#I like the theme of how despite how she hates how she's underestimated due to misogyny

[sumechiayuu]

I never thought Eva would be one of my faves in umineko

[bananaactivity]

Im not finished with Carlos fully but he looks good enough for right now ( he’s 22 in this picture here)

I changed Carlos and Evie up, so now Evie is a vain witch like her mother who is fashionable but she doesn’t sew her own stuff. ( which is for the better cse wtf was that ugly ass dress she made for Mal in D2???)

Carlos considers himself to be a very expensive person and can be pretty big germaphobe. He hates getting anything on his clothes and he refuses to wear the school uniforms at Auradon Uni because they’re ugly. He wears lots of black white grey and red, with gold accents usually. He does theme around dog associated items like gold bone cutlets, paw print lapel chains, and a tennis ball brooch. He often wears red gloves and his favorite shoes are his collection of red bottom dress shoes. He likes hiding red on the interlining of his clothes too, such as his jackets and hats and vests.

A lot of his own person style is derived from 1990s London fashion ( as the artist that means I get my references from the 1996 101 Dalmatians live action movie, the styling of Cruela in that movie is ICONIC AND IMACULATE, and I MUST reference her for Carlos.

PURRRR

Of course he wears REAL animal print. And he’s not a weak touch me not prick like some think. He’s still tech savvy and does Anyalitics and specs for the core four. He also loves GUNS 😄. Think of him like a sharp shooter who stays in the back of turf wars and snipes people. The isle doesn’t have many marks men ( they all really like swords for some reason) so he’s pretty dangerous. He builds his own weapons too.

His passion started out as a way for him to collect his own furs but Harry gets him most of what he needs plus he always needs Carlos to redo his wardrobe ( he gets… messy… after a couple days work) Carlos hates that Harry ruins his creations so fast but he pays him well and gifts him rare fabrics and samples from Auradon.

Because Carlos has no magic Mal always underestimates him. She sees him as only a stylist and ranged weapon specialist. Even tho she acknowledges him for his wit and tech skills she still doesn’t listen to him. Sometimes he wishes he could stay with Harry but then he’d have to do more work up front. Harry understood what Carlos was capable of and respected him a lot. What Harry doesn’t understand is that not everybody likes to be covered head to toe in hot sticky blood 24/7. Harry had also promised him a suite on his boat that nobody else was allowed to occupy, but even if Harry’s crew feared HARRY they wouldn’t mind having an attitude with CARLOS for preferential treatment, even if it is what he deserves 🙄

Harry and Carlos’s relationship is the definition of there are two wolves inside you. Carlos smokes and drinks but he’s more of a Marlboro and Merlot type of guy and Harry’s a Rum and Cigar kinda lad. ( I’m using cartoon logic and say that those habits are purely aesthetic based of iconography from the original Disney moves, Cruella smokes and Capt. Hook smokes two cigars at once)

Carols isn’t really scared of dogs anymore but when he arrives at Auradon he “befriends” his roommate Chad ( now an animal lover like his mother) who has pet rats and a entourage of wild animals constantly in their dorm, and threatens to shoot and skin them all every single day to make a new line of coats ( when Chad rebuttals that his rats are too small to make coats, Carlos says they’d make the perfect fuzzy gloves 💀) He also uses Chad as a living mannequin for his designs. They have a goofy relationship with each other, Carlos does make Chad do all the dirty work of skinning and draining the animals he hunts but despite how traumatic that is Carlos is a fun sweet guy so it’s okay 💀💀💀.

Jay is jelly of Carlos due to his closeness with Harry. ( I guess the way to Jays heart and respect is by holding him at sword point and threatening to gut him and hang him by those very guts over shark infested waters and watch them nibble away at him 💀)

Next I’ll find up Carlos and do some fit designs then I’ll redesign Jay and tell that gutting story 😛

[heartslobbf]

let’s talk about perfuma. imo, she’s one of the best characters in the show despite being underdeveloped, and i wanna explain why. she could’ve been extremely average, just some lanky flower girl that doesn’t believe in violence and loves everyone, but she is so much more than that (and it pisses me off that y’all reduce her to that).

in her introductory episode, perfuma is clearly in denial about the horde almost destroying plumeria. she doesn’t want to acknowledge the problem, wants someone else to take care of it for her. she’s scared of change, and that is because change makes you vulnerable. if things always stay the same, there’s a whole lot less danger and uncertainty, and therefore you’re safe. secure. perfuma’s kingdom is dying and she can’t bear to accept it because it is unknown to her. it’s putting her in a position where she is no longer secure. this fear of vulnerability can also be seen at the beginning of 1x10 when the princess alliance falls apart and she literally says ‘being together makes us vulnerable.’

the thing is, perfuma isn’t wrong. look at her choice of words. she says that being together makes them vulnerable, not weak. here, she kind of has the words mixed up, but we see that by s5 she has come to understand the difference. that’s what’s so great about perfuma, her motivation to do better, her hunger for self-improvement. it’s why she’s such an important part of catra’s redemption, actually, because she embodies the kind person catra is or wants to be.

let me explain: perfuma is an angry, impatient, short-tempered character. we are shown this again and again with her passive aggression to others and how easily mermista can annoy her with trivial things (sitting in her seat in the war room, for example). catra is also an angry, impatient character, but perfuma works every day to manage those emotions. she knows she needs them, she uses them as a tool (calling catra out, for example, is a time they were practically pivotal for getting her point across) but she also acknowledges they can hurt the people she loves. we know she does a meditation ritual each morning and we see in 4x02 how quickly she can unravel without it. she wants to be better. she puts the work in. that is such a valuable lesson for a character like catra who has always felt she’s just not good enough, she’s always going to be this angry and unlovable and no one can do anything about it.

so, 4x02. it’s a brilliant episode for perfuma’s character, really, and the first proper development we’ve had since 1x04. we see her anger, her impatience, but we also see her self-doubt. her belief that she’s inadequate, ‘just a flower girl.’ this is also when we get introduced to her little mantra that becomes a bit of a motif later on, ‘i can do this.’ we know perfuma doesn’t wholeheartedly believe this, but she says it anyway because she wants to. perfuma wants to be better. she will do whatever she can to be her best self, whether that be actually conquering her gripes with cacti or realising there’s a loophole with the roots (love that conflict resolution by the way, another good deconstruction of hero bs by spop).

this episode is also significant because it comes back to perfuma’s fear of change, of vulnerability. she’s thrown into a situation she doesn’t want to be in, one she feels miserably unprepared for, and she hasn’t done the one thing that puts her at her best beforehand, but she pulls through in the end because she is surrounded by people that support her, that listened to her and consoled her when she was vulnerable. 4x02 teaches perfuma the power of self-worth and the power of true, mutual, unconditional love, which can only come with vulnerability.

and this is where her character gets really interesting, in my humble opinion. ngl, one of the reasons i love perfuma so much is because she’s a pisces and i am too. i’m not gonna go astrology hoe on you rn, i’m just using this to demonstrate the part of her character that teaches others. pisces, if you don’t know, love to play therapist. we like to help the people around us with whatever strifes they may have because we think we’re fucking great at it. perfuma actually is.

you know how i said perfuma learns the importance of self-belief and vulnerability? yeah, she teaches both of those lessons to other characters in s5. like i said, perfuma is a character who values self-betterment and also happens to be a pisces, so when she sees scorpia, riddled with so much self-doubt and such low self-esteem, her immediate response is just i’m gonna teach that bitch how to love herself. and she does!

i’ve seen some people say they don’t like scorfuma because it seemed as though the writers just decided to ‘fix’ all of scorpia’s problems by giving her a girlfriend. that’s very dumb, first of all because they aren’t even together by the end of the show, they’re just interested in one another. second, the whole point of she-ra is that we’re stronger together. scorpia doesn’t go through growth in s5 because a girl likes her, she goes through growth because someone is showing her support and love for the first time in her life and that empowers her. you know, the worth that scorpia finds in herself doesn’t hinge on perfuma, like it did with catra. it’s about her as an individual, and perfuma so clearly makes it about that when her big lesson revolves around singing. scorpia loves singing. perfuma tells her she should do it because she enjoys it, a sentiment you’d never hear in the horde, and when scorpia does sing, she is actively rejecting the people who did make all her self-worth hinge on them catra. she’s doing something for herself, because she enjoys it, because it makes her happy, because she can.

it’s that same mantra: i can do this, i can do this. i really love how this was brought back from 4x02, how perfuma repurposed something that taught her such a valuable lesson for someone else. perfuma and scorpia are great foil characters actually, both constantly underestimated and thought of as weak by their groups, but some of the strongest characters in the show due to their deep value of love and self. i can do this, and i know i can because you believe in me, because i believe in myself. it’s brought back again in 5x10, when the last thing perfuma says before scorpia breaks the beam is ‘i know you can [pull through]’. she tells catra she believes in scorpia. it’s that belief, that support from other people that empowers the self to believe it too. we are stronger together, you know??

anyways, onto vulnerability. return to the fright zone is in my top ten episodes of the whole fucking show and you might think that’s a bit weird but i don’t. 5x10 encompasses so many important themes of spop so well and tells them with scorfuma and spinnetossa, our two side lesbian couples. this is significant since perfuma literally draws a parallel between her and catra at the end of the episode, and catradora and spinnetossa have always been significant to one another. i’m gonna say it, perfuma is the reason catra is finally able to confess to adora in 5x13. i’ve already talked about how important perfuma is to catra’s motivation to improve, but she literally makes catra rethink everything about strength and vulnerability, two words catra has a lot of feelings about.

catra fears vulnerability. we know this. she has such a deep love for those important to her but is never able to articulate it because she worries she’ll be taken advantage of, shot down, laughed at, whatever. all of this stems from the abuse she suffered at shadow weaver’s hands and her attachment issues, and it’s also why catra pretends to hate scorpia’s very open displays of affection and love: she sees it as weak because she has been taught to, but it’s all she ever really wanted to be.

we also know perfuma used to fear vulnerability. she doesn’t any more. the entirety of the episode leading up to her and catra’s heart-to-heart is her being vulnerable, putting herself in a position where she’s in danger but believing it’s worth it. and it is. despite what everyone said to her, perfuma is right: it was worth it. she got through to scorpia, even if it was only for a moment. she literally spells it out to us and catra with one of the best lines in the whole show: it’s hard, keeping your heart open. it makes you vulnerable, but it doesn’t make you weak, and i have to believe it’s worth it.

back in 1x10, perfuma was right: being together makes you vulnerable. horde prime tries to use people’s relationships against them, that’s literally the plot of save the cat, the point of pitting catra and adora against one another. he sees them as weak, just like shadow weaver deems adora’s feelings for catra ‘confusing’, just like light hope insisted adora was a danger to her friends as long as she was around them. they were all wrong. yes, they’re vulnerable. perfuma acknowledges that vulnerability puts you in danger, that it’s difficult to do that, but she knows it doesn’t make you weak. weakness vs strength is a big conflict in 5x10 literally introduced to us with netossa’s theories on everyone’s weaknesses in the first few minutes.

like perfuma says, friendship isn’t a weakness. it’s her greatest strength. her belief in love is literally what saves her and adora’s lives, it’s what saves everyone who got chipped, glimmer, bow. belief in love, both of others and yourself, is what saves adora in her dying moments. perfuma summarises she-ra’s entire fucking message to us repeatedly in 5x10 and she tells it to catra because catra is the one who will do the most with it. that glance at adora, it’s obvious what it means. perfuma is telling catra she should be open with adora about her feelings because you have to believe it’s worth it.

you won’t get anywhere waiting for other people to make the move. she-ra couldn’t heal plumeria’s lands, so plumeria had to fight their own battle alongside her no matter how much they felt unable to. the rebellion couldn’t move mara’s ship, so perfuma had to despite thinking she wasn’t strong enough. the reason they always win in the end is because they have each other, they have love and support and people motivating them to do better. just like perfuma motivates herself to do better.

it’s the mantra. i can do this. i can be vulnerable and still win, because i have love. and it’s hard, it’s so fucking hard to be vulnerable when you’ve feared it all your life and you’re so angry, so hurt, but you have to believe it’s worth it. and it is. it is, it is, it is, love is stronger than anything and being vulnerable for the people you love is the only way you can ever get what you want from them. perfuma as a character embodies that, having learnt it herself, and teaches the lesson to one of the characters who needs it the most.

adora is dying, and catra loves her, and she knows she does, and she just has to believe. adora is dying, and she loves catra, and she knows she does, but she doesn’t believe. not until catra teaches her too, in that moment, to realise they were all wrong, light hope, shadow weaver, horde prime. adora doesn’t need to let go, she needs to hold on and believe she will be pulled back up by the girl she loves. she needs to believe she deserves it. that it’s worth it.

and it is.

