#(AND THE THING IS I WASN'T EVEN NECESSARILY TALKING ABT THIS IT WAS ACTUALLY ABT SMTH SAD)

[spiinsparks]

it's like that's his heart cry just:

       "i'm here ! i'm here !! i'm here !!! what a joy it is !! to live !!"

[rh3maji]

Lil rant abt Caine

Caine is just a lil guy, despite it all. From a design standpoint I thought I was gonna absolutely fucking hate looking at him because those chattering teeth toys make my skin crawl- but the art direction really helps make him look more appealing and whimsical than a disembodied pair of talking dentures sounds on paper.

The thing with Caine is I didn't initially like him that much after the pilot. While his interactions with Bubble were quite funny, that one episode left me feeling like he'd just end up being kinda one note or at the very least one note in a way that'd get on my nerves. Then everything changed when Pomni Wake Up Time to Go On an Adventure! attacked

The comedic timing throughout that announcement video was so fucking funny and thanks to his line deliveries and animation/model [?] upgrades- CAINE LOOKED AND SOUNDED SO ADORABLE!!

Legit it wasn't until this came out that I realized I actually could be on board with Caine as a character and it's been uphill from there. Episode 2 was better than the pilot not only comedically and visually but also in terms of showcasing just how actually unsettling Caine can be as an antagonist. Not because he's vengeful or malicious, but because he's so oblivious to how people work. His mind's always buzzing with terrible ideas and he's so so eager about these adventures, but at the end of the day he really really doesn't get the circus crew. Try as he might to include them, keep them engaged [ZOOBLE WAIT!], or even give them what they want [Exit doors] he doesn't realize how traumatic and distressing their current situation can be. The very nature of being trapped in a digital world is bad enough but it's especially rough here bc not only does its god have limited capabilities, you also are very well acquainted with him, and he can't fully understand your pain nor can he truly save you from it. He won't mourn your abstraction. He will not attend your funeral. He will not understand the distress of your arrival, nor the weight of your departure.

This isn't just sad from the pov of the circus gang, it's also very sad for Caine- not because i think he'll ever feel sad about it himself necessarily, but instead because the situation is sad. New members appear over and over, you craft adventures and games and distractions like [i'm assuming] they'd asked you to, but over and over, one by one, they abstract. They stop laughing at your jokes. They don't like you. They want you to leave them alone. It's confusing and maybe even inconvenient.

Where I'm hoping the series takes Caine is that this dissonance between Caine's intentions and the distress of the circus gang gets worse and worse and worse until something's got to give. I'm hoping that maybe at some point a character will try to sit down and talk with him and for it to either sorta get through to him but completely backfire in some form because he misinterprets what the others want from him OR i'd also be down for him to listen, but not understand any of it and proceed as tho nothing happened. I don't want Caine to come around really, it'd be interesting to see how Goose would go about having him come around to being a better host that empathizes more with humans, but personally I do prefer him to keep on keepin' on being this oblivious and eager antagonist.

My favorite Caine lines/line deliveries so far:

"You, my friend, stumbled into an incredible world of wonders, where anything can happen!…e-except for swearing."

"And here we have THE GROUNDS! Drown yourself in the digital lake, or engage in ridery at the digital carnival!"

"What do you think of XDDCC? You're right, terrible, LET'S TRY THAT AGAIN!"

"Kaufmo abstracted? Why didn't anybody tell me?"

"Bubble you can't say that"

"-ZOOBLE WAIT!"

"Why are you all just standing there?! The- The Canyon- C-Candy Canyon Kingdom needs you now!" [according to his VA, this was an actual line flub but hoo boy am i glad they use it bc it's hilarious]

"I know you guys love your NPCs, but if I start losing track of who's a human and who's an NPC, who knows...what. could. happen..."

That last line there specifically surprised me the most because up until he said that I was under the impression Caine was linked to every single NPC. I even thought he could see through their eyes if he so chose thanks to his "hundreds of all seeing eyes" line in the pilot. Him saying this here implies lots of things. Has Caine forgotten before? Is someone in the circus secretly an NPC ooooooooh~

"Who knows what could happen..."

Honestly, when Caine first said this I did immediately theorize Jax as being an NPC but now that it's been *checks calendar* three months since I watched episode 2, I don't think this is the case anymore. Jax being an NPC would be...something. Jax not knowing he's an NPC would be interesting [i like it when ppl's realities get shattered], but honestly I think this line was a way to telegraph to the audience that no Caine isn't actually all knowing. He didn't know Gummigoo was coming through that portal until he saw him with his own two eyes. My theory is that Caine is only able to teleport, create, censor, transform, and destroy the world around him, but isn't able to see all of it at once unless he tries to. I think Caine's default state is one where he only knows what he sees directly in front of him/what he himself has left waiting for someone else. And rather than implying someone in the gang is an NPC, I think that line in episode 2 was mainly implying Caine can be tricked, that it's possible to hide something from him, to surprise him even. Though I'm not opposed to an NPC we haven't met trying to join under the guise of being human, it'd potentially create some fun tension assuming the audience was given enough reason to care about them.

Jax is actually my favorite character in tadc, but i couldn't fill an entire post with things to say abt him. Caine seems to be- at least as of right now- the easiest of all the characters to try and wrap my head around. I'll probably have a lot more to say about Jax as he exists in canon as the episodes come out [EPISODE 6 MY BELOVED]

but uhhhh yeah, that's all the things i had to say abt Caine. Pls go watch/listen to the fansong Digital Land bye!

[fyodior]

It's like 6am now but brain is Thonking Things and I gotta get them out before I forget them

The thought of the day is: getting pregnant with twins

I just know oda would be the happiest out of them all to find that out, like we were supposed to have only one child but now we're getting a bonus one too?? We get to take care of two more kids?? Best day of his life. As soon as you tell him you're gonna have twins I can see him looking at you with his usual neutral face like this 😐 while you can hear the cogs spinning in his brain for a moment as he processes what you said fdjsjdj then a moment later he comes to terms with the fact that the two of you have really been blessed and he hugs you close to himself and tells you how happy he is and how much he loves you with a bit of a wobbly voice bc he's just that happy🥺 the next day he's going to his usual restaurant to tell the owner and the orphans how they're going to have two new friends soon

Dazai would be kinda shocked bc we're gonna have two mini demons running around the house instead of just one??? Am I gonna have to share my belladonna's affections with both of them??? On the outside he's going to act like a clown as usual, telling everyone in the ada about the news and having kunikida nag him for hours everyday bc DON'T YOU DARE MAKE YOUR CHILDREN BECOME SUICIDE MANIACS LIKE YOU!! cjsjsjs But on the inside, having a child with you was already a big choice that required lots of trust for him, but after he hears the news and accepts them he goes to oda's grave and tells him as well, he tells him that he's finally settled down with you and is going to have a family and how happy he is to get to do this this you. "I hope you're proud of me, Odasaku."

Chuuya was already reluctant having just one child with you bc he's a mafia executive and he knows his profession/position could endanger you (not that he'd ever let someone hurt you ofc) but then the two of you agreed to try and have one child to see how the situation would change. He didn't expect that at all when you told him you were having twins, he just stared at you with a mix of joy and shock and he didn't even know what to say. He didn't want to upset you so first he might go to kouyou to talk about his concerns, and after she reassures him that everything will be alright he comes back home and swears to himself to do everything he can to help you throughout the pregnancy and after the children are born. Once he's holding both of them for the first time in his arms he might try to act all tough but then he slowly breaks down into tears and cries with you

Now for fyodor, everything he does is calculated, so having you get pregnant might also have been a calculated act on his part. He decided that this time would be the best for the two of you to have a child bc his plans wouldn't interfere with the pregnancy and viceversa so he bred you extra hard yk djsksks what wasn't calculated tho was you having twins. He knew it was a possibility ofc but he didn't expect that to actually happen. He is obviously happy and gives you lots of praise and patience throughout the pregnancy, making sure your health is at its peak at all times and spoiling you with whatever you might want on your bad days. He might find it endearing when you're so close to crying bc your belly is too big and you can't koala-hug him on his lap anymore jdjsjsdjs you know that some people put headphones on their belly to make the child listen to music? He does that too with you but in the extra fancy way that is playing the cello next to your bed. I'm trying so hard to keep this sfw but my brain keeps chanting pregnancy sex pregnancy sex djdjsjdj

