#AND. OF COURSE. MORE RIVALRY PARALLELS

[kots-kots]

pillar headcanons ^_^

[last-flight-of-fancy]

Started thinking about Riku-Kairi parallels and symbolism wrt the ending of kh2 so please hold while i get needlessly verbose about it-

specifically it started with this gif

and ofc adhd is as adhd does and started going down the rabbit hole of connecting the dots.

The act of reaching out a hand/hand holding is a recurring thing in kh, the vast majority of which is chock full of meaning and symbolism, and this is no exception. This is the culmination of The Hero's Journey part of Sora's tale, the return home, and the heartfelt reunion between long-seperated friends. fun fact the heroine's journey follows the hero's journey for the first third or so before continuing on. kinda like how kh continued on long after things seemed to be 'resolved'. weekly plug to look up Howler's Heroine's Journey essays if you haven't yet

The angle from which I am viewing this scene right now is in regards to ofc Riku, and his own iconic pose that we see the first time in the intro to kh1 (and many, many times since)

And this is where my riku-kairi-are-inverted-parallels-to-each-other brain starts barking like a dog because oughghghghggh same pose opposite side completely different body language- AHG.

And this matches their character arcs (as well as their respective combined arcs with sora) to a T as well. Riku's pose is the first we see, way back in kh1, and his hand is as much a taunt as it is an offer. Very befitting his relationship to sora in that game, which was coloured by a forged rivalry and intense jealousy (to quote the ultimania; Complicated Feelings) of/for sora.

(it is also notable that to date this gesture has yet to be resolved. the closest they've gotten is when sora grasped Riku's hand in kh2 on finding him- albeit in Ansem's visage.

Symbolically this is Sora attempting to accept the gesture, but this time it is Riku who fails to meet him halfway, too deep in guilt and regret to feel worthy of it. his hand is turned downwards, limp and unresisting.

And again in DDD when Riku grabs sora's hand/wrist in an attempt to wake him from his nightmares, but this time sora isn't capable of reciprocating. like two ships passing in the night, always reaching but never quite meeting)

(this one isn't quite as strong in the visual symbolism specific to the Riku Pose, but i did think it bore mentioning)

to return to the first gif however, for Kairi her posture is much less stiff, leaning forward with palpable releif at Sora's return. Honestly the fact that she holds out her left hand (which as far as i know is not her dominant hand) marks this as a very deliberate choice to parallel her as opposite to riku. and much like the rest of kh2's ending, it FEELS like a culmination, a completion of their arcs.... and most certainly isnt.

Which i mean to say, it's a mid-point. And the reason I say this is because of one little thing.

The seashell charm.

There's a sort of irony here in that the charm that was meant to reunite them in this moment is also symbolically like a wedge between them. A heartfelt and meaningful gesture, don't get me wrong! i love this scene and the genuine emotions within, but i do love chewing on the way this gains a slightly different meaning in the greater context of later story beats; specifically that of kh3.

With how pointed and direct the parallel is between kairi and riku in these scenes, it did make me pause for a moment thinking about kh3. i know we've all seen a thousand and one analysis' of the paopu scene at this point, but forgive me as i must do so again under this specific lens.

'how does the paopu scene relate to the hand extended gesture at all?' i hear you ask, and on the visual surface not much. it has more to do with sora and kairi's relationship arc through the games and, of course, the lingering loose thread that was the cave drawing.

The paopu scene is a touching recreation of that cave drawing, one enacted by a pair of kids who didn't know if they would live to see another sunset. It's also probably the most symbollically dense thing in all of kh and that is saying something so I'm going to try and keep my observations limited to just what is relevant to this post- and that would be the way that the paopu scene is a direct continuation of Kairi's 'you're home' gesture in kh2.

shooting stars are also a common recurring symbol in kh, and that's the symbol that ties these two scene's together. if kh1 is two disparate stars each trying to reach the other (the cave drawing, the seashell charm, the way their hands are seperated at the end of kh1), and the end of kh2 is that of the stars finally meeting (the single seashell star charm pressed between their palms), then the paopu scene is that of the stars passing each other by and beginning their own journey's anew (two stars held by crossed arms, each now holding a small piece of the other (bitten fruit) to show that their meeting may have been brief but it was meaningful)

it is in this way that kh3 quietly and tenderly closes out sora and kairi's combined arc, as two unlikely friends who then drift apart again, shining brightly for the shared experiance, Remind mostly serves to support that finality, tying up the last couple loose ends between them, and leaving the two far more comfortable with each other than they ever were while that arc was still ongoing (which i read as them no longer being uncertain as to what their relationship is; that of friends, and not whatever so many others around them had pushed and assumed)

(seriously look at how much more comfortable they are with each other the second the pressure to be something they're not is off. the awkwardness is completely gone i love it)

All of this is ofc still in parallel to Riku, who boasts no such star imagery (instead he has the iconic Heart of KH itself), and in fact while he symbollically continues to reach out to sora, physically he has completely refrained from doing so at all- in fact most examples of the Gesture in kh are deliberately invoked by other characters in order to bring riku to mind in some way (and often more for the players benifit than sora's)

axel in CoM,

(i have given up on tumblr gif search)

YMX in DDD,

which then immidiately cuts to riku in kh1 just to make it as blatant as possible that yes the reference is intentional (i guess CoM was too subtle somehow so they had to make sure this time)

and even Riku himself to Namine at the end of kh3, representing Repliku's final wishes in a funny sort of symbolism oroboros.)

and it's not a coincidence that the completion of that connection provides definitive closure to the arcs in question; that of namine to repliku, but also a little bit to riku himself. namine still has a role to play, but that role (i think) is more or less exclusive to her relationship with sora. namine and riku's relationship arc, background as it is, is complete, and now both are connected primarily through their incomplete arcs with sora.

(which makes the way that sora and kairi's example in kh2 is a complete outlier really interesting tbh. smth smth thinking your relationship is one thing and if it was that thing then yes that would have been the end, but it wasn't that thing and thus it wasn't the end smth smth comphet metaphor smth)

which brings us back to how riku himself hasn't really reached out to sora directly since kh1, the act that set off both of their journey's. The reasons for that are many- guilt, fear, a certainty that sora will not reach back and that he doesn't deserve it anyway- but despite that the Gesture is still subtly affirmed as being Riku's over and over again, never quite letting the audience forget it... because eventually this bit of symbolism so consistently portrayed throughout the series will reach its own conclusion, starting how it began with one deuteragonist reaching out to the other, and this time the other reaching back to complete the gesture.

[thewertsearch]

@relaxxattack asked: hi, maxx the troll romance guy again. ₊ ⊹ ☆ it’s finally my moment for me to bust out my big quadrant talk! as in, i had the time to sit down and write this. (and apologies in advance for subjecting you to this much nerdiness. hopefully, it’s at least somewhat illuminating, to make up for that). i’m not sure what your current opinions on troll romance are, but i wanted to discuss the idea that kismesissitude is inherently unhealthy / impossible to achieve by teenaged trolls. lots of people who read homestuck get very stuck on the idea that kismesissitude is a feeling of hatred. they run with their human assumptions of this word, imagining that a kismesissitude is an angry, horrible relationship of abuse and hurt. but, if you’ll bear with me, it’s actually shown throughout the comic that this is completely untrue. trolls do not use the word hate the same way that we do. in fact, this is pretty obvious, because they also continuously use the word “pity” in a completely different way than we do. each of these are actually more related to a completely different word: LOVE.

you can see, in this initial conversation surrounding quadrants, that trolls consider hate and pity to actually come from the same exact place (though they consider that a negative thing). you can also see in that conversation that you need a good mix of both for any of the quadrants to work. karkat calls vriska out on supposedly “hating people too much” in a way that would “make her a bad kismesis”. this tells us almost immediately off the bat that A. even other trolls consider vriska and tavros’s relationship unbalanced and unhealthy! and B. each quadrant needs a proper mix of emotions for a proper relationship. a lot of people assume that kismeses are “supposed” to kill each other, mainly because of the fate of jack noir and the queen. this, too, is a misunderstanding. jack noir and the queen, like mom and dad who they are explicitly paralleling, are meant to be regarded as tragic. both couples end in tragedy, as expected for almost every “parental figure” in homestuck; this is unrelated to their kismesissitude.

in fact, in this conversation eridan has with kanaya, it is stated that a kismesissitude that ends in deaths is an extremely rare, powerfully tragic romance that happens “once in ten thousand years”– and immediately after, it is stated that a kismesissitude that might become like this needs an auspistice. that’s right, trolls are so committed to healthy kismesissitudes that they have an entire system in place to stop them from becoming toxic. the vriska/kanaya/tavros auspisticism, while a failure on every conceivable level, was born out of the necessity that the other trolls considered vriska’s torment of tavros unhealthy. even among her fellow trolls, in a society that explicitly encouraged casteiesm and ableism, vriska’s treatment of tavros was still considered too toxic for a proper kismesissitude.

vriska and eridan, who were in a kismesissitude before vriska became bored of eridan, were allies in their roleplaying games. much like the ancestors they were emulating, (who even supposedly “cherished” their own black relationship!); they explicitly traded and shared their rewards and goods with each other because of their romantic relationship with each other, and were said to work together in flarp well enough to be feared by others. of course, they also competed with each other to be the best– because they are rivals– but rivalry does not constitute toxticity. they called each other “allies” and “competitors”. not enemies. though perhaps being enemies would be an interesting kismesis slowburn; in the end, two kismesis should not kill each other. they are on the same team. how could they not be, when trolls believe in one troll who is literally destined to be their perfect rival, a life partner who they must have a long-term relationship with in order to properly meet the alternian drone rules? killing each other makes no feasible sense.

