#which is a fair thing to hate on

[biblicalhorror]

Thinking about Life is Strange 2 and the absolute dust it got paid compared to the other games in the series. It's the ONLY video game I've ever played where someone in the story has Special Magic Powers, but it's not you. It's your little brother. And your father has been killed in a police shootout, and your little brother is just a kid who is so confused and terrified that he levels a whole block with a telekinetic boom. And then you, a teenager just a few years older, have to guide him to safety and try to parent him and help him use his powers for good while also dealing with the same traumas in your own life.

Also, there's a level where you just clip weed buds. Phenomenal game.

[batbabydamian]

so, Batman #147… rambling about the difference in how Zdarsky portrays the two current Robins

this is a fantastic run for Tim, and very much written like a return to form of what plenty consider the best dynamic duo, but even more so "the best Robin". once Damian's introduced in this run, Zdarsky really makes sure you still know that lol

1. "We don't need anyone else" VS "I need my family"

#147 clearly exemplifies the contrast, so i'll go through it first. Damian, having fallen for Zurr's lie and accepted him as the real Bruce, goes so far as to say in the very first page "We don't need anyone else." it's cold colors, machinery, and hollow declarations of "father and son" for these two.

towards the ending, Tim has deduced where the real Bruce is hiding and brings him food expecting Bruce's knack for self-neglect. it's all warmth, sunshine, and mutual understanding - also a cute back and forth of "Batman and Robin" between them. on top of this, where Damian isolates Batman & Robin from family, Tim is the one to remind Bruce about "helping each other." Bruce heartily agrees with "I need my family" for a weighty end.

along with this parallel, from #138 Tim makes it clear that even in opposition, he's only ever trying to help Bruce. Damian was still on the wrong side with Zurr-induced-Bruce here at the time too 😭

2. Tim's independence as both a hero and partner

Tim is written as the ideal Robin to Bruce's Batman, and has made Robin its own independent hero on equal footing rather than a sidekick - it's made in statements by both Tim and Bruce, and through the entire narrative. he takes initiative and tries to foresee what would ultimately help Bruce. beyond being great partners, there's many bits showing their emotional connection ("i'm scared of being lost, but i'm more scared of losing you, Bruce" hit me like a bag of bricks). tbh this almost could be a Batman and Robin run lol

added the first panel from #126 of Tim declaring he's his own hero outside of Bruce, proven plenty especially in his backups in #131-134!! the other panels are a few highlights from #128, #130, and #135 of the partnership between Tim and Bruce

granted it's Zurr, but Damian is mostly seen following orders and given pensive looking panels when there's something concerning. While Tim continued to represent Batman's ideals during his own solo quest to find Bruce, Damian doesn't question or take action against "Bruce's" sudden shift in ethics

Batman #134 Backup - Tim showing support toward Toyman VS Batman #146 - Zurr and Damian confront Harley as she pleads about her change of heart

another kiinda parallel in #147 is Bruce acknowledging Tim's hard work to become Robin compared to Damian who's out here going Batman and Robin/Father and Son. i don't think it's an intended parallel but just the state of continuing to show Tim in a better light - Tim put in the effort "to become the second-best Robin" while Damian is Robin because..."son." supposedly less effort on his part too, because LOA.

second pic is from Batman/Catwoman The Gotham War: Scorched Earth, felt fitting to add since Tim mentions needing to "know everything" in both. and the humble brag. which ofc Tim believes Dick is the best!! but also. jic we didn't know Tim is the best current Robin sdfgh

3. Damian's blind loyalty as "Bruce's son"

there's a weight to the Robin title when regarding Tim, whereas Damian's "Robin" role is excess and counterintuitive. he's delegated to desperate sidekick to Bruce, as well as becoming an obstacle to the family. being Robin only seems significant to Damian in how it ties himself to his father, and his single Robin quality is a loyalty that's been written to an extreme fault. the only positive angle i could see this in is Zdarsky aiming to put Damian in a sympathetic light in how far Damian was willing to fall to stay by his father's side, hence, fooled by that nightmare story/confession. the problem with this is that we have not seen a single emotional connection between the two in this run, so why should we care about that relationship.

also, Damian constantly bringing up his position as Bruce's son just makes him look entitled? since Bruce rightfully expressed his claim of having the others as his sons too (with the unfortunate exclusion of his daughter)! so it's like a "lol you're not that special" vibe when looking at it from the outside?? ykw concerning #138, Damian saying "You're the one trying to destroy my father" also could have been in contrast to Tim saying "We'll help our dad" at the end.