- 💍

my brain is also chanting pregnancy sex at all times always and forever. also everything utc because this got long as per usual

and you're so fucking right abt all of them kfljslf;ksjkd oda would be ECSTATIC because. idk if he necessarily wants a big family but he wants more than one, though the thought of you suffering multiple times for multiple babies is so painful for him. so the fact that you're getting TWO babies for the pain of only one pregnancy makes him soooo happy like it's probably everything he could've asked for. and when you're freaking out bc you were already worried about keeping up with care for one baby and now there's gonna be two, he easily calms you down and assures you he's gonna be there every single step of the way bc you're a team. and even tho any mention of the orphans fills me with debilitating pain it melts my fucking heart thinking abt how over the moon they'd be esp because they rarely see oda that happy. he would ADORE your body too

like you said with dazai it definitely would take a LOT of trust and chewing on the idea for him to even be willing to try for a baby, and that's with expecting only one at a time lskfjskd and i can see him only wanting one in general. he'd so paint on a dazai-typical happy silly face for his coworkers but yeah it'd be a pretty major internal struggle for him at first. and all of the agency is a little bit scared bc they could barely picture dazai with one kid but now he's gonna have 2 LMAO but they know you well and trust that you'll raise them well. and you know that dazai's heart is so big and he's such a good guy that'd genuinely want the best for his babies and would work so hard to be a good father, probably thinking of odasaku and what he would do a lot. and the thought of him sitting at his grave to tell him is fr tearing me apart that fucking hurts lfdsjsdkl i can see him bringing a bottle of liquor and pouring two glasses, just talking like. "two! crazy, isn't it? i think you'd be a great uncle." and he'd definitely tell his kids allll about their uncle oda </3

ur right because chuuya would act so brave but would fucking flip out - but he knows you're anxious as hell about it so you wouldn't hear a second of it. i agree i think that kouyou would be the first person he went to, like the only realistically responsible adult he knows flkadsfljdks when mori finds out he'll be so excited and want to dote all over them and have them play with elise but chuuya would be like only under my supervision you fucking weirdo LMAO he's a very smart guy who's amazing at troubleshooting and dealing with any situation but i think he struggles with it more in his personal life, though he'd find his footing eventually. he'd realize that the most important thing by far is supporting and helping you the whole way, doing anything and everything he can because whatever stress he's feeling you're definitely feeling tenfold. when chuuya loves he loves hard, and that applies to both you and his kids

i think fyodor would definitely be mostly prepared for the scenario of twins, but still be taken aback because he didn't quite expect it to actually happen aldfja;kdfj he would def spoil you to death even to the point where ur like i love you but chill. i think he'd be excited though. im guessing he's never had a loving, supportive family who genuinely cares for each other (and shows it) so i think (with time, i wouldn't say he's necessarily like this now) he'd be very happy to not only show love to a whole family but to receive it too. to be looked up to and revered with unconditional love by 2 babies is something unfathomable to him. he's similar to chuuya in that when he loves, he loves HARD. and every single waking second would be spent protecting you, which would obviously increase to protecting his 2 babies. it would be hard for him, but the now 3 of you are his entire world and he's very protective/possessive - no one is allowed to step anywhere near those kids for a while alkfjlskdjfds "can we please homeschool them?" "no. they're going to real school fedya." similar to oda but probably more so, he would absolutely adore and revere your changing body, would be absolutely obsessed with your growing baby bump that is obvi bigger with two babies. he wants to touch it and be near it and play music for it all the time, sometimes he talks to your stomach more than he talks to you aldsfjadslkj i love him so much :(

[ultraviolet-cello]

Good afternoon everyone, late analysis/detail watch for @tristampparty today! Had a busy day and I am ready to chill out by being so so normal about Trigun ^_^

Spoilers for Trigun Stampede and Trimax, CW for me discussing/theorizing abt Vash's injuries + discussion of harm coming to children specifically!

Roberto is my old man blorbo (he is not that old) and I essayed Hard about him today, good luck reading!

So when I originally watched this episode when I saw the tower I was like oh flying saucer haha!

and then it is a flying saucer. I hate that (/j)

the bugs under the rock when I lift it up:

On a more serious note I do like the transition from Wolfwood getting REALLY jumpy (to the point of like. Punching Vash for sneezing. babygirl there are better ways to cope with bringing the man you adore to what is probably his doo- actually there probably isn't, he's on his own) to them working extremely in sync to try and get away from the guards - even in the two months that they've been traveling together they've developed that back to back fighting style. It's very sweet, and I think that aspect of them is heavily emphasized in 98 actually, episode 9 when Wolfwood first appears. I really do miss that episode's story, I think it's my favourite standalone plot :]

Again take this with a grain of salt because my subtitles are Janky, but this line hits me real hard [Where Vash is telling Wolfwood not to shoot at the July guards]. They're at July, this is where Wolfwood needs to hand Vash over despite all his inner conflict; but he values the orphanage, it's so important to him. Would the morally righteous thing to do be trying to fight alongside Vash out of this? Possibly. But the risk is too great; It's not the time to be a saint.

Both of their expressions here - Wolfwood stepping back then forward to try and push Vash out the way, or block the bullet, and Vash just slowly lowering his arms with that real haunted look.

Studio Orange once again knocking it out of the PARK with their facial expressions

[Purging the Vashwood from my system for just a moment] He really does just. Grab him around the waist huh. He doesn't try to spin Vash around to assess the damage, or immediately drag him away, but most importantly he doesn't shoot back. Not after Vash asked him to.

Why's this bitch not clean his table!!! The hell!!! Unsanitary. Or... Or someone was just there. Not sure what's worse at that point. It's also that the shape of that cross is also to accommodate children

[Tucking these screenshots into my purse for safekeeping] [Also CWing this section for a little bit of injury discussion] Most of the injuries here aren't necessarily the scars that Trimax and 98 Vash have, which makes me wonder if he's going to get more post-July. In any case, a lot of these look like failed/only partial skin grafts or wounds that required skin grafts but did not get it [Just trust me on that, don't look it up if you can't stomach gore].

I wonder if Vash can't receive skin grafts due to the sheer amount of scarring/can't receive any donated grafts due to differences in biology, or if he's just... not been able to get them healed. Some of it appears to be patched up with metal, but the rest of it.... Mm.

Anyway!

I think it's very telling that the thing that Roberto starts really speaking up on is challenging Conrad on his treatment of orphans and disadvantaged people. Roberto's a reporter, so of course he's going to have seen how powerful people often use the marginalized as their playthings; and Roberto does have a pretttty good moral code when it comes to it. Time and time again he's chosen to help Meryl instead of preserve his own life.

And now he's actively taking Meryl's side, challenging Conrad, sticking up for people, which. One of the first hints of Roberto that we got that wasn't him being so gruff was his defense of Vash (who was getting the shit beaten out of him) in the very first episode.

I've talked at length abt how children are. Kind of the most precious thing to most people on Gunsmoke/NML - so many of the individual stories revolve around parents and children, brothers, siblings, Wolfwood and Hopeland, Legato sparing all the children in that village in 98, Elendira leaving a gaggle of children alive to bury Livio in Trimax. I particularly remember a scene in Trimax volume 14, chapter 3, when the feathers are falling and a young girl has lost her mother, but these big rough and tough men guide her back. I think that's kind of the essence of what Roberto represents to me.

The average person on that planet is rough, traumatized, probably knows how to shoot, they kill each other, they rob, they steal. And yet when it comes down to a little girl crying in the crowd, they will guide her back to her mother. Noman's Land is made up of families; they hurt each other and they commit atrocities, but at the end of the day, that was someone's child, and people try to respect it.

Roberto has a bit of a stronger ethical streak, but he's really kinda hostile to Conrad in this scene (GET HIS ASS ROBERTO WOOO!!!) and I think when he saw children involved that really signaled part of it to him.

It's also that Roberto has developed as a character, being more open and trusting of Meryl, but I also just. The family thing gets me every time (I think it's because I work with children and am a huge advocate for said children, but. yaknow)

[Pointing at him] I love this guy!!! I miss him!!! I really really thought I was gonna hate him but every rewatch i get sadder that he's gone!!!!!

Also he calls out Conrad on being non-empathetic towards, well experimenting on children which is yeah!!! shit!!! Roberto shuts him down like 3 times!! "What matters is how you feel with these children in front of you" GET! HIS! ASS!

Roberto has progressed so so much, with his ability to actually insert himself into situations according to his opinions and ethics, with his relationship to Meryl becoming softer, and then he's just,,, Gone, soon.

On a lighter note, tf you mean Elendira's powers are equivalent to a supply door Conrad she can kill a man!!! I spose a supply door can also kill a man but like. I wonder if she's gonna get. Bigger nails. More powers in the future.

Also a nice parallel of how Roberto kept dragging Meryl back and flinging her away from danger, but now he's grabbed her and is carrying her with him - it feels different. He really really does care about her and it's so evident in these last couple of episodes.

Also Meryl is just pick up-able what can I say.

Roberto being shocked at his ability to deflect Elendira's nails just feels kinda cruel. Man's been spending the entire anime facing horrors beyond his comprehension and he just figured out he can fight against this one, but in the end she's the one who gets him.

Also I talked about Roberto being really standoffish when he realizes children are being harmed? Uh, that's probably what gets him killed. If he'd have shot Elendira here, there is a decent chance he would have lived; if he hadn't hesitated the several times he did, he wouldn't be so rattled. That's... Painful.

"That was close" I hate everyone here [/j]

Not an unpopular opinion, but I'm not a super fan of what they did to Elendira. I'm of the opinion of her character divorced from her Trimax counterpart is really really interesting, but I have to treat her like an entirely different character, so we'll be moving on with that in mind.

So Elendira's been like this for what, twenty years at least? That doesn't seem to line up with how Plants age - Vash and Knives take like 5 years to look like they're fifteen, and. I hope we all know that humans typically take 18-20 years to reach adulthood lmao.

My three theories on why she hasn't aged is that

A) Whichever Plant cells (Probably Tesla's) that they used on her is inhibiting her growth, disallowing her from progressing past a certain point. Perhaps if she ages more something... Bad will happen to her body. Sub-idea, if it is Tesla's cells, they might not be letting her age past the point Tesla was when she died. Which is a little horrific actually.

B) Conrad and/or Knives are the ones not allowing her to grow, for some reason. I don't really have any ideas of what.

But it seems to me that she is somewhat inverse to Wolfwood; she's been living for at least twenty years, trapped in the mind and body of a child. She speaks with the cadence and articulation of an adult most of the time, but her body's pain tolerance and her subsequent reactions are that of an undeveloped mind/body.

