#PEOPLE. I TRUST YOU TO REVIVE THIS FANDOM

[sugarepoxy]

im relapsing so hard on momument valley i need more people to KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME!!!! ITS SO FUCKING PRETTY!!!! IT WAS MY ENTIRE CHILDHOOD BROO!!!! NOBODY POSTS ABOUT ITTT!!! ITS ON IOS!!!! AND ITS SO GOOD!!!

LOOK AT HOW GORGEOUS THESE FUCKINGHJ THJNGS ARE. AAAHHHHHHH!!! THE FANDKM NEEDS TO COME TO LIFE EXPECT SOME DOODLES IN THE FUTURE AND DOWNLOAD MONUMENT VALLEY AND PLAY IT ITS ON IOS AND ITS VERY CALM AND VIBEY AND BEAUTIFUL AND GORGEOUS AND BREATHTAKING AND

[reel-fear]

Genuinely so curious who Mike thinks is gonna be buying The Cage or the new DCTL GN bc with the way he tweets as far as he's concerned, it's not gonna be:

The queer people he has actively admitted he will never show any representation of in the games.

2. The POC he has actively fought against representing in his franchise. [Who he also mocked for thinking they would be represented in his franchise]

3. The Bendy fandom which has always been concerned with topics of diversity esp in the sense of queer people since its creation. Who he has responded to really poorly esp in regards to the GN.

4. The fans who critique him. [He blocked me for doing so lol]

5. His fans in general who he tweets about like this currently. [He's being vague about why people were mad at him or sent him 'nasty messages' because if you actually looked into why you'd see he was in the wrong. Either way, a very hateful way to speak abt ur own fanbase.]

Reminder while Mike is trash talking his fans he has always treated them rather poorly. The fans who won the fanart contest for Chapter 5 never got their posters actually in game due to it being rushed. Not only was chapter 5 a big slap to the face story wise, but it was literally so rushed he couldn't be bothered to add in the art his fans gave him for his game FOR FREE. [Meatly blames this on a crazy timeline, reminder him and Mike are the literal ceos of this company. The proposal of future updates here is also pretty cruel considering Mike nowadays happily admits he corrupted Chapter 5's source code and therefore literally can't update it At All currently. Because he is a moron]

At least they got to be in Boris and the dark survival, and by that I mean that was the Only game they got to be in so far, isn't that just treating your fans like you love them? Shoving their hard work into a spin off game almost nobody has played or addresses much. [Hell, who knows if with the Lone Wolf rebrand they'll even stay there. In which case they'll be in None of the games, only in the credits of BATIM]

6. The Bendy fans who just generally disagree with him on stuff. Like the new ink demon design where there is literally a public poll showing people generally prefer the old one.

7. The Bendy fans who can see he is actively lying to them. To their fucking faces.

He says this has always been the case, but screenshots and links to tweets regarding the books being canon prove it was not. Does he really think bendy fans are stupid or something? [Unless he's admitting here he lied to Kress when he told her the books were canon which sounds worse!]

8. Anyone who doesn't like the idea of giving money to a guy who laid off tons of employees then afterwards thought it was a great idea to express his anti-union views! Also brag about how good of an employer he was, according to his employees, he was not!

So in summary; Mike is an awful person who has not learned anything from the awful things he did. I will not be purchasing The Cage because, combined with this and his absolute refusal to take any kind of critique or see any differing interpretation of his franchise, I have no reason to think my problems with the franchise will ever be addressed or fixed. I probably will pirate The Cage along with any future Bendy Products [Including the movie] and will do my best to avoid giving it any kind of monetary support. Unless this changes any time soon, I can't see myself making anymore positive Bendy posts soon.

Mike has just managed to make it so hard to speak positively or optimistically of this franchise when he's so willing to broadcast how little he cares about it or its fans. I'm at the point where I refuse to pull any of my punches with my problems with it. What's the point of trying to play nice with my critique when either way the people creating it don't care?

So with this post, I want to invite anyone who feels similarly about the franchise to tell me, make a post or send an ask talking about how all of this makes you feel. It may not change how things are, but genuinely seeing other people share my feelings of anger makes me feel better. It feels nice to see when other people share our same concerns and worries. I'd also love to know if anyone else thinks they'll be avoiding purchasing Bendy products over this.