as vriska and eridan talk about here, a rivalry between trolls is something fun for both of them. that is why they must hate each other “equally”-- they need to feel on equal footing, so that they can both have fun. that’s what a rivalry is for trolls. it’s fun! (fun fact: another definition of the word "rival" is "an equal"). (eridan’s pitch solicitation towards sollux is absolutely laughable in comparison. he throws meaningless, casteist insults, and sollux does not give a single fuck about him. as other trolls mention; this is very obviously fake. they are clearly not feeling anything mutual or respectful for each other. he merely is trying to goad feferi into an ashen retaliation with his shitty pitch advances, and it’s not even working.) and that brings me finally to john and karkat. i remember seeing confusion on this blog about the nature of karkat’s feelings– 'why is he helping john? doesn’t he ‘hate’ him? he must not REALLY feel pitch romance for him, and he’s just confused.' well you see, that’s the thing. the reason karkat’s first message to john was a love poem is because that is what kismesissitude is. it was karkat’s way of saying; “you’re special to me. i would like to bug you to see if you feel the same way.” it’s not as if strangely romantic healthy rivalries between teenagers are even an unheard of or new concept. they’re fairly common in television shows and anime; hell there’s even multiple tvtropes pages for them! it’s not impossible that two people in a story could have a healthy rivalry fun enough that they both end up missing it should it be gone. (looking at you, perry and doof.) it’s even more likely that teenagers, as vibrant and strange as their many emotions can be, could pull this off. of course, they make lots of mistakes. they’re young teenagers raised on the murder ableism planet. of course most of the shit they try to do is unhealthy. they make just as many earth-like mistakes with their hearts as they do with their spades. that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for them, or bad for them to try. especially since pairs like vriska and eridan seem to have even pulled it off! basically, what i’m saying is, they’re like sasuke and naruto (reference). let teenagers have hatecrushes! it’s cuter than you think! :P [if it isn’t obvious, this is all super lighthearted and silly. unfortunately it’s my brand to be the guy who’s REALLY passionate about troll romance. i sincerely hope this wasn’t too hard to read, and i’m really sorry about submitting such a long thing, but i couldn’t manage to cut it down any further 😭 have a great rest of your night/day!]

(Images added by me - partially for illustrative purposes, and partially because Tumblr tends to complain when a single block-quote is that large.)

Love love love this detailed breakdown. It outlines a blackrom framework which is a lot more nuanced than the infodump's original description of kismesissitude. There's a lot of really interesting stuff here, and I've actually been working on this response for the past week, while AFKing on my Minecraft server.

As you can imagine, I agree with many of the points raised here, and disagree with others. I think the best approach is to go through the essay point-by-point, and break down my thoughts.

lots of people who read homestuck get very stuck on the idea that kismesissitude is a feeling of hatred[...], imagining that a kismesissitude is an angry, horrible relationship of abuse and hurt. [...] it’s actually shown throughout the comic that this is completely untrue. trolls do not use the word hate the same way that we do. [...]

This one I just fully agree with. The Alternian concept of 'hate' isn't equivalent to ours, and they'll often use it in ways that are completely incompatible with our definition.

When Karkat 'fell in hate' with John, his actual antagonism was very obviously performative. As you mentioned above, several parts of his original rant wouldn't look out of place in a love confession.

Karkat doesn't just message John out of temporal obligation. There's a clear sense, even in their early conversations, that he's enjoying their interactions on some level. If his feelings here really are black romance - and there's no textual evidence that they're not - then this alone is enough to prove kismesissitude isn't true human hatred.

The trolls also use 'hate' in the human sense, too, which muddies the waters a little. It's even highlighted as a problem in-comic, with trolls having to disambiguate their hatred in conversation in much the same way humans disambiguate between platonic and romantic love.

they also continuously use the word “pity” in a completely different way than we do. each of these are actually more related to a completely different word: LOVE. you can see, in this initial conversation surrounding quadrants, that trolls consider hate and pity to actually come from the same exact place (though they consider that a negative thing).

As for pity, I'm still not entirely sure what it means to trolls. Unlike hate, it's only been brought up once, by Karkat.

His 'hate and pity' dichotomy isn't referenced anywhere else in the comic, and it's unclear whether he's describing an accepted fact of life, a sociological theory, or a trope from his beloved romcoms. I don't really have enough data to speculate.

you can also see in that conversation that you need a good mix of both for any of the quadrants to work. karkat calls vriska out on supposedly “hating people too much” in a way that would “make her a bad kismesis”. this tells us almost immediately off the bat that [...] each quadrant needs a proper mix of emotions for a proper relationship.

I believe your assertion here is that each quadrant requires both hate and pity. While definitely an interesting theory, I wasn't able to find canonical evidence that a healthy redrom requires hatred, or that a healthy blackrom requires pity.

I meant what I said, though - it is a compelling theory. If we do read troll 'hatred' as a type of friendly rivalry, then maybe it is important in redrom, serving as the 'spark' that keeps things fresh. Furthermore, if we read 'pity' as something bordering on affection, then it probably is necessary for a healthy blackrom.

I really like the space you're playing in, here. There is something to this idea, and I'd love for Karkat to elaborate on it.

[...] even other trolls consider vriska and tavros’s relationship unbalanced and unhealthy!

Text it! If the full Vriska/Tavros mess was public knowledge, basically everyone would consider Vriska's behavior beyond atrocious, blackrom or no blackrom. I'm not even sure if Eridan would be OK with it - and Gamzee, of course, is currently excluded from this discussion.

If the Veil's trolls are a representative sample of Alternian culture, then Vriska's 'blackrom' with Tavros is just as abusive there as it would have been on Earth. Even Alternia has limits.

a lot of people assume that kismeses are “supposed” to kill each other, mainly because of the fate of jack noir and the queen. this, too, is a misunderstanding. jack noir and the queen, like mom and dad who they are explicitly paralleling, are meant to be regarded as tragic. both couples end in tragedy, as expected for almost every “parental figure” in homestuck; this is unrelated to their kismesissitude. in fact, in this conversation eridan has with kanaya, it is stated that a kismesissitude that ends in deaths is an extremely rare, powerfully tragic romance that happens “once in ten thousand years”

This tracks, as well. If blackrom was allowed to end with murder, then there'd be a lot less soldiers being ferried off the planet every year. Alternian children are a resource to the Empire, and more murder-couples means less murder-platoons.

Vriska does think it would be acceptable for her to murder Tavros, but she frames it as a consequence of classism, not blackrom. This would be much more acceptable to the Empire, as a blueblood like Vriska is destined to be a high-ranking officer. She's not killing a partner, here - she's punishing insubordination.

– and immediately after, it is stated that a kismesissitude that might become like this needs an auspistice. that’s right, trolls are so committed to healthy kismesissitudes that they have an entire system in place to stop them from becoming toxic. the vriska/kanaya/tavros auspisticism, while a failure on every conceivable level, was born out of the necessity that the other trolls considered vriska’s torment of tavros unhealthy. even among her fellow trolls, in a society that explicitly encouraged casteiesm and ableism, vriska’s treatment of tavros was still considered too toxic for a proper kismesissitude.

I won't second-guess the utility of auspisticism in situations like this. It makes perfect sense that the role exists, and it certainly does an important job.

However, once again, I really don't understand the monogamy aspect. Helping a loved one escape a toxic or abusive relationship should not be a one-person job, and enforcing that requirement serves to sabotage what could have been a much more effective social role.

Like - imagine that, upon becoming VrisTav's auspistice, Kanaya's first action was to call for backup. If she was allowed to introduce additional auspistices to the situation, such as Aradia or Terezi, then Vriska wouldn't have been able to continue tormenting Tavros as soon as Kanaya turned her back. It takes a village, guys!

vriska and eridan, who were in a kismesissitude before vriska became bored of eridan, were allies in their roleplaying games. much like the ancestors they were emulating, (who even supposedly “cherished” their own black relationship!); they explicitly traded and shared their rewards and goods with each other because of their romantic relationship with each other, and were said to work together in flarp well enough to be feared by others. of course, they also competed with each other to be the best– because they are rivals– but rivalry does not constitute toxticity. they called each other “allies” and “competitors”. not enemies. [...] as vriska and eridan talk about here, a rivalry between trolls is something fun for both of them. that is why they must hate each other “equally”-- they need to feel on equal footing, so that they can both have fun. that’s what a rivalry is for trolls. it’s fun!

Eridan/Vriska is a relationship I wish we'd seen on-panel, because this one is really hard to picture. Eridan's personality doesn't feel at all compatible with Vriska's, and I don't understand what she saw in him.

Vriska is one of the smartest, most resourceful, most dangerous trolls around, and there was apparently a time she thought of Eridan as a rival. As an equal. All he really has to offer is an overpowered weapon, and Vriska's already got one of those.

Sure, she got bored later, but unless Eridan has some extremely hidden depths, she should have been bored from day one. How did their rivalry even work?

I think the problem here is that we haven't seen any non-toxic kismesissitudes. Vriska/Tavros is a nightmare, Equius/Aradia was mind control, Eridan/Vriska happened offscreen, and John/Karkat never happened at all. It's difficult to extrapolate what a non-awful kismesissitude might look like, when we've only seen the worst the quadrant has to offer. Actually seeing Vriska's spades with Eridan, instead of having it described second-hand, might help to clear this up, but that seems fairly unlikely at this point.

This, at least, is a problem that might solve itself. We've still got a lot of comic to go, and the passion its fandom has for the quadrants makes it clear that they're not going anywhere. I don't think I'll be able to pass my final judgement on kismesissitude until we've seen one that actually works. I really like the idea of a romance centered around friendly rivalry - I just wish the comic would show me one!

and that brings me finally to john and karkat. i remember seeing confusion on this blog about the nature of karkat’s feelings– 'why is he helping john? doesn’t he ‘hate’ him? he must not REALLY feel pitch romance for him, and he’s just confused.' well you see, that’s the thing. the reason karkat’s first message to john was a love poem is because that is what kismesissitude is. it was karkat’s way of saying; “you’re special to me. i would like to bug you to see if you feel the same way.” it’s not as if strangely romantic healthy rivalries between teenagers are even an unheard of or new concept. they’re fairly common in television shows and anime; hell there’s even multiple tvtropes pages for them! it’s not impossible that two people in a story could have a healthy rivalry fun enough that they both end up missing it should it be gone. (looking at you, perry and doof.)

Like, this sounds cool! You're describing a really fun version of kismesissitude, here - one which brings to mind Wright and Edgeworth, Sonic and Shadow, and a dozen other popular couples.

This interpretation would be less dangerous for teenagers - it certainly worked for Lumity - and again, I just hope we eventually see something like this on-panel!

