#(OK I also added old Info under the 'read more' from the old Pinned post but for the most part Yes this will be new Pinned)

[koushirouizumi]

{Blog P.S.A} For New Followers

Where to Find Me: MY "ABOUT"+F.A.Q {READ FIRST}: Here (About) + Here (F.A.Q)! {People who don't even glance at these before leaving commnts inquiring about my Thoughts on Things get Ignored} [Trust Me I'll Know] AO3: Hikari {Currently/Mainly creating for Digimon, Adventure-related franchise} [also appears at times: 02, tri.~Kizuna~The Beginning, Frontier; less often: Xros Wars {Pt 2 of original XW is my personal favorite}/Young Hunters; Ghost Game; Tamers; Wonderswan games-verse; everything post-02 mainly being original Japanese version based] Other {+Digi}-Sideblogs: izzyizumi (main Digimon blog) hikari-m (official Digimon {news+art} archiving+general Fandom commentary; Asks or follows may come from here, Depending) taichi-x-koushiro (Archiving for Yagami Taichi/Izumi Koushiro as Ship) IF YOU ARE A NEW FOLLOWER OR LURKER, I'd really appreciate if you can send me an Ask (you could also leave a quick introductory comment here, on my pinned post) and introduce yourself (you do not need to expect a response from me), even a short description like name (Pennames are definitely fine!), preferred pronouns (if any) and/or what brought you to my page and what you're staying for (Especially if you were here for resource{s} posts/reblogging, I've been curious if they've been helping anyone!) The reason I am asking this is because lately there's been a huge uptick of spam blogs following with particular "patterns" to their Likes, Follows, etc. and in order to prevent from being softblocked by accident if you are not actively blogging, it'd be great to know in advance if you're a real person. Aside from AO3 the only other 'active' archives of social media that I have are my much older Livejournal and Dreamwidth accounts, and even they're not quite in use these days. However, if you also have active LJs or DWs and actively blog, feel free to let me know too!

{And, for Clarification to anyone "Wondering"}:

[No, I will not discuss related current events further than this or in Tags. Anyone who attempts to push my boundaries on this will get Blocked]

It’d be very, very cool if people could also learn to read my FAQ page linked on the sidebar before sending Asks or interacting directly with either of my blogs or myself, because I’m seriously TIRED of people ignoring it and my rules for interaction.

I am a {diagnosed since childhood} Autistic, G.N.C {Gender Non-conforming} + THEY/THEM Jewish blogger. I reblog about those topics here for that reason. {Also my Ko-fi is here.}

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[multifandom-onigiri]

Ok I’m going to rip off the bandage and talk about the age gap discourse surrounding DarkMilk

I’m going to preface this with a few disclaimers

1. The post is mainly going to center around Dark Choco as a character because there is (unsurprisingly) more to be said about Dark Choco Cookie from what I’ve gathered. (Edit: There was a lot more to be said.)

2. This post isn’t here to force you to change your interpretation or have your take away from this post as “I have to see Dark Choco as this age” or “DarkMilk’s age gap is [insert said range]”. Rather, it’s me presenting an interpretation with an analysis of the game. But nothing about their ages is explicitly confirmed or denied so I could be wrong. You could be wrong too. None of us are the writers.

3. Around half of this post relies on analyzing the Korean names of Dark Choco and Milk. As seen in my pinned post, I’m not Korean so I ran this post through with a mutual who is. That being said, that doesn’t mean this post is immediately 100% right so please correct this post if needed. (To the mutual in question, thank you so much for the help I really mean it.)

A while ago, I found a tweet and then a conversation under it between two users about young prince dark choco’s age based on his name is written in Korean: 어린 왕자.

It’s stated as such on the wiki for Cookie Run Ovenbreak (italicized because we’ll get to this in a bit) but here’s a screenshot in game

There’s two things to note with 어린 왕자

1) 어리다 means young but significantly so (as in the age of the person numerically is small, and thus they can be easily recognized as a child).

2) 어린 왕자 is apparently also the official Korean title for the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Named as such for the young boy dubbed as the little prince and also yeah I’ve never read this book… else I’d have a segment in this post in speculating why this is the case)

Out of curiosity (and also because I hate missing or getting info wrong), I checked the Cookie Run (for Ovenbreak) wiki to confirm that’s how Young Prince was written. And then I rewatched the CRK Dark Mode cutscenes.

Turns out they changed the way they refer to Young Prince Dark Choco: 어린 왕자 다크초코 쿠키-> 젊은 시절의 다크초코 쿠키

Notable changes are:

1) For starters, 젊은 시절의 다크초코 쿠키 directly translates to “Dark Choco Cookie of Youth”. Note that the word prince was added in the English localization and is not included in the original text.

2) 젊다 is a different word that also means young. Specifically, it refers to being young in thought or action. However, it’s not the same type of young (think like how you would treat a baby/toddler vs. how you’d treat an older teen. With a baby, they’ve just started living and thus know very little about how things and people work. It’s cute at times and annoying at other times. On the other hand, teenagers are still children but they’ve lived much longer than babies, so you expect them to be more mature/responsible than a 5 year old). Also unlike 어리다, 젊다 can be used to describe anyone that’s younger than you and doesn’t really suggest a certain age range because it depends on the speaker and the person they’re referring to.

The big question that can be taken away from this is:

1) Why the change from 어리다 -> 젊다 ?

Disclaimer: I’m not Devsisters so I can really only make guesses but here’s the take we ended up with.

The writers for CRK realized that using the word 어리다 ended up making Young Prince Dark Choco seem younger than he should be, and that 젊다 was a more reasonable choice to properly depict Dark Choco’s age.

Something interesting that was brought up in addition to this point while this section was being checked over is that 어린 왕자 다크초코 쿠키 makes Young Prince Dark Choco sound like he’s a naive little boy who doesn’t know anything about the world because he is too young while 젊은 시절의 다크초코 쿠키 makes him sound like he’s a proper aged man who went through lots of things to obtain many achievements.

I’d also like to point out that they also haven’t changed the way they refer to Young Prince Dark Choco in CROB. It’s still 어린 왕자 다크초코 쿠키 (and I took the screenshot yesterday as of writing this to double check). And both CRK and CROB are treated as mainline games (but probably alternate universes) that are no more canon than the other.

