#Must-read news

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

people who don't study history will simply never understand the joy of reading historian beef. there's nothing like it

[fictionadventurer]

I love libraries.

I'm browsing the WWI shelves (as you do) and notice a very old book about the war. I glance at the first pages that talk about how one day the war will be over and we'll look at this place and not see any signs of the battlefield.

Then it hits me. And I check the publishing date.

This book was printed before the war's end. Not written. Printed. The physical object was created in 1918, while the war in question was raging and the end was as yet uncertain.

Now I'm standing on the other side of the apocalypse, with this physical link to that era in my hands. I'm living proof that the war did end and life did go on and we can all look at the end of the world as a long-ago memory.

Reading old books is cool enough, connecting our minds and hearts through the ideas of people who lived long ago, but there's something extra profound about holding a copy of the book that comes from the time that it was written. It's a physical link between the past and the present connecting me to those long-ago people. A piece of the past come into the future that gives me the chance to almost take the hand of some long-ago reader, to hold something they could have held, connecting not just mentally but physically to their era, a moment of connection across more than a century.

Excuse me while I go weep.

[vaguely-concerned]

thinking about not only the specific people lucanis pulls in to represent the 'locks' in his psyche, but the storytelling that happens in the structure/order of them. the underlying ideas are presented something like:

the lucanis who went into the ossuary never came back out again; he died down there (the boy caterina raised is gone forever) -> you're putting yourself in danger doing this (by being close to me), you should leave because I can't bear it if you get hurt because of me -> it doesn't matter even if we do try this, it won't work anyway (again because of me) ('you know what he's like, you can open the door but he won't walk through it' :'( oofie doofie) -> what if the real secret is that there was never anything but the monster in here from the beginning. you should leave, there was never anything here worth saving in the first place. (implicitly: what if I deserved what happened, all along.)

it runs pretty cleanly from outward-oriented attachment anxiety ('caterina won't even want me back like this, she won't recognize me (the same way I no longer recognize myself)) and gradually deeper inwards until we reach self-image and self worth. or you know, the harrowing basic lack of it lol.

"careful -- they'll know we're not right," spite says in one of their first scenes... but clearly, some very deep part of lucanis has feared or suspected for much longer than that that there's something inherently not right at the core of him, way before any demon entered the picture. and the voice he gives those lines to is the person who should know him better than anyone in the world, who he has loved more than anyone in the world -- and who deliberately chose to hurt him so horrifically anyway. 'It's better if I'm just a monster and deserved what happened than it is to allow for the idea that the brother I love doesn't really exist and maybe never did'. it's better if he's fundamentally flawed in some way that needed fixing to help him survive, and that's why caterina chose to hurt him again and again -- out of love. (this one I think he might have a very sad wakeup call on one day if he ever ends up with the responsibility and care of a child of his own in some way and realizes just how alien the idea of ever intentionally hurting them for any reason is to him. oh buddy. also interesting that he keeps caterina as the outermost lock -- there IS a distance he keeps there that he hasn't with illario. he doesn't resent her 'anymore' he says, but he also keeps her carefully further away from his deepest self.)

as far as I could tell the only note in the mind prison that's fully hidden and needs to be uncovered is the sad painful helpless stupid little truth that even after all this, even knowing what happened... he still loves his brother. is there anything illario could ever do that would make lucanis completely stop loving him, do you think? sometimes the trouble with unconditional love is that it is, well. unconditional, even when some terms and conditions probably would have been in order haha.

that's the pattern you see there again and again; he would rather destroy and abandon and imprison himself at every turn than let go of love, even when it's just scraps, even when there's only ever enough of it to hurt him. it's only when rook shows up and as it were takes his hand and walks along with him that he can entertain the idea of changing the story of what walking out the door might mean in the end.

[lucabyte]

Different standards

[expelliarmus]

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Lackadaisy Enrichment

[wellfine]

Stolen

[tinkerbellaglowstone]

I am so SICK of people mischaracterizing Ted

I always see people defend Ellen or Gorrister or really any of them. (Please understand I, myself, also constantly defend Ellen) but never do I see Ted. I even see some people comparing him to Jimmy? That’s way too far. It’s always people bashing and writing him off as some asshole who didn’t gaf about anyone

That’s so so wrong.

Ted is literally driven to insanity. Can you imagine constantly being on edge? In a state of panic? Convinced the only people around you are out to get you? It’s gotta be exhausting. 109 years of physical and mental torture. He’s a paranoid and a schizophrenic. He talks about angels singing ‘Go Down Moses’ and bringing Ellen and I think Nimdok back. That did not happen. AM is filling his head with religious imagery to make Ted to see him as some all divine, all powerful God like being. And he is. And it works. Ted sees AM as a masculine deity. I’ve noticed in the book he says Gorrister hits Ellen while only she cries for Benny. While in the radio drama, they are all worried over Benny and Ted actually freaks out and tells them to get back, that it was too late. It’s like he believes they have no control whatsoever. ‘whatever AM gives we just have to take it’ or around the lines of that. 

He’s mental. He cannot help that. So of course you’re a jerk to everyone. I’m sure AM also fills his head with lies about the others as well. I mean why wouldn’t he? He doesn’t want them to work together and thrive, he wants them to break each other and suffer. 

