#that is why the father/son dynamic is the best for them btw-

[z-spy]

i have seen these replies under the video of alexander saying «no, don't do that!» to daniel who is ruining pylones in orb chamber and then i realised that this is not only amusing how he desperately tries to rule the situation while daniel is compeletely MAD and would not stop just because alexander commands him to but it also looks a lot like the moment when child is grown up and their abusive parent still tries to manipulate them but now it will not work because this person HAS REALISED what kind of shit their parent did to them in their childhood

this is the literally what had happened in amnesia between daniel and alexander--

daniel only trusted alex because alexander was his father figure (because daniel would trust any older man who will show him affection lol) and dan was literally fully depended on him and could not stand up to his suspicious "ways to remove shadow far away from them"

therefore when he arrived to brennenburg and alex started to support him danny was in his childhood phase aka when he was controlled by his shitty father being a child so he could not do anything to protect himself and move anywhere from the abusive parent and had to obey BUT with his biological dad he felt much more despair and disgust because he was openly abusing him and dan knew this however alexander did it in the way so the boy could not realise- so logically daniel felt kind of sypmathy to alex seeing how the baron cared for him genuinely THIS POOR BOY COULD NOT EVEN IMAGINE HOW AWFUL WAS THE IMPACT OF THIS OLD PIECE OF SHIT so alexander continued shamelessly manipulating him until danny became compeletely insane and possesed and would obey alexander unconditionally THEN alexander knew that he has superiority over a boy and he really thought that he will always be in charge-- NO WAY

it shows how daniel was in his childish state when he was helpless dependent trusting the tales alexander was telling him but when HE FINALLY REALISED which shit was happening around him all the time then he moved into his grown-up state and felt WRATH even frustation and hate and THEN HE MIGHT UNDERSTAND THAT THE SCENARIO REPEATED and feel genuine sorrow dissapontment and spite towads alexander the man who he trusted in the man who raised him and cared for him like a true loving father would....... and daniel felt himself being used and abused by the figure who he relied on AGAIN

and this is so painfully,,

but alexander still beileved he had power to subdue daniel like an abusive parent thinks he has abylity to put down their child in any situation and any age but now the child grew up and will not listen to commands this hell giving them so now daniel understood EVERYTHING and craved revenge and he will not obey anymore

these words of alexander which has a matter then have no matter now

and by the way basically abusive parents think and say what a child have i raised when their child being mad at them or simply not doing what they have been said to AND ALEXANDER LITERALLY SAYS SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN THE END OF THE GAME I SWEAR I REMEMBER and the actual point is YES what a child YOU have raised because they usually believe they did nothing wrong and their "creation" just being ungrateful and disrespectful they just believe that this cannot be! if their creation blaming them which means it is the mistake of this parent or if their child being just like them SO DID ALEXANDER.

andd that is the end thank you for listening to my sudden monologue <3

by the way dan's father and alexander with their actually HUGE impact on their son are really alike especially in this contest--- oh godness

[bluedosjaykewon]

🥹✨Enhypen as Dads✨🥹

Fluffy, only lots and lots of suggar

Heeseung

Making everyone very sad (I know we would all like to see Heeseung being a “girl dad”, I would love it too) but I see Hee being father of two boys (about 3 or 4 years apart)

I honestly think he would be so happy with that since he grew up with his brother too so he wants to provide a childhood as cool as his children was

He is 100% the type of father "don't tell your mother"

"Don't tell your mother we drank soda at dawn"

"Don't tell your mother we stayed up playing video games until 4 in the morning"

"Don't tell your mother I took you to Burger King after school"

Etc etc

I also can see you scolding your son and he saying "hey honey but he didn't do anything wrong" and you just look at him and automatically he turns around and says “VERY BAD KID THIS IS VERY VERY BAD”

What can he do???? He's the good cop

I think Hee would be the kind of father who would be very supportive of his children, especially if they want to pursue a career in music, but I think he would be very wise to tell his children that it's a very exhausting life and full of very complicated obstacles

His oldest son is definitely his best friend (he lives to make this boy feel proud of him)

His youngest son is his baby

As Heeseung is the youngest children in his family I think he sees himself in his baby boy so is that the reason why he’s always very emotional about the youngest

He wants to be the cool and laid-back father to his youngest son while he wants to be the loyal friend of his oldest

I can really imagine him taking his oldest son for a drive at night to clear his head

Speaking of cars, these 3 always go on a fishing trip every month IT'S A TRADITION

His youngest son doesn't like fishing that much but he loves spending time with his father and brother so he goes anyway🥹

His children always come back covered in mosquito bites because Heeseung always forgets his insect repellent home, but they come back smiling and happy so it doesn't matter.

Jay

Ok, let's go

Jay is a couple father, DOES EVERYONE AGREE?????

He has an older daughter, who he raised with all the love, affection, care and protection and will always take care of her because she is his princess.

And he has a younger son that is his best bro forever (maybe 6 years between the children?)

I imagine that his daughter must have been so jealous of her brother when he was born

I can see them at 16 and 10 years old, having a Disney Chanel sibling dynamic, who live to make each other's lives hell, are fighting 100% of the time but deep down love each other deeply

He and his youngest son are quite a duo

They have a garage band together🥹🫶🏼

Jay taught him to play guitar but the boy's passion is the drums

I imagine that he is much closer to his older daughter, but he doesn't know how to deal very well with his daughter growing up and no longer depending on him.

So he spends all the time he can with his youngest because when the youngest grows up it's over for him

Jay loves to keep his kids entertained so he would be up for anything

“Daddy, are we going to the Taylor Swift concert?”

“Sure, my love.”

“Daddy, can we go to the skate park?”

“We’ll leave in a few minutes, okay? Just let daddy finish this first”

Btw, he supports everything his children want to do

I swear his children have already taken every course and private lesson that exists on the earth

Jay will enroll them in and out of anything they want

Because he wants his children to be happy and he grew up with a family that gave him so much support that I believe he will do the same

Btw, the family tradition is take the childrens to see baseball games

In fact, Jay had a huge existential crisis when his daughter started not wanting to go to the games🥹

He started remembering her when she was little with a t-shirt and a cap that was too big for her, sitting on his shoulders and watching the game🥹🥹🥹🥹

Poor man, he collapsed

Jake

I imagine him being such a calm and relaxed father, you know?

I think he would be such a relaxed father.

His relationship with his children is based on trust, affection and love 100% of the time.

I don't think he smothers his children or wants to be with them 100% of the time.

Of course he is a present father, but I think he respects his children's time a lot.

But let’s go, he has 3 children.

2 older boys and a younger girl (about 2 years apart from each child?)

Oh, how this man was in heaven when these children were born.

Jake loves being a father, I think he considers it his favorite profession.

And he is simply so delicate with his children, his tone of voice is always soft and loving, he touches them as if they were made of porcelain.

He loves taking them to the park, riding his bike with them and stopping for ice cream afterwards, or taking them to the pool, spending the whole day at the water park and then stopping at the McDonald’s🥹🥹🥹🥹

God, he loves his little 4-year-old girl, he’s an idiot for her (she gets whatever she wants, he’s her personal butler)

You see him walking around with weird hairstyles and stickers on his face quite often (he’s a regular at the 4pm tea party with his daughter and her bunny every Wednesday)

But he’s so incredibly in love with his 8 and 6-year-old boys

I can imagine them playing with lots of Hot Wheels tracks lol (and Jake taking it so seriously)

They build a lot of Lego together too, God, his kids have BOXES AND BOXES of Lego of every possible and imaginable type

He’s the kind of father who dances with his daughter dressed as a prince and gives her flowers so she gets used to receiving love early on so he doesn’t worry about future relationships

At the same time, he’s an example of such a good man for your children

Your children are so in love with your relationship🥹♥️

I imagine the 3 of you being so close, they are brothers who truly love each other unconditionally because the only reference they have is love, love and more love♥️😭

Sunghoon

OKAY LISTEN…

Two girls

NOBODY WILL PROVE ME OTHERWISE

He has two girls who are about 3 years apart from each other

His oldest is like “🎀✨💕DADDYS GIRL💕✨🎀” and his youngest is more like “💋✨⛸️DADDYS GIRL⛸️✨💋” if you can understand me

Like the oldest is more “Daddy, can I use your card??? I need a new dress” and the youngest is more “Dad, I told you! You don’t have to buy me anything”

BTW

He is absolutely in love with them to an extreme level

They are his world, after they were born nothing else matters more to him than the happiness of his two little girls

He is a REALLY OVERPROTECTIVE FATHER

like really

He can’t be able to sleep if he knows that your girls are on a party or on a date

He just CAN’T

And you’re like “babe, cmon, let’s rest a little” and he will be like “I can’t sleep, y/d must call anytime”

Something he miss when the girls are little babies…

When they were little they cried for him to put them to sleep and sing to them😭♥️

And now his princess wanna buy short skirts and dance all night😭💔

His youngest really like to skating so they do it together sometimes

These two girls are the pinnacle of what a doting and protective father can do with a girl

But like I said he is protective

The day you came to him saying he was so cute like your oldest daughter had a boyfriend in kindergarten….

He went to the school to have a serious talk with a 5-year-old boy and his parents

Even today, more than 10 years later, he still has a grudge against the poor child who just held his little girl's hand

I can imagine your daughter going to say that she has something important to talk about and him saying "did you find out you're a lesbian and are you going to get rid of that idiot?😃"

and your daughter saying "no daddy" and he would reply with "are you absolutely sure you're not a lesbian?😃"

You think Jay would spoil his children but nothing is as good for the economy as Park Sunghoon, his daughters and his black card at the mall

You know that scene from Beverly Hills where the father asks what his daughter is wearing and she answers "Calvin Clain"

They have this energy

He takes them and picks them up from everywhere because he doesn't like his princesses to walk around alone and he doesn't want boys bringing home

Nothing in the world would break his heart more than seeing his daughters cry. He always makes a point of buying their favorite foods, giving them a cuddle and leaving a kiss on their heads when they are crying.

Now if it is because of some boy... God have mercy and may he not find out the address of that boy

Sunoo

He has two girls too, but they are twins.

He is over the moon with them.

Do you agree with me that they would wear matching outfits????😭😭😭😭

He knows ALL the Disney princess songs

ALL OF THEM.

He would be his daughters' best friend 100%. He gives his daughters a lot of space to talk to him about absolutely anything and everything, he is always very present and aware of everything that happens in the lives of his little gems.

One of them is really extroverted and shining just like him and the other is like “omg you two are making me feel embarrassed please stop”

But he is also very protective of them.

Not like Sunghoon, of course.

Dad Sunoo is like a mother lioness, he protects his children tooth and nail no matter what.

(Like the “PELA CRIANÇA EU DOU A MINHA VIDA GRAÇAS A DEUS!!!” meme)

If this man finds out that one of his daughters is being bullied at school... I feel so sorry for the principal of that institution because he will DESTROY her.

He also watches a lot of movies with his daughters, when he gets home from work and his girls have already come home from school, it's always the perfect time to order food and watch Korean dramas together

He would always be available for serious, intimate, or everyday conversations

I think he would be such an attentive father🥹🥹🥹 but at the same time he would have no patience at all

He seems to me like the kind of father who when his kid makes a fuss he leaves the child on the floor of the store crying, walks away and pretends he doesn't know her

I imagine him being very truly with his daughters too, like "are you going out like that? With those clothes???? No, you can't change that, it's not good, you're dressing like Sponge Bob"

He would be their safe place too

I can see him comforting them when they were crying about something, like them lying on his lap while he caresses them and says "it's okay, love, it'll pass, I already have your age too, it'll pass"

Jungwon

He has a son, a little boy

You are thinking about having another one, but he is always analyzing how you have such a comfortable life with only one child and that a second child would require you to give up some privileges, etc.

Obviously he would be up for more children if you wanted, he catches himself thinking about another baby often, but he always brings up this conversation at some point

But anyway, your little boy is around 5/6 years old????

I feel like Won is in a limbo between “being the cool dad” and “being the example of a responsible man that his son needs”

He demands a lot of himself as a father

whenever he gets home and sees that his son is already in bed sleeping and he didn't get him “good night kisses” he feels terrible😔😔😔 (I think you will have to reassure him several times a day that he is doing an excellent job)

I can imagine him like this:

“What's up, son? Boys' day today, huh? Let's go to the park, the movies, and then have ribs for dinner, what do you think????”