[animeyanderelover]

Can I get promp 32 to Shuu tsukiyama? Thank you.

You can because I always appreciate requests for fandoms I didn’t get that many requests for.

Warnings: Yandere themes, gore, mentions of killing, mentions of torture, blood, blackmailing, threatening, delusional behavior, clingyness, sadistic behavior, separated body parts, mentions of torture, panic attack

Prompt 32: “Babe! I brought you a gift. You don’t know what that is? Let me tell you. These are the eyes of the person who kept looking at you today.”

Saying that you felt on edge was an understatement right now, you felt like you were on fire, hands sweaty and stomach churning in a way that made you fear that you might just throw up all the food you had managed to choke down so far. It wasn’t like you didn’t appreciate Shuu’s gesture of kindness, inviting you over to a date in a really expensive restaurant which you had always wanted to visit, but had simply never had the money to pay for it. But Shuu had money and was ready to spill it all for you as long as you behaved. And you had behaved, choosing to not make him mad or angry and trigger him to hurt you. That was just a one way ticket to hell. Your hand went unconsciously to your shoulder, tracing the now scared place where he had bitten you as a punishment for insulting and yelling at him. It had been the first time he had hurt you and you had decided that your heart wouldn’t handle a second time. And it wasn’t because of the excruciating pain. It was rather because you feared seeing his personality switch once again, seeing this huge and disturbingly adoring grin on his face, hearing his cooing and judging honey dripping voice again and having him wiping and licking all the tears away whilst praising you for looking even pretty with tears on your face. You had already made once the mistake of underestimating him for just a lovesick fool. And you would never make this mistake again.

But right now you didn’t fear for yourself, trusting Shuu enough that he wouldn’t do anything to you because of this. You hoped so at least. But you felt right now terrified for the person who hadn’t stopped looking at you since quite some time now. A quite pretty looking lady in a fine dress, looking quite seducing. It was hard to believe that she was sitting alone there without a partner. The moment she had sat down there and her eyes had caught you, she had kept throwing glances at you. You had actually expected someone who looked like her to look more at Shuu who was attractive, you couldn’t deny that. But instead she kept looking at you. And not out of jealousy because she wished to be in your place, but with this certain interest in her eyes. An interest that could and would cost her her life if she wouldn’t stop very soon. Shuu wasn’t someone who had a very good amount of patience. He was in fact a total attention seeker and hated it when you acknowledged or even looked at someone else. Shuu was a jealous man and that was all the reason he needed to devour someone, make them a toy for his shoes or do other inhuman things to them. You had witnessed it so often before, countless times having been forced to watch those games of his, staring in horror how the persons who had made him jealous died like an animal. It had been such gruesome scenes that never stopped haunting you in your dreams.

And by the look on his face you knew that this woman there was damn close to ending as a short entertainment for his fellow gourmet friends as well. He had a look of irritation on his face, his eyebrow constantly twitching and a deep frown on his face. He honestly looked like he wanted to pierce someone’s gut now, his fist grabbing the fabric of the tablecloth tightly that you feared he would rip it at any moment, his knuckles having turned a ghostly white by now. There was an extreme tension in the air, you feeling like any rushed movement would set sparks on you. He was still trying his hardest to keep his composure, you knew that he didn’t like losing his control in public, but he was also damn close to snapping. The fact that you felt the gaze of the woman lingering on you didn’t help and you couldn’t even describe how tempted you felt to glance back at her, more out of fear to give her a sign that she should stop looking at you if she loved her life. But you also didn’t want to risk angering Shuu even more than he was already. It took surprisingly much of your willpower to not glance back at her, the temptation feeling like a magnet, pulling you with an invisible force to just look shortly at her. And all it took was one short moment of hesitation for you, your eyes instantly wandering to hers and staring right at her. And she seemed to like it, giving you a small smile, triumphant that she finally managed to get your attention and winked at you.

“Wham!“ You flinched the moment you heard the loud noise coming from Shuu, slamming his fist on the table and hearing a few shocked and startled gasps from the people around you, one of them choking on his glass of water and starting coughing badly. And the moment you felt all the eyes on you and Shuu, you felt your face heating up out of embarrassment, sinking a bit deeper into your chair. Embarrassing. But you weren’t half as embarrassed as you were terrified right now. He had just snapped and from previous experiences you knew that this meant no good for anyone who had made him snap. He currently seemed to try to gain his self-control, his purple hair covering his eyes and due to you sitting so closely to him you were also able to hear his uneven breathing, the way he tried to breathe deeply in and out to calm down. Could you eventually help him somehow calming down? Or would that anger him even more? For a while you thought panicked whether you wanted to risk getting on his bad side or not before deciding to give it a try. “Sh-Shuu?” Your voice didn’t manage to spit out anything more than just a soft mutter of his name, breaking the moment this word had flown over your lips. But it seemed to have a great affect on Shuu, and to your huge relief also a good one. His shoulders slumped down and he slowly let himself fall back into his chair, the fist which had slammed the table grabbing your hand to search for some comfort, squeezing it tightly to finally come back to his senses.

A few more agonizing seconds passed by, you stiffing painfully up, not knowing what would happen next since his head was still hanging low, preventing you from seeing his face and judging. But his tight grip seemed to loosen up shortly after and with one last deep breath Tsukiyama looked up again, looking perfectly under control and giving you one of his charming smiles. “Oui chéri?” You yourself couldn’t help, but sigh relieved when hearing him speaking to you in French again, this meant most of the time that he was in a good mood. “A-are you fine?” You sounded very nervous, Tsukiyama noticing it from the way your lips pressed into a thin line. “No need to feel nervous. I’m sorry if I should have scared you with my sudden outburst before. Can you forgive me?” You nodded quickly, not wanting him to get upset again. “However...”, he suddenly stood up, looking around and waving at one of the waiters,”Let’s go back home again, alright? I’m so sorry for having ruined this date. We’ll dine later this evening again, okay?” What other choice did you have? You just gave him a slight nod, feeling disappointed that you had to already go back, but not protesting, just taking the hand he offered you and quickly walking behind him whilst he dragged you out of the restaurant. On your way out you couldn’t help, but look shortly back at the woman who seemed almost disappointed that you were already leaving. It was probably due to that, that you didn’t notice Tsukiyama glaring at her as well.

“Can I do anything else for you, master (y/n)?” You scratched your head, feeling uncomfortable to be constantly referred to as master. “No, Kanae. You did already enough. Thank you a lot for your help.” The boy bowed respectfully. “You don’t need to thank me. It’s my job to take care of you.”, he said with his thick accent, making you smile half-heartedly. You really didn’t like how you were treated, not appreciating that you couldn’t even bathe without one of the servants in this house constantly being near you and bringing you all kind of soaps and shampoo. You remembered that when you had been young, you had always wished to be treated like a royalty. But now that you had grown up and had the wish to be independent you didn’t like all of this one bit. Due to being Shuu’s beloved, you had been welcomed quite warmly in his family despite being a human. And living in a manor full of ghouls never failed to give you often a heart attack since many of them often glances at you with those hungry eyes, your scent intriguing them. It wasn’t like any of them would dare to touch you, the only one who was allowed to feast from you and touch you at all was their master. And to your huge surprise Tsukiyama had made it clear to all of his servants that he didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable by all their stares, this was after all your new home and it should feel like one to you. Besides, those servants were pretty much the only people who you were allowed to have contact with without having to worry about Shuu getting jealous too much. And so you had at one point striked becoming friends with them so you had at least some company when Shuu was, like right now, not here with you. Kanae for example was something you would call your friend since he was often the one who served and fulfilled your wishes.

“Wait. There’s one thing I would like to ask you.” Kanae instantly turned around. “Whatever you wish for. What do you need?” “Do you know when Shuu is coming back? He’s been gone for a while now.”, you asked awkwardly, not believing that you asked when your kidnapper would come back. On Kanae’s face appeared for a short moment a look of happiness, obviously glad that you had asked when Shuu would come back. At the beginning it hadn’t been all that pretty between you two, often ending with you yelling and crying and him weeping and crying together with you. It had been exhausting times and all the servants had felt terrible for their master who had looked so heartbroken because you had kept rejecting him. But after you had stopped fighting back, Shuu had started looking so happy, every morning basically beaming when greeting others and even skipping around the manor out of happiness. And to say that his family adored you for making their treasured son and master so happy was an understatement. They helped him with whatever they could, being that watching over you, making sure you were spoiled or helping him murdering everyone who was a thorn in his eyes. They stood behind him, following his lead and making your hopes of escaping vanishing into thin air. “Master Shuu will be back very soon. Don’t worry, I’ll inform you as soon as I see him again. He’s currently busy with something.” Something, hmm? You had a bad feeling about this, remembering too well the woman from earlier this day.

“Babe! I brought you a gift.” Shuu’s happy and cheerful voice roused you from your sleep, not remembering how long exactly you had been in your dreamland. It was dark outside and if you remembered right the last time you had been awake the sun had still stood. That also meant Shuu had been for hours out, making you wonder what exactly he had been doing so long. Kanae had actually wanted to wake you up, but you guessed he had decided against it when seeing that you had fallen asleep. You had been told from many people in here before that no one had the heart to wake you really up since you looked absolutely precious when being asleep. And Shuu himself absolutely adored it when you were asleep, even better when you fell asleep whilst he was holding you. “Oh, I’m sorry for waking you up, mon amour. I didn’t know you were already asleep.” You felt the mattress next to you shifting a bit, Shuu crawling next to you, his face moving itself in front of you and staring with those magnificent and lovingly eyes down at you. You were barely awake, blinking tiredly up at him. “Shuu? Where have you been so long?”, you managed to mumble out, rubbing your eyes in an attempt to wake fully up. “Has my darling missed me? I’m sorry for keeping you waiting. But I was only away because I prepared something for you.”, Shuu cooed with a sweet voice at you, bending down to your face to press a kiss against your nose.

“A...gift? Shuu, you know that you don’t have to keep buying me things all the time.” Upon hearing this, Shuu chuckled a bit. “But I want to. I want to spoil the rotten out of my sweet, little baby. But if it soothes you, I didn’t waste any money this time even though I can do that whenever you ask me. But this gift is self-made.” Self-made? You pushed him lightly away so you would be able to sit up, looking still drowsily at him. Shuu smiled gently at you while pulling a small box out from behind his back, wrapped up in blue paper and wrapped up with a purple ribbon. You hesitantly took it, observing it, trying to figure out what was inside. “What are you waiting for? Open it.”, Shuu encouraged you, looking a bit too excited about all of this, giving you a nasty and bad feeling. On the other hand you also didn’t want to disappoint him, slowly and carefully pulling the ribbon open and fumbling with the wrapping paper, not wanting to make too much of a mess. Inside of the paper was a casket, made out of wood with fine patters engraved on it. And you could basically feel the bad aura radiating from it, giving you the feeling that you should prepare your nerves for whatever would come. “Come ooon. Just Open it.”, Shuu whined, shifting back and forth next to you, clearly excited about all of this. You gulped the lump in your throat back, taking one last deep breath before finally opening the box.

