yeah, they’ll decide that Killing You is the answer. obviously. being grimm doesn’t -make her- violent or cruel or apathetic to the collateral damage, it intensifies the pain and desperation she is feeling all the time. possibly, it also absorbs the hatred and fear that others feel toward her. and that’s where the violence and the cruelty and the singleminded ruthlessness arises from.

the way to stop salem from Doing This is to help her. it’s the same, in principle, as the solution to the grimm problem in general; culling them while sweeping societal problems under the rug to fester forever does not in fact fix anything, and it is at best putting a bandaid on a hemorrhage. grimm attacks are just a symptom of deeply-entrenched suffering—hence, menagerie. the kingdom built by civil rights activists. doesn’t have a huntsmen academy and also doesn’t have a grimm problem. lol.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

I think people think I’m joking but unless we get some sort of indication from bts that the fuckery of last season is fixed early on, i am completely serious about the fact that i will only be reading episode recaps and live blogs when season 8 comes out bc i cannot keep putting myself through the mental gymnastics that season 7 did just to get nothing of substance out of it… like until we get some sort of something good that actually progresses the story in a way that doesn’t jump the shark or retcon entire previous arcs i will be sitting back and ignoring it because I’m not about to waste my time if it’s gonna be a rehash of season 7 in terms of disproportionately mistreating poc characters over others while also sweeping former plotlines under the rug and/or rehashing story arcs that have already been used/completed just for cheap drama. Tim is better than this, these writers are better than this, but I’m not gonna sit by and watch just out of fandom obligation as they continue to fuck shit up when i’ve spent the past 7 years watching this show. it’s not worth my time and stress at that point.

which makes me so sad bc i love this show and what it used to be, but i’m getting sick of the way things have continued to go downhill since KR took over, and it is especially disappointing that Tim Minear is responsible for such a messy season when i was so prepared for him to actually bring back the show we all knew and loved, and instead we got something that ranks alongside 5/6 for me which is so upsetting.

(sorry i don’t mean to come off as super complain-y and pessimistic lately, and i promise im gonna start posting more positive stuff again but i just can’t have a repeat of what last season was for me mentally lmao)

[mistressoftherant-blog]

TMNT Crossover Fics and Trauma

Something I find really weird about some writers in the TMNT fandom is the absolute insistence that if a bunch of different iterations met up, they would all be horrified at what happened in Rise, being shocked that they've gone through such terrible things at their age, and then would coddle the living daylights out of the 18 boys after learning about their Krang/Shredder. Warning, spoilers ahead.

Don't get me wrong, the Rise boys do go through a lot of traumatising incidents at a young age, and if you consider the other turtles to be older than them when they meet they probably would try to help out. It's just, every iteration of the turtles goes through a lot of traumatising events at a young age, and most crossover fics just seem to sweep these under the rug to prioritise Rise.

I guess this is fine if Rise is your fave version and that's all you want to look at, but it always comes across as weird to me when you have characters from 12 for instance being like oh no, 'one of you got possessed and forced to fight the others, one of you got melded with a piece of tech, one of you almost got locked in a prison dimension, and your city was invaded by Krang, etc, I can't even imagine the suffering you have been through', when all of these things have happened to the 12 boys before, some even multiple times.

They've all been possessed/mind controlled and used against their brothers, Donnie merged with the Speed Demon, the Krang have invaded their city, their entire world was destroyed! Same with 03, they've been possessed/mind controlled, their city was taken over by the Demon Shredder (and Don saw the SAINW Shredder controlled world), they had to fight at least five Shredders, one of whom was also a demon, etc etc Also, as most of the other series ran for longer than Rise (trust me, I am also annoyed that we didn't get more of the 18 boys as 18 was the first show to properly get me into TMNT and I do love it), they also went through more traumatic events than the 18 boys.

Again, I am not trying to say that what the 18 boys went through isn't traumatic, because they definitely had a lot of bad stuff happen to them. But it does feel so weird to dimish everything that the other turtles went through when they were pretty much the same age as the Rise boys.

Take, Donnie: In 03 he's double mutated at least twice, tortured by an invasive mind probe that also electrocuted him, lost a friend to another dimension, got sent to an alternative future and learns that another of his friend and his father are dead before he watched his brothers get killed in front of him, believed himself to be responsible for the loss of his father and went through his own mini depression arc trying to cope with thlle guikt whilst working to bring him back, and that's all off the top of my head.

