#I love a good metaphor and especially good ones

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Something something about us being shown Eddie developing his cooking skills before buck - that were shown Eddie being able to cook a full meal (and bake) before were shown Buck doing the same thing. And something something about that foreshadowing Eddie having his full feelings realisation before buck.

Eddie’s cooking skills are on display in 5x11 outside looking in when he cooks dinner for buck Chris and Taylor - and he’s baked cupcakes for desert as well.

But we don’t actually get shown buck cooking a full meal until the 6x01 lasagne. He’s only got as far as breakfast foods when he makes Maddie an omelet in 2x04 stuck but we don’t get shown him actively cooking again until he makes the lasagne.

After that its hit and miss on the cooking and baking front for buck - burnt lasagne in a 7 and I’m assuming his baking isnt that great in 8x07 by the way Chim has one bite and then pushes the loaf away before he masters the ziti, garlic bread etc in 807 and then later the scones in 8x08.

[samgirl98]

Biblically Accurate Boyfriend

Written for @silverblueglitter, I hope this is what you were looking for!

Something was going on with Jason. He was happier.

Now, usually, this would be good news, but the family had no idea what had caused such a drastic change in what seemed overnight. From what they could tell, Jason hadn’t had a pit episode in weeks and was voluntarily around the family without getting angry at them. Jason was cooking and bringing side dishes to family dinners. Just that day, he had let Dick hug him and didn’t try to punch his older brother! He doubted it was the few college courses Jason decided to take. No way school would make anyone that happy. Even a nerd like Jason.

It scared them a little. After all, when would the other shoe drop?

After the third week in a row that Jason had shown up for Sunday family dinner, Dick decided he had to ask, screw the consequences.

“So, Jason, what brought about this change?”

Dick tensed, prepared to have his head ripped off (he hoped metaphorically). The opposite happened. Jason laughed. Laughed!

“I have a boyfriend,” he said cheerfully, taking a bite of the pie he brought, “He’s my Angel. He’s so awesome!”

Before Dick could prompt Jason even more with questions, his younger brother continued to talk excitedly about ‘Angel.’

“I met Angel as Red Hood while a cult had kidnapped him. They were trying to summon some death deity right there in the middle of Crime Alley, the fucking idiots. I stopped them, obviously, but let me tell you, instead of being scared or angry, he was joking around and sassing the cult leader. It was so funny! Anyway, after I rescued him, he looked familiar, and I remembered why. He was in one of my Gen Ed courses.”

Bruce filed away the cult leader tidbit, not wanting to stop his son from giving out more information. He hated magic, and a cult had been trying to summon something. He’d have to investigate. If only his second oldest wrote mission reports but refused to do so, leaving Bruce in the dark about what Jason faced in Crime Alley. Bruce made a mental note and tuned back in to what Jason was saying about his boyfriend.

“The next time I saw him, I wanted to make sure he was fine and that the shock hadn’t worn off. You know, he’s not from Gotham, so I imagined he wasn’t used to rogue attacks.”

Everyone nodded but said nothing. They didn’t want to risk Jason shutting up, especially since he was volunteering information without prompting.

“To my surprise, he was chipper and didn’t seem traumatized about what happened. Hell, when I introduced myself to him as Jason, he joked how he was a native Gothamite now because he had been kidnapped.”

“Anyway, one thing led to another, and then we were friends. A few days later, he asked me for a date at a library. My God, that thing was so well-stocked! It even had books that I had never heard or seen. There were first-edition books and books that famous authors hadn’t published to the public. I didn’t even know such a library could exist. It was awesome,” he finished dreamily. There were stars in his eyes.

Dick smiled softly at his brother’s happiness.

“So, does this Angel have a last name,” Tim asked.

Jason glared at Tim, making everyone at the table tense.

“Don’t you dare! Angel doesn’t need a bunch of paranoid vigilante detectives looking into him. Angel isn’t even his real name, and until I feel I can trust you guys not to chase him away, I’m not giving any personal information or bringing him around.”

“That’s fine, Little Wing, just as long as you feel safe and happy,” Dick quickly intervened when he saw Bruce open his mouth to say something. Dick glared at their father and subtly shook his head at him. He knew how Bruce was, and Dick didn’t want Bruce’s paranoia ruining things with Jason.