“What's up, buddy? How was school today?”

And your son LOOOOOOOVES HIM

Like that type of kids that say “MY DAD IS MY SUPERHERO” is really cute

Doesn’t help the fact that this kid has his father kitty bubble tea eyes😭✨

But he’s really shy when he’s not with you or Jungwon, like, your two are his best friends.

Jungwon is such a fun father🥹

Even if he comes home feeling sad, limping, anemic, fragile and inconsistent, he will take time to play with your son and this will charge his energy 100%.

Just like Jake, Won is the kind of father who lets his son do whatever he wants with him.

His son will stick stickers on his face, draw a mustache and a goatee with a marker, etc., etc., and he will stand there laughing at how cute his son is.

He loves taking naps with your son (he even went through a difficult time when your son stopped being afraid of sleeping alone and asked to sleep with you every night).

I think he would be such a responsible father. He would know how to say no to his child when necessary and would teach that there is a time and place for everything and that we should be polite and patient. 🥹♥️

Riki

Just like Won, I imagine that Kiki has 2 father skins: the fun-child father with a 4-year-old mentality and the extremely mature father who is aware of his activities as a father.

He fluctuates a lot between these two.

He is extremely responsible when it comes to his children, he can handle any situation on his own without any problems.

Btw, I can see him having a family just like his own (two girls and a middle boy🥹). They are like 10, 8 and 5 years old. 🥹🥹🥹

He and the older ones do so much messy together that I swear to God I don't know how your house is still standing.

They play a lot of running games until Kiki stops and says "Aaaaaah daddy's back isn't the same anymore."

Like I said, his older ones brought out his fun and agitated side, but his youngest is so calm and sweet that he can't be the childish father with her, he just wants to protect her from everything

(he also joins the team of daddys who let their little daughter do whatever she wants with him) this girl is almost always riding on her father's shoulders😭♥️

He is the biggest fan of his children, he is there for everything his children want to do

I can see his children so interested in his “idol” career and always with stars in their eyes when they see videos of enhypen's performances

But unlike Heeseung, I think Riki would be reluctant to let his children enter the world of stardom, especially young ones like him, I think he wouldn't want his children to go through as much as he did and he would be far away and imposing to do something...

His favorite pastime is taking his children to Disney, I swear to God they are at Tokyo Disney almost every weekend

I like to think he likes to hold his two oldest ones by the feet while his youngest is on his back and playing mechanical bull AJAKAKAKAKAKA

His kids feel so comfortable talking to him (he's not a very jealous dad either)

I also think that there’s moments that Riki just stops, look at his kids and says “wow” like “they’re real, I made them”

And I think he’s the “what your mom thinks about that?” Type of dad, like “bro, you know that mommy is the leader of this family go ask her”

[py-dreamer]

Man I am on a roll these days!

I love this doll base for the lmk characters, I actually drew some designs for the other lmk characters in this base in a notebook and as much as I would like to post them, Idk if that'll be any time soon.

I know in the show, Mk's headband is his signature. Even since childhood, I get that but I also saw a design of kid MK with him without the headband and fell in love.

Also he has light up sketchers. Cause why not.

It was a lot of fun doing the crayon drawings and seems like red and yellow are our lil prince's favorite colors, though it was a bit difficult to do them on such a small scale and at a slanted angle.

why does Mk have random building blocks?....

...

(I genuinely don't know)

Looking back, I do wish I made the toys a little more scuffed up cause while I do believe Pigsy would buy some toys and new clothes for his son the kid but I do love the idea that many of MK's old toys were hand me downs or at least second handed from Pigsy's past or even any cousins giving old toys or heck. Maybe some of Tang's university students found out their teacher has a new kid and give some old stuff to help out since Mk is a sweet kid and his appearance was quite spontaneous.

Perhaps that doll is a clone Wukong placed to keep an extra eye on the boy

BTW that love heart is NOT romantic in any way you creeps. Like how a child loves a toy, there is nothing weird happening here.

WUKONG IS HIS GODDAMN DAD/FATHER FIGURE AND IF YOU GENUINELY SHIP PEACHYNOODLES, GET OUT

OUT OF THIS HOUSE!

I try to respect different ships and opinions. I try my best.

But we see in the show, their father-son dynamic. I know there is a ship format of mentor x student but there is a clear parental relationship here!

It just feels icky, especially when you consider the inbalance of both power and experience in any 'romantic' context

Sorry, I just went on a tangent there, but hope you enjoy the actual piece and enjoy the easter eggs (>u ')/

(also out of curiosity, are any of you interested in the stopmotion film, Kubo and the two strings cause there might be a new au on the horizon!)

[yonemurishiroku]

I was reading a fic and it reminded me of another fic. I’m honestly amazed by how Nico and Hades’ relationship is portrayed in that particular fanfic.

Beautiful. When you love someone but not necessarily like them

For context: this is a Modern AU, Maria and Bianca are dead (as usual. Shame), Nico has a few mental issues and Hades is an absolutely cold and strict father. That is to say: he restrains him. It has been a while since I read this fic, but technically it’s those along the line of: strict education, regulations, degenerating voices.

He set up a whole overabundant homeschooling course for Nico, pressuring him about grades and educational performances. He hardly lets Nico out of the house (it takes a twenty minute phone call of convincing). He doesn’t think Nico is capable of faring well in the outside world. He disapproves of Nico’s hobby (which is gaming btw).

But I wouldn’t be babbling if that was the case now would I? The fascinating thing about this is that: Hades actually does love Nico.

He is a man of rules, so he drew a path of future for his son. He doesn’t want Nico out of the house because he knows how bad Nico’s agoraphobia can get. And the fact that Nico can still get his way, albeit with extensive convincing, says a lot. He disapproves of gaming instead of education, but he still lets Nico play as long as it doesn’t get in the way of studying.

Here’s the thing. Through out the fic, Hades is portrayed as an absolutely scary, harsh and toxic (the degenerating voice doesn’t help) father figure. But - I don’t know if that’s my bias mind talking - I can still see that he cares for Nico and wishes the best for him. His delivery is wrong, of course, and that results in their tense, always-wary relationship. And the fact that Nico blatantly announces his father’s dislike towards himself earlier this screenshot.

It’s kinda relatable, and a reflection of unfortunate reality, when good intentions turn out not as good as we wish it to be.

Hades and Nico’s relationship is no where near perfect in this fanfic. Hades appears downright cold to his son, and Nico is either tired or wary when talking or mentioning his father.

And it’s half of the reason why I adore this fic so much.

-> That, right there, is exactly how I prefer to think of Hades and Nico’s father-son dynamic. They are not perfect. Nor is their relationship. Hades has issues and oh issues does Nico have. As much as I like to fantasizing about a healthy family, I think it would take more and longer for them to achieve it. Gods rarely make model parents. Hades is trying, which I appreciate, and is the exact reason why I say there should be fluctuation and mishaps and fights and a lot more.

But the key is that there’s love. And they’re both trying. And that alone is beautiful. The mistakes are what makes the efforts precious.

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Thanks for the answers :D can’t wait for your questions! lol

1: if the duo was not best friends/starburst duo in a AU, who would they be best friends/starburst duo with?

2: I know Chris’s archenemy is general zod, since they are “father & son” but why is Jake’s nemesis is victor zassz? Why him specifically out of both Batman’s & Nightwings rogue gallery?

3: you know about the sinister sons from modern comics, which is the evil versions of the super sons, who are the evil versions of the starburst duo?

4: if they can get rid of one supervillain, besides zod & zassz of course, who would it be?

5: what’s something they find overrated? Like something popular like stranger things on Netflix for example.

6: what’s something they find underrated?

You’re most welcome. So here, have some more answer lol XD @pin-crusher2000

1) Recently both @confusedhummingbird @spider-jaysart and I have been formulating an idea for a new character to act as a Wonder family member akin to Diana with Bruce and Clark, a character that’s a third POV and brings a more excited and passionate side to the Duo’s dynamic, someone to compliment them on adventures

Hence I shall take this questions as an opportunity to introduce a new character I can further develop in future posts.

Jake’s other best friend if not for Chris Kent would be named Penelope Haney Troy, a clone daughter of Donna Troy aka Troia created by Project Cadmus. She’s the lively, no nonsense, and adventurous type of girl about Jake’s age who’s always there to bring some comfort and fun to his life as he does for her. Her hero codename would be Hoplite with her main teacher being Cassie Sandsmark, similar to how Jake’s main teacher is Tim Drake

Basically think of her as the Donna to Jake’s Dick; platonic best friends, Wonder Twins

Then there’s Chris, for his best friend besides Jake, without doubt that’ll be Thara.

Oh yeah and these are in addition to a classmate Chris knows well back at school and Jasper Logan for Jake as well respectively for other best friends

2) Well that sort of relationship between Zsasz and Jake happens after a particularly difficult and cruel case involving some street orphans who are mercilessly taken by Zsasz, put into a gladiator type tournament where whoever survives then faces (and inevitably loses to) him. When Jake manages to find the location of this wicked scheme, Zsasz had him captured and personally taken into a duel against him, stripped of his powers, most of his equipment and even his own boots for this match. Had Jake won, the surviving children go free so the brave young hero takes that challenge. It was far from an easy fight as Zsasz was armed with both a butcher knife and a familiar rusty crowbar. The beat down Jake endured during this battle left him scarred both physically and emotionally while Zsasz was utterly remorseless in his work. Thus, Jake has deemed Zsasz his personal archenemy ever since

For more information on that, check out my fic ‘Broken Wings’

On a meta level, I just felt like Zsasz compliments Jake in that sort of ‘person driven by their commitment to their own’ archetype and give it a unique dark twist to it as Jake can attest to. Plus, since the original version of that arc (which btw introduced the world to Colin Wilkes) has its protagonist regularly nowadays have arch-nemeses linked to the League of Shadows in one form or another more often, that left Zsasz up for grabs thus Jake can fulfill that role

3) Oh I have a good passing knowledge of that book (mainly for the fact it’s further taking name of Chris Kent or rather Lor Zod in general further though the mud but I digress);

Now if there’s any sort of evil or at least anti hero mainline universe counterpart to the Starburst Duo, I would cast them being like a bastard preteen son of Blackfire and the aforementioned Vla-Blo (the young bully Kryptonian who was locked in the Phantom Zone by an ancestor of Chris and had the goal of humiliating the House of Zod for this perceived injustice) who both antagonize our main heroes in many fields with the notion in their minds of proving themselves superior to them, though often to failing results.

At least that’s what I can think of for this moment if anything comes up, I’ll let you know ;-)

4) Probably Mongul, a lot of it due to a time when he’s revealed as a mysterious business partner for Blockbuster regarding trading with for some reversed engineered fear toxin and the brawl that ensued between them and the Warlord tyrant was nothing short of brutal and devastating*, even if they stopped that shipped of fear toxin getting to Mongul’s hands.

*Just picture that what the Duo, also Corvus/Jasper Logan and Hoplite/Penelope Troy went through here with Mongul was akin to what happened with Mark Grayson aka Invincible and his friends when they faced Battle Beast for the first time.

5) Definitely the MCU as a general whole, Family Guy and about a few pro wrestlers they can name off the top of their heads….surprisingly not John Cena. More likely Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, The USOs and definitely The Rock. Heck Dwayne Johnson both in wrestling and especially as a film actor, they can’t stand people who claim he’s the best…or rather fittingly The Great One. It internally the Duo out hearing about him in school all the time.

6) Easily the Monsterverse movies, Hell’s Kitchen, We Bare Bears, and during the Halloween season Hellraiser (that’s if Chris and Jake are feeling brave enough to watch through it’s more gruesome moments lol)

[fandom-hoarder]

Windy now. [Live react to the bestie @cordellwinchesterwalker ]

I loooooove that the opening sex scene was her on top 

HOYT'S CHARACTER WAS PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER?!?!

HE names the horse IN THE EPISODE?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Gahhhh this is SO PRETTY

Calian <3

The acting quality on this is superb goddd. And the editing choices.