I'm not forcing anyone to participate in it nor trying to say anyone who doesn't supports mike but genuinely maybe if we can collectively decide to boycott things like the movie, graphic novel and The Cage... It might at least make the bendy devs acknowledge how much they have destroyed their own fandom's faith and trust in them.

The way Mike tweets about his actions like he had no control over why people were mad at him at least proves to me he takes NONE of it back nor regrets it. If you didn't know about his actions and only went off his tweets, you would be led to believe Mike has been needlessly picked apart by fans over things he couldn't control [or in his own words, had his words twisted and taken out of context]. That is not how you speak about your actions if you have actually learned better from them.

anyway, that has been my bendy dev callout post. This is an open invitation to anyone feeling similarly upset about the way the franchise is going to talk about it. It's genuinely nice to see how people feel about this and the more we talk about the more it's likely the bendy devs are forced to address our concerns. I don't think they will but hey, that's why I'm not gonna support them with my money anymore nor am I gonna be nice to them in any content I make critiquing Bendy. I mean I'm also basically making this post just in case anyone asks me Why I feel this way towards to bendy devs/as a way to respond to anyone who thinks I am too harsh in my critique in the future.

As always, it seems the best part of Bendy isn't actually anything about canon but about what the fan's are creating with the ideas Bendy failed to do anything interesting with.

Also the books, the books slap.

[torchickentacos]

FUN FACT! You can punch artist impostor syndrome in the face by making a collage of your favorite work. *

*and then you can try to export it but TURNS OUT it's too big so you have to screenshot it instead. Anyways, turns out tumblr has an image size capacity and immensely diskikes 6k x 6k krita exports!

[candyskiez]

I love how with a new influx of people getting into Nimona from it being released onto YouTube, there's a massive revival on jokes I remember everyone and their mom making back when the fandom first started. Hello, "ballister looks like a sad wet seal", how I've missed you. Oh hey, "never trust a blonde", it's been a while. And of course, the many Ambrosius memes, I almost forgot about you. I feel like I'm walking through my old hometown on a summer night, this shits great. I gotta find the og nimona shit posts and reblog em again, for the newcomers. The fandoms only existed for like half a year so like, it's an infant in fandom years, why does it feel like it's been around for decades lmao

[andie-platonically]

i dont think the rage stars fully invalidate kipperlily as a villain tho. if we take the metaphor that KPCK represents the kind of privileged white people who oppose affirmative action because they dont believe in systemic racism—and in fact sometimes believe it works the other way around—then the rage stars seem like they represent radicalization??

a seemingly normal person has a feeling like the world isnt fair. maybe they’re already angry. someone, maybe a teacher says, i know the source of your problems. its those people. if we get rid of those people you wont feel this way anymore.

yes, radicalization is inherently manipulative, and many people are radicalized at young ages, by authority figures that they trust. and you CAN be deradicalized. the rat grinders were pretty hazy when they were revived, but i hope they remember what they did because real people dont get to forget. they got out of there, but they have to reckon with the things they did while they were in.

but what about KLCK? i think it says something that she took the star willingly. yes she too was manipulated, but she saw a world that she felt was unfair, and she sought out anger and violence as a solution. im not going to say that any one person cant be deradicalized, but for some people it would take a hell of a lot of time and effort, and they would be fucking dangerous in the meantime. and when they’re actively trying to kill you & your friends…. it’s not your job to deradicalize them. it’s your job to survive.

idk like im probably not going to make any KLCK posts after this because i see a lot of divisions in the fandom and tbh i dont want to get involved in that, but like. i think there is tragedy in her story. but i dont expect the bad kids (victims of her hatred & violence & rage) to feel that sorrow. and i dont think it’s their job to forgive her, either.