Zdarsky seems to believe the only meaningful part of Damian being Robin is he's the son of Bruce, and not a single nod to any noble aspect Damian's achieved beyond that. we're constantly reminded of Tim's greatest hits as Robin, from taking on the mantle to pull Bruce out of darkness (#135, #138), mastermind a whole takedown (Gotham War: Scorched Earth), and always being on the same wavelength with Bruce etc. the entire run sings Tim's praise, and it's deserved!! my problem is how it's in stark contrast to Damian's portrayal of being the other Robin who's only special because he believes he's the greatest son and wants to be at Bruce's side.

so all this to say, if your fav is Tim YOU'RE EATING WELL!! personally as a chronic enjoyer of things, this has been an entertaining run! as a chronic enjoyer of Damian, it's definitely not for many of his fans at this point in time.

i did like this part!! his grin!!

[queen0fm0nsterz]

Ended up pirating all of Hazbin for the sake of my younger days (used to be a fan when I was around 14/15, before all the stuff with Viv came out) and I am so surprised by how I felt... nothing for the most part. Like a lot of the show's storylines feel like they was crammed in there with no real pacing. A lot of this should have been season 2 territory, which is a sentiment I've seen echoed around, but also... it feels as if the show is trying to be episodic while also having a long narrative thread, which just doesn't work with just 8 episodes. Especially not when paced like this. So I kinda ended up feeling nothing for the most part. All the events got a "Oh, great, so what?" reaction out of me because there was little to no buildup to most of them.

Sir Pentious was always a fave of mine so I was glad to see they kept him around and, though I think we should have had more episodes with him as a villain, I think how he ended up was fitting for what little of an arc he had. I am livid about what they did to Cherri and Mimzy.

I fucking loved Mimzy, I have no idea why they sent her away -- having someone like her at the Hotel would have been a blast considering how the others are already on the road to redemption. She would have balanced it out by being a regular sinner, someone who doesn't care about redemption and won't probably ever care unless it's in her best interests to. Plus her friendship with Alastor was quite cute, they bounce off of each other very well imo. Plus I could see her have a bit of a conflict with both Charlie and Vaggie because of her ways of acting. I'm so sorry they took that from you girlboss.

And Cherri... dear lord where WAS she? She should have been a lot more present. I used to like her relationship with Angel and I even think Cherrisnake is cute conceptually, but both these relationship had... little to no room to breathe imo.

[dark-elf-writes]

Hojo half-sibling au but cloud already been fucking gen before seph know he have a brother. Just for the lol.

It all started so simply — which, looking back at it, should have been Cloud’s first and largest red flag. Nothing in his life was ever anything other than complicated. He was “that Strife boy”, Nibelheim’s town bastard, almost an entire town’s dirty little secret.

(Not his mom’s though. Never his mom’s. She would always press a kiss to his crown of spikes that was so much like her own and tell him that he was her wonder. A gift from the gods themselves.)

But it all started so simply…

It started with a mandatory paternity test as a part of joining the SOLDIER program.

Getting to SOLDIER hadn’t been so simple. That had begun with an unlikely friendship between Zack Fair and some poor trooper with unfortunate amounts of motion sickness. Zack, upon hearing about Cloud’s dream to be in the program and his numerous failures at doing so, had thrown himself into helping Cloud train for the next exam.

“That’s what friends do, spikey!”

Hand to hand, sword work, physical conditioning, even materia… or, well, Zack had tried to teach Cloud Materia to… some success which had in turn led to the second complication.