That or she just doesn't wanna go through puberty because she's already trans and just doesn't wanna deal with that shit (valid) but, yaknow. I am a very big supporter of "Let Studio Orange cook, they've done pretty good so far!" but Elendira and Razlo are the two I am. Most scared of seeing how they turn out lmao, and even with Razlo I do have some hopes. But Elendira,,, man. I dunno.

Hooo boy. Okay. I'm ready to talk about Roberto again now. I've been talking about how he recently seems to have softened his demeanor specifically towards Meryl, bringing out a lot of that joking tone, but here is particularly on display.

He tells Meryl that it's okay to run away sometimes and that really really. Got to me. Like he wants her to live. He wants her to do whatever she thinks is right, and he wants her to live, and he is going to do what he can in his dying moments to make that better for her.

I miss him :(

I also wonder if he had anything outside of his job. Friends? Family? A partner? Or was he mostly obliterated along with most of July, kept only in memory by his, now Meryl's, derringer?

Also Vash does Not know that Roberto is dead and if he asks about him post-rejoining the gang in season 2 I'll start screaming.

Oh Knives is here! Yippee!!

So uh. The thing with him saying this is, like a Lot of things Knives does/says in Tristamp, is rooted in truth to some degree.

Like uh. Yeah. That is kind of the basis for a Major part of Vash's personality, the guilt complex of Knives shifting the burden and (honestly projecting a lot of his own guilt probably) onto Vash. But to attribute All of Vash's character to just that is disservice, and horrible for Vash to hear.

The thing about Vash is that he tries. He tries so so hard to make things right, even despite the harm that comes to him and the grief and pain of how he lives his life. Even if it were just his guilt, that is still 150 or so years of healing plants, helping children, going from town to town to do what good he can.

Love, in that case, is not inherent, but created. It's hard to just unconditionally love something just because it's in your life, but if you work at it, dedicate yourself, put in the effort, do so much good, then is that not love in itself? Does it really matter the basis if you love, regardless?

Where it becomes a problem with Vash, is when he refuses to kind of,,, accept that he worked for it instead of just having that love inherent to him, because he's so desperate to hold that guilt complex, that "I'm a bad person" close to him

I dunno, I'm autistic, so maybe I have a strange reading of this because I personally have had to work towards the things I hold dear to me, but it's,,, definitely a facet of Vash, to me.

I Do Not Like This Photograph. In Trimax, it seems they took Tesla and Immediately began experimenting on her - Some arguments over ethics with Rem, yeah, but overall the dissenters were overruled. But why have this picture? Tesla is clearly not a baby in this image. Did she have more contact and interactions with the scientists?

The cruelty in Tesla's story, at least in my view, is that she never got to be a character. Her agency was stripped from her by scientists, by death, and then by Knives. We don't know shit about her - did she die cursing all of humanity? Would she have agreed with Knives, that the pain inflicted on her was an example of the great atrocity of humanity? Or would she have decided people can grow and change, that she just got a bad lot, that people are messy and complicated but ultimately capable of love? Did she see Rem, and wonder if she knew humanity better than Tesla did?

We just don't know - will never know - and that's why Knives using her as an excuse for his actions is particularly egregious. Did her death traumatize him and irreparably damage his trust of humans, sending him down a spiral he was too unlucky to fight his way out of? Yes. Does that make it justifiable to try and commit a genocide under her name, assuming she would have wanted that even if there's a possibility she didn't? ....Definitely not.

millions-dykes referred to Conrad as looking "DILFy" in this scene and if I have to suffer that, so do you. sorry

There's a couple of bits of language in that ending scene that I find particularly uh. Interesting (derogatory) (deeply interesting and analysis-worthy), but I'll be saving those for next episode so I'll pop them in there :]

Today was a hell of an essay! Thanks for reading as always, I'm so >:3 about all the fun comments and ideas ppl have added on.

[horizon-verizon]

Emma called Daemyra grooming, which to me means they both don't understand what that actually means and they don't understand the relationship, so sorry GREAT actor but I don't listen to their thoughts on them :)

Anon talks abt this post.

i mean, I guess? Grooming, yes, needs time and much more psychological manipulation than what we see b/t older Daemon and 19 year old Rhaenyra. It requires much more than showing explicit sexual content the one time (bc these two).

Some might point out that he was also giving her gifts as young as 15, which I mean...eh. He wasn't trying to deceive her with that particular act/acts or had ulterior motives which again is what is required in grooming situations. Daemon with the necklace wasn't having some master plan to entrap her or use her. He was just giving a necklace. That moment was more charged with the knowledge that such a thing just wouldn't fly in our own world, so the observation of what's actually happening int this particular scene is put aside for the audience wanting to and applying an immediate boundary by claiming that he was grpoming bc he gave her gifts in this very 1st episode and has thus been grooming her ever since she was what, 7ish if you asked some of them?

At the same time, Daemon has done wrong/manipulated to Rhaenyra both in bk and show when she is older and in her teens when he comes back from the Stepstones--even if we can't solidify or define it was real grooming.

For me, their relationship is one big "grey area" than anything solid and that has the potential to swing dark to light often bc that's simply who they both are. And I don't really fault or resent people for having the impression and final stamp of grooming, since it's such an age gap and she's a teen when they first kiss. (I suspect in the bk they also kissed and that was when she was actually 15ish). *EDIT 11/4/24* AND Daemon was using heer against Viserys at her young age of 15. I just don't think he was out to prey on her exactly.

GRRM already does make it a point to show that 13 yr old Dany getting impregnated, 15 year old Viserrra engaged to a man who could be her father and dying trying to live her last moments as a girl, AND Daemon messing w/Rhaenyra then getting the boot are all obviously bad things about this system--thus a critique of said political environments, but it's still does not mean Larra Rogare, Viserys I, Daemon, and a few others were necessarily bonafide "pedos" like Robert Baratheon, Craster, Walder Frey, or Aegon II bc...

it takes more than the presence of a marriage between 15 yr old and a 23 yr old or a mere relationship of such to rule one of them as an actual hand-rubbing "groomer" (although this particular label on Daemon fits more back in 111...he definitely was using her against Viserys) or a "pedo", bc of how marriages are an arranged affair AND these teens aren't as considered "adults" in ASOIAF--It's not a part of their conscious OR they were forced/socially pressured to marry

The boundaries are looser; again GRRM does criticize that, but he doesn't try to break away from the consequences of that by only writing characters who are closer in age fall in love or become closer or get into sexual relationships.

Example: He still has Dany have the much older and adult Daario as a lover so she can pursue her first self-determined relationship at her 15/16 years of age...which canonically she uses to heal even as she has her doubts about Daario's feelings for her. Perhaps he could have gotten her with one of her khalasar instead, like Jhoqo, but Dany is also still very much a teenager still and Daario was exciting and persistent when she wanted to feel desired. Daario is fine prostrating himself but not totally being her soldier like Jhoqo. Eventually, their relationship will not pan bc Daario's interest in her is still wrapped up more in her being a queen and she herself has the higher goal of freeing slaves, getting back her throne, later the Others, etc.--this doesn't mean that Daario wasn't a critical person in a particular point in her life or that she didn't love him. And all this is consequential to the sort of world she lives in and her particular circumstances.

*END OF EDIT*

Such relationships of real history and Westeros just don't jive with what we know can come of them and present so many possible fallbacks and mostly on the younger, and people want to avoid prevent justifying such things to impressionable audiences. I think, though, that people tend to eschew any and all signs of Rhaenyra genuinely finding strength AS GRRM WROTE IT in Daemon and vice versa. And that we simply do not live in their world so people have to be a little smarter and maintain a degree of intellectual separation as they also assess what makes these characters tick/their environment's affects on them as the actual text suggests. Basically, Watsonian vs Doylist readings and to stop making as if what's happening in real modern life will always happen in text. Slow down.

[mikerztmf]

two ppl asked and i shall deliver!! so have a whole essay about jake-centric drake 👍👍

the natural place to start talking about jake's feelings about drew is near the start of their friendship: the freshman scene in ep9. i think this scene (and ep11) is one of the few points where you can really tell what jake thinks of drew. and to sum it up, he thinks pretty highly of him.

it's never super obvious, but when you think about it, drew really meant so much to jake. because drew was really jake's first friend after middle school, the first person to ever accept him so easily. BUT, he couldn't necessarily tell drew that, bc he'd be forced to open up about his past and his passion for music (which is like. the one thing he doesn't want to do)

and imo, jake caring about drew (and henriam ofc but this ain't abt them) and genuinely wanting to be friends is sort of... integral to who he is as a character, in a way. jake changed himself to keep drew, bc he cared about what drew thought of him. whether or not he was right, jake assumed that drew would bully him/drop him if he ever found out that he liked music. jake didn't wanna lose drew, so he kept quiet and lied. it obviously wasn't RIGHT, but still, it's what he does.

once he got closer to the music club, things got way more complicated though, because jake's lies became more than just lies of omission. and eventually, he grew distant towards drew around eps8-10. HOWEVER, i dont think he was really aware that he was doing it, or that he was inherently being an asshole/bad friend on purpose???

i think that's proven in the drake fight. like, jake lied to protect his friendship with drew, but it obviously backfired on him in the long run ("how am i supposed to know anything about your passion when you don't tell me anything anymore!?"). so jake only actually realised his mistakes, especially how badly he treated drew in the past month of canon, when they were thrown in his face by DREW HIMSELF.

and you see jake himself be surprised before quickly cracking, because he realised that drew was right. he has been lying for years. and it's sorta important to think abt the words here. "if you care so much about your friends, jake, why don't you spit out the truth already?!" ...quickly followed by jake spitting out the truth. not only did (and probably still does) jake care about drew, but he also considered them friends! WHICH ALSO EXPLAINS "nice to know we were never really friends." "that's not...! drew..."

jake trying to defend himself shows that even after everything, he still viewed drew as a friend, and wanted drew to hear him out and stay in his life. like, idk, after he came clean, jake still cared about what drew thought, and hoped that he'd want to still be his friend too.

i talked abt this in my last essay, but jake was so broken up after the fight. sure, it looked like he'd moved on, but the way he thought he saw the jomies at the competition + the right now mep part just kinda proved that he hadn't. and idk, i can only imagine that it hurts - losing your first friend, and only having yourself to blame because you lied to his face in an attempt to keep him.