Like the way Abby's grief and tears have been shown so far and not overdone

Gahhhhh i got invested and forgot to comment lmao but omg hitting all the western buttons hahhhh this card game

Abby/Kate DO WANT 

Now i really fucking want egg drop soup

Godddddd i am SO SUSCEPTIBLE TO FOOD LMAO

I'm making roast chicken ramen since that's the best i can do lol

Yay for nutrition 🤣🤣🤣🤣 it's like the opposite of egg drop soup

Jpop is over here like "yknow, egg drop soup is really easy to make..." and I'm like "not easy enough! His had STUFF in it." And i listed it off and he was like "damn, that sounds good"🤣

me: The "(speaks spanish)" in these captions 😑

cordellwinchesterwalker: Speaks Spanish in captions always cracks me up lol

me: Lmfao today's app commercials are mostly the snoop dogg/andy corona commercials btw the long versions

cordellwinchesterwalker: Omg lol those make me laugh

I'm like Peralta???😂

me: They're the best

me: Cordell the horse is gonna have some kinda heroic story 👀👀👀👀

cordellwinchesterwalker: I love the horses name is cordell lol

me: Jpop was like: that's gonna get confusung. For me.

cordellwinchesterwalker: I just love how Jared is like yeah so this is the og hoyt and he has a horse named cordell....BTW hoyt rode cordell a few times when cordi and emily were on and off😂

me: Lmfaooo

Idk the backstory between hoyt and lucia yet, so this "that's where she met your father"//"and yours" thing gives me half sibling forbidden love ideas and that's my headcanon until further notice lol

Gahhh the kate/abby flirtinggg <33333

Cat and mouse flirting between augustus and hoyt

me: The cast chemistry is amazing

cordellwinchesterwalker: It is. They play so well off each other. I didn't get that off tw at all.

me: I know the windy cast is generally more seasoned, but the tw cast could've maybe benefited from some team building time. Like windy had cowboy camp and riding lessons and promo stuff that had them interacting meaningfully

cordellwinchesterwalker: From my understanding tw casts mainly partied in Nola. That was it.

me: Of course... windy KNEW what it was, and i sincerely do not think TW has that benefit. It's difficult to get deeper into your character if you don't know what's going on

_

Ep 2 now <3 god the end of ep 1 made me cry

The way the opening title transition is a westernized version of the modern walker one is so great

Davidsoooonnnnn

Labor rep Kate <3

I like the calian/hoyt dynamic too

Lmfao hoyt and Kate about the umbrella. "I'm delicate"

OH 

MY 

GODDDD 

 NO 

HE DID NOT BRING BACK HIS BODYYYY

This SON OF A BITCH

Omfggggg

Omg tom totally made augustus. Fuck.

Why does it feel like there's a parallel here between augustus and augie 😅

me: Hahhhh so it's not dr quinn: medicine woman, it's abby walker: law woman

cordellwinchesterwalker: yessssss it's like quick and the dead/bad girls and I love it so much

Sssshhhiiiiiittttt augustus shot the dude

Crapppp

Omfgggg with Liam's rifleeee

[vwritesawholelothm]

Oh btw I saw you had a P&F fic and I wanted you to consider my two brainrot ships;

Montycarl and Vanesstacy

So Monty Monogram and Vanessa Dpofenshmirtz dating was easily one of my favorite arcs in the show, but I also wasn't too upset that their relationship ended, since it was kinda built not to last in the first place and we see that in their first date episode.

It also seems like they kinda know and acknowledge that, they're just dating for fun and don't have any intention of becoming too serious with each other.

I think that's also why the breakup is so unceremonious that it doesn't even happen on screen, it was just healthy and mutual.

So, why ship him with Carl and her with Stacy?

Let's start with Vanesstacy, because these two are absolute certified badasses! They know what they want, they go after it confidently, and they've both had to deal with Candace's nonsense.

During one of the best Monessa episodes which was a Halloween special, Stacy is one of the many scarlet pimpernels at the party and covers for the couple -

By dancing with Vanessa.

I mean come on that writes itself! Also worth noting that in this scene when Major Monogram approaches them, Stacy recognizes him, and then you remember that oh yeah -

Stacy learned the truth about Perry and has been keeping it secret from her best friend and her family for several episodes now.

And honestly that must be draining and kinda stressful, I mean if only she had a peer who also knew the secret and wasn't as close to the Flynn-Fletchers so they could talk about OWCA and Perry specifically...

Oh wait.

So yeah, this ship is absolutely wonderful.

As for Montycarl, the show actually does a better show making a case for them than I ever could.

They tease each other and bicker like people with a history already, their dynamic is funny as hell with Monty being his dad's golden child when that kind of attention is the last thing he wants and Carl having so much stake put into seeing Major as a father figure that he organizes a whole night to attempt to get Monogram to thank him, and enlists Monty's help to do so.

And you know what's more amazing? Monty agrees! Sure we're told it's because Carl is leveraging his knowledge of his relationship with Vanessa over him but throughout the episode we can tell that his father's lack of acknowledgment towards Carl really bothers Monty.

Monty hasn't been around long enough to interact much with a lot of characters, but Carl is easily a character he interacts with often, and every time they do there's some kind of chemistry.

Also Carl wants so badly to be Major's son and if he just married Monty he'd be his son in law so like...

Anyway yeah, I fucking love both these ships and their wonderful dynamics.

That's all.

I kept this in my inbox as a prompt ig? Even tho it's mostly just a ship pitch lol. But yes, I've written some Vanesstacy and Montycarl!

Monty/Carl link:

Vanessa/Stacy link:

Those should take you to whatever fics I have tagged with each ship, and hopefully it'll remain consistent as I write more of them in the future!

[familyagrestefanblog]

Analysis of the Family Agreste Portrait

Quarantine strikes again and since the Agreste family portrait has fascinated me for a loooong while now I decided to put my thoughts into words and write another essay x3

The amount of informations we get out if it is amazing and its not only highlighting the absolute TRAGEDY it is that this family is about to face such a horrible fall out, it also hints at the former family dynamic before everything went to hell.

So make yourself comfortable and get something to drink, because we will be here for a while.

Here we go: My analysis of this beauty of a fictional portrait

Let's start with the most obvious one: Hawkmoth.

Its commen knowledge by now that the background makes it seem like Hawkmoth is standing behind the Agreste family like a bad omen waiting for fate to take its course and cause their doom. The portrait is brilliantly designed so the illusion is created that Gabriels body (here in a blue suit closer to Hawkmoths normals dark purple one) overlaps with Hawkmoths and a darker line is connecting the two faces as well, which rest on the same height right beside each other. The very same line grows bigger as it goes further behind Emilie - coloring her entire background - showing us that EMILIE is all Gabriel sees when he becomes Hawkmoth. But notice that Adrien on the other hand can hardly be concidered part of Gabriels “sight” at all.

Its forshadowing 101 and damn beautiful if I may say so. But this isnt what I want to focus on in this post.

I want to elaborate on two other key factors that tell us about the former dynamic of the Agrestes instead and what they tell us about the present and future.

The heart:

This is hitting me on another level because look at the heart these three form with Adrien right in the middle! He was so LOVED. This family may have never been anywhere close to ideal but still, there was LOVE and now he's gonna loose it all.

Adrien already lost his mother which led to his father getting even more distant and cold and now his father is becoming increasingly more abusive as he falls deeper and deeper into villainy. Gabriel was never a good father, the show has already made this clear with episodes like "the bubbler", “the collector” or "Gigantitan" for example but gosh there was hope for their little family! The end scene in "Jackady" portrayed it perfectly and I wrote a whole other post just covering the sigificants of Adriens and Gabriels hug in that episode. Check it out here if you want, it goes hand in hand with this one.

Miraculous is all about love and the completely different ways it can affect us, our behavior and actions. Because love isnt just wonderful, pure and empowering, it also can be twisted, destructive and cause the darkst nightmares. And with this family the writers know how to portray the complex love in an abusive houshold thats destined to go up in flames and they also know how to hint at their troubled past with the family portrait.

But this heart visual tells us even more in connection with the positions of their hands. And with these two key factors, lets start with Gabriel:

His hands convey it so strongly. He loves/d Emilie and Adrien so much and no doubt this love for them was certainly the reason why he started his quest as Hawkmoth. But he is now losing himself more and more in the pleasure of his villainy to the point where he forgets why he's doing it in the first place and becomes a complete monster (of a father). But this turn and spiraling into villainy didn't came out of nowhere - this root already had to be in him to grow like that. And this is also something the portrait indeed hints at as well.

Because Gabriel is the only one of the three who:

1. We see so completely open and without hesitation reach out and hold BOTH his family members.

2. Is visually “cut off” from them as well.

But this doesn't mean he was excluded and the only one who truly cared and loved, it just shows that things were more... complicated...as usual.

This is best explained with Adriens hand placements:

One hand is holding his mothers but the other one is visibly not reaching out for his father. But as we all know, that's not because Adrien doesn't love him. In season 1-3 it is made more than clear that Adrien does not hate his father - he loves him alot and tries to be there for him and be patient because he knows that the loss of his mother brought his father terribly down.

Sure, Adrien gets frustrated and angry with him, literally how could he not?? But Adrien tries his best to reach out to Gabriel so they can bond and come out of this tragedy stronger.

But this loving willingness to forgive his father for the chance of growing a father-son bond with him doesn't change the fact that these two didn't had a bond prior to this. And let's be honest here, does anybody actually think this distance between them was caused by Adrien? I don't think so.

So notice how Adriens hand - not reaching out for his fathers - is the only one in the portrait NOT inside or forming the heart.

When the connection of the hands between the family members symbolise their connection to another, then Adrien keeping the hand for his father away from the display of love is VERY telling. It tells us very directly what this distance did to Adriens side of the relationship. Despite Gabriels hand being right there, Adrien does not meet the gesture. And I cannot believe that he did it out of resentment, nothing in the show indicated such strong negative emotions from past Adrien.

It's much more likely that Adrien not reaching for his fathers hand is meant to show us that Adrien felt that he either CAN'T return the gesture because he fears that it'll end in an unpleasant reaction from Gabriel - that it isn't Adriens "place" to reach out to his busy and distant father like that, like it's demanding something - or Adrien simply didn't took Gabriel laying his hand on his shoulder, in the context of posing for a portrait, as a gesture of love and affection.

The way I interpret the portrait is that prior to Emilies dissappearence Adrien did not exactly try to reach out to his father the same way he did from s1-s3, which, I mean, of course wasn't the case. Not only is it NOT the 13 years olds (or younger) job to form an emotional connection to their absent parent - when that’s the PARENTS job - it also wouldn't be necessarily "needed" for Adrien to do so.

Because Emilie at this point was still in the picture so and she was the complete opposite. She was a (or maybe the ONLY) safe, reliable and loving constant of parental attention, affection and care in his life and because of these two HARSH contrasts Adrien learned from very early on to focus mostly completely on her in that regard while kinda blocking his father out.

That most likely wasn't even an active choice whatsoever - Gabriel proofed to be an unreliable resource so Adrien learned to subconciously treat him that way out of self protection. That doesn't mean he had any kind of dislike or malice against his father it just means that he wasn't able or allowed to connect with Gabriel the way he needed. Several episodes show that Gabriel deadass only parented like 15 minutes tops in his life with one of the worst offenders kinda being “Gigantitan” ngl.

So yeah, when I see that the portrait wants to tell me that prior to Emilies loss, Adrien - a 12-13 year old at most - is THIS used to rely solely on the strong bond he has with his mother and not even really reaching out for his fathers love, then I can't help but interpret it in the way that... Well... Gabriel was so distant and emotionally unreliable to Adrien for all his life, that Gabriel simply... wasn't needed by his son. Not at that point of time at least.

And while this may seem weird, because obviously Adrien only now starts to stop craving for his fathers affection and approval (which is btw a horrible, HORRIBLE thing and not something good. A half orphan losing the last remaining hope he had left of having the chance to finally get to form a bond with the only other parent he has left, just to be crushed by disappointment and abandonment all over again until he let's go, is REALLY NOT as much of a good thing people will make it out to be. This is... plain awful) it's actually quite logical.

Adriens hand outside the heart doesn't mean that his father meant nothing to him and therefore refuses to meet and accept his affection (that's literally the complete opposite of what the show shows us), it means that Adriens and Gabriels father-son relationship suffers from a fatal emotional disconnection caused by miscommunication/ a lack of communication.

And this was caused by Gabriel. How? Let me elaborate on that by going a bit far afield (cuz lbh we all have time for this. I’m writing this in quarantine and youre reading this is quarantine, so lets gooooooooooooo).