Poor 12 Donnie... he has died multiple times one of which was beinh literally torn apart on a molecular level by a possessed version of the girl he loves, has also been double mutated and/or possessed multiple times (not sure whether being turned into a vampire counts more as death or mutation), has immense guilt over a variety of things that aren't actually his fault (Leo's coma, when they thought Splinter died during the first invasion, everything that happened with Pulverizer), has also been tortured via electrocution to the head, spent an episode being beaten up by his mind controlled brothers only for them to be snapped out of it pizza, is constantly pressured to be able to fix/solve everything and is frequently told he isnt good enough etc etc

Again, these are examples for just 03 and 12 Donnie that come from the top of my head. Looking at other iterations and characters would make this post even longer than it already is, but I think the Donnie examples alone are enough to prove my point.

In conclusion, if you are writing a crossover fic with Rise as the central point of focus, that is completely fine! If you want to mainly prioritise looking at their trauma because the others are older than that is valid. I just wanted to point out that it can come across a little weirdly if you have some of the characters being completely horrified by the events of Rise, and acting like they could never even begin to understand what they have been through when they've all had similar trauma in their own pasts. Or when you have a bunch of characters being like, 'Oh you almost died, you are turning my scales grey', when they have all almost or actually died multiple times.

It's just a little funny to me for example to have any of the 12 sibling act like, 'I can't even imagine how much you must have suffered when you thought Leo was lost in the prison dimension' when their Donnie has legitimately been killed in a horrific way in front of them, their dad has been 'killed' in front of them multiple times, their own Leo pulls self sacrificial stunts, their entire world was destroyed in front of them, etc

This may just be me coming across as a little bitter but, if you are doing a crossover, it doesn't make sense to me why you would just ignore all the events of the other shows completely in order to make it sound like Rise had it the absolute worst. It seems like it would make more sense to have the characters relating to one another around shared or similar traumas 🤷‍♀️

[eldritchreveries]

regarding your recent post (sorry to see you leave the fandom, but I totally understand your reasons and wish you all the best in what you do next) - your statement about the fandom having a lot of big names who are known predators worried me a bit, I’ve only heard about the ex/jr person and thought that was it, and now I’m wondering if I’ve unknowingly supported anyone similar. i guess I’m asking if there are any other known creators here that we should also steer clear of?

Heya, for the nature of this answer, i'll be censoring it. I'll just go through the gyst of it

To anyone seeing this post dont open it if you're sensitive to these topics

most of the drama unfolded on the twitter side of the fandom. If you didnt know already, ReyGGTV has been a known problematic creator in recent years, theres a whole list of things he's done that you can find online if you're curious. Though these days a lot of newer fans dont know what he's done or the drama has since died down since it unfolded a few years ago, but he's still someone to be cautious of imo. I didnt personally witness his drama, but have a lot of info from people who did.

Tristan Zepeda, a fairly prolific fanartist and writer was recently outted a few weeks ago as being a predator, sending nsfw content to a minor and having roleplay s3x with the Hilda chatbot on hildacord, as he confessed to it all on twitter before shortly deleting his account. Apparently he's currently trying to rebrand and return to the community under a new username "atom"

And Hildaboo (very known fanartist) was going around trying to tell everyone to stay quiet about the predator situation in attempt to "save the fandom". They would rather everyone sweep the predator issue under the rug and let them run rampent and hurt other young fans than "create drama and kill the fandom". I believe Hildaboo has since made a statement regarding it, but this was only after i had to have a whole conversation with them on why telling everyone to be quiet and ignore the predators to keep the fandom alive is in fact, a terrible thing to do. I really don't think i should have had to have this conversation with a grown adult.

And of course, the whole ExJr incident. He was a good friend of mine, and it devestated me when i found out what he'd done. Which, long story short, he sent nsfw content to and had sexual roleplays with a 12 year old, when he was in his 20s. He also copied and stole mine and another friend's character designs without crediting us.

There have also been smaller fanartists around twitter that just flat out draw cp of the main Hilda trio and also ship adults and children together (example; there is a lot of Kaisa x David shipping) and tbh i was sick of seeing it, considering a good chunk of the people around them thought this was completely okay. I was also chased away from the reddit community for a while due to lgbtq+ art and dm'd threats and slurs.