Bruce frowned but took Dick’s silent advice. Jason glared at them the whole time.

“I’m glad, Jay lad. When you feel comfortable, bring him around. I, we, would love to meet him.”

“Yes, I would love to see who this Angel is and what is wrong with him. Who would like to date Todd purposely?”

Jason turned his glare at his younger brother, but it lacked malice. “Watch it, Demon Brat.”

“Tt, imbecile.”

And so, life continued.

Jason mellowed out more and more while still visiting and talking to the family without any angry barbs. He worked more with them as Red Hood and was less violent with most criminals. Jason would go to the cave after missions to get checked over and eat some of Alfred’s snacks without complaint. He joked around with them and trained. He even let the family enter his territory in Crime Alley in costume.

Still, everyone in the family was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jason still hadn’t introduced them to Angel, even though it had been three months since they found out, and it was driving Bruce and Tim insane. They only knew that Angel was obsessed with space and studying to be an astrophysicist. Oh, and apparently, he had access to an incredible library.

Dick didn’t know how much longer he could hold them back from investigating every one of Jason’s classmates.

“Jason can take care of himself, Bruce. Let him come to us, and don’t fuck this up for him.”

“But,” he started.

“No ‘buts’. Trust your son.”

“Fine,” he turned around and returned to typing in the Batcomputer. Bruce was brooding. Hmm, Dick would have to talk to Alfred to get help.

One night, while it was a quiet night at patrol, Jason was telling Dick a story about Angel.

“You should’ve seen how angry he was! All this because he argued with the professor that Pluto should be a planet. He was so passionate that he even called the people who had decided to take Pluto out as ‘an insult to the ones who study the sky.’ Speaking of, did you know that the ones who decided were the International Astronomical Union? And honestly, with how Angel describes them, I’m more inclined to believe they are idiots.”

Dick smiled at his brother’s obvious happiness, “Is that so? I’m so happy for you, Hood. Speaking of, when do we get to meet him? I don’t know how long I can keep Tim and Bruce off your back.”

Jason sighed.

“Yeah, I guess it’s time, isn’t it? I already prepared Angel as much as I could about our crazy family. I just wanted to keep him for myself a while longer, I guess.”

Silence reigned for a while.

“I’ll take him on our next Sunday dinner if he says yes.”

Dick smiled, “I’ll let Bruce and the family know so you don’t have to.”

“Thanks.”

Of course, that’s when the other shoe dropped. The night before they were supposed to meet Angel, a supernatural force had invaded Gotham. It was an all-hands-on-deck situation. Batman had even contacted the Justice League and tried communicating with John Constantine. Nightwing had called in a favor to both Zatanna and Raven. Even Red Hood seemed to be trying to get a hold of someone.

“Sorry, Bats,” Constantine’s voice came through the coms. “Whatever you’re fighting is causing a magical force field around Gotham. Zatanna and I are trying to break through it, but it’s slow going. Raven is keeping the lesser demons it’s summoning off our backs while we try to break through. It might be us, at least fifteen.”

“Hn, just get here as soon as you can.”

Batman threw a few batarangs made of nth metal at the giant mass of shadows, and Superman used his laser eyes. Wonder Woman threw her lasso around one of the creature’s arms, and Green Lantern used a net construct. It didn’t even slow it down.

The Martian Manhunter used a psychic attack to finally slow the creature down. Nightwing was finally able to catch his breath. He looked around them and saw the destruction the creature had left in its wake.

Thankfully, Red Robin and Robin were taking care of crowd control, so no civilians were left in harm’s way.

Suddenly, the creature got angry at Batman and swept its arms, sending Batman flying. Thankfully, Superman caught him before he hit the wall, but Nightwing still flinched. That had to have hurt. Out of nowhere, Red Hood came at the creature with flaming swords.

Where had he even gotten them?

Nightwing watched as Jason’s swords cleaved through the creature’s shadowy arm. The limb fell to the floor before disappearing. Just as Nightwing was about to celebrate, the thing grew the arm again.

Fuck.

The fight continued, and they were getting desperate. Jason was the only one who could even slightly damage the creature, and he was tiring. Constantine and Zatanna were still, more or less, ten minutes away. Superman and Wonder Woman were slowing the creature down, but even they were flagging. Martian Manhunter was out for the count after the creature used its psychic attack to bring him down.