In "The bubbler" Adrien says that his father "always forgot his birthday", but I cannot agree with this in true honesty. Gabriel is controlling his sons entire life, calls him "the epitome of perfection" and temporarily truly gave up being Hawkmoth for him, he definitely never forgot Adriens birthday.

"The bubbler" even SHOWS us that Adriens perspective of the situation is actually not the truth:

This is Adriens first birthday after Emilies dissappearence and it's incredibly telling how Gabriel handles the planning.

What this entire little sequence tells me is that Gabriel is completely and UTTERLY used to NOT be the one to take care of anything related to Adriens birthday. So Emilie was always the one who did it but somehow - now without her - Gabriel apparently still hasn't even considered changing anything about that nasty non-involvement and just expected Natalie to pick everything up where Emilie left it.

Because let's be real here, knowing Natalie she would NOT have forgotten to get a present if Gabriel truly had told her to. Natalie is never presented to do mistakes like that but Gabriel on the other hand IS definitely presented to us claiming things about himself as ultimate, blameless and true when they simply do not reflect reality. A great example: Gorizilla

You didn’t even speared a minutes of your time for Adrien and he DID try to! Asshat… It's a problem guys. The lack of self awareness Gabriel displays in moments like this is legitimately concerning when you think about how deeply this man is falling right now.

But back to the topic:

Because even if Gabriel didn't even consider doing anything himself for Adriens birthday - not even taking the time to SEE his son (who just recently lost his mother, come on Gabe, really?) - one thing one cannot hold against him: he sure as hell remembered Adriens birthday like any decent parent would and it wasnt portrayed as a this-year-for-the-first-time thing.

And yet Adriens statement still makes complete sense. Because a big, BIG problem with Gabriel is just how much he takes things for granted. He EXPECTS things to be universally known and to never be doubted, just because that's how HE sees them. I will write 10 essays if it's needed to make people understand that Gabriel DOES truly love Adrien, it's just that Gabriel HIMSELF is such a rotten, twisted and toxic person that he cannot see how much his (oppressing) behavior and the way he (doesn't) express his love hurts Adrien and that HE is the one at fault. (for more, once again, read this)

Gabriel LOVES Adrien but he takes the love he feels as such a matter-of-fact that he just completely... forgets to show it.

And when we take Adriens words and look at the Family portrait it unfortunately seems that...

…. Gabriel ALWAYS forgot to show it.

Adriens hand - that should at least be reaching out to his father - is outside of the heart in accepting certainty. Because that's what Gabriels non-presence was for Adrien while growing up: an unreliable and unreachable certainty he had to accept early on as safer to not try to emotionally depend on too much or else he will get hurt.

So yeah, Adrien is the one in the portrait who is very openly not reaching out but only because Gabriel never gave him the needed affection and stability to be able to create that bond.

But let me correct what I said a little earlier: Adrien ALWAYS needed his father. Every kid, especially one in a bad situation like Adrien, does need their parents/friends etc as support system to become independent and confident in a healthy way. And if they don’t have that they WILL crave and look for it!

What Adrien has been doing up to now IS normal for a teenager - humans NEED affection, belonging and safety. What ISNT/SHOULDN’T be normal is Adriens disconnection towards his father in the portrait and just how much Gabriel fails to take care and BE THERE for his son in BOTH TIMES!

Collector:

Bother Christmas:

One thing I like about the show is that it portrays their young main cast with one very important truth: The psyche of a child/teenager of their age will react and adapt so it SURVIVES, even if it results in unfortunate consequences in other relationships and places. Thats the psyches main concern and it'll try to cope with the limited experience and development it has in whatever way necessary to get itself to the next day. A coping mechanism is not there to make you a better person, it ensures your SURVIVAL, everything else is a secondary concern.

So seeing pre-show Adrien not react to Gabriels touch and even feel completely unloved and disconnected from him is no surprise to me. Kids are incredibly observant. They may lack the needed experience and knowledge to truly understand that they deserve better and to stand up for themselves but they are masters in picking up red flags in people and can put this danger into perspective while comparing the different danger levels of their options of people and places to adjust their behavior.

Feast:

Stormy Weather 2:

So the broken connection between father and son we see in the portrait (that Gabriel doesn't even notice but Adrien fully internalized) isn’t there because Adrien “didnt needed” or wanted his father, its because Adrien NEEDED Gabriel so much in his isolated upbringing but Gabriel didn’t LET him need him - so Adrien had to adjust to that accordingly. Big, huge, ENORMOUS difference.

Honestly the most miraculous thing about Miraculous is that Adrien was able to bring up the strength to stay positive and friendly and to forgive Gabriel in hope for a better future. That boys situation is 7 kinds of depressing and traumatizing...

It's just flabbergasting to me how well this portrait shows how basically non-existent their relationship was at that point. And it's horrible to know that this estranged and unformed bond is all Adrien had left after Emilie dissappeared, just alot worse because after Emilie incident Adrien states that his father changed alot for the worse as well.

So to think that all Adrien had left wasn't even this former basically non-existent relationship with his aloof father - who would only barely show his true affection for his son because he's either not around enough to do so or he thinks it "unnecessary to proof his affection" for/to Adrien because he already thinks it so obvious and undoubtable.

Well he thought wrong. And GOSH, it breaks my heart!

So now comparing the "Gabriel" hand from Adrien with the one representing his connections with his mother conveys a pretty harsh contrast.

Because last but not least, let's take a look at Emilies hand placements:

But here is now an interesting difference to Adrien. Whereas we openly see that Adriens side of the Adrien-Gabriel relationship is completely disconnected from the heart/love - showcasing just how badly Adrien has always been neglected by his father - we don't see Emilies hand in her Emilie-Gabriel relationship AT ALL.

Once again just like with Adrien, this doesn't mean she didn't love her husband and that Gabriel was used and fooled by the woman he so utterly adored. It just means that from Emilies point of view things were a bit more complicated. What exactly this is, the portrait is keeping secret from us. We have no way of knowing if and how Emilie is returning her husbands gesture. All we can say is that if she does she is definitely not doing it in such an open and unconflicted way as she does with Adrien.

But since when has anything with this family been this easy?

One thing the portrait makes very clear, Adrien and Emilie had a strong and good bond. Definitely the healthiest because the Adrien-Emilie connection is the only one depicted without any kind of disruption from both sides. Both mother and son are reaching out for the other ones hand creating a whole half of the heart, showcasing their affection for another openly and without any of the implied doubts the other connections display. And honestly? Comparing all the hand placements, the one connecting Adrien and Emilie just comes across as strikingly pure and true (which makes it even worse that it was HER Adrien lost…)

As I said it's a HARSH contrast to the one Adrien shears with Gabriel. This contrast is highlighted even further by the way these three face on another.

Emilie and Adrien are positioned facing another and so are Emilie and Gabriel. Telling us that Emilie was "face-to-face" aka involved with both her husband and son. It is Adrien and Gabriel were this looks wildly different. These two have no way of seeing each other in the eyes the way they stand now/then, further displaying their deeply rooted disconnection. It's portrays perfectly how important Emilie was in this family dynamic, because even though Adrien and Gabriel bearly had a connection at all they at least had Emilie as a link between them, keeping the family together. But then they lost her and where this left both father and son off we know oh too well...

So to collect all the informations we get out if this portrait:

-Adriens and Emilies relationship was the strongest and purest. Both of their hands connect and reach out for another in the heart, showcasing that they had a loving and positive bond.

-Adriens and Gabriels relationship is heavily scarred by a deeply rooted disconnection leaving Adrien feeling unloved and unwanted by his father to the point where Adriens side of their dynamic is outside the heart altogether. Gabriel may love and adore his son just like he loves his wife and never thought he displayed his love for him in a lacking way, but fact is: this love never reached Adrien the way it should have and Adrien is the one in their dynamic who got severely hurt and damaged by it.

-Gabriel was the only one completely unconflicted and happily at peace with the former Family situation. He's reaching out to both his family members with open love and affection in blissful oblivion that neither his wife nor son could return them the same way (to different degrees for different reasons). Gabriel was the ONLY ONE in the Agreste family who didn't saw problems in their lives and thought them all happy, hence why he's so obsessed with changing the past and bringing THIS state of their family back. He was happy and he had everything he needed and loved right with him, of course he wants THIS back. He's not aware that Emilie and ESPECIALLY Adrien did not feel the same about their former situation and that bringing all of them back to this is not the perfect happy ending for their entire family as he thinks.

-Emilie may not have been as unconflicted with Gabriel as he was with her but she is NOT feeling the same disconnection her son feels and isn't depicted with negative feelings towards Gabriel. Her side in the Emilie-Gabriel relationship is neither shown outright positive as with her son or outright bad as Adrien with Gabriel. Her side of their bond is depicted through her unseen hand placement in the unknown area in between.

-Despite their not so unconflicted feelings towards Gabriel - and Gabriel himself being aloof - neither Emilie nor Adrien are actively trying to cut Gabriel out. They aren't flinching away from his touch or exclude him from the heart whatsoever. He's happily included, obviously feeling loved. They may not be 100% happy and Gabriel doesn't notice it, but they aren't denying him his happiness and make him unhappy. Again, he's the only one truly happy here. Something neither Emilie nor Adrien tried to take away from him.

-Emilie and Adrien are facing each other as do Emilie and Gabriel, implying the presence of communication and a bond. Adrien and Gabriel do not face each other, showing their disconnected bond. If they could see each others face Adrien would have been able to see that Gabriels hand is a gesture of genuine affection and Gabriel could see that Adriens expression does not exactly display pure happiness the way he thinks. This also goes for Emilie. Emilie just like her husband is placed BEHIND her son, so even if she is facing him she would not be able to really see just how much Adrien is not satisfied and truly happy with his life at that point (meaning how unhappy being looked up, friendless and at distance with his father actually makes him).

- This fascinating family makes me sad and I like it lol

[bigskydreaming]

I am once more begging people, BEGGING, to at least READ Batman #416 if you’re going to cite every moment of Dick meeting Jason and then blowing up at Bruce, except in a totally ‘that’s not at all how it happened’ kinda way.

If I have to read ONE MORE sizzling hot take about how Dick blew up at Bruce and stormed off at the end of that encounter, when THIS is how it ACTUALLY ended....

Ah yes, the famous Dick Grayson temper, better described as ‘someone else loses their shit at Dick and fandom twists it into the exact opposite so he’s actually the bad guy all along.’

Was Dick heated before that point? Yup. Did he have reason to be? Also yup. Did Bruce, however, have reason to be heated that Dick had the gall to be coming back to his childhood home to confront him about the fact that after eighteen months of not speaking, when Bruce is the one who CHOSE to not even say goodbye to Dick or make any effort to still make a place for Dick in his life after firing him, with the only possible indication in all that time through which Dick was expected to come up with even an INKLING that Bruce missed him was discovering from reading the paper that Bruce had given his old mantle to a new, even younger partner? Its gonna be a big fat NOPE from me, guys.

There’s an exchange between them a few pages before this that always resonated with me....

Bruce: The truth is, I taught you everything I could. It was time for you to step out on your own.

Dick: So you figured the best thing for you to do was drive me out of your life, right? That’s exactly what you do to anyone who gets too close. Always hurt them before they have a chance to hurt you. It didn’t matter to you that I didn’t have any life other than the one we shared.

Like, I can not express any more clearly why it drives me so B-A-N-A-N-A-S to see people spin this so that it was Bruce that was somehow the victim of his son’s tempestuous, nomadic ways. Like he was somehow left behind, that Dick outgrew him or moved on, and everything Dick felt about Robin after the fact was him throwing spoiled temper tantrums that someone dared pick up something he no longer wanted. Umm. No times infinity and beyond.

Bruce was the one with all the power. Bruce was the one making all the choices. All Dick had, at most, was the choice to either stay somewhere Bruce seemed intent on driving him away from, or go somewhere else. This issue clearly expressed that like. Bruce wasn’t open to talking. Not when he fired Dick as Robin, there was no negotiating that, and even throughout this whole encounter here, where Dick comes here and says “I think you owe me some explanations” because based on everything Bruce was doing and how radically opposed those actions are to the last interactions he and Bruce had, which had a HUGE impact on Dick’s life, yes, he WAS owed explanations here, make no mistake....even here, Bruce spends the whole encounter acting like he’s being unfairly interrogated, like its trying his patience to even have to deal with Dick being there at all....

