#I’m just spitballing here really but I have sooooo many ideas

[makeadealwithdean]

been reading a lotttt of harringrove fics lately (probably do a ficrec list soon) but many of those have been fics where either one or both of them are camboys and holy shit—

listen, cause I know there are already quite a few of those, but they’re SO GOOD that I’m beyond tempted to try my hand at writing one 🤭

edit: here’s that list

[bigskydreaming]

So, basically you want Brother Blood, without the other Titans.

Hi guys, not trying to be rude here, but I really need some context with a lot of the asks I get sent. I post and reblog a lot of stuff, like a lot a lot a lot, and also I have a lot of common themes and motifs to my posts, to such an extent as something like this ask could actually apply to a LOT of different things I’ve posted, but with my answer being tooooootally different depending on which specific post its meant to apply to.

So I really just fundamentally CAN’T answer a lot of the asks I get because I’m not really sure what they’re looking for in specific.

But just off the top of my head I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that my answer would always be no, this isn’t quite accurate. I love references to and explorations of the Brother Blood/Church of Blood storyline, and I DO put a lot of emphasis on wanting to see the Batfam’s reactions to that at various points and times....not because I want to see the Titans left out of it but rather because like...the Titans were there, the Titans book also had the chance to follow up on all of this, and I was largely underwhelmed by a lot of that follow-up.....sooooo I do tend to talk a lot about wanting the Batfam side of things more than the Titans side on this particular subject, because there’s pretty much just a giant gaping void when it comes to the Batfam’s awareness of this huge chunk of Dick’s life, let alone reaction to.

But also like......one of my biggest gripes with a lot of fanfic in this fandom is the commitment and adherence to just one or two types of DYNAMICS between characters. I’m a variety is the spice of life kinda guy. I never want just ONE thing, lol. I might FOCUS a lot on one thing as an entry point, like, during the spitballing phase to get the thoughts percolating, but I am a greedy asshole. I want it all. My common Ritual of Complaint is just......I get how fics are comfort food for the soul and when people find something they like, they want more of the same, and that’s why so many tropes and dynamics and premises repeat and that’s great and all.....buuuuut I’m always gonna maintain that in a fandom THIS large, and THIS old, there’s room for a looooooot more takes and angles and dynamics, particularly with Dick and the rest of his family, than we habitually see out there.....and so, all those repeated tropes and dynamics are great, but only for the people who these one or two types already appeal to, and like....there’s room for more. 

And that’s really all any of my posts really are about, when you boil them down. Like, the only fucking ‘point’ of my long as fuck metas, if a point actually exists. Just to like....try and inspire more takes than just the same one-two Dick Grayson suuuuuuuuuuuuucks combo punch we’re regularly hit with.

Its like, mmmm, agree to disagree, but also, more importantly....even if he DOES, like let’s just imagine for a second he really is as terrible as so many fans make him out to be.....does he HAVE to be?

That’s what I always come back to in the end. People can imagine away Jason and Damian’s murder attempts to posit a kinder, more functional Batfam, people can imagine away Bruce’s many instances of being written abusively, etc, etc, but for some reason, people just can’t and WON’T imagine past the idea of a Dick Grayson who is constantly insulted and berated by his family, who is constantly dropping the ball and making them miserable, who is constantly groveling for their approval and or forgiveness for slights real and imaginary, who is constantly....

Like, when people can look at Jason and Bruce and Damian when written at their worst and be like hmm, does he HAVE to be that way though, and the answer in fanfic is clearly NO, HE DOES NOT.....then my eternal question is always gonna be for fans who regularly write Dick in dismissive, disdainful and even outright antagonistic ways....even IF you truly believe this is just who his character is.....why does he and he alone in fics focused around the core Batfam, so often have to be this way?

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Okay so I wanted to make a seperate post about this because it’s got me like  🤔 but i didn’t wanna get too off topic with my answer. context? The wonderful @luxury-of-insanity asked me to take a look at a pic of Tyreen he took during the We are Mayhem trailer. Here is the screencap he took for reference (because it’s infinitely higher quality than any of the ones I would take aha)

The topic was Ty’s tattoos and I noticed something really, really interesting here that I didn’t pick up on from the cosplay guide (like they were deliberately not showing where her tattoos end)

her tattoos stop before her shirt

she is clipping thru her jacket a little bit here lol but the point is, that big tattoo bit just cuts off before it goes under her shirt. Just like Troy’s don’t go down his abdomen

Now as I understand it there are a couple reasons why this could be:

there is an awesome theory that Siren tattoos get bigger and more expansive the more powerful (and, usually, the older, im guessing) a Siren gets

Ty has unique tattoos like her brother, where they are different because they’re twins (? or something??)