They were so fucked.

Suddenly, the air got frigid, and there was a heavy pressure. The hair on Nightwing’s body stood up. Superman looked around while Wonder Woman tensed even more. Even the creature paused.

What showed up next made Dick want to scratch his eyes out. He couldn’t even describe it. All he saw were hundreds of eyes with eight ice-blue wings. The shadow creature yelled out in fear before being evaporated. Fuck, fuck, fuck! How would they defeat the eldritch abomination if it could take out the shadow creature without effort? Hell, Dick could even look straight at it. He was keeping watch with the peripheral of his vision, and he was sure so was everyone else.

“DON’T BE AFRAID! I WAS CALLED TO BE OF HELP.”

Called? For Help? Were Constantine and Zatanna here? Was this creature their doing?

Dick looked around but didn’t see either of them.

“Angel,” a familiar voice yelled out. Jason was climbing over debris while looking right at the creature. Dick felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. Around him, he saw his family having the same realization as him. Dick felt like fainting. This was Angel. This biblically accurate creature was Jason’s boyfriend.

“Did—did your heart just skip in fear?” Superman asked Batman, incredulous. He looked at every member of their family and said, “All of your hearts…what is going on here?”

Dick was about to ask Jason the same question when the creature started to shapeshift. It was getting smaller and smaller until, finally, a fae-like creature with blue skin and white hair stood in its place. It had on a cheeky smile.

It flew over to Jason, and then there was a flash of light. In the fae’s creature place was a regular guy with black hair and blue eyes. He was scrawny and had on a red t-shirt with jeans. He was in Jason’s arms.

Jason turned to look at them.

“Guys, this isn’t how I wanted to do it, but this is my boyfriend.”

He turned away from his boyfriend to see that his dad, the Batman, was on the floor. He had fainted. The Justice League was trying to bring Batman to, while Constantine and Zatanna looked at Jason as if he was crazy. Raven was looking at Dick, trying to get directions from him.

“What the hell is that?” Constantine asked, calling magic to his hands. Even Zatanna was on guard. Raven sighed. This isn’t what she was called for.

Batman suddenly came back to and scowled at Jason.

“Hood, you have some explaining to do.”

Jason sighed, seeming put out. Dick started laughing hysterically. His baby brother was put out because they were concerned about the interdimensional eldritch being.

“See, this why I didn’t want you to meet them yet, Angel. They’re annoying for no good reason.

“It’s all cool. Are we still up for dinner tonight?”

“Yep,” the Angel kissed Jason on the cheek and disappeared. Oh, Dick was going to faint, too. How nice, he thought as everything went black.