For the sake of legality, everything mentioned here is alleged.

[jaskierx]

I’m so sorry this is going to be a long one!

I watched season 2 all by myself, without dipping my toes in fandom spaces before I was done. It gets overwhelming, so I only look for fans perception after I’m done watching the whole thing because I don’t want to be swayed in my opinions. Can I say I was a bit shocked by the fan reaction to Izzy?

As someone who was distanced from it, this was my take on him.

I consider myself neutral-positive when it comes to him, I don’t hate him at all but he’s not my fav, and I appreciate him because I’ve always liked the unique energy he brought to the show. He was a fantastic antagonist in season 1, and whilst I like his redemption arc in season 2 as a narrative, I wasn’t 100% sold on it on screen because it felt a little too forced on the writers’ part and frankly felt a little too much like sweeping his past behavior under the rug.

Don’t get me wrong, it made complete sense that Ed’s erratic behavior was more of an immediate concern for the crew, but the lack of acknowledgement from Izzy, after things calmed down, of what he himself did to the crew and to Stede left me a little unsatisfied. He let Ed take the brunt of everything although he played a hand in it. He was aware of how he had facilitated Ed’s spiraling though, which I can appreciate, even if the apology came only at his very last scene. The crew didn’t realize what was happening between Ed and Izzy (Jim saying Izzy was Ed’s friend made me roll my eyes, I get it, but I didn’t like them talking about things they don’t see the whole picture of, but it does illustrate their obliviousness about the situation), and they didn’t know Izzy was pushing Ed’s buttons constantly prior to him snapping. They couldn’t have known at all. I guess Izzy decided to make amends through his actions rather than his words, which is great and commendable (although it felt a little like they glossed over said actions), but the lack of acknowledgment is still there.  

Apart from this main gripe, I still liked his arc this season, he made me laugh, I felt for him at times, and I was bummed that he died. But most of all, I didn’t linger too much on Izzy when watching the season because his presence didn’t feel that big to me. He was nicer, had some great and funny moments but still very much felt like a supporting character popping up here and there.

So, you can imagine how surprised I was when I started seeing so many posts about him, what these were about, and certain things have since then kind of stuck with me.

The one I’ll talk about here is how bizarrely nerfed (as in blander) AND buffed Izzy is in a lot of takes I’ve seen. Like… Izzy is manipulative and twist things around a lot to make himself look better (we’ve seen him do that with Stede so many times). Like when he mentioned Ed cutting his leg off because he said he loved him. I don’t remember those things happening as he told them but go off Izzy. Interesting how Ed pulled the trigger but is considered to have cut Izzy’s leg off himself (when we know Jim and Archie did) but Izzy triggering Ed constantly until he snapped to the point of trying to take his own life multiple times is nothing at all in the mind of some fans, don’t you think?

It’s not a bad thing for Izzy to be manipulative at all, I genuinely think it’s great that he has this trait as a character, but takes after takes willfully ignore that and take his words as face value (but in the same breath ignore when Izzy used the shark metaphor to recognize that he fucked up and deserved to be confronted with just how much he fucked up). It’s such a disservice to Izzy. Let him be manipulative! Stop making him out to be this great guy who does nothing wrong! Is it this much to bear to acknowledge that he does shady things? He’s a pirate! Not a precious angel. That’s one of the best part of his character!

As for the buffing part… I can’t lie, I’m bothered that the show planted the seed that Izzy was the brain behind Blackbeard and taught him everything he knew, especially now that I see fan reactions to it. I don’t think this was what they meant to do at all, but it felt like a way to make Izzy this selfless hero which he never was. I think Stede was trying to butter Izzy up so he would help him, and about Izzy being the brain of the operation, who gives a fuck what Rick thinks? Izzy certainly didn’t take the bait and didn’t give a shit, but some Izzy fans took it very seriously apparently.

If anything, it reeks of racism because in his mind of course a brown man can’t think for himself and needs his white first mate to come up with plans for him. It’s really insulting, and I’m really annoyed when I see that some fans ran with it, rewriting Izzy has this badass pirate when his ego and condescending attitude actually exposed him to be the opposite (being outplayed by Stede in 102, losing the duel on a technicality, but still losing it in 106, being such a terrible captain that he gets mutinied right away in 110). It’s been established very early on that Ed is an amazing sailor and a really competent one at that! His instincts are top notch and he’s a great fighter! I don’t know, this rubs me the wrong way. Seeing his accomplishments brushed aside in favor of making Izzy look better is not it. Let Izzy's ego and rage be an obstacle to his growth!

