#what matters most is context

[ruporas]

invisible scars (referenced previous talk here)

[ID: A colourless, digital Trigun comic of Vash and Wolfwood talking about Wolfwood's scars. They're both laying in bed and topless. Vash lays on top of Wolfwood, playing with the rosary around his neck. Then, Vash kisses a spot on Wolfwood's chest. Wolfwood asks, "What are you doing?" Vash smiles sadly, "You got shot here. In the last town we visited. You didn't even bother moving."

Vash props himself up over Wolfwood, who frowns slightly. Wolfwood is quiet for a moment before he says, "You remember that, huh?" Vash grabs Wolfwood's left wrist and brings it to his face. "And here." He kisses another spot there. "When you helped free the hostages from that robber..." Wolfwood dismissively says, looking away, "Was a lucky shot." Vash huffs, “Don’t brag. Jeez.”

Half of Wolfwood's expression is shown, eyes returning to Vash who is now sitting up, continuing to say, "And..." Vash goes on and kiss Wolfwood's right palm. "You got cut here, even though that girl was aiming at me." A moment from the past flashes, of Wolfwood grabbing a knife aimed at Vash, his hand bleeding.

At present, Vash moves down and puts another kiss on Wolfwood's right shoulder. "And here, from watching my back." Another memory flashes of Wolfwood and Vash back to back. Vash looks back as Wolfwood grins while holding Punisher, bleeding from multiple gunshots in his shoulder.

"And," Vash combs up Wolfwood's hair to reveal his forehead, "Here." A final memory shows Wolfwood with a regeneration vial in his mouth while getting shot on his temple. The next panel is framed in blood with Vash at the center, eyes wide and stunned in horror. The next panel is a closed up shot of Wolfwood's eye, locked on Vash's face.

Back to present, Vash’s head is bowed down as Wolfwood raises a hand to his nape and says, “Spikey.”

Wolfwood looks serious and frowns as he says, "We talked about this. Those were my decisions. They're not there anymore. Forget about them." Vash looks very sad before he smiles ruefully and says, "I still see them. All the time." He leans down so they touch foreheads. Wolfwood’s sorrowful expression can be seen as Vash says, "You protect so much. I could never forget what you've done to me. And many others..."

In the last image, they're drawn more cartoonishly. Wolfwood sweats and asks, "You don't actually remember every wound, right?" Vash points at a spot on his chest. "Kuroneko left a scratch here 7 times." Wolfwood, startled, says, "Why the hell are you keeping count—" End ID]

Credits for ID here and here

[royalarchivist]

Etoiles: Oh, finally we had a funny moment in Purgatory, let's go. Oh, let's go! One week of wait to have a funny moment.

Roier always knows the best way to diffuse a tense situation.

[heartburiedingreece]

Fairly niche and nitpicky fandom/fanfic grievance I have:

WHY DO YOU PEOPLE THINK MAX IS BLOND????????? AND OSCAR! IVE NOW SEEN TWO SEPERATE PEOPLE CALL OSCAR BLOND, IS EVERYONE FUCKING BLIND?!?!?!?!?!?! AND WORST OF ALL GEORGE FUCKING RUSSELL!!!!! I READ A FIC IN WHICH GEORGE RUSSELL WAS CALLED BLOND!!!!! IN WHAT WORLD IS HE BLOND?????? DO YOU EVEN HAVE EYES?!?!?!?!?!?

[01tsubomi]

cultural perspective being indispensible in media consumption but looking back i find it so funny that for years and years before teaching in japan i thought it was another suspension-of-disbelief surrealist kagepro thing that haruka and takane spent all their time in a homeroom class for just the two of them and now the maximum number of kids we've ever had in my special needs class is 3

[licollisa]

And this includes artists who made their AUs centered around a sans or papyrus.

[ranvwoop]

please look at these guys. they even had a little teaparty.

w/ @adhdo5's clockworklocusts :)

[heavencasteel420]

Everyone can like or dislike whatever characters they please, but the moment I find out that a fic writer doesn’t like Jonathan, I lose all interest in their work. It doesn’t matter if he never appears in their stories; I know from that moment on that they are inherently not stories of quality.