Dc x Dp prompt #1: Angel

I'd like to preface this by saying I'm incorporating tropes I've seen in other posts.

~~~

Jason has been a lot happier recently. His Pit Rage has been getting less and less frequent, he's cooking and coming over to the manor a lot more, and he even let Dick hug him last week without threatening bodily harm!

The rest of the batfam, while happy for him, are curious about the change. So one night at dinner they ask him what's up with him and why he's so happy recently. Surprisingly, instead of taking it the wrong way and getting mad Jason is eager to share.

Apparently, Jason has a boyfriend now. Yay!

He goes on and on about this civilian he met after stoping a cult who was trying to summon a deity and how he is this nerdy college kid who really likes space and how their civilian identies shared the same Gen Ed course so he made an effort to become friends. Turns out that nerdy space guy had caused the initial improvement in mood and his offer to go on a date to an incredibly diverse and well-stocked library had been the cherry on top.

The only thing is that Jason didn't want them stalking the guy and refered to him around the family exclusively as "Angel". Everyone thinks that's just a cute pet name he gave the guy as a way to both reference and distract the civilian from the cult ritual he was probably rescued from. Little do they know that it's actually because "Angel" was not a victim of the cult ritual but the summonee, that appeared in the form of a biblically accurate angel.

One day some supernatural entity decideds to attack Gotham and everyone is calling whoever they can think of for back-up. Batman calls Constantine, Nightwing calls Zatana, Red Robin and Robin are contacting the Justice League, and even Red Hood seems to call someone.

The situation is getting desperate. The JL is here but at most the can just slow the supernatural being down. Constantine and Zatana are still 20 minutes out and things are looking bad when another Eldritch Being spawns and seems to take down the threat in one move.

Everyone stands stunned as the being turns to them and in a booming voice exclaims "DON'T BE AFRAID. I WAS CALLED TO HELP". They all go through several emotions upon hearing those words. Where did this being come from? Is this a biblically accurate angel? Who called it here to help? Was it Zatana or maybe Constantine? Are they here yet? Upon looking around it is found that Zatana and Constantine are not here yet and the heroes get ready to engage this being carefully when a voice calls out

"Angel!"

Everyone whips their heads around to see Jason climbing over debris towards the Eldritch Being in front of them. The Batfam feels faint with a creeping realization and Superman swears he heard Batman's heart skip a beat for a second. Before anyone can ask Jason what he's doing the being shapeshifts into the much smaller form of a young fae-like creature with pointed ears, fangs, stark white hair, and vibrant green eyes floating in the air. He flys over to Jason before a flash of bright light leaves a young man deep black hair and frosty blue eyes in Jason's arms.

Jason turns to introduce his boyfriend to his family and the League only to find that Batman has fainted, a panicking JL, and a gobsmacked Zatana and Constantine have who've arrived in time to see the transformation. As Zatana and Constantine begin to freak out and prepare defensive magic Batman comes to and levels a scowl at Jason.

"Hood, I think you have some explaining to do."

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Ugh just thinking again about TTPD (my beloved) and how it’s such a tight story woven throughout the album, which is especially impressive given how the individual songs jump between allegory/metaphor/diaristic scenarios. None of the songs are fictional, but some of them do have a veneer of narrative devices to tell the story in unique ways.

The suburban gothic fantasy (nightmare?) in Fortnight. The alien abduction allegory in Down Bad. The toy box metaphor in My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys. The small town Bible Belt shunning in But Daddy I Love Him. The western cowboy/rebel theme in I Can Fix Him. The escapist (dystopian?) fantasy of running from the law in Florida!!! The witch hunt in Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me.

Yet they’re all vital pieces of the story. Fortnight sets up the fear of her imagined future if she stayed the course she was on and the need for the escape from it. My Boy is about how she was broken by someone who was supposed to love her. Down Bad is how the whirlwind relationship left her unmoored and searching for answers and reeling with the feeling of betrayal (and other things). But Daddy is her choosing to do whatever the fuck she wants and lashing out at those who think they know her. Florida is her begging for respite from the pain at the first available opportunity. Who’s Afraid is her excoriating the people and constructs that led to her feeling trapped in the first place. I Can Fix Him is her committing to the fantasy in spite of her gut telling her this isn’t good.

The entire album is vulnerable and raw and confessional, but it’s so cool to see how there are shades of the narrative storytelling of folklore and evermore there, applied even more deliberately to her experiences. Someone said the other day that folklore and evermore felt like her finding a way to write around what she was experiencing in her real life, and to me it’s like TTPD is her taking those same principles and instead writing right through it. I don’t know, it’s so, so cool, and one of the many reasons I love TTPD so much.