Phones work two ways, Bruce. There’s two people in this dynamic. If you haven’t heard from Dick in eighteen months, its equally true that he hasn’t heard from you in eighteen months. And if you missed him so damn much, you know what was always a perfectly valid way to express that, which DIDN’T involve anyone else? Picking up the damn phone and calling Dick and telling him that.

Bruce acts like that was never even an option, like HE was the one stuck with limited choices based on Dick’s behavior throughout all this time, and that’s just flat out, unconditionally, one hundred percent, NOT TRUE. Bruce was the one in charge. The one calling the shots. The one with the resources, the power, the authority. Dick was ALWAYS the one who had more to lose, of the two of them.

And Bruce knew all this when he took Dick in. He knew all this when he took Robin away from Dick while the latter was still a teenager, still living at home. And he was the one who failed to even so much as OFFER Dick an alternative take on how he could still be there, still be in Bruce’s life, part of his family, still share in being part of his life, the life the two of them had shared, now that Bruce had made the choice that Dick no longer had the option of living out his part of that life in the manner they’d BOTH built up for him originally.

And yet for so many years, fandom has added insult to injury by acting like the cherry on top here, Bruce giving away the very mantle he took from Dick, like this was somehow completely reasonable because in comparison, Dick is the one being unreasonable. People completely gloss over that little act of Bruce’s to focus instead on how Dick reacted, instead of giving that betrayal of trust its own fair due and focus, and the problem is....they don’t even actually focus on how Dick actually acted! Again, notice it was Dick who approached Bruce, and Bruce who told Dick to leave. It was Dick who had actual cause to be angry, but Bruce who blew up and broke shit because Dick dared demand answers. 

And this is the way Dick leaves things with Jason, btw. I know people know this part by now, mostly at least, about the phone number and such, but how many people have actually SEEN how that played out rather than just heard it summarized in a dry recitation of events that underplays just how that interaction went?

Like, that wasn’t just Dick acting like this was being FORCED upon him and bleeding reluctance at every turn. He went above and fucking beyond to make Jason feel welcomed and secure in his position as Robin. But that’s not how the narrative goes in fandom, is it? Even when acknowledging this part, people act like Dick was at most doing the bare minimum, instead of acknowledging that Dick didn’t owe anyone this at all. No, it wasn’t Jason’s fault he became Robin, but NONE of this was Dick’s fault, Dick’s choice, or Dick’s RESPONSIBILITY. He wasn’t living at home, in Bruce’s life, and he wasn’t adopted yet let alone even still Bruce’s ward at this point. He’d aged out at eighteen. Dick had NO actual ties to Bruce and by extension Jason at this particular moment in time, and thus no ACTUAL obligations to either of them, no matter how much fandom harps on him having failed Jason as a brother back during this time when more accurately, Bruce was actively failing Dick as a father - as in not even being one, but Dick’s responsibilities towards a family he didn’t have at the moment are supposed to be still intact? NOPE. Don’t think so.

But Dick, INSTEAD, puts Jason FIRST, puts him OVER his obviously hurt and bitter feelings to focus on what’s best for Jason here, and gives him literally everything he CAN to do right by Jason here. He gives Jason his own old costume and clear approval, cementing Jason’s place as Robin in a way not even Bruce could when giving it to Jason, because it was never Bruce’s to actually pass on. Jason even wonders earlier in the issue if Dick might want his old role back, and Dick puts that fear to rest, without any hesitation or doubt.

In addition, Dick offers up support and solidarity he doesn’t owe Jason, doesn’t owe anyone, because its HIS time, HIS support, its not something someone can take for granted and yet too many people do....especially considering that in the hyper-fixation on how much support and time Dick supposedly DIDN’T offer or grant Jason, most people pay next to no attention to the fact that it wasn’t like Dick was being given time or support by Bruce, ie Dick is going out of his way to offer stuff he’s not even getting himself, because he RECOGNIZES from that what its like not to have it. Basically what I mean is all that talk about Dick being a hypocrite for doing to others what he complains about Bruce not doing for him? Patently untrue, as we see here, because this is Dick actively acting upon what he’s missing out on by making sure that others don’t miss out on it because of Bruce’s failings or emotional repression.

And look at the end result.....Jason’s enjoying his teamup with Dick, these aren’t two people who look pained at being forced into proximity or acting like the other is a burden to be around or thinking the other doesn’t really want to be here. They were comfortable from practically the word go, because Dick knows how to make people uncomfortable but he also knows how to make people comfortable, and he made the CHOICE, the INTENT to make sure he was someone Jason felt WANTED to be there with him, the complete opposite of someone who is taking out their bitterness or resentment on their replacement or at least not trying to hide it very well.

So my question is.....what the hell else is it people wanted Dick to do? When they cite this issue specifically, at least, when they talk about the time Dick went to Gotham to confront Bruce about Robin, when they talk about the phone number or the costume or the teamup or the things that so often get mentioned in passing like they’re insignificant or the bare minimum or mere formalities that do nothing to take away from all the supposed OTHER asshole behavior that Dick allegedly heaped on Jason despite never actually happening anywhere, even a little bit, and thus that some people claim is just an extrapolation of how Dick PROBABLY acted off the page, given his clear resentment and jealousy....umm. Huh? Based off THIS? Seriously, I mean it. What ELSE was Dick supposed to have done, to counter that take, what else could he POSSIBLY have done to do right by Jason here, that he didn’t actually already do? What exactly did people want from this character, in order to not hold this eternal grudge they have against him for what a big old jerk he was to Jason, who did nothing to deserve it - with that part being true at least, and literally WHY Dick made the point to recognize that and not take out his feelings on Jason?

Like, this will never not be an axe for me to grind because like. The SPIN fandom always gives all this, when look at the last page of this issue......Bruce is watching from a distance, and even he’s like thanks Dick, and that honestly bugs me so much. Because in the end, the only one of these three characters who DIDN’T get what he wanted here, was Dick. Jason got the validation and security as Robin he was looking for, the approval of his predecessor, and words of advice and an offer to listen and be there should he ever want to talk. Bruce got Dick’s validation of the actions Bruce took that he had no right to take when giving his old mantle to Jason, but that Dick ratified all the same, even if it was for Jason’s sake and not Bruce’s. Bruce still got the closure on that particular mistake of his, with the evidence that Dick was willing to see past it for Jason’s sake rather than drag it out....like. Dick is the only one who didn’t get what he was looking for there, he didn’t even get an apology from Bruce for overstepping when he passed on Dick’s mantle, an acknowledgment that this was WRONG, the most Dick got was Bruce admitting for a single panel that he missed him.....before telling Dick to leave and get out and effectively taking back anything Dick could have possibly taken away from that admittance. Because what the fuck does it matter if someone misses you if even though they finally have you right there in front of them, they still tell you to leave again anyway?

In conclusion, I hate this issue, lol, because everybody seems to know what’s in it and yet practically nobody ever seems interested in referencing what’s ACTUALLY in it. Instead just forever playing telephone with the most bad faith interpretation of Dick’s actions possible.

[damian-lil-babybat]

Was explaining to my friend the batboys timeline. But when it got to Damian, I was telling her how Dick!Batman and Dami!Robin was my favorite coz their roles were reversed. With Batman doing jokes and deescalating situations, while Robin does the brooding and the stabby (fastest way to incapacitate the criminals, with a katana..!).

Then I got to the part where Bruce returned, and became Batman.

I was contrasting the two dynamics, and it hit me how jarring it was. Coz it's like watching a parenting episode where the parent is doing everything wrong. Of course Batman is always right. But the writing narrative was set up in failure from the get go.

Mainly, I don't think anyone likes reading a parent and a child arguing...in public...while in costumes. And ending up getting physical. Like for real, the comic is a Batman-Robin story, where Batman has to say 'no' to a Robin, and since its in a combat environment, it always comes across as a command from a superior. But since they are selling this father-son duo, that kind of communication is grating even if Batman is in the right...coz the thing is, that's abuse. You do not get heavy-handed with a kid to the point they lost consciousness (which always happens btw). And with Dami naturally wanting to fight with his background, Bruce would always be placed in an awkward situation where he has to get physical.

Also the parenting part in Bruce's situation is tricky. There was not even an impression of Batman being a single-dad (despite having kids at age 26)...but more like a bachelor being dumped with a child, without the ridiculousness of it all being played out as comedic. Its a surprise-baby situation with the serious and edginess comics perspective...so really, it became a suspense thriller story revolving around Dami, and that tone of narrative has been sticking to Dami forever.

That's why outside the Bat series, Dami is such a good character to explore coz the suspense-thriller connotation is gone. Its just a kid with a ridiculous background. And the writers play ot off as silly and fun (surprise-baby comedy, anyone?).

And even if its not parenting, Batman is a mentor and partner to Robin. But Dami is a mini Batman and is combat-ready from the start. And as a minor kid who is his son...they can never have an equal status as partners. No matter how mature a kid is, they are never to have an equal burden in a family situation (and if they do, it means the parents have failed them).

So what else can Batman teach to Robin? Turns out, there was a lot!

Dick!Batman was able to work well with Dami!Robin because even if Dick was sparring and fighting with Dami, he is helping the child to be people-ready. Dick taught him what it means to be Robin (and how becoming Batman is not always a good thing). That is such a big difference. Also Dick really became his brother and has the chance to prove himself worthy to Dami, for which Dami has approved ever since that spans to multiple series even outside the Bat series

This is something I haven't pick up with Bruce, since what I've read so far is either Bruce placating Dami, scolding him, saving him, expecting Dami to be better, etc. At most, it was Dami reaching and proving himself to Bruce.

I'm not saying that Bruce should always be gentle and understanding with Damian...Coz that won't work when they are patrolling and continue to be partners as vigilantes (I still want to read Batman and Robin!)

I am actually having blank on what dynamics would work best on the two based on what the comics has been for the past years.

But what I think would help their Batman-Robin dynamics once they get back together (coz I am still hoping for that!) is to break the duo dynamics...and add a third-wheeler. Let Dami!Robin work with another Bat, and for Batman to take the lead on the field. Since they can never have an equal status as partners, Batman should stick to the mentor part. And let Dami do his own thing while contrasting to what another Bat would do.

[padawanlost]

So I have something of a hot take: Anakin's relationship with Padme was healthier and less "toxic" than his relationship with Obi-Wan. For one thing, Anidala is built off of a brief but wholesome friendship between two kids, whereas Brobikin starts out with a distant, emotionally detached Obi-Wan and a frightened child Anakin. There also seems to be more trust (of the personal kind) between Anakin and Padme than between Anakin and Obi-Wan. I'm not bashing Obi-Wan btw, just sharing my thoughts.

I think how these relationships ended is a reflection of how they came to be. Both Padmé and Obi-wan loved Anakin as much as Anakin loved them, no one is arguing that, however, these relationship evolved in completely different ways. 

Where Anakin grew more secretive around Obi-wan, he opened up around Padmé.

Obi-Wan had tried to talk to him about it, but the boy would just shut down. His eyes would turn opaque and the corners of his mouth would straighten into a thin line. He would seem very far away. Obi-Wan did not know how to reach him at such times, but they were infrequent and passed as quickly as a rain shower. [ Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: Deceptions by Jude Watson.]

“[Anakin]’d made it sound more as if he had some wild, dark past, and nothing was better guaranteed to keep Ahsoka asking questions than that. If he explained he’d been a Hutt’s slave, she’d dig away at it until all the bad stuff came out. It was hard enough telling Padmé, and she was his wife.” - Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss

This pattern of depending more on Padmé (and Palpatine) and distancing himself from Obi-wan is noticeable throughout Anakin’s life, especially after AOTC. And as we all know, that’s where all the problems truly started.

“It has nothing to do with believing,” [Anakin] murmured, softly bitter. “It’s the truth.” “There must be some reason, then. Anakin, [Obi-wan]’s your best friend. He loves you.” “Maybe he does. But I don’t think he trusts me.” His eyes went as bleak as the empty night. “And I’m not sure we can trust him.”[Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]

The culmination of this is seen in ROTS where Anakin becomes progressively more attached of Padmé and distrusting of Obi-wan. Such behavior wasn’t born overnight.