Ty got her powers from a non-natural source- eg she isn’t a natural/normal Siren

The tattoos are fake and the source of her succ power is something else entirely

idk what the right answer is, but I'm gonna try to go through these 1 by 1. the first one has been talked about in depth a lot (on this blog) so i won’t be addressing it here, but the others i’ll try to talk more about!

minor commander lilith spoilers below the cut

so before we begin, i just want to point this out. All theories aside and looking at the facts: every Siren we know of at least has chest tattoos. Barring Angel, because we can’t see, every known Siren has tattoos that extend down her torso.

At the moment, Tyreen is super covered up. Unlike Troy, we never see anything except her arms/head/parts of her thigh. We don’t know if her tattoos extend beyond her shoulder/arm. Personally? I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t. Amara has her hip tattoos, but no leg tattoos, like Tyreen has no leg tattoos (you can see through the gaps in her pants)

it’s possible that Lilith is the exception (for any of the theories discussed) and the tattoos don’t normally extend down their left legs. We just don’t know for certain. I do think it’s interesting how covered up Ty is in general, considering every Siren we’ve met so far at the very least has shown off their chest/neck tattoos. 

Ty has unique arm-only tattoos like her brother, where they are different because they’re twins

Sooo the unique arm-only tattoos one. Not really much to say about this tbh? We know Troy’s tattoos 100% do not go further down his abdomen. 

Timeline wise, I really don’t think he gets the tattoos after Lily has her powers stolen, but I can’t say for certain. 

If it’s the case that his tattoos are 100% based off Lilith’s powers then idk if Ty having only arm tattoos would make sense. Maybe it’s because they’re being filtered through her powers that he only gets arm tattoos and not full tattoos? Maybe bc they are twins, Ty’s powers got split in the womb (explaining the only-arm tattoos) or whatever and they needed other powers to awaken (or heal, cause apparently he’s sick- that could be the tattoos) Troy’s or some shit. idk, just spitballing here. 

But yeah, looking at Troy’s tattoos and the way they don’t go down his abdomen, beyond his shoulder area, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ty’s don’t, either.

Moving on from that one mainly because I don’t have a lot to say due to lack of evidence/info on it lol

Ty got her powers from a non-natural source- eg she isn’t a natural/normal Siren

This theory i am a fan of and y’all know it lmao

There’s a bunch of ways this could have happened: they’re products of experimentation, maybe they met an alien that gave them the powers, it’s the product of a Vault (possibly the red Vault we see in the HBC).

For the first one, it’s possible it was a corporation, be it Maliwan/Atlas/Jakobs/Hyperion/etc. Maliwan and Atlas would be my first guesses, Atlas for reasons you guys already know and Maliwan because of their elemental focus (and for some reason being on Athenas/having Amara’s tattoos on a building in the Academic District?). Hyperion is also a strong contender because of their research with Angel, though I don’t know about this one... We know they’re under new ownership, and I can’t imagine Jack would’ve captured Lilith/been so protective of Angel if he knew he had another Siren. So I guess it’s possible they were created within the 7 years between bl2 and bl3... Jakobs I threw in cause they’re apparently having a hold on the story of Eden-6. Doubt it’s them, though. If it is i’m gonna be questioning everything i know lol

It could’ve also been Tannis, as we know she’s experimenting on Lilith and [Spoilers!] now has all of Jack’s research on Angel. I have been looking all throughout the Backburner but can’t figure out where she had been staying, so it’s possible she is staying somewhere off base until her and the other Crimson Raiders take to space. That would definitely give her some room to start some funky experiments. Though I am curious where she’d get the test subjects. Also, I just realized it’s possible she could set up a room like control core angel in order to capture the twins/Tyreen. I’ve seen it being discussed that she could also create the collar Jack made which has me like 👀. She could’ve also done her experiments between bl1 and bl2, which leaves her with 3ish years iirc. Though I don’t think she has a lot of info on Lilith before bl2.

