#(Do I think logically that the death penalty and vigilante justice is good? No. Do I emotionally feel that certain people should die? Yes.

[leptonyx-constellate]

I see other persecutors talk about struggling existing in their systems and how they feel like they can't get help from their fellow headmates and all that, and it makes me very glad that this collective is... fairly understanding and accepting. Maybe it's the ASPD, the collective anger issues and hostility, or maybe it's just that this collective tends to be very connected and attached to each other. But regardless, I'm glad that I'm in a collective where I'm not treated as evil or dangerous or undeserving of kindness, etc etc, because I'm a persecutor.

(- 🔥)

[rontra]

who The Fuck is manhunter

god this is such a good question. who the fuck IS manhunter. well okay so let me pose a counter-question. what if women sucked and were not fun to hang out with. do we still support their wrongs?

no okay (visibly trying not to laugh) heres the girlcrush of the day. she's got what ive jokingly called "bull-in-a-china-shop lifestyle". her name is kate she's a famous federal prosecutor who specializes in prosecuting supervillains. and brother she loves pushing for the death penalty. one day when she was pushing so so hard for the death penalty, the jury did not go for it. and she got so so so mad that she decided to go find and kill the guy herself

and she liked it.

so she blackmails some guy in the witness protection program into being her gadget guy & from then on she's the vigilante "manhunter" (yay!) who kills bad guys she thinks deserve it. when she's out there she's basically operating on a completely circular logic that goes like "well if i can't kill this villain here, i'll simply get him the death penalty in court (which i'm very good at), and if that falls through, i'll just go back to Plan A (killing him with my own hands)" and it's like girl i think you just kind of Like Killing. good luck with that

it's like what if batman not only loved killing and jumped directly to it every time, but was also working With & Inside the system at the same time to ensure there is no other way for things to end. that's a weird thing to do, right? girl? this is weird?...

& like MAYBE in 2004 america this setup was written to appeal to a certain type of reader who'd go "yeah girl the System never gives the bad guys what they Deserve lets fucking go #justice" . i couldn't really tell you to be honest (and her murder mettle is proven entirely in scenarios that are like "well maybe she's morally in the clear here because the guy in question is a cartoon snake-man who eats people") (to me personally, on its face, this all reads like the origin story for a supervillain lawyer named Death Row or something. but that's just another part of her womanly charm in my eyes.) what i CAN tell you is that deciding to become a coldblooded premeditated killer in her spare time is Really cutting into both her professional and private life and now her ex-husband is suing for full custody of their son

oh yeah. she has a son and she is like a deadbeat mother she never shows up on time she forgets to pick him up and he hates going to her house when it's her weekend she is NOT doing a good job on this one. figuring out how to actually mom this kid is also kind of a thing for her and she DOES figure it out but i have to tell you. her Divorced Milf Who Totally Sucks appeal. VERY High

man. yeah she's always getting her shit pushed in during fights because She Is Just A Lawyer but she just like Walks it off (girl...). she's addicted to nicotine in a major way. she's cold and cranky and would not be fun to hang out with. she's terrible at banter. she actually sucks to the point it makes me feel Bad for her ex-husband who has to keep hounding her like "don't forget to pick up our SON" it's kind of a feat to be honest. she just sort of is charging blindly into things and wrecking her life because she has a chip on her shoulder and Maybe Enjoys Killing but at least she's also got a certain failgirl swag about it

there is a major theme of like, legacy, but crucially (and most interestingly, imo) most of the time kate is completely ignorant of said legacies existing around her while she's stomping through the porcelain with her hooves until they rear up to bite her directly in the ass, which i enjoy very much. she is very much focused on her own thing and consumed by her own motivations and does not really give a shit about these things and it's a major issue every time. even "manhunter" itself is a name that's been used by multiple dc characters (sometimes simultaneously) (including a whole cult), which suddenly becomes a problem for her when someone starts murdering all the other manhunters until she's the only one left standing. uh oh! i was just doing my own thing and thought the name sounded cool! noooo!

there's also the very pointed matter of her gear which is all "borrowed" from just like. the lockup. (girl...) so she's wearing someone else's suit and someone else's gauntlets and using someone else's weapon (actually one of the previous manhunters! there's that manhunter lineage again!) and while the audience is treated to a whole issue elaborating on the backstories of these things, kate herself is completely unaware and uninterested in the significance and legacy of these hand-me-downs because she picked them out at complete random to go do premeditated killing. it's really underscored in an interesting way how much she just is kind of bulldozing straight through everything--whether it's her own life or her proverbial predecessors--towards her own ends

the whole lineage and legacy thing is something of a Theme i guess. especially when it turns out her own biological father is an absolute sicko with a murder charge and he's on his way right now to bulldoze her life for his own ends. that's funny. maybe she's got that serial killer gene from riverdale,

jokes aside i would give her a 10/10 failwife cringemilf rating, with ample extra points awarded for being divorced, for the broken ribs, and for how much i would hate hanging out with her if she were real. this is a certified manhunter post. i hope you enjoyed it.

(reading manhunter 2004 and shaking my head sternly the whole time but also smiling. so people know i don't support the death penalty but i Do support women's wrongs)

[ineskew]

Batman’s reasons for not killing the Joker, rated by someone who’s never read a Batman comic

“Because it would make him just as evil”

Bad. Flawed logic. Stopping a serial killer who refuses to be rehabilitated from continuing to kill means that fewer people die in the long run. Killing one (1) Joker > letting the Joker kill many (∞) innocent people. 2/10

“Because he’s too weak”

Even worse! Having read none of the comics nor seen any of the adaptations I can’t prove this, but I’m willing to bet that at some point in the comics Batman has had the Joker on the edge and it’s only his stubbornness that stopped the dude from dying. Batman’s choice has to be a choice to be interesting, you know? 0/10

“Because it’s a slippery slope of death”

I see this, and I’m ambivalent. Batman surrounds himself with people who keep him morally in check (the Robins, the Justice League), and if he started killing criminals indiscriminately I’m pretty sure someone would say something. An intervention would be held. Probably Alfred would bake something. 4/10

“Because it’s what the Joker wants him to do”

Now we’re getting somewhere! The Joker attempting to use Batman’s violence to make a point about the inherently corrupt nature of humanity is a plot worth pursuing! Batman’s stalwart decency & self-control is his true superpower! It could be sexier, but I’ll jive with it! 7/10

“Because it would be the easy way out”

WEAK. This is worse than all the other bad reasons put together. Not even worth dignifying with an explanation of why it sucks. See Reason #1. -10/10

“Because Batman insists on honoring the justice system instead of appointing himself sole arbiter & executor of justice”

Now THIS is a motivation I can get behind. A complex Lawful Good vigilante hero? Yes, please. Even though Gotham’s criminal justice system is probably corrupt—and at the very least, blatantly ineffective—Batman refuses to undermine its citizens’ right to self-governance just to make his job simpler. I’ve heard he also donates a ton of money to help cure Gotham’s corruption from the ground up? That’s rad!!! Yeah, he’s a filthy capitalist, but at least he’s not taking the death penalty into his own hands. 10/10

“Because it would put Batman out of business”

This one has no grounds in canon but I’m including it because I think it’s fun! Batman is a business-savvy fellow, he knows how supply and demand work. Maybe he just really likes cosplaying as a big ol’ bat! 8/10