Only to slam it the very next second close again with an incredible force, the sudden noise echoing in the room. You felt all the color leaving your face, your blood running cold and causing you to shiver. “S-Sh-Shuu,” Your voice was shaking terribly, feeling like it couldn’t keep up for too much words,”W-what is this?” Shuu tilted his head confused, taking the box gently out of your hands and opening it. “You don’t know what that is? Let me tell you.” Without a real care in the world he grabbed the content of it, turning the small spherical and rubbery thing around, squeezing it a bit. And only watching him touching that thing caused nausea to rise up inside of you. “These are the eyes of the person who kept looking at you today.” You stared paralyzed at the eyeball he was holding in his eye, staring inside the pupil, the color looking way too familiar. You remembered those eyes, only a few hours ago these eyeballs had still belonged to a person, to a young woman. “(y/n), don’t you like it? I put in quite the effort to get those. I actually planned to bring you the whole body, but that would have made quite the mess so I decided to bring you only the eyeballs.” How could he ask you such a question?! Didn’t he have any sort of sympathy?! How could he?! How could he?! And why were you even surprised?!

You suddenly felt like an invisible chain was tightening it’s grip on your chest, making breathing suddenly incredibly difficult for you, nearly choking on the air. Your whole body starting trembling violently, being shaken up deep inside your core. Tears started to blur your vision and with a numbing realization you suddenly knew what was happening. You had a panic attack, your heart feeling like it could burst at any moment inside of your chest. And Shuu noticed it as well, through your tears, which had by now started to stream down your face, you saw his facial expression changing into on of frantic panic. “Darling? What’s wrong?!” You couldn’t manage to breathe, your breath stuttering in your throat in a desperate attempt to get enough oxygen. “(y/n)!! You need to breathe!! Stop doing this!! You won’t get enough air!!” By now he sounded like he could cry and you were sure he would start at any minute, but it wasn’t like you could care right now, your own panic attack keeping you busy. By now you had starting to cough heavily, choking constantly due to the gasping for air on your spit which didn’t really help the situation. You heard Shuu cursing in French before suddenly storming to the door, ripping it open and yelling something, his voice dripping with desperation. The rest was for you only a fuzzy memory, everything around you seemingly fading away, the only thing being taken notice of from you was your own achingly loud heartbeat, hurting every time it hit your rib cage and your own uneven and shaking breathing, the salty tears spilling out of your eyes and your own misery washing over you. The picture of the woman was ghosting in front of your eyes and you had only enough energy for one thought, repeating itself in your mind. “Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.”

“Take a deep breath in...Hold your breath for a few seconds...And breathe out as long as possible. Very good (y/n). And another time. Take a deep breath in...Hold your breath for a few second...And breathe out as long as possible.” You felt beyond exhausted, mentally and physically. But at least you had now calmed down enough, your body having stopped stifling up and trembling like a leaf in a storm and with Mirumo’s help and guidance you had managed to get control over your breathing as well, the older man showing great patience and understanding with you. You questioned yourself if he had firsthand experienced such things often before, having handled this challenge so professionally and calm as if having done it countless times before. But at the moment you were too exhausted to think too deeply about it, your whole body being worn out from the constant shaking and you felt like the slightest movement was too much, leading you to not wanting to move a single muscle, just laying motionless in the bed. Mirumo had explained the situation to you after you had slowly started focusing back on the real world what had happened, that one of the servants had panicked interrupted his tea time, telling him what had happened and that he had instantly rushed to Shuu’s room who had cried and hissed at everyone to do something. Mirumo had sent everyone, including his son who had needed time to calm down, away, needing silence, peace and space to be able to help you at all.

“How are you feeling?”, the man asked you, a look of slight concern and sympathy visible on his face. Your eyes darted to him, giving him a thankful look. “I’m exhausted.”, you mumbled out. He nodded understandingly. “No wonder. It’s been nearly fifty minutes after all. Most panic attacks last usually 5 to 20 minutes, but it isn’t unheard of cases like yours where it nearly took an hour. I would advice for you to drink something and then try to sleep a bit. You’ve been drained of all your energy.” He stood up, planning to walk outside before remembering something and turning one last time around. “Before I go let me ask you this question. Are you fine with sleeping tonight with Shuu? I completely understand if you aren’t and will let the servants prepare the guest room for him. I heard what happened and will scold him later on for this properly. You need your deserved break now and it would be unfortunate if you have another attack because of my son’s overbearing behavior.” You smiled a bit, feeling grateful that at least Shuu’s father was reliable. “It’s fine.”, you whispered softly, not wanting to be left alone tonight and giving him a small nod of affirmation when he gave you a surprised look. “If you say so. But give me a moment. I need to explain to him how to not act around you right now.” With these words he left you, giving you a feeling of unease. For a short moment you were able to catch a glimpse of alll the worried servants who were waiting nervously outside. You guessed that Shuu was in a completely other room right now or else he would have burst in the room to see if you were starting to feel better.

You were nearly asleep when you heard the door creaking slightly, telling you that Shuu had come back. You didn’t want to know what exactly had his father told him, but you were pretty sure that Shuu had been in for quite the ruthless lecture from his father since the old man truly cared for you and had accepted you as a full member of this family the moment he had seen how much joy you brought his son. And you guessed Shuu had really heard someone from his father, not wailing and annoying you with questions like he usually did whenever you hurt yourself or cried. Instead he just crawled quietly inside the bed with you, doing his best to not wake you up. The only noises he made were sniffling sounds, you only being able to imagine how much tears he had spilled this last hour. But you were thankful for the quietness, the last thing you needed right now was another headache. But you did tense up for a short moment when he suddenly wrapped his arms around you and placed his head on your shoulder, damping the fabric of your pajamas instantly with tears he tried to cry as silently as possible, his grip tightening around you as if scared that you would fade away if he wouldn’t hold you tightly. “I-I am so sorry for this, darling.”, he stuttered out, voice quiet, heartbroken and ashamed of himself.

[nitw]

book 3′s theme of growing up vs escapism, and what that says about grace and simon’s fates

infinity train book 3 is as much about empathy and morality as it is about maturity. grace and simon deal with the same obstacles in very different ways, and with the last 2 episodes coming out soon, i wanna make an analysis of what we’ve seen so far, and how that might correlate to the ending of each of their arcs. this is gonna be a LOOOOONG post.

the way the first episode opens up blows my mind every time i watch it. implementing the “when i look at you, i see me” song jesse mentioned in book 2, which is all about accepting each other’s differences, in contrast to the chaos of the apex onscreen? amazing. keep in mind that this was a kids’ song that jesse was taught in school, which makes it even better/worse considering the apex is full of small children.

this is where we get our first proper looks at grace and simon this season. let’s talk about grace first:

grace herself was probably the one who turned the fitting room into her personal throne. she dances around cheerfully as she gears up for her mission. it’s already obvious at this point that grace has quite the superiority complex, but to quote the cat much later on; “she’s very full of herself”.

we get a deeper insight on this in episode 3, when she talks to hazel about her loneliness due to difficulty making friends as a kid.

grace tends to pin the blame on others for her problems to ignore how insecure she really feels, which is likely one of the reasons she ended up on the train, and leading the apex sure didn’t help.

she’s also shown to be very manipulative. she’s a smooth talker who knows how to twist her words to make her seem more trustworthy, and can be very controlling of others to get what she wants. as the leader of the apex, she’s learned how to talk to kids, especially.

now let’s get to simon. THESE are the first shots we see of him:

in contrast to grace sitting proudly in her throne room under spotlights, simon spends his time alone in a small, poorly lit toy store which he’s revamped into a workshop for his miniature figures.

this whole opening sequence shows us, in a short amount of time and without dialogue, how different grace and simon really are. initially, grace feels on top of the world and wants everyone else to view her like that too. while simon isolates himself from the apex to focus on his own little hobbies when he’s not going on missions. he doesn’t feel the need to flaunt himself, because he doesn’t have the highest number and he’s not the leader, that’s grace. their individual surroundings paint a good picture of how they feel about themselves.

so what is there to say about simon? for starters, he’s very hot-headed and loses his temper easily when things don’t go his way...

... he has major trust/abandonment issues...

... and he collects miniatures.

why is that last part important? because from the very first shot of him and then several times throughout the season, simon is painted as the more immature and childlike of the duo.

let’s get a few things straight:

grace and simon are both 18 years old, the oldest members of the apex. 18 is usually considered the confusing midpoint of adolescence, not REALLY a kid anymore but not REALLY an adult just yet. but according to themselves, they don’t feel like adults (”never trust an adult passenger”).

they both arrived on the train when they were around 10, aka they’ve been stuck here for roughly 8 years.

IN those years, they’ve been totally misguided and didn’t know the true purpose of the train, which led them to their “this is our personal playground, and if you don’t play along, you’re weak” mentality. this is why they don’t trust denizens/nulls, they don’t see them as anything other than toys.

what i’ve talked about so far is pretty much how we’re introduced to the two: one has a superiority complex, the other has an inferiority complex, but they’re both equally willing players in the apex’s childish game of chaos and destruction.

... and then hazel and tuba happens.

this is in the second episode. what’s the first thing grace does when she initially meets the two? she acknowledges hazel’s bond with tuba and greets them both, despite her dislike towards nulls. she knows she’s good with kids and uses this to her advantage, because she doesn’t want to lose a potential addition to the apex, but the point is that she treats tuba with respect out of consideration for hazel.

meanwhile, in comparison, simon wants absolutely nothing to do with tuba. he doesn’t speak to her once in this scene and only comments on it to grace. the only thing holding him back from fighting tuba is his fear of losing.

this conflict goes on between them for several episodes. grace wants to get rid of tuba as much as simon, but she wants to take the most harmless approach possible for the sake of hazel’s feelings, while simon couldn’t care less about anyone’s feelings but his own:

but as grace naturally begins to question everything she thought she knew, and grows fond of both hazel AND tuba...

... simon becomes more frustrated and impatient, and lets his blind rage overpower him.

and simon knows this.

aside from fear of abandonment, there’s nothing he fears and hates more than being underestimated.

being looked down upon.

being ignored.

being treated like a child.

every season of infinity train is about change, personal development and self-reflection. book 3 is the season of coming to terms with adulthood and maturity, and this goes for both grace AND simon. they’re just on opposite ends of the scale.

grace’s number is high. it’ll take a long time before she manages to leave the train. but she’s made an active decision to be the bigger person, to open up to and trust even what she doesn’t fully understand. and now she’s finally headed in the right direction.

simon isn’t stuck on square 1. he’s falling further and further behind, because he’s too stubborn to grow up and accept the reality of his circumstances.

this show doesn’t really have any heroes, because the goal of our protagonists is to save themselves. but simon is too self-destructive AND destructive towards others, and the path he’s taken is leading him to the closest thing we have to a villain...

... and the events of the most recent episode may have been the last straw.

[phandom-against-onision]

You have probably already informed yourself, but here is a masterlist anyway.

MAJOR CONTENT WARNINGS: BLACKFACE, SLURS, RACIST COMMENTS, CHILD PREDATORY COMMENTS, NSFW CONTENT, BEASTIALITY, TRANSPHOBIA, MISHANDLING OF MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, OUTING AND MORE! PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Shane Dawson has been shown to mock black people on several occasions, saying the n word, doing blackface and creating stereotypical recurring characters.