LMAO SO IDK i think jake sort of did value drew as a friend, and that maybe, just maybe, drake is not as unrequited as people think?? imo their issue wasn't really that it was one-sided, but bc they never told eachother how much they valued eachother (for whatever reason)

[burning-sol]

me typing a post abt gaslighting and then deleting it because i think "surely no one wants to hear this" but also of course no one wants to hear it, nobody REALISES they need to hear it. here's a quick and informal PSA.

I'm telling you, if your perception of gaslighting is that of exaggerated arguments where one person is clearly wrong and where all context has been stripped away, that is not what it's like from my experience. We really need to talk about gaslighting as more than just a joke, because once I saw what was most likely a REAL case of gaslighting being downplayed by people who didn't realise they were using the EXACT language that's symptomatic of a real story and also that PERPETUATES the abuse.

The biggest thing people tend to leave out is context. Gaslighting happens between the victim and a person who they hold in regard, someone they've known for a while and love. By the time gaslighting starts to occur or is noticed, you're likely in a position where you're trying to take the other in good faith and characterise their behaviour as honest mistakes. Victims don't necessarily BELIEVE the lies are reality, in fact, it's more likely you tend to just shrug it off and drop it because you value the person above disagreements.

And next is the scaling. By the time you get to any disagreements where someone is outright saying that you're crazy or denying that abusive events happen, you are deep in the process of being gaslit. But how it starts out is that you'll have disagreements recalling smaller things whether it be what your favourite flavour of icecream is, whether they had already told you something you're sure you've heard before, slightly altering history in ways that aren't that far off but still feel wrong, explaining your feelings of uncertainty back to you in ways that COULD be plausible... When you try to explain these disagreements, it can feel humiliating or like the longer you talk about it the more wrong you start to feel and that you're sure that you're just being overly critical...

This ties back into what I said about the language that is symptomatic of real gaslighting stories. The story I read had people say the person wasn't being gaslit because, "it was just over video games?" "your friend sounds like they're just misremembering" "you seem kind of petty"... While yes, it is normal for disagreements and mistakes to happen, they shouldn't be happening to the extent that you're noticing a pattern. If it's a persistent issue in which you're starting to feel insecure and like an unreliable narrator, that is a BAD sign. It also shouldn't be entirely one sided - if you find you're the one consistently having to compromise their reality to satisfy the other, that is ALSO a bad sign.

And it's really important that, again, this is how it may just start. All these smaller things wear you down until you either start to believe the other or you're too demoralised to argue anymore, and the other may continue to escalate UNTIL the arguments become more stereotypical portrayals of gaslighting - and the person may even start to introduce other forms of abuse into the relationship. The period of "trivial" disagreements isolate the victim, especially when they go to their friends for support and their friends downplay the emotions they're feeling, resulting in the victim pulling away when they start to think their issues aren't worth bringing up.

You really just have to experience it for yourself to have tried to communicate you were being gaslit and had your issues shrugged off, to know how awful it feels when you finally get out of that abusive relationship and the people around you will say they, "didn't even know that was happening".

Like, I admit, I do find gaslighting jokes funny. They make me go heehee. But it is very very bad that we aren't actually teaching people what gaslighting realistically looks like, because you're usually only seeing the later stages of gaslighting and not all the smaller things that built up to that! You're not actually catching the signs when it's most critical to be getting out of the relationship.

But yeah. There's my rant.

[waterparksdrama]

Sorry this is a long one, but I wanted to get all of my thoughts out there, and this is probably the best place where I can do it anonymously and won't get HOUNDED for it.

I'm ngl I'm a little concerned for the longevity of Waterparks going forwards. Even back when they switched from Hopeless to 300ent I was worried bc (from what we know) Hopeless have probably been the most helpful and nicest when it came to what parx did both under them and also after they left (I'm mostly talking abt how Fandom was promoted, the sold out shows, Fandom live, and the Turbulent and IMHS single cd's that were sold, like, last month).

I remember that there was a lot of mix ups/overselling (I think) of the different varients of the GH cd's, when those happened, so I can see why they left. But the fact that they were able to make GH2024 means they're still on good terms with 300ent (unlike EVR with Ent19 and DD19)

Even with FBR, that label is (from what I can tell) the ideal record lable to be signed to, for a band LIKE Waterparks. Which was why I was so shocked when they left it. I mean, I can understand if it's bc they wanted to cancel IP2 but FBR still wanted them to release it, but I can't think of any other reason why.

(I keep saying "they" as in the band, but I also feel like Awsten is making a lot of the decisions idk).

And now that they're also not under MDDN managment, I'm a little scared. Because, yes whilst it's good that parx are completely independent and they can do what they want, they're also gonna be limited in those things (mostly due to monitary reasons and connections I think).

Also this is also gonna sound a little selfish, but I'm worried that when they tour next, it'll only be in the states. I'm in the UK, which always has a decent amount of shows anyways (except last tour when they didn't actually come to my city even tho it's one of the major ones and they usually do), but I have a feeling they won't be coming back here, or performing ANYWHERE outside of the USA, for the next album cycle.

(also I meant to write this when the news of them breaking from MDDN came out, but I forgot and then apparently today a bunch of songs off Fandom have been removed from usage on instagram so that got me even more concerned).

i mean parx was never gonna last long especially at this point where they're approaching their mid 30s and even if hopeless was good to them, awsten wanted bigger things outside the pop punk bubble that literally no one else wanted to give them because they don't fit into the mainstream consciousness either whether it's for awsten's sponsor unfriendly social media presence or the fact that parx's music has become so stale either because awsten keeps vying for that mainstream #relatability or that zakk cervini does not know what to do anymore with them that he hasn't already done with other artists.

and parx was always bound to leave fbr. that's like a death sentence to sign there nowadays and even awsten didn't look all too thrilled when he was there signing the contract anyways. i don't think fbr wanted to cancel ip2 necessarily i feel like they wanted another album that wasn't just a double album extension when they already dragged out the single releases in the first place and would just release different versions of singles again is uh. not a good idea in general and once parx left even though they already released their first single via fbr, it was never going to end pretty unless they struck up some sort of agreement (and that was literally never going to happen)

and as for touring i do suspect they'll have to downsize how much they can tour (if the state of their merch and zero management is anything to go by), but they'll probably still be available for shorter events like festivals and stuff because to my understanding they got booking agents and no managers so either awsten is gonna go completely diy starting from scratch or he's gonna find someone probably more evil to manage (most of) what he can't carry - iz

[house-on-sand]

!!!

any comic you read recently that has been on your mind and you'd like to talk about?

YES ACTUALLY A FEW!

are you scared of darkseid? (2021)

its a halloween one-shot ft. damian n the titans! it's a silly little collection of "spooky" stories they're telling each other while they're out camping (presumably damian's idea) and its genuinely so cute? + the way the titans all vibe together is great & the stories are all pretty great! the first one feature harley quinn and darkseid akshsksv hunting down bloody mary & then the last one is rlly spooky, it's about clark n lois helping locate missing twins who are the kids of one of clark’s childhood friends & they find them at this weird house where a guy is like. finding people / kids to bring to his "wife" so it can drain them of their lives and the "wife" almost drains superman its so wild

my favourite story from it tho was kid flash's! it was rlly intriguing and i wish it was a full story somewhere. basically there was this set of stairs and a man who would come down them to bring people (usually anomalies) home as he told them. he leads a whole town of people away bc they've been exposed to magic and they're changing n stuff so it's not necessarily safe for them to be around and idk it's such a good story it had me gripped man

the question (1986) issues 9-11

idk man i can't think of what i want to say about these ones or the series as a whole other than it drives me fucking insane /pos

these ones were really good bc it kinda shows a different side of vic almost? like he's really self aware about how his friendship w tot was up until that point kind of one sided? in the sense that he knew hardly anything abt tot whereas like tot did know quite a bit about him! + yknow kind of aided in him becoming the question (provided the artifical skin stuff that makes him look faceless among other things!) so it was just really cool to see an arc where he went after him after tot had been kidnapped

+ the bad guy for it was? wild? he was trying to witness a miracle of like alchemy or whatever bc he thought it would change his soul essentially so he wasn't such an awful person anymore. and its kind of vaguely implied at the end that it did work

can't remember the issues exactly but booster gold (2007)!!!

