#this is very disorganized sorry

[decepti-thots]

as we're talking about how tarantulas views prowl re: his behaviour towards others, this is going a little off on a tangent so i'll put it in its own post, but i was thinking the other day about the positive reinforcement prison and what it tells us about mesothulas and prowl in terms of what they were doing together.

mesothulas got told to make a perfect prison. so he created a perfect prison. the positive reinforcement prison is clearly a fucking fantastic way to ensure you reduce the likelihood of escape to near-zero. it completely disincentivizes any resistance. it keeps a threat pretty close to perfectly contained. it's clearly horribly immoral, for a start it LITERALLY brainwashes people- but prowl asked for a perfect prison and he got a perfect prison, courtesy of mesothulas.

prowl's objection to the prison is notably not like his objection to the noisemaze; it's not one of ethics. no, mesothulas mentions offhandedly that prowl felt that it was an issue because it didn't punish the prisoners enough. it rendered them completely harmless and secure, but that wasn't what prowl wanted, apparently. what's the point of punishing prisoners who are at no risk of escaping and therefore need no dissuading? well… prowl presumably just feels they 'ought' to, because they 'deserve it'. his sense of morality is one where you punish people who 'deserve it' regardless of whether it serves any actual purpose.

mesothulas has absolutely no moral compass. but the thing is, that really is no moral compass. he will do what he wants to do and it does not matter if it hurts other people doing it; but he doesn't have any active desire to hurt other people either. they're just irrelevant. he'll torture roadbuster if it gets him what he wants, but he doesn't tell himself roadbuster 'deserves it', even just in the sense of 'he's beneath me' or whatever. he just sees it as a way to get from point a to point b. hence the positive reinforcement prison: it's not that he wants to spare anyone suffering, he just wants to find the most efficient solution to the problem.

prowl has a moral compass, unlike mesothulas. he thinks that evil exists and must be defeated, he thinks harm to others is bad in the abstract, he thinks he has a righteous cause, all that. this pretty much universally results in him doing much more harm than mesothulas overall, because no moral compass is bad, but a sense of morality and therefore drive which is turned to bad ends in the name of 'justice' is often worse. mesothulas doesn't care about the war and never gave a shit about making weapons to fight it. prowl, in his desire to end the war at any cost, gets him to make a bomb and nukes a refugee city. mesothulas didn't care about that, but it never would have occurred to him to do that if prowl hadn't incentivized it. mesothulas doesn't care about 'bad guys' getting what they 'deserve', so he's happy to make a perfect prison that doesn't punish anyone if that's not a required part of making it work. prowl, who needs the 'bad guys' to be punished to satisfy his sense of morality, insists upon shelving it in favour of something less inadvertently merciful. (spark extraction doesn't seem to be torture, but it's clearly not actively pleasant.)

and mesothulas makes stuff! he doesn't do it for altruistic reasons. but he makes things; he makes a whole person, in fact, just to do the making part. he makes ostaros! and sure, his original motivation there was almost certainly pure fascination… but that doesn't change that fact that he is capable of creating something wonderful just because he wants to do so.

meanwhile, prowl tosses mesothulas in the noisemaze because his sense of moral injury gets too great… and then that sense of guilt doesn't stop him from trying incredibly fucking hard to kill ostaros, the absolute most innocent person it's possible to be. he KNOWS he shouldn't, and so he tries to get around his own inability to do so by sending impactor. it's not a. subtle difference between them.

it makes me think of that bit in OP #25, the epilogue issue post-Unicron... where prowl talks to shockwave about how he understands now that it's not what you think that matters ('our hopes'), but what you do. prowl thinks of himself as inherently more moral than mesothulas no matter what he does because he has the ability to feel the way you're 'supposed' to about things. sure, he only ever destroyed, whereas mesothulas could make things. but mesothulas is selfish, and prowl cares about other people. sure, prowl did terrible things that killed people, and mesothulas in large part only helped because prowl enabled him to. but prowl feels bad about nuking that city, and mesothulas only wouldn't have done it on his own because he doesn't care. sure, mesothulas also, you know. wouldn't have done it. but prowl thinks that an important part of being Good is following a certain set of moral rules as dictated by society, and he sees himself as achieving that where mesothulas fails, so he must be better in a moral sense. that's why he thinks getting rid of mesothulas will fix what he's done, stop him doing bad stuff. he thinks mesothulas is just fundamentally a worse person because there's something wrong with him, and prowl is fundamentally a good person because he has what mesothulas lacks, and when it turns out to be more complicated than that he has no idea how to fix it. and he cannot conceive of the idea that he made mesothulas more dangerous at least as much as the reverse is true, because he can't imagine anything being worse than not having a sense of morality.

[max1461]

I stand by my claim (conjecture) that "most implications are false".

Yes, most implications between Boolean variables are true. Given two arbitrary Booleans p and q, there is (playing fast and loose with the rules here), a 3/4 chance that p -> q. The implication probably holds.

However, outside of Booleans this is not the case. For instance, in type theory one may define generalized implication recursively, as follows:

if p and q are terms of type t (Booleans), then p -> q is defined in the usual way

if P and Q are of type σ -> τ, where generalized implication is defined for terms of type τ, then P -> Q if ∀x:σ.(P(x)->Q(x)).