I don’t know, I feel bad for on-screen Izzy. He’s an interesting character but the way people overinflate his importance in the story and turn him into something he’s not, is sad to see.

I’ll stop there because this ask is way too long already and I’m sorry about that. All this to say, I think the writing on Izzy was a little dissonant in some parts, with some attempts at making him more likeable that were successful, and others that could’ve been less shoehorned. For a supporting character though? I’m happy with what they did with him, just bummed out that his fans don’t really want to see him as he is.

don't apologise for sending long asks. i love getting a lil essay in my askbox have no fear

i agree entirely about s1 izzy vs s2 izzy. in s1 he's a great antagonist. he's in the wrong genre of show, he's incredibly repressed, he gets off on being forcefed his own toe, he has bad middle manager energy, he is the human incarnation of wile e coyote, his entire life goal is to split ed and stede up but he's absolutely incapable of stopping himself from accidentally helping them get together. he fascinates me. terrible person. i hate him. great antagonist

and your perspective as someone who did not spend significant amounts of time reading the worst takes you've ever seen during the hiatus is really interesting! like it confirms stuff that has been brought up before about how for example the season feels incredibly izzy-heavy if you're e.g. me but feels a lot more balanced if you're watching without any kind of fandom-related brainrot.

he's an unreliable narrator. we know this and we've known this from day one. the show makes a point to show us that when he's telling ed that stede didn't want to meet him and he misrepresents what he told stede. and yet the lengths some people in this fandom will go to to insist that everything that comes out of his mouth is gospel. like people just accepting at face value that 'izzy has always managed ed's erratic moods' etc when the only evidence for this is [checks notes] izzy himself making that claim. people will go as far as to handwave and assume that things must have happened off screen in a way that backs up izzy's account.

and your point about how all of izzy's flaws and harmful actions get dialled down while he also gets credit for all of ed's successes is spot on. everything harmful that izzy does is handwaved away as 'oh he was acting in ed's best interests' 'he thought he was doing the right thing' 'it doesn't matter that he threatened ed bc what ed did in response was way worse' etc. and then everything that ed achieves is attributed to izzy having taught him all he knows, having been the brains behind the idea of the blackbeard character. and these are inextricably linked - because in this wild fanon version of the show, izzy is fully responsible for all of blackbeard's intelligence and skill, and he and the crew's ability to earn a living completely relies on ed continuing to be blackbeard, so as long as izzy is supposedly acting with the goal of ed continuing to be blackbeard, he's actually being benevolent and looking out for the crew. even if he's selling them out to the navy. even if he's telling ed that he's better off dead than pining for stede.

btw the way folks go on about the duel in s1e6 is the funniest fucking thing. 'but stede cheated 😤 here's a 20 page essay on why izzy actually won' bestie it's a pirate ship not the supreme court, the winner is whoever the crew decides is the winner. (also stede won based on duel rules so. go off i guess)

but yeah i completely get what you mean. and it's a very common feeling. there are plenty of people who liked canon izzy and really want to be able to enjoy him but that enjoyment gets overshadowed by the amount of shite that comes out of the canyon that completely woobifies him and restructures the entire story to fit around their idea that izzy is the protagonist and a longsuffering victim

anyway. if you agreed with this post please send takes to @canonizzyhours 🌻

[striderincosmos]

WIP Whenever

As tagged by @swaps55, and inviting any who wish to participate! (I'm not exactly linked to many writers on here just yet)

Here's a sneak peak (a nice, long one) between Nathaniel 'Nate' Shepard and Garrus on their way to Feros in Spectre Echoes: Memories and Portents!

- - -

The crew area was a rather bustling place at the moment, what with the new additions to the crew. It made Garrus stand out even more at the table, dressed in a shirt and pants that accommodated the slight crest of his upper back.

Nate took a seat next to him, a human beer in one hand and a turian brew from a case he’d had assigned to the Normandy’s cold storage in the other. “Evening, Garrus,” he said casually, offering the brew. “How are you holding up?”

“Rather well, honestly,” Garrus said as he took his drink, opening it and taking a sip. “This sort of environment is easy for me, no matter the species. I might have decided to go to C-Sec over joining the reserves in a decade or so, but you can’t beat out nearly a decade of military training.”

