#very. Halloween 2018.

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

maybe like. the tape with mark actually in it, aka the last one, has semi corrupted footage

whether from marks presence or the mcpd attempting to cover it up, damians voice and the audio stutters and stops at random points and the video gets stuck on a frame where you can see marks eye looking down, still being able to hear damians demise amongst the wailing yells of fury

YEAH!

Like the footage cuts in and out. From when he first sees mark, to when he starts running

OH maybe the last section is audio only. And you can only hear distorted screaming from both Damian and Mark-

[markus-h]

suddenly soft and me a little bit oblique

[loganscyangutspill]

Why do I love drawing sleepy Michael so much???

He is just like a pretty princess and would love to wake him up with a little kissy kiss and probably get stabby stabbed

[arianarunspop]

ARIANA GRANDE The Wizard & I A Very Wicked Halloween (2018)

[likopinina]

"Halloween" in style of "Only God Forgives" or "Mandy" - prompt from @eukaliptol

seen some hedge trimmers recently.... extremely cool looking hardware. idk if optimal for murder but

[slasher-chikn]

The way he just STARES. He ignores burning fire just to get a few extra seconds of petty glaring in. He is so BETRAYED.

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"I, uh...I'd love to go to California," Randall smiled, having been particularly intrigued by her account of the Golden State-even from this small recollection, he found himself a little excited at the thought of visiting. He never was a big fan of the cold, and so a warm state full of lush greenery and beautiful sights sounded right up his alley.

"I wouldn't mind visiting Los Angeles, seeing the Walk of Fame in real life," he continued shyly. "Getting to tour the Hollywood backlots, maybe even see how movies are made...it sounds so exciting to me. I'd love to go to some of the film museums, and get to see the costumes and props up close..."

Maybe it was because of where he worked, but Randall had an affinity for great costumes-they said "clothes make the man", and that certainly applied to any number of characters on the silver screen, their outfits making them just as memorable as the actors who donned them. He had tried to study them as best he could in his film magazines, but to see them up close and personal? That would be even better.

"I mean, to see Scarlett O'Hara's gowns from Gone With The Wind, or Holly Golightly's dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's," he grinned a little at the thought. "That would be a thrill in its own right, but...to see something like the Red Death costume from Phantom of the Opera, or Dracula's cape? Oh...that would be incredible!"

[andy-the-8th]

OK I have finished the first two seasons and I have read that in the third one they changed main characters and apparently the tone/trajectory of the show generally went downhill so I think I'll stop here

Honestly, glad I watched it, was pleasantly surprised by a lot of the series, maybe I'll do season 3 someday but for now that was a satisfying conclusion

[minilev]

Are you going to watch Halloween Ends?

Of course! The question is only how and when since we don't have movies in cinema anymore 🤡

[0rph1x]

yknow what fuck it im rewatching the halloween movies they have a special place in my heart

[flourescencia]

in retrospect thinking about all that I drunk on Saturday I simply do not understand how the hell I didn't die

[fuckyourtriangles]

Friday the 13th (2009) is fine, I guess. The only thing I really don’t understand is why the writers thought Jason would ever keep a victim captive. It just doesn’t seem like something he would do, but okay??

[bogleech]

Halloween marketing trends I have predicted over my 20 years of Halloween blogging on bogleech.com:

Nautical Halloween stuff like spooky octopuses, crabs and mermaids

More attention to carnivorous plants

Plague doctors as a generic Halloween monster character

Mushroom creatures as decorative figurines

Death's Head Moths becoming a major Halloween symbol

ADDITIONALLY!!!!!!

Folks from the Crazy Bonez brand have confirmed they read my reviews every year and take people's comments on them into consideration. They've now made cephalopods, insects, deep sea fish and a snail after those were popular suggestions. It is quite possible they're not the only industry people taking notes this way :)

AND A VERY SMALL BUT NO LESS DELIGHTFUL ONE, my review of this big plastic cockroach in 2018:

Now spotted in 2023:

Should I make this phenomenon the subject of an article? Maybe video???

[wintersettled]

Here's a list of recs if you'd like to read somecomics about different batfam characters:

BRUCE WAYNE - Batman: Year One (1987) - Batman: The Long Halloween (1996) & Dark Victory (2000) - Batman: Knightfall Saga (1993) - Batman: No Man's Land Saga (1999)

SELINA KYLE - Catwoman (1989) - Catwoman (1993) - Catwoman: When in Rome - Catwoman (2018) - Catwoman of East End

DICK GRAYSON - Robin & Batman (2022) - Robin: Year One - Nightwing: Year One - Nightwing (1996) (specifically Tomasi's run!) - Batman: Black Mirror