So, as toy example let's just look at terms of some type σ -> t where we assume the set of elements of type σ in our universe of discourse is countable. Then we can enumerate them x_1, x_2,..., and the terms of type σ -> t correspond to infinite binary sequences. For some arbitrary P, Q : σ -> t, consider the plot where at each point (i, j) you put the value of P(x_i) -> Q(x_j). Then P -> Q if the diagonal on this graph is all 1s. Given two random binary sequences, that should happen exactly zero percent of the time.

Obviously the above is nowhere near rigorous, but it strongly suggests to me that "most implications are false" in the sense that "the set of terms P, Q where P -> Q is typically of measure zero". Typically, I guess, meaning "in a sufficiently unconstrained model".

I don't think any of this would be very hard to prove one way or the other, but I sure don't know how to do it.

[grapesodatozier]

the essays I could write about how frustrated I am that taylor swift fans have not taken on the responsibility of holding her accountable for her co2 emissions… like. I like her music. but I like public health and having a habitable planet way more!!!! that’s not difficult math folks!!!!! just hate this cultural idea that in order to be a fan of someone you need to defend them? or like there are so many people and taylor fan blogs I see just ignoring it?? and it’s like… you don’t owe her that? you already give her money and fame and praise and you can and should take that away from her if she’s doing something as morally objectionable as catapulting climate change forward this drastically. and it is that serious. it’s so frustrating to see her new album still breaking records, it’s frustrating to follow so many blogs whose posts get so many notes and who clearly could have so much influence over taylor’s fan base completely ignoring this when there could’ve been a whole boycott of this new album. even not listening to it for just the first day it was out would’ve sent a very clear message, right? maybe someone did try to start something and it just didn’t take off or I just didn’t see it but I didn’t see anything (and I looked!) idk I guess now I’m just rambling about missed opportunities and things I could’ve put out there earlier but it’s just really frustrating to see so much celebration of her when the people who give her money and fame should be the loudest voices telling her to find alternatives that don’t kill the planet yknow? I mean like she’s gonna keep putting stuff out so hey not too late to rally people to not listen to the next one ig? but this is super rambling now so I’ll leave it here and open ended/ongoing etc

[lovely-abeille]

HELLO i was wondering if you could help me with a webweave about home, and how it is safety, loneliness, hostility and alien all at the same time?

bonedog, eva h.d. // persepolis: the story of a childhood, marjane satrapi // changing, liv ullman // the stream of life, clarice lispector // body, adonis; tr. khaled mattawa

[acatpiestuff]

@critterbitter OK so

First off:

Yes this is a fully pokemon world

THE BOYS AREN'T POKEMON THEYRE JUST NORMAL ASS SEALS/SELKIES because i think its funny. Because of this decision, Arceus has no idea how they got here but is now sweating cause it doesn't really know how to make them leave.

this technically means that theyre an invasive species?? i guess but eh

Drayden is here in this AU, but he's on vacation (gone fishing) [GONE WRONG]

the boys are good at hunting for fish

this means that the fishing in the bay they appeared in has been SUFFERING when it comes to fishing because these damn seals are hindering them

Ingo found litwick in a shipwreck and just kind of visits its shipwreck until he figures out what pokeballs and battling is

tynamo convinced Emmet not to eat it, and now just kind of follows Emmet around. (they are friends :D)

Later on, perhaps maybe a year into the seal guys terrorizing the port, I think Drayden just goes like "damn this vacation fucking sucks" and goes up to the seal boys and is like:

"So y'all are able to be humans right" "sure" "I guess" "I'mma be absolutely real with you two, I need you to find a hobby other than stealing clothes and things from everyones boats, and depleting the fish population. Do you know what battling is" "Hunting someone for sport" "Absolutely incorrect. Anyway take this ball. You can catch pokemon creatures in them. You then make your creature and another creature fight each other. Go. Please" "okay"

(AND then the boys proceed to get really good at battling. Poor Drayden just sits in his boat with his head in his hands, and is just like damn. Now the seals can extort MONEY from us too why did I do this)

THIS WAS A VERY CONVOLUTED REPLY BUT YES they DO EVENTUALLY GET ALL THEIR TEAM MEMBERS IT JUST TAKES A WHILE BECAUSE THEY GOTTA FIGURE OUT WHAT BATTLING IS FIRST

maybe later later later on they acquire a boat for themselves too... hmhmmhhmhhmhmhmm...

[silverwhittlingknife]

How do you feel about Jack Drake?? What are your thoughts on him and Tim’s relationship?

Anon, I hope you were interested in a novel, because look, I am fascinated by Jack Drake.  He’s key to a whole lot of what I find compelling about Tim as a character, and if I were in charge of DC, I’d bring him back to life.  This would make Tim unhappy but would IMO make for good plotlines.

Jack and Tim’s relationship is Complicated (TM)...

Jack and Tim hug in Nightwing 20 / Jack impulsively yanks a TV out of the wall in Robin 45 / Tim grieves in Identity Crisis

“I could tell the truth.  But I don’t.” - Robin 66

...and it involves a whole lot of Tim lying, and feeling guilty about lying, and thinking about telling the truth, and choosing again and again to keep lying.

And I think that’s great.

Below the cut:

Shorter version - key points about Jack

Really long version - my gentler take (vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports) vs. my harsher take (Jack has some major flaws)

Final thoughts

Shorter version - key points about Jack:

He’s a bad parent.  He’s self-centered, he consistently prioritizes his own comfort and interests over his son’s, and when upset, he does things like order Tim off to boarding school.

But he’s never a bad parent in an actionable way.  He’s not like David Cain or Arthur Brown, who are abusive monsters.  Jack’s not a monster!  He just...kinda sucks.