[puppyeared]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[sakamoto-gays]

Talked about how much we miss Natsuki's earrings in the server, and natsushin inspiration suddenly hit me- i don't like publishing short things on ao3, so this one is for you tumblr (:

------

It’s while staring at Natsuki as he attently works on his weapons -a thing he’s been doing more and more these days, he has to regretfully admit- that Shin notices it.

“Didn’t you have earrings when we first met?”

The words slip out of his mouth before he can really think about them and he can’t help but feeling a bit embarrassed about it, but honestly he’s been wondering about it for a while.

Sure, it’s not like he had much time to look at the invisible guy while he was beating him up, during their first meeting at the lab, but Shin is pretty sure at the time he’d been wearing some sort of earrings - and he hadn’t seen them on since he’d met him again at JCC.

Natsuki hums in reply, eyes down to check the weapon he’s making.

“Mhm, yeah,” he mumbles, “i think i took them off for some reason and then forgot to put them on again.”

Typical of him, Shin muses with an annoyance that feels a lot more like fondness.

“Don’t you risk the holes closing up, or something?”

He isn’t an expert on the topic, but Hana wanted to get her ears pierced recently, so he feels like now he knows a thing or two about earrings too.

“Probably,” Natsuki shrugs like it’s not his business and he doesn’t really care at the moment, and Shin understands that he put an end to the conversation with that.

And he thought that would be the end of the topic, until a while later (after declaring defeat for the day in the always ongoing battle against his creations) Natsuki gets up from his seat and looks at him, his eyes gleaming with particular a light that makes Shin fear for his life.

“Should i go put my earrings on?”

Shin doesn’t understand why he asked it like that, like Natsuki’s playing a game he didn’t bother telling him about and he’s thrilled of being the only one that knows the rules, yet still he tries to reply.

“Uh, sure.” 

He hopes the words leaving his mouth don’t sound as stupid as they feel to his ears, and then Natsuki is gone - towards wherever he keeps his jewelry, Shin guesses.

So he is left to wonder, alone in the workshop, until a few minutes later the weaponsmith comes back.

On his lobes, where before there was nothing, now shine two small, black and round earrings.

“Well?” Natsuki asks, with a flat tone that sounds incredibly fake even without reading his mind.

“ ‘Well’ what?” Shin teases him with a grin, “You searching for flattery now?”

At those words Natsuki walks towards him, and suddenly he’s leaning down and his face is far too close to his own.

“You’re the one who brought the earrings up, so you should give an opinion now,” Natsuki hums low, in the most innocent tone a sly man like him can master.

And Shin really would like to reply with something witty and keep their playful exchange up for a bit more, but then he makes the mistake of actually looking at Natsuki for a second, and- oh.

Could a single, small detail like an earring change an entire face? 

Because as he suddenly catches his breath, Shin swears that Natsuki didn’t look so good before.

As he looks at him again, with those black curls falling on his slightly tired eyes and those lips barely parted and those ears pierced, apparently unable to look away, Shin can feel his face becoming hotter.

He gently pushes the other away, regaining some centimeters of distance between the two of them to actually let Shin breathe without the risk of exploding or something similar.

“They don’t look bad on you, i guess,” he huffs and then turns away, with the weird feeling of having just lost at some sort of secret game.

He doesn’t give Natsuki the satisfaction of turning back to see his subtle grin of victory, either.

'I should wear them more often, then,' Natsuki thinks knowing he will hear, because he always knows how to best get on his nerves.

“Just do what you want,” Shin groans.

But between himself, he can’t help but cheer a bit about that statement.

He could get used to seeing more of this version of him, afterall.

[chaossery]

Some thoughts regarding chapter 419

I needed some time to stomach the revelations of chapter 419, but now that that’s done I think the story’s been building up to that moment for a very long time. It’s an extremely painful chapter to read, but, in my opinion, it had to happen. I’ll try to explain why I think so.

Tomura’s lack of/struggle with agency had always been a core theme of his character, perhaps even the central theme. However, I feel like this aspect of his character often got overlooked in favor of other aspects like his bond with the other members of the League of Villains, his development into a more competent and threatening villain, his issues with the shortcomings of BNHA’s society in general and heroes in particular, etc. Well and then, chapter 419 happened and brought this core theme to the forefront with a vengeance, pretty much overshadowing everything else. (It was really kind of a… challenging read.)