In the radio drama as well, Ted and Ellen have a one on one. After a freak out from seeing whatever he thought he saw and running away for god knows how long (notice how he can’t keep time. I’m sure the others can’t as well but often he says maybe days, months, years) he’s scared and upset. Maybe they were just laughing out of confusion or fear or because it wasn’t them in his shoes but to him that is laughter enjoying his pain, the same way AM later laughs after stabbing him and expressing his hatred. He insults them all but I mean listen to what he says. Benny has been extremely altered. Gorrister has been stripped of personality, Nimdok is a mystery case of disappearances and Ellen sleeps with the others (which personally, and this is my belief, I think she only ever sleeps with Ted to keep his peace of mind. Plus we only hear this from Ted himself, and he’s already insecure saying Benny isn’t gay anymore and he’s got a huge wiener which is also false. I’ve seen some fan theories about this and I actually like them. And also Benny can’t consent to any of that and I’m sure Gorrister misses his wife, I’ve never played the video game sorry if I’m mistaken I just know Gorrister had a wife, But that’s just my interpretation) and overall Ted just seems like a huge dick. No wonder after all his paranoia would he think he’s got the good end of the deal. When in reality, he really really doesn’t. At least everyone understands their situation to an extant, minus Benny, Ted doesn’t. Ted is constantly walking on eggshells. Or he thinks he is. Then after it clicks and he breaks down. And again in the radio drama, in the rat (or was it bat) cave, he tells Benny ‘we don’t do that, we’re not animals, we’re human beings!’ He is desperately trying to hold onto his humanity (which, doesn’t work out clearly as he’s a slug) and somewhat a grip on reality. That he is still human even if this isn’t humane. He’s desperate. He’s alone even when surrounded by people. He’s constantly filled with thoughts and honestly I’d call it grooming (grooming: the practice of preparing or training someone for a particular purpose or activity.) from AM. In the video game AM tells Ted he’s his favorite. At the end of the day hes scared like all of them are. And he can’t keep himself together. He has lost himself completely. Broken down and reshaped. He mentions how AM has made his mind a chalkboard or something like that. He also suffers physically too. In the game, when he stands in his cage with the lazors CLEARLY only aiming for his eyes. He can’t even see that. He still stands there in agony when all he needs to do is duck down. He misses the bigger picture. Ted is so lost, so paranoid so delusional and mental he can barely see it himself. Is he a good guy? No. Is he a bad guy of the story? Absolutely not.

ALSOOO Jimmy killed everyone out of selfishness (yes every single death and event is all his fault I hate him I’m so glad he killed himself). Ted, who was finally given a clear head for once, saved them. It was him or Ellen and he chose to get her out of that hell scape. (Which I like to point how how he said he tried/wanted to bury them, meaning he had at least a small amount of time to kill himself. Which he couldn’t, also a fan theory I’ve seen.) Ted sacrificed himself to help everyone. The complete opposite of what Jimmy did. He is HAPPY he pissed AM off by killing them. Even if AM has won he still knows he has the upper hand. How in the hell in his situation can you think YOU have the advantage? In the radio drama as well, the way he says ‘He altered me’ (or along the lines) I saw a comment saying he sounds violated. Which he has been. I love Ted, I really do. I appreciate his character so much because he’s often so overlooked and just known as the unreliable narrator. He’s unreliable for a reason, not because he’s selfish and wants the story his way, but because that’s how he sees things. (also idk if it’s true it’s this pdf file I found talking about all of them and it talks abt Ted at 19 and like older women. I can’t remember what it says but like, 19? 19 is young, still a boy.)

Yes, I do acknowledge he is a huge dick to everyone. But he’s also in a bad terrible situation. And even if you hate him, I think he definitely makes up for it all at the very end. 

[headless-horsegirl]

my boyfriend, who has never watched a tv show in his life (he likes to touch grass and "do productive things"), watched season 1 of the bear all by himself without knowing anything about it and the first thing he asked me after was when carmy and syd are gonna get together

[akimao]

“What good is dying gonna do you? What about your ambition, you idiot?”

---

My series of zosan kisses continues, very slowly, but I have until October to paint seven more kisses and design my 2025 calendar, you can support my project on my ko-fi page.

-

with or without texture?

[thingscanalwaysgetworse]

love that it's called nerdy PRUDES must die but everyone that died was unashamedly horny

Edit: Please read the tags

[batbabydamian]

hello. What's the latest damian wayne comics?

Damian’s current ongoing comic is Batman and Robin (2023) - new and old fans can start reading the latest arc from #14! it’s got moody mysteries, family drama, and interesting Damian developments!

Damian’s a key player in this elseworld 12-issue series, DC VS Vampires: World War V (2024), a sequel to DC VS Vampires (2021)! Damian has a smaller role in the first, but a fun oneshot came out of it with him as a lead in DC VS Vampires: Hunters (2022)!

Little Batman: Month One is a cute 4-issue series based on the animated film, Merry Little Batman! it’s its own lighthearted universe in a delightful style! 🥺

Damian returns as a supporting role in Batman/Santa: Silent Knight Returns! a 5-issue series for the holiday and a sequel to last year’s!

Damian’s also featured in the latest run of Detective Comics (2016) which starts from #1090, but not sure he’ll be guaranteed regular appearances after this arc (currently in #1091 and #1092)

ALSO OUT THIS MONTH IS THE DELUXE EDITION OF DAMIAN’S FIRST ROBIN SOLO ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN (2015)!! ALL 13 ISSUES COLLECTED INTO A SINGLE BOOK WITH A BEAUTIFUL NEW COVER!! 😭

[somegrumpynerd]

@wickjump you will never not be an absolute genius

[bosooka]

it's always "satine exiling the warriors from mandalore was a war crime" and never "the warriors did not deserve to live on the planet they irradiated with all the people they nearly slaughtered in their meaningless crusade for glory"

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[<==PREV PAGES] [NEXT PAGE==>(not out yet.wait a year.or maybe more.imagine.]

saw alot of comments on prev pages; saying 'i HATE that mean teacher! im gonna FIGHT HIM!!' & i LOVE the energy!! it WOULD be nice. to have that catharsis. but the story of young tidestrider is Not one of catharsis. it is a story of being so small and so special and sucking so bad.