If you ask me what this possibly means, I really don’t have an answer LOL

“So if they aged Young Prince Dark Choco up in CRK, how much older is he supposed to be compared to? Is it possible they aged him up to be an adult?”

The answer to these questions can be found on a specific post posted on March 25th, 2022 by @ gingerbrave_dev on instagram (and @ GingerBrave_Dev on twitter). Gingerbrave_dev is one of the official Cookie Run accounts.

It’s a collage of 4 pictures that depict Dark Choco Cookie growing up. The caption on both Instagram and Twitter is the same which reads as follows:

The important thing here is that Young Prince Dark Choco is *included* in this collage which is said by an official Cookie Run account to be a depiction of his childhood.

Meaning that it’s more likely that if there’s a possible cutoff for Young Prince Dark Choco’s age, the oldest Young Prince Dark Choco could be is 18. (The age range for adolescence, the last stage of child development, is between 13 - 18). But because they include Young Prince Dark Choco in this post, I personally think that Young Prince Dark Choco isn’t meant to be an adult overall.

(Ok quick edit: Adolescence is apparently the transitionary stage between childhood and adulthood but tbh I’m not sure if most people sit down and double check that every exact piece of info aligns with the correct word and definition when designing a character).

And that’s pretty much all I have on official statements and canon that directly (not really) talks about Young Prince Dark Choco’s age.

However, I want to shift the focus from discussing directly about what his age is to why I personally read Young Prince Dark Choco more as a teenager.

When I first saw Young Prince Dark Choco back in 2019, what stuck out to me was the stark contrast between this past version of Dark Choco and his current self. Young Prince Dark Choco is so much more hopeful and driven compared to his current self. He exudes a lot more confidence based on his lines and his main goal in CROB is to save his kingdom by gaining more power. We get the implications from how pessimistic current Dark Choco is that his own actions (obtaining the Strawberry Jam sword) leads to his kingdom’s downfall and he regrets those actions from his past.

For me, that was how I originally concluded he was a teenager. And honestly, I never really reflected about the actual reasoning until we started having this discourse 2 years later because the headcanon just seemed really natural to me.

Fast forward to January/February 2021 with the release of Cookie Run Kingdom, which ended up giving us a lot more lore on Dark Choco. There are two things that are relevant to my proposition of Dark Choco being a teenager.

1) The CRK Artbook

First released during the game’s release, it contains concept art of the world building and the characters (playable characters at the start of the game + ancients + legendaries), who get their own page or two to themselves.

I’m pulling this image off the internet because the one thing that stands out to me and that is also relevant to what we’re talking about is that the current Dark Choco presents more similarly to when he was a child (they’re both quiet and hold serious expressions on their faces).

Meaning that Young Prince Dark Choco is confirmed to not be Dark Choco’s original personality (for lack of better words. I don’t know how to word this better). And seeing Dark Choco and Dark Cacao standing next to each other, you can see how much they resemble each other. Like father, like son.

So the question is: why is Young Prince Dark Choco’s demeanor completely different from when he was younger?

Personally, I think the answer is much more simple than one might think: Young prince Dark Choco was a teenager. More specifically (and this is how I’ll segueway into the next section), Young Prince Dark Choco was an earnest teenager prince who began to question and challenge the traditions/structure of the Dark Cacao Kingdom and of his father.

2) Dark Choco, Dark Cacao, and the Generational Divide that Drives Them Apart

The release of Dark Mode would bring both a lot more long-awaited lore for Dark Choco, and also Dark Cacao Cookie, who piqued people’s interest especially since he is Dark Choco’s father.

The most significant moments happen through the magic-induced flashbacks Dark Choco is forced to relive through, where Young Prince Dark Choco interacts with multiple people. This includes his Dark Cacao, who is the only person to have two separate flashbacks.

The first flashback is a conversation between Dark Choco and Dark Cacao which will be posted below:

What Dark Choco says here stands out to me: “Our Kingdom is in need of change…! We can’t keep hiding behind our walls!

The Dark Cacao Kingdom’s walls is a major subject of Chapters 13 and 14, as one of the main conflicts in that chapter is between the people and Dark Cacao. The villagers outside the kingdom’s walls have been struggling with food shortages and attacks from wild animals. They’ve been trying to contact the king for help but Affogato intercepts and closes the door on them before they can. Meanwhile, most of the resources are being used on maintaining the kingdom’s walls, which causes a change in the portion of the food Dark Cacao’s subjects are receiving. Affogato takes advantages of this to try to cause dissent among Dark Cacao’s court, which was his original plan until the Cookies of Darkness show up.

What’s revealed about why Dark Cacao spends so much time and resources on maintaining the kingdom’s walls is that the walls serve as a safeguard against the Licorice monsters in the Licorice Sea from overtaking the land and eventually the entire world. We get to see a great example of this as Licorice Cookie summons a gigantic Licorice Monster that proceeds to break down a significant portion of the walls.

So from what we read in chapters 13 and 14, we can conclude that the walls is very necessary in protecting the Dark Cacao Kingdom and the Licorice Monsters are nothing to be laughed at. They’re formidable enemies.

It’s very likely from the way that the walls are Dark Cacao’s #1 priority rather than directly addressing whatever is happening with the villages outside the walls that Dark Cacao probably has had previous firsthand experience with the Licorice Monsters and consider them that much of a serious threat.

From the way Young Prince Dark Choco talks to Dark Cacao in the flashback, it sounds like he doesn’t share the same perspective as Dark Cacao.

This is why I think Young Prince Dark Choco being a teenager is a major factor into this difference of perspective.

The thing about teenagers is that during that stage of life, they are going through a lot or at least they think they’re going through a lot because that’s when puberty starts to kick in and the hormones start jumping over the place.

They start questioning their identity. Who they are, what they want to be, what their role is in society. They’re trying to figure out how to be their own person.

They can start questioning the rules. Why am I doing [insert here] ? Why doesn’t Mom and Dad let me do this and that? Why do I have to do this? And because of this, they can become defiant and challenge authority and even what they previously just accepted as fact.