Personally, I think this chapter’s purpose is neither to make Tomura more redeemable nor to let Nana and Kotarou off the hook for the decisions they made. I doubt that people who were against Tomura’s redemption before chapter 419 dropped, are on board with it now. And I can’t really imagine Horikoshi expecting them to change their minds with this reveal. (He would have to be beyond naive to believe that.)

The decisions, Nana made, were entirely her own – chapter 419 changed nothing about that. And regarding Kotarou: Just because a cherished friend gives you parenting advice, you’re not obliged to follow it. Especially, since All For One didn’t even tell Kotarou to be strict with Tenko, he merely encouraged his strict ways. He encouraged what was already there. He used what was already there to his advantage. This chapter may bring Tomura’s agency into question, but it certainly doesn’t do so with Kotarou’s.

(Furthermore, I don’t see anything in the story that indicates All For One as the cause of all of society’s flaws. He merely knows how to use these flaws to his advantage. He threw quite some bombshells at Tomura and us in this chapter, but he never mentioned having anything to do with all those civilians ignoring little Tenko in his hour of need. If he were also behind that, why wasn’t he bragging about that as well? Now would be the perfect time.)

So, what is the purpose of this chapter, of All For One’s revelations? I think it’s to finally shatter Tomura’s illusion of agency. It’s to pull the rug out from under his feet and push him into the deepest depths of despair. At its core, Tomura’s story is a tragedy in its purest form (or at least it has been up to now) and chapter 419 marks the lowest point.

In chapter 379, Tomura is able to one-up All For One and regain control over his body for a while. He manages to do so by clinging to his origin as Tenko Shimura. At this point, he is already aware (at least to some degree) that All For One has groomed him since picking him up after the Shimura tragedy. He knew that “Tomura Shigaraki” was All For One’s creation. But at least he still has “Tenko Shimura”. “Tomura Shigaraki’s” decisions may belong to All For One, but “Tenko Shimura’s” decisions are his own. Or so he thought.

“Tenko Shimura” was his final weapon against All For One, the shield protecting him from getting completely overtaken by his abuser. And also the life ring he was clinging to to keep himself from sinking into despair. But now, All For One has destroyed that, too, and Tomura has nothing left to hold onto.

“Tenko Shimura” is All For One’s creation as well. “Tenko Shimura’s” decisions belong to All For One as well. All that is “Tenko Shimura/Tomura Shigaraki”, all that ever was, all that ever will be, belongs to All For One. “Tenko Shimura/Tomura Shigaraki” is not his own person. He is nothing more than a tragic figure in the story All For One is writing. Or so All For One wants him to think.

What I believe All For One has done in this chapter is to destroy Tomura’s illusion of “I have control over my life and the decisions I make” by setting up a new illusion for Tomura: “I have and never had any control over my life and my decisions whatsoever”. He pushed Tomura out of one extreme narrative straight into the next one. Both of which are at odds with the truth, however.

When dealing with All For One, we mustn’t forget that he is a liar and a manipulator, a groomer and an abuser. (In fact, he is so good, that he can even manipulate the fourth wall and make the BNHA fandom believe every little thing he says.) Naturally, he’ll always tell his victims what makes it easiest for him to manipulate them, be it lies, the truth, or a little bit of both.

Thus we should be careful to take his words at face value. He is definitely exaggerating when he claims that all of Tomura Shigaraki’s/Tenko Shimura’s decisions actually belong to him, his abuser. One example: Does anyone really think it was All For One’s decision that Tomura cares for the other members of the League? That he grew to genuinely trust Himiko, Twice, and even notorious anti-team-player #1 Dabi? Befriended Spinner? Fed Mr. Compress all the sushi he wanted? Decisions like these go completely against All For One’s modus operandi.

For me, the key to growing to appreciate this chapter and its revelations was to bring together all these extremes regarding Tomura’s struggle with agency, Tomura’s flawed perception of himself, other character’s flawed perceptions of Tomura, All For One’s exaggerated claims about Tomura and well… I guess to kinda conciliate them with each other. Tomura was groomed by All For One and thus has struggled with agency. He made many decisions All For One groomed him to make. But he also made decisions of his own.

Tomura is not a transcendent being. He is not a god. He is not destruction incarnated. He is not the angel of death. He is not an innocent little baby boy (not with a kill count like that). He is not a character in All For One’s story.

He is a victim but not just that. He is a villain but not just that. He is a hero to some but not just that.

In fact, I think the story (namely chapter 411, courtesy of Izuku Midoriya) already gave us the perfect term for what Tomura Shigaraki/Tenko Shimura truly is: a human being, nothing more, nothing less.

And I guess the key to giving this story a happy ending is to convince Tomura of that as well; that he is a human being whose first 21 years were shaped by All For One’s toxic influence, yes, but there is also a future for him without All For One. Where he can truly be free, make his own decisions, and grow into his own.