He genuinely loves Tim. If Jack’s aware that Tim’s disappeared or is in trouble, he’s always worried and upset.  He periodically resolves to be a better dad, and IMO he’s always sincere.

And Tim loves him, a lot.  Tim’s protective of him and worries about him when he’s kidnapped or in danger, and when they’re reunited, Tim’s really relieved and usually hugs him (and Jack hugs back!). 

...But they have very little in common, and that’s a problem. Jack doesn’t value the things that Tim values, or respect the people that Tim admires, or care about the things that Tim’s interested in.  Tim lies to him a lot, but that’s partly because he correctly guesses Jack wouldn’t respond well if he knew the truth of what Tim’s up to.

The Batfamily is a surrogate family that Tim’s drawn to because of the ways his real family doesn’t meet his emotional needs…but also he feels guilty about that and disloyal. (And to the extent that his dad recognizes what’s going on, he's jealous and resentful!)

Very long version:

(LISTEN I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS)

Okay!  So first: Jack’s a character who IMO is pretty up for interpretation.  You can interpret him very charitably, and make excuses for the bad behavior, and fill in the blanks sympathetically when situations are ambiguous; or you can interpret him uncharitably, and emphasize the bad behavior. I don’t think either approach is invalid - it depends on what kind of story you’re interested in!  I have enjoyed Bad Dad stories and also stories that redeem Jack.

My personal take on canon is that Jack and Tim’s relationship is in a gray area.  Jack's definitely neglectful, and he does prioritize other things over Tim, but he’s never so bad that Tim can easily reject him, and he's never so bad that Bruce could justify taking Tim away.  He's just...not great.  Tim loves him, and feels loyal to him, but it’s a very mixed-up complicated love.

I have a gentler take and a harsher one which I switch between as the spirit moves me. xD

My Gentler Take (tl;dr: vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports)

Here’s the core conflict: Jack and Tim are very different people with different values.  Tim idolizes Bruce and Dick and vigilantism, and secretly gets involved, knowing his dad will hate it. He gets increasingly wrapped up in his secret world and lies to his dad...because if his dad finds out, he’ll make Tim quit.

This is a great setup for an ongoing comic.  It’s practical, because it provides endless potential for plotlines, and it’s nicely thematic, because it maps closely onto relatable real-life situations with extracurricular activities:

Tim the drama nerd whose dad thinks he’s playing football and not in the school play; 

Tim the closeted-queer kid secretly getting involved in his school’s politically-active Gay-Straight Alliance; 

Tim the choir kid whose dad only values making money and wants him to go into the family business (and Tim keeps promising himself he'll give up choir soon, definitely soon, but maybe he'll stay in just a liiiittle longer, because they need him, you see, the last tenor left town, so...); 

Tim the computer geek with the sports-obsessed dad (this one’s just canon);

etc. etc.  

The extracurricular metaphor works pretty well for Tim’s relationship to vigilantism.  Tim's involved in his "extracurricular" because he genuinely thinks it's important and fulfilling, and he values it and wants to be good at it. He idolizes Bruce and Dick because they're good at it. He's been collecting information about it since he was a little kid, and hiding it from his parents because he knows they wouldn't approve. And mayyyybe there's also an element of low-key rebellion against his dad, and maybe that's secretly part of the appeal. And yet also as Tim gets more and more invested, he starts to daydream: maybe I could tell my dad and he'd be proud of me and supportive. But he doesn't, because actually he knows his dad would be upset and angry and make him quit.

And - again, just like with lonely kids and extracurricular hobbies - one of the things that happens is that Tim starts getting his unfilled emotional needs met ... by people he knows through this secret hobby. And people like Bruce and Dick start turning into a surrogate family. Which Tim feels guilty about. And also as Tim gets more and more wrapped up in their world, he has to lie to his dad even more, which means the distance between Tim and his dad gets bigger and bigger and more and more unfixable.

I love this dilemma. It's simple, it's recognizable, it provides endless sources for conflict, and there's no obvious solution! Tim can't tell Jack: he'll make Tim quit! And Tim doesn't want to quit, because he loves choir / art / theater / whatever.  Yeah, it’s difficult, and there are challenges, and sometimes he has doubts...but at the end of the day, he cares about it a lot.  And everything he values is there, and all the people he admires and cares about are there, and all he wants in the world is to feel like he's one of them and belongs there. So he has to lie, even though he doesn't want to lie, and he feels guilty about it...

...but also he ends up lying more and more.

(Sidenote: I think it's important that Tim chooses to keep lying - Tim's narration often glosses this as "I have to lie to my dad," and that's certainly how it feels to Tim, but this... isn't quite true. He has to lie to his dad, because if he doesn't, his dad will get mad at him and try to stop him, not because he literally has no choice about it.)

Other Reasons Why I Like The "Secret Extracurricular" Interpretation

(tl;dr it complicates not just Tim's relationship with his dad, but also all his other relationships)

Tim's problems have some obvious parallels to Steph and Cass, who both become vigilantes while rejecting their evil supervillain dads. But Jack isn't evil. And that means the Tim-and-Jack relationship is ambiguous and complicated in ways that I like. Steph and Cass can just leave their Bad Dads in prison, and say good riddance, and feel very righteous and triumphant about it! Tim’s more complicated. Tim gets into vigilantism ostensibly out of duty and altruism, but secretly, he's also involved for straight-up selfish self-fulfillment reasons. He's lonely, and bored, and his life feels pointless, but he thinks that Bruce and Dick are cool and amazing and he wants to be a part of the things that they do.  When his dad gets jealous of Tim’s relationship to Bruce, and feels like Tim’s looking for a surrogate family, he’s... not wrong.