[straightbaittournament]

(shaking, through tears) may the best bait win! propaganda under the cut:

mulder and scully:

Infamously treated and teased by showrunners + writers like how a gay couple would be baited and like a gay couple in general, although eventually they do kiss and have a son (although that falls through and they become kind of divorced)

during the entire original run of the show i'm pretty sure chris carter would have said they never had a romantic relationship (they had a baby without ever having had sex!) however in the revival their sort of ambiguous What Are We deal was made a lot more explicit so feel free to veto based on these grounds LITERALLY INVENTED 'SHIPPING'. YOU'RE WELCOME

while i'm... pretty sure they get together eventually (i've only watched a bit of the x-files), from what i've heard they invented the term "shipping" because of people arguing over whether they would/should be romantically involved, so i think they should be included, for fandom history reasons if nothing else

they are a man and a woman who don't get together until ridiculously late but are hilariously devoted to one another, clingy, self-sacrifice-y, and also Forehead Kisses

They’re together but they’re not they love each other but barely know each other

clara and twelve:

their relationship is heavily romantic coded, but is never explicitly confirmed as romantic or not. the queerbait thing of teasing them on socials but never paying them off in canon applies here! also secret love confessions by way of double entendre or omission

they "arent romantic" but obviously they are

They are a man (I guess?) and a woman never get together but physical contact is filmed with such tension, there's jealousy with one member's significant other, "do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference," "I'm changing history to save Clara," "run you clever boy and be a Doctor," "people like you and me, we should say things to one another," "I'll be the judge of time," "If you love me in any way..." okay these all have context but trust me it's Insane

They never get to be together and in their last episode together, Clara presumably confesses her love to him and WE DONT EVEN SEE IT. like immediately after he gets his memory wiped.

[baileypie-writes]

~Joker Dating Headcanons~

~~~🃏~~~🃏~~~🃏~~~

Fandom: Smile Precure!

Fanfic Type: Headcanons

Reader: Gender neutral

Relationship: Romantic

Characters Included: Joker

Genre: Fluff

Rating: PG

Warnings: None!

~Masterlists~

~Smile Precure! Masterlist~

A/N ~ I’ve been in love with Joker for years. He’s just so silly.

‼️Glitter Force Stans DNI‼️

~~~🃏~~~🃏~~~🃏~~~

~ Joker is surrounded my idiots pretty much all the time, and he honestly thought he’d never get a break. That is, until he met you. My goodness, you were like a breath of fresh air to him. He got attached to you pretty quick.

~ Before he confesses, he’s constantly flirting with you. His favorite things to do are magic tricks that end with you getting flowers or some kind of romantic message. However, when it comes to actually confessing, it takes him forever. This is mostly because he’s a little menace, and likes messing with you. You’ll either have to confess first, or just be patient. If you decide to wait for him to do it, oh boy, does he put on a show. Literally. He’s very flashy when he asks you out.

~ He compliments you a ton. He loves making you blush, he finds it cute and hilarious. He calls you a bunch of cheesy nicknames, mostly to bother or fluster you. His favorites are: my dear, doll, honey-cakes, and love bug. These are just a few. He makes some up on the spot, and they get really ridiculous.

~ Have you ever heard of people who bite their parter as a sign of affection? Well, Joker’s kind of like that. Except he doesn’t bite, he licks. Not even in a dirty way, just for fun. He loves sneaking up behind you, and just licking your cheek. He always laughs his ass off at your reaction. Like I said before, he’s a menace.

~ Joker loves to spoil you! He always brings you big bouquets of flowers and handmade cards(that may or may not explode with confetti) with sweet messages in them. You could mention something you want once, and he’d hand you that same item not even a day later. Where did he get it? Does he even have money? You’ll never know.

~ Whenever Joker is irritated, whether it be from losing to the Pretty Cure, or being dissatisfied with the process of reviving Pierrot, he tends to distance himself from you. He doesn’t want you to see him like that. He also doesn’t want to potentially lash out at you by accident.

