#well . my point still stands .

[solcarow]

goddd orv . omniscient reader’s viewpoint . a story that bleeds the words i love you i love you i love you without ever using that phrase even once .. ….

[turtleblogatlast]

[ cw: death mention / strangulation mention / stabbing mention / blood mention / self-sacrifice / codependency mention in tags / ]

I think a lot about how common it is for Raph to be the one to have direct focus put on him when Leo gets into all his near death experiences.

Like, when Leo is thrown off a building, it’s Raph who’s right there jumping after him, not even thinking about the consequences to himself when he does. When Leo almost gets skewered by the Krang, Raph’s right there to take the blow and send Leo to safety without a second thought. When Leo’s being strangled to near death, it’s a Krangified Raph doing the job, doing exactly what Raph would never, ever want to do. When Leo is telling Casey Jr to close the portal, it’s Raph who tries desperately to convince Leo otherwise.

Likewise, Leo is consistently very single minded when Raph gets forcibly separated from them. Both when in the sewers and by the Krang, Leo is dead set on finding Raph first and foremost.

I also think it’s interesting that during each of Leo’s near death experiences, the lightheartedness of his words during them goes directly hand in hand with both how close Raph is to him physically and how much danger Raph is also in in that moment. From a literal “I told you so” as Leo’s falling away from Raph to a soft joke about how “hero moves” are Raph’s style - both of these are on the more morbidly carefree side and both of these notably take Leo farther away from Raph and, in turn, have Raph not in immediate danger.

On the other side of things is the apology from Leo, heedless of the danger he himself is in as he seriously and genuinely speaks to a Krangified Raph face to face. Then there’s Leo’s freezing and desperation as Raph takes a hit meant for him and sends just Leo to safety, leaving Raph himself behind. Both of these involve much closer proximity and Raph being directly harmed - these together make Leo much more vulnerable in his words and actions, something not even the threat of death can make him.

These two care about each other so much, and they’re way too much alike for their own good.

[catocappuccino]

Snufkin and Snorkmaiden hanging out :]

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[shimmershy]

I love the way Flapjack just snuggles into his hair like that. 🥺

[sammygender]

wrt prev post and sam’s original ‘fed demon blood by azazel as a baby’ arc like. actually that was the most insane thing to see depicted on my television especially when it seemed like no one else i knew or followed was talking about it. it felt so explicit and yet it was sooo deep in metaphor. she walked in on us. sammy, you’re my favourite. god it must be terrible to know something happened but that you’ll never be able to remember it or tell anyone about it. never be able to rip it out or scrub it clean. so azazel could get into my nursery and- bleed in my mouth? because i wasn’t clean. these trials - they’re purifying me. anyway. augh

[medi-bee]

isat pokemon au, my liege?

my rambling in tags

[linavender]

Someone get meeks and pitts matching cell keychains

[v7n5]

[dragon-creates]

I’m very normal about the fact that po can easily lift tigress off the ground. Yup, yup so normal, no internal feral screeching over tipo here uwu.

[fiend-shaped]

In the divine cycles universe, students in like 50 years are gonna be so sick of brnine like "wow, huh this person was part of the founding of this terrorist organization and was in fact the first leaders campaign manager. Oh, they also won the olympics and kidnapped the emperor. What's this, their work was instrumental in creating a force akin to magic, which is also named after them? They were part of the mission that destroyed all of the space nukes?? They killed the fucking president???" Like future history class is just gonna have a whole semester called the Captain Brnine Variety Hour

[quirkyfries]

Speaking of ruin’s tendency to land himself in situations where he’s kidnapped, or forced into isolation for periods of time

I wonder if that’s the go-to Ruin whump because it’s going to be the most effective weapon against him?

He’s already got ten years worth of trauma having to do with physical dismemberment and the mental pain of losing family and friends to a monster, so those are a no go.

However, he is very well established as an actor, one that constantly switches up his masks to suit his needs. Usually, those needs involve people-skills— having an audience to perform for. So, how do you get to an actor who’s already been through so much that usual methods won’t work? You take away their audience.

I picture Ruin as someone who uses their masks to cope, to avoid facing their pain, to pretend like they’re not hurting. Masks are carefully crafted to appease certain audiences— I’m sure you’ve heard of “people pleasing is a form of manipulation”— and Ruin puts himself around those people when he needs to, both to manipulate his audience and avoid being alone with his thoughts.

That’s not to say he’s incapable of being alone! He’s had a lot of alone time before and after his big plan. But, he had the choice to seek out companionship, an audience, when he wanted or needed to. That, and he kept himself busy almost the entire time, with one thing or another. Method-acting a madman, somehow building a whole spaceship thing, fixing arcade machines, trying to navigate his way into other people’s business, to name a few.

When he’s taken away from his audience, or he loses general access to his audience, he has no one to wear a mask for. He’s painfully aware he has a mask, it only feels natural when he’s performing but alone there’s no one to perform for. He’s left alone with his thoughts, forced to be with himself (you’ll notice he talks to himself often) and I’d like to assume that he hates that.

TLDR I think that Ruin’s been kidnapped/isolated several times because that’s the only thing that would hurt him in any capacity beyond actually killing him

[lickupyourbl00d]

Marvel lowkey bisexual as hell

[thedreadvampy]

sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'

[autism-swagger]

Can you imagine going back in time with knowledge that could save people's lives, not only failing but actively making things worse, and then going back to find out that not only is your entire life almost completely different, you don't even get to keep your name.

And you can't even tell anyone about it.

[kennyomegasweave]

Ming in the restaurant:

Man can't even mention himself around Ming without Ming hearing Kill Bill sirens and it's just

I love him. He's so unwell.