[umikawa]

a/n: me when I mix up four different branches of service together bc it only said stan was a commander of an elite unit but not what branch of military he was in. more unnecessary info on that below lol

Stanley Snyder x gn!reader | no major warnings, flirty/suggestive (barely) 1k-ish words. For ref reader is a higher rank than stan ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

There was something about Stanley Snyder that always seemed to piss you off. 

Maybe it was how he carried himself, oozing confidence with each step, the hypnotizing sway of his hips when he walked past—the one he swears he doesn’t emphasize. Or maybe it was his self-awareness that he was the best and didn’t feel the need to hide it from anyone—never taking the route of humbleness. 

But now that you thought about it, those two things were practically the same. You rub your temple, sighing to yourself. Why were you thinking about him in the first place? For someone you’d supposedly hated, he was the epicenter of a lot of thoughts in your head recently. 

Was there something about his voice that irked you? The low-pitched sound of his humming as he stalked around the base, the heavy pants that left his lips after a workout session, how he sounded when he’d talked to you after a training session had gone wrong?

Heat rises to your face as you think about the gentle tone he spoke to you that day, and you wonder why he’d only been nice to you after you’d been hurt. It was too cliche for you, how he’d acted after news spread that your teammates were in critical while you were walking with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises here and there. 

Maybe he knew the emotional toll it was taking on you, but Stanley wouldn’t dare let you know. He’s supposed to hate you, it was like that from the start. From the moment he met you at the academy to graduation and now. Nothing was going to change the (unnecessary, and honestly, dwindling) rivalry you two had. 

But there was something about you that pissed Stanley off to no end. 

Perhaps it was the way you cared for everyone but yourself. It was parallel to him– he’d care for no one but himself, save for anyone he’s ordered to protect. Then whenever you put yourself first it was always in the worst situations, like who was at fault when a mission went wrong, or who didn’t do this or that. He wonders why the fleet admiral always believed you.

But he figured they didn’t because you’d have been long gone if they believed you did all those things. 

Maybe that’s what he didn’t like. How he thought you were trying to run away from everything, even if it meant being dishonorably discharged. 

“Oi, Captain.” 

You tear your eyes away from the reports you were skimming through, boots squeaking against the floors as you come to a stop. “Yes, Commander?” 

His eyes narrow, a ghost of a smirk crossing his lips as he leans against the wall opposite of you. Something about the way you said his rank… not the time. “Heard you’re the team leader for the next soar mission.” 

“I am. What about it?” 

He rolls his eyes at your quick defense, nodding his head in the direction you were walking, pushing himself off the wall to walk next to you. “Just trying to make small talk.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Stanley.” You try, raising a brow in his direction when he scoffs. “Unless that’s not the point you’re trying to get across?”

He runs a hand through his hair, ruffling it in annoyance, just to pause and fix it, remembering he has to look a certain way. “There is no point. I’m trying to make small talk.” 

“Oh. Sorry.” You look down at the papers in your hands, sighing quietly at the summary page. “It’s just odd… for us to be talking like this– casually, I mean.” 

He rests a hand on his hip, and you try not to stare at its emphasized pop, shrugging a shoulder. “You and I know we don’t truly hate each other.” 

“Of course, but it was only natural that the top two in the academy had some sort of rivalry.” You reply, smiling when he cocks his head to the side. “But hey, at least that made us better than we imagined, right?” He hums. “Unless you came out of the womb thinking you were the best.” 

Stanley takes a moment to respond, prolonging his silence while you laugh in disbelief. “I wouldn’t be a commander if I wasn’t a bit egotistical.” 

You shrug, “You could be a captain if you were a bit humble.” Stanley grins at your comeback, relishing in the mischief behind your eyes. “But what do I know?” 

He stops walking, turning in your direction when you stand beside him. “You know how to piss me off, that’s for damn sure.” 

“Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?” He hums, crossing his arms over his chest as he looks at you with a smirk. 

Maybe that’s what pissed him off, the sentences that rolled off your tongue so innocently, spurring him onto the brink of insanity. What kills him is you weren’t even doing it on purpose. It was just within your nature to reply with the first thing you thought of– even if it suggested otherwise.

“Well, I can’t threaten my dear Captain, can I?” He shrugs, rubbing his neck. His eyes shift to yours, gaze toeing the line of challenge and want. “But I suppose we’ll find out the consequences of our rivalry sooner or later.” 

You match his gaze, picking up on the underlying meaning of his words. Though, to anybody passing by, it was obvious what he meant by it. “Right,” you start, looking off to the side when your breath catches in your throat. Stanley grins at the reaction. “I’ll be waiting, commander.” 

“Semper Fi, Captain, " he says quietly, beginning to walk in the opposite direction. A sense of warmth fills him when he sees you smile. 

You return the sentiment just as quietly, focusing on the sound of his steps getting further away before turning to look in his direction. A grin spreads across your face as you look down the hall;

Stanley had already been looking at you. 

a/n: my unnecessary but maybe necessary info is;

they’re meant to be on a carrier (navy) hence fleet admiral

in some branches captain is a higher rank than commander

“soar” is an elite aviation unit of the army that specializes in nighttime helicopter operations

“semper fi” (shortened) means always faithful, it’s the motto of the marine corps

[otrtbs]

wait say more about illegal street racer bartylus pls…

ugh okay so the hard part is that i would have to do a lotttttttt of research because i dont know anything about anything except i like fast cars and hot people and crime and i would bark like a dog for suki from 2 fast 2 furious but like... i cant even parallel park what the fuck do i know about fancy cars????? NOTHING!

BUT

i have a small vision™️ here are the vibes™️

backdrop of some insane and fun neon city. obviously the black family would be from an insane line of illegal street racers. sirius was the best to ever do it but he doesn't anymore for Reasons and so regulus took up the mantel and is the fastest, best racer ever.

regulus has insane tension w james (cause im still me) and he still races even tho sirius doesnt but then one day barty rolls into town.... crazy tricked-out car... and beats regulus downnnnnnnn which of course makes regulus furious but also obsessed bc wdym there is someone better than him??? and they begin their insane obsessive rivalry and james is like?? hello </3 pookie u were supposed to love me

but then sirius gets back into racing which freaks regulus out because they do duos so it's reg and his best guy vs. sirius and his best guy (james) and regulus picks barty even though he fucking hates him because he's the best.

also i want marlene to be the mechanic who works on everyone's cars and dorcas is gonna be the mastermind who plans all the race routes, maps out where the police are, checks the scanners, bails them out of jail etc etc

also i want barty to be racing bc he's always scrounging for money and insane and pouring all his winnings into his crazy car and regulus is racing bc it runs in his blood but he's also his family is evil and smuggling .......smth across city and state lines. i wanna say stolen art right now. but that's too on brand for me. we must break free!

i just want drama. fast cars. fun races. higher stakes. police involvement. accidents. sabotage. cars blowing up. etc etc

[charliewrites99]

What I actually really like about Hangster is that them being ex-boyfriends, ex-friends with benefits, just ex-somethings, makes the movie and their dynamic so much more interesting.

If you read it as just them being rivals it's kind of boring, seen before. I mean, this exact dynamic has been done better in the OG Top Gun. I realize that they were paralleling it, but IceMav had so much more bite to them as opponents. Because they met and it was all new and "fuck you, you dick" this and "Fuck me yourself, you asshole" that. It was the rivalry in its infancy.

Hangster have HISTORY that we only get a glimpse of. And if the whole history is just, yeah they don't like each other. Kinda meh. Because we don't get those beginning moments that would explain where exactly that dynamic and its intricacies come from.

However, if you read it the other way it has way more nooks and crannies and the unspoken-ess of it all. Especially since we can see that they do care for each other. So it's complicated and messy and turbulent. There are quips and jabs that feel juusst a little too personal. If this was a pilot of a tv show, we would find out the meaning/or origin behind those fightin' words at the bar in a flashback episode. And the tension, of course, the tension. Did Miles Teller really need to look at Glenn's lips? I thank him every day for that.

It's much more intense than if they were just rivals that "respect" each other at the end.

What I am saying is...Top Gun 3 make Hangster canon or at least give us more fuel for the headcanons.

[bugsinapocket]

Hello there! I’d like to introduce you to my newest project:

My Little Hermit!

Two of my hyper-fixations decided to merge and create this cute little AU! Mostly based off of season 10 and the hermits personalities- I wanted to give a shot at creating pony designs for them.

More information and singular reference sheets below the cut!

First up we have Joel!

Joel is a Changeling; I’ve always seen him as a bug and I like to change his Shrek ears into antenna! Changelings are the bugs of the MLP universe, so I thought it it. I decided to make him reformed because of the colour palette. I’ve always seen Joel as somebody with a very vibrant and bright personality; and he tends to use eye-catching colours in many of his builds. Vibrant, bright, and eye-catching are all words I would associate with the reformed changeling colour palette! They use very vibrant colors, and I think it suits Joel quite a lot.

Next we have Skizz!

Skizz is a Pegasus pony for a few reasons! I’m trying to base the pony designs off of the content creators’ personalities and building /gaming styles- but I’m also taking the more popular fanon designs for these characters into account as well. Many people draw him as an angel. I also see Skizz as somebody who is incredibly sweet and is constantly trying to lift others up, and with a pair of wings, he could do that literally! So why not!

Then of course the lovely Gem!

Gem was a little harder to pinpoint, since I’ve only recently started watching her videos, but since I’m also trying to base these designs off of their season 10 aesthetics- I decided to make her a hippogriff! In the MLP universe, hippogriffs are creatures that can transform into sea ponies using a magical necklace (this is shown explicitly in the movie). Since her base for this season is based on dredge and fisher/pirate aesthetics, I decided to make her a hippogriff to give her that advantage when it comes to terraforming her underwater section of the base. I also think that her little fishing rivalry with Grian could be funny if she could literally transform into a fish.

And last but certainly not least; Impulse!

Impulse is a unicorn, partially to be parallel with Skizz- but also for his ability to create magic with Redstone. I considered making him an earth pony for his feeling of stability and competence, but it didn’t feel quite right. So unicorn he is! His cutie mark is his signature "i" symbol that's lit up like a redstone torch.

AND YES I MADE A LOGO. I HAD TO. I COULDNT NOT DO THIS.

I hope you enjoy!

[raayllum]

Once again I am so completely in my Janaya feelings because they're just so well done as a ship and so refreshing as a canon queer ship in particular??