~ He doesn’t like it when you hang out with the other guys in Bad End. It’s not that he gets jealous(okay, maybe a little), it’s that he knows how unkindly they treat each other. He doesn’t want you to be treated the same way. Before you even met Wolfrun, Akaoni or Majorina, Joker told them that they must treat you with the utmost respect. However, he still doesn’t fully trust them, so he likes you to keep your distance.

~~~🃏~~~🃏~~~🃏~~~

~~baileypie-writes

[morellanimmermehr]

The Arcana Prequel - Your Questions Answered

Thanks to everyone who has sent us questions over the last few days! If there's anything else you'd like to know, my askbox is open.

Will the Prequel have an upright and reversed ending?

Yes! You’ll be following Asra during his time at the palace as he tries to revive the Apprentice. To succeed, he will need to win the trust of Nadia, Lucio, Valerius and Muriel. Whether he manages that and how far he is willing to go for his goal is up to you.

On a scale of 0 to 10, how angsty will this be?

We’re aiming to emulate the way the original game balances out the serious, gut-wrenching moments with more light-hearted ones. That said, grief, loss and unhealthy coping mechanisms will all feature heavily, so we’re going to say… 9.5?

How often does the story update, and how many episodes will there be in total?

We currently release a new episode every Tuesday, but we’re planning to eventually move to two episodes per week once some of our other ongoing commitments have wrapped up. As for the total number of episodes… we’re not sure yet, but definitely 20+.

Why did you decide to write this together?

@asrabounding (Azi) and I have been toying with the idea of making an Arcana Prequel on Dorian for over a year, but we realized pretty quickly that bringing it to life the way we were envisioning it would require more than two people. Azi and @motherofqups (MOC) first connected via the fandom all the way back in 2019, and we’ve all ended up bonding over our shared love of the Arcana, many congruent headcanons, and an admiration for each other's work. So this collaboration was a natural fit.

How much Asra x Julian is in this?

Their situationship will be one of the ongoing plotlines in this story. The choices you make will influence how it plays out and, to an extent, how much of it you see. Relationship points with Julian will not affect whether you get the upright or reversed ending, but can unlock additional paths.

You all have written Asra and Julian a lot, but which of the other characters are your favorites to write and why?

All three of us genuinely enjoy writing all of the M6 (and many of the supporting characters), but if you’re making us choose…

MOC: Lucio. His voice is so unique and he’s always flowed easily for me, but he still surprises me, even after all this time. There are so many knots to unravel and layers to unpack with him. He’s delicious to tease but he bites back, too, so he’s fun to play with whether I’m writing an angsty scene or a more playful scene. 

Azi: Muriel and Lucio. I have made myself laugh while writing them more than once, and their voices tend to flow naturally for me. I never have to wonder “what would Lucio say?”

Morella: Nadia. I love her sense of humor, and how absolutely savage she can be when she’s irritated with someone. I also really enjoy contrasting the way she can take control of a situation and command the room with the vulnerability that she only shows to a select few people.

Are the courtiers going to make appearances?

Yes. Valerius plays a major role as one of the characters that Asra will need to get onto his side to complete the ritual. The other courtiers will make appearances as well, though their roles will be smaller (similar to the original game).

I’m confused, is this meant to be canon?

No. Our aim is to stay faithful to the spirit and lore of the original game, but ours is just one of many ways to tell this particular story.

Why is the Prequel getting promoted by Dorian?

Dorian has criteria for which games get promoted. These include how many people play, how much money they spend, and whether the creators update the game consistently over a period of time. Over the past two years, Azi and I have built a track record of meeting these criteria for every game we release, so our stories now often get picked up for promotion early on (as do those of many other established creators on Dorian). The logic behind that is pretty obvious if you’ve ever been a fanfic reader deciding whether to take a chance on an incomplete longfic on AO3 - if you recognise the author and know they’ve finished their fics in the past, you’re probably more likely to trust that they’ll continue this one, too.

How much influence does Dorian have over the games you make?

The ideas that go into the stories are all ours, and Dorian doesn't tell us what to write. They do give us advice on what they think is more likely to succeed. It's our decision to take it or leave it. Sometimes we take it, sometimes we leave it.

Dorian doesn't set a release schedule for us, but they do offer more opportunities for promotion to creators who stick to a consistent schedule.