the lengths he was willing to go to so he could bring ted back was so :(

even when rip tried to teach him that sometimes time really is set in stone and you can't change things, he still ended up going back to save ted (granted it was part of a whole Evil Plan and he didn't know that at the time but still)

like rip sent him back to the day that babs was shot, claiming it was never supposed to happen and it was one of the anomalies they were supposed to fix together, bc they both knew that ted cared about babs a lot! (granted pretty sure they only met after she became oracle but whatever) and booster tries so hard again and again, pretty much getting tortured by the joker just bc he's trying to keep this person who his person cares about so much from being hurt. even when it's so clear he can't change it! bc it's cemented in time and they world needs oracle! he still tries. to the point that rip finally has to stop him bc booster is hurt so badly and the booster is so fucking angry and hurt and he doesn't totally get why things have to be this way and he's angry with rip for lying to him and telling him if he helps fix time then they can go save ted and booster would have his best friend back its UGH

people don't understand how much booster gold cares! even in universe sometimes! no one can see past his outward persona n stuff to see that he cares so big and he was willing to fuck up TIME bc he wanted to save his best friend bc he didn't think he should've died! nd yes sometimes how big he cares n loves goes badly (once again fucking up time) and it hurts! ted knew what had to he done and knew he needed to die in order for things to be okay again and booster was so desperate to find some way around it. all signs pointed to that being the only answer but he didn't want to see it.

i also wanna talk about how rip hunter seems put out and annoyed by booster n their relationship is pretty difficult but he cares! bc that's his fucking dad! even though booster doesn't know that and can't know that (at least not yet), he's rip's dad!!

after everything with ted is resolved and he knows how badly booster is taking that n how shit he's gotta be feeling, rip surprises him with someone booster thought was gone forever!! rip was able to save michelle, booster's twin sister!! and they were both so happy to see each other (she was dead for booster, he thought she was dead forever) & one of their first adventures together involves them stealing babs' batgirl costume aksgakvsjs with michelle posing as batgirl (originally when i saw the preview image in the issue before it i thought it was BOOST dressed up as batgirl and i LOVED that, that's what we deserved)

^^ the aforementioned image. genuinely had my hopes up i thought it'd be fun tbh i loved the idea of him trying and failing to convince people he is in fact batgirl

OH AND!

alfred straight up tries to shoot him and michelle ajakbsksb that's the context for this panel if you've eever seen it before. boost n michelle break into the batcave bc their plan a was for them to steal the batsuit n boost was gonna pose as batman (terrible plan) but things go terribly terribly wrong. they do end up stealing the batmobile! which leads to a very confused dick coming down into the cave wondering if bruce left without him.... at day time.

still not over how down alfred was with potentially maiming these people who found and broke into the batcave like i get it i do but on god if it isn't a little funny. like my boss might not kill people but i sure will lmao

booster does end up posing as killer moth. and dressing like elvis bc somehow that was a good disguise to him

[rollercoasterwords]

rae give us your thoughts on taylor swift more specifically her rich white feminist thing she’s got going on and her influence on the current ‘girlboss’ trend and the current perception of women in media today???? asking bc i love reading your opinions on this stuff 💕

it sounds like u have some opinions of ur own lol but sure i can talk abt taylor swift! will be putting it under a cut bc i love my swiftie mutuals tho...swiftie mutuals look away im going to be mean sorry....

i mean yeah overall u kinda summed it up lol. i don't think i'd really care much about taylor swift were it not for the way she's been branded as some sort of groundbreaking feminist and subsequently played into that perception to profit ("the man" makes my eyes roll out of my skull sorry...)

i think my dislike of her was first seeded when "you need to calm down" came out--before then i just hadn't really cared abt taylor swift, knew a few songs but wasn't crazy about them, etc. but then she dropped "you need to calm down" and suddenly she was getting TONS of praise for doing SO much for the queer community and i was like. well first of all the song is bad second of all she's literally comparing her online haters to violent homophobes as though those two things are in any way equal or similar experiences third of all she's getting praised for profiting off positioning herself as a #ally. like this song and music video are not some sort of feminist praxis they are a way to funnel money into her already bulging pockets.

but because literally everyone around me (many swiftie friends) was gushing over how amazing she was for hiring all those dykes + faggots to dance behind her i felt like i was being gaslit + the fact that taylor swift was just happily accepting the money + accolades at the same time made me dislike her

when folklore came out i actually did enjoy the album which was. the first time that's happened for me lol i usually like maybe one or two of her songs and think the rest are mediocre at best but i was like huh maybe she's like changing as an artist and sort of settling into a new groove that's kinda cool. and then i didn't like evermore as much but i was still like okay cool new sound new vibe. and then she dropped midnights and i tried really hard to like it for my swiftie friends but...honestly i was shocked by how bad it was lol. just felt like a new level of low in terms of bad lyrics and the music was incredibly bland and boring to me, nothing new or interesting going on there. and then i felt gaslit again by all the swifties raving abt the lyricism of lines like "draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man" like!!! babe that is a tumblr post from 2014...

but aside from finding it genuinely incomprehensible that she gets so much credit for being an amazing writer or lyricist when the bulk of her discography is simply incredibly mediocre or straight-up bad imo (bc honestly that alone wouldn't be enough to make me dislike her; ik these are all subjective measures so even if i find it annoying to hear people rant + rave about music i think is bad it's not gonna make me dislike the artist or the people raving necessarily) what bothers me more and solidifed my dislike of her is the continuation of the way she acted when "you need to calm down" dropped. which is to say, it's infuriating enough that her fandom has sainted her, but what's more infuriating to me is the she seems inclined to play into that sainthood.

she often leans in to portraying herself as either a victim of misogyny or a #girlboss feminist. and like--this isn't to say taylor swift hasn't experienced misogyny, or that she shouldn't talk about those experiences, or that rich white women are exempt from sexism. but her feminist consciousness seems to begin and end with her own personal experiences of sexism, with no effort at a deeper political engagement made. she flies her private jet around and poisons the environment and when people try to call her out for it she sits back and lets her fans accuse anyone that criticizes her of being sexist. in fact, it seems that any criticism of her is met with accusations of sexism, which is an infuriating obfuscation.

at the end of the day, her politics such that i have seen are incredibly liberal and toothless, and her feminism seems largely focused on making herself more money ("the man" being about "getting ahead" faster, the whole thing with that one guy owning her masters centering around a dispute over property + who gets to make money, etc). she is a capitalist first and foremost, and because of that her feminisn kind of sucks, so i hate seeing people treat her as a Feminist Figure. i also think the gaylor thing is sooooo stupid and annoying and reinforces the concept of identity first and foremost as a discrete ontological category rather than something socially constructed + materially rooted. like the idea that taylor has some mystical gay Essence inside her that exists regardless of how straight her music + lifestyle is, the makes her Queer--sorry but give me a fucking break lol. i don't give a shit if she kisses other girls, taylor swift is not a Queer Icon, and i don't understand why people desperately scrabble to find proof that she is when there are already plenty of openly gay pop singers!

in conclusion taylor swift is the epitome of #girlboss liberal feminism to me and her supposedly genius music being aggressively mediocre is just the icing on the cake lol

[catgirl-kaiju]

How is tme/tma more inclusive than afab/amab? They both equate something to a binary that makes an assumption about someone’s genitalia. In a personal level, I dislike either set of labels, which makes it hard for me to see how one is more inclusive. I have Klinefelter syndrome and consider myself leaning toward a more feminine nonbinary identity. But because of living circumstances, I can’t change anything about my presentation. This to me makes it seem like I’d be labeled as tme and amab under those labeling systems because I’m not in a position where people clock me as trans fem. I have been mistaken as trans masc a couple times because of my gynecomastia, but im not. This is just a personal opinion but the labeling systems seem reductive to me and don’t seem to do much good. Not to mention how many times I’ve seen labels used to drive a wedge between the trans community. Not trying to be rude here, I am genuinely curious as to why you think the one set is more inclusive than the other? Sorry for this chunk of text, have a good day or night

-Dee

hi there, Dee

you're welcome to disagree with me, but here's my thoughts:

firstly, the agab model is still a pretty decent way of talking about trans identities, but it certainly has some problems for intersex folks. overtly, there's nothing actually tying amab or afab labels to genitals as we're just talking about the arbitrary gender label some doctor slapped on you at birth. and the ways that your experiences were shaped by that labeling are important in discussing the dynamics of gender even in the realm of cisgender people. i'm intersex, but i'm also amab. my body was close enough to the arbitrary grouping of "male" when i was born that some doctor saw fit to assign that label to me. the reality is that people are expected to fit in one of two boxes and if your body deviates from that, usually doctors will try and squeeze you into the box that's "closest enough" in hopes that you'll eventually fit in there.

however, since all of us have grown up in a society where intersex people are stigmatized and the perisex sex binary is normalized, the terms "female" and "male" are pretty loaded and carry a lot of assumptions about people's bodies. someone who is afab wasn't necessarily born with a uterus, and someone who is amab might not at all resemble a "male" as an adult. the complexities of biological sex therefore make the agab model useful in some contexts, but not in others. it can be useful when talking about gender, but it is less useful when talking about biology.

and here's the thing about tma/tme: it's not at all about your genitals in any way. it's barely even about your body. i really don't understand where this notion that tme/tma are "just another binary grouping based on genitalia" comes from, as there's nothing in the language to indicate that. all the tme/tma system is meant to describe is whether you are affected by transmisogyny or not. that's it. you can absolutely make an argument that some people might be affected by transmisogyny more, or less, or in different ways, or in some contexts but not others. but none of that has anything to do with genitals. i have seen no convincing argument that these labels reinforce sex binaries or gender binaries, as these are labels intended purely for the purposes of discussing the dynamics of transmisogyny and how different groups of people are and aren't affected by it.

like the only thing we're talking abt here is if your experiences are in any way affected by transmisogyny or not. that's it. what exactly does that have to do with what genitals someone has or was born with??? i'm intersex, i have a micropenis and have since birth, and i think you'd be fighting an uphill battle to try and argue that i am not affected by transmisogyny. if you want to critique the system's utility in discussing transmisogyny, i'm perfectly willing to engage with you on that. if you're arguing that whether or not someone is tme or tma is sometimes contextual, i'm totally willing to hear you out. if you want to talk about the possibility of an afab intersex person being tma, we can talk about that. but trying to claim that tme and tma are just a reproduction of the binary sex and/or binary gender paradigms is just not backed up by anything, imo.

i hope you're also having a good day or night, genuinely. i don't want you to think i have anything against you personally, but it's also very important to me to voice my honest disagreement here.