Because of this, teenagers take risks and can make bad or stupid decisions all the time. They end up clashing more with their parents because their parents recognize that their kid will regret what they’re doing later due to the consequences their kid will have to face (and possibly even due to firsthand experience when they themselves were teenagers).

I think all of this applies to this particular flashback.

a) Questioning

Young Prince Dark Choco argues that the kingdom, and by extension, the way Dark Cacao runs it needs to change. He describes kingdom’s walls not as defense, but as a means to hide, which frames the amount of time that the people of the Dark Cacao Kingdom have been living behind as a sign of fear/cowardice. This is also in response to Dark Cacao telling him that he’s still young and has a lot to learn. The flashback seems to throw us, the reader, right into the middle of the conversation without any previous context but with Dark Choco’s response, I think the conversation they were having is overall related to Young Prince Dark Choco’s response.

b) Identity

Something to keep in mind that every person is unique and how they grow up is largely influenced by their environment (the family and friends around them, their socioeconomic status, etc).

Young Prince Dark Choco is not your average human being Cookie. He is the son of Dark Cacao, who is the one of the most powerful cookies in the entire cast outside of the legendaries and the dragons, a warrior known for his abnormal strength (the sword he uses takes 3 regular cookies to carry it) and heroic deeds (like splitting the White and Black Dragon which is treated like a legendary tale), and due to all of the previous, an esteemed king beloved by all of his subjects.

By being the son of Dark Cacao and therefore, the prince of the Dark Cacao Kingdom, Young Prince Dark Choco had a whole legacy to live up to. And although we know Young Prince Dark Choco ends up not being able to live to that legacy due to the Strawberry Jam Sword, we do know from other characters that Dark Choco at that time was doing really well.

Note that if Caramel Arrow, the First Watcher, says that Dark Choco Cookie taught her how to use the bow, then that means that he is most likely also exemplary not with just swordsmanship but also archery as well.

Also don’t forget about how Dark Choco saves the Milk Village from a pack of cream wolves, which leaves a great impression on the Milk Cookie we know.

For the most part, I think Young Prince Dark Choco cares about the people and the kingdom he lives in. He seems very earnest in wanting to help his kingdom from what can be seen in his costume lines in CROB.

But I also think there’s one more underlying possibility behind Young Prince Dark Choco’s character: Young Prince Dark Choco wants to be a hero like his own father because he wants his father’s approval.

In Chapter 14. Dark Choco and Dark Cacao have a very heated conversation right before they try to kill each other. In this conversation, Dark Choco talks about the grievances he’s held against his father over the many years since he was banished. One of the grievances that he mentions is about how he wishes his father cared about him more.

(Note: There’s been issues with the ENG dub for Ch 13 and 14 where the localization makes Dark Choco come off as harsher and more insensitive (so to speak) even if it’s not accurate to the original text.

For the first screenshot, a more accurate translation would be “Ever since I was little, you didn’t give me anything sweet and treated me harshly. We were not even close as father and son like other people.”

Second screenshot is fine.)

This is later acknowledged by Dark Cacao himself as who says after they finish their heated conversation, fight, and finish their sword fight with Dark Cacao defeating Dark Choco: “It is clear as day now… My life’s greatest regret is that I never gave you enough… love”. (And this acknowledgment and really the confrontations leading up to the acknowledgment is the key to Dark Choco finally being able to break away from the sword, but that’s an analysis for another day).

There’s also these illustrations from the art book that stand out to me in this regard (and also makes me depressed). The first illustration showcases young Dark Choco walking behind his father and in his shadow. It actually gets redrawn in a different perspective in the collage of Dark Choco’s childhood I showed earlier, where it adds the detail of young Dark Choco tugging at Dark Cacao’s cloak. In the second illustration, Dark Choco is holding onto the Strawberry Jam sword and staring down at Dark Cacao, who is seated and bent over.

The thing that stays consistent is that Dark Cacao’s back is turned towards him, and I think this represents both this distance in their relationship and Dark Choco’s inability to ever connect with Dark Cacao very well.

I think the combination of his accomplishments during this part of his life and his desire to be closer to his father and gain his approval causes Dark Choco to start both overestimating his abilities and coming to the wrong conclusions. And I don’t necessarily mean this as “Dark Choco became arrogant” because even Dark Cacao says it himself: “What a bright and responsible child he was… Kind, humble…”

But I do believe the reason Young Prince Dark Choco’s costume lines in CROB and the monologue Dark Choco gives after he decides to quit working for Dark Enchantress talks about power and how he was looking for it is because Young Prince Dark Choco wrongly assumed that the kingdom’s problems were a result of not having enough power and then concluded that he could solve those issues if he found a way to become more powerful.

And with what I talked about earlier about how Dark Cacao most likely considers the Licorice Monsters a serious threat that can’t instead just be simply dealt and done with, there’s a chance that Dark Choco not only overestimates his own abilities but also underestimates how powerful and dangerous the Licorice Monsters are because he’s likely never had any firsthand experience with them in his lifetime unlike Dark Cacao.

And my guess is that Dark Cacao noticed this and tried to advise Dark Choco against this conclusion, and that’s what at the root of the first flashback between Young Prince Dark Choco and Dark Cacao.

3) Defiance

Unfortunately, the last two sections I’ve just talked about ends up leading to what we know ends up happening to Dark Choco. He does not listen to Dark Cacao. He finds the Strawberry Jam Sword, believing that it’ll give him the power he needs to solve his problems. Instead he falls prey to what the sword whispers to him, and this results in slashing his father in the chest. This results in Dark Cacao banishing Dark Choco from entering the Dark Cacao Kingdom.

TDLR for this section: The difference in the years of experience between Dark Choco and Dark Cacao causes a major clash between them on how to tackle the Dark Cacao Kingdom’s current issues. Out of both an earnest desire to help the Kingdom he grew up in and the people he grew up with and cares about and a desire to gain his father’s approval by striving to be the type of hero his father is, Dark Choco looks for the Strawberry Sword and falls victim to its powers, which heavily damages the relationship between father and son all the way until Chapter 14 of CRK.

You’ve probably reached this part still absorbing a bunch of information and speculation I’ve thrown at you. Unfortunately, I still have to talk about Milk so yes the post somehow still isn’t over. Luckily or unluckily (depending on how you interpret it), there’s a lot less stuff I can really say about his age, and there won’t be a very extensive character analysis like there is with Dark Choco because Milk Cookie does not have nearly the amount of lore or dedicated writing as Dark Choco does.