How much money do you make writing on Dorian?

Azi and I have both been writing on Dorian for going on two years now, and our earnings have steadily grown over that time. As part of that process, we’ve also gotten a lot more intentional about our release schedule. This has brought us to a point where our games make between $5K and $6K each month.

How much time does a project like this take?

These days, the hours Azi and I put into making games are equivalent to a part time job. We have tried different things and tested out what we could and could not handle on top of our other work and family commitments, and we have found our sweet spot. Luckily we are fully in control of our schedule and we make it work for us.

[blazinghotfoggynights]

My Mind Did That Thing Again!

You know, where it sees something, then takes off in a random direction for no reason other than it can and it's fun. So, I had a crazy thought last season and it just kind of...experienced an accelerated unchecked growth spurt today after reading the info about the next ep's and the upcoming eps's titles. *looks at the titles of the remaining episodes* 🤨

I have a WIP that I began the night the lightning strike episode premiered last season. Let me preface this by saying the fic is nowhere near complete. (I'm in no hurry. That is the beauty of fandom. You can offer a fic forty years after a show ends and the devoted fans will still be there.) The plan is still for it to be a series with several entries, all of which are multi-chaptered.

Why am I bringing this up? Because it's that time again folks where my imagination runs wild and I ask you all to play 'I know this is crazy, but just hear me out and humor me". For those who have seen this game, participated, and maybe even enjoyed it, you are awesome!

So, the game is played just like the title states. Let's go! (I put the insanity under a cut. If you move forward, I am not responsible for anything that happens!

We know Shannon and most of Eddie's family are supposedly going to appear in the next ep, right? (I say supposedly because you can't really trust anything that gets leaked. Remember that karaoke scene?)

What if it's because Eddie Diaz is balancing on a thin wire between the living and dead? He is close enough to the other side to see Shannon, but still physically hanging on in this plane.

You're probably rolling your eyes and wondering, "What the hell does this have to do with last season?" That's okay and I will tell you.

What if, all this time, we've been viewers of Eddie's coma dream? What if the person who actually died and had to be revived was Eddie? Everything that has happened since then has all been a figment of his imagination.

I'm not saying this is plausible, probable, or practical. I'm just having some fun. (I write. I paint. I am creative. Some say cray cray, but what is normal anyway?)

Now, if I look at what has transpired between then and now, I could point out a few things that could support that theory. (You can call me crazy later. I'm used to it.)

1- Eddie was hit by the lightning.

Eddie was hit first, but just hopped right up? I know some people will say the lightning threw him, but let's look at simple science. To be affected by the electricity, he had to experience the electricity. It was powerful enough to throw him off the truck.

Eddie was hit.

2- Eddie was not in Buck's dream.

Why? If it is really Eddie having the dream, but imagining it is Buck, it's possible he can't conjure a dream version of himself.

I thought it was interesting that Christopher was in the dream and asking Buck for help. Maybe it's Eddie's subconscious reminding him that Christopher will be taken care of by the man he trusted enough to give his son to should he be incapacitated.

3- The scene at the graveyard.

Why on Earth did they go to the victim's grave? Don't they have a rule of letting go at the door? Why would Eddie go to the cemetery and stand over the grave of someone he did not know having a heart-to-heart with Buck?

4- The death doula wasn't a doula.

She was death. Natalia taking Buck away the first time could have been Eddie coding. In his dream, Buck was leaving him, when in reality he was leaving Buck. Natalia coming back could have been Eddie moving toward death again, but managing to escape it's grasp once more. The final breakup? Eddie was resurging.

5- The bachelor party.

What about Eddie Diaz in the past six seasons would point to what he and Buck did? He got smashed, destroyed a hotel room with a bunch of strangers, and all in the name of a bachelor party for a man who didn't want one and was not even there.

The party could have been his subconscious rapidly processing a lot of information, both conscious and subconscious, suddenly. The drag queens? Come on now. Everything with that show is intentional and that scene was disjointed, chaotic, and completely unhinged. None of that is Eddie Diaz.

6- Marisol