It ALSO could’ve been a totally new outside force. Kinda would suck cause all the theories haha, but hey, it might happen. 

Oh part 2. It could’ve been some alien bullshit giving Ty Siren powers (not that... siren powers AREN’T alien bullshit already, but you know what I mean). We still don’t know what the Seraphs are, yet we’re supposed to fear their return. Well we know they’re able to create the Seraph Guardians (that drop Seraph Crystals), so maybe those were them experimenting with creating their own version of Sirens? Or maybe a rogue Eridian/Guardian (a smart one like the Watcher) giving out Siren powers to offset the balance of the universe (6 Sirens) for some reason (war is coming? maybe it’s a civil war between the Eridians). Or some new type of alien. We’ve seen so many new flora/fauna in bl3, I wouldn’t be surprised if they introduced a new race of aliens as well. (in this context I mean alien like... intelligent ones. at least on the rank of human. probably more tho, let’s be real). I also am looking at those demon dragon looking things, idk they seem really unique and I’m super curious to see how they come to play in the story. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were a product of an experiment as well. They seem to be inside an Eridian temple tho (I will make a post on this later prob)

part 3. kind of a play off part 2 but whatever. The tattoos came from a Vault. we see in the HBC wall art that looks like the twins opening a red Vault. I think this may be propaganda art and that it’s just part of the believer’s stuff, like “join our cause and this will happen!” as it shows the twins with boxes of food and guns and shit, but it’s possible that they’ve already opened it. Maybe Tyreen wants to absorb the powers of the other Vault Monsters because she thinks that will help her Vault-gifted powers grow stronger. We know as outsiders that all the Vaults lead to a huge power (Hector and also the website used to say “Universe-destroying power”), so maybe that power is super strong Siren powers? (full body tattoos hell yeah) Or can only be opened by all the Siren powers as a failsafe and that’s why Ty absorbed Lily’s... idk lol

Okay and my favorite one of all of the options we have:

The tattoos are fake and the source of her succ power is something else entirely

so. okay hear me out. I know her tattoos look like they’re glowing under the surface, but they’re super ‘perfect’ looking compared to the other Siren tattoos we’ve seen. Could also be a reason they’re products of an experiment, maybe these two theories tie together. (lol) My friend (@bonelesspotter​) also pointed out that it’s possible to use jellyfish to make cats glow in the dark. anyway. They also don’t seem to glow when she’s using her powers (which are black and red/orange instead of the normal purple/blue??) (also thank you for allowing me to see this @luxury-of-insanity) 

I made a post about the tattoos being fake as sort of a joke, where they saw how Lilith had a cult as the Firehawk (Ty does tell us to thank Lily for the ‘Firehawk’ powers) and decided to masquerade as Siren(s?) in order to build their cult up.

and it is slowly, slowly, looking more and more like the truth the more we learn about Ty lmao

I am gonna posit the idea that it’s not her tattoos that give her powers, but some other sort of technology.

possibly? hidden inside her glove??? idk

idk it just seems to clunky and BIG 

seriously, this thing is thicc, i could totally see some sort of drainage tech being hidden inside. I know Moxxi’s weapons have a lifesteal component, as do transfusion grenades, so it could be based off that. I point this out mainly bc Troy is a smart boy, it’s possible he built her something so they could pretend they were twin gods. Maybe his sword/mechanical arm will do something similar/give him his own set of ‘powers’? Or maybe those screws in his left arm could also do it, too.

idk, this is all me just speculating. I will not be surprised if she is an actual Siren, I just like being extra when it comes to theorycrafting. don’t have much to do for uhhh 90 more days, sooooo

i am also curious if her powers have something to do with the tablets with the crystals coming out of them considering her lifeforce suck makes statues with eridium-like crystals coming out of them

... maybe not. different shapes and all.

are they even the same ones as the ones on promethea?

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

i do think there’s something on that tablet(?) on eden-6 that we gotta uncover by breaking the purple crystals cause when moze does it she uses a special melee tool and breaking them doesn’t add anything to her inventory.