Like they're rival generals who are uniquely matched in skill! We see how good of a fighter Amaya is in S1 (she's the top General of the Standing Battalion for crying out loud) so having someone who has her even somewhat on the run in S2 immediately catches our notice, as well as just how striking Janai is, even before we know she's the Golden Knight of Lux Aurea and sister to the queen.

Then we get some fun games of cat and mouse with the two circling and outsmarting each other; Janai luring Amaya's troops into an ambush and then having Amaya outsmart her way through anyway, and Janai ruining Amaya's plan to sever the Breach as a connective point between their lands (at least temporarily). It's small, but it shows that they're not just physically matched in battle, but intellectually too, and it makes their connection / rivalry feel more personal.

But of course this starts to shift when Amaya is stranded on Janai's side of the Breach, and spares her life because there's been enough unnecessary violence, having to literally Drop her shield to do so (mm, the symbolism).

We then get a new stage of their dynamic, as Amaya is very good bad at being interrogated ("She may have told you a rather unusual way in which your body might accommodate your sword") even if Kazi tries to minimize the ruder signs along the way as an interpreter. And even when Amaya could just look at Kazi for translation, her gaze continually strays to Janai. Then, Janai vouches for Amaya to her sister and Amaya has to trust Janai in the Light trial, which is also why she asks Janai to trust her when Viren shows up and starts causing trouble.

What follows is a fire forged friendship (literally) where Janai experiences Amaya's greatest grief -- the loss of a sister -- and they support each other through the battle to come, especially now that they have a common enemy. There's even blushing, battle gazing smiles, being protective, and paralleled hand holds.

Then, when we pick up after the two year timeskip, it's quickly apparent they're in a relationship — "But there are some things you shouldn't keep secret, especially from me" — and hints at exactly what kind of traditional ceremony this is, as Janai proposes and the two embrace and kiss.

And the show always, consistently, constantly, discusses their love for each other frankly and in terms no one can mistake.

"I know [she's a fearsome fighter], that is what I love about her," "The only message is that I've chosen this amazing woman to be my wife," "I love you and I'm ready to marry you," "I only really know one thing: Amaya, I want a life with you, I want to marry you," "Our queen and her bride to be just left on a romantic picnic in broad daylight!" "I just need a distraction—that's right, wedding planning." "Is someone getting married?" "Now I know how wrong I was about elves: I'm in love with one [...] Meeting Janai, falling in love" etc etc. Even down to the little details like Amaya's sign name for Janai being a J over her heart.

I also really appreciate that they're able to be so physically affectionate, particularly Amaya towards Janai in her tenderness as well.

At the same time, they don't always entirely see eye to eye. Amaya is adjusting to a culture that's not her own; Janai is still finding her footing and more importantly her confidence in being queen, even without internal usurpation coups going on and an evil blood drinking lesbian Moonshadow elf on the loose.

They trade and gift each other's another swords so they can be by one another's side in spirit when they do have to part. They're happily planning their wedding and giving each other hope throughout the encroaching madness of their lives. They get cute little callbacks to things like "She thinks I'm cute but won't admit it yet," exchange loving looks when their tribulations are done, and love each other with their whole hearts, allowing them to provide allegorical commentary on some of the societal pushback LBGTQ+ couples receive while also never having it dominate their shared plotline(s) or arcs with one another.

I just love them a lot, and these are some of the reasons why! I can't wait for more of their relationship development in S6 and S7!

[batsplat]

Your post about sete/vale rivalry is literally so informative it's like a pivotal post to fully understand the way valentino's mind works. You're his friend just up to the point you are not (mainly after perceived crimes not backed up by any real proof apparently). Valentino literally turbodivorced every guy he was friendly with in the paddock (and the irony of two of those turbodivorces happening in the same place isn't lost on me)

I did do my best to keep marc out of that post and let the parallels speak for themselves but like. yes

what's interesting to me about this rivalry is that it's... kind of his first rodeo. I mean he'd obviously had rivals before and a feud and all that and him and biaggi were constantly *gestures* - but one of the most common complaints about valentino is that he switches up towards you when you actually become a serious threat. which!! I still fully believe to some extent is natural, this is sports, they're competing, and I take more seriously with some of valentino's victims than with others. (melandri is always the one where I'm a bit? valentino no offence but why would you bother, in 2005 there wasn't a title fight and in 2006 valentino actually got on really well with two of the four other main contenders and at the very least didn't actively have a problem with dani. so maybe just a melandri problem question mark.) but I do feel like sete was... maybe not the first, but the first that was this extreme. and, very much topic for another post, but he really does learn a lot from the sete rivalry. a lot of the tactics and performance art and all of that, how he uses all of it to demoralise his enemies - this rivalry was kinda the blueprint

but, at the same time, of course it was a different valentino that marc ended up fighting, and not just in terms of how fast and competitive valentino was at that stage of his career. this is something that's quite hard to get across sometimes, because the natural inclination is to just... look at all the past instances in which valentino was a dick and conclude that he has, in fact, always been a dick. but he wasn't just statically malevolent for a twenty plus year career, and it's important to... reinsert context to assess how he developed as a rider and as a character during that time. it's not twenty non-stop years of valentino feuding. and marc is facing a valentino who had inevitably changed as a result of years of injury and poor results on a poor bike. valentino was pretty open in 2012 that he was returning to yamaha after two years on a donkey of a bike to, y'know, see if he was still fast, if he still had it in him - because he genuinely did not know (stop me if this reminds you of anyone more recently). he was so frustrated in 2013 with constantly finishing in fourth place that he took the truly radical step of firing his crew chief jb. one more try, one more change up to see if he could still be fast

it was only in 2014, where, okay he was losing to marc, but he could feel that he was competitive again, he could semi-regularly beat jorge and dani at the very least... then comes misano and he beats marc in a direct fight, draws an error out of him, gets him to crash, and marc shows up at his ranch and manages to strongly signal that he does actually really want to beat valentino. and that, in a way, shows that he was beginning to take valentino seriously as a competitor again (which I would suggest he wasn't doing at the end of 2013). that's something that's easy to miss about the ranch episode: yes, it's notable how much they were treating each other like hardened rivals, but it was also notable they were doing so in 2014, given the kind of season marc was having. maybe it truly was the worst possible timing. maybe it truly was the race in misano that made both of them go. hey. this really could be happening

but it's still a humbled version of valentino, it's still a version of valentino who has already kind of had to make his peace with the fact his time might very much be over. to me, in a way it's more dramatically satisfying if he did make peace with it, if he was more or less all right with marc making the sport his own. okay, there's always going to be a little bit of bitterness, a little bit of envy... because he wished he could still do what marc was doing, of course he did. but by the end of 2013, he knew it was more likely than not he would never be involved in another title fight. he thought his career might be ending after the 2014 season. he told the world if he wasn't competitive in the early races in 2014 then that would be that, and I think he meant it

there was no guarantee he'd have a season like 2015 - sure, he was working harder than ever and making radical personnel choices, all in the hope he still had something more to give... but he didn't know it would happen. it was really really unlikely!! there's a giddiness to him in early 2015, almost like he couldn't quite believe himself he'd get that chance. and then, yes, he does withdraw from marc, he does go back into title fight mode... but relatively speaking, this is still a more agreeable version of valentino. this is still a version of valentino who is determined to not start shit with jorge - it's odd to watch, but in those 2015 pressers valentino is constantly engaging him in conversation, at a time in which the marc chatter was already dropping off pretty sharpish

(incidentally, I think vale was proper pissed off at how jorge reacted to the whole sepang thing and how jorge was angry with valentino, which is very funny to me. like at catalunya 2016 vale's going!! I actually made an effort with this bitch!! I was nice to him for three years, does that count for nothing??)

valentino also doesn't blow shit up over assen, even though by his standards marc should be giving him plenty of reason to. he's definitely cooled off towards marc, but he's still giving him the benefit of the doubt where he wouldn't have done so with past rivals - which, yes, I do think partly reflects how he felt about marc, but also reflects how he was approaching that year and that phase of his career as a whole. he didn't really want drama; he wasn't really looking for any distractions from the actual title fight. which doesn't mean that he wasn't already changing his behaviour towards his competitors in response to the demands of the season - it's just a question of the extent. here from a write-up of assen 2015 (I don't entirely agree on the point of the effectiveness of valentino's mind games, though I do agree - like valentino himself does - with the general idea that most of the work needs to be done on-track):

in the end, he cracked. I guess that's what generally happens when you put someone under that kind of pressure - you make them revert to type. valentino wasn't arrogant or entitled or over-confident in that season, he was desperate. he'd been given this unexpected chance and he was throwing everything he had into making it work. body, mind, soul, all of it, wringing himself out in pursuit of this dream. he could feel it slipping away at several points that season... that four race jorge win streak where he led every single lap and it was kind of like? okay, you just can't do anything about that. valentino can't match that, not at this stage of his career. or brno, after which they were level on points and jorge led on countback and it just felt like valentino so obviously had a consistent pace deficit that surely this could only go one way. all these moments where it felt like it might actually be over, in the least dramatic way imaginable. in many ways, this wasn't really a title fight that should ever have been so close - and it's to valentino's credit as a rider, his versatility and willpower, that he was even able to push things as far as he did. but he did know he was hanging on by a thread, and he ended up playing the last hand he felt he had available

obviously, it wasn't really rational calculation that made him do what he did in sepang - though there probably was an element of, y'know, might as well. but he believed he detected a pattern of behaviour in marc - not entirely incorrectly, because it did feel like marc approached his battles with valentino differently - and fashioned himself a conspiracy on the basis of it. he hoped it could change the momentum one last time; he decided to make one final roll of the dice. and then, of course, marc reacted in a way that has ensured valentino will never stop believing in his conspiracy theory. because of course marc did, because of course he never would have taken it lying down. because valentino knew from the moment marc engaged him in that battle at sepang that it was almost certainly all over, because he lost his temper - which usually helps him, except when it doesn't. because they both lost their tempers and ended up just wanting to hurt each other, to prove a point. because that's who they both are