[vivi-scera]

hi hi! so i just found your answer to an ask about johndean, and i got immensely surprised when you mentioned about batman and robin, which i assume bruce and dick, not the other batman and robin combination, and im curious about what do you think about them! i quite recently got into comics, and im so fascinated by their mutual codependency and dick's devotion towards bruce, and how bruce sees dick as his peer/partner despite their age differences before growing into a more parental role, and i wanna hear your opinions abt them :D

hey so. come off anon so we can make out.

dick grayson, the first robin and batman's lacanian phallus. ugh many things to say and think about. i wasn't necessarily referring to just bruce and dick— i think all of the subsequent robins have their own neat fucked-up relationships with bruce, in each their own ways. more fucked-up in that they see him as more their father than dick does, like you mentioned. i like thinking about jason-robin's relationship with bruce the most but i like tim as robin best. i think i was mostly thinking bruce/jason since i was talking about johndean but since you asked about bruce/dick i'll expand on them the most.

some may think brudick is the least problematic of all the possible bruce/son pairings since dick doesn't necessarily think of bruce as his father. which is true, he already had a good relationship with his father and didn't need/want a replacement in bruce like the other robins do. but a huge part of his characterization (during his robin years at least) is his insistence on being bruce's equal. you'll see tons of canon material— tv shows, comics, games, etc.— wherein dick insists that he's batman's partner, not his sidekick. many such connotations about the word "partner" as we all know. and there are popular interpretations about the queer subtext in batman comics. guy who cannot be his true self in the public sphere and thus parades around in fetishistic costumery in secrecy. you know how it is. but not only in batman's character— there was a huge outcry about the homoerotic imagery/subtext between batman and dick-robin in the 40's and 50's (see The Seduction of the Innocent), so I'm not pulling this shit out of my ass. not that i'm saying there's canon truth/weight to these interpretations. they are just that. interpretations.

anyway. not only is dick batman's partner, he's also bruce's partner. his lighter, brighter counterpart. bruce sees himself in dick, and also wants to prevent dick from becoming him (see young justice season 1 episode 22 for THE BEST interpretation of batman/dick's relationship. or just young justice in general). no one else is bruce's partner/equal quite like dick is (jason, tim, etc. are more his sons as mentioned. and they also, unlike dick, possess the fault of actually wanting to become batman, or some version of him). just as batman is responsible for robin's creation, so does robin-dick, in turn, shape batman's character. bruce didn't make dick his/a son as much as dick-robin made bruce-batman a dad. just maybe not his own father. fucked-up of dick to be jealous of jason getting bruce's fatherly-attention but not necessarily even wanting it himself. but it's okay, he made him a father! dick himself, in being the first to create robin, might even be the father-mother of bruce's other children and therefore has a higher role as batman's literal partner. one of my favorite developments in comics EVER is dick becoming damian's pseudo-father/batman. the first quasi-son becoming a father figure to his mentor-father's biological son. canonically, dick even wanted to adopt damian. but none of this can/does make dick bruce's true equal (bruce's true equal is batman, and vice-versa). i'm going to be actively problematic and say that bruce sees dick as something less than his partner and something more than his son. i'd LOVE to see a fic that explores dick's drive to become batman's equal/partner and the proverbial wires crossing because of that drive. i think at this point i'm just gonna have to write it myself 😔.

speaking in a meta-narrative sense, dick was introduced as batman's foil. robin (not necessarily dick, just the role) must project an idealized image of that which must be protected. he is representative of the hope that batman has in not only gotham's future, but his own. there is no point in batman if he doesn't believe he can save the future. in batman managing to save robin, he succeeds in saving gotham. but i mean, does that ever really happen? does batman ever really "save" robin/gotham? if the nature of robin is that which must be protected, robin is also a representative role that must be preserved in order to allow batman to save (and fail in order to save) gotham over and over and over again. robin exists/represents a future gotham that doesn't need batman and stands as a reminder to batman what he chooses to fight for, but robin cannot occupy that future himself (since robin is a condition created by batman and can't exist without him. a perfect gotham would neither need robin or batman. the existence of robin implies that there is a gotham that needs saving and that there is a batman that needs to save gotham). so herein lies the paradoxical tragedy of dick grayson. he needs to grow up in order to be batman's equal (and/or to be his partner in the romantic sense), but batman needs robin to justify his existence. robin, the role, by definition cannot grow up in order to meet his own condition for existence— he cannot exist in the future. when the boy behind the mask is killed/grows up, he ceases to be robin and someone else fills in the role. even when dick grayson grows up and becomes batman himself, he still cannot meet bruce-batman as his equal.

there's a great btas episode "the trial" that explores the idea that batman's existence is the condition that creates the very villains he's meant to stop. whether i agree with that statement is another topic. but it's an interesting and valid idea nonetheless. if robin symbolizes all that is at risk of and must be protected from "perversity" (both in the connotative and literal meaning of the word) what does it mean when the birth of batman is representative of gotham's perversion? you can see why i have issues with the statement that batman is the real cause of all evil in gotham. while i think that it's true that batman is a perversion he is just as much a persona created to do good and does succeed in doing good. he is, very much, the john winchester of comics if you'd like to think about it that way.

anyway this totally got too meta-y, sorry. i do think each robin's relationship with bruce brings up some more interesting questions i'd love to explore (and be asked to explore!!!). can batman ever save robin/jason? can robin/tim ever save batman? as damian, son of bruce, what does it mean to be robin, son of batman? thx for the ask <3

[punkiio]

More infodumps? This time... why does Alan and Deacon work? In the previous ask you said that Dee helps keep the mood light, what with Alan being more on the stoic side. What else?

MAN.... I have so much to say about them I think abt them so much.. Don't even joke lad

So obviously Alan and Deacon met when Alan first found the Railroad. Alan was confused as to how Deacon knew so much about him, but kinda assumed he had met him before and just didn't remember. After the mission to retrieve the lost prototype from their old HQ, Alan was officially part of the Railroad. Deacon was the one who gave Alan the codename "Charmer" sort of as a joke. Since Alan is really quiet and monotone, Deacon kinda made the joke of "Well, aren't you a charmer?" to poke fun at it, since Alan isn't actually. But after all that, Deacon agreed to travel with Alan to help him find Shaun, since it not only involved a Railroad agent but also the whole Institute. Deacon already had the hunch that Alan and that vault had something to do with the gen3 synths, since gen3 synths only started appearing after Vault 111 had opened decades ago (you can find this out by looking through some terminals)

Now for why they work out together so well to me... I mentioned that Alan likes traveling with people who can lighten the mood, but he likes the sort of more introverted personality Deacon has. Alan is very quiet due to a mix of trauma and autism, and I think Deacon would be able to understand that easily. He would be able to understand that just because he's quiet and doesn't smile or show emotion a lot, doesn't mean he's upset or emotionless or anything. Alan doesn't need to put on a mask or anything that he would need to do if it were someone less understanding. They both aren't social people and both don't like being with big groups of people. Like, a big part of at least Alan's attraction to Deacon is the comfort level. What I mean by this is that Alan is selectively / partially mute and sometimes uses sign language when he goes mute. I have a headcanon that Deacon knows a few languages since he talks about reading lots of pre-war books, and one of those languages being ASL. So Deacon is kinda one of the only people out there that can communicate with Alan through ASL. Even if Deacon responds back with his voice while Alan signs, he is still just as happy to be able to communicate with SOMEONE, and having someone around who can translate for him if needed. Deacon is that lighthearted vibe that Alan needs in his life that helps him cope with the wasteland, and Alan has that calm personality that Deacon needs in his life. They kinda just balance each other out.

Alan and Deacon's main "love language" is quality time, and like to just be alone together, but not necessarily doing something together. Sometimes they'll just sit in silence while reading or something. They don't show PDA, and usually only show affection when they two of them are alone, which Alan is usually the one to initiate.

And about Deacon's lying habit.. Alan kinda doesn't care. He believes everything Deacon says because he trusts him, and it kinda frustrated Deacon at first because he's literally trying to teach Alan to not trust people easily. But the thing is, its not that Alan trusts people too easily, its because its Deacon. He trusts those he is close with, not just anyone. Also, Alan sometimes plays along with Deacons lies, even if those lies are him taking all the credit (like after that first mission when Des asks what happened).

They began to get close from traveling together so often, and Alan opened up to Deacon after about a year or two of knowing each other. Alan opened up about his family situation and how it affected him, about his time in the army, and about his dead husband. Deacon was of course understanding, but still wasn't ready to open up about his past. Alan opening up about everything brought them closer. Deacon became the one person Alan was most comfortable around. If they were in a big group, Alan usually liked sitting in the corner of the room with Deacon, who also isn't the most social. He brought Deacon with him everywhere, and could feel like he could tell Deacon anything.

