#-than canon actually gives her

[fanfaire]

WhoWhatWhere: Scene 2 You’re an army instructor trying to get your soldiers to fall in line, but this one clown doesn’t seem to get it…

The kameras whir to life, the stage lights flare, and Lumine has to bite back the smile she wants to don so badly at seeing Furina onstage. It seems very natural to find her here -- as much so as it had been to find her behind the director's seat when the Kamisatos had paid their visit -- but in a way that is actually fun this go around. You know, without the weight of a nation's livelihood on its back!

Furina has no lack of creativity, and though Lumine feels a bit weirdly about having to be in a position where she chides another for the second time, the show must go on.

"-- and when you are out there, in the heat of battle, you never know what you'll face. A second is all it takes for someone to turn the tides on you." Serious, diginified, severe. Lumine calls upon the memory of the Millileth for this particular performance. Her gaze sweeps over the line of 'cadets,' expression set with a serious furrow and frown combo, arms strictly at her sides. Her march is even, paced.. "So I expect you all to take this seriously --"

And halts, in front of Furina.

"-- including you. Do you know how to be part of cohesive unit, soldier? I hope you didn't come here thinking this is fun and games."

prompt : you're very excited for your first day of clown school... !

OF EVERYONE SHE MIGHT BE PAIRED WITH, it seems some machination of fate⠀(⠀should such things prove true⠀)⠀had ordained it be teyvat's wayfaring traveler once again. appeared at the helm of some comet star at the eve of disaster, destined——it seemed——to untangle all ; and only after their summary departure come the flood.

even five-hundred-year instinct does not save her muscles entirely from locking for a brief moment in reluctance and regret, but it is five-hundred-year instinct that relaxes them again and directs her again like muscle memory to the solace of the present moment.

all these things could come later. now, she was not furina, and that blonde familiar face not the star-bound lumine, but other figures worlds away entirely. the other was one that she might smile at——harmlessly, vapidly——in the character of ' estelle ' imagined for flashing bulbs of light, who thought nothing of weaknesses and rancors and shortcomings, and only instead of a grandly misplaced hope for the future.

it is this smile she levels now at her instructor——though she certainly didn't seem to be dressed as a clown, but perhaps they didn't get to wear the costumes until later in the schooling?——a little nervously, a little unsure. eyes flick back and forth to the imaginary others in line with her as though to seek affirmation, or at least a laugh.

"s—soldier? ehe. . . " she titters in a voice entirely unlike her own, girlish and breathy, just shy of nasal. "o-of course i don't think it's all just fun! i—i'm here to learn, honest!"

[aingeal98]

Thinking of Cass and Damian got me thinking of the New 52 and how the dynamic between Batgirl and Robin there is even more proof of the travesty that was Babsgirl. She's been the longest running Batgirl to Damian's Robin, has witnessed most of the events of his life as Robin and yet their dynamic is just... A nothing burger. She's there in batfamily group reactions in the New 52 as the most heinous use of the Smurfette Principle I've seen in a long while. Tim isn't Tim, Dick isn't fully treated as Bruce's son, Jason exists mostly to say funny one liners, and yet despite the shallow characterisation there are still moments and events you can point to and say look. This happened. They interacted with Damian and it meant something. With Babsgirl? Nothing. How can there be anything when they're shoving a grown woman into a role she's outgrown for years now and forcing her to be the Batgirl of a preteen Robin? Her original Robin gets his own mantle, gets to be an adult with a legacy. She's shoved back into this role she doesn't fit in and because they know damn well she doesn't fit in it and they're just doing it for misogyny, they don't even try to make Batgirl and Robin a thing. Any interaction they had during the new 52 was so unremarkable and flavourless, devoid of character and heart, that I've never seen a single panel of the two of them in my 16 years as a DC fan.

Steph had a 24 issue batgirl run where she interacted with Damian a few times. Cass got even less than that with a six issue miniseries to bond with him. And yet the characterisation, writing and dynamic created in those stories was interesting, entertaining and impactful enough to last in the fandom for YEARS when Cass and Steph got erased. When you think of Damian's big sister you think of Steph, Cass, Maya etc long before you think of Babsgirl.

It's just infuriating to me. All those years of potential Batgirl and Robin stories wasted on a duo with as much cultural impact on the Batgirl and Robin team up as the James Cameron Avatar movies had on the word Avatar. All so they could erase the women of the batfam and reduce the sole one remaining down to The Girl Bat. Yeah whatever she was there in Damian's life when Steph and Cass weren't why am I supposed to care when her standing there gave me nothing to work with emotionally compared to a single conversation Steph or Cass had with Damian back in 2011. Compared with them or even Oracle Babs, I care about Babsgirl and Damian's dynamic and bond as much as DC and it's writers do. Which is to say, not at all.