“let’s free you up”

but that’s getting wayyyy off topic. that’s all i got for tyreen today

byeeee

[writetoremainsilent]

4/9/18 a budding catastrophe

I’m really worried that this blog is becoming a means for me to rant about shows. However, I made this to document my life, and my life right now is comprised of various T.V. shows. It’s sad, but I accept myself for the filth I am, and you should too.

Okay. So. I’ve been watching this anime called Darling in the Franxx. It’s a collab project by studios A1 Pictures and Trigger, both of whom have made masterpieces and also highly questionable series. 

I’m not really the person to talk to about anime, because I hate most of it. I’m not trying to be a contrarian, but I find that a lot of anime just doesn’t live up to what it thinks it is, and many series would rather do the same safe, generic formula instead of trying anything new. 

This anime, which I will abbreviate to Darling, is one such example.

I hate this anime.

First of all, let’s start with the premise. I’m 11 episodes in, and all I’ve seen so far is stuff that Neon Genesis Evangelion does much better. Stressful combat situations? Eva does it better. Weirdly strange corporation that is much more sinister than it lets on? Eva does it better. Conflicts between males and females during puberty? Eva does it freakin’ better.

In fact, I think Darling is a painful example of how archaic and non-progressive many anime are. The entire premise is that there’s a robot co-piloted by two teens, one a boy, the other a girl. The robot is a female and is consequently directly linked to the girl because why not. This leaves the male to...pilot using controls that form from out of the girl’s butt. I really wish I could make this up.  

The show uses flower imagery to justify this system, but I wasn’t really sold. Maybe it’s because the show is too vague on its themes and would rather cash out on yet another panning shot of the girl’s butt before slowly making its way up her body and finally to her face. 

The main character, named Hiro, is a fuckboy. There’s no way around it. It’s so painfully obvious that the writers took Shinji from Eva and were like: how can we make this guy different so that the audience respects him? Remember folks, subverting an archetype doesn’t automatically mean your subversion is good. In fact, Hiro is not a good character. He’s supposed to be the glue holding the entire squad together, but he seems to be about as aware as a brick buried thousands of miles underneath the Earth’s surface. 

His “decisive” moments that are supposed to “separate him” from Shinji (sorry I’ll try to tone down the quote marks) are mostly just him being horny for the pink haired hot chick and acting selfishly so he can be with her more. 

And somehow we just gotta accept that he’s the one pilot who can be with this hot pink haired girl, because the show tells us that’s the way it is. 

Hell no. 

Here’s my own idea, which I thought added an interesting flavor. I think Hiro is supposed to be submissive and passive. So, why not reverse the roles? Make the hot pink haired girl the pilot, and make Hiro the butt-controls. I think that’s an actually useful subversion, because it makes the audience think things like: oh wow, what truly is the meaning of gender in this world? Perhaps we shouldn’t think of plants as ‘boy parts girl parts, and gender roles are trivial in the long run because either sex can do either role.’ But I dunno, I’m just spitballing. The point is there could’ve been sooooo much more explored.

And c’mon. Why does it have to be a male-female relationship? I’m not looking for gratuitous inclusiveness, but I mean it would make sense for the topic to come up. Even later on, when one of the characters gets lost in the city and runs into some nice old lady’s house, the presence of a male-female relationship being sacred and ancient is ever-looming. Everyone is paired off as male-female, and it pisses me off.

Another issue I have is with the character Ichigo. She’s supposed to be the leader, but she’s head over heels in love with fuckboy Hiro. I have yet to, in my 10 episodes of watching, see Ichigo make a decision that doesn’t in some way involve Hiro. It’s actually mind-boggling. It’s not even a good way to show that teenagers are impulsive and hot-headed and irrational, because there are rational teammates who would do an infinitely better job than Ichigo would. She’s selfish and inconsiderate and God I hate her.

But no one else seems to. Not a single fan comment from reddit or from my friend places fault on her. Because she’s “cute” (okay last one I swear).

To make a long story short, this show pisses me off. It’s a crappy Evangelion subversion with bad writing, all coated by a shiny polish and stellar animation and character design. I really hope that many anime fans can look past the alluring coat covering the anime, because there’s so much garbage to be found underneath. 

I could go on for a lot longer and much more eloquently, but I’ll leave it with this:

We deserve better.