And the ways in which Jack is not Actionably Bad complicate things from Bruce's POV.  If Jack was a straight-up villain, it’d be an easy call to keep in touch when Jack finds out and makes Tim quit...but he’s not a villain, not really.  So what do you do?  Do you try to surreptitiously stay in touch with Tim even though you’re ignoring his dad’s express wishes and thus forcing Tim to sneak around?  Do you respect his dad’s wishes and stay away from Tim even though you have a years-long relationship at this point?  

Again: a bit similar to the extracurricular analogy.  Say you’re the choir director and you’ve built this whole relationship with a kid in the choir, and you’re an important mentor to him and you care about him etc. etc. etc.... and then right before a big performance, his dad finds out he’s been secretly involved, and yanks him out.  How would you react?  Well, maybe kind of in some of the ways Bruce reacts.  You replace him. You’re annoyed with him. You miss him. You want him to come back. You’re also worried about him.  You’re upset with his dad.  But also... what should you do, exactly?

Bruce and Alfred and Dick care about Tim as if he were part of their family, but he’s not part of their family, and there’s a lot of interesting tension there.

My Harsher Take

Jack never hits his son.  But his temper is a big deal.

In his worst moments, he takes out his anger on Tim’s stuff - wrecking his room, or ripping his TV out of the wall and confiscating it.  When he’s worried about Tim, he usually expresses that fear by yelling at him / punishing him / sending him away - threatening to send him to boarding school in Metropolis in Robin III, or threatening to send him to military school abroad in Robin 92, or actually forcing him to go to an all-boys' boarding school post-NML.  

This is bad behavior!  It is Not Good!  

And you can easily connect the dots to a bunch of Tim’s terrible coping mechanisms, like the constant lying and or the fact that Tim’s go-to methods for dealing with interpersonal conflict are 1) repress it and pretend it never happened (most of his fights with Bruce), 2) withdraw from the relationship until he can pretend the conflict doesn’t exist (when his friends get mad at him in YJ, he quits the team for a while), or 3) literally run away from home.

Also, Jack is a Manly Man with firm opinions about how men behave vs. how women behave, and he thinks boys shouldn’t be scared and thinks Tim should date hot girls and pushes Tim to work out and wants him to play football and expresses period-typical sexism, etc. etc. etc. ... and though obviously this wasn’t what the writers had in mind at the time, all of that is certainly interesting to read backwards in the light of Tim as a queer character.

More Disorganized Thoughts on Jack Drake

Tim’s our hero, so we’re naturally more sympathetic to him, but it’s also true that relationships are a two-way street, and Tim doesn’t value any of the things his dad values, either.  Jack at various points is shown to care about grades, business, money, boarding schools, archeology, football, a kind of macho bragging-about-dating-hot-women ethos, and a very public and performative kind of caring. Tim tends to respond with discomfort or disinterest or even disgust.  When Jack gets on TV to try to rally the government to save his son from No Man’s Land, Tim isn’t touched—he’s mortified.  When Jack makes some bad investments and loses money, Jack’s deeply upset and his self-image is majorly impacted, and far from being sympathetic, Tim’s annoyed and kind of contemptuous of the idea that this is a problem.  Jack thinks fishing in the early morning and going to tennis matches is a fun father-son activity; Tim finds it exhausting and tedious.  And so on.

This means that Tim often longs to be closer to his dad in theory, but this longing is more tied to fantasy than to reality. He rarely seems to enjoy spending time with His-Dad-The-Actual-Person.  So for example, when Tim’s deadly ill with the Clench, he has an extremely poignant fever dream about telling his dad the truth and getting hugged…even as he insists in real-life to Alfred and Dick that he does not want them to tell his dad what’s going on.

The same is true of Jack, who IMO genuinely wants to be closer to his son and is continually declaring that he’s going to turn over a new leaf and get closer to his son…and just as continually backs out of activities or loses his temper when faced with spending time with his actual son.

Tim and his dad sadly get along best—by far—in Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder situations.  When Jack gets kidnapped or is in danger, Tim worries for him (and Tim grieves him deeply when he dies).  When Tim disappears or runs away, Jack’s genuinely worried about him.  So e.g. they have a really moving emotional reunion and hug when the earthquake hits Gotham, and Tim panics about his dad’s safety and comes running home (and meanwhile Jack’s been panicked about Tim’s safety!).  It’s the day-to-day, regular life stuff where they don’t connect.

Jack's written quite differently by different writers. Mostly, Tim's parents are at their least likable in his early appearances and early miniseries (this is where you get, for example, Jack and Janet being nasty at each other while a pained employee looks on, and Tim disappointed to once again get news of where his parents are via postcard - "I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be–or when–or even how long!” - and Tim alone on school break, and Bruce and Alfred thinking there's something weird going on with Tim's parents, etc. etc.). Jack's more sympathetic but still often unlikable in most of Tim's Robin solo, and he's almost invisible (but positively treated if he does show up) in Tim's team books.