When beginning on YouTube, Shane had a character called “Shanaynay” who was supposed to be a “ghetto-white girl”. When playing her, Shane often used ghetto stereotypes. She was a recurring character from 2008-2011. Although he has long stopped playing this character, he was continuing to sell the merch and profit off his racism as recently as last year!

He has also done blackface in his character skits, and said the n word as Shanaynay. On one of these occasions, he called an actual black woman a “n*gga bitch monkey woman”. Watch the full video for all occasions.

Here are some additional comments on this matter.

-

Shane Dawson has acted inappropriately with and around minors for a long time.

He has probably done this even more than his blackface, and that’s saying something.

This clip, which went around last year, contains him calling a 6-year-old child sexy and admitting to googling CP. This is from his Shane and Friends podcast, which contains a lot of explicit clips.

He has also asked his teenage fan to “show herself” and “shut up and twerk”. This is from 3:55 - 4:29 in this video.

One of the instances really going around on Twitter at the moment is him pretending to jerk off to a picture of the then-11 year old Willow Smith.

A reminder that her family has not forgiven him, so neither should you!

Honestly, there are way too many occasions of this. Please check out this Twitter thread which lists a lot of times he has made inappropriate comments and did inappropriate things.

Another very distasteful thing he has done is claim to solve the murder of an actual six-year-old child, profiting off “speaking” to her spirit.

-

Shane Dawson has joked about bestiality on camera multiple times.

This is just straight-up weird. It went around a lot last year, but in case you’ve forgotten, here is a playlist of a few clips. He also rubbed his face in his dog’s crotch but I can’t find a direct video of that by itself.

-

Shane Dawson is transphobic as hell.

Watch this full video for the details where he uses trans as an insult and says tr*nny while knowing it is a derogatory term.

-

Shane Dawson has promoted and supported terrible people and channels.

This has been a long-time criticism of his viral documentary series, but it is still important to remember.

Let’s start with the problems with this in chronological order. 

His first viral documentary series was The Truth about Tanacon.

Tanacon, to begin with, had several issues. Despite big dreams, it failed spectacularly due to lack of organisation and preparation before the event. There were many last minute changes and it generally lacked several necessities in events. Some issues were disorganised registrations, reserved meet and greets that didn’t go through the system, clashings with VidCon (a bigger event), inappropriate content creators, adversied content creators that didn’t appear, condoms in the goodie bag, lies about free tickets, no food, no room for anything, one hallway, lack of regulation in wristbands, underestimation of guests, overly expensive merch, no cooling system, no fire solutions (meaning they kicked everyone out) and it goes on. 

Despite actual people suffering due to the incompetency of Tana, Shane made her out to be an innocent martyr. This gets even worse as you realise than Tana has been exposed for several racist comments throughout her YouTube career.

Shane is clearly shown to be a terrible interviewer, presenting more as a friend than someone who is willing to find the “truth” of Tanacon. Instead of learning about Tanacon from an unbiased journalist, we get an obscured version of what happened, engineered to sympathise with Tana instead of her admitting to her mistakes.

Yet, this somehow was only the beginning of the problems with the documentary series, as the next one was with Jeffree Starr.

I don’t even know where to begin with the problems with this.

Firstly, Jeffree is perhaps the most problematic YouTuber who is still popular on the website. He has been exposed as racist, sexist, supporting of rapists, terrible to fans, transphobic, ableist, fatphobic, homophobic, insensitive to suicidal people, sexualising of minors, fascist and violent. Check out this thread here for the full details and proof of these claims.

Shane is not stupid. He is aware of these controversies, but has continued to support Jeffree. When a fan called him out, he was extremely rude and was very mad, and supporting all the hate the fan was getting.

The entire documentary series is about him befriending Jeffree, and making him out to be a good person. 

Jeffree should NOT be given a positive platform like this, and he should NOT be continuing to get away with being “cancelled”. So many other YouTubers have been “cancelled” for lesser things, yet Jeffree manages to always get away with it.

The next documentary series was the Jake Paul series. This is perhaps his most controversial documentary series.

Shane is not a therapist, a psychiatrist or a mental health professional. Even though he did consult some people, they are not allowed to diagnose people based on suspicions and videos. Yet, throughout the entire series, he calls Jake Paul a sociopath, and using that label to justify everything he has done.

Jake and Logan have both stirred up some of the biggest controversies on the platform, yet Shane gave them the ability to thrive. Like he did with Tana and Jeffree, he humanised him and edited it to the audience would sympathise with Jake. He has been exposed to scam his young fans, been rude to his neighbours and cast members, made light of serious disorders like anxiety, saying the n word and doing several things for clout, such as “marrying” Tana Mongeau.

As addressed in the documentary series, Alissa Violet, Jake’s ex-girlfriend, has shared her stories of physical abuse in the Team 10 mansion in private life, yet Shane did not fully address this or even mention this to Jake in the episode after. This further proves that Shane is incapable of running a documentary series with such deep themes as he will gloss over them or not address them properly.

This issue is further seen in his documentary with Eugenia Cooney.

A warning that I have not actually seen this as I have heard it contains triggering subject material which I do not wish to subject myself to in interests for my personal mental health - I am only going off the statements of experts and viewers.

In theory, this documentary could have been brilliant. After all, it is two people who have gone/is going through eating disorders and discussing it. However, experts have said that this could be harmful and it is easy to see why.

As much as I do not like Shane, I, and experts, do believe that he had good intentions behind this documentary. However, it probably would have been better if they consulted an expert regularly throughout the documentary when handling a touchy subject. After all, many of Shane’s viewers are young and/or influential, and a correct portrayal of a subject which is terrifying and real to many people watching is very important.

Here is an excerpt from this article about how he handled this:

Other fans were concerned with Cooney's safety, given that she referred to having an eating disorder in the past tense, signaling that she may not be considering further treatment.

"She certainly looks like she is physically healthier, but mentally she still seems like she's struggling a lot and she tries to cover it with her overwhelming positivity," another comment on the video says.

Experts who spoke with INSIDER — and who have not personally treated Cooney — are wary of considering Cooney's treatment a success story.

"When we are in the midst of our eating disorder we are very, very good at wearing masks. We're very good at playing a role that is very convincing and wants to let people know that we're okay," Chevese Turner, the Chief Strategy & Policy Officer for the National Eating Disorders Association, told INSIDER."A month of treatment is just barely scratching the surface of the road to recovery. While she put on a good face and was very chipper and cheerful, I'm not convinced that's what's going on inside. How do any of us know for sure?"

While both experts told INSIDER they believe Dawson had good intentions, they also expressed numerous concerns with the way the video presented the reality of eating disorders, and Cooney's recovery in particular. Turner says having Cooney share her story could be very cathartic, but she worries how much of her appearance was intended to resurrect or preserve her career."What's essentially happening is that people are bullying her online for her looks and her body and that does have an impact, it impacts all of us when that happens. For someone with an eating disorder, the impact can be devastating. I think [Dawson is] trying to help in his own way, but probably the thing that would help the most is her having more time in recovery," Turner said.

"I don't want to speculate, but obviously her success on YouTube is a driving factor to get back to work. None of us know if she's fully capable for that work and I would want to believe that the people around her who care about her most are confident that she can handle it," she continued. "I hope that they'll encourage her to take a break."

Overall, it has been shown that Shane is unfit to handle a documentary series with his evidently extremely biased views, and he should consult more professionals when editing. Although many people would argue that he has good intentions, it is possible to have good intentions while being irresponsible. Shane is aware of his large audience, and his influence over people around the globe. He should be more careful when creating a video with strong themes which many viewers may be suffering through or offended by. 

Either than his documentary series, Shane is also friends with other problematic people outside it - most infamously, Trisha Paytas. 

Trisha Paytas’ brand has become being extremely controversial. However, this doesn’t excuse that she has done and should not normalise her behaviours. She has been proved to be very transphobic and homophobic, as well as racist, ableist, abusive and insensitive to people with mental illnesses and disorders, notably DID. She lives to stir up drama on YouTube and more recently, TikTok. Despite being aware of this, Shane has continued to be close friends with her and excusing what she does because she’s just Trisha.

He has also openly supported far-right people on Twitter, giving harmful conspiracies a platform on his channel.

-

Shane Dawson has contributed to destroying growing/popular channels.

When 20-year-old growing YouTuber Bobby Burns released a video giving valid criticism to Shane Dawson, Shane featured him on his channel and pushed him as a heater.

This was not a thing which only happened once. Shane decided to continue to feature him on his channel, branding him as a hater. However, Shane’s dedicated fanbase did not like this and began to send hate to Bobby. Due to the lack of popularity, Shane stopped interacting with Bobby and didn’t feature him in any more videos without attempting to “save his career” like he has done with so many other people.

That is not to say that Bobby is faultless. I am not that familiar with his content, but I have heard that he did contribute to his channel’s demise, which makes sense. However, as a huge content creator, it was irresponsible of Shane to take a growing channel and brand him as a negative hater. He is aware of his audience, and that is important to remember. When he has such a large fanbase, he needs to be more careful with the videos he is showing them, and the characterisations of YouTubers.

However, what Shane is going under fire most recently is his involvement in the James Charles scandal last year.

Despite denial, Shane has been proved to play an important role in the “cancelling” of James last year, encouraging Tati to upload the video and making false accusations of predatory behaviour. This was highly likely done to degrade a competitor’s palette so his collaboration with Jeffree would be more successful.

Recently, he posted these screenshots on Twitter and then deleted the Tweet.

This proves his blatant immaturity. Somehow, James, the youngest of the four YouTubers involved in the scandal, has grown up the most. Shane was a part of the downfall of James, causing him to debate suicide. His defence for this was saying that he “needed to be served a slice of humble pie the size of the fucking Empire State Building”.

James Charles is not faultless, and he should not be made out to be an angel or a martyr in this situation. However, no one deserves to have suicidal thoughts, and anyone who defends this by saying that it was the humbling he needed is disgusting.

-

Shane Dawson attempted to out Dan and Phil for views and clout.

As a bisexual man who has opened up about his fear of being outed when he was closeted, he should be ashamed of everything he did to Dan and Phil.

Like many YouTubers at the time, Shane used the Phandom to get views and subscribers. In doing this, he objectified and sexualised Dan to his young and influential audience. Check out this video where he said that he wanted to facefuck Dan in an orgy while watching a video where he just turned 18. In that clip, he also split up Dan and Phil into “cute” and “not cute”. 

It even went to the point where he asked the Psychic Twins about the sexuality of Dan and Phil. In this clip, he accuses them of queerbaiting as well as supporting the Psychic Twins’ invasive and insensitive comments about them not dressing gay enough, diss of them refusing to go on their podcast and outing and stereotyping them. This was as recent as 2017.

-

There are actually a lot of other reasons why Shane is under a lot of controversy at the moment. Here were my sources, and some further reading for anyone interested:

THE PROBLEM WITH SHANE DAWSON: a thread

shane dawson sexualizing young children: a thread

One of YouTube's biggest stars made a viral 'documentary' about another YouTuber's eating disorder. Experts say it could be harmful for its subject and audience.

Jake Paul tried to use looting for YouTube views, and is facing charges. These are all the ways the controversial star has stirred up outrage in the past.

Trisha Paytas’ racism

THE PROBLEM WITH JEFFREE STAR: a thread

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH TANACON: an ongoing thread

So what from here? Shane has released an apology video, but words don’t mean anything without action. Here are some suggestions for what he could do to actually show further improvement.

He could stop doing conspiracy videos in the harmful and biased style he is known for, and delete his videos despite the views.