the main point I'm trying to make here is kind of.... it's just how I personally read the sete stuff - yes, these are the same patterns of behaviour, yes, a lot of parallels do obviously present themselves. I've long felt that sete is the single most significant valentino feud to understanding what happened with marc. he's the only other one who valentino was friends with, the only other one valentino felt hurt by on a personal level, the only other one who valentino changed his behaviour towards from one day to the next. and I think under the right circumstances, if you give valentino enough of an excuse and enough of a prize to aim for and have planted enough seeds of suspicion in advance... you can get this situation where the competitive paranoia takes control and he buys into this whole betrayal narrative and he decides he needs to go nuclear. and it also gave him a script to follow - one he knew could work because it had. except of course it could have gone very wrong in 2004 too. what happens if he's so desperately determined to ruin sete that he bins it in phillip island and finds himself only barely ahead in the points going into the title decider? compare that race to phillip island 2009 - obviously, there's a sizeable difference between the level of opposition (especially at that circuit) and the '09 race probably wasn't winnable, but he still ends up eventually deciding to settle for second behind casey because he doesn't want to risk losing the championship to jorge. he's not casey's biggest fan either, but he never came close to losing his head fighting him. it's different. he might do some of his finest riding when he's angry, but where there's anger there's also volatility. and, on occasion, there's also some really bad choices

if 2004 is the moment where he's properly learning to play these games, then 2015 is him falling back on these tools when he really had basically discarded them. it'd been five years since he'd engaged in mind games in earnest (I know him and casey were constantly at it in 2011-12, but whatever the hell that was about, whatever part of their psyches they were appeasing there, it obviously had fuck all to do with on-track competition). that's a long time! there's a 2014 interview where he's asked about his work on the 'mental side' against his rivals:

the first thing he immediately stresses is that there's zero point in doing any of this if you're not fast enough on-track to back it up. if you are fast, sure, you can do some off-track 'work', especially if you know it makes your rivals suffer :) but it won't have the same effect without the on-track performance. so even if we want to say valentino hadn't mellowed post-2012, even if he hadn't grown one jot humbler in his heart of hearts, even if he wasn't swayed by any genuine fondness for marc, he still knew the maths just didn't work out in his favour with his current opponents. he couldn't deploy his favourite tactics against jorge because jorge insisted on spending the entire season either two spots ahead or three spots behind valentino, and the off-track stuff just can't work if you're never sharing space on-track. it could and did work against marc, but he wasn't trying to score psychological victories against marc! certainly not by the time they reached assen and marc was basically out of that title fight. so there wouldn't have been any point in trying to fuck with either of them in that way off-track and, well, it could easily backfire. which is something valentino understood perfectly well until they were 88.9% of the way through the season, and then he changed his mind at what was almost the very last possible moment. which I think speaks to how desperate valentino was to make a mistake like he did at sepang: he felt it was all he had left to try

the other way in which marc comes into this whole thing is that.... I mean, he knew about all this stuff! this is the thing right, maybe he wasn't watching the sepang 2004 press conference as an eleven year old and later going 'huh' but broadly speaking, he will obviously have been aware of how this went down, qatar controversy and all of it. he's sitting right there in that jerez 2015 presser when valentino is asked about sete and in response valentino says sete played 'dirty games'. he's obviously aware of the whole jerez 2005 situation, not least because he copied valentino's overtake in his third ever premier class race. which in turn sete was watching unfold, and is still having thoughts about in 2023:

so it's kind of... y'know, you've got marc, you've got someone who's still very much the heir apparent despite all the drama between him and valentino. if you're sete, do you look at marc and see somebody who valentino hurt in similar ways to what he did to you, or do you look at marc and see another version of valentino? do you see both? it's again that thing of, if you have a problem with some of valentino's more aggressive riding then you will definitely have a problem with marc. because of course marc is the escalation, because valentino generally picked his moments a bit more and adjusted his levels of aggression more to the situation, whereas marc is mostly just Like That. so sure, if you're sete gibernau you can look at marc and see another one of valentino's victims, but at the end of the day you're also going to see his legacy

and this from 2017:

not an original thing to say obviously, half of motogp has said it at one point or another. but. still. meaningful to me!

that tension between 'fellow valentino rival' and 'valentino's successor' is imo inherent to the jerez pass situation, because (along with laguna seca) it's an example of marc actively inserting himself into valentino's legacy. and the thing is, right, these aren't just neutral fun passes that everyone remembers because they looked cool: they're the biggest flashpoints of their respective feuds. marc did to jorge what valentino did to sete - and then he did the most valentino thing imaginable and went to jorge when he must have known jorge would still be furious, making him publicly reject his handshake and starting up a whole lot of discourse™ that would take forever to die down. marc knew immediately how controversial what he did would be and was completely at home in the chaos. it's not just the pass that does valentino proud, it's the shamelessness

while that race might not have had the same repercussions as '05, at the end of the day you do have to remember that those passes have a lot of baggage and controversy attached that marc is also making himself a part of. in the case of laguna, it's valentino addressing livio suppo in the presser because of all the grief suppo and casey had given valentino over the '08 overtake. in the case of the jerez pass, it's sete talking about how alienated he is by this whole approach to riding that marc so completely embodies. and the whole thing has come up quite a few times since 2013, because everyone loves bringing up last corner passes at least once a year when they show up again at jerez

so for instance we have this clip from 2016 (fourth race of the season, vibes still in hell), where the riders are asked whether they'd prefer to be in first, second or third position heading into that final corner. not all too much to say about this one, really. jorge, who it seems has at long last learned his lesson about what to do when you've got a lunatic sitting on your rear wheel headed into the final corner of a race, stresses that he'd protect the inside line - not least because these two fuckers would dive on the inside through the grass if you give them half a chance. also, decent gag from marc! good on him. not always easy for those who have decided they hate him so much so that they refuse to laugh at anything he says

then we have this from 2017 - where sete is in the room - asking four riders who they'd want to arrive at jerez's final corner with. three guys give pretty boring answers, though you'll note in 2017 valentino does actually mention his battle with sete (*gestures with his head in sete's direction*) in the same breath as the one between "marc and jorge". those three boring answers are followed by a great response courtesy of jorge. the question doesn't actually specify, but obviously jorge immediately zeroes in on valentino and marc since they are. you know. the two guys with a history of doing last corner jerez crimes. and they're also two confirmed lunatics, though jorge believes that valentino at least might be a little less reckless now that he's a little older. hey, maybe even marc has become 3% more sensible at the advanced age of 24 (funnily enough, vale when making that overtake in '05 was two years older than marc is in this clip). it's a sweet moment - but, without wanting to belabour the obvious, it's also another way of showing how irrevocably linked both the passes and the blokes executing them are. both valentino and marc are 'hard brakers', to put it lightly. two peas in a pod, from a man who would know

we do also of course get sete reacting to valentino's answer. idk what this facial expression is but I sure am compelled by it (thank u to dani pedrosa for working with sete in 2017 so that we'd get live sete reaction shots. I am very grateful)

okay so those two I included because. well it's just kind of neat and fun that this is a parallel they won't ever escape. linked legacies and all that. but I am actually building up to a point here, and it's to do with how even post-2015, it's not like marc is always overflowing with sympathy and compassion for valentino's other victims. he knows his lore! he will know at least the general details of the sete relationship and how it deteriorated and what valentino did to him afterwards! so let's bring in austria 2017, a time at which the vibes between the two of them aren't actually. catastrophic. exhibit a:

so in this presser, valentino is asked if his overtake on jorge at catalunya '09 is the favourite of his career, and he says it was special because it was the last corner - he can't remember any other examples of him making a last corner overtake in the premier class. at which point marc taps valentino to point out sete:

the expression marc makes in the thumbnail - that's how he looks when he's eagerly waiting for valentino to put two and two together. the thing is, right, this whole feuding business, the way valentino treated his rivals, how he was pretty awful to them... all of it will have been stuff that marc actively enjoyed as a fan. and even post-2015, when marc has experienced some of the very worst valentino has to offer, marc still finds the whole jerez thing pretty funny, not just the overtake but what it meant for the relationship between valentino and sete. he makes valentino aware of sete in the room, because of course he would never forget valentino's greatest hits. like, remember why this exchange is funny: everybody knows this overtake was a super controversial thing and a big source of tension between the two of them and valentino's forgotten about it. and marc's laughing at this!! in 2017!! "after we have a bit problems" and marc thinks it's hilarious!! buddy

one more presser moment, from 2019. just a bit of context here - earlier in the presser they were asked about dani getting a corner named after him at jerez and valentino went 'yeah good for him but I wouldn't want a corner named after me !!' and marc talked about how he'd gotten a corner at aragon named after him the year before. so now, the riders are asked what their favourite bit of the jerez circuit is. the joke here goes a) marc says 'last corner' the way he does because everyone knows he did a terrorism there, b) jack miller says 'you mean jorge lorenzo corner' because everyone knows it's funny marc did a terrorism on jorge there like a day after jorge got the corner named after him, and c) marc says 'it's valentino corner' because everyone knows his move was copying the move valentino did on sete. and... 'valentino corner'... first of all why would you do this to your literal teammate jorge lorenzo... but again the whole reason this exchange is funny is because the premise is that they did the same thing, valentino to sete and marc to jorge. implicitly, it's making the link between the pair of them and how they terrorised their rivals in the same way. still. in 2019

speaking of legacies, there's a moment in the 2016 catalunya presser where valentino is asked how that duel compares to his past duels in 2007 and 2009 at that circuit (notice the blatant and unchallenged sete erasure - 2004 and 2005 were really great but okay). and valentino says he counts it on the same level as the jorge fight - "was three great battles with three great opponents". which, y'know, I really love 2016, I think it's fantastic, but marc makes a mistake on the penultimate lap and denies us the most dramatic of finales. like I think it's completely reasonable and nice for valentino to count it in that same camp as the 2009 duel, but I also think it wouldn't have been crazy or disrespectful or anything if he'd gone 'yeah that was great but not quite the same thing'. this definitely might be reading too much into it (surely not) but given how valentino has since occasionally left marc out of the rivalries list, said he wasn't his toughest rival etc etc, I do think it's kinda notable that during that moment of 'reconciliation', valentino allowed marc to be part of his legacy - even if it's just in a small way. 'great valentino catalunya battles' is a pretty cool group of races to be a part of, y'know? the infamous overtakes, the duels, these are the things people remember. these are the things marc remembered, as valentino's fan - inevitably, it'll mean something to him. it's a legacy he wants to be a part of, by fighting valentino, by emulating valentino, and sometimes valentino lets him and sometimes he'd rather leave marc out in the cold. you'll note that in 2019 he doesn't really engage with the "valentino corner" gag from marc and instead goes with the far more neutral turn 5 as his own pick