Milk in the Dark Mode flashbacks in CRK is referred to as 우유 일족의 어린 쿠키 which translates to Young Cookie of the Milk Tribe. As you can see, the word 어리다 is used to refer to Milk, indicating that Milk Cookie was definitely a child. He’s nowhere close to being an adult.

Unlike with Dark Choco, there really aren’t any other details in his backstory that really suggest a certain age range. The most prominent characteristics about Milk Cookie is that he is strongly attached to his beliefs, and within those beliefs is the belief that Dark Choco is an infallible hero that stems from what happened in the past. The root of that belief is admiration, and admiration… isn’t an age-specific trait. You can look up to many types of people and have role models at any point of your life.

I think really the one thing that does get indicated is that Milk is undeniably younger than Dark Choco.

The first image is the concept art for Milk Cookie that was released around Milk Cookie’s release (I assume. I didn’t see this until 2-3 years later). The second image is from the background of Milk’s doctor costume’s gacha art in CROB.

I think that stands out to me the most is that after staring at it, both of these share a pretty similar height gap between them. However, the second photo makes both of them seem taller especially Milk because of Dark Choco’s legs, which are almost half of his body, gets cut off by the photo. The first image also makes Dark Choco seem a lot bigger because of how it’s sketched out (the shoulder pads and cloak end up making Dark Choco look a lot bigger than he actually is in general LOL).

If you asked me to try to gauge the age gap between these two photos, the only thing I’d tell you really is that there’s no way it’s a 10-15 year age gap; height gap is way too short for that. But I can’t tell you a definitive guess because I’m going to be honest: Cookie Run does not do a great job telling you the ages of characters and just leaves it up to the reader to interpret themselves. There’s not really a standard for what a teenager looks like in Cookie Run, and I feel like that’s the reason why people in this fandom really sort characters into either children or adults. It’s because of this that I also think that nobody in the fandom really knows how to determine that themselves, or else I wouldn’t have written a whole analysis on why I think it’s actually reasonable to see Dark Choco as a teenager in this post. (And there’s also a few other characters that have also gone through age discourse but I don’t want to even touch that right now at all LOL).

(Edit at 12:22 pm because I feel like I need to add this: It’s not the fandom’s fault for not being able to determine ages. It’s solely on Devsisters alone because if the writers aren’t clear, then it’s much harder for the fandom to agree upon anything.)

I also think that realistically you can’t really… come up with an infallible standard for how tall a person is supposed to be at a certain age because people grow up differently depending on multiple factors. People of the same age group aren’t all the same height or weight in real life.

And it’s even more difficult to tell literally anything if the writers refuse to actually confirm anything clearly and instead use vague descriptive terms.

That being said, I can’t actually point at you and say you’re wrong because of what age gap you give to Milk and Dark Choco because as I said in the beginning of this post, I don’t know anything. I also think it does go both ways though, and less people should stop acting like their interpretation has been completely canonized.

But at the end of the day, we’ll keep reading the same stories from the same franchise and interpret how we want to. I HC DarkMilk with a two year age gap. You don’t have to agree (and I bet a lot of people don’t LOL). And that’s okay.

If you ask me whether I’ll make another post talking about this topic, the answer is an absolute resounding no because I think this is the most in-depth I could possibly be about this topic to the point this is definitely my longest post ever. I don’t think there is anything else I can say.

If you liked this analysis, you don’t need to do anything. If you’re extremely tired from reading this, this is the most understandable reaction to this post, and I hope you have a good day.

[currentfandomkick]

Bio! Dad Strange part 4

Shorter but a paris update for her life and a little on gotham with Jason as Robin while Tim is a hero Stalker.

Marinette is 7 when she changes schools, ordered into the Dupont school chain by her teachers since she was getting ‘difficult’ and contradicting their ciriculum. When they challeneged her on this, she went to the school board with Rolland beside her of all people.

The board agreed on one thing, Marinette’s contradictions were not only factually correct, but were done to prevent the outdated ciriculum from hurting her classmates. Instead of punishing her, she got to skip a gade and was given to Dupont as a ‘highly reccomended gifted student’.

Her first day she met Max, who also skipped a grade. The pair bond in five seconds over a new programming focused on learning emotional intelligence. Uncle Riddler was showing her it, and Max got his hands on a various ai bases. This led to then teaming up and designing the one and only Markov together, if only in schematics.

A week in and the two notice that some kids are being followed around by a guy with a bat. They report it. Again and again, but no one can find him.

One day he catches the pair on their way to Max’s—they wanted to work on their ai together, ok? The guy tries to hit Max, saying something about them being lucky metas that needed to suffer.

Marinette’s gotham training kicked in. She caught the bat, ripped it away from him and hit him in the chest with it, while yelling at max to run.

At the end of the incident, videotaped by a bystander, the Dupont Stalker was arrested.

Marinette was given another name by the police, ‘fille de batte’ or bat girl. Her having family in gotham only made the nickname more popular.

This put her on Kim and Alix’s radar. Kim wanted a challenge for fighting and competitions, and this tiny kid did that—to an adult! New friend and rival!

Alix was went from shock to joy as Marientte does art. She does art. Art friend to rant to found!

Nino ran into Marinette not long after Kim and Alix attached themselves to her and Max. Nino became their judge for Kim challenges. Including Mari pinning Kim to the mat, or deciding who did a circus move better (Mari won acrobatics).

Chloe doesnt go to dupont until next year, and sabrina is in another class, mildly concerned for Marinette.

In this au, again, Dupont is considered a ‘i would not be shocked if there were metas there’ school for gifted kids in any way.

Marinette is sent there for her insane science obsession at the time, but is also put in their arts program with Alix to develop as an artist with her medium, fabrics and fashion.

And if marinette redesigns hero outfits as “monsiuer ross, scribbles have more style, let alone fashion sense” alot, well. Kids get obsessed a lot and the Justice League is a common one, as are known villians. Her everyday outfits having different hero schemes—oddly enough some forensic scientist she’s obsessed with from some american city ended up in her mix—well. She’s a kid and showing signs a few types of anxiety.