[bmpmp3]

finding out ur coworker is way older than you thought and having to very quickly reorient how you talk to them

[harrowscore]

can't believe a show based on a videogame (usually games adaptations are notoriously bad, which isn't the case here tho) gave me the beauty and the beast/twisted mirrors/enemies to traveling companions/ruthless antihero+optmistic but still badass heroine who takes none of his shit/age gap but make it sexy dynamic of my dreams. as much as i love maximus and i think he deserves the best writing ever because 1. he's a clever deconstruction of the aspiring Knight bro who's actually a bit of a loser and, as much as lucy, sees the world in black&white at first and then doesn't get what he thought he wanted but what he needs (or at least i hope he'll eventually get it), and 2. he's a cutie and i want an epic love story for him too, it's very funny how they tried to give us a puppy kind of romance and the tumblr girlies still fixated on the "toxic ~she bites his finger off and he cuts hers off and sews it on his hand in what we'll pretend it's a symbolic marriage rings exchange or whatever~ asshole who used to be a nice guy/good girl™ with a lot of spunk and hidden anger but unshakeable morals" kind of relationship.

[tongues--and--teeth]

Post-War Golden Cheese and Dark Cacao my beloveds <3

[antianakin]

Damn, Ahsoka stans want her to be cool SO DESPERATELY that they're willing to pretend Obi-Wan goes into hiding on Tatooine to "spite" Anakin, leaving Ahsoka behind to "save the galaxy all by herself." Tell me you've never seen Star Wars without telling me you've never seen Star Wars lol.

[sosadraws]

Your typical horse girl movie, but it's an imperial civilian and a heavily wounded SAPR (that gets confused as a MNHR for most of the story)

[holocene-sims]

grandma aoife's bakery 🍰✨🥧

[dangans-ur-ronpas]

the exorcist(?) toko fukawa (and her 'ghost')

descended from a powerful exorcist but her current family is mostly non-magical (but not necessarily normal)

has seen ghosts since childhood and was taken to a temple countless times. ended up learning how to make talismans

has been followed by one particular spirit for a long time. syo claims to be an exorcist and a distant relative of hers but there's no family record of any such person existing? anyways the talismans seem to keep syo from taking over her body for the time being

likes writing romance and fantasy stories...publishes them anonymously on scrolls

[feroluce]

So I went to the wiki page for the henghill Bullet & Brain mission of 2.2 looking for some dialogue I had missed and

a) I found something incredibly tasty that slotted into some other thoughts I'd been having, more on that on another day, and

b) I saw this super fun little trivia at the bottom, which!

I knew Penacony characters like Boothill took a lot of inspirations from old movies, but I didn't realize it was even in his and Dan Heng's relationship, that's so cool!!

It fits them very well, it's such a fun reference. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was an old buddy Western film (from 1969- nice) about a pair of outlaws. Butch Cassidy was the leader of a gang, and described as clever, affable, and talkative. Meanwhile, his closest companion, the Sundance Kid, was known as a man of few words.

Cassidy's original birth name was much more plain, but similar to Boothill, he took on a new moniker when he became an outlaw. "Cassidy" had been the last name of his beloved mentor, who taught him how to shoot and ride. And Sundance Kid was known as he was because Sundance was the name of his hometown, and it was the only place that had ever managed to catch and jail him, back when he'd been younger (also similar to Dan Heng, but ouch).

These two stick together like glue throughout the length of the film- through Cassidy's leadership of the gang being challenged, through a train robbery gone wrong, through being pursued by mercenaries, and even through fleeing to Bolivia and trying to start over together.

I don't want to say too much more, since the mission title is referencing one specific movie that I've never seen. I kinda wanna watch it now, though, just to see the inspiration that went into Boothill and Dan Heng and how they get along. I just think it's really sweet that these two were literally made to be the best of bros, how lovely is that. 💕

[day-at-rhodes-island]

Listen. Listen to me. While Closure/Kal'tsit being romantic might add a nice extra layer to their situation, it absolutely doesn't have to be to still get to that good angst.

We will be making two mildly unsupported assumptions here, but bear with me.

Closure deals with her trauma by shoving it down and focusing on other things. After Babel lost the war Closure sees Kal'tsit slowly losing her mind with no one to talk to, and jumps at the chance to deal with someone else's problems.

The thing is, by doing this, she's not just solving a problem, she's filling a Theresa shaped hole in Kal'tsit's life. Assuming Closure is really invested in their friendship, this is a problem. (Unfortunately, this is a larger assumption than I'd like it to be, but whatever.)