in the very very immediate aftermath of sepang (aka december 2015), marc did openly make the comparison between himself and valentino's other rivals:

and it's informed his whole approach since then - it's a big part of why he's tried to be quiet about the drama with valentino over the years. he knows how valentino behaves towards his rivals, he always has. he knows he can't beat valentino off-track... but (beyond his undeniable mental resilience) he's just fortunate enough that with his talent and the way their career windows have overlapped, more often than not he's been able to out-perform valentino on the track. and y'know, it's an interesting element to the whole thing I feel... marc was a fan of valentino's for a lot of reasons - he was very much a fan of the complete package, if you will. including what valentino did to his enemies! it's not like that aspect of vale was some kind of closely guarded secret; it was like a top three valentino rossi talking point for years and years. (part of the subtext of assen 2015 is marc not really enjoying being on the receiving end of one of those classic valentino scam wins, when marc had been intending to do that to valentino.) again, those overtakes of valentino's weren't just famous because they were cool, they were famous because they helped valentino fuck with his rivals. it's not just about emulating his on-track aggression, it's about emulating how valentino did his best to get in his rivals' heads. when we talk about marc 'being a fan' of valentino, then it shouldn't be ignored that this involved marc being a fan of what an absolute and utter asshole valentino was. and like with all things relating to valentino, I'd wager marc has pretty complicated feelings about this. at the end of the day that's also part of his make up as a rider... but it also really burnt him personally...

it's almost like an identification thing, isn't it. if you're marc and you're thinking about valentino's past rivalries, whose shoes are you placing yourself in? in many ways it should be valentino's rivals, because of course some of their experiences mirror marc's. and there's a rare moment in the winter of 2015, when he's still in the process of trying to make sense of everything that's happened, where he does make the connection. but apart from that, he's shied away from it - even when he's criticising valentino, he's generally not framing what valentino did to marc as indicative of some broader character flaw. it's casey and jorge who explicitly make that link, not marc. he's still kind of... idk, separating that out. obviously, marc would far rather be valentino's successor than another one of valentino's victims, even if he hasn't really been given a choice in the matter and has ended up being both. I don't really have any evidence to back this up, but my guess is that deep down he feels like what valentino did to him was different from what he did to those other guys. and in some ways he's right and in some ways he's wrong

unfortunate, isn't it. you're a fan of somebody with a reputation for fucking with his enemies, which is fun and neat and you kinda want to copy how he does it - maybe put your own spin on the whole thing but you're still into the general vibe. you enter the sport at a time when you can still fight your hero, but he's kinda washed and he's too old to be starting new feuds (*bzzzzt!!* incorrect! you are never too old to start feuds) so there's no real danger. and you share a bond you think on some level is different from whatever those other guys had going on, even sete gibernau, whoever tf that is. and then you become real rivals and realise how extremely not enjoyable it is to be losing to him yourself and you really want to show him and maybe you do push it a little far along the way. but it'll be okay. it's all fine... until he decides it's time to destroy you. and on one level you do obviously see the parallels because you're not an idiot... but on the other hand, none of that stuff, none of what he did to those other guys - it wasn't ever going to stop you from being a fan of his. it's the bits he did to you that are the problem. and at the end of the day, you'll never quite be able to let go of the twelve year old boy inside of you who found jerez 2005 really, really cool

anyway

[opuspace]

So some time ago, it occurred to me as to why there's strong ghoulcy vibes in Fallout. It was kinda obvious in retrospect, but I was slapping myself in the head when I noticed it.

The flashbacks.

Cooper and Lucy's flashbacks are being shown in greater detail than any other characters. Maximus has his, but they keep repeating back to an image of a Brotherhood knight rescuing him, not his life before Shady Sands was destroyed. It's odd, because you'd think that Maximus and Lucy would have more in common since they both had once lived in Shady Sands and that Lucy's parents directly affected Maximus.

But no.

Instead, we're seeing more parallels drawn between Lucy and Cooper to explain why Cooper invited Lucy along his journey, why he sympathizes with her and why they're leaving together at the end.

"Well duh," I can hear in the back of my mind. "Of course that's why other ghoulcy fans are fascinated by this dynamic."

Thing is, why go through all that for those two? Why not a rivalry that continues, a race to get to Lucy's father instead? Why not Maximus leaving with her since he too would have been ripe for a revenge tale? We'd get more of a destined lovers feel if we were getting more of Maximus's past shown in flashbacks alongside Lucy's, but instead, we get the sense that Maximus is more focused on the future instead of being haunted by his past.

Things aren't still decided, and for all we know, Maximus and Lucy may still be endgame, but it gets harder and harder to ignore the questions. I do want to see more of Maximus's life before he joined the Brotherhood. I want to see why Dane is so devoted to him (there has to be a history there). I feel like Maximus is on the brink of becoming a revolutionary in changing the Brotherhood once he figures out himself and what he ultimately wants. He straddles the line between doing the right thing and being pragmatic.

But most of all, I want to see more ghoulcy. I want to see Lucy and Cooper develop alongside each other. I want to see Lucy change in ways Cooper didn't expect the way Clarice from Silence of the Lambs became someone Hannibal didn't predict.

[descendant-of-truth]

On principle I don't really like the idea of Sonic being sent after Shadow at the request of G.U.N for two reasons:

It robs us of the god-tier cold open of the original game where Sonic busts out of a helicopter to escape arrest

I always loved the setup where Sonic and Shadow meeting was pretty incidental - neither of them had any idea who the other was, but Sonic thought Shadow was impersonating him on purpose while Shadow just thought he seemed fun to mess with

But depending on what the surrounding context is, I can see how the movie could make this plot point interesting in a completely different way that still complements these versions of the characters, even if I don't prefer it to the original.

So, some ideas:

G.U.N has been the villain of the last two movies, so in order for Sonic to be working with them, they must have a pretty good deal for him. My guess is that they promised to leave him and his family alone - no more schemes, no more kidnapping, nothing of the sort - on the one condition that "Team Sonic" helps them deal with Shadow.

This would already function as a narrative parallel to Sonic enlisting Robotnik's help later for the same thing. The name of the game becomes "we don't like each other, we're enemies, but we need to work together to deal with this guy because he's too powerful," which becomes a triple threat if the whole cast including Shadow gets to team up at the very end to save the world

I think it would also be very fun if Sonic is trying so hard to talk things out with Shadow in large part because he heard that there was another hedgehog on the loose, and wants so badly to be friends with someone like him that it takes at least one full-blown beating before he gives up on that idea

(The other reason he keeps trying is "it worked on Knuckles" of course)

Now, this puts Sonic in a fascinating position, particularly when using the game as a frame of reference. SA2 was very straightforward with how it presented its conflict at first: you have a Hero Story and a Dark Story, and as such you're primed to think of everyone on both sides as either being good or bad.

And most people, I think, were inclined to play the Hero Story first; it's the one with Sonic in it, and the select screen hovers over it by default, too. It tells a very simple story of Sonic and friends stopping Eggman's (admittedly very threatening) evil plan, developing some new rivalries along the way.

It's already a little bit of a twist for Sonic and Knuckles to have formed a respectful relationship with Shadow and Rouge by the end, since you see them as villains initially, but they still remain antagonists. Rouge returns the Master Emerald pieces, but she's still working with Robotnik. Shadow thinks Sonic is pretty impressive, but he still tries to kill him to stop him from saving the world.

But then you get to the Dark Story, and then the Final Story, and you think, oh. It's really not that simple.

For starters, you get to see more of Rouge's bond with Shadow. There's some conflict inherent to their relationship because Rouge is a spy and is only here to get information on Shadow, but after he saves her life, there's a definite shift to their dynamic. There's something genuine there, even if it doesn't get a lot of screentime dedicated to it.

But most important to the story is what we learn about who Shadow is, in part through his interactions with Rouge.

Shadow is cunning and ruthless - heck, his goal is to literally blow up the world. But whether out of compassion or survivor's guilt or both, he can't let Rouge die, so he saves her and then lies about his motivations for it to seem colder than he is.

And even though the things he's doing are definitely bad, his motivations are famously sympathetic; he wants revenge for his best friend, a young girl who was killed by the G.U.N military during a raid.

(It was implied that there was some sort of brainwashing done on him by Gerald after Maria died as well but that part of the story is incredibly vague)

By the end of the game, Shadow comes into his own as a hero and helps save the world instead of destroying it. And suddenly it makes sense why the stories weren't called Hero and Villain, because neither Shadow nor Rouge are especially villainous characters; Rouge is selfish, and Shadow is driven by grief and hatred, but they're ultimately kind at the end of the day. Both of them find people to care about - each other, as well as Knuckles and Sonic respectively.

But y'know, there wasn't a lot of ambiguity about who the heroes were in the Hero Story itself. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are pretty clearly The Good Guys, and nothing they do is really questioned because they're always fighting The Bad Guys.

So what I'm seeing here is an opportunity for Team Sonic to not be totally in the right for once. Yes, it's good to stop Shadow from going on a rampage and destroying the world, but look at who they're keeping for company here. G.U.N? Robotnik and Agent Stone? As if either of those groups are trustworthy enough to not stab them in the backs as soon as it's convenient. As if they're not going to find some way to exploit Sonic for their benefit.

And frankly, Shadow is totally in the right to hate G.U.N, and Team Sonic for working with them. Given that his backstory seems to be largely unchanged, it's kind of impossible not to be on board with him fighting the protagonists at least a little bit.

Besides, I don't think it's a coincidence that Shadow is doing the wrong thing for the right reason, while Sonic is doing the right thing with the wrong people (and maybe also for the wrong reason). That has the potential to be very clever if executed well.

I can only imagine the dawning horror on Sonic's face as he realizes just how much he's not on the right side of this conflict; when he learns about what happened to Maria and everyone else on the Ark. Especially if Tom's family was involved in it, like the current popular theory going around.