Genesis had stumbled upon their training one day just in time to see Cloud blast Zack back with a spell that shouldn’t be able to do that yet again and had all but claimed Cloud as his own.

“Artificial materia has a different concentration of mako, dearest,” He had said, running the back of gloved fingers over Cloud’s cheek. “And your exposure to mako from living in a place so dense with it has changed you too. Try this instead.” He had slotted a new orb of materia, naturally formed and from his own collection no less, into Cloud’s borrowed bracer like he was sealing a wedding vow.

(And knowing Genesis as well as he did now, that was probably not far off the mark. The dramatic bastard had claimed to have fallen in love from the moment he first saw Cloud “knock the puppy on his ass even with those terribly mis matched materia”, and Genesis Rhapsodos was nothing if not determined when it came to getting what he wanted.

Still, Cloud couldn’t deny that it was nice to be wanted for once… just like he couldn’t deny that Genesis was a skilled teacher both on the mats and in his bedroom where he had Cloud seeing the goddess herself when he did that thing with his fingers.)

But a paternity test made sense, in a way. Cloud had said he never knew his father, and since he was now officially a SOLDIER third, he would start getting attention. Considering how much he looked like his mother, it wouldn’t be a leap to assume people might start coming out of the woodwork to make claims, and such a scandal would look bad for Shinra in the long run. It… probably also didn’t help that Cloud looked enough like Rufus and Lazard that rumors had already begun to spread of another Shirna bastard.

But the results had not been the simple answer.

Nor had they been the slightly more complicated one that, while annoying, would have made a strange sort of sense considering how he looked and proximity to the Shinra manor.

No, Cloud’s results were so complicated that the poor tech that had been running the tests had so so three times to be sure.

And then Cloud was angry. Angry that his mother had been left alone with no money to support her. Angry he had grown up hated by an entire village because some bastard couldn’t be bothered to stick around. Angry that the truth had been under his nose the whole time and he had never seen it.

He had snatched the results from the poor tech and stomped his way to the private lab in the center of the Science Department hardly noting the flustered scientists and techs trying to stop him through the red haze in his mind. The locked door didn’t stand a chance against the mastered fire materia Genesis had gifted him for making it through his training, melting straight through the lock so Cloud could kick the door inwards.

He didn’t notice the second person in the room as he hurled the file of results at a rather unimpressed face. Didn’t care.

“Nice to meet you, dad,” Cloud all but spit between clenched teeth.

Hojo didn’t do much as blink. If anything he shrugged. “Ah. The control group.”

Cloud didn’t remember trashing the lab. Didn’t remember the too familiar face at his side that helped him do it. He did however remember the aftermath with his head in his hands and the Silver General himself awkwardly patting his back as he had a complete mental breakdown.

“It’s what brothers are supposed to do… isn’t it?” Sephiroth had said like to made all the sense in the world. Like any of this made fucking sense.

Cloud Strife had gone from no father to one that saw him as an experiment in all of twenty minutes and now his childhood idol who was actually his half brother was trying to comfort him. It was too much. He needed a drink. He needed a fucking cigarette. He needed —

“Genesis,” He murmured, all but scrambling for his PHS to send off a message. If anyone could make it all make sense it was Gen, or at least, Gen would stand beside him as he burned the world to the ground. Either way, all Cloud wanted at that moment was something that made sense.

Unfortunately, that single word had made Sephiroth recognize exactly who Cloud was other than “some new recruit” or perhaps “Zack’s friend” and his green eyes narrowed as this hands that had been awkwardly patting him tightened possessively.

“You’re the trooper that is dating Genesis.” It wasn’t a question. Sephiroth didn’t wait for an answer. “Genesis slept with my brother.”

And then Cloud Strife’s life became very complicated all at once.

[moeblob]

Deacon loves two things: Ymber and digging himself a grave.

Fulj hates one thing: Deacon.

[incorrectskyrimquotes]

im not trying to start more arguments but if you just genuinely hate everything about tes why would you even bother to play it/have a whole blog about it?