He could stop being friends with such toxic and controversial people.

He could donate his money and time to helping out the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and to black charities/organisations in general. It does not negate what he has done, and it is not in my place to forgive him if he does do that, but it would represent his improvement.

He could formally apologise to the parents and the family of the children he has sexualised.

But he will probably not do that. However, as a hater of cancel culture, I hope that he does improve as a person. It is not my goal to send hate, but to inform people. Sending Shane death threats or insensitive comments are the last things we need. To criticise him for doing that, then doing it yourself is hypocritical and harmful. Instead, we’ll just have to inform ourselves and wait for the future.

[roselevesque]

3 , 6 , 7, 12

Thanks for the ask!

3. What fandoms are you involved in right now?

Right now, I mostly post about Shera and ATLA and I'm starting to get back into actively posting Death Note stuff again since I've been rewatching it.

6. How do you feel about (character) and why?

There was no character mentioned for the character-specific asks, so I guess I'll just talk about the ones I post the most about from the 3 aforementioned fandoms.

ATLA-Aang:

I liked him when I was a kid watching the show for the first time on Nick, but due to the renaissance, I've gained a new level of appreciation for him, to the point I'd consider him my 2nd favorite character ( Toph is just the tiniest bit above him ).

I think his story is very inspirational those who have felt that their values and person were something the world thought it would be better off without. His arc is about change and adaptation in a way that doesn't abandon the roots and this is an interesting tale for a protagonist to be part of, in my opinion.

He's also pretty underappreciated in canon compared to some other characters and I wish to show more love for him, because of this.

Shera-Catra:

I like that she's messy. She's not a saint, she's made lots of mistakes she has to made up for, but regardless of her negative aspects she's still human. She's a female character that goes on a downward spiral only to manage to climb out of the abyss in the end. I appreciate seeing someone hitting rocks bottom and following the aftermath, which includes picking themselves up.

Her journey is one of the show's backbones and it illustrates some if its most important core themes: perpetuating/breaking away from the cycle of abuse, personal growth, the importance of love and self-worth.

She leaves room for a lot of stuff to contemplate about her and the interactions she has with the world pre-canon, during canon and post-canon and this is why she is my favorite.

Death Note-Light Yagami:

He's definitely the most morally questionable out of the three, but the fact that he's a far cry from s good person is what makes him interesting to me. I find him to be the most complex character of the series and despite not starting out as an outstanding citizen anyway, he manages to go through a compelling bastardization arc.

He's charming and very adaptable in all sorts of settings, experimental and driven and all of these traits, plus his vision on the world, make for a fun dynamic no matter who he shares screen time with.

I know many fans hates his guts, because he's an asshole ( which is true and an underestimation at the same time I'd say ), but I don't think the show would have been as good without someone like him in the reigns.

7. What color do you associate with (character)?

ATLA-Aang: Orange mainly, but yellow too!

Shera-Catra: Red!

Death Note-Light Yagami: Also red!

12. What is your favorite headcanon for (character)?

Not necessary the absolute favorite headcanons, but some I've been thinking about more lately.

ATLA-Aang: He learnt how to make jewelry from Gyatso! They used to do it as a way to get Aang's mind of stuff that upset him ( similar to the throwing cakes flashback from the Souther Air Temple). Aang continues the tradition by teaching Bumi, Kya and Tenzin how to do it too.

Shera-Catra: She takes up singing as a hobby post-canon and this is how she and Scorpia begin to reconnect and form a true friendship! The show's intro song, "Warriors", is written in universe through their joint effort and after singing a slow rendition of it to Adora, Catra proposes.

Death Note-Light Yagami: He was excited to start school, since his parents told him he'd get to meet new kids he could talk to and learn new stuff. Once he got there, he went through the curriculum with ease and didn't find anything challenging in it. He also found it hard to connect with his classmates even if they might have a few common topics in mind.

Light was still polite and liked by others, but his dissatisfaction and boredom had begun at a young age.

[twistedtummies2]

Gotham’s 31 Most Wanted - Honorable Mentions

It’s New Year’s Eve, everybody! Just as I did back in October with my “31 Days of Disney Villainy,” before I begin my countdown of my Top 31 Favorite Batman Villains – one for each day of January – I want to go over some of the baddies who sadly didn’t make the cut. These are the Terrible Ten who ALMOST got onto my main countdown, but for various reasons ultimately didn’t quite manage it. Some of these guys are more well-known than others, so we’ll see how many you all recognize. With that said, before the countdown begins at midnight, here are my Honorable Mentions for Gotham’s 31 Most Wanted!

1.     Calendar Man.

Julian Day, a.k.a. Calendar Man, is a villain who has had a lot of ups and downs in his history. Depending on who you ask, he’s either one of the dumbest Batman villains ever made, or one of the most underrated. I fall into the second crowd. The Calendar Man is a deranged crook who commits crimes themed around holidays and seasons. I actually find that to be a very interesting concept, and I’m surprised that so many people dislike the character, and that for a long time he was considered something of a joke. In more recent years, however, the Calendar Man has been making a slight comeback; he’s still often the butt of bad jokes, but more people seem to be waking up to the potential this guy has to be a legitimately interesting and/or intimidating dastard. However, while I do have a soft spot for the character, I just like other rogues better. Not much else to it.

2.     Clock King.

As I said yesterday, when naming the rules for who could qualify on this list, I would not be including “crossover rogues.” These are villains who are TECHNICALLY part of another superhero’s rogues gallery, but whom Batman has faced on numerous occasions. Batman has faced Lex Luthor more than once, for example, but I think it’s fair to say no one’s going to lump him in with the same crowd as Clayface or Catwoman. Similarly, King Shark has appeared in various forms of Batman-related media, but he’s really a villain of Aquaman’s. With this in mind, there are four villains who I felt I just couldn’t COMPLETELY leave out of the running, despite them being those sorts of rogues. The Clock King is the first one. The original Clock King, William Tockman, was a foe of Green Arrow, and was, in my opinion, a better villain than people often give/gave him credit for. However, the character really took off when he first appeared in the 60s Batman TV series, and then got even more attention in a few appearances in “Batman: The Animated Series” and its spin-offs. In fact, the latter version was so popular, THAT version of the Clock King – Temple Fugate (pictured above) – later replaced Tockman, though even he was really more of a Teen Titans villain than a Batman rogue. In fact, while the Clock King does keep appearing in Batman-related media, I’m not even sure if the two have ever even MET in the comics. I will admit that he feels like he fits right in there, and I’ve always had a real soft spot for this villain, but I didn’t think it was right to place him on the list.

3.     Deathstroke.

Ever since the “Arkham” video games, in particular, I always hear Deathstroke referred to as a Batman Villain. I’ll confess that it’s always cool, both in and out of comics, to see him square off with the Dark Knight, but Deathstroke really isn’t a Batman Villain in the strictest sense. Much like the Clock King, in the comics – heck, even in other media – he’s typically depicted as the arch-enemy of the Teen Titans. I guess you could say this perhaps makes him Robin’s arch-nemesis, but that’s not quite the same thing. I do love Deathstroke – he’s definitely one of the greatest DC Villains out there – but I don’t think he fits here any more than Clock King does.

4.     Gentleman Ghost.

This is the third example of a villain who I didn’t QUITE think counted as a Batman Villain. And of them all, he honestly came the closest. See, in the comics, I’m not even sure if Batman and the Clock King have ever met, like I said; and in regards to Deathstroke, sure, they’ve fought on several occasions, but Deathstroke is pretty much well-renowned as the foe of the Titans, and especially Robin. Close, but no cigar. The Gentleman Ghost, however…I keep feeling like DC WANTS to make this guy a Batman Villain definitively, but haven’t quite done so yet, if that makes sense. This dapper phantom thief is TECHNICALLY an arch-enemy of Hawkman & Hawkgirl, of all characters. However, in other media, he often seems to have no set foeman, and in perhaps his most famous incarnation, from “Batman: The Brave & the Bold,” his origins were outright changed to make him a Batman Villain, with no ties to Hawkman whatsoever…in fact, did the Hawk family even APPEAR in that show? I sincerely can’t remember right now, so if anyone can remind me, please do. On top of that, not only has the Ghost faced Batman in the comics, but in one particularly seminal story – “All My Enemies Against Me,” in which a whole group of Batman Villains teamed up to try and take down both the Caped Crusader AND an invading Killer Croc – Gentleman Ghost was included among the ranks. Keep in mind, he was kind of the one odd guy out: all the other villains, from obscure ones like The Spook to more popular ones like Penguin, were DEFINITELY Batman Villains. So to see Gentleman Ghost counted among those ranks was a bit strange but also seemed to indicate he’d found his niche there. However, he’s never been OFFICIALLY counted as one of those villains, and again, in the comics, he’s still most closely tied to the Hawks, or at least the Justice League. So even though I was EXTREMELY tempted to count him on the Top 31, I felt it was still cheating.

5.     King Shark.

Our fourth and final villain who I didn’t really think counted as a Batman Villain. Just like the Clock King and Gentleman Ghost, King Shark has been in a lot of Batman-related media, but in the comics, his encounters with the Dark Knight are fairly minor. He’s real arch-foe is Aquaman, unsurprisingly. This is one of the reasons why I feel I can’t count King Shark on the main list, but the other is that I legitimately have an issue with the character: he’s constantly changing. True, comic book characters change frequently, and villains like the Mad Hatter and the Joker have undergone significant tonal shifts over the decades…but with King Shark, it seems like every single writer who uses him has a 100% different way of handling him. Sometimes he’s a strong and noble warrior; sometimes he’s a blood-hungry, animalistic monster; sometimes he’s a wisecracking psychopath; sometimes he’s actually fairly nice polite until his instincts get the better of him…heck, even his APPEARANCE changes constantly! Sometimes he’s a Great White, sometimes he’s a Hammerhead, sometimes he’s a Tiger Shark…there’s just an absolute zero for CONSISTENCY with this guy, and it drives me up the wall! In recent years, the character has become more popular, but I’ve never really been able to latch onto any version of him more than another, and I’ve never really had any strong attachment to him in general. I don’t hate the guy, I just wish people would handle him better.

6.     Maxie Zeus.

Much like Calendar Man, Maxie Zeus is one of those villains who, depending on whom you ask, they’ll either call one of the dumbest supervillains ever made, or one of the most underrated. Admittedly, between the two, I prefer Calendar Man, but there’s actually a lot of untapped potential in Zeus. The key problem with this character is essentially not his fault: he’s inspired by the campy character of King Tut from the 60s series. (He was adapted into comics himself, incidentally, but that version sucks in my opinion, and is hardly ever used…good riddance. I’ll stick to Victor Buono, thank you.) For those who don’t know, King Tut was a professor of Egyptology who, due to a mental issue, came to believe he was the reincarnation of the famous pharaoh. In Maxie Zeus’ case, he was a gentleman who came to believe he was actually the Greek God of Thunder, Zeus. Just as Tut thus embarked on a mad quest to turn Gotham into his new empire, Zeus plans to turn Gotham into his new Olympus. With such daffy inspiration, you can see why Zeus would be underestimated, and in recent years he’s often been depicted as a “joke villain” - similar to characters like Condiment King. However, in my opinion, Zeus actually CAN work as a legitimate antagonist when handled by the right people in the right way, and I even think that’s been done a couple of times. I tend to think he gets a bad rap. Still, again, there are other villains I simply like more.