Possible social and OCD and a developing case of perfectionism common to the arts program. The school has her see a therapist and know she isnt telling them everything beyong mild concern for her gotham family, and confusion over people just ‘not getting things’ as she is terribly smart and good at finding patterns and how do people not see it?

By the end of the year Marinette is in a strong friend group who’s parents and hers have decided to have joint custody during the school year.

She was now (forced) to learn vietnamese from Kim’s Grandparents, italian from Rolland (her nonno that has a Thing for tradition and somehow married Gina and raised Tom mostly on his own while running the bakery to boot), english from Father/Strange, Mandarin from her Maman and she started Arabic to talk with Nino’s aunt who kept saying marinette was her future in-law and point out that nino and her are friends, not dating ma’am.

However, Nino endured most of this with her-not the italian or Mandarin, but the others. Kim couldnt get Arabic but mandarin was a breeze for him. Alix cannot get vietnamese or arabic but Mandarin is her jam after french. Max just speaks french and english, he understands the others he just cant get the sounds right, ok?

When Marinette goes back to Gotham that summer, she ends up dealing with Hero Stalker Tim (jason is robin now) while looking for Red Hoodie who No oNE is telling her what happened and she’s worried, ok?

Tim feeds her obbsession with fixing problems. He sometimes sends her building layouts of places Catwoman stole from. And then the jewlry reappears thanks to a nervous Marinette coached by Rose and Ghoul while Frost handles her post-fix it freak out. Tim also may or may not get helped by her alot during Batman Stalking Time as she teaches his butt how to sneak and complains he’s worse than penguin.

Tim hates that, works on it, and still has nonidea who she is. He does admit to figuring out who batman may be, but needs more evidence so...

Marinette hits him becuase “thats dangerous!” And tries to lecture him in identites.

Batman’s radiowave was used for said lecture.

“And it puts their families in danger you, uh, hero stalker! And stuff so no more identity investigations!”

“They have the same builds, and did signsture moves from—“ the signal cutout.

He and Jason are more careful... ish. They change channels and monitor the old one.

Sometimes Batman catches Marinette and Tim talking about coldcases and she has asked three times if he heard anything about Jason’s street kid identity. Jason is feeling guilty about this as she’s his Pixie Pop. This lets Bruce know that the probably-clark’s-kid would keep Jason away from GCPD and CPS.

When a convo leads to Batman finding out Tim and Marinette have considered asking the police for help with a case of medicine that needed to be recalled as it was beign used to mule drugs contaminated the batches and hurt patients, but turned it down after she saw some taking bribes from Fish, Batman lets Gordon know and an investigation is launched.

While Bats is away, Jason visits marinette as Robin and tries to get her to bats for more information and a lecture on heroing without adult supervision. Maybe.

Only she’s currently stealing from a sleeping selina at another HQ. A Selina who has stopped trying to stop marinette and let riddler turn her house into one of his ‘traps’ to stop Marinette’s ‘return theiving’.

Jason gets stuck in a trap. Marinette is gone by then, scared Robin will tell Superman about her and he’ll hurt her family or something.

Catwoman is annoyed at Marinette’s sucess. She goes to stop the girl after leaving him tied up for Batman with a message: leave her new kitten-to-be alone.

Follow up talk post-Caught Marinette reverse theiving.

“Blame the Council’s decrees. She’s their little princess, and my new neice,” Catwoman watched Batman carefully.

Confused Batman in interrogator mode. “You mean the Court of Owls, arent they disbanded?”

“Bats, the council is gotham’s underground. Apparently Two-Face made the contracts as penance for scaring the Princess during a breakout. Unless you want an organized attack by the council, steer clear of her.”

Batman conencts the dots and curses himself. The girl he was looking for last summer is the Princess of Gotham’s underground. It will be hell finding her. And Superman/Clark will lose it when he’s told.

He lets the JL know about it, saying ‘possibly kyptonian clone, female child. Gotham’s underground is calling her their Princess. Connor and Kidflash tailed her last summer during the arkham breakout while Robin was with the Titans. Be alert for a small asian girl.’

That was how Marinette ended up on the JL watch list and how Superman had another existential crisis.

Dick freaks out with the Titans over this. Becuase kyltonian raised by villians is terrifying. Jason forwarded the message and adds on “she’s a good kid and wants to help. Somehow keeps zsasz and joker from killing people, so its not good to take her away or issolate her from the villians if you find her. From what i remember, she is terrified of her family beign put in danger. The others wont listen to me. If you can, pass this along to the other sidekicks and your allies—none of them trust me enough to listen. I cant talk to her as a civilian like i used to either for obvious reasons. And she’s terrified of me-Robin. Maybe you can get through to her, or someone else can. Just talk to her first, she’s more reasonsble than she looks”

Dick doesnt read the add on until much later and regrets it.

He met marinette once. She was a very excited kid babbling about aerodynamics in acrobatics and asking about that. Not hero things, not power things, or justice league but That.

He tried to be nice but he was having a horrible mission, saw the girl floating as she rambled and tried to grab her.

She freaked out and bolted, sort of. He got slammed into a building, or would have had she not caught him, rambled in french while trying to apologize (he was a but stunned from the throw, and rebooting as villian-kyptonian was... nice?) and put him on the roof, hit his communicator and said one thing.

“I think i broke your robin? All are robins like bird bones or something?”

He regained a functioning brain as that. That was something he could respond to.

“I am human thank you!”

That seemed to be enough for her as he moved to get up. She waved bye and bolted, something about Rose being mad at her for being late...

“Titans. I think we might have been wrong about the kid...”

Later with Young Justice the info was passed on.

Jason asked if anyone read his attachment and was met with silence. He groaned and told them “so another team she’s going to avoid... great.”

Marinette added the titans to her list of ‘people to aviod—tetch and Jerimah were the worst. Luthor and Cadmus were under them. Then the entire Justice League (they would tell batman or superman. Snitches.), followed by GCPD, CPS, the Bat Family and now Titans. She wonders if she needs to add anyone else, and hates that she cant talk to heroes. They could help with controlling her powers instead of suppressing them but she cant trust them not to give her to superman like batman did with Rose to Poison Ivy and she’s pretty sure Superboy too.