[burningcomputerpersona]

ahhhhhhhh guess who made the mistake of getting a haircut

[thedreadvampy]

sorry I'm on one now. Narnia is one of my Big Rant triggers.

but like. I would be lying if I said I didn't love Narnia

(everything except the Horse and His Boy, which a) even as a tiny kid made me uncomfortable with how fucking racist it is (literally there is ONE. ONE. character of colour who isn't evil, selfish, greedy and violent. even when you're 5 and white and don't really understand racism it's like. sorry there are just no nice people in this whole country? and every Narnian is lovely?) and b) is just fucking DULL partly bc of the 2 dimensional racist caricatures populating the world)

but I can't pretend for a second that it isn't specifically built around a Christian theology that's explicitly racist, hierarchical, supremacist, colonialist and The Bits I Like Least Of Anglicanism

and my FAVOURITE books in the series (except the Silver Chair which tbh is WAY less theological and way more mythology-nerd) are the first and last, which are by far the most explicitly Christian. even more so than TLTWATW.

and I can just about stand by the Magician's Nephew bc it's mostly just a mix of Christian creation myth and CS Lewis's sci fi interests in the esoteric and multiverses and it honestly feels fine. but my all time favourite most iconic Narnia book is The Last Battle and I just. cannot. justify it for a second from a political or philosophical standpoint.

it's got it all bc it's the book where Lewis is like ok hold up let me lay out explicitly what my theology is. and what he thinks it's important to say is:

Almost all Muslims are bad and evil

They worship Satan by doing Bad Evil Deeds to please him

There are a couple of Good Muslims who do good deeds. they need to be brought to the light, understand that the voice calling them to do good deeds is the Christian god, and they too can achieve the kingdom of heaven

Some people will use Christianity as a mask for exploitation and mistreatment. They are bad and their faith is false (ok fine)

...and they're doing that because they're CONSPIRING WITH THE EVIL MUSLIMS TO OPPRESS GOOD CHRISTIANS

...and THAT'S THE ONLY REASON ANYONE WOULD TELL YOU THAT GOD AND ALLAH ARE DIFFERENT NAMES FOR THE SAME GOD. because they're either conning you or because they've been misled and can't really think for themselves.

DID I MENTION. THAT MUSLIMS ARE EVIL AND TRYING TO BRING DOWN CHRISTIANS.

and other than the GOD AREN'T MUSLIMS JUST THE WORST of it all, he also goes back over to more fully explain several points he's made throughout the series, such as:

white Christian public school kids are the god ordained leaders of the world and attempts to think otherwise are heretical

god places people where they need to be to serve his purpose

free will is largely an illusion - your only choice is faith or chaos, and as a godly person your actions are preordained

the problem is though. he's kind of a really good character writer? and in The Last Battle he pulls out most of his best classics (hi Reepicheep! hi Frank! hi Jill!) and gives us a whole wealth of really fun new characters (Tirian and Jewel, Emeth, Puzzle, Shift, Griffle and Ginger are all just SO FUN) and it's such a solid adventure. for me it's hands down the most FUN Narnia to read and an effective and affecting end to the series.

but like. god its unjustifiably fucked philosophy is baked into every single character and event. it's so hard to ignore. it's my favourite book in the series. it's the book that makes me angriest. it's everything right with Narnia and everything wrong with Narnia. I like it cause it asks me to engage critically with Lewis' philosophy and I hate it cause it requires me to engage critically with Lewis' philosophy.

in conclusion, Narnia is a land of contrasts. also occasionally brownface.

[moe-broey]

Developing Moe is so fucking funny like. Okay so from the young age of Child (ambiguous) you've been obsessed with porcelain dolls and angels. You would collect these things whenever the opportunity arose (which may not have been often, but hey), extremely autistically. Much later on, you got into making doll customs out of (insert fashion doll toyline here), and your "trademark" so to speak is creating monster girls/boys/(and mores!). You have a shit ton of junked been through the wringer "blank" dolls, sometimes in pieces, waiting to be reborn anew. None of this is relevant to the fact that you got isekai'd into Fire Emblem Heroes as the Summoner, but it does open the way to psychological horror in fucked up dream realms and transgender metaphors. Godspeed, you funky little freak 🫡 Alfonse and Sharena both adore you 😊👍

[chilapis]

saw a contract be referred to as a “contractual adventure” & started giggling.

[presumenothing]

.

[waugh-bao]

*

[arolesbianism]

Thinking abt how much I love oni's writing again... In particular, "a seed is planted" continues to be one of if not my favorite logs because despite the troubling details and implications that come with it, it's the one thing in the entirety of the decaying corpse of gravitas that genuinely leaves us with a grain of hope (a seed if you will) and makes oni as a whole a lot more bitter sweet as while earth may not have survived, the dupes did, and after their horrible origins and the shit that many of them went through, in due time they'll finally get to just live, they're free now, and even if Olivia's sleep is end of a tragedy, the world will keep moving forward with or without those who've been lost