For obvious reasons, Jack's remembered way more sympathetically after his death. Tim's completely devastated by Jack's murder, which he arrives moments too late to prevent, and he basically never gets over it. We see him grieving Jack again and again in Robin, and also in Teen Titans, and also in Resurrection, and again in the Halloween Special, and again in Batman: Blackest Night, and all the way up to the end of Red Robin. Tim also grieves for an extended time over Janet - he hallucinates a happy reunion with her when he's feverish in Contagion, and hallucinates her in the final issue of Robin, and the reveal-your-buried-emotions song in Robin 102 brings up his grief for her too (meanwhile, other characters dance or laugh or otherwise get giddy).  Tim’s grief over his parents’ deaths is intense and long-lasting.

I'm not going to clip comic panels because this is long enough, but if you're curious, here's a nice and fairly lengthy compilation of comic panels with Tim and Jack.

If you're interested in a Jack-centric story with a softer-but-still-recognizably-canon take on Jack, I really like the way Jack’s narration is written in the one-shots Heart Humble (set shortly before Jack dies) and Never a Hero (Ra's resurrects him during Brucequest, and Jack's archeology skills turn out to be unexpectedly useful).

[milk-ducts]

I'm so glad to have encountered a fellow Cecil stan. I freaking love coming up with headcanons for Cecil, platonic or romantic, because he's such an interesting character. For real though feel free to dump any Cecil headcanons (platonic or romantic) on me anytime.

AWAAAA!! YES HAII OTHER CECIL AFICIONADO !!! im so glad theres more of us sprouting out here. my wife is so underappreciated, you have no idea how much he means to me. i'd love to req n swap headcanons anytime !! I have so many thoughts on that morally ambiguous gilf.

[messy, disorganized surface level autism rambling ahead. this will be just random scenes and characteristics i like of him]

BUT YES .. cecil's character is just so interesting to analyze. he does unethical, necessary things. But he doesn't subscribe to idealistic notions of "the greater good" or justifying his actions to make himself sleep better at night. He knows the harsh reality that someone has to make the difficult decisions, no matter how unethical. The psychological toll it takes to calculate how many civilian lives can be spared, and how many are inevitably lost in order to achieve the optimal outcome. He doesn't celebrate after victories like the other heroes do. After the dust settles, his mind is already racing - calculating, strategizing how to prevent future catastrophes. How to minimize casualties next time.

his methods are...questionable,, as ive said,, but there's a hint of nobility to it that just makes you respect him, A SHADY GOVERNMENT CHAR that does the dirty work and takes in all the heat for it so no one else has to? SIGN ME TF UP! i love exploring his character and all the little glimpses of humanity we get to see from him,, especially with debbie, SO SOFT FOR HER, there's so much depth there. that old fuck would MOVE mountains for her if he could,, TRUST. EVEN though he doesnt deserve her .. <<

LETS CONTINUE TO CIRCLE BACK TO S1 with his confrontation w Nolan in the desert, the way he entrusted his survival to the skills of his team operating that teleporter watch (I'm aware he can control it himself, I think this was just my interpretation of it since the employees seemed directly involved here). The margin for error was nonexistent. One miscalculation, one millisecond too slow, and Cecil would have been reduced to a red smear across miles of sand. MY WIFE HAS BALLS ON HIM. (also love walton goggins breathy lil giggles here .. hwaghffhh)

All this, All the whilst Nolan could have ended him with a casual backhand, as easily as swatting a fly. And for what? For humanity's (mostly his) right to know the truth. For Debbie's right to understand what she had truly married because Cecil respects her that fucking much for her to have a part in all of this, and what fate may lay in store for her son.

AND what I particularly liked about that scene is that unlike most SHADY GOV CHARS ™.. Cecil isn't afraid to regularly place himself in life-threatening situations, and for that im just.. FKING obsessed. finally. a hyper competent gov char that gets shit done and occasionally by his own hands instead of always puppeteering in the shadows. Love u .. love u honey snooch, please stop putting yourself in danger for your crazy alien side-hoes .

but ahem ... back to s2.. and some flaws of his that i'm not afraid to point out. the way he's been treating mark is killing me. manipulating my son by comparing him to his dad then keeping him on lock by saying he's not like him??? The breadcrumming definitely didn't work out at all, cuz Mark is too damn stubborn to continue to be swindled by fear tactics he does not give a shit for anymore (homegirl DEBBIE taught him better) hes not gonna listen to a cranky skullet-having side bitch of nolans who clearly has been tryna manipulate him since s1. i HATED how he went "ur broke tyrannical bitch father felt the same way" in the last minute when mark tried to leave earth and yet i still lobve ceci cause ough,,.. my bastard wife knew something was probably up.

Him wanting to keep a short leash on MARKY could be summed up after all that has happened in s1. i'm not going to justify his scummy manipulations or paranoia,, especially after all the shit mark has done and endured to prove himself over and over again that he's not like his father BUT its somewhat understandable for cecil 2 be wary if you look from it in his perspective.

moving on from that, lets dive back into ep 2 ..

Debbie was semi-right in her deduction in s2 ep2, that this is what it's really all about for Cecil - being in control. Not of any situation, but of Mark. To ensure history does not repeat itself in the form of Mark becoming another Nolan. imo He likely doesn’t actually view Mark as his father, Not saying the possibility of it being a part of Cecil's subconsciousness is out of the equation but the way I see it? He was just exploiting that one weakness, that one insecurity Mark has - the fear of becoming like Nolan. And it’s a fear Cecil seemed to prey upon to keep Mark under his thumb and in the fucking GAME.

awaaaa :3 !!!! psychologically damaging teens by comparing them to their abhorrently shitty fathers !! FUCK YOJ STEDMAN (love you snookums..)