7.     Orca.

Dr. Grace Balin used one of those handy-dandy super serums to transform herself into a half-killer whale, half-human hybrid, all in a plan to try and wreak havoc on her hated nemesis: a nasty woman called Camille Baden-Smythe. Dubbing herself simply “The Orca,” she began to rain destruction down upon her enemy, constantly leading to face-offs with the Dark Knight. However, at the end of her first adventure, Balin was mortally wounded, and found the only way to survive was to permanently become the Orca. Since then, the Orca has gone from vigilante to frequently more of a true villain, and still makes off-and-on appearances in comics and even spin-off comics…though, unless you count a jokey cameo in the LEGO Batman Movie, the comics have so far been her only home. I know a few people who are big fans of the character, and I actually have a soft spot for her, too. I just didn’t like her QUITE enough to include her in the Top 31.

8.     Professor Radium.

Now, chances are, even if you happen to be a major comic book fan, you’re probably wondering “Who the Heck is Professor Radium?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone in that. Professor Radium is an EXTREMELY underrated and equally extremely little-known and little-used supervillain who I actually have a personal nostalgia for. In the core comics, he was once a well-meaning scientist who wanted to use radiation-based procedures and special formulas to enhance and extend people’s lives. In a twisted paradox of fate, he wound up instead turning his skin a glowing green, and developed a “Touch of Death.” Radium, in his initial appearance, desperately tried to fix his condition, but the mixture of the accident plus his tragic situation led to him steadily going insane, and he was seemingly killed at the end of the tale. He would later return many, many years later, however, forced to resort to a life of crime due to his terrible condition. I actually found out about Professor Radium through means that are somehow even more obscure than the character himself: the Batman comic strips. Yeah, Batman had a comic strip, all the way back in the 40s, and Professor Radium was one of the few villains from the core comics to appear. (It figures.) The comic strip story was essentially a remake of his origins, but now with a darker twist: his story starts the exact same way, until Radium has a chance encounter with a man planning to commit suicide. He “helps” him with his powers, and from that point on, instead of trying to fix his condition, Professor Radium decides to use his “Touch of Death” as a “Good Samaritan.” He begins bringing the peace and bliss of death to unhappy people, so they no longer have to endure the torture and pain of life. This version, too, was seemingly killed…and since this version never appeared again (his was the last story arc in the strips, and this take never carried over into mainstream), we can presume that death was permanent. I find both takes on Professor Radium to be surprisingly tragic, complex, and fascinating villains, especially for the time period. His occasional, albeit often minor, reappearances in more recent years have helped to ensure he isn’t COMPLETELY forgotten, but I really would like to see a proper new reinvention of this villain. He’s got a lot of potential that hasn’t been fully realized.

9.     The Spook.

In the 1970s, the Spook – real name Val Kaliban – was one of Batman’s most recurring villains. In his original format, the character was a former member of the mafia with a fascination with escape tricks and illusions; after faking his own death to escape from prison, he began using this knowledge to commit crimes – everything from finding masterful ways to escape from robberies, to selling “escape insurance” to caged crooks and busting them out for a hefty fee. Starting in the 80s, the Spook began popping up with far less frequency. Attempts were made in the 90s to reimagine the character; that version had him as a nameless black ops soldier who, traumatized by a mission that went horribly wrong, actually believed himself to be a ghost. It was an interesting, radical reinvention, but it never really went anywhere; future stories would feature Val Kaliban again, and no mention has been made of that second Spook since. As of now, the character has not been seen in the mainstream since 2006, when he was seemingly killed off during the events of the storyline “Batman & Son.” However, the Spook HAS appeared in some comics from spin-offs and crossovers, and is known for – both in-universe and in reality – going long periods of time without so much as saying “Boo” before popping up once more. I personally really like this character, but I guess there are just others I like more or have more nostalgia for.

10.  Tally Man.

The much-underappreciated Tally Man is a villain who I really wish I could love more than I do, if that makes sense. This somewhat theatrical gun-for-hire came from a tragic and disturbing childhood: his family was regularly harassed by a mobster who demanded they pay protection money for some sort of debt. Eventually, the boy that became Tally Man snapped and beat the mobster to death, after the man attacked his mother for not paying him. He was sent to prison, and in the intervening time, his mother killed herself, while his sister went insane. The boy became obsessed with the idea of debts not being paid, and turned to a life of crime: he acts as a sort of agent of Karma, in his own mind, collecting “pounds of flesh” for the highest-paying crooks from their enemies, their clients, and so on. I really love the character’s design and past, but the problem lies in his actual appearances. Tally Man first appeared in the immediate aftermath of the famous “Knightfall” saga. At that time, Bruce Wayne was out of commission, and the Batmen Tally Man faced were actually people taking his place while he recuperated. To me, that’s kind of cheating; it’s not quite the same when you’re facing an Imposter Batman, if you get my meaning. After these initial appearances, Tally Man quickly descended on the ladder of villainy: he ultimately just became little more than a stooge – an average gunman with kind of a cool name, effectively a mere pawn used by more popular rogues, most notably Two-Face. Heck, even his crazy costume was eventually eliminated, as a second Tally Man took his place, and was REALLY just a normal gunman with a cool name. There was nothing about the second one that made him any different from any normal gangster character. Since then, the character has totally disappeared. Apparently there were plans for him to appear in the DCAU, but that never came to pass. I really wish the character had been used better in the comics, and I hope he makes a comeback that fixes these issues.

And that concludes my list of Honorable Mentions for my Top 31 Favorite Batman Villains! As I said before, the countdown proper starts at midnight, just in time to ring in the New Year! I’m fairly sure the first choice on the list will be quite a surprise. ;)

HINT: …I seriously don’t have a hint for the first guy, just…I’m pretty sure you’ll be in absolute DISBELIEF at who it is. That’s all I can give you for now. I’ll do better next time. XD

[ct-hardcase]

TROS Review

I’ll start by saying something I already did: I liked the movie, but it wasn’t a good film.

What I mean by that is, as a fan, I like some of the beats it hit. It had good trio moments, good stuff for Rey and Finn individually, as well as Leia, and I genuinely enjoyed those. The pacing, however, was interesting. The entire first quarter of the movie was driven by plot devices and shock value, and I found myself wondering, after they went to yet another planet to find the macguffin, when the real plot was going to happen. Things picked up in the second half, but there were still some weird choices made. Specifics below:

Stuff I did like: 

Force Sensitive Finn! It’s about damn time, honestly, but I’m very glad that Finn got to realize the Force within him (and I think that’s what he was trying to tell Rey this whole time? This was unclear). The fact that he had some conflict with both Rey and Poe over that was also great.

I thought I was going to hate Rey Palpatine a lot more than I did. Because of JJ spinning it into a “it doesn’t matter who your bloodline is, as long as you choose your family/destiny” theme, I didn’t mind it as much. Still kind of cheesy, but not the worst way they could have gone about it. I like Rey adopting the Skywalker name.

I was hoping for “power-drunk bastard” Kylo and I did cherish him while I had him. The fact that he was determined enough to find the Wayfinders and find actual literal Palpatine was pretty neat. The fact that he was also briefly power-drunk enough to try to turn Rey into his equal in the dark side was pretty cool too.

This movie surrounded the Force in general--Kylo and Rey are good saber duelists, but they aren’t the best, so I think it was a smart decision to focus more of their impressive feats on the Force.

General Poe! I really wish it didn’t have to happen like that, but I’m so glad to see Poe Dameron get his due in this regard. His fear at leading and everyone comforting him along the way was a good story to tell.

The actual creepy, cultlike aesthetic of the Sith was really fun in the last half, complete with faceless crowds and soul-transfer rituals.

I have wanted Rey with a yellow lightsaber for SO LONG and I finally get it, yeehaw everyone.

The entire trio dynamic was really great. They promised a movie with them and it delivered. In particular, the Poe and Rey dynamic really picked up the slack from the last two movies. Finn’s dynamic with Poe and Rey were the sweetest things, and the end of the movie really showed that he found family and love with those two.

Chewbacca is great, and I’m glad he got a scene where he could mourn.

I’m also glad he at least got to say hi to Lando.

Jedi Master Leia!!!! I’m so happy that it’s canon that she got trained as Jedi and that she’s Rey’s Master and Rey feels connected to her which makes sense because Leia actually put time and effort into training her (no offense Luke, your Force Ghost cameo was really powerful too and nice).

Loved Jannah’s plot with the group of deserter stormtroopers (and the fact that all of them are implied to either be in-tune with each other or Force Sensitive???? Hello??? Some of Rey’s first students there perhaps?)

Rey jumping toward Finn, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Despite my feelings toward bendemption, the moment with Han legitimately got me. Ben finally being candid with Han, Han talking to his son frankly, Ben finally accepting Han as his father, and Ben throwing the bled saber into the ocean called back to tlj really nicely and makes that moment hurt a bit less for me now.

(also, it paid off to read Rise of Kylo in this instance--because the lightsaber is the “Ren” he was effectively throwing his title away when he threw that out and that’s also probably how the Knights knew he was gonezo)

Palpatine getting defeated by his own hubris is very very nice. You can’t outfight Palpatine. You’ve got to beat him Ezra-style: by having him underestimate you.

If Kylo had to get redeemed, at this point in his career, redemption through death is a good path for him.

Hi Knights of Ren!

Stuff I didn’t like:

Bye Knights of Ren!

I’ll just be blunt and put the rylo kiss up here. That kiss was nowhere near necessary. A romance with Ben wasn’t pursued after the fact and he died, so it didn’t even fulfill rylo that much, and so now we have a kiss where nobody’s happy. Congrats.

I’m conflicted on Leia dying in order to give save Ben/give Rey the opening to kill him. On one hand, I’m glad she died for the mission, on the other, it put such a weird taste in my mouth that I couldn’t even mourn when she died because I was so conflicted.

I also felt :/ about Rey healing Ben because of my obvious anti-bendemption bias, but also, if we’re going to commit to killing people and Rey fearing her inner darkness, go all the way with it. If she’s trapping herself on ach-to, have it be because she did kill Kylo, finally, and she’s feeling conflicted about it.

I’m usually not one to say that a m/f romance is “making a character straight” because I’m bi and I don’t like that erasure, but Zorri definitely felt like a way to “no-homo” Poe because so many people thought he was gay. It was unnecessary, super straight, and really felt like a bird flip to LGBT+ fans.

Also, Poe being a spice runner both ignores his canon backstory of being a new republic military brat that went into the resistance, but is also just straight-up racist. Thanks for having your latino character be a drug runner, lf.

RIP Hux. Domhnall Gleeson played the part so well and he deserved better. I like the spite direction, both Rian and JJ can stick the fact that they made him comic relief where the sun don’t shine. I like the impunity with which he was killed but he was way neutered. Glad Finn got to shoot him.

They way overused the “did [x] die??? did they not?????” in this movie. It loses its punch after a while. Chewie, Threepio (in terms of memory), Kylo, Kylo again, Rey, and then Kylo for real this time.

I loved Finn being Force Sensitive but they really dropped that thread and kind of ignored it after they introduced Palpatine. If you’re going to introduce him as FS, commit.

Ditto Jannah and the deserted stormtroopers.

[bigskydreaming]

@seekingxanadu​

LOL I think you and I aren’t likely to ever agree on the subject of Jason’s role in the show, xanadu, as I actually like him being present and would enjoy seeing him end up more integrated into the team in the future. Yeah, there are a lot more classic Titans that they still haven’t gotten to, but IMO there’s a lot of reasons for that (like Wally and Roy currently being used elsewhere, Vic with the Doom Patrol, others perhaps ‘on hold’ because there’s always any number of projects or potential projects in the works that aren’t even announced to the public yet, etc).

Personally, I think its likely Jason’s role in the show and mythology has been expanded instead of introducing more Titans in his place for the same reason Hawk and Dove are here despite never being hugely present in Titans stories for the most part: they’re cheap.