As we all know, both relationships ended violently but I’d argue Padmé and Anakin’s bond remained where Obi-wan and Anakin’s was severed because she had a much easier time understanding Anakin’s behavior than Obi-wan.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a simple matter of padmé being ‘ride or die’ or anything like that. Obi-wan was also loyal to Anakin but, unlike Padmé, he didn’t have all the facts. Unfortunately, the communication gap between Anakin and Obi-wan that made Anakin unwilling to open his heart to him also prevented Obi-wan of understanding Anakin’s motivations. And in failing to understand Anakin, he was able to behave as he did in Mustafar.

Had Obi-Wan’s spirit not witnessed Vader’s action, he never would have believed it. Vader, the same monster that Obi-Wan had left to die on Mustafar, had sacrificed himself to save his son. And suddenly Obi-Wan realized where he had failed. For unlike Luke, Obi-Wan had not only believed that Anakin was completely consumed by the dark side, but had actually refused to believe that any goodness could have remained within Vader. And by refusing to allow that possibility, Obi-Wan had condemned not only his former friend but his own capacity for hope. Fortunately, Luke’s unwavering faith in his father’s innate goodness had proved to be a stronger force than the power of the dark side. Obi-Wan recalled what Qui-Gon Jinn’s spirit had told him so long ago, when he said that Obi-Wan was not ready, and that he failed to understand. For so many years, Obi-Wan had thought Qui-Gon meant that he wasn’t ready to comprehend details about Anakin’s conversion to the dark side. But now, he finally understood his Master’s words.I wasn’t ready to forgive Anakin. And he won’t be entirely free unless I do. [Ryder Windham. The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi]

I think part of the fandom has a very romanticized version of Anakin & Obi-wan’s relationship in their head. I’ve seen descriptions that make them sound like best buddies in a G-rated buddy cop movie and, sadly, that’s not what we have in the movies (and the EU). I mean, people with healthy, happy relationships don’t try to dismember and set each other on fire. And I’m not saying Anakin & Padmé had a perfect relationship, either. I’m just saying out of the two, Anakin & Padmé were better at communicating and that influenced the relationship dynamics.

Sometimes [Obi-wan] talked to [Anakin] in his head. Arguments more furious than the ones they'd had. Talks in which he explained, Master to Padawan, why he'd done what he'd done. Simple words that managed to say everything he'd meant to say, only more clearly than he'd ever been able to say it. In these talks, Anakin listened and understood. [jude watson - the last one standing]

Every day and every night he violated every principle the Jedi had taught him about staying in the present moment, about acceptance. Going over every argument, every talk, to find the key that he should have turned in order to unlock the secrets of Anakin's heart. Why had he turned to the dark side? When did it happen? The Anakin he knew and loved couldn't have done it. Something had twisted in him, and Palpatine had exploited it somehow. Obi-Wan knew it wouldn't change anything to know, but he couldn't help going over the same events, again and again. The chances he'd missed, the things he'd seen, the things he hadn't. […]Anakin had always hated sand. It was one of the many things about his Padawan that Obi-Wan understood better now that Anakin was dead. That was the horror of losing someone: Understanding came too late. [jude watson - the last one standing]

It’s not about hating Obi-wan (or Padmé) it’s simply a matter of understanding that every relationship is unique, for better or worse. And in this particular case, Obi-wan and Anakin had more complicated relationship than people want to admit. Again, complicated doesn’t mean abusive or hateful, it just means it wasn’t all sunshine and flowers even if they did love each other very much. It’s one of those cases where complicated is good because complicated means complex and complex means human. The fact they didn’t have a perfect relationship proves that these character were properly developed, that they are relatable and engaging even when they are at their worst. And that, imo, is *always* a good thing.  

[coldflasher]

is the sound and the fury the best episode of s1? well, it’s certainly a contender

that bitch has EVERYTHING. plot at its strongest, with all the eowells mystery and the dramatic irony of the audience knowing who he is while barry’s trust in him only grows stronger, versus the tension of knowing it’s all going to come crashing down. hartley’s very PRESENCE. he’s SUCH a good character WHY DIDN’T WE GET MORE OF HIMMMM, WHY DO THEY PERSIST IN INTRODUCING CHARACTERS WHO ABSOLUTELY FUCK AND THEN JUST. NOT USING THEM. PLS. society if we’d had hartley on the team instead of ralph, and i didn’t even DISLIKE ralph but come on, if it’s a toss-up between hartley rathaway or hartley sawyer, one of them is a gay icon and one of them said a bunch of fucked up shit on twitter. who would we really rather have. i mean now we have neither of them so it’s a lose-lose but you know, andy mientus could save this show. we could easily squeeze out another 2–3 seasons with him on the team, you know i’m right

he’s just so GOOD. top-tier flash villain, genuinely. maybe in my top 10? should i make a top ten? and his dynamic with eowells? SO dark and fucked up and sinister. wells really goes full mask off and shows how ruthless he is. 

we have hartmonnnn and like. hartmon? more like hartMOAN, am i right? like sorry hartley’s not the only one breaking sound barriers cos every time they’re on screen together i am screeching just cos they’re so perfect. they hate each other so much. they’re 0.3 seconds away from hatefucking at all times. it’s beautiful.

also we get 0.5 seconds of the royal flush gang and the show really totally forgot that they already played that card, if you’ll excuse the pun, except i can’t be mad about it bc s1 royal flush gang was a few faceless ppl on motorbikes and s8 royal flush gang are cool and sexy so like. fair. but someone pls make a series bible for continuity i am B E G G I N G. season 1 has so many of these moments. caitlin mentioning her parentS, plural. barry defeating throwaway metas who get reused seasons later and we all just forgot they were already in the show before. i know they didn’t KNOW they were gonna do a lot of this stuff but pls. continuity. i beg. 

we have iris BEING A BOSS BABE. the way she said stick it to mason bridge was SO hot. i looove when iris graduates from having her blog to being a journalist and she’s SO good at it and you get to see that fire in her... the only way to go is up!! she continues to excel and i cannot wait to watch her show all these irritating men just how much better she is than all of them

and then we round off an absolute BANGER of an ep with the cuuuutest scenes with joe and barry where they really just. hang out. barry’s like HEY LET ME SHOW YOU MY WEIRD SCIENCE SHIT AND BLOW STUFF UP and joe’s like i have no idea what’s happening but we’re having a great time, i love my weird nerd son. and then barry comes right out like ‘btw i know you’ve been jealously eyefucking every father figure in my life but you’ll always be my favourite" 😌 and joe’s like aw that’s so cute, anyway i can’t talk now cos i just had eddie break into wells’ house to prove he’s not good enough to be your third dad

[twig-rambles]

*sighs*

Okay, I know it's been over a week since the Red Banquet, but it's been a little less than that since BBH's semi-lore stream where he was really cryptic when asked about if Sapnap, his son, (who was explicitly shown to have recieved not one, but three invites to the banquet), had a canon, important-to-the-lore reason for not being there.

For reference, here's the transcript:

Dono: For the Red Banquet, was Sapnap absent on purpose for the sake of the story? Or was he just not able to make the stream?

Bad: *gasp* Ohh, you're stumbling upon something canon. Some lore.... That very few people picked up on. Think about it, guys. I kept seeing people saying 'Gasp! Bad was gonna sacrifice his son! He invited him to the, uh, the Banquet and he was gonna sacrifice his canonical son!' *stares into camera* ...Was he? Did Sapnap show up? *small gasp* Did Sapnap not show up because he forgot? Or was there another reason why Sapnap didn't show up?

Something that's interesting to me, but probably not important for anything other than dramatic effect, is: cc!Bad changed the perspective for this so that he was facing the camera (I'll embed the clip once I figure out how to. Forgive me I am bad with tech.)

Now, I think we all know that infamous screenshot of Bad liking a tweet where someone talked about c!Bad being willing to sacrifice his own son to the Egg. But I rewatched the transcribed clip from the semi-lore stream just now and a few theories sprang into my mind. The first two are rather sad, but the last one is sweet and puts the father-son relationship on sloghtly better terms.

Theory Numero Uno: What if Bad... Has already sacrificed his son to the Egg?

Being dead is an excellent excuse not to come to a party, after all, and even though he still has all three canon lives (as far as we know), we've seen that those sacrificed to the Egg can take some time to respawn. As for motivation, I could imagine the Egg might have promised to give Bad Skeppy back at the price of Sapnap.

In Bad's current state... I wouldn't put him above this.

Especially since it seems he really is prepared to sacrifice his own son to the Egg (judging by the tweet).

The "Did Sapnap show up?" prompts me to think Sapnap might have been there for the Banquet. If he'd arrived just a half-hour beforehand (aka an entire irl hour before the stream began) that probably would've been time enough to successfully sacrifice him.

TL; DR: He was there that day, only not when we were.

Or, even worse: He was there, but not where we were.

And thus we arrive at my second theory: Sapnap was sacrificed to the Egg, but in a vastly different way than we've previously assumed

He could've been there at the same time as us, and we never noticed.

Maybe it's a Ranboo "blink and you'll miss them walk right by"-kinda thing. Maybe he was lurking about and we just didn't see him, because he was crouched and hiding really well. Maybe he's stuck in/under the Egg, or within the surroundng walls, or the "maze" down there. Maybe he's alone with the Egg's whispers, missing his father, his fiancés, his friends, and wondering why everyone's abandoning him.

He is probably an ideal target for the Eggpire, feeling abandoned and alone. The Eggpire would promise him community and a close-knit family connection.

And Bad, or maybe even just Ponk or Ant, sees an ideal target first and Bad's son second, thanks to the Egg's fiendish whispers.

This theory is supported not only by cc!Bad's cryptic "Was he [going to sacrifice his own son]?" and the whole "Did Sapnap show up?"-thing, but also by the amount of plot-twists in the Red Banquet stream. This twist would fit right in.

Of course, Egged!Sapnap would've been one just waiting in the wings, but I think they purposefully kept him away. - If the Eggpire had Sapnap, one of the best fighters, on their side, they would've wanted to keep him hidden, maybe even unaware of his own "egginess", as a sort of hidden weapon or sleeper agent for dire times, right? Maybe they sent him to assassinate someone. They most probably would've kept him hidden or even sent him away.

Of course, it was a stupid move because they were defenseless when Quackity showed up (imagine the Karlnapity angst if Sapnap were to be egged!), but having Sapnap waiting in your arsenal for your hostile takeover later as a "secret weapon" is a pretty good idea.

And egged!Sapnap doesn't change that the Eggpire would've felt broken and defeated after the Banquet.

But it would open the option of Sapnap granting his father refuge in Kinoko Kingdom.

Which opens up a whole host of other problems.

Side-note: If you are looking for a good fic with Egged!Sapnap (and Sapnap pre-Bad backstory feat. demon!Sapnap - RIP that headcanon, but it'll probably thrive anyways a la the decanonised SBI family dynamic and thank God for that), go read "The Prince clothed in Blood Vines" by RavenFire2908 and the consequent sequels.

Now, for the nice, family-friendly theory: Bad told his son not to come

You might be thinking: "Wait, what? Wouldn't Karl do that? He's seen the Egg's evils first hand at the Masquerade!"

To that I say: You are correct.

BUT: Karl has amnesia and might have been off time travelling to God-knows-when and -where at the time of the banquet. The last lore stream he was on was George's dream post-banquet. (The same goes for Sapnap, btw.) And Karl's not the only person Sapnap's close to who knows the dangers of the Egg.

You see, some of cc!Bad's wording (The slow, ominous "...Was he [going to sacrifice his own son]?" and "Or was there another reason why Sapnap didn't show up?") has led me to believe that there is a possibility c!Bad might have actually warned Sapnap to stay away.

Karl obviously would've supported this venture, but we can only say that for sure when we know how his memory's doing and where c!Karl actually is right now - in his current state, it might just be that Karl doesn't remember the dangers of the Egg and is thusly unable to warn Sapnap.

But Bad still can.

Bad, who maybe, just maybe, doesn't want to lose another loved one to the Egg. Sweet, kind, paternal Bad, who absolutely adores his son.

Maybe he just couldn't sacrifice his son *that* way. He might even have thought death a better fate than being egged, which is why he was willing to sacrifice his son to the Egg by killing him.

(Less-friendly theory: Depending on when Sapnap's segment of the invite stream is set in proportion to the "The Egg is a homewrecker"-stream, it also leaves open the possibility of Sapnap being amongst the referenced things Bad has sacrificed for the sake of Skeppy/the Egg. Ow.)