“What made you go into C-Sec in the first place?” Nate asked.

“It was the family business,” Garrus shrugged. “My father had been C-Sec before getting pulled out from the Reserves for Relay-314, and his father before him had done the same thing. Still don’t know why the old man went into politics, though. Even C-Sec is simpler than that.”

Nate shrugged. “I try to avoid politics. When you have a camera pointed at you more often than not…”

“I can see how that’d be the case,” Garrus said, pausing for long moments. “So, I’ve got a question for you about Saren.”

“Funny enough, I’ve actually got one for you, too,” Nate said. “You first.”

“Are you really planning on trying to arrest Saren and drag him in front of the Council after what he’s done?”

Nate ruminated on the query with a pull of beer. “It’d be what the Council wants done, most likely. Saren’s dangerous, but if we can subdue him, he needs to face due process.”

Garrus’s mandibles drooped slightly, the action looking almost like a grimace. Or a sneer. “There’s a lot of risk to that too, though. He isn’t the best Spectre the Council has for nothing. He could probably find half a dozen different ways to escape during transit to the Citadel, let alone what he could do if he was on it.”

“We know he’s the most dangerous person in the galaxy,” Nate said assuringly. “If there’s anyone who can guard him, it’s going to be all of us and the krogan along for the ride.”

“That wouldn’t stop the Council from offering clemency, or just finding some way to sweep this under the rug,” Garrus retorted. “But taking him in is the way it’s done by the book, isn’t it? ‘Do it right, or don’t do it at all’.”

Nate frowned slightly at the rather bitter invective. “And who said that?”

“Lucrius Vakarian,” Garrus said, washing the name back down with a pull of his brew. “Among the most renowned detectives on the Citadel. Spirits know he said to me more times than I can count.”

“Not a regulations guy, then?” 

Garrus sighed quietly. “I get why they’re there. I get that they’re useful. My father and C-Sec drilled that into me well enough. But sometimes, in order to resolve a situation permanently, completely, the regs, and the people who enforce them, can make it so that a solution becomes a stopgap. People get away. Innocents get taken advantage of or hurt when they don’t need to.”

Garrus was silent for a moment. “Take Doctor Saleon.”

“Who’s that?”

“He was — probably is still — one of the leading figures of the Citadel’s black markets. Specifically in grown organs. Real mean bastard. In a place where a krogan who’s well-connected enough could drop 40,000 credits for a full quad transplant to try and counteract the genophage, Saleon was a unique brand of fucked up.” 

“See, there was an increase in organ trade, well beyond what we expected. We managed to confiscate some, and do some genetic tests. It was a bit of a mess, but it led us to a very lively turian who was very insistent that he was not, in fact, missing his liver. We ran a background check, and saw he worked for the aforementioned doctor.”

“What did you do next?” Nate asked.

“We brought him and some of Saleon’s other former employees in for questioning. While I was interviewing one of them, I noticed something suspicious. One of the detainees, a human, started bleeding from his abdomen during questioning. Pretty badly, too. We offered to patch him up, and he got panicky.”

Garrus paused, was silent for long moments. “We found dozens of incision scars on him. Some of them fresh, like the one that gave him away. Others much older. That’s when we realized this sick bastard Saleon wasn’t just employing people. He was testing on them. Growing the organs right inside of them, then cutting them open, harvesting them, and selling them off. Most of the test subjects were poor, desperate. They only got a small cut of the profits from any sale, and only if the organs were viable. If they weren’t, he just… left them inside them.”

The beer wasn’t very appealing to Nate anymore, and he set it on the table at arm’s length. “What happened then?” he ventured. 

“We went out to go and put the cuffs on this guy. But he rigged his lab to blow, ran as soon as his mules started getting pulled in by C-Sec. Took some of his ‘employees’ with him to the nearest spacedock. By the time we found where he was, the ship he stole was already leaving. He threatened to kill who were now his hostages if anyone tried to stop him.”

“And he got away?” Nate said incredulously.

Garrus nodded. “I ordered Citadel defenses to intercept and fire on him, but C-Sec HQ countermanded my order. They were worried about the hostages. Worried about civilian casualties for how close he still was to the city arms. I told them the hostages were already the next best thing to dead, that this was just the cold, hard calculus of stopping a criminal like this now and for good. But they wouldn’t listen.”