JASON TODD - Batman: The Cult - Batman: A Death in the Family (i dont actually care for this but i feel obligated to include it so here...) - Batman: Under the Red Hood

TIM DRAKE - Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying - Robin (1993) - Young Justice (1998)

CASSANDRA CAIN - Batgirl (2000) - Batgirl (2008) - Batgirl: Redemption - Batgirl: Silent Knight

BARBARA GORDON - Batgirl: Year One - Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey - Birds of Prey (1999) (especially Gail Simones run!!) Barbara also appears frequently in the batgirl runs

DAMIAN WAYNE - Batman and Robin (2011) - Robin: Son of Batman - Robin (2021) - Batman & Robin (2023) (currently ongoing! imo this would be a good place to start reading since its happening right now so you can see it happen along with everyone else!)

DUKE THOMAS - Batman: Zero Year - We Are Robin - Batman & The Signal

HELENA BERTINELLI - Huntress: Year One - The Huntress (1989) - Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood - Nightwing/Huntress Helena is also a character in birds of prey from issues #57-127 <3

STEPHANIE BROWN - Detective Comics #647-649 - Showcase '95 #5 - Robin (1993) #126-147 (steph has a ton of appearances in Robin 1993 so it would be good to read that for more or to look through her appearances on locg if you just want to read about her! these chapters are her as Robin.) - Batgirl (2009)

I haven't read a super large amount for every single one of them so disclaimer that some of the ones I mention here might not be their best! These are what I could think of but there are plenty more, especially as standalone issues, so if anyone sees this please mention more!! also, there are lots of comics that are questionable but this list was very much on the fly off the top of my head so i was kind of sat here with my head in my hands like 'god i need to give more than one jason todd comic dont i....' and this was all i could come up with that wasnt like.... a random detective comics issue idk

[damianbugs]

with all this gotham war stuff (most recently the comic sc you posted on your twt with jason and bruce), can u explain what is actually going on? like, i’m not that far so i haven’t read it, but… like is it actually bruce saying all that stuff about the kids? or is it this zur person people keep talking about?

oh my friend, it's crazy around here, but i will try my best to explain it!

A GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO BATMAN IN GOTHAM WAR:

firstly, the comic reading list to catch up with gotham war is: as of 01/10/23 (the ones in italics are core issues to the story)

for some background on what happens leading up to gotham war:

Batman (2016) #125-136

(Optional) Knight Terrors: Batman

(Optional) Knight Terrors: Catwoman

and then the actual gotham war story:

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War - Battle Lines

Batman (2016) #137

Catwoman (2018) #57

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War - Red Hood #1

this is everything that is out right now, but from the third of october to halloween we will also be getting: Batman #138, Catwoman #58, Gotham War: Red Hood #2, Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War - Scorched Earth.

secondly... who is Zur En Arrh.

Zur En Arrh taking over Bruce, Batman (2016) #126

zur en arrh, in the simplest way of explaining, is this alter ego/personality (it's unclear) bruce created for himself should batman (bruce wayne) ever be psychologically compromised or brainwashed. it's not him, but a more sadistic and crueler person that is the "ultimate batman" who doesn't care about anyone or anything but getting the mission done.

during Batman #125-130, zur takes over the role of batman because bruce was losing very badly to the robot Failsafe (which is zur's own creation, that bruce has no memory of making). after getting vaporised by failsafe and sent travelling through dozens of alternate universes, losing his hand and fighting a flying shark (Batman #131-135), bruce returns to gotham incredibly mentally unstable.

During a peaceful dinner with his family, Bruce suddenly imagines the entire world on fire, Batman (2016) #136.

during everything, bruce managed to mentally fight back and kind of... merge their ideals together in order to survive and win in the moment.

and then successfully trapping failsafe back into his mind where he can no longer take over!

Bruce uses some sort of mental technique to lock Zur away in his mind, Batman (2016) #136.

except he didn't succeed! at all!

you see, when travelling through all those universes, bruce somehow brought back every single version of zur en arrh with him. now all of then combined, plus his already deteriorating and weak mental health from the last few years, bruce is currently operating under the impression that he's locked zur away, when he actually hasn't.

zur is the one partly, or even entirely, in control. right now, he's just pretending to stay locked away so bruce continues to do what he thinks is 'right' despite them being incredibly out of character for the run.

During his eight week coma, Bruce sees Zur 'locked away' and he is, apparently, not alone, Gotham War: Battle Lines (2023)

an example is when zur referred to robin as batman's solider, bruce mentally fought back to make it clear that tim was his son. but then, a few issues later, bruce refers to his children as his soldiers and that they've all betrayed him, implying that zur has always had control and isn't locked away.