Eddie is not into that woman. He is clinging to her for some reason and he fast forwarded through the relationship. Did the Eddie Diaz of seasons 2-early 6 seem like the type of father to let some woman he barely knows supervise his son's dates, babysit Christopher, and move in?

Or was it Eddie's mind simply pulling a woman he had met briefly into his subconscious and building a story around her?

(For those who are science nerds or just fascinated by psychology, there is a theory our minds can't create faces and every person in your dream is someone you have at least seen in passing.)

6- Tommy

It has been mentioned soooo many times how similar Eddie and Tommy are.

That is all I will say on that topic.

For now.

If you made it all the way through, I will end it by saying this.

This may be a crazy idea about the show, but it will happen. If it doesn't in canon, it will in fic. This is why I love fandom. 😁

[moodymisty]

Tree in bloom - Ch2

< Chapter 1 | Chapter 3 soon >

Author's Note: Tehe, hi. I take forever to draft things. Hope you enjoy.

-pushes this towards the darksiders fandom like a skiddish animal- hello please accept my humble offering I haven't done a multichapter thing in like 9 years sorry if it's a mess

Summary: Even after humanity has just been resurrected, Strife still finds himself using Jones. It’s easier; Until you find him out of his façade. (Taking place days after Death revives humanity, you wade through a world still infested by demons, while Strife struggles with growing attached to someone.)

Relationships: Strife/Fem!Reader

Story Wide Warnings: Canon typical violence, Friends to lovers, Teratophilia, Strife being an emotionally stunted jokster and pouter, Eventual smut maybe, Strife is clingy, One or two OCs maybe to fill things out at times, Shooting guns, rebuilding trust

Word Count: 3949

Ao3 Mirror

'thump thump thump'

Your heart pounds against your ribcage, willing your legs to push as fast as they can possibly go and beyond, stumbling and nearly falling multiple times.

What’s left of the concrete sidewalk crumbles under your shoes; Cracks going deep into the dirt underneath from one hundred years of strain and winding along like a spider’s web.

You have no goal in mind, you never thought even close to that far ahead.

You just need to get away. From everything. Your body had said to run and you listened, not caring where you would end up.

One of your knees almost buckles from how long you've run at a full sprint, struggling not to collapse under your own weight. When you finally do look over your shoulder you see nothing is following, though the Maker's tree is farther in the distance that you'd expected it to be. You can barely see the top of it from over the skeletal remains of buildings; It's safety is almost impossibly far away. Realistically it's probably only a few miles, but that might as well be a million or more right now.

There’s an abandoned storefront right next to you on the sidewalk that has a foyer-like entrance, and you quickly push against the wreckage of what once was a door to slip inside. The moment you do, you can actually stop for a moment and feel how your lungs burn in your chest, heart thumping against your rib cage as if trying to burst forth from it. With a few steps, you turn until you can press your shoulders against the wall, breathing for a moment while slowly sliding down it. Once you fall into a squat, your hands press against your cheeks.

How did he know your name? He spoke like he had recognized you, at least to some degree.

The fact that he had spoken at all had frightened you at first; As you'd been under the assumption that he was a giant, abit lithe demon. But demons didn't speak, at least not often. He also lacked an angel's wings, and was far too large to be anything close to human.

It leaves only one option, but you never really thought you'd live to see one of the Horsemen again. For the people of Haven there's not a single soul that doesn't remember the blur of War's red cape and thundering steed racing through the city, and those sights will continue to stick as a collective memory as they already have for so long.

Your heart still feels like it's in your throat from all the running, hoarse and dry, but at least you don't feel about to pass out now.

But you can't go back to the tree, not yet. If he was following you, walking back to the tree would absolutely make you run right into him again. Though if he was following you, it would be odd that he hadn't managed to catch up with you yet, as even with one look from a good margin away, his stature clearly dwarfed yours.

But even if you can't go back to the tree, you sure as Hell can't stay here. Almost every wall is glass, and any passerby human or other could easily see a cowering fragile mess of a human huddled in the barely standing remains of a building.

Sighing and using a significant amount of effort just to stand back fully upright, you look around through the glass of the door shortly before opening it.

There's nothing alive in view, but you can hear the crackle of never-ending flames and the screech of undead, hellish creatures, somewhere in the distance. It's best not to spend too much time around here, especially alone. You only have a single clip of ammo in your gun, along with a knife.