[mishkakagehishka]

I just . Repeating "characters are tools" you end up erasing so much about arashi's character and motivations and interactions with other characters if you avoid using her pronouns aka avoid showing she's transgender. It's on the same level of frustration with the translators i had when i saw they had Mika speaking standard English, there's a LOT that gets lost if you don't show those little things.

[hella1975]

ive got an essay due at 3pm tomorrow and ive not even looked at it i am so so unserious about my degree and by the grace of some higher being i somehow keep managing to crawl through it's actually getting a bit funny

[harvestmoth]

they make me. unwell

[bylertruther]

do you ever think about how will probably wishes he was braver?

that he could tell mike the truth about himself without having to speak in code. that he could stick to his guns when he's been wronged and stand up for himself rather than tucking tail and turning the other cheek. that he could be less shy, less sensitive, less cowardly, and maybe then his loved ones wouldn't forget about him as often as they do.

maybe then they would pick him first, rather than leaving him for last. maybe then they would want to hang out with him and hear what he has to say. maybe then they would treat him like they used to, like he can still take care of himself just like they can, instead of like a fragile little thing that they pick up only when they need him. maybe then they would care about him as much as he cares about them. maybe then he wouldn't doubt that it could all come crashing down once they know who he really is, and always has been, because the rest of him would've been enough.

like, maybe he wishes he didn't freeze or run away so much. maybe he wishes he wasn't so afraid all the time, of every little thing. that he could be brave like mike, el, or his mom. i mean, el's been through so much, too. why can't he be more like her? why does he have to hide behind her? he hides behind her when the monsters come crawling back, and he hides behind her when he can't bring himself to say what he really means—even after getting on her case about it.

he spent so much time on that painting. he didn't let anyone see it—it was that special to him. why couldn't he own up to that? there's no monster in the van with him; it's just him and mike and this painting of the party, nothing inherently incriminating or romantic, and still—he can't help himself. he retreats back into the shadow, shrinks into himself, and tells lie after lie to the person that he never lies to, that he knows doesn't fucking deserve that, just because he's too scared.

of course he'd feel like a mistake sometimes. of course he'd hate who he is (if That script is to be believed), when he can't even talk to the one person that would understand without lying straight to his face, over and over again, like a fucking hypocrite. of course he'd feel so lost without the person that tells him it's okay to be this way and shows him that there is indeed strength in it. of course he'd hate who he is when he's encouraging someone to be true and speaking about their courage, all while being incapable of taking his own advice, and giving the credit for all of his love and efforts and emotions to someone else.

so many people died to bring him back, so many people died just because he didn't stay dead when maybe he should have, and for what? so that he can continue to hide rather than live his life? so that he can turn into a "worse" version of himself? so that he can live in fear? so that he can continue to ache for a past that he can never return to, while everyone else moves forward and berates him for not doing the same? time stopped in the upside down when will went missing, and he's been stuck there ever since, too. too much has happened for him to move on from. too much has changed—he's changed. he's too different now, in every way, and the older he gets the more clear it becomes.

of course he'd feel like a mistake. of course he'd hate who he is. he's the common denominator here: in his loneliness and in this war. the boy who came back to life when others didn't. the boy that got possessed and couldn't fight it. the boy that turned into a liar and a coward and must learn to live with it, even if it's at his own expense. the boy that can't let go of the past and whom the past won't let go of either, because even after everything, he's still connected to this great evil that won't let him go. they got it out of him, and yet the tether remains, because of-fucking-course it would.

just—why? why him? why can't anything ever go right with him? why is he always the outlier? i think that overwhelming amount of fear, shame, grief, guilt, exhaustion, and loneliness would wear anyone down, let alone a teenager that never asked for any of it and has experiences so unfathomably unique that the only other people that could have possibly understood are literally dead.