Closure knew Theresa well and respected her a lot. She knew what Kal'tsit and Theresa's relationship was like. She almost certainly feels unqualified to be Kal'tsit's closest confidant, but I imagine the real thing that looms large over her thoughts is that she's the substitute, she's just here because someone else couldn't be.

Kal'tsit appreciates Closure for who she is, she doesn't think of her as a replacement, but she also doesn't know Closure feels that way. She's not super good at managing other people's emotions, and Closure is very good at acting like everything's fine.

Kal'tsit doesn't talk about these things unless prompted, and Closure is never going to address her problems if she can avoid it. So, that's just what their relationship is now, and it isn't going to change.

Unless, something crazy happens.

Like, theoretically, if Theresa came back to life.

[eff-plays]

"Durge and Astarion are canon your honor!"

Well canon Durge is a white male dragonborn sorcerer and yet y'all are making cute little drow girlies and sexy little tiefling twinks to get at that extra content so what's the truth?

Oh that your personal preferences are somehow more canon than someone else's because the devs didn't have enough time to write extra content for every companion, leaving an unfair and imbalanced emphasis on the one character that did get extra content? That you feel your choices are validated because they're reinforced by poor planning/game design? Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmm 🤔

[aliusfrater]

[bitchapalooza]

Thinking about how Zoro may have mixed and complicated feelings about Koushirou because on one hand that’s his sensei and he was taught to respect his sensei, but on the other hand he caused his own daughter, Zoro’s best friend, so much pain and constantly berated her to her face about how she’ll never be strong like the boys nor will she ever inherit the dojo. Like. Zoro cannot have one straight forward opinion on this man, he HAS to have some back and forth opinions on this guy I mean come on!

[clegfly]

I. I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without posting about my IROMO au. Jesus Christ

TL,DR- this au is also called OPPORI because it’s an au where, shocker, the chatacters’ personalities (and other details) are the inverse of what they are in canon. It is my pride and joy and I’ve been developing it since like late 2021

It’s probably my favourite au to experiment with because a. There’s so many things I can explore and make for it (I have SO many ideas in my head it’s not funny) and b. It’s very challenging in a way? Like. It’s kind of the ultimate test to see how well I really know these characters and also how I write in general. Can I know this cast well enough to recognise and twist every detail about them and still make them good/likeable characters?

I don’t know. This is my first post about it

Expect a line up soon!! (what above image is from)

[bonefall]

longtime dc fan and i think a lot of people are angry because alex is obviously one of the most culturally relevant instances of misogyny in media. that being said being more culturally relevant doesn’t mean it’s the worst instance of misogyny and i think bumble definitely experiences more profound misogyny in the way the actual content is presented, if that makes sense

I get you, and that's a charitable way of looking at it.

I think what's rustling my jimmies is that like, there was a couple of WC fans being mildly dismissive of Alex in that note minefield, after dozens of comments of "fuck you how could you let the fridge woman lose" and "Bumble didn't deserve to win ANY rounds" and "how could A CAT experience misogyny." But then WE get blamed for the toxicity because THEY were butthurt that the Funny Cat People have the 'audacity' to win something they feel entitled to.

Like, we've gotta be endlessly charitable as we get openly insulted because they're upset about Alex losing, a very well-known and culturally relevant character with a legacy so massive we have a whole term named after her. But condemnations of "She's just a cat, letting WC into this poll was a mistake, Bumble can't even be a victim of misogyny" only started coming around once I started talking about it.

as if it's OUR fault people got passive-aggressive or even OPENLY aggressive towards us, and that we're "just as bad" for retaliating

But like you said, it's not a "Most Culturally Relevant Misogyny" tournament, it's a "Canon Misogyny Victims" tournament. And you're not even supposed to give a shit that Bumble died. The fat, woman abuse victim is beaten to death by a dictator, and your takeaway is meant to be, "It's so sad that Clear Sky is being blamed for murdering her, now they're all preparing for self-defense against a homicidal maniac, oh nooo :("

And I think that DOES make her deserve the win here! Alex is a MARTYR. Everyone with a brain agrees what happens to her is bad. It happened in her canon because it was bad. We talk about her and keep her memory alive. Bumble gets dismissed entirely out of hand because she's "just a cat in a kid's book" as if that doesn't make it worse, and as if the kid's book didn't treat a domestic abuse survivor like a moron for even asking for help.

Anyway, just to reiterate, I love DC fans. It's not all of you guys. Alex was done dirty and deserves justice-- and it's even kind of a shame that all she became is "The Fridge Woman." I haven't even heard people talk about how she was a wary, responsible person who was still ready to rock with Kyle's new weird glowstick powers, or that she was a journalist, or that she just got brought back in another edition as a Green Lantern only to be revealed as an illusion and re-absorbed back into Kyle's mind. Nope. Even her fans just remember her as The Fridge Woman.