,,,,I'd also like to think in my warped deluded perception (aka hcs) that he sees Debbie in Mark, so he can't help but care for the kid too. IVE ALWAYS seen a lot of comparisons between Mark and his dad, plus the whole motif of this new season hasn't helped it allay. But Debbie and Mark share so many similar characteristics as well and i wish that was talked a bit more often &lt; 3 (I will go in depth about it at a later post.)

n umm like ...,,, bck to cici in gen. I guess the safety of earth is one of Cecil's redeeming qualities along with his compassion for side characters like Debbie. His pragmatism and utilitarianism define him. He lacks normal morals but has his own code that cultivates to his character. this ramble could not do justice to him ughfglg..,, what a compelling jezebel.. how can u captivate me so !!

My inbox is always open to discuss this multi-faceted rat man. here's to more cecil content in s2..,... hopefully with more of his dynamic with Debbie because I LIVE for that shit. though its unlikely their interactions could range to anything positive now since they may be hinting to cecil becoming an antagonist and/or taking extreme measures w/ mark. soo.. i dont think debbie's scolding was enough for that slut 2 take in ..

in the mean time i'll be catching up on the comics/re-reading them, look up more of his backstory and hopefully create 10 novels worth of google docs of analysis' of his character < 3 cuz .. he means .. that much 2 me.. and i want to prod at every crevice n brain matter he has inside that megamind head of his .

((hwaghhhhhh << hoping that one day the discord moots ive been keeping in my basement and most invincible fans fall victim to cecil stedman propoganda.. no one should be immune to my girlboss and his awful skullet.))

[fanaticalthings]

You’re headcanon of Battinson crying when it comes to his kids makes me wonder what his reaction would be to Jason’s death. Like even in the comics it’s said that Jason’s death shattered and nearly killed him emotionally as well as physically as Bruce literally threw himself into his work and fighting crimes

But you’re headcanon makes me imagine that it would go a little further and just not go out as Batman and instead wonder the Manor maybe spend a lot of time in Jason’s room. I can see Bruce also clinging to Dick and becoming protective of him.

Yess, in canon comics after Jason died, Bruce withdrew himself from everybody, including Dick. He threw himself fully into crime fighting to the point where he disregarded his own safety and health.

And on top of all that, Dick also mentioned how Bruce basically got rid of any evidence that Jason even existed (I'm assuming photos, Jason's clothes, his books, etc) from his (Bruce's) bedroom. So comic Bruce clearly was so pained by Jason's death that he couldn't bear to even look at anything that reminded him of Jason. I have no idea what Bruce did to Jason's own bedroom but I'm assuming he never steps foot in it again.

Now as for Battinson, I think his reaction and grieving would be a bit different. Like anon said, I def think Battinson would cling more protectively to Dick and would spend long periods in Jason's room just mourning the loss of his son.

I also feel like he would sleep in Jason's bed and cry himself to sleep, imagining that he still has his son in his arms with him like all those times Jason sought him out after a nightmare or when he just wanted to cuddle with Bruce.

Comic!Bruce barely cried when Jason died (although it was still very obvious he was distraught over it), but I think Battinson would be the opposite and would cry at every little reminder of Jason, and unlike Comic!Bruce, would make sure to keep all of Jason's belongings where he left them (especially if they were left in Bruce's room)

In the comics, Bruce never told Dick about Jason's death, causing Dick to miss the funeral and making their relationship even more tense than before, however, I think battinson!Bruce would want Dick even more present in his life now that Jason has left a gapping hole.

This man just went through the most traumatizing and heartbreaking thing a parent can experience so of course he'd want to keep his remaining child with him at all times. I also feel like this would make Dick and him closer than ever (even if Bruce's helicopter parenting can be a bit much), since Battinson!Bruce would be more emotionally vulnerable and open, which would allow them to grieve together and maybe in a more healthy way.

Battinson!Bruce would dedicate so many charities and memorials to Jason, and would visit his grave all the time so he could read to him. In general, I still believe this Bruce would still close himself off, but only to people who aren't in his immediate circle/family.

The immediate aftermath of Jason's death would be absolutely devastating for him. If Death in the Family were to happen in The Batman universe, I need Battinson to let out the most heartwrenching cry when he comes across Jason's body, like i need him to be full body sobbing in the explosive aftermath of Joker's deeds. I need to see him viscerally torn apart as he clutches Jason's body tightly to his chest like how a parent would gently cradle their child to sleep. I just need it to be absolutely obvious that this man has just gone through something maybe worse than his own parents' deaths, and I want it to be known that Jason dying meant a part of Bruce died too.

It would hurt so much more considering Battinson!Bruce started off very closed off, and the only reason he came close to functioning like a healthy human was because his first sons broke down his walls and filled his life with a purpose other than serving vengeance. Dick and Jason would probably bring sm love back into his life, so imagine how badly he reacts when suddenly losing a large part of that? Bruce basically raised Jason, taught him almost everything he knew, and in turn Jason (and Dick ofc) taught Bruce how to love, and be a father, so it must've been so painful knowing he'll never get to see his baby grow.

I still think Battinson would pull a comic!Bruce and throw himself aggressively into crimefighting and detective work, except when he comes home he'll make sure to spend time with Dick, and maybe sit around in Jason's room, reminiscing all their memories together.