Bruce and Zur get into a fight inside his mind about Robin [Tim Drake], Batman (2016) #127

so yeah, zur is not bruce! they're both batman, but zur en arrh is like his somehow unimaginably even worse twin. if you're interested more in him, i would suggest giving his character history a read! be warned it gets changed A LOT and is definitely not everyone's cup of tea (personally i hate him and need him shelved for another forty years).

now that that's all done and explained, the current state of gotham war is Bruce (thinks he's okay) fighting everyone else (except Damian) because in his (Zur's) point of view, they're all against the mission and therefore are now his enemies (he's lost his mind). totally not convoluted.

to answer your original question, yes, this is all bruce saying and doing these things but he is being HEAVILY influenced by Zur. we can't tell for certain how much of this is bruce and how much is zur, but we can definitely prove zur is partially or completely controlling him again.

even jason points it out after bruce implants that fear toxin chip into him in Batman (2016) #138:

like we can see the intention is to keep jason out of this, because compared to everyone else, jason was the most directly opposed to bruce. but zur is twisting how this concern gets expressed, since forcing jason into feeling fear everytime he gets an adrenaline rush is hardly the reformation bruce is usually encouraging. the other batfam members also talk about how uncharacteristically violent bruce is being.

"He's out of control." / "He's gone [In more ways than one.]" Batman (2016) #137

as the story progresses we see more and more of zur replace bruce, but because he can't have bruce trying to stop him again, zur is playing along and convincing bruce he's locked away. so really, bruce is at war with not only his entire family, but also his own mind. just another average tuesday for batman. he's being tricked and is unknowingly doing exactly what he was trying to prevent.

to understand what the actual war in gotham war is, give the comics listed above a read! if you find the story boring/ridiculous/stupid, don't worry, it is! the social commentary leaves a lot to be desired, as does most of the characters writings (especially selina's).

bruce and his one sided battle with zur is sort of an overarching story happening alongside it (along with a bunch of other ongoings. i don't even understand how detective comics and batman and robin are going to tie into this once it starts up again).

sorry the answer isn't a simple one, but unfortunately nothing is ever simple with bruce. also apologies in advance if any of the future gotham war comics come out and completely debunk all of this! who knows what will happen in this dramatic family drama.

[pseudophan]

i became a phannie in 2018 (right in the middle of ii) and i'm a bit scared to ask lol but... what was the vday video? :0

*cracks knuckles* oh boy

the date is september 17th, 2011. a video gets uploaded to the lessamazingphil youtube channel, it stays up for about three hours. the video, simply titled with an emoticon, is.. deeply embarrassing, if i’m being honest! it’s essentially a valentine’s card from phil to dan, painfully earnest and very very sweet, but obviously not meant to be seen by anyone else. at this point in time the phandom was quite small and nobody really lost their minds fully, though there are still reactions from the day up online. most of the reactions were people just going ‘lol called it’. 

the original upload date of the video was february 13th 2010, and it had been private on lessamazingphil for a year and a half until a YOUTUBE GLITCH publicised it. quite frankly if i was dnp i would be burning down youtube headquarters because that is some fucking bullshit. the video gets taken down as soon as phil notices. he reaches out to people who saw it and explain to them that it was an april fools prank that they decided not to go through with.

now because not THAT many people saw it, and there weren’t many diehard shippers at the time, everything kinda died down. that is, until dnp properly blew up and got genuinely famous and oh no of course someone saved the vday vid and of course someone leaked it. halloween 2012! that’s when it all broke loose. at this point not only was the phandom big but there were a metric fuckton of shippers out there. and so when someone posted THAT.. well, you can imagine. 

dan was in the middle of his no homo howell era and went the FUCK off at people on tumblr about it, phil was answering questions about it like hahaa nooo it was a prank lol. basically they were sticking to the april fools story, which is a hilariously bad excuse for many reasons, and truly did not add up even a little bit. there’s not really a reason anymore for us to pick it apart, because after BIG and dan confirming they were romantically involved at the time it’s more clear than ever that they were full of shit when they said it’s a prank, but people were writing essays about that shit. you had to be there, i fear. but also be glad you weren’t cause it was carnage out there 

for YEARS after this phil would take down any copy of the video online, like i’m talking everywhere from youtube to pornhub to obscure foreign websites. the phandom rule was kind of to just not mention it at all, but definitely never post it.

i think we’re best off keeping the ‘don’t post it’ rule, because although the ‘outing them’ part of it all isn’t relevant anymore, it’s still a very private video and i just cannot stress enough how deeply embarrassing it is. i say that lovingly.

that being said, mostly everyone has seen it anyway. i am so sorry dan and phil. kind of, it’s kinda funny also. but sorry again. for what it’s worth, phil seems to have stopped taking it down, so while i won’t post it i will say that if you want to find it you can

... i am going to share their comments on it though because good lord