Deacon opened up about his past a while after Alan opened up about his. it was extremely hard for Deacon to do, especially since he had never told anyone before and he didn't know how Alan was going to react about being in the UP Deathclaws in the past. Alan was, of course, very understanding. Alan could see how hard Deacon was trying to get away from his past, and had an even higher respect for him than he had before. Alan reassured Deacon that he was a good person, that he wasn't "everything wrong with the whole Commonwealth". Their bond was now solidified. They could both relate to each other and comfort each other through hard times. Deacon made a promise to be more honest in the future, but Alan didn't find anything wrong with the way he was before. This is around the time Deacon started to call Alan by his real name instead of "Charmer" when in private. Alan began to help Deacon cope with his past, and helped him have a better view of himself. I have a headcanon that Deacon suffers from BPD, and Alan tries to help him cope with it and helps him try to communicate those feelings.

Deacon tried getting rid of his feelings for Alan due to his fear of attachment, but his feelings became so much harder to cope with after Alan risked his life saving him. They were fighting a few raiders and Alan blocked Deacon from getting shot, causing Alan to be shot a few times in the torso and shoulder. They fled from the raiders and took shelter in an abandoned house. Deacon patched him up and took him to Doctor Carrington. 

Deacon was the one who confessed his feelings. Alan and Deacon had set up camp and were eating by a fire when Deacon told Alan he had to talk to him. Deacon explained that he wanted to be more honest, and more honest about his feelings. He confessed that he had romantic feelings for Alan, which Alan confessed that he returned the feelings. He asked Deacon if he wanted to be a thing, and Deacon said yes, just to take things a little slow. Sometime after, Alan asked Deacon if he was okay with potentially being a stepfather. Alan wasn't sure how he'd feel about it, but Deacon reassured him and told him he had always wanted to be a father.

Ummmm I think that is most of what I feel like I have to say about them.. Sorry its really long I have. So many thoughts about them and I think about them so much. It makes a lot more sense if you take Deacon's character a bit more seriously and look past just all the jokes the fandom makes about him.

Here's a few drawings I've done of them that I like... Last two are older but I still like them

[horizon-verizon]

Final Words (For Today or June 1) abt Rhaenyra's writing in F&B

A)

Yesterday recently answered two asks about Rhaenyra's writing HERE and HERE.

It's agreed that a woman putting the same position as a man is not necessarily going to solve misogyny realm-wide/world-wide, right?

...But it is necessary to support a woman facing patriarchal, mobilized violence (the reason to support Rhaenyra as the story is told) when it is going against a woman trying to gain power in her own right as a Queen regnant. A woman who is trying for power for herself, thus is becoming an actor (even with GRRM not really enacting that to the level/proof he should have to make this apparent or to present that conflict of acing woman vs reacting narrative to try to re-objectify her as "unnatural") rather than stay as the object of other men's political self interests. Yes, many men are more narratively active than her during the war--doesn't mean that the story isn't also trying to say she was her own person and that the she was trying to be more than what her society disallowed women to be.

None of what I'm saying means that Rhaenyra should have given anyone a moral or "more real" reason why she should be queen/ruler bc the whole thing is that these in-wrold/real world men don't care abt her showing herself to be a good person or a smart person. They only care that she was a woman who wanted to take claim for herself and not for another man like a man would and is given the asocial graces to do. Rhaenyra is subject, not the object they want her to be.

In lieu of PhoenixAshes/oxymalek's recent video [for how people wrote about Mary I v Elizabeth I and how Elizabeth created a sexless authority for herself, go to 25:50], AND my own many, many posts about why people should still "support" Rhaenyra. Starting from HERE or HERE.

[Again, this is before we talk abt Nettles, bc Nettles is the very last plot point of this story. IF we take Septon Eustace at his word abt how Rhaenyra goes after Nettles specifically in the misogynoirist way {I have doubts bc he talks abt Mysaria and how she convinced Rhaenyra, which was all very suspect and could be another part of his trend of distorting facts...I'm talking about him being a septon and hating "witches"}, THEN Rhaenyra deserves an "end" for that, but not the specific, sexist, femicidal end she actually got! If for nothing else, bc the patriarchal ethical precedent it sets for women; we have to realize that she wasn't murdered bc Aegon was exacting justice for Nettles or any underclass but bec she dared to "steal" what he thought was his by his maleness---thus every women, regardless of her values or abilities , is subject to such estimation and violence. Even within their own classes.]

GRRM is at fault for not allowing Rhaenyra to do else with her dragons or showing hints of her doing stuff "behind the scenes" that made great impact AND doing this while subjecting her to incessant, successive violence without those things in between at the very least BECAUSE she had less limiting circumstances to be "distant" or less active during the war than her inspiration Empress Matilda had in her own war for the English throne.

Ozymalek makes a point to say that:

Empress Matilda was ultimately punished for 2 things:

“exercising political power in her own name”, making her “too masculine in the eyes of many”

the “following” inability to “wield unquestioned political power in the same manner as her male counterparts” thus “making her too feminine in the eyes of many”

The writers and those detractors of Matilda argued toward these two to strengthen the masculine and martial appeal of Stephen.

Which is exactly what Rhaenyra, by the writers, is going through:

having to delegate her armies to Robert of Gloucester OR actively forbidden from making her own armies

Gyldayn and some sources dislike her an berate her for not participating in the war the same exact way a man can; Corlys even says so out of grief after Rhaneys dies. At the same time, they do not ike that she even decided to oppose Aegon at all to reclaim the throne. But at this time, she was still recovering from her miscarriage/stillbirth labors with Visenya, as the book states:

("The Red Dragon and the Gold")

The greens so debilitated her ability to actually feed/protect the people of King's Landing as the war raged on by stealing the entire treasury.

BUT since:

George doesn't address how Rhaenyra tried or didn't try to use Corlys' wealth.

Matilda didn't have a dragon, when she was miles away from England as her half brother Robert of Glouscester was leading armies in her name before her husband George Plantagenet, did.

The men around Rhaenrya (Daemon, Jacaerys, and Corlys) all manage to be active/movers of the war while having lost loved ones (Lucerys & Rhaenys).

Rhaenyra's distance from the war looks like she is just totally lost to her own grief and has no sort of mental resilience...which contradicts how she managed to resist against Alicent (dress) for years and decided to go to war in the first place.

Three different anons have said to me:

Pathologizing motherhood in particular, esp. in relation to women who are also in politics while being mothers. Fathers are never “too mad with grief” to rule competently or make good decisions; only mothers are. .......... Daemon and Corlys are presented as masterful at both politics and military strategy, even while besieged by grief and loss, while Rhaenyra is automatically assigned the trope of hysterical mother unable to make rational or good decisions as a ruler because she’s just too steeped in mourning and later too emotionally volatile to make the right decisions. Which is funny considering that it was Daemon who was presented as emotionally volatile for the bulk of his life (before he married Laena and had his daughters, at least). .......... There’s no sense of balance to her, she does basically nothing but the wrong political moves, when she’s supposed to be the protagonist of this story. .......... Rhaenyra’s seclusion and grief over Luke’s death and her absence from her own war council is blamed for Rhaenys flying to Rook’s Nest alone and getting killed. The narrative even accentuates how detrimental Rhaenyra’s absence might have been to her own war efforts in having Corlys blame her for Rhaenys’ death, and again in having Jace recruit dragonseeds to increase the Blacks’s draconic power at a time when one of their dragonriders is indisposed. I don’t get why Martin uses a mother’s grief so often as a convenient plot device to force passivity, silence and absence on his female characters to fit the requirements of the plot, why it’s always the women who break down, rend their garments and retreat from public life, whereas men react to similar tragedies with anger, pursuit of vengeance and singular political focus.

I maintain that Corlys and the narrative blaming her for not participating enough was actually just part of the sexism (miscarriage and Matilda, again).

But that comes in more for how GRRM undermines his own writing and falls back to gender stereotypes as he is trying to make the point about mobilized gender violence: he builds up a character and then makes her comparatively inactive and seemingly mentally incompetent to her male counterparts....

GRRM could have had Rhaenyra come up with the Dragonseed idea as well as and Jace would go to Cregan Stark and Lady Jeyne to convince them both to fight for his mother and they'd both be hailed. He'd still be using diplomacy on his mother's behalf while Rhaenyra supply them all with more riders. And the narrative of F&B/Gyldayn will praise Jace while giving no praise to Rhaenyra or trying to say that Rhaenrya "should have seen how thjis plan opened her up to betrayal" and try to diminsh this accomplishement. As would be fair, on GRRM's part while highlighting how the book is trying its best to denigrate Rhaenyra.

(There's also the thing where Rhaenyra is killed with her son watching while Matilda lived to see her son crowned.)

It seems Martin just gave Rhaenyra less reason to be as "inactive" as Matilda was. Matilda was in a whole other country and had to depend on Robert of Gloucester to lead her cause on English ground.

Rhaenyra's absence from the war proceedings despite being much closer to the site of the war in Westeros than Matilda was to the war in England being waged in her name could be "explained" by the sources and writers losing reports of her doing things, or they deliberately left them out, or they were done behind closed doors and people refused to allow Rhaenyra to participate...but that sounds like how some articles like this one saying that the maesters/writers/sources could have erased the event of Rhaenys killing tons of people in her escape from the Dragonpit in episode 9 bc the later monarchs didn't want to leave a bad impression on the monarchy . Ignoring how:

Rhaenys was never at the Red Keep in the orig canon

how this is an event that would definitely be recorded if not to denigrate Rhaenyra and the blacks

we still have record of how Aemond killed hundreds of Riverland people and the entire House of Strong (the males at least)

So yes that was bk!Rhaenyra's problem and F&B is writing of her...I still maintain that GRRM had the to make Rhaenyra more active so that some achievements so that Gyldayn and his sources--though obviously green leaning AND anti-female ruler--were forced to include events that several witnesses witnessed and testified. One would work. If she's going to fight, let her fight even if she is not directly in battle as a swordsperson.