Next time, times marinette accidently put together identities and curses Hero Stalker Tim for her now knowing.

[elizabethcariasa]

New filing season + new tax law = new Form 1040, schedules

Just like the Highlander character of film and television fame, the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under which we're now filing our 2018 tax returns says there can be only one. One Form 1040, that is.

The Internal Revenue Service today begins processing millions, if you go by the agency's prior filing season data, of early-filed tax returns.

IRS staff are going to face more than the usual filing season chaos since most of them are coming back to work after 35 days of being shutout. (Short story: Get ready for some delays.)

Filers, too, are in for some challenges.

Now only did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) make the most changes to the tax code in more than 30 years, the documents we use to comply with the tax laws have been revised, too.

I took a look at the Schedule A that itemizing taxpayers use in my earlier filing checklist post. Today, here's a review of the new — and now only — Form 1040.

There can be only one: Yes, Highlander fans, the "only one" catch phrase also now applies to the form that we use to report our annual income to the IRS.

In the past, we had a choice of three 1040s: the long 1040, which has been around since the dawn of what we call the modern tax code in 1913; the slightly shorter 1040A; and, as the name implied, easiest to complete 1040EZ.

Now everyone one, regardless of how simple or complicated their tax situation, will use Form 1040.

And despite decades of promising a postcard-size tax return, the TCJA didn't quite get us there.

Rather, the new 1040 is about the size of an over-sized postcard. OK, so the politicians sort of kept their promise. Sorta.

But it has lines to complete on both sides. So it really can't be sent in like a postcard.

And that also-promised tax simplification? It doesn't show up in the new 1040.

This reduction in Form 1040 tax entries — the new document goes from the prior form's 79 numbered lines to 23 — means that many taxpayers will have to use one or more of the new schedules associated with the revised Form 1040.

3 1040 forms 1040 - 2 = 6 new tax documents: How many new schedules?

By consolidating three prior 1040 forms into one, the TCJA new forms math means the IRS has created six new numbered schedules. I'll get to these a bit later, promise!

And these new forms are in addition to the existing lettered schedules like Schedules A, B, C, D, E and F.

Now you're starting to realize why you use tax software or take your taxes to a professional for preparation and filing. And that federal lawmakers don't know the definition of simple.

Realistically, the good news is that a lot of us will only need to file the new Form 1040 without any added schedules. (Not the hubby and me. Our taxes, like our life together, is way too complicated, but that's for another post. Maybe even another whole blog. But I digress.)

So why, you probably are asking right about now, should you keep reading?

Because I'm still somewhat old-school when it comes to taxes. I long ago learned that by examining the forms, you get a good idea of the tax laws and sometimes even a glimpse into the tax policy that created them.

If that interests you — and I hope, since you're here at the ol' blog, it does — buckle up. Here goes!

Form 1040: First, a look at the new 1040 itself. The IRS released a draft version last summer to generally scathing reviews.

After taking that criticism and additional comments into account, the tax agency gave us an early Christmas present (yes, that holiday is kind of weird in our house) with last December's release of the new tax year 2018 Form 1040.

That's the new 1040 atop the older version below.

If you want an up-close-and-personal look, you can download the new Form 1040 and its instructions.

Here are some highlights.

New Form 1040 Page 1: There are several items that are the same on the new Form 1040. Most notably, atop this revised tax return are the same blocks, although resized in some cases, you've always seen.

They are where you enter your name, your spouse's name if you're married and filing a joint return and your Social Security number(s).

You still choose a filing status.

And you still tell Uncle Sam about the folks you can claim as tax dependents.

Your health care coverage info now goes on page 1. Yes, that Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, requirement is still there. The Republican removal of the reporting requirement didn't take effect until this year, so you won't have to worry about it when you file your 2019 taxes next year.

But for 2018, you still have to mark the checkbox that's moved from page 2 to page 1 to tell Uncle Sam that you had acceptable medical coverage last year or were exempt from having to buy a policy.

A quick tip here. If you're still searching the new Form 1040 for where to enter your personal exemptions amount, stop. These write-offs were eliminated by the TCJA. Tax law change advocates say that most of us won't miss these amounts thanks to the new, larger standard deductions. We'll see.

  After entering all that info, the new 1040 has a place for your signature (and your spouse's if you're married filing jointly), along with the date, your occupation and your Identity Protection PIN if you got one of these identifying numbers in connection with tax identity theft.

There's also the block for your paid tax preparer, if you used one, to enter his or her information and sign and date.

These signature blocks and associated info used to be on page 2.

A quick tip here. Even though this filing requirement now is on page 1, don't fill out these sections — that is, don't sign your return — until you've finished filing. An incomplete form that has a signature is like a blank check for an unscrupulous tax preparer.

  As for the new 1040 page 2 …

New Form 1040 Page 2: All your income information that used to be on page 1 of Form 1040 now is on page 2, aka the back of the form if you printed it out.

The IRS still wants you to report on your 1040 all your wage and salary income, which generally is on the W-2 you get from your employer. This goes on line 1 of page 2.

You'll also enter on this line any tips, etc. you got. The specific "etc." considerations are detailed in the 1040 instructions.

A quick tip here. Don't add any earnings you got as a sole proprietor, contractor, freelancer or from gig jobs — basically the information you report on Schedule C or C-EZ, which are still around — on this first line of page 2. These amounts now are reported on Schedule 1 (more on all the new schedules in a minute), which essentially looks like the bulk of the page 1 lines on the old Form 1040, and go on the new Form 1040 line 6. Again, yay software and tax pros!

  Some other sundry income items, such as tax-exempt interest, qualified and ordinary dividends, Social Security and other retirement benefits, are reported here, now on lines 2 through 5.

Small businesses will note line 9 is for the new qualified business income, aka Section 199A, deduction.

The TCJA enhanced child tax credit and new one for other dependents is on line 12. The still-in-place Earned Income Tax Credit and other credits for which you might qualify go on line 17.

And, oh yeah, the option to claim the tax-reform increased standard deduction amount is on line 8.

Amid all these entries and directions to subtract or add are places for your taxable income computation, as well as for any taxes you already paid, either through payroll withholding and/or estimated taxes and your ultimate total tax amount.