Like tbh, that plays SO much more of a role than most people realize with shows like this, where budget concerns are constantly an issue, and special effects tend to carry the highest price tags. As far as the showrunners are likely concerned, the more they can bring in non-powered characters and give them screentime, the better....because it saves money.

For that matter, superhero projects belonging to the various live action shared universes love to cheat special effects whenever and wherever possible....and roster choices are absolutely made with an eye towards if any existing properties produced by the same companies have special effects that can be repurposed and used with other characters. Like, creating the special effect for the first time tends to be the most expensive part by far, whereas its often relatively simple and cheap to reuse it in a variety of ways....so they all like to do this as much as possible.

Just as an example, take the X-Men movies (sorry if they’re unfamiliar to you, they’re just the instances I can speak to as a sure example of this).....to most people, a LOT of the mutant characters used in the various films seem random as hell....like Azazel in First Class, and Sunspot in DOFP, etc. Thing is...those two and other characters were picked primarily because of the special effects. Azazel’s similarities to Nightcrawler wasn’t a coincidence, it was the point. The studio already had the special effect they’d created for Kurt’s teleportation power signature, and it’d been easily one of the most positively received and talked about special effects of the original trilogy....so they wanted to use it more. Cheap and easy, compared to making new ones for characters with entirely different powers. So by making Azazel one of the primary villains, they just used Kurt’s special effects and gave it a slightly different tint. Same thing with Riptide, Shaw’s other henchman in that movie....totally random choice given he’s never been remotely associated with the Hellfire Club and what they showed in the movie isn’t even really how his powers work in the comics...but the way they portrayed him in the movies allowed them to reuse some of the tornado effects they’d created for Storm in the original trilogy. Havok’s power displays were just repackaged versions of Cyclops’ special effects, and for Sunspot in DOFP they just reused stuff they’d developed in the original trilogy for Pyro...even though again, what Sunspot was shown doing in that movie isn’t remotely how his power works in the comics.

So like....this is a very very big consideration for studios with any and all superhero projects, both film and TV...its why WB picks nonpowered characters to center TV projects around whenever possible, like Arrow and Batwoman and the reason Hawk and Dove were referenced as being looked at for a possible spin-off pretty much since Titans started...and its not a coincidence that the Flash was the first superpowered character they chose to expand their TV universe with, as superspeed has always been one of the cheaper effects to create (its also why Smallville utilized Clark’s superspeed even more often than it did his superstrength). Same thing why when picking another ‘powered hero’ to add to Arrow early on, they went with Ray Palmer and gave him basically just an Iron Man style suit to start...because even when they eventually had him develop his shrinking power....again, super cheap. Size changing effects just involve shooting a lot of different takes using scale models or messing with proportions in post. Compared to what’s required for a lot of DC’s more high profile heroes....that costs nothing to do.

Odds are, Jason was originally introduced in S1 purely because they could use him to advance Dick’s solo storylines in ways very few other characters could allow for, given a key point of Dick’s story arc in becoming Nightwing over the course of two seasons has revolved around touching on where he’s been and come from, and how he’s now grown past that. To really make the most of that, you need something connected to his past, to Batman, and given its notoriously difficult and complicated to secure approval to use Bruce in any and all live action projects, with the sheer volume of different people you need to get on board with it....Jason was a much easier alternative.

And then once he was relatively well received, they jumped on the chance to expand his role because he enabled them to expand their core cast of characters without dramatically inflating their budget at the same time. Just like that’s why Hank and Dawn were never going anywhere any time soon.

So tbh....he’s very likely not taking anything away from any other Titans’ chances of appearing...since the same hurdles and reasons to take it slow are still there for a lot of the other characters. After Arrow ends, it might be a different story with that freeing up Roy to start making appearances...and who knows with Wally because even though he plays an entirely different version of Wally, bet you anything they’re waiting to be sure Keiynan is definitively done playing Kid Flash or the Flash show is for sure never going to bring him back, before considering either Wally for use elsewhere. Like, I know he already said he was done playing Wally but actors change their minds, so I doubt anyone in the studios took that as an immediate green-light to launch a new Wally project elsewhere.

This almost certainly played a factor in their killing off Garth in just his first appearance....water effects are notoriously hard to make look convincing, and this one’s on the writers too given that I bet people in the writers’ room in general weren’t pushing really hard to make Garth a core character for the show....a lot of TV writers reeeeeally hate trying to write for characters who are intrinsically affiliated with say, the ocean, if they’re not otherwise an ocean-themed show already.....because its just another version of why a lot of comic book writers say they have a hard time showcasing Arthur in JLA books, due to a lot of his most thematic abilities being so location dependent. (I mean, personally I say in both cases this is just a lack of imagination and not a good excuse for not using Garth or Arthur more, lol, but like, it is what it is. This tendency among writers as is still already exists).

And the DC expanded universe and which production companies are affiliated with which properties and studios and stations and all that is a huge complicated mess, so I’m not even going to try tracing the connections to verify for sure, but I’d be willing to bet Titans has access to either some of Supergirl’s special effects or some of Superman’s movie special effects or both (or possibly just to Superman special effects developed for various projects that have come and gone over the years without ever making it to completion). Either way, bet you anything that has as much to do with the decision to introduce Superboy into this particular ensemble, as does just them wanting to have a Super-family character in the mix and Superboy was next on the list, not already being used elsewhere.

*Shrugs* But yeah. Never underestimate the power of the dime even with something as fundamental as picking a core roster. Actually, ESPECIALLY with something that fundamental, since that’s the foundation any and all budget concerns spring from. As much as I love the original Judas Contract storyline, I’m not at all bothered to see Rose kinda shoehorned into Terra’s role in a truncated variation of it here....because first, that story’s been adapted a ton in a variety of different ways, so its not really a huge loss to not have it fully adapted again, but second.....its less likely that Rose took Terra’s role here and more likely that Terra was never remotely an option for the show given how ridiculously expensive her powers would be to render well....so they looked at what else they could make fit a similar role and decided hey, why not bring Rose into this as well, even though she’s not primarily associated with this generation of characters?

And Joey was obviously always a strong candidate to add to the cast as early as this, of course. My bet is other than possibly Roy, depending on WB’s overall plans for him, like, I would guess the next most likely Titans to show up/be added to the cast are Lilith, Mal and/or Karen. Telepathy’s cheap and easy to gimmick up some power signature for.....tbh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason Lil HASN’T shown up yet is because they’ve been saving her for after the Jericho storyline is done, given that her powers would cut through all the stakes and suspense and reveal Joey was riding shotgun in Slade’s head from the very first time the Titans encountered Deathstroke this season. For that matter, it’d be extremely difficult to write her as not sensing the sheer chaos going through Dick’s mind this entire season and cutting off that storyline early, and it does seem they’ve known exactly where they wanted to go with Dick this whole time so I can easily see them having decided early on they viewed this as a necessary part of his evolution into Nightwing, and Lil’s mere presence would throw a spanner in those works.

And as for Mal and Karen, again, the shrinking powerset is relatively easy to pull off and its likely more just not wanting to invest in Karen’s suit/flight just yet that’s been the delay there, and Mal’s sonic powers OR his teleportation powers are both relatively easy and cheap.

And of course, other non-powered characters not usually affiliated with the Titans are always a possibility. I’d put money on freaking Golden Eagle being a more likely contender to show up than some of the other powered Titans, for that matter.

Anyway, just my industry take on the matter in general, lol. You know I’d always be for Jason as a Titan as I think he would have ended up one eventually if he hadn’t died when he did, and I’d love to have just one adaptation that doesn’t stick to his death and Red Hood storyline. He doesn’t need it to be an interesting character, just good writing. Its not like Bruce or Dick are definitively chained to one specific storyline outside of their own origin stories, so no reason Jason should have to be either. (And honestly, in line with everything I was talking about here......IMO the nonpowered characters are always a degree safer from being killed off than the powered characters. Doesn’t mean they’re ever totally safe, and it doesn’t mean the show’s necessarily ‘at capacity’ for powered/expensive characters already, but at a certain point the cast list likely will end up sticking with just the powered characters they have until one of those powered characters is killed or otherwise written off...before adding another ‘expensive’ character to take their place.)

But yeah, anyway, lol. Don’t know if that might make you a little more positively inclined to Jason taking up a slot on the show....all things considered, I truly doubt that it was ever a case of them picking to make Jason a series regular OVER adding another classic Titans character in that place instead. It really is more likely IMO that the cast list we have this season was more or less already otherwise in place and they just looked at things and said “we can’t really afford to introduce an additional character on top of the other ones we want to add already this season, like Joey, Slade, etc, and especially not one with special effects heavy powers...BUT we can bring Jason in as more of a presence in the ensemble and bump him up to series regular without too much trouble.”

[glowwormsmith]

Here’s the rest of the Deputy Ask Outline

The Basics

1. Give their full name, and describe them or post a picture! (Height, build, hair, eye, and skin color, etc.) Layla Rook

2. How old are they? 27

3. Sexuality and gender? Bisexual. Cis female. She/her.

Inside Hope County

1. What was going through their head when the helicopter went down and during the subsequent chase? Nothing really; pure adrenaline and fear had already kicked in as soon as she entered the helicopter and the Peggies kept coming, so she was just screaming in her mind. During the chase, she had more clear thoughts, but her objective was to fucking run.

2. Were they afraid of Joseph and Eden’s Gate? Angry? Despite being new to the area, she was suspicious of them from the start after learning about them. She knew they weren’t people to be taken lightly, but unlike others who wanted to stay out of there business, she really wanted to get involved with them. While relieved she can openly fight them after the botched arrest, she is scared of their power over the county, and is in constant fear for her and her family’s lives. She feels disgust and anger towards the members for turning on people they knew and cared about, all because of one (1) charismatic man and his siblings.

3. Did they trust Dutch? Not really. She heard rumors about him (due to his run-ins with the law) and then waking up bond in his bunker didn’t leave a good first impression. It improved once he began working with her as reconnaissance.

4. How did they feel about their team being taken by the cult, did they count them as lost, did they want them back, did they not care? She counted them lost until she saw Hudson on the TV. She cared more about Hudson out of the team, and she mostly prioritized her sister and nieces above them, but she does care for their safety and wants them safe from the cult just like other innocent people.

5. How did they take to the idea of being part of, if not leading, the resistance? At first she was terrified of the circumstances, but it got easier and her ego was fed at being seen as a hero to the people. It’s what keeps her going, really (that and her family being kept safe and proving the Seed’s wrong).

6. Which companions did they recruit, and who did they travel with the most? While all the GFH were helped/”recruited,” she worked with the Fangs for Hire the most, followed by Grace and Adelaide.

7. Did they have time to find romance amidst the chaos? How did they do it? Her two main romantic ties were Eli and Hudson. Neither ended well for her unfortunately. In “Layla joins the cult” AU, she begins a romance with John that goes surprisingly well for her and helps her confront her intimacy problems.

8. Feelings about Joseph? She went on first impressions with how cult leaders usually worked: power-hungry, superficially charming, manipulative and sociopathic. After getting to know him throughout the war, she admitted she was wrong about him in some ways: he was still manipulative and ruthless with a messiah complex, but she saw that he cared for his family/flock and that he felt he was doing the right thing for his family and the people of the county. He’s just sick and needs help. She also had a very uneasy feeling around him, which only increased when she picked up on his intense fixation on her. She lost most of her sympathy after he told her about his daughter, but she hates to admit that he’s right about many things. She is determined to bring him and his family to justice, to prove to him that even though the world situation looks bleak, there is no “Collapse” happening and that he was wrong all along.