Yes, losing a child is different and may seem to justify her distance from the war for her, but part of it that can't be ignored is how:

in its negligence of Rhaenrya in doig as i suggested she could have done at least once, the story GRRM (not Gyldayn!) writes also resupports that men are more equipped to address militaristic catastrophes, solidifying and ignoring how much of that ignores how it encourages men to put aside their emotions for these activities (war stuff) or really anything to do with power-grabbing

historically, women and all manner of Queens have continued to participate or lead wars while their kids or harmed/die or they utilized their kids for war because they had to (Olga of Kiev, who some sources say she had her child-official ruling son declare war by throwing a spear into the ground)

Women like Bergljot Håkonsdatter --- "raised an army to kill a king for murdering her spouse and son -- takes the king's estate, but by then the king had managed to escape her", also "encouraged" "peasants to fight against that king [Google search]

B)

HOWEVER, high-classed women are not shielded from sexist violence. And there is no concept for a republic or a democracy anywhere in Planetos.

There is no material basis for the abolition of monarchy or oligarchy--not for the Starks, Jon Snow, the Lannisters, the Free Cities, etc.

What would happen if Robb Stark, Ned Stark, a Tully, any male lord who took the throne, abdicated the next day, point blank declared to remove every single privilege the nobles had? So why this standard for Rhaenyra?

It's not about supporting Rhaenyra bc you think she's a great ruler, but about calling out & condemning the mobilized patriarchal violence against her--a woman trying to claim power in her own right, not a man's. Which is what the Dance is about!

Rhaenyra--however incompetent GRRM makes her, which is on him--still does not deserve to face the mobilized patriarchal violence suffered, of which the usurpation lead to (as usurpations lead to murdering people most often and Aegon was determined to kill her).

Therefore the abuse clip HotD put out as a featurette AND the show writers justifying her dilution of character from her book self--who never actually relinquished her rights (even as she wasn't directly involved in that war as she could have been)--to the reluctant show!Rhaenyra is an even more sexist rewriting of Rhaenyra than the orig!canon.

Even if she begins to fight/fly around on Syrax burning people in the war in the 2nd season. That's just HotD's way to re-establish the idea that Rhaenrya needs to be a warrior to be a "true" leader and giving themselves license to have Daemon abuse her privately. When we have a lot of reason to believe that bk!Daemon never DVed her, making Rhaenyra subject to DV anyway and then not having her subject show!Daemon to punishment as is her right as his superior (Daemon may be inspiring, but he didn't have the scale of independent forces that Georffrey of Anjou--Matilda's husband--had) exposes her to even more patriarchal violence. She has also less expression of power than what GRRM denies her in canon!

So, yes, supporting Rhaenyra--book or show and esp against someone like Aegon--is always the better choice. It's why I am not "neutral". She gives the opportunity for us to expose the slander used against her from the writers & fans. Like ozymalek said, It's not like fans cared about the smallfolk when the Lannisters or Starks were duking it out for power before Robb died.

It is the mere existence of a precedent of a female ruler in a feudal system where precedents are often the way to make great changes--progress or "severe regress"-- (even when she is mediocre or a genuinely bad ruler) was very important. After the Dance, women in the Targ monarchy had less power & ability to defend themselves until we have Rhaella, Dany's mother. Abused and raped several times with no recourse at all.

Making as if Rhaenyra should have been a "progressive" or feminist and perfectly "moral" woman [ozymalek in video, but I also argued this several times!]:

diminish the realism of the story and rob her of realistic flaws

anachronistic (not of the time)

place conditions not expected of other characters vying for power/the throne

To challenge the audience with what biases they have AND ask who they think deserves sympathy. And it's basically more than just about her.

So don't be this person:

Excerpt of anon's ask:

If Rhaenyra wasn’t a Targaryen, people would have no problem calling her incompetent, stupid, paranoid, hating her for being spoiled, feminine and refined, and shipping Daemon with GNC Nettles, a dark-skinned, foul-mouthed, filthy, and clever bastard peasant girl who managed to tame a dragon and rode into battle (unlike Rhaenyra). Rhaenyra was foolish and cruel when it came to her ruling decisions. Instead of sending Joffrey into the field, utilizing his young dragon’s quick speed for reconnaissance against the fled Hightower-Targaryens (or even sending Addam Velaryon to do so and leaving Joffrey as the rider in the Dragonpit), Rhaenyra instead planned a lavish induction ceremony to name him Prince of Dragonstone (using the city’s precious resources strained by war and winter for a party, exactly like Sansa in TWOW, and flaunting her obviously bastard son as the center of it).

[gl1tt3r-gutz-and-r0b0tz-sl]

I dont necessarily think that fiction has to be sanitized, is more about informing yourself if you were to write about sensitive topics and actually said something about it.

Of course, every experience is different but sometimes real people go through similar things cause fiction is inspired in reality and it feels a bit disrespecful.

It kinda sums up my opinion with booktok in a sense and the romantization of abuse. Like, is ok if you want to write "edgy" things for the sake of edgy, but the trend pisses me of a lot. Especially because SA and abuse should be treated with care in my opinion :/

Of course edgy with no sustance stuff wont communicate a proper message many times. I even made edgy stuff from time to time. And no media is perfect so...

Maybe you are right about idw arcee, that the execution of her story could have been a lot better without taking the main component of it (the force sex, body change) i suppose is more about how you execute the elements than the elements themselves...

Man, writing is hard gutz really hard.

Yeah, I totally get it.

I think we should all just stick to the mass murder and gay kisses with our robots. 😭

also, sorry that I deleted the first post abt us talking about it, I wanted to rework it and I just wasn't able to get out what I wanted to imo

But yeah, somethings maybe should be put off to the side.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

it's the fact that seven wouldn't have existed to be released in july if jimin hadn't gotten that #1 that's crazy. who knows if they would have called jk to get him off his couch if that didn't happen as he didn't even have any plans to release music and they were fine with that until jimin.

It was definitely going to happen. I just think that like crazy only fastened the process, because Jimin unexpectedly got ahead of them and started ticking off a lot of boxes that would make a release be deemed as "successful".

I don't believe for one secod that thing bangpd said about how it happened because Jungkook couldn't write an album. It was going to happen anyways. If he had written anything, it would've happened with the album he'd written. There would've still been songs like seven, but also his own songs.

Two weeks ago or something, there was an article about people discussing what would happen if a member got hot 100 #1 and if it would be the case, like in most groups, of that member's success causing the group's disbandment. Most people assumed that those discussions happened in hybe, I thought that as well at first. Then, I realized it was stuff that strangers to hybe thought; industry people. The article didn't say that hybe had had those discussions, it just said that some people had speculated about that possible scenario.

So, that article wasn't hybe; it was others. Hybe's plan all along has been to do what they did with Jungkook. It just happened earlier because Jimin got there first, much to their demise. It wasn't about them trying to level the playing field and make Jungkook a hot 100 #1 singer like Jimin was in a way to say "there's no successful member in BTS, they'll always be a group"; because everyone could see how different their circumstances were. If the point was leveling the field, they wouldn't have gone the extra mile for Jungkook; or they would've gone it for Jimin as well.

I wrote this in August 2022 lmao, more than a year ago and everything I said would happen, happened.

You could see the smoke as far back as 2021, the mediaplay has been going on for years. Telling FIFA that the members had enlisted and sending him alone when EVERYONE was available to perform as a group, it doesn't get any clearer than that. Putting ONLY his songs on BTS spotify profile, it doesn't get clearer than that. They tried it with seven, too. They put it under BTS name, but his solos complained and it was taken out.

Hybe didn't care if a member was the standout because that's been their plan all along. It just wasn't Jimin and he ruined it a little (a lot) for them. And they had to shut that down quickly.

Now, it begs the question why did hybe want a standout member in the first place, if the group allegedly still exists. To cover the losses they might face during the group's enlistment, okay, that's one way to put it. But wouldn't they have made money anyway without everything they did for Jungkook? They barely spent anything on FACE and Jimin singlehandedly raise their value 15% in one single day. I don't think people realize how much they earned with Jimin, barely moving a finger. Wouldn't it have been a much smarter move to put less money into Jungkook, too, because he would've still earned it back like Jimin did - if Jungkook is allegedly so popular and demanded on his own?

Nonetheless, there was extra intent, extra effort, extra money -so much extra money- put into him that it really makes you wonder why hybe would even want a standout member if the group is "coming back". The industry was worried that one of them might be successful and the group would disband - so instead of hybe saying "no, actually, none of them would ever be as good as the group" hybe said "yes, this one specifically is as good as the group." Why?

(That's a rethorical question for me, because I know groups don't last forever, especially kpop groups; hybe knows that better than me or anyone. But for the sake of argumentation, ignore this and let's pretend there's no answer).

If the goal was to show how amazing and useful and powerful hybe America is, wouldn't six extremely successful soloists show that better than just one? But they didn't even try with the rest. Not even with the one who was literally, at that same moment, proving to be the success story they were looking for.

If seven was a spur of the moment thing after like crazy, they could've instead just pushed like crazy, that had already taken off; but they didn't. There was time and there were opportunities for them to hit the pedal and give it tools for longevity and even more success; but they didnt. That's one of the reasons why I think it was going to happen with Jungkook one way or the other, simply because they wanted it to be him.

And like... What was the point? To have a "pop star" whose career only lasted six months? Because I don't think so.

So which one will be suriving for the long haul? The group or the soloists? If the purpose is to do both like it happens a lot in kpop, there's not going to be nearly enough of any of the two.