Also, last-second realization: what if there's something more to that line from Tom, "it wasn't always easy, but you didn't change who you are in here"? Most likely it's going to be used as a way to show how Shadow is different from Sonic, because he did change who he was in response to trauma and it'll be really poetic when he "finds himself" again

But also, consider: maybe Sonic does end up changing throughout the movie. Maybe he does something that goes against his core principles in order to get an advantage in some way, and they kind of play around with the idea that Sonic is similar to Shadow in ways that aren't always flattering to either of them. I want those hedgehogs to make each other worse before they get better

In any case, there's a lot of potential here, and I'm very curious to see what they ended up going with

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I read your rewrite of Chapter 2 (which was great, by the way) and would like to clarify some things. Of course, you wrote that the fixes were just you exploring possibilities, so you don't need to justify anything if you don't want to. 1. How would Leona join the investigation? Correct me if I am wrong, but Leona didn't seem to know about Yuu and co. until Riddle and Qater confronted Ruggie. For him to know about them so soon, someone (like an injured Savanaclaw student or a Savanaclaw student who overheard Yuu and co. questioning others) would need to let him know. Even then, would he be able to join without looking suspicious? 2. How does Leona plan to frame Diasomnia and get it to stick? He can point fingers all he wants and use the circumstantial evidence they gather to prove it, but Diasomnia has no reason to sabotage others when they have Malleus. Leona would most likely be aware of Crowley's biases, so is he just hoping casting enough suspicion would force Crowley's hand? Does he intend to convince students from other dorms to demand their disqualification despite the lack of motive?

[Referencing this post!]

Wow, people are still reading that?? 😭

As I said in the original post, my book 2 rewrite was more of a compilation of shower thoughts without much care given to fleshing out the finer details. It is by no means perfect, nor is it meant to cover everything.

There’s enough wiggle room left for various different interpretations using my book 2 rewrite as a basis. It’s meant to be flexible!

Just for fun, here are my thoughts:

To your first point, I don’t think Leona would come off as suspicious if his introduction was framed a certain way (which I’m sure he could plan around). Yuu and co. would be investigating all the dorms (since they’re all suspects), which includes Savanaclaw students. Leona could easily hear it from Savanaclaw mobs and then reintroduce himself to the group, claiming he also wants in on the investigation to seek justice for his injured students. Since Riddle is already investigating with Yuu, Leona could easily use that to distract from his true intentions. He would come off as just another pissed dorm leader trying to stand up for and avenge his dorm members. (And if we really want to get technical, we could reason the other dorm leaders are not getting involved due to other reasons, like Azul being busy with the inter-dorm event organization, Jamil not trusting anyone with Kalim but himself, Vil preoccupied with his professional gigs, Idia being Idia, and no one knowing where the heck Malleus has wandered off to now.)

To your second point, I think Leona definitely has the capacity to trick/manipulate other students into believing Diasomnia is responsible. He could set up situations which incriminate certain Diasomnia students (based on their unique skillsets), then leave the other dorms’ students to come to their own (false) conclusions based on that. Obviously, it would look too suspicious if he and Savanaclaw students are the only ones pointing fingers, so he has to convince the others to parrot the rhetoric he wants them to. If it was done this way, we achieve many things: 1) Leona comes off as way more intelligent than in the original book 2, 2) it sets up more parallels between him and Jamil (who also tried to get a lot of people to side with him under false pretenses to convince someone of higher authority to change their mind) for delicious book 6 payoff, and 3) it adds to the sense of betrayal the other students experience at the end when it turns out Leona deceived them.

Something I feel that the main story fails to do well is to define the rivalries between each dorm. It’s only mentioned a few times off-handedly, like how Octavinelle and Scarabia students are intelligent and are thus always neck and neck in terms of grades. In my revised book 2, an opportunity arises to utilize this untapped potential. Think about it: what if the other dorm members are more likely to suspect Diasomnia because the main story calls more attention to how the dorms do NOT get along with each other?? Diasomnia is described to us as a place where skilled all-around mages go, and this has resulted in the Diasomnia students being more arrogant than your average NRC student (which by itself is already very arrogant). From that point of view, it’s not too hard to believe that the other students could think Diasomnia is injuring other students “just because they can”. They’ve grown too arrogant and think they can get away with doing whatever they want because they won’t face the consequences of their actions. (Malleus himself is THE poster child of that across multiple events and vignettes too.) There doesn’t necessarily need to be a motive in the traditional sense; people could suspect that Diasomnia has gotten too high and mighty, so they are conceited and feel entitled to doing whatever the hell they want. It would be a perfect way for Leona to weaponize the preexisting animosity and pride of the NRC students against them. The injured students would then feel slighted because Diasomnia are being held up as the metaphorical “golden children” (despite their theoretical unethical behavior) while their suffering is looked over. These feelings ironically also parallel how Scar feels cheated of the throne because of his careless older brother and son, or even how the hyenas are not seen as part of the Pridelands.

[chestermonroe]

Interesting analysis I've made through the seasons is that ever since Vander and Silco's dynamic was established the word brother came up a lot of times between them. like, very much. And it was always very...emphasized.

Sentences like You were my brother or Oh it all makes sense now, brother happened all the time and I could get behind the idea of oh yeah, they could actually be brothers considering i was never sure in Season 1 if they are related and stuff. they clearly shared one deep bond that even after Silco "killed" Vander, he still valued him in his memories and thought about him like a younger brother still looking for guidance in the older one. there were also a lot of parallels between them and Vi and Jinx of course. With Vi being Vanders successor and Jinx being Silcos successor. The sibling rivalry started with Vander and Silco and got carried over to the next generation in some way. Like. I get poeple shipping them, i do think you could read more into it, but i don't actually think we were meant to look into it? does that make sense?

Viktor and Jayce are kinda different. I don't want to put the Zaundads down here or anything cause my lord they do possess chemistry and had a lot of potential but they really were hammered down multiple times with the word brother.

I want to add that the labels in which Jayce and Viktor always call themselves vary and it depends on who says what.

Like, Jayce called Viktor his brother. He did this once. In Episode 6 of Season 1. He said He's like my brother., after Mel stated that she never realised that Jayce was close to Viktor. But...that was it. Like, really?

The rest of the whole series, the most common term that was used is partner. And that is...so fucking interesting. Poeple think it's a downgrade but it really isn't. Because the word is VERY ambigous. Your partner. Like yeah, science bros, but also. Partners. Like a couple.

The second term that is used for their relationship is (best) friend.

I don't remember that many times it was used, only the one time in s2 when Viktor left Jayce and he was like: "My best friend bled out in my arms"

Interesting.

This was the first time their relationship was labled in Season 2. And it somewhat ignored the "brother" thing from Season 1, making it feel less platonic and phrased it more openly. A brother is like the ultimate platonic thing you can be called as.

Being a friend leaves much more open.

For the rest of the series, they just call themselves partners.

And it would have been SO EASY for the writers in the final scene to make Jayce say "I want my brother back" or "I want my friend back"

No. He wants his partner back. Such an ambigous little word.

FUNFACT:

Viktor never actually labled their relationship AT ALL.

He was always like "Yeah, Jayce, Jayce will understand, Jayce I feared I would never have the chance to speak with you again, You must go Jayce", there was never a time Viktor said friends or brothers or anything.

He only called Jayce his partner once.

And that was in that gay as fuck scene where he leaned over him and stuff.

End of my analysis yeeth

[lonelysheepling]

Finally finished these. This some sketches I have for a TMAxDC crossover idea based on the fic All You Have (Is Your Fire) by ambrosed. My idea slightly veers off from their’s and god if you thought my artist commentary on the DPxDC post was long you’re in for a fucking treat with this one bc I have so many ideas. Like 13 more paragraphs of text available under the cut

I’m going to be slightly referencing the plot of the fic. It’s only 6k words, go read it if you want context.

My idea is that when Tim picks up the knife he gets ‘marked’ by The Web for consumption. So he slowly starts to get more and more paranoid over the course of trying to figure out where the blade came from and whose blood is on it. Jonathan Sims season 2 sort of paranoia. It ends up boiling over and he suffers a mental breakdown and goes completely off-the-grid from the batfam. He runs into Jon by complete accident and Jon (feeling slightly guilty) offers him a deal, binding him to The Beholding, and Tim becomes a sort of apprentice to him, which keeps him out of the clutches of the spider (it’s ambiguous as to whether or not this was The Web’s actual plan). 

So Tim starts helping Jon behind the scenes, he has complete access to all of Jon’s memories and they have a sort of mental link so that Tim can act as an extension of him. Together they start focusing on Gotham and analyzing the effect that the introduction of the fears has had (and will end up having) on the rogues gallery. Jason and Jon end up having a major (one-sided) rivalry throughout this with Jason really not happy about this guy who knows all his secrets, running around with this other guy who also knows his secrets. Eventually Jon and co. have to pay attention to him when he starts unknowingly courting the horrible combination of both The Desolation & The Slaughter. There’s a lot of emphasis on the parallels between Jason and the Joker in this since, at least in the comics, they were pretty similar at times. I’m sorry to the Jason Todd fans, I love him too but man he is just a truly awful person during a majority of his run as The Red Hood. Here’s some relevant posts if you want to understand my thought process here: 1 2 3

I’m not going with the most brutal version of him, but I think it’s worth it to have that context because I’m not going to sugarcoat his character either. Anyway, while this is happening Annabelle weaves strings into the bat computer and clocktower and learns about the Court of Owls from their files (she’s not part of the beholding, so she actually has to go look for her info so she can weave her webs). She ends up taking over the Court of Owls (it’s a council of individuals pulling secretly strings in Gotham, that’s literally her thing).

There’s more to this plot but I’m saving it for later. But here’s my rogue gallery breakdown:

Victor Zsasz, Firefly, & Killer Moth

I’m starting out with the easy ones. These are extremely straightforward: Slaughter, Desolation, Corruption. I’m using the Earth-46 Vincent Strasbourg III (Moth-er) character [Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #2] for the Killer Moth design. I don’t believe he’s actually Killer Moth (just sort of an in-universe equivalent) but Rafael Grampá fucking knocked it out of the park with this one and I want to bring him into my story. Maybe he starts as the regular killer moth and slowly morphs into the Moth-er version. The refs I’m for Victor Zsasz and Firefly (Ted Carson) come from the [Batman: Streets of Gotham #4] and [Nightwing Annual Vol 3 #1]’s respective comic interiors. 