9. Feelings about the other Seeds?

-John: It’s a love-hate. They met a few times before the arrest and drove each other nuts with passive-aggressive flirting and attraction (if one could call it that). On one hand, he reminds her of her past lover that ended up really fucking her over and she frequently calls him out on his hypocrisy of judging people for their sins but then acting on his own (which she says are Vanity, Pride and Wrath). On the other, he’s her type and it’s not like she wants to kill him; just bring him to justice. Layla enjoys goading him on, but she knows he can be dangerous when pushed into a corner and she does her best not to underestimate him. She tends to get annoyed when people tease her for John’s “crush” on her, unaware that he’s kind of fallen in love with her (in his own way).

-Jacob: She is the most frightened of him due to his conditioning and torment of her. Her biggest fear is lack of control and he represents that for her. She also hates him for what he did to her sister (unaware/in denial that there are mutual feelings between the two and her own nephew is his spawn). After she picked up on how he wanted to use her to kill Eli, she was extremely wary of him and tried her best to resist his efforts. He was the only one out of the Seed’s she truly wanted dead.

-Faith: When she first met Faith, the younger woman planted some seeds of doubt and pity in Layla. She assumed Faith was merely another victim of a cult like many young women tend to be. However, when Tracey told her the truth about Faith and she saw everything Faith did, Layla was just as disgusted by the Herald as she was of her brothers, even more so since she used the victim act to gain followers and then betray their trust by turning them into Angels or forcing them on the brutal Pilgrimage. Because of this, she wasn’t as affected by the Bliss as the Herald would have liked and the two women came to be fierce enemies when Faith targeted her loved ones as a way to control/hurt Layla.

10. How did they handle having to kill animals and other humans? Had they done it before? She has hunted a few times, though she is an animal lover and won’t kill cruelly (only for food or to protect from dangerous wildlife). As for people...she has a harder time accepting it due to trauma after killing someone from a previous job. She’s not a soldier or a serial killer, so each death does take a toll on her and it’s only the Resistance re-affirming her as a hero that keeps her going. If you’ve played Far Cry 3, she pretty much does a Jason Brody until the very end.

11. Which canon ending did they choose in-game, and would you have changed the ending at all? Resist, though it goes about as well as you would expect. Canon game-wise, she ends up so broken that she becomes the Judge and under Joseph’s thumb. It’s really depressing.

I have a few AUs in mind for Layla. If she joins the cult, ironically, it ends the best for her since she just winds up in John’s bunker and they kinda have a happy ever after in the apocalypse (it still has dark implications/themes and angst, so it’s not all sunshine and roses). There is one where she abandons her nieces to Joseph after the car crash and she becomes the grizzled Captain of Rush Security in New Dawn where she’s a mix of Carol Peletier, a Fallout protagonist and Mad Max. Also one where she gets the Resist Ending, but the other Heralds are alive and held in Dutch’s bunker, and then she winds up in a bunker with all three, which is yikes. Not to mention the potential for the Walk Away ending/s...

Just too many endings for this sad Deputy, haha.

[dizknowzmoviezandtvshowz]

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 3: The Queen’s Justice

The pace continues to pick up after this week’s installment of GoT. The story continues to build upon the themes of this young season. Out with the old generation and in with the new, women are bad asses, and you should never underestimate the drive of a Lannister to pay their debts.

The Dragon has three heads

Dragonstone:

Finally after 62 episodes of the most anticipated meeting in Westerosi history, Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons and Jon Snow the White Wolf and King in the North meet. Many fans predicted the ultimate arc of these two would result in the marriage of Ice and Fire (yeah I know they’re related but Targayens are into that) but we are nowhere near that yet. These two started out initially icy but seemed to be moving towards some type of common ground due to Tyrion’s counsel. The question again of what is more important comes to the forefront. Which fight will be more important this season, the fight for the Iron Throne or the Long Night?

Before we talk about everyone else here, I want to focus of Jon and his drive since last season. Though his story doesn’t seem to have changed to much his motivation definitely has. As Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, a title that was thrust upon him not one that he sought, he did what he thought was right, and he tried everything he could to bring as many people together to protect the realm from the army of the dead. He was killed for this, but the Red God R’Hllor brought him back. Since then he’s still trying to protect the realm in much of the same way, but has done so with this overhanging feeling of survivor’s guilt. In the Battle of the Bastards he charged against Ramsey’s cavalry alone. He went to Dragonstone despite his advisor’s wishes. He willingly gave up his weapons on his way to meeting the daughter of the man who burned his uncle and grandfather alive. We’ll see how the rest of this plays out for Jon.

Well before he interrupts Dany and Jon, Varys and Melisandre are speaking about the meeting that is to come. Varys speaks in his typical condescending way, while we see a much different Red Lady. She seems to be done with playing politics, but not with prophecy. She says she’s heading to Volantis where the Red God has the most followers, and adds that she will return to die on Westeros just like Varys. I want to ignore the awesomeness of that prediction, and imagine what it would mean to see her return from Volantis. Followers of R’Hllor in tow with Melisandre as they wield fire to fight White Walkers, seems like it will be epic.

Tyrion continues to play the game well, but is outsmarted again by Jaime (and I’d imagine to a much lesser extent his sister Cersei) as Dany’s camp learn of the capture of their Dornish and Greyjoy allies. He and Jon share some great conversation (”But I’m not a Stark” Jon the unknowing Targaryen says) and his brilliant plan to take Casterly Rock seems way less brilliant by the episode’s end. His plan to take the Rock went extremely well...almost too well. He continually advises the Khaleesi smartly, and seems to be the biggest fan of an alliance with Jon and the North as he ultimately convinces Dany to allow Jon to mine the dragonglass of Dragonstone.

The Citadel and the North:

At the Citadel, Sam and Archmaester Slughorn are reviewing the greyscale free Jorah the Andal. Jorah is proclaimed healthy, gives Sam his thanks, and leaves to go find his Khaleesi. Sam is meanwhile praised for saving Jorah’s life and impressed the Archmaester so much that he was not banished from the Citadel. Now I’m not too sure that greyscale will continue to play a role in the Song of Ice and Fire, but I’m sure that Sam will find more information of the Night’s King, maybe even from the transcripts and scrolls he has to make new copies of.

In the North we see Sansa succeeding in her role as Lady Regent of Winterfell. Advising on the rationing of grain supplies and blacksmithing seemed to come easy to her. Littlefinger gives her what may be her most important piece of advice when he tells her “everyone is ally, everyone is your enemy, imagine every scenario playing out. Fight everyone on all fronts” basically if you plan for everything you will never be surprised...and then Bran showed up to surprise everyone.

Bran definitely seemed serene yet distant, and this distance hurt Sansa. He turned down the notion of being Lord of Winterfell and seemed completely at peace with his role as the Three Eyed Raven. Sansa, and I’m sure plenty of us viewers, was confused by this and was heartbroken when she learned Bran knew what happened to her on her wedding night to Ramsey. Bran mentions in an almost throwaway tone mentions needing to talk to Jon. Now here’s where I break out my tinfoil hat. Bran will tell Sansa about Jon’s Targaryen lineage which Littlefinger will overhear. Somehow, Littlefinger will convince Sansa to turn on Jon (whether this means in support of Jon’s effort vs the Night’s King or from Dany I’m not sure yet) and Bran already knows of this betrayal from his visions from the Weirwoods which would explain his distance. Arya probably won’t be too happy when she arrives home to learn of all this. This is logically the last move Littlefinger has left, unless he’s working with Varys as the leak in Dany’s camp, (which is even more tinfoil-y) and will more than likely die in the North.

King’s Landing and the Reach

It is here, that the episode’s true magnificence. The divide between Cersei and Jaime seems to be written on the wall and it’s spelled E-U-R-O-N.  Euron victoriously marching his war trophies: his niece Yara, Ellaria and Tyene Sand, through the capital. Euron gives the last two Dornishwomen to Queen Cersei who is oozing with gratitude. Euron wants Cersei, both as an ally and a wife, and she knows it. The alliance is Ironclad, but Euron must wait until after the war for anything else. Cersei’s willingness to be with Euron is apparent though and Jaime sees this. This is where I still see some influence of the book series on the show. Cersei when she ascends to the height of her power begins taking on various lovers, while Jaime remains faithful throughout the series. I believe all of this is going to come to a head and Jaime will ultimately be the Valonqar from Cersei’s prophetic childhood meeting with Maggy the Frog. We also learn of Cersei’s torturous plans for the Sands, Tyene in the same way that Ellaria poisoned Cersei’s daughter Myrcella in a bit of circular justice from the Queen. Ellaria will be forced to watch her rot, and I’m sure the Mountain will be invited to play a role here. I’m hoping Bronn somehow repays Tyene and saves her life for some more “bad pussy”

Sidenote: Ellaria has way better abs than I do and I hate myself a little bit because of it 

In the reach we are “surprised” to see the bulk of the Lannister Host marching on Highgarden. Jaime, Lord Randyl Tarly, and most importantly Ser Bronn of the Blackwater easily take the castle and defeat another key ally of Dany’s. With Olenna’s death and the defeat of the Tyrells, the Lannisters masterfully consolidated their power, found resources for their army, and took out the two strongest allies of the Khaleesi. I’ve spoke to a few friends and my sister about how surprised they are by Tyrion being outsmarted by Cersei and Jaime. I disagree with this sentiment. First of all, I think Cersei is kind of an idiot. She is everything we hated about Joffrey, the same spoiled brat who was never punished by her father Tywin. Tywin was a mastermind who worked endlessly to put his family in this position, Cersei is merely benefitting from this and taking way too much credit. Jaime however I believe to be much wiser. He learned from his mistakes from fighting Robb Stark, he’s seems much more honorable than Cersei (not that it takes much) by making sure Olenna’s poison won’t be painful, he was the youngest member of the Kingsguard and he was able to gain the trust of the only man to beat Robert Baratheon in combat Randyl Tarly who seems to be much more reliable than Euron. Jaime was raised to take his father’s place as this great general, not Cersei and definitely not Tyrion. Tyrion who lucked into Bronn winning in single combat, and was saved by the Tyrells and his father at the Battle of Blackwater is no great general and it is showing. He’s read a bunch of books, chose a tactic that is obvious, and it shows.

We end with the death of Olenna Tyrell. Her death means the end of Tyrell dominance in Westeros, and the rise of the Tarly’s in the South. Her last conversation with Jaime was an amazing scene. I can’t think of a better word than gangster. They talk about Cersei and how awful she is, both as a person and for the realm. She seemed at peace with her coming death, but also sad seeing how lost Jaime was in his love for his twin (gagged a little writing that). To watch her mention poisoning Joffrey in a throwaway manner as she drinks her own death was one of the most satisfying scenes I’ve seen in a long time. I’m personally longing for a Jaime and Cersei confrontation, and hope this fuels the fire. We also learn that Jaime is using the other half of Ice, as he has Joffrey’s “Widow’s Wail” for anyone like me who wants an update of the whereabouts of all Valyrian steel weapons. 

Sansa, Jon, and Daenerys are turning away from their parents legacy/traditions, while Cersei is trying to be her father’s daughter. We’ll see how this plays out, but as I said earlier...out with the old and in with the new

RIP Olenna

Predictions for Next Week:

Dany switches up her plan, she will probably mount Drogon in battle shortly while Tyrion will redouble his efforts to recruit Jon Snow to the dragon cause

Based on the preview for next week, Jaime seems to be heading to a desert which can only mean Dorne (ugh) is coming up. Still hoping for a Bronn and Tyene union to rule down South. 

Theon shows up somewhere, presumably Dragonstone

We see the ominous dagger which will either be in the possession of Littlefinger or Arya are going to kill someone, and Sansa seems near tears either from Ramsey flashbacks or from Bran’s news.

Brace yourselves the Field of Fire 2.0 is coming