[apollos-boyfriend]

my main beef with matpat was the kris/frisk/chara misgendering and the indie dev thing what the fuck did he do?????

like outside of those things you mean? here's the ones i'd listed/instantly came to mind. a lot of things people rag on him about are like OLD old (early 2010s, like the whole "basing pyro's sex off of weird pseudoscience), which is why i won't be listing Every issue i've had because i want to assume he's grown and changed since then, at least with those things. anyways

has a weird tendency of equating video games to real-life murders. the first time i can remember him doing it was with the first ever fnaf theory, where he said it was about the actual murder of chuck-e-cheese employees and that you played as the murderer rotting in hell. which is. weird enough. but that was 2014, nearly 10 years ago, shit happens. however. that was the only time he's done this. it happened again in 2017-2019 with petscop, equating the game to the murder of a 10 year old girl. and, to his full defense, the creator of petscop ALLEGEDLY said that he did start basing his game off of that case, but that he severely regrets it and regards it as an extremely stupid decision. that doesn't make matpat's actions any less weird, because if you realize a game is Actually tied to the killing of a real-life child, just. don't fucking comment on it. it's weird and even the creator regrets his decision to do so.

on a theory about what i think was a alleged fnaf arg, he asked for his followers to help him "discover more clues" by asking them to physically call/visit locations in the real world he believed were connected to this so-called arg. (from my knowledge, this arg doesn't exist btw.) at NO point during the writing, producing, recording, editing, etc of the video did he manage to connect the dots that, hey, doxxing real-life locations for my fans to swarm to is a Bad Fucking Idea, meanwhile every other major fnaf community rushed to shut it down the SECOND his video came out, with large reddit, twitter, etc accounts imploring for fans not to listen to him, and that similar incidents have happened in the past and led to nothing (to the point where scott cawthon himself has had to step in and tell people to knock it off). i can't remember exactly how long it took for him to take it down/call off the masses, but the fact that it even got published in the first place is honestly just inexcusable, both for him and for his team (this was june of last year)

he blamed etika's suicide on cancel culture and has never apologized. the tweet is still up, for some insane fucking reason, although multiple people both close to matpat and close to etika corrected him on completely erasing the issue of mental health (this was 2019)

and lastly, while i've heard rumors of him stealing theories for years now, the only first-hand i've seen was his hermitcraft theory. the original creator of the theory can be found here [link], alongside all his theories, evidence of theft, etc. she has never been properly credited for this, and those who tried to comment on the video to properly do so had their comments instantly deleted. (this was late 2021)

[a-story-teller]

Seriously one of the most confounding things in the world is pop-Christian moralizing.

"Is ASMR ok for Christians?? 🤨🤔😧" I'm not sure in what world it would be sinful to listen to soothing brushing, ocean sounds, and tapping, yet someone felt the need to ask the question, and someone else felt the need to make a YouTube video answering it. (I didn't watch it, so I don't know the verdict, but somehow you're trusting the verdict to a rando on YouTube and not Discernment from God?)

"Christian facials" because having a hot towel on your face and putting on serum is in any way aligned with a religion or lack thereof, and therefore needs to/even Can be made Christian?

"Christian-friendly sex positions" and the only difference is it's stick figures instead of realistic drawings, and instead of male/female or penetrator/receiver, it's husband/wife. Because you know those goofy health-book illustrations were distracting you from the righteous goal at hand: eating your girl out. But you can't call her your girl, you have to make it clear to everyone seeing you have sex (which... is just the 2 of you, right?) that you're having Good and Not Sinful sex, because you, a Husband, are Married to your Wife. Side note: the stick figures actively make it harder to figure out the intricacies of any of the positions and therefore are objectively shittier at doing what they're made to do.

Christian soap, christian mints, christian calendars, christian music, christian curtains, christian fiction, christian restaurants, christian news, christian shops. There are things in the world that are OK being secular. The fact that your soap does not have an icthus sign etched in that washes away in 3 days anyway does not make you a bad person, or even a bad christian. Your home does not need something Christian™️ in every room for people (or yourself!) not to forget you're christian... I assume?