That tax figure will determine, based on how much you had withheld or submitted as 1040-ES quarterly payments, whether you'll get a refund (which will show up on line 19) or have to write the U.S. Treasury a check (that's now on line 22).

Migrating adjustments: Wait! What happened to those above-the-line deductions that used to be at the end of the old 1040 and helped cut your gross income to a lower adjusted gross income (AGI) amount, which is now line 7 on the new Form 1040?

Some of these write-offs are still around. But now they've moved to the new Schedule 1 (again, more on 2018 schedules in a minute).

You'll find on Schedule 1 this filing season the option to claim:

Educator expenses

Certain business expenses of reservists, performing artists, and fee-basis government officials (you'll still need to fill out Form 2106)

Health savings account deduction (and Form 8889)

Moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces (and Form 3903)

Deductible part of self-employment tax (and Schedule SE)

Self-employed SEP, SIMPLE and qualified plans

Self-employed health insurance deduction (NOT the ACA health insurance you checked off on page 1)

Penalty on early withdrawal of savings

Alimony paid and the spousal support recipient's Social Security number (yes, this isn't changed by the TCJA until 2019)

IRA deduction

Student loan interest deduction

A couple of lines are reserved in case Congress gets around to renewed some of these deductions, which were part of the tax extenders package that expired.

Whew! It's good to know these still are around, albeit on another form.

Six new schedules: Schedule 1 has gotten a couple of mentions in this discussion of the new Form 1040.

It's likely to be the most used of the new forms attached to the revised tax return lone form.

But we can't ignore the others. As threatened promised, the table below offers a quick synopsis, courtesy the IRS, of what's on all the new TCJA Form 1040 schedules. If you want to see specifics, just click the schedule name links to see the forms (in PDF format).

If you …

Then use …

Have additional income, such as capital gains, unemployment compensation, prize or award money, gambling winnings. Have any deductions to claim, such as student loan interest deduction, self-employment tax, educator expenses.

Schedule 1

Owe Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) or need to make an excess advance premium tax credit repayment.

Schedule 2

Can claim a nonrefundable credit other than the child tax credit or the credit for other dependents, such as the foreign tax credit, education credits, general business credit.

Schedule 3

Owe other taxes, such as self-employment tax, household employment taxes, additional tax on IRAs or other qualified retirement plans and tax-favored accounts.

Schedule 4

Can claim a refundable credit other than the earned income credit, American Opportunity Credit, or additional child tax credit. Have other payments, such as an amount paid with a request for an extension to file or excess social security tax withheld.

Schedule 5

Have a foreign address or a third-party designee other than your paid preparer.

Schedule 6

Are you ready to file now? Probably more like overwhelmed.

Final filing tips: But things should be manageable, especially if your use tax software or have a tax pro on retainer.

All you tax software users, just make sure that when you open it you do let it update so that you have all these and other IRS forms you might need this first year of filing under the new tax laws.

If instead you turn over your taxes to a professional, make sure you gather all the information that your tax preparer asks you to bring so he or she can get your return done properly and quickly.

And to all, taxpayers and the IRS alike, take a breath and be patient.

Advertisements

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[christophergill8]

New filing season + new tax law = new Form 1040, schedules

Just like the Highlander character of film and television fame, the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under which we're now filing our 2018 tax returns says there can be only one. One Form 1040, that is.

The Internal Revenue Service today begins processing millions, if you go by the agency's prior filing season data, of early-filed tax returns.

IRS staff are going to face more than the usual filing season chaos since most of them are coming back to work after 35 days of being shutout. (Short story: Get ready for some delays.)

Filers, too, are in for some challenges.

Now only did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) make the most changes to the tax code in more than 30 years, the documents we use to comply with the tax laws have been revised, too.

I took a look at the Schedule A that itemizing taxpayers use in my earlier filing checklist post. Today, here's a review of the new — and now only — Form 1040.

There can be only one: Yes, Highlander fans, the "only one" catch phrase also now applies to the form that we use to report our annual income to the IRS.

In the past, we had a choice of three 1040s: the long 1040, which has been around since the dawn of what we call the modern tax code in 1913; the slightly shorter 1040A; and, as the name implied, easiest to complete 1040EZ.

Now everyone one, regardless of how simple or complicated their tax situation, will use Form 1040.

And despite decades of promising a postcard-size tax return, the TCJA didn't quite get us there.

Rather, the new 1040 is about the size of an over-sized postcard. OK, so the politicians sort of kept their promise. Sorta.

But it has lines to complete on both sides. So it really can't be sent in like a postcard.

And that also-promised tax simplification? It doesn't show up in the new 1040.

This reduction in Form 1040 tax entries — the new document goes from the prior form's 79 numbered lines to 23 — means that many taxpayers will have to use one or more of the new schedules associated with the revised Form 1040.

3 1040 forms 1040 - 2 = 6 new tax documents: How many new schedules?

By consolidating three prior 1040 forms into one, the TCJA new forms math means the IRS has created six new numbered schedules. I'll get to these a bit later, promise!

And these new forms are in addition to the existing lettered schedules like Schedules A, B, C, D, E and F.

Now you're starting to realize why you use tax software or take your taxes to a professional for preparation and filing. And that federal lawmakers don't know the definition of simple.

Realistically, the good news is that a lot of us will only need to file the new Form 1040 without any added schedules. (Not the hubby and me. Our taxes, like our life together, is way too complicated, but that's for another post. Maybe even another whole blog. But I digress.)

So why, you probably are asking right about now, should you keep reading?

Because I'm still somewhat old-school when it comes to taxes. I long ago learned that by examining the forms, you get a good idea of the tax laws and sometimes even a glimpse into the tax policy that created them.

If that interests you — and I hope, since you're here at the ol' blog, it does — buckle up. Here goes!

Form 1040: First, a look at the new 1040 itself. The IRS released a draft version last summer to generally scathing reviews.

After taking that criticism and additional comments into account, the tax agency gave us an early Christmas present (yes, that holiday is kind of weird in our house) with last December's release of the new tax year 2018 Form 1040.

That's the new 1040 atop the older version below.

If you want an up-close-and-personal look, you can download the new Form 1040 and its instructions.

Here are some highlights.