Nate sighed. “Sounds like a recipe for hating where you work.”

“To put it mildly.” Garrus chuckled darkly. “I went to Executor Pallin, the man in charge of C-Sec, and told him what I thought about the situation and the policies that made it happen. He told me if I didn’t like it, then I could quit. To be honest, I almost did, just to spite them.”

“As tough a choice as it is, the lives of the hostages were as important as catching Doctor Saleon,” Nate said pointedly. “If we didn’t care about the lives of those threatened by the people we want to bring to justice, how different are we from them?”

It was silent between them for a moment before Garrus sighed quietly. “You know, I can see where you’re coming from. I just wish we could have stopped Saleon as well.”

Again it was silent. “So,” Garrus said after a moment, “what was your question?”

“You’ve got a personal stake in this,” Nate began. “I won’t begrudge that, and I won’t discount that we might need to kill Saren to stop him. But if we do manage to capture him… can I count on you to let justice play out?”

Garrus was silent for long, contemplative moments. “As much as it might grate at me…” he finally said. “I’ll trust your judgment. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, Shepard. However the stellar wind blows, I’ll follow your lead.”

Nate nodded. “I’m glad you have my back, Garrus.”

“I mean hey,” Garrus said, his mandibles implying a slight grin, “I get to learn what a Spectre looks like from you. Thus far, I’d say I’ve got a pretty good mentor.”

[ouatsnark]

hi, idk if you’ve ever talked ab this but do you think that there’s anything regina could have done that would have properly classified her a hero and actually earn people’s forgiveness? this account has changed my perspective on things so much😭 could she really have gotten redemption with all the things that she’s done

Hello! Thank you for the question. I do not think I have ever dedicated an entire post to just this. You could probably piece together my thoughts on it if you dug through enough of my ramblings! But who wants to do that? So this should be fun.

I would honestly classify Regina as an anti-hero. She joined Team Hero to keep Henry and get her happy ending. We know this because we never see her express regret for the hurt she caused others. She only expresses sorrow for her own loss of a happy ending. And she admits she hates doing good in Season 5 finale. So her good deeds were self-serving.

In my humble opinion... The only way for a child abusing, mass murdering, rapist like Regina to achieve a complete redemption would be for her to sacrifice herself for the greater good without expecting anything in return. And she would have had to stay dead. There is just no coming back from the evils she committed. She did not deserve life let alone a happy ending when she’d robbed so many of theirs and never showed remorse for that.

Now the creators didn’t want to kill Regina off because she was popular (but not as popular as her rabid fans want to pretend she is) and I get that. But I think the writers could have gotten Regina a little closer to being a believable true hero if they'd:

1) shown that she’d had a true change of heart

That means facing her victims by showing empathy for the hurt she’s caused them. Her deciding to play hero with them is not that the same thing.

That means seeing Regina groveling for forgiveness instead of her victims groveling to her (like Emma over Marian etc etc). So a little less of portraying Regina as a victim when she isn’t and seeing more of Regina making things up to the real victims.

That means no more of Regina putting the other characters down and instead showing humility.

That means seeing Regina return the hearts she stole because she regrets what she’s done and needs to help her victims.

That means seeing Regina take responsibility for her actions instead of blaming everyone and everything else.

Which I think if she’d done all this then it would’ve been more believable to me that her victims would forgive her. But we never see any humility or regret from Regina that stems from what she’s done to others because again it’s always about her own happy ending or her pain.

2) addressed her abuse of Henry and the rape of Graham.

Seeing that Regina goes on to have a life with Henry and claims to be Emma’s friend, these two crimes needed to be addressed. The show sweeping Regina’s abuse of Henry under the rug like it never happened was infuriating and disgusting. As was her rape and murder of Graham. She needed to confess these things and face the consequences. But instead she just gets away with it and pals around with the heroes like none of it happened. The guilt of what she’d done would’ve been crushing her if she’d had a true change of heart. She can’t get a redemption if her most heinous crimes that effected the people she claims to care about are ignored.

So to sum up: I believe that the only path to a complete redemption for Regina was a sacrificial death. The only way for her to be properly classified as a true hero & it be believable that her victims would forgive her is if she’d shown true humility, regret, remorse and owned up to things she did to them vs having those crimes retconned or forgotten. But sadly Regina can’t even come close to a redemption because all of that is missing. It’s just not possible. Because what’s left? Only her doing good deeds to get her happy ending which isn’t much of anything at all.