[drysauce]

i really liked the ending of the buddy daddies anime, i think it fits the story and what annoys me now are people who are trashing this ending because of that line about kazuki meeting with a girl and that he's not gay for rei, well they were never said to be gay it's just a headcanon. not dating doesn't equal not caring about each other, romantic love is not a necessity and a qpr is not inferior to a romantic relationship. they were shown to be a real happy family in the end, that's what is important here

[buckttommy]

I don't think 9-1-1 is in the business of killing off mains but I get the feeling something catastrophic is coming Buck's way and it's not going to be the car incident

[boyfridged]

this is only vaguely related to my last ask but it got me thinking again how much i don't like the type of scrutiny that some people engage with when it comes to headcanons. don't get me wrong, there is plenty of headcanons that i despite when they appear in a particular context because they clearly come from a place of total ignorance and sometimes even borderline malice; and there are ways of writing about characters that are very obviously rooted in reactionary attitudes. but i have also seen situations in which people of specific ethnicities were told they were not supposed to hc a character to be said ethnicity because of the classist implications. i have seen people saying that headcanoning a particular character to be trans is too stereotypical and that it makes them "sick." i've seen people annoyed about characters being a particular religion because "there's another character who was said to be that religion before" (shocking and upsetting to some americans especially: religions are real and usually have more than one follower so they don't have to be assigned to a single character per title as their token.) and idk i think we should all pause for a moment and remember that the pieces of identity that people assign their favourite characters are often their own. there are ways to reclaim these cliches too. it's a matter of intention. people often read themselves into their beloved pieces of art. and maybe it does not always create the truest image of the author's intention nor a revolutionary picture of minority rep, but no one claims it does.

[rintoki]

genuinely wondering why some players play genshin if not for fun… like it’s literally a game it’s not that serious….

[amaraudermind]

A non-comprehensive list of Duke Thomas stories! :) These are not in any order, feel free to start with what sounds most interesting<3

Batman: Endgame--okay, mostly not in order. This story has admittedly very little Duke Thomas in it, but serves both as his reintroduction and as setup for his coming appearances(it is astoundingly easy to follow what comes next without this story, however, I skipped it when first reading WAR) if you are looking to read it, it's contained in issues #35-40 of Batman vol 2 if I recall correctly

We Are Robin--here we start in on the good stuff! This story is dark. It's bleak. Duke is dark, and bleak, and cynical. He's also quippy. And the entire series is about hope. Batman is gone. The heroes in general are gone. This is the aftermath of Joker wreaking havoc on everything and everyone, and it feels like no one's doing a damn thing. No except the mysterious Nest, and the Robins he's recruited. Truly one of my favorite comic series. Ever.

Batman and the Signal--if you can find the collected edition at the library or the secondhand shop, you should not skip it. Truly, a fun read. Duke tells Batman he "is the shit" and immediately regrets it. Daytime shift. The Hatch. Izzy and Riko. Jay. Just so much. Great times, what's not to love?

All-Star Batman--this has some overlap with the collected edition of BATS. You could totally just read the three issues of BATS and then All-Star Batman separately. The choice is yours. However, the meat of this series that is truly worth highlighting--bat and signal fucked up road trip! Compellingly complex and such a nuisance Harvey Dent! Duke plays flight tunes! Wonderful!

Batman and the Outsiders--another fun series! Bumblebee Bats(Cass and Duke bonding!) Evolution of Duke's powers! Probably one of the weaker series overall on this list but still very fun and worth reading!

Batman Secret Files: The Signal--this one comes with a warning: if you read this you will be Very Upset. Just as the rest of us are. Because it sets up a storyline that is Not expanded upon. That they completely dropped. This issue came out and there was no follow up. Is it good?... mileage varies? Personally, there was some good ideas set up, and some frustrating ones, but truly the biggest problem is that none of the ideas set up matter, because there was no follow up.

Once again, these are all just stories with Duke that I know of off the top of my head! He's had quite the short history, made shorter by DCs chronic inability to decide what the hell to do with him, but there's plenty to be found if you're looking! Please feel free to add your favorites to the list as well<3