Harley Quinn

Harley gets nabbed by a pseudo-version of the distortion. My theory is that while “Helen” was killed in the original world, the distortion as a whole is still an entity created by The Spiral; Helen, Michael, etc. those are just the “skins” that it wears. So the distortion is sort of re-formed in this new world and Harley ends up becoming its first victim. Bc of how well suited I think Harley is personality-wise for the distortion (way more than Helen & Michael), I think they have a sort of symbiosis where she’s still herself but slightly more.. uh… well: More. Anyway her doors just look like standard metal, emergency access doors and her hallways are just winding factory/maintenance hallways, since it’s Gotham. 

Edward Nygma (The Riddler)

Eddie gets nabbed pretty early on by Annabelle. He’s described a lot in the Prime Earth comics as a super genius (actually thinking back on this, this is the case for most continuities that he’s in, but I digress) and he’s ridiculously manipulative and competent. So yeah, he’s getting nabbed by The Web. I’m using the Gotham TV (unmasked) look for him, I don’t have any strong preferences on his outfit (I have a feeling that once he joins the web he stops doing public appearances as The Riddler). It’s sort of meant to be ambiguous whether he’s truly on board with this or if he’s just resigned to his new role in The Spider’s Web. 

Victor Fries (Mister Freeze)

Victor, unfortunately, serves as Martin’s first meal on his journey to fully embracing The Lonely. Victor’s actions are heavily motivated by a desire to cure his wife. Depending on the continuity, this is either a task that is tentatively possible or completely impossible. I like the idea of it being a hopeless task that he undertakes out of pure desperation and an inability to cope with the death of his wife. He’s unable to process it properly and instead turns to villainy on his doomed quest to get the things he thinks he needs to save her. So yeah, he’s the perfect victim for The Lonely. Martin collects him in the end. 

Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow)

The 2020 releases for dc comics fucking ate man, so many good designs. I’m using his look in the 2021 Infinite Frontier #0 (Batman) comic for this. I love it so much, it’s way more scary than his usual getup and the fear-toxin-needle finger attachments are a super grisly accessory. Tomeu Morey and Jorge Jiménez were the respective colorist and inker for the panel I’m referencing (wiki link) and they did a really good job on it. Anyway, Crane’s whole thing is fear, not any specific subset of fear. I don’t think he’d ever be a fear avatar bc I don’t think he would ever limit himself to a single aspect. And I don’t think he’d fall victim to being a meal for any fear either bc let’s face it, fear gods would love this fucking guy. 

You’re gonna learn real quick that I have Strong Opinions™️ about fear avatars & feeding and my primary belief is that fear gods, being created by and fueled by the existence and prevalence of certain fears, create avatars to stir up the pot. If someone is experiencing fear, the fear gods have already collected that fear, it’s already feeding them. It’s the role of an Avatar of the Fears to artificially create more fear, to feed the fire. That is literally what Scarecrow does with his fear toxins. Those people he’s targeting are already afraid of certain things, but he forces those fears directly to the surface and makes them experience them much more vividly and viscerally. (I’m also of the firm opinion that there is no way to “passively” feed the fears, you either feed them by expanding their reach or they feed on you). Fear gods would fucking love this guy bc he’s literally feeding the concept of fear. Keep in mind that in the show, Leitner & Jon both state that the separation of the fears into separate distinct entities is a shortsighted way of thinking. They’re all just aspects of the same entity. The aspect of the web has slightly more prominence, but they’re all in-effect bound to each other. Despite the petty battle lines drawn by their avatars, the fears are all inextricably linked together and they cannot be separated. Scarecrow is, at any point in his campaign, feeding a multitude of fear aspects. They’re gonna keep this guy around, and so is Jon since he now understands how this ecosystem works. 

Jack Napier (The Joker)

:) 

The Slaughter & The Spiral 

Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy), Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin), Selina Kyle (Catwoman), & Waylon Jones (Killer Croc)

These are the official unaffiliated ones, they don’t get nabbed by any fears. Being a fear avatar puts an inherent priority on humans over other things (bc you need to feed from them) and that doesn’t work well with Pamela’s whole ethos of prioritizing the planet and its wellbeing. I don’t think she’d become a fear avatar and I don’t think she’d get killed by one either. Oswald’s immunity is more due to the fact that I found him to be very endearing in Gotham (TV), he just looks like such a wet cat of a man so he gets a pass. Selina is a thief, not a master manipulator or a violent criminal. She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person that would necessarily vibe with fear so she also gets a pass. Waylon gets a pass bc I like depictions of him where he’s more humanized and actually nuanced. I do just picture this guy in my head as a giant anthro crocodile with a dad bod wearing a plain button-up and slacks on his off-days so that might be influencing my opinion here. He deserves a break, let the man rest.

Uncategorized 

I couldn’t figure out or didn’t want to commit to what fear category they’d fall into

Harvey Dent (Two-Face): this man is an enigma to me

Bane: this man is also an enigma to me 

Kirk Langstrom (Man-Bat): Fuck if I know dude

Roman Sionis (Black Mask): this guy doesn’t have enough of a gimmick and I don’t want another Slaughter avatar  

Jervis Tetch (Mad Hatter): probably The Spiral, but I don’t really care about him

There’s been like 6 of these (Clayface): The Stranger, maybe. I don’t know enough about the clayface lineage/storyline to confidently state anything

Slade Wilson (Deathstroke the Terminator): I like this man too much to sideline him and I don’t have room for him in the mainline story. Also, he’d be neutral, he’s just a mercenary 

Talia & Ra’s al Ghul: they’re not in Gotham so they don’t exist. Look, the moment we leave the Gotham boundaries we open up a whole new can of worms

All minor/one-off villains: these do not exist to me unless they’re immediately useful 

[princesssarisa]

Another aspect of Wicked that I think combines two slightly opposed, uneasy themes is the fact that it's a "love story" between Elphaba and Glinda (whether you read it as romantic, platonic, or anything in-between), yet Elphaba also represents "the other," while Glinda represents the type of people who are the most privileged at "the other's" expense.

Now, I'm not saying that this juxtaposition is wrong. Maybe the only way to resolve social conflicts is for the people on both sides of it to find common ground, learn to understand each other, etc. And of course it's positive to encourage different types of women to be friends (or more than friends) instead of policing them into categories of "good femininity" and "bad femininity"! But there's still some tension between "the story of Elphaba and Glinda's love for each other" and "the story of how society vilifies Elphaba and glorifies Glinda, with parallels to real-world social injustice."

Look at "What Is This Feeling?" The fandom has latched onto the "love song parody" lyrics, and their whole attitude is "Elphaba and Glinda don't really loathe each other," "It's all sexual tension," "They really mean loving, not loathing," etc. Just recently I saw article comparing that song, in all seriousness, to the great "denial of feelings" duets by Rodgers and Hammerstein, like "People Will Say We're in Love" from Oklahoma! or "If I Loved You" from Carousel. Of course that's valid. But at the same time, the song isn't just about Elphaba and Glinda's feelings for each other. It's just as much about the other Shiz students' unfair treatment of Elphaba: just because she has an odd skin color and outbursts of magic that she can't control, and just because Glinda is the beautiful blonde popular girl, everyone sides with Glinda, loathes Elphaba just because Glinda loathes her, and views their mutually catty rivalry as Elphaba being a terror and Glinda her saintly victim. The fandom tends to ignore that part and just revel in Elphaba and Glinda's "denial of their attraction."

Or look at "I'm Not That Girl." From what I've seen, the fandom's attitude toward this song tends to be "Ha ha! Elphaba sings a whole verse about how beautiful Glinda is! We know who she really loves and it's not Fiyero!" Again, that's valid, because the whole show is centered around Elphaba's relationship with Glinda, not with Fiyero. But it also ignores why she sings about Glinda's beauty. The very real feelings of inferiority and undesirability that women and girls who aren't traditionally beautiful (or socially graceful, or white) are made to feel compared to those who are.

And of course there are the endless fandom debates about Glinda. How positively or negatively should we view her? Is she the co-heroine or an antagonist with a redemption arc? Should she have gone on the broom with Elphaba in "Defying Gravity," or should Elphaba have stayed with her? The discourse goes on. Some of this ties back to the tension I've discussed in the past between the theme of "Everyone is morally gray" and the theme of "Elphaba is a freedom fighter crushed by the pseudo-Nazi government's propaganda." But another factor is this: viewing Elphaba and Glinda as equally flawed yet equally sympathetic co-heroines works better for their love story. But viewing Elphaba as the heroine and Glinda as the more flawed character with a redemption arc works better for the story of how society glorifies the privileged and vilifies "the other."

Maybe this tension between different themes is part of what makes the musical interesting. But it's also a little bit uneasy.

[askereiniongilgalad]

Inga Aran , If you allow me, I would like to know about your adoptive father, Lord Círdan.

Were you a witness to the confrontations/battles of words between foster father Lord Círdan and your bio. father, the previous spiritual king, because you (possibly) were drawn to another elf more than to your blood? And in parallel with this, the "foreign elf from a foreign people" was drawn to you as to his own child.

Could such a conflict have arisen?

Ah, my friend, yes, I was…

I still remember how the sky burned crimson with the light of a thousand fires 🔥 and how the sea roared in fury 🌊. Ada and Círdan argued... Voices were raised (mostly mine) in a valiant (if not entirely successful) to stop them.

🚨 Did I get your attention? Good. 😇✨

Truth be told, there were no grand confrontations or dramatic standoffs  🎭. Círdan is far too wise for such theatrics, and I… well, I prefer preferred my drama contained within council meetings. 📜🙄

Do not forget, those times were very very dark... without Círdan, I wouldn’t be here today, quite literally. His wisdom and guidance saved more than just my life; they shaped the king standing before you. 👑

At the end, after my kin were lost to war… it was The Shipwright who remained. A “foreign elf from a foreign people,” yet he took me in as his own... so, in a way, I was drawn to him too.

Círdan never tried to replace what I had lost, only to guide with patience... a lot of patience. Between us, I was able to surpass my trio of fostered sons in a single afternoon. (I will deny this with a straight face in front of them. 😏)

So, no grand rivalries, no dramatic declarations, just a quiet understanding that some bonds are not forged in blood but in love and trust... ...and of course the occasional muttered “Ereinion, why.... WHYYY?” 😩

Sincerely, Gil-galad