As for Jason's return as Red Hood? Lmao that man wouldn't dare lay a finger on his son, he would immediately tackle Jason into a loving embrace and cry his heart out after finding out his baby is alive

[just-call-mefr1es]

intro post because i forgot that i caould do one (and so that my bio isnt paragraphs long)

-call me fries!! :D (if it wasnt obvious already lmao)

-im a minor but i dont rlly mind interacting with people over 18, just dont be weird (*discreetly looks to that one 30 yr old that tried to doxx me*)

-i have more aus than braincells

-feel free to talk to me !!! im nice and all in for new mutuals^w^

-i can art when i feel like it:33

-i reblog anything and everything

-i giggle at angst (because im a psychopath)

-i have a wife and kids

stuff im free to talk about:O

the black phone (please talk to me about my aus im very nirmal about them) // what remains of Edith Finch // more than this (I NEED MORE FANS PLEASE) // miss peregrines home for peculiar children // ride the cyclone // moral orel // school bus graveyard // school of rock // hunger games (including tbosas) // solarballs // Penelope Scott // Hop Along (mainly the freshman album because its drilled into my soul)

reblogs > likes (it helps artists grow💗)

PALESTINE WILL BE FREE🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 DNI IF YOURE A ZIONIST

and while you’re down here, heres my pronouns page (except the og site was laggy so i used a different one) and heres my ao3:33

stay safe !! love yall xx

[r-aindr0p]

You're doing amazing and wonderfully

Hope things are going alright for ya

Also this happened yesterday apparently

Drew a dragon for ya (they don't have any braincells but that's okay cause they're nice and they're trying lol) I tried to emulate the iconic eyes you draw cause i love that but i am not very good (didn't capture the same adorable essence but that's okay)

Aahghdhfb I’m a bit late but

Loving the creechur very much ✨

[stabbyfoxandrew]

Not a request but just some praise for your vampdrew - I absolutely love the concept of Andrew, who craves control, who needs control, who lives off consent, struggling to keep his vampirism at bay. It's something I don't think I've read before and I think it's a super unique perspective on Andrew, his boundaries, his consent and his internal struggles of wanting to do good, but struggling to repress that primal instinct.

Oh my God, thank you for sending this. TwT It's so nice to hear I'm doing something right!

Honestly I'm just trying to do Andrew justice. I think a lot of people would write a vampire Andrew as being in perfect control of himself at all times, not even thinking of overstepping his bounds because he's Andrew- he can repress anything if he tries.

But he can't repress this. This is fight against himself everyday. Every time he's alone with another person.

He's constantly starving. He can't help it. He craves what runs through Kevin's (and then Neil's) veins. And he knows he could take it all in one fell swoop, one bite. One long, last drink. One very final act to completely change him into the monster his teammates think he is. (Of course, they don't have all the details. They don't know what he is. They don't have to.)

But he won't. He won't take more than he's given, more than Kevin (or anyone he drinks from) offers. If they offer more than they can/should give, Andrew won't take it. Because he won't be like them. He knows it's not the same but it's... Similar. Maybe worse. Because one false move and he could kill the people he cares about. He has to practice restraint at all times and it's a struggle when all he wants to do is let himself lose it.

tldr; Anyway! Sorry for rambling and getting all worked up. But I have a lot planned for vampdrew, as far as boundaries and consent and keeping himself in control. It's something he has to work at and practice at. It's going to be frustrating for him for a while. (And... Well, let's just say Kevin and Neil are going to test him in more ways than one.)

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Another little thing I like about my shul: it feels super homey.

When I went to lutheran church (about once every... two years, if you were lucky to see me there ever), it was very nursing home adjacent - those stereotypes are true, it's super liminal when you're there. My shul, though, is just... very homey, if messy, if I'm honest. It's really comforting, we have a ton of instruments in a part of the shul and it makes my musician heart soar.

I dunno, it's just really nice to feel at home in a place that I spend time in, praying and singing and eating (after service), and learning.

[radioroxx]

yargh. complicated characters save me complicated characters…

[samuraijackenjoyer]

sometimes I wonder what the fuck Genndy was thinking with Jack and his mother’s robes. I don’t even know where he got the idea for plain white kimono, considering that’s not really something in any samurai movies and such. The thing that’s especially amusing to anyone who knows abt traditional Japanese clothing is that. that’s essentially long Johns or a slip. It’s the underwear of the actual kimono and is sometimes a sleep dress. I think I know of one Japanese media where a plain white kimono is used as an actual public presenting outfit, and it’s Okami where Kushi wears one as the sacrificial offering. (hold on, getting to that.) If he wanted it to be an actual training gi, for one it doesn’t make sense that his mother is wearing the exact same thing, and two, it’s not a single layer kimono. anything samurai wore was not a single robe— the kimono shirt was double layered (with the white juban underneath normally) and the hakama pants were pants, not an open robe, despite often looking like a dress to outsiders bc of how flowing and wide they are. A gi looks even less like Jack’s robe— think of the white karate outfits. That’s a gi. For Iaido and Kendo and such the training clothing does tend to be the kimono shirt and hakama, but it’s not white on white, and I don’t know that it would be called a gi like the type worn for judo and such. I just wonder where the hell Genndy got the idea of Jack just essentially wearing underwear all the time lmao. I DO understand why he chose white, he wanted the contrast between Jack and Aku, but choosing a single layer plain white robe, beyond just for the sake of simplicity in animation, is the thing that surprises me. (Not in a negative way, just that I wonder where it came from). I have to wonder what people watching in Japan thought of Jack wearing that. No one seems to feel strongly enough to comment, and I believe part of that is just suspension of disbelief and Samurai Jack being such a simplistic cartoon in its displays that it’s kind of easy to ignore, but there have to be times ppl wonder why he’s wearing that lol. Especially bc Genndy KNOWS the proper attire, evidenced by the clothes he puts on Jack’s father in both the opening scenes and Birth of Evil.