Just as you feel to make sure you didn't lose said knife in your scramble down the tree, you hear an ungodly screech loud enough to whip your head in every which direction, trying to find the source. When you don't it makes your heart beat faster once again.

There's no way I last through the entire apocalypse only to die to a random pissant demon.

There's a fire escape you quite noticed to your left; You can use it to climb to the top story of this apartment building and hopefully wait out whatever is stalking around, and then trek back to the tree.

The Makers are absolutely going to tear you a new one, that's for sure. Ulthane will probably travel miles from his hovel just to do so. You know it wouldn't be out of character for him, in response to you pulling a stunt as stupid as this. He's yelled at the humans for less.

Rushing towards what might be your safely the metal of the fire escape is horribly rusted, and you put your full weight onto the ladder with no small amount of uneasiness. It creaks and groans in pain, but doesn't break as you climb up the first two rungs.

Afterwards you dare to take a look over your shoulder, and what you see sends you into a fluffy of frantic, clumsy movements.

Quickly your pace increases, but once your hand touches the fourth rung the fire escape begins to pull away from the wall, forcing you to abandon climbing lest you get trapped underneath it. You let out a yelp of pain as the concrete scrapes against your clothes, ripping and biting at your skin through the fabric as you fall to the ground.

Get up get up get up!

But no matter how fast you try to will yourself to, your body is so tired that you can barely manage to scramble to your knees. As you do you hear him, getting closer and closer.

Your hands shake and once again your heart is trying to escape it’s cage, but you still try to push it a bit further, stumbling to your hands and feet getting ready to-

“Don’t run!"

He yells, the tone of his voice and wild glow of his eyes only serving to frighten you further. He looks like he could crush you in one fell swoop, which makes it all the odder when his voice actually fades down to a tone that almost seems unfitting.

"Please don’t run again?”

It seems like your fight or flight response is finally well and truly shot, frozen in place looking at him awkwardly as you pause stuck halfway between getting to your feet. But now it seems like he’s run out of things to say, and halts.

“Shit- I, Just-” A sharp gauntlet rakes through his wild hair, as he paces.

He shifts his weight from one leg to another, glowing eyes not looking in your direction. It's like he almost didn't expect you to actually listen to him. You finish rising to your feet, one slightly behind the other.

He's still trying to write up his next sentence or, something, as he's still looking almost beyond you. When he does suddenly make a move however, taking one step forward closer to you, it's a lightning quick habit to grab your gun and point it right at him.

His body posture doesn't change in the slightest, but he does retract his only step forward and raise his hands up slightly- like someone who is only jokingly being held at gunpoint.

“Look, respectfully; That gun really isn’t gonna do much more than hurt my feelings.”

He laughs, though it seems to be at himself more than anything. He turns his hands so his palms face the sky, and gives a heavy shrug of his shoulders.

“...You can shoot me if it makes you feel better... Or somethin’.”

What?

The barrel of your gun lowers slightly, mouth agape as you look at him. Every word that’s come out of his mouth has done nothing but confuse you even more than you already are. And in that bafflement, you lower down the gun just enough that you can speak to him, voice almost cracking with how dry and hoarse your throat is.

“What do you want with me?"

He just awkwardly laughs.

“I just wanted to make sure you were ok. There's demons all over out here.”

That was, not anywhere near an answer you had expected; And you really have no answer to it. Slowly lowering the gun to your hip height you keep your eyes on him, watching the way the light bounces off the shiner parts of his armor. Some of it is clearly worn down after an untold number of years of wear and tear, especially the scarf around his neck, as that remains as only tattered remains of what it probably once was.

Your feet smidge backwards just slightly, trying to get even the tiniest bit of space between the two of you.

“And what, you care that much about some random human?" You're not a fan of the way your voice shakes, even if barely. Not as if your emotions can betray you, as he probably already knows quite well you're terrified and nearly shaking like a leaf.

But it's just so weird, the way he's so casually talking to you. It wasn't exactly what you had expected from someone so... Fabled.

It's hard to tell what emotion he's feeling with his helmet covering all but his eyes, but it's clear he's thinking.