New Form 1040 Page 1: There are several items that are the same on the new Form 1040. Most notably, atop this revised tax return are the same blocks, although resized in some cases, you've always seen.

They are where you enter your name, your spouse's name if you're married and filing a joint return and your Social Security number(s).

You still choose a filing status.

And you still tell Uncle Sam about the folks you can claim as tax dependents.

Your health care coverage info now goes on page 1. Yes, that Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, requirement is still there. The Republican removal of the reporting requirement didn't take effect until this year, so you won't have to worry about it when you file your 2019 taxes next year.

But for 2018, you still have to mark the checkbox that's moved from page 2 to page 1 to tell Uncle Sam that you had acceptable medical coverage last year or were exempt from having to buy a policy.

A quick tip here. If you're still searching the new Form 1040 for where to enter your personal exemptions amount, stop. These write-offs were eliminated by the TCJA. Tax law change advocates say that most of us won't miss these amounts thanks to the new, larger standard deductions. We'll see.

  After entering all that info, the new 1040 has a place for your signature (and your spouse's if you're married filing jointly), along with the date, your occupation and your Identity Protection PIN if you got one of these identifying numbers in connection with tax identity theft.

There's also the block for your paid tax preparer, if you used one, to enter his or her information and sign and date.

These signature blocks and associated info used to be on page 2.

A quick tip here. Even though this filing requirement now is on page 1, don't fill out these sections — that is, don't sign your return — until you've finished filing. An incomplete form that has a signature is like a blank check for an unscrupulous tax preparer.

  As for the new 1040 page 2 …

New Form 1040 Page 2: All your income information that used to be on page 1 of Form 1040 now is on page 2, aka the back of the form if you printed it out.

The IRS still wants you to report on your 1040 all your wage and salary income, which generally is on the W-2 you get from your employer. This goes on line 1 of page 2.

You'll also enter on this line any tips, etc. you got. The specific "etc." considerations are detailed in the 1040 instructions.

A quick tip here. Don't add any earnings you got as a sole proprietor, contractor, freelancer or from gig jobs — basically info you report on Schedule C or C-EZ, which are still around — on this first line or page 2. These amounts now are reported on Schedule 1 (more on new schedules in a minute), which essentially looks like the bulk of the old 1040 page 1, and go on the new Form 1040 line 6. Again, yay software and tax pros!

  Some other sundry income items, such as tax-exempt interest, qualified and ordinary dividends, Social Security and other retirement benefits, are reported here, now on lines 2 through 5.

Small businesses will note line 9 is for the new qualified business income, aka Section 199A, deduction.

The TCJA enhanced child tax credit and new one for other dependents is on line 12. The still-in-place Earned Income Tax Credit and other credits for which you might qualify go on line 17.

And, oh yeah, the option to claim the tax-reform increased standard deduction amount is on line 8.

Amid all these entries and directions to subtract or add are places for your taxable income computation, as well as for any taxes you already paid, either through payroll withholding and/or estimated taxes and your ultimate total tax amount.

That tax figure will determine, based on how much you had withheld or submitted as 1040-ES quarterly payments, whether you'll get a refund (which will show up on line 19) or have to write the U.S. Treasury a check (that's now on line 22).

Migrating adjustments: Wait! What happened to those above-the-line deductions that used to be at the end of the old 1040 and helped cut your gross income to a lower adjusted gross income (AGI) amount, which is now line 7 on the new Form 1040?

Some of these write-offs are still around. But now they've moved to the new Schedule 1 (again, more on 2018 schedules in a minute).

You'll find on Schedule 1 this filing season the option to claim:

Educator expenses

Certain business expenses of reservists, performing artists, and fee-basis government officials (you'll still need to fill out Form 2106)

Health savings account deduction (and Form 8889)

Moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces (and Form 3903)

Deductible part of self-employment tax (and Schedule SE)

Self-employed SEP, SIMPLE and qualified plans

Self-employed health insurance deduction (NOT the ACA health insurance you checked off on page 1)

Penalty on early withdrawal of savings

Alimony paid and the spousal support recipient's Social Security number (yes, this isn't changed by the TCJA until 2019)

IRA deduction

Student loan interest deduction

A couple of lines are reserved in case Congress gets around to renewed some of these deductions, which were part of the tax extenders package that expired.

Whew! It's good to know these still are around, albeit on another form.

Six new schedules: Schedule 1 has gotten a couple of mentions in this discussion of the new Form 1040.

It's likely to be the most used of the new forms attached to the revised tax return lone form.

But we can't ignore the others. As threatened promised, the table below offers a quick synopsis, courtesy the IRS, of what's on all the new TCJA Form 1040 schedules. If you want to see specifics, just click the schedule name links to see the forms (in PDF format).

If you …

Then use …

Have additional income, such as capital gains, unemployment compensation, prize or award money, gambling winnings. Have any deductions to claim, such as student loan interest deduction, self-employment tax, educator expenses.

Schedule 1

Owe Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) or need to make an excess advance premium tax credit repayment.

Schedule 2

Can claim a nonrefundable credit other than the child tax credit or the credit for other dependents, such as the foreign tax credit, education credits, general business credit.

Schedule 3

Owe other taxes, such as self-employment tax, household employment taxes, additional tax on IRAs or other qualified retirement plans and tax-favored accounts.

Schedule 4

Can claim a refundable credit other than the earned income credit, American Opportunity Credit, or additional child tax credit. Have other payments, such as an amount paid with a request for an extension to file or excess social security tax withheld.

Schedule 5

Have a foreign address or a third-party designee other than your paid preparer.

Schedule 6

Are you ready to file now? Probably more like overwhelmed.

Final filing tips: But things should be manageable, especially if your use tax software or have a tax pro on retainer.

All you tax software users, just make sure that when you open it you do let it update so that you have all these and other IRS forms you might need this first year of filing under the new tax laws.

If instead you turn over your taxes to a professional, make sure you gather all the information that your tax preparer asks you to bring so he or she can get your return done properly and quickly.

And to all, taxpayers and the IRS alike, take a breath and be patient.

Advertisements

  // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]>  

from Tax News By Christopher https://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2019/01/2019-filing-season-means-new-tax-laws-and-new-form-1040-and-schedulesllions-if-you-go-by-the-agencys-prior-filing-season-dat.html