[siren-of-redriver96]

Villian Heights (part 5)

(reading Wuthering Heights for the first time and  trying to figure out the deal with this book with some assumptions from  previous summaries of the story)

Today:

(Isabella’s letter and Nelly’s visit on Wuthering Heights, to the kind of sort of narrator switch afterwards)

(spoilers and kind of heavy themes - also strong language)

(btw some of my quotes may not be word for word because I’m reading it in another language)

Heathcliff left Isabella completely alone as soon as she arrived - I was wondering where he had gone at some point, he just wasn’t mentioned as she looks around for someone to talk to

Joseph is still there, kinda forgot about him

Hareton too... it’s sad, life with his father is still toxic

Hindley - yeah, he’s hit rock bottom (plus this is the first time the book mentions his hair colour - does it? Isabella draws a connection between his hair, eyes and Catherines’ - idk)

the description reminds me of Morfin from HP4 - parallels to the Gaunts and the Riddles are definitily there, although I think the dynamics between people of different living stati and wealth on the english countryside is probably a thing in the literature of that country

imagining Hindley pacing up and down is kinda scary - what does he do all day? He’s kinda destroyed ...

wait - Isabella went to Wuthering Heights in the hopes of not being alone with Heathcliff after marrying him because, as she mentioned, he’s terrible? I’m not blaming her, I’m wondering why people find this character attractive if them’s the reality

Hindley - acts like a ghost. Pacing up and down, moaning, calling out in pain?

I’d be scared out of my mind

aaand Hindley next annectode about the door needing to be locked at night or he’ll full on shoot Heathcliff dead ... ffs, run Isabella!

Meanwhile, I kinda like her reaction and thinking when she sees/holds the gun. Don’t mess with her

props to her too to adapt and try to make her own dinner when she has to

Joseph drives me crazy just describing how he critizises her porridge as she makes it. Ahhh....

Hareton drinking all the milk himself like starving (which he probably is) is really sad, again

“But, man!” XD okay that was hilarious

he kinda tries to make fun of her by showing her all the rooms ... hah.

Hindley’s room reminds me of the depictions of Bertha’s in the Jane Eyre BBC adaptation (lol Emily’s sister’s writing - I gotta check that out too some day)

yeah, I’d throw it all on the floor too. Isabella is doing her best to adapt here, I’m not blaming her for loosing

I like the detail of Throttler being Skulker’s son - kinda reflefcts the the generations suffering between Thrusscross Grange and Wuthering Heights

“inventive and restless in causing me to despise him” - again, who finds this character attractive?

someone needs to get her out of that madhouse (LOL literally everyone on Wuthering Heights is crazy - and Hareton has to live there)

wait - Nelly didn’t even mention to Linton what his sister is going through?

“the once so joyful house” oh dear, when? When exactly was it joyful the last time?

Heathcliff being super happy offering her a chair - you dang manipulator.

“We have no secrets from each other” ugh and he’s getting worse

I was wondering for a moment whether he was lying ... but no, what wouldn’t he want her to know? He likes Catherine, hates her and Linton, wants to gamble the house away from Hindley and he’s not capable of putting a stop to it any more ... all things he doesn’t care if she knows. Maybe his wife isn’t just a way to get Thrusscross Grange, but also someone who sits around while he monologues

props to Isabella speaking up against Heathcliff still - she’s not a feeble idiot, I like how she shows some resistance to her situation in this part of the book - she’s not incapable

ugh Heathcliff is still the worst, but I’ve said that multiple times now

oh, and he tried to kill her dog. This guy kills small animals, everyone.

the way he describes how no cruelty repelled her as she was unharmed - he’s scary.

Isabella standing up to him again and proclaiming she’d either die or see him dead than get control over her brother - she’s really stronger than she seemed. It’s cool

“the worse the pain, the more I grit my teeth” - frightening callback to his behaviour as a toddler

Heathcliff spend the night in the Thrusscross Grange gardens - firstly, oh, that’s where he went when Isabella arrived, and second - stalker.

Surprised? Nope

yeah, him being nice to Nelly only lasted as long as she cooperated

I hate to agree with him even on a technical level but he’s not wrong about Cathy’s mental health suffering from the empty life on Thrusscross Grange (I’ve discussed this more in the previous post)

that remains all I give him, I promise. I still doubt he’d grant Cathy all the freedom she wanted if it didn’t work with his wishes

funny, we’re halfway through the book and Bronte delivers a twist: from now on, the narrator recounts himself what Nelly said in summary if I got that right? Huh, wonder where this is going

thank you very much for reading :)

[nexyra]

James Ironwood, for character ask? 👀

Aaaa thank you so much for the ask ♡ More rambling incoming !! Sorry for the wait btw, I've been both pretty busy and tired ;;

If you hate James Ironwood and don't wanna hear one good thing about him tap out now please ღ

My fav ship(s) for the character

I am not a super big shipper when it comes to James, but there are still some I like more than others soo here goes :

I think Ironwitch is a pretty good one. It's not necessarily a ship I'd search content for but I think these two would work well together ! Glynda is stern and honest and a no-nonsense kind of woman. She has the strenght to stand up to James when he slips or gets too stubborn when faced with the high stakes. At the same time, we've been shown that she cares for him and she knows he's only trying to do what's best for people. She has faith in him but also the ability to stand at his side as an equal. She seems to be the more steadfast of Ozpin's circle : loyal, you know you can trust her, and she will not crumble. This is the kind of personnality that I think James both admire and feel safe with. And the other way around, I think James is a good match for Glynda too. On a day to day basis, he's serious enough to not annoy here, but he's also a softie in some aspects and that's a nice combination to smooth out Glynda's edges.

Ironqrow is a completely different dynamic. The "we're annoying each other" dynamic is not one I'm particularly interested in usually xD But these two certainly had strong & interesting moments so it's a pretty valid ship !! Despite how they might butt heads because of the difference in their upbringing they (prior to V8) clearly trusted each other with their life. Even if Qrow jokes about shooting himself if he had to be one of James' man, when everything goes to shit there is no doubt in his mind that James wasn't responsible. Similarly, while James talks of shooting Qrow for his misbehaviour, when push comes to shove and we meet a tired Ironwood, run ragged by the pressure he's under... the only thing he does is hug him and reiterates how glad he is to see him. So again, they clearly have a lot of faith and trust in the other, and that's solid ground for a relationship.

My least favorite ship(s) for the character

Same spiel as always, shipping kids and adults is a big no from me; so any ships between Ironwood and RWBYJNOR can qualify here. That said, among the less uncomfortable ones, here are those I don't really like

This one is again because I love their relationship but platonically only, I'm talking of Winter Soldier. The reading I like best is not that Ironwood is Winter's Jacques 2.0, nor that he groomed her; but that he was an important father figure in her life. Protective and caring, who tried to help her escape with what he knew. I don't see James recruiting Winter as a way to gain a strong ally. But rather that Winter wanted to detach herself from her family name, and make something worthwhile of herself all on her own. And that the military is what Ironwood knows and understand, so naturally it's a career he'd see as a good path. Just like Winter then proposed it to Weiss. I like to think they care about each other a LOT and they're their own tight family in between the lines, even if professionalism might throw a wrench into it. For short I love them together but not romantically please =)

I don't know if there's a ship name for this, but Salem x James Ironwood would be a big nope from me too... In general, let's just assume I ship Salem with nobody because abuse.

My fav & least fav platonic relationship(s) for the character

Fav platonic relationship would be (have been because we dont talk about V8?) with Winter. Fooor the reasons I've explained above I suppose x) I (again) love the trust they had in one another and the quiet support.

There was also his relationship with Oscar that I really liked during V7, although it has been soured a bit by the (valid) reading from some people that Ironwood sought out Ozpin a lot through Oscar, and given his identity issues it is not ground for a greatly healthy relationship. Their interactions were still very intersting though ♡ I consider Oscar to be the kid who went at trying to appease James' fear or make him reconsider his decisions the best way. There was true understanding and hope for a working relationship here. I do feel that Oscar put in more work than James however (emotionally) and I wish there had been pay-back instead of a gunshot.

For my least fav relationship ? Probably Robyn or Watts ? Robyn was always very antagonistic toward Ironwood since their priorities are so different. And I overall just don't really like her after V7 so there are very few relationships with her I'm interested in (the exception is her ship with Fiona I think it's cute). Meanwhile, Watts is just a petty asshole hell bent on ruining Ironwood because he didn't pick his project. I'm not very interested in hate relationships, and since theirs wasn't deeply explored anyway, it's even more the case here. Their fight was great though, one of my favorite RWBY fights !

My favorite thing about the character

Well this was completely proven wrong by V8 buuut as of V7 I liked that he was a deconstruction of the military general (dictator) trope. Sooo you can guess how i feel about V8 X) In general among RWBY, several of my fav are fav BECAUSE they look like one trope but also have key differences that from the get go make the character stray away from said trope. For example I'm not a fan of the princess tsundere archetype at all, but I loooved Weiss in V1 BECAUSE she was extra-willing to listen and change her mind, and you could very easily tell that it was her upbringing speaking more than herself in most occasions.

Similarly, I wasn't a big fan of Ironwood before V7. I didn't hate him you know and he wasn't lower than most characters in my Tier list but I also didn't particularly care. But you know what ? I've aaaalways had a really soft spot for the "angsty angry traumatized teen". And RWBY made the mistake of extending that soft spot to "tired adults trying their best" (only to repeatedly beat them up/make them villains after making me care about them but what can you do uh)

Soo in general, I loved that Ironwood was trying so hard. I loved that he was tired and in over his head but learning and listening and trying to do good and be better despite his fears. I liked that he told his entourage about Salem and was loyal. I liked that he cared about helping the people above his own image and the way people perceived him. I liked that you could tell this was a terrible situation all around, and his decisions WERE questionnable but we could SEE that he meant WELL and was genuinely trying so hard despite how scared and tired he was.

My biggest criticism for the character

Well this won't be a surprise but in general I just wished he had stayed a morally grey character we were allowed to feel for instead of a cartoon black villain. I didn't need James to be THE Hero or anything like this despite some accusations levelled at those who like him. Him becoming one of RWBY's antagonist is honestly fine by me ! It is interesting. But I'd have preferred they kept him ambiguous and trying in his own way. (And smart because V8 Ironwood was dumb af)

I can be a tad overprotective of his character since he's just... so despised, so I think that I have inadvertently distanced myself from any of his flaws... somehow like "people are already yelling all of them so I don't need to add to this shit show" you know ? skjfkd But I KNOW he has them and it would still have been good to develop his flaws, just... not like that

But yea I'd have liked it if V8 Ironwood DID diverge from RWBYJNORQ and became an antagonist but not an iredeemable villain. LIKE,, we redeemed Hazel and Emerald and IRONWOOD is where the writers draw the line by saying "nope this one is rotten" ?? What ?

When was their writing at the peak according to me (ex : best season)

V7 definitely ! Ironwood carried V7 so hard haha. His character was fleshed out and given nuance and made to struggle and evolve and I loved him in that volume.

A song I think fits them & why

Hunger • Monsters & Men Human • Rag'n'Bone Man Way down we go • Kaleo Beekeeper • Keaton Henson Thistle and weeds • Mumford and Sons Castle of Glass • Linkin Park It's all so incredibly loud • Glass Animals

A headcanon to make up about them

His metal parts impact his metabolism so Ironwood is terrible at holding his alcohool and very little manages to knock him out. He's a workaholic. His low tolerence for alcohool is a great tool whn friends need to put him to sleep.

His joints crack and hurt in the cold, his metal parts as well and they are an hassle in the sand. James like to keep his room temperature warmer than the average atlasian because of this, otherwise he has to spend 30 min every morning simply unwiding muscles to move around efficiently.