Thank you again for the ask. And I am glad I can offer a different perspective on the show.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

For my own sanity, I should probably block the Gotham War tag. There is so much going on, and it deeply upsets me.

While I get the writers are playing at Bruce’s actions not quite being his own, this arc is showing more and more that modern writers have completely lost the compassionate Batman a lot of fans were drawn to.

Yes, he’s a deeply flawed individual, but at the core of his being, he’s supposed to be someone who doesn’t want others to hurt the way he had.

But more and more, we’re seeing him do awful things to the people he’s supposed to love to the point it goes beyond abuse even before this whole thing with Zurr. And then the writers sweep it under the rug in the next arc with whomever he hurt just coming back like it never happened.

While I acknowledge not all fans want a close-knit Batfam, most of us want to at least see the consequences of this behavior. We want those at the brunt of it to acknowledge it and turn away from Bruce. We want Bruce to see what he’s doing and work on changing.

(Edit: this was written before the conclusion of the arc. They were brave enough to make Bruce, not Zur, at fault and nothing came about because of it, which infuriates me more)

[iambecomeafangirl]

So, in the last episode of “Wednesday”, Tyler’s father listents to Dr. Kinbott’s recording about Tyler. 

She says that whenever she tries to talk to him about his mother he suddenly becomes cold and detached as If she was talking to a completely different person!

I mean, even his therapist noticed (she said it) that he has some deep psychological issues.

So maybe our theory about him dealing with something like split personality or anything similiar that would cause extreme changes in behaviour is correct. That would make a very interesting redeemtion ark. Please writers, do Tyler justice and don’t sweep it under the rug. 

[wc-confessions]

"To be honest? I'm kinda sick of people saying WOF is better than Warriors, when it shares MANY of the problems Warriors has, whether it's racism, the portrayal of abuse, colonialism, ableism and more. I dunno guys, maybe we shouldn't act like EITHER is all that great. Warriors has it's issues, we all know that. But putting WOF on a pedestal and sweeping the issues it shares under the rug ain't it. :/"

Tbf, the reason people say this is because the issues that come from warrior cats vs teh issues that come from wof are for completely different reasons. Issues with WoF's writing stem from trying to comment on big systemic issues without having the right level of expertise to tacle them delicately. Warrior's portrayals of these subject matter comes from biases that the writers and editors have that they dont want to address at all in the first place and those biases bleeding into the writing as a result. Not to mention Warrior's issues are much, MUCH, MUCH more egregious between the EXPLICIT sexism and colonialist messaging. I cannot stress enough that in warriors we get repeated, very clear endorsement of xenophobia, racism and sexism over and over again as CORE values and messages in the stories of the series. Where WoF tries and fails, EX: mixed messages with the whole lost continent arc, nightwings vs icewings thing, and anemone wanting to 'fix' tamarin's blindness being portrayed as a good thing- Warriors doubles down and spits on the fans for having values with stuff like ashfur and frecklewish. Not to mention WoF is made by one person with a concise vision for the story vs warrior cats which is pretty disjointed and has extremely inconsistent charization of its characters - if they have characterization at all. Afterall when people say WoF is better than Warriors they might not even be talking about values they could just be talking about the actual books themselves being more entertaining to read.

[kolttonen]

The psychological horror of Brand New's The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me - an album analysis, part 3/4

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4

If they don’t put me away, well, that’ll be a miracle

A big part of the allure of Brand New's music is that it is written almost from the point of a villain. After the allegations about Lacey came up in 2017, internet commenters have come in swarms, expressing that Brand New's discography was filled with hints of grooming and sexually predatory behavior. The Devil And God is no exception, and the first lyric that comes to mind to many is the catchy opening verse of Jesus Christ:

Jesus Christ, that's a pretty face The kind you'd find on someone I could save If they don't put me away Well, it'll be a miracle

There are also the lines in the first verse of You Won’t Know, in which the writer describes himself as the origin of an undesirable chain reaction in a woman's life:

Your daughters weren't careful, I fear that I am a slippery slope Now even if I lay my head down at night After a day I got perfectly right She won't know

Or the ones in Luca, which allure to bad intentions 

When I disappear do you fear for the sister I took? When I disappear it is clear I am up to no good

Archers also has an interesting line in hindsight:

Order your daughters to ignore me Think that will sort me And sweep me under the rug

On The Devil And God the narrator is often addressing the family of the women in question, while the women are referred to as sisters and daughters, never as their own people. This adds a level of shock value to the lyrics - the “taking of the sister” or things that resulted in a “slippery slope” are never explained, but it is almost as if the narrator gets off on the reactions of his actions. 