The king who must say he is king, etcetera. This kind of mindset is so boggling to me, and reeks of nominative faith and deeeeep insecurity. Retail therapy but instead of buying temporary happiness you're buying temporary grace. Being so beholden to the dogma of organized religion that you go to any person feigning authority on the subject rather than using your own brain to make a decision. The idea that things can only be okay to interact with if they're explicitly christian, as though interacting with it as a christian doesn't inherently put it through a christian lens; as though you can only get things trickled down to you from church authority figures with robust enough constitutions to judge what's ok for you because you don't have the ability to think critically; as though you should stay away from what's "sinful" rather than, LIKE JESUS, be able to go into it and be a good example; as though instead of learning to be capable of handling it, you should be as weak to sin as possible; as though you have to go through the world with kid gloves because touching something dirty would soil your soul (which, of course this implies, is sparkling - impossible, arrogant, and kind of denying God, lol [actually, not lol, I'm expanding on that. Denying God by refusing to admit your own sin. Denying God by refusing his grace because you won't admit your own sin. Denying God by acting like his power couldn't absolve something as simple as being exposed to sin, let alone if you did end up making a miatake. Denying God by keeping yourself in Good Christian spaces and not being there for people who need outside help. There's more but I digress]).

Also, the childish áffect of refusing to say things as they are because that would be bad, but referring to it in euphamism is fine - or, transversely, that using colloquialisms is bad, but medical speak is fine, depending on what breed of crackpot christian you're dealing with. "Hanky-panky" just say sex. "Adult drinks" just say wine, beer, liquor. "Flower" for the love of all that is holy just say vulva/vagina/virginity. "Breasts" is fine to describe your chest but "boobs" is not. You can say "buttocks" but not "butt". Discussing bathroom activities is decisively not cool but if utterly necessary you must say "urine" and "feces" because pee and poop are too pedestrian.

Like, entire side tangent, but the weirdly widespread christian-ism of not discussing things frankly or discussing them super detachedly, but both preferring to never discuss them at all, regarding anything "potentially sinful" or "not spiritually uplifting" (usually boiling down to "anything physical") is so whack to me. Do not discuss your period, even in female spaces, because it's tmi. Don't talk about your health issues if they're not Clean enough subjects, even as something to pray about (like breast/prostate cancer, shitting diseases). Don't ever talk about your sex life except to wiggle your eyebrows at your kids when they're old enough. Don't hug your male friends, daughter. Don't play with your little cousins, son. Sex is so so bad but everything is about it, actually. Sex is so so great which is why you should feel guilty about ever wanting it. All nudity is sexual. Dress so they know you're a woman but also that you're a lady. Fart jokes are not allowed. You must remember that all men are looking at you with lust at all times but you can't hold that against them. All things that get you sweaty or muddy are bad. Hair on women is unnatural but just dandy for men, except we can't talk about pubic hair so you're just going to have to figure out on your own if it's less sinful to not think about your vag enough to do anything to it or to ensure you're free of all sinful hair. Here's how to do makeup in a god-honoring way, because you couldn't know on your own, and you must both jump through this hoop to be acceptable to your men but not have enough fun and personal expression with it for it to become anything other than a chore. It is wrong to kill, which is why we support the troops. We are supposed to help the poor, which is why I drive past the beggars that are dirty and ragged and smelly. We are supposed to celebrate God with our bodies, which is why my most spiritually moved state equates to slightly raising my arms.

I can't close this post without including my oft-quoted favorite example of this weird-ass pop-Christian phenomenon translating to real-life people in real-time thoughts: my mom saying she had to take into account "which ice cream flavor is most glorifying to God" at a froyo shop. Either it's raspberry, or she chose sin that day.

[ken-katayanagi]

You know, I feel like purgatory would have been a perfect setting for Hazbin Hotel because it's a place people go to before final judgement or death.

YES!! Every time I look into the lore and setting of H4zbin/H3lluva, I wonder why this wasn’t something that was utilized. It would’ve added not only a lot of nuance to Charlie and her motivations, whether or not it took place directly in purgatory or not. If they had remained in hell, purgatory could’ve been an interesting wrinkle in her plan, or something that would’ve explained why all of the angels, not just the exterminators, are so uncaring towards sinners (the idea of “if you deserved a chance you would’ve gotten it).