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

Pixar did not have to go as hard as they did with the Kronos Unveiled scene in The Incredibles (2004), yet they did anyway and gave us one of the best scenes in modern cinema. Literally cannot stop thinking about how good this scene is, from the animation to the build up to the soundtrack.

I don’t think I truly understood how dark this scene - and this film - was a child: Syndrome is systematically and strategically luring in superheroes and killing them off in order to test and improve his Omnidroid design… these people were not only supers but they also had family and loved ones too, just like Bob, and one day they would have just disappeared because chances are they weren’t telling people where they were going because it was "top secret" and against the law. They thought they were doing something good, like helping the people in the island, while also getting to relive their glory days, perhaps even paving the way for superheroes to make a proper comeback… only for Syndrome to kill them in cold blood.

Most of these people can actually be seen at Bob and Helen’s wedding in the beginning of the film - they weren’t just random supers, they were their friends, people they worked alongside and cared about. It’s even worse when you realise that Bob probably blames himself because, after all, Buddy/Syndrome was his biggest fan and he dismissed him by not letting him help.

The relief on Bob’s face when he realises Syndrome doesn’t know where Helen is - meaning he also doesn’t know where their children are because he didn’t realise they were married at this point - is so realistic and gut wrenching to see. The relief contrasting with the anguish of knowing how much danger they and their entire family could have been in the entire time without even knowing...it's so well-done, you can literally feel it.

It’s also worth noting that originally the next target wasn’t Mr Incredible but Frozone - that was who Mirage was trailing, hence why his location is “known”. Imagine if she/Syndrome hadn’t realised that Mr Incredible was with him and they’d lured Frozone in instead as planned; he would have gone to the island to fight the Omnidroid 8 in a volcano setting. We saw how being in the burning building dehydrated Frozone and made it impossible to use his ice powers - presumably it would have been the same in the middle of a lava filled volcano, and he’d have been slaughtered just like the other superheroes before him.

This scene shows an entire generation of superheroes - Bob, Helen and Lucius’ generation - wiped out all because Syndrome felt slighted by his hero as a child, because he internalised that slight and let it drive him to revenge. And, if we take into account the deleted alternate opening scene, it’s mentioned that superheroes "aren't supposed to breed” - meaning there’s a likelihood that Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack are among the very few supers of the next generation. I know that it's deleted and so not really canon, but it's definitely a concept to consider, I think.

Then there's the fact Syndrome named the project "Kronos" - Kronos was a God who overthrew his own father in order to take over his rule, and then he ate his own children to prevent them doing the same thing to him. It feels like it reflects Syndrome once looking up to Mr Incredible and even saying "I could be your ward!", meaning Mr Incredible adopting or fostering him - the project name is a metaphor for Syndrome destroying the Supers, especially Mr Incredible, who he viewed as a father figure. The Omnidroids he built killed two birds with one stone: not only was he able to acquire the data to upgrade the robot to its final design, but it also eliminated the real super heroes and so left him as the last remaining "superhero", even though his powers are man-made, not something he was born with.

Not only did he want to become the only remaining superhero by killing the real ones in revenge, he also planned to sell his inventions at some point so everyone can be super - because "when everyone is super, nobody is". It's like a final blow to the memory of the superheroes he had killed.

I've talked too much about this scene but God... I love it so much more as an adult because it's just so chilling to think about. I'm sure other people can put it much more articulately than I just tried to, but I just really wanted to appreciate this scene.

[catsaurofmagiccomedy]

I runned out of tags,, i will compile all of this and reblog it as text, i guess

Please put your logic in the tags I’m genuinely interested in this cause I’ve seen a few good takes already, even if I think something different.

Please remember that avatar and victim are two different things and while there are certainly overlaps in some instances mostly an avatar is a manifestation of a power that gains energy from feeding off of victims of the power that they belong to. They can still suffer from a power, but they aren’t it’s main prey, more of a mouth piece. Or living snare.

[selamat-linting]

i do love her more than anything in the world but if i ever crawl out of my grave to come home its because of the family's curse.