He's not a good singer but has a nice low voice for telling stories. If he had kids, he'd probably avoid lullabies but compensate with bedtimes stories.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

As always, I'm kind of reflecting along the way as I write this, and one thing I'm thinking right now is... Doesn't it take away from the atlas arc message ITSELF to just pile up so many "standard bad guy" stuff on Ironwood ? Like, I wanna ask... why do we hate him ? Is he an antagonist because he lets fear get the best of him ? Because he's a classist who doesn't care about Mantle like some fans argue ? Because he's too stubborn and wants to be THE hero ? Because he doesn't listen to others ? Because he abandonned Mantle ? Because he kills peopke left and right ? Because he wanted to bomb a city ? I think you might see where I'm going with this : his status as villain is kind of messy. V8 just kept piling-up flaws and villainous actions onto Ironwood with no concern for whether this was a lenght he would go to (using the certainty that he would go to any lenghts to enact his plans), ,or whether these were one of the initial flaws/failings that led to his "fall" as an antagonist. What lesson is Ironwood supposed to learn ? Personally the very first time I yelled at my screen "No ! Why would the writers choose that ?" is when Ironwood shot Oscar. When answering criticism against medias, many people tend to look at it only through the lense of "well it makes sense in universe" or as if there were no other ways for the story to devolve. But at the end of the way, everything in a story is a choice from the writer even if it is influenced by the characters' personnalities. If I took the scene where Ironwood shoots Oscar, someone might tell me "he's crippled by his PTSD, he COULD do this." Maybe, that's a reading I can somewhat understand at least. But the writers have the power to NOT put his character in such a position. When I saw the wreck that was V7 finale, I ranted to my bestfriend about it and at no point did i say "why did Ironwood do that", I said "why did the writers make him shoot Oscar, the only point narratively would be to make irredeemable" Aaaand that's what they went for and I obviously didn't care for it. So if I had to rewrite it; I would have kept Ironwood's "mistakes" more focused. If he's wrong because he wants to abandon Mantle, because he's (understandably) scared and doesn't want to take risks; then stay focused on that. It's what makes RWBY leave, and out of all his V8 actions that's really the only thing RWBY needed to tell the whole world he wasn't an ally anymore apparently. - Don't make him shoot Oscar point blank, instead Oscar can simply fall because he flinches away from Ironwood's outburst; and a distraught/guilty Ironwood can decide that he doesn't have the time or capacity to help because of the tense situation. (Killing and not saving someone don't hold the same moral weight at all). - Don't make him kill people left and right or bomb cities, maintain the flaw of Ironwood struggling with his PTSD and his fear and not being able to take risks. - Don't paint him as a black villain, and eventually write V8 in such a way that RWBYJNORQ show taking risks might lead to a bigger victory, which was the volume's theme anyway. For example, following Oscar's destruction of the whale, a growth can occur that would bring back together the two anti-Salem factions : Oscar's risk put Atlas out of harm's way, which leads to Ironwood seeing that maybe there WAS a way to save Mantle as well as Atlas despite Salem's presence and he might have jumped the gun too quickly because of his fears. I'm not sure, I haven't thought about this extensively honestly but I hope you see what I mean. I think it would have been more focused & more in-character to focus Ironwood's failings on his fear; and the fact that he cares for the people and the greater good sometimes at the cost of the individuals. The idea that by sacrificing individuals too much you forget the people you're fighting for in the first place, could have been interesting to dig deeper into. Keep to the idea that Ironwood is somewhat disensitized to the individuals suffering for the sake of the greater good, instead of making him just

callous & uncaring.

My guess for their MBTI/Enneagram

I think pre-V8 Ironwood was an unconventionnal ENFJ. Aka, the type of character no one would type ENFJ because they go by stereotypes and Fe stereotypes are just enneagram 2 everywhere (aka nice, kind, helpful) whereas Ironwood has an enneagram tritype very common among xxTJs so that's what he looks/behaves like, but the way he thinks (what's best for the people, ethical values derived from an Atlasian upbringing) align more with Fe cognitively I think I'm going with ENFJ 6w5 1w2 3w4

Starting from V8 though, Ironwood veered clearly into ENTJ territory (types aren't supposed to change but I wouldn't say RWBY is the most consistent media when it comes to characters' personnalities)

One aspect that I think would be nice to delve deeper into ?

I understand why they didn't care to, but it'd have been interesting to get a few backstory hints for Ironwood. How did he lose half his body ? How did Oz recruit him ? Or some pieces about his upbringing ?

[secret-engima]

*kicks down door* WHO WANTS TO READ ME RAMBLE/RANT ABOUT THE GRALEA LEVEL IN FFXV AND WHY IT ACTUALLY WAS A GOOD LEVEL AND EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY THE NOCTIS ROUTE AT LEAST ONCE RATHER THAN THE GLADIO ROUTE EVEN THOUGH IT’S TERRIFYING AND FRUSTRATING.

No one?

WELL TOO BAD.

(Unless you haven’t played or watched the game yet and don’t want spoilers in which case TURN AWAY NOW).

...Ahem. *deep breath* Okay so I will forever stand by my opinion that chapter 13 of the game (the one that takes place on the train and then in Gralea) is Good™ and does exactly what it's supposed to in the narrative. That is not to say I don't hate it with a passion and didn't cheer when they added the Gladiolus route for those of us (like me) who didn't want to replay the Noctis route again, but I will stubbornly insist to anyone that wants to listen that the chapter's difficulty and wildly different tone and pacing was THE POINT of the darn thing and deserves some respect for it.

See, the game up to that point is, if not always lighthearted (because it's not), has still been something of an Adventure Story™. Yes there's horrible tragic things like Insomnia falling and Regis dying, but for the most part the gameplay is exploration and cool combat mechanics and the relationship between the four brothers. It's ... happy for a good chunk of it. There's this light at the end of the tunnel, this comfy assurance that there can be a happy ending, that this can all be fixed and tied up in a neat little bow somehow.

Then Altissia happens. Luna dies, Ignis is blinded, and the game puts you on literal rails, forcing you to go hurtling toward A Different Tone. Everyone is stressed, everyone is scared or angry. You’d THINK that this is the lowest point of the story and that surely there’s going to be an emotional reconciliation between Noctis and Gladio and then we’ll get back to exploring and saving the world and all that jazz.

Except we don’t.

The train scene with Ardyn and Shiva happens, and the entire heartbreak with Prompto happens, and that’s when things start to seriously crack. You lose all access to your magic while stuck in this narrow train, then you lose the Regalia, your symbol of freedom, your main way to travel through the game (even when you fast travel, the animation of arrival shows you getting out of the Regalia). You are now trapped in Gralea. In dark, hostile territory with one of your party missing, one of them blind, the other angry at you, and still no magic. Then a few minutes later you are forcibly separated from the rest of your party, the characters you’ve spent all game getting attached to, and leaning on, and laughing with. They are your last anchor points to the brother dynamic that has kept the whole game on a lighter note and now they are GONE. You have none of your weapons or skills, you have no idea where the others are (first time playing the game without spoilers anyway), you have NOTHING. No hope. No backup. No distractions from the fact that, oh yeah, this is a story where the Bad. Guys. Win. Are winning, have won, and all Noctis (all you) can do is take out the Ring that slowly killed Regis, that Luna died for, the thing that represents everything going wrong and all NOCTIS must do to fix it even when he is painfully, woefully unprepared ... and finally put it on. 

Noctis (and by extension you, the player) MUST shoulder the responsibility of being the king of a lost kingdom, of acknowledging that he IS the king, his dad was MURDERED, and Luna was killed for the thing you are now wearing and everything it means. It’s your only option until you eventually find the dead Ravus and take back Regis’s sword toward the middle/end of the level, which you can’t use recklessly because every swing drains your very life-force, forcing the Ring to still be your “best” option in many cases.

Most of that level is spent running, and hiding, and praying that the MT Units on the floor don’t leap up and try to murder you, or that the daemons don’t notice you, or that the teleporting daemon doesn’t find you, or that Ardyn will just SHUT UP because his taunts are really unhelpful right now.

The only hope you have left in this level is to grit your teeth and get through it with the Ring until you can reunite with your brothers and get magic back and go get the Crystal, the mcguffin of this whole game, and put the game back on the normal track of brotherly dynamics and fun quests. Just get to the Crystal, and everything will somehow start going back to normal.

And then that turns out to be a trap too.

Welcome to the final act of a tragedy, and your character is the one living through it. There will be no restoration of the norm until you’ve seen this to its final conclusion. There will be no light save for the one Noctis dies for.

Even when I first played that level (vanilla, not even a day one patch version btw because I was an idiot like that) and hated it because it was terrifying, I never thought it didn't belong in the story like ... quite a few comments I saw on the internet later insisted it didn’t. This is Noctis's story. This is Noctis's tragedy. THIS is the level that strips every last distraction and security blanket and shelter away from him and makes him put on the Ring and thus shoulder everything it represents. There is- terror here, there is trauma, there is GRIEF. This is practically Noctis's headspace without his brothers, because let's not forget that while we the players are having fun fishing and catching frogs for a silly scientist lady, Noctis is a refugee from an empire that MURDERED HIS FATHER and the FATHER OF HIS SHIELD-BROTHER, destroyed his HOME and then, right before Gralea, murdered Luna, the girl who he's known and talked to and confided in via letter for twelve years. This is a world falling into literal darkness (and if the player hadn’t noticed how the daytime cycle in the game kept getting shorter and shorter before this point YOU CERTAINLY NOTICE NOW) and it's up to Noctis- JUST Noctis, ONLY NOCTIS thanks to a Prophecy made long before he was ever born, to somehow Fix It™.

One person. Just one.

And he has to fix ... all of this.

How?

He doesn’t know. During the Gralea level he DOESN’T KNOW. All he (all we) know is that the Crystal is the key, but since the Crystal only answers to Lucis Caelums, that means Noctis is the key, and Noctis (and you the player) is painfully aware of how Not Ready he is.

And the weight of that is enough to render you helpless in the face of it. The fear of that is a maze. The terror of it is a monster following you down the halls that you cannot escape from and cannot kill while it laughs at your misery.

All of that is GRALEA. The capital city of the people who overthrew his home, killed his father, killed his fiancé, and isolated him from the last safety nets he had.

The entirety of chapter 13 isn’t meant to be enjoyed. It’s meant to make you scared. It’s meant to frustrate you and make you feel helpless. It’s meant to make you feel sick when you learn what the daemons and MTs you’ve been killing really are. It’s meant to make you RAGE against Ardyn, and the Empire, and this entire situation because you’re one person and you’re not prepared for this and it’s NOT FAIR and you just want things to go BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS AND ALL OF THIS SUCKS.

Yeah. It does.

And who else do you think feels like that?

Noctis.

Chapter 13 isn’t meant to be fun. It’s meant to make you feel like Noctis does.

And what emotions would you expect from someone who has just lost everything and is expected to fix everything for everyone else, and now has no distractions or shields between him and his grief?

I remember reading an article about “why this chapter failed” and it was basically to the order of “this game is about a fun road trip with your bros and reuniting with your fiancé and chapter 13 breaks away from that too hard” and I respectfully have to disagree.

This story isn’t about a “fun road trip” and it isn’t just about “reuniting with your fiancé”. From the very first cutscene we are told that it’s not in Regis’s desperate (and soon revealed as last) words to his son about setting forth on a journey and not being able to go back. We are told it’s not in the first hour or so when Insomnia burns and Noctis cries and Cor tells us that “in his last moments together he didn’t want to be your king, he wanted to be your father”. How is that a “fun story about a road trip?”. Yes the road trip IS fun for us, and it IS about the brother relationship, but in a large, LARGE part-

Final Fantasy XV is about a young man setting out into the world and facing the hardships of it. It’s about loss. It’s about regrets. It’s about how no matter how much you want them to, some things can never go back to the way they were yet you must keep going anyway. It’s about how the darkness of the world will just keep taking-taking-taking until someone is willing to pay the price to make it stop, and that sometimes a happy ending for the people you love most means giving up your own personal happy ending on their behalf.

Final Fantasy XV never really hid the fact that it was a tragic, bittersweet story.

But it’s in chapter 13 that the story refuses to let you mistake it for anything else any longer.

Could the chapter have been structured a little better so that the gameplay itself wasn’t so frustrating? Probably. I know almost nothing about game design so that’s not really my call. But does the chapter, for all its frustration and anger-inducing inversion of pacing and tone, brutally get the point across?

Maybe it’s just my opinion, but I’d say yes. Yes it does. Because this video game was the one that fully 100% convinced me, in a way that no other video game had before, that the platform could tell heart wrenching stories, could give me characters I would care for, cry over, rage on the behalf of.

And a big part of that clicked for me at the ending, but it likely wouldn’t have if I hadn’t first struggled my way through chapter 13 and all the emotions it causes and represents just like Noctis did.

...

There. I’m done. Thanks for reading my long-suppressed rant on the most hated chapter of FFXV.