I highly doubt this much thought was put into Jack’s clothing, but I do like to think that the reason Jack wears such a shockingly minimal and unarmored outfit is because of his function as the one meant to defeat Aku. Going back to the mention of Kushi in Okami, she wears those clothes bc she is meant to be the “pure, innocent, sacrificial offering”. The robe is not unlike those worn in Shinto purification rituals, or robes worn by Buddhist priests. It’s also very well known for being the clothes a dead person is put in. Kushi was basically wearing her shroud. Tying that in with Jack, I believe the reason Jack wears what he does is because he is meant to be similar. Jack is an offering from his parents, giving up their son to be the nameless warrior in order to defeat Aku for good. They want him to be the antithesis to everything that Aku is, so Jack wears robes meant for purification and to an extent representing sacrifice, a simple, genderless and unadorned kimono very uncharacteristic of the Emperor’s son, because as long as Aku lives, that title is not his. Jack wears that robe because he is meant to be the pure, innocent, forged and powerful sacrificial challenger to defeat Aku, or die trying.

As for Jack’s mother, part of me wonders if she had connections to the monks she stays with in the opening, and therefore from the moment she and the emperor decided on their son being the backup plan in case Aku returned, she was preparing both herself and him in her own way. (That’s the best explanation I can think of bc all things considered his mother should have been wearing some very heavy and ornate court Kimono. Maybe she and the emperor just weren’t into the style lmao.) edit: she DOES wear what looks like a simplified layered kimono in a few scenes, but the ones where she’s with her son, like the opening and I think the scene where she’s making a straw hat, she’s usually wearing a white robe.

[tricitymonsters]

Its so weird seeing new people in here and them suddenly asking who are all these people in your game. While I'm here holding onto my pearls like Quickly now hide the sacred texts!

Me desperately trying to tidy this place up and make it hospitable to new followers. Please cum inside and read the sacred texts.

[mythicalwatch101]

HELLO. I AM HERE TO TALK ABOUT KROMER/CANTO 3

kromie is one of my Favorite characters Of All Time and if i see one more person horribly misinterpret her & her story & her motivations i am for real going to distort

FIRST AND FOREMOST

CANTO 3 ISN'T ABOUT ABLEISM

(it's not about racism either. she's not "cyborg racist". god damn it.)

canto 3 is about

religious extremism & societal pressure

PROSTHETICS IN THE CITY ≠ DISABILITY

prosthetics in the pm world are pretty obviously NOT the same as prosthetics in our world, and using them to point towards kromer being ableist is one of the weakest arguments i have ever seen in my entire life. give me ONE piece of evidence of kromer being ableist that doesn't mention prosthetics i fucking dare you

look at that. it's not about needing a missing arm replaced, or legs that you can walk on; it's about doing away with all of the inefficiencies of a flesh and blood body. you can get so much more work done if you don't need to eat or sleep!

unfortunately, there are many ways to be ableist and if she truly was, to the point where it was an important part of her character with an entire canto centered around it (like hating pm-prosthetics is), then i feel like maybe

just maybe

she would express this in other ways

that don’t involve slaughtering people that just happen to be made of metal.

just a thought.

which brings me to my next point

Prosthetics in the City are about class and money and the societal pressure i mentioned earlier

UNNECESSARY PRESSURE TO CONFORM TO THE AESTHETIC

WORTHLESS SURGERIES THAT POOR PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD AND YET FEEL THE NEED TO GET ANYWAY

SINCLAIR’S BODILY AUTONOMY BEING STRIPPED AWAY FROM HIM SO THAT HE MATCHES HIS FAMILY

sinclair's family even turned their DOG into a robot for god's sake

it's a fad! it's cool to turn yourself into a robot! it's the new thing everyone is doing, so now you have to do it too to fit in with everyone else! even sinclair himself acknowledges this when talking about his family

also adding a ruina screenshot from this post i saw a while ago that i think you all should read

was hesitant to include it because i wanted to make my point without dragging ruina into this, to prove that you don't NEED the context from ruina to understand kromer's beliefs and motivations, but like. look at this. what the fuck.

"adjust emotions" "completely shut off desires" look me in the eyes and tell me this has ANYTHING to do with disability. i dare you. this is some rich people shit

prosthetics are a LUXURY for some, and a TOOL for others; something for rich people to enjoy, and for poor people to either get a shitty version of, or to sell their soul to afford, so that they can survive in the capitalist's dream world! kind of reminds me of cars, actually

(the extra info abt prosthetics from ruina helps, but as someone who has mostly only played limbus & doesn’t have the full context of the other games, it’s obvious even to me that they're not a disability thing)

in conclusion;

kromer is not ableist

she just really really really likes flesh and is super weird about it

to paraphrase/add to something someone said in that post i linked earlier: the district has an "ideal form" for the human body, and kromer has an "ideal form" for the human body, but these "ideal forms" are not the same

she prefers the human body the way it is, and when she sees this "ideal form" that's like the exact opposite of HER "ideal form" starting to take over, she resorts to being a violent bloodthirsty cult leader about it because she sucks ass and is incapable of being normal

she is a bad person and you are allowed to hate her ofc but please for the love of god hate her for something she’s actually done. stop making shit up