Brand New wrote about women a lot, Lacey often expressing his tumultuous behavior with women in his songwriting. In his 2017 apology post, Lacey confirmed that he had had an addictive relationship to sex and had been a habitual cheater for most of his life, treating women he had had relations with disrespectfully and often not understanding the power dynamics at play between him and his sexual partners. This complicated issue is often present in Brand New's music, spanning from song lyrics that could almost be read as a tutorial of how to trick people into bed with you, to detailed descriptions of self-hatred for one’s own actions. According to my own impression, the topic is more prevalent on 2003’s Deja Entendu and 2009’s Daisy, but is not completely absent on The Devil And God. 

As a Brand New fan who only started listening to them years after the aggressive cancellation of Lacey, I am inclined to view their music from a point of view that highlights the parts of their lyrics that could be interpreted as a person taking advantage of others. Some say you can’t get through a Brand New album without hearing lyrics about hurting women, but comments like that don’t turn me off their music in the same way it seems to have done for a lot of online commenters. In many ways, it almost has the opposite effect - the hints of moral decay and hearing the train of thought of the obvious villain in someone else's story is a unique component of the band's music which wouldn’t be the same without it. 

The inner monologue on The Devil and God is anything but accepting, and because of that, I find its portrayal of a bad person comforting. The overall feeling I am left with Brand New’s more badly aged music is that the men who hurt women are just that, men. They are not devils or these big things whose actions should consume you, they are just men.

After listening to a whole song about hurting a child on Limousine, is it obnoxious to think that maybe writing about an accident that had nothing to do with Lacey himself, might have been a way to conceal some personal emotions about the alleged sexual misconduct happening at the time? The narrator being an alcoholic man accidentally killing a young girl could be just a more publicly acceptable framework for lyrics which in reality could be about damaging someone's sexual innocence in the desperation of your own sex addiction. Deflecting your feelings onto something else is easy - almost everyone has cried to a song or a movie or has felt too strongly about a contestant on a reality show. We all see and hear ourselves in different media and latch onto the stories which resonate with us the most, and creative people often create stories which reflect feelings they wouldn’t dare to voice as their own.

Writing about how you see yourself being a bad person is a suicide mission in a society where everything is taken at face value and nuance hardly exists, so it only makes sense to write out your emotions in a more complex narration, where the origin of them could be easily deflected. I don’t think Brand New's music is autobiographical in any sense, but I think it’s fair to say that someone feeling at peace with himself wouldn’t write an album like The Devil And God.

Absolution

The religious themes of The Devil And God are apparent and can’t be missed. Faith is a recurring theme on the album and the writer's relationship with God works as a great analysis tool for his feelings. Some of the songs read as prayers and conversations between the narrator and God, where the narrator asks questions in the realm of “Am I a good person? Are my actions rightful? What happens to people like me? Am I living a good life?”

The religious themes on The Devil And God revolve around knowing when you are not a good person, trying to come to terms with that and live your life with that knowledge. Limousine offers an awful story of a man who hurts a little girl and has to live with the guilt surrounding that. Through this morbid story the album works on feelings of guilt and remorse and begs the question “How will I get myself from underneath this guilt that will crush me?” The album studies this relationship between a bad person and God, and tries to figure out the nuances of living after an unfathomable nightmare happens. The album also explores the themes of dying and killing yourself (in Sowing season, You Won’t Know) and questions, who is welcome to heaven and who is not (in Jesus Christ)? Whose repentance is welcome, and is there atonement for all (in Limousine)?

 The christian imagery around dying makes the album almost lighter - death is not the end-all be-all for the writer as it is also seen as coming back to a father figure (in Jesus Christ). Although The Devil And God is sometimes analyzed as a deconstruction of a man's faith in God, I happen to disagree - this album is neither an atheist nor a religion-critical one, and if you wanted to find one of those in Brand New's discography, you would have to squint your eyes and see all the way to 2017’s Science Fiction.

... continues in part 4