Or, if Charlie had started the hotel in purgatory, then there could’ve been questions about why a princess of hell wanted to help them. Maybe purgatory is as corrupt as Heaven or Hell, and Charlie’s work is meant to be a criticism of the way institutions meant to help may not actually provide any real support. But the show side steps even mentioning working with these ideas that could’ve given much needed depth to the first ring of Hell.

And To clarify my thought from my last post, I think H4zbin would’ve been better served with a setting akin to magical realism, while maybe borrowing some biblical elements to explain where characters got their powers or legacies from. This would’ve removed a lot of the baggage these biblically based characters come with, making so the characters could’ve just been the characters without us questioning why certain elements aren’t addressed (i.e. Adam, Lucifer, Lilith, etc.).

[iateabunchofsmartiesandnowimdumb]

so i think what it is is i don't hate xander, i actually can be pretty fond of him sometimes, but i do hate a lot of things j*ss wh*don did with his character

[bitimdrake]

on the subject of people pushing back on fanon so hard they go non-canon in the other direction I would like to log: I don't think there's any indication in the comics that Tim hated school, never cared about his grades, or that he would have wanted to drop out without extreme outside circumstances.

Like:

annoying canon: N52!Tim is a super genius; various comics with terrible writing and reductive characterization dub Tim "the smart Robin" (a subjective criteria with the bonus effect of unfairly denigrating all the other Robins; also not in line with his original/post-Crisis characterization)

pure fanon: Tim can be squarely categorized as a nerd (a huge exaggeration from the above, plus the canon of him having some nerdy interests)

backlash to fanon: actually Tim isn't a nerd at all, in fact he hates school and was thrilled to drop out; [insert Robin of your choice] is the real nerd

actual canon: As far as I remember, Tim never expressed particular excitement and enthusiasm about school nor particular dislike of it.

As a kid he had consistently good grades. In his early years as Robin, he tried to do everything at once, which resulted in his schoolwork suffering from his limited time and sleep as a vigilante, despite him not intentionally de-prioritizing it.

In his later years as Robin and then Red Robin, he was filled with survivor's guilt and unwarranted feelings of responsibility over Gotham, which made him struggle to justify spending time on anything that wasn't saving lives. The two times he dropped out of school were each directly caused by a father dying: the first time because he felt he needed to make Jack's death "mean something" by focusing in on his Robin work, and the second because he was determined to prove Bruce wasn't dead at all.

Had he never become Robin, there's every reason to believe he would have continued to do well in school, and could easily have carried on to higher education. Had he not suffered such an intense string of personal losses in a very short time, there's every reason to believe he would have at least finished high school and have been happy to do it.

[yonemurishiroku]

It’s funny. People who read TSATS either love it with all their hearts which are kinda delusional sometimes or detest it with everything in them to the point of cruel and defensive. Are we forgetting a grey area exists or what? I can’t be the only one in this——-

[puppyeared]

if you're walking at 5mph, but your feet are on sideways, and the sky turns green at 2:53, and Keanu Reeves has been sent to Neptune, what's your favorite video game

i cant walk 5mph in the first place, im only 5'4 and i have to walk like marvin the fucking martian everywhere i go

if my feet were on sideways i would still manage to get my shoes on wrong because i cant tell my left from my right

if the sky turns green that means every single car on the road is allowed to go at the same time

keanu reeves cant be sent to neptune with an expired passport

my favorite videogame MIGHT be professor layton and the diabolical box just because ive never been able to get over the ending, but mario galaxy and deltarune also come to mind

[red-umbrella-811]

My man wants to join but likes to be asked.

[orangechickenpillow]

Romancing literally any other bg3 character: all you have to do is talk to me and I'm already planning our wedding

Romancing astarion: if you even breathed in my direction at the wrong time and the wrong coordinates, I will hold a grudge against you forever and you won't even know about it until we're in act 3

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...