"Tch," He makes an almost annoyed noise. "Look; Back there, you weren't supposed to see that."

Perhaps it isn't the smartest thing to raise your voice at a Horsemen, and maybe you'll live to regret it later, but you can't help but reel back at the nonchalance; Almost disrespectful.

You caught him slaughtering demons- and whatever else, not doing something embarrassing.

'If he kills me, he kills me. There's no chance in hell I could run from him now.'

"See what? I was just looking for my friend! I-"

And you still haven't found Jones, but the Horsemen suddenly interrupts you before you have a chance to finish.

"And you found him!"

......

You stand there frozen and confused, eyes wide after hearing his voice rise to a yell for a moment, watching the Horsemen shift from one boot to another as if he's resisting the urge to pace. Your gun is still in your hand, you remember; The metal is cold and while you know it won't do shit to him, you can't quite put it away.

"I knew all the humans wouldn't trust," He gestures broadly and almost self-deprecatingly at himself. "Me, so... I made Jones."

Made?

Your lips part, eyes glancing over him as if the answer is going to lay somewhere else.

He has to be fucking with you. This is some sort of sadistic attempt to pull one over on a human thats already about to keel over like a frightened rabbit.

"This, this has to be a joke," You say, and he seems almost irritated you're still confused and flighty, if only for a moment. "This sounds insane, I don't know you're trying to do but-" You're backing up, getting ready to just bail from this and hope to whatever is listening that you can loose him and forget all of this has ever happened.

"Wait!" He stutters as his brain catches up with his mouth. "I know you, from the tree! I promised to help you once I came back!"

Looking back at him, you remember that yeah- Jones did offer to help you once he came back. And, well you think you'd remember if there had been a giant horsemen in the vicinity.

Sure you've been through the apocalypse, seen weirder, but you still have absolutely no idea what to say.

"I'm Jones. Me." He points at himself, but you aren't exactly fully listening.

This is... insane. But there really isn't anyway you can deny the fact that he doesn't seem to be lying, other than just trying to forget this all happened. A valid option, after everything.

“But...”

You can hear that he's probably giving some sort of smile behind the mask, judging by the surprisingly light tone in his voice now. He seems to have gotten over everything that happened before, and has done a full 180.

“I’m actually Strife.”

Your eyes glance back up to his face, instead of his chest. So you were right; He is one of the horsemen. You’ve heard his name before, and it was never said in a pleasant tone.

Granted you've heard all of the Horsemen's names from the Makers, though Strife's was the one that was usually said with the most amount of distain, or with a curse following shortly thereafter.

But once everything settles just a bit, you can't really feel much else but angry. Clenching your hands you throw them forward, before they go back to your sides.

“I, I trusted you!" The horsemen straightens up at your tone as if you hit him, surprised. "You were lying to me this entire time!?”

He seems almost surprised by your sudden outburst, prompted upon the realization that you'd been strung around in the dark apparently, for so long.

You're absolutely going to collapse when you fully realize the gravity of yelling at a man who's brother nearly destroyed Earth.

“Hey! I did it to avoid this!” He gestures between the both of you, and thus the defensive posture you still have. Quickly you fire back, your throat still hoarse.

“And so you thought lying was better!?”

He goes quiet.

When he makes another move you flinch, instinctively trying to keep a minimum amount of space between you two. You already regret yelling at a Horsemen, but he doesn't seem to take mind of it at all, surprisingly.

You don’t trust him as far as you can throw him; And that isn’t any at all, judging by the bulk of his armor and the way he towers over you. Even from almost two meters away, his shadow is still brushing over the toes of your boots.

He attempts to speak in a softer tone that seems incredibly unfamiliar to him- the caterwaul of dustwings echos off somewhere in the background.

“Look- You need to get back to the tree. Let me give you a ride.”

Eyes darting around you don’t quite know what he means by ride for a moment, though it’s only a moment, as he whistles and suddenly- something seems to just come from what feels the air itself.

The sound of metal clops on the pavement as it materializes, and you barely register that it’s shaped like a horse, before it looks at you and you almost drop dead right then and there. The whinny it gives sounds otherworldly, and it matches the look impeccably. With how much armor it has on however, it's nearly impossible to tell if there is an actual horse under there, or if it's just some sort of unholy creation.

Quickly backing in from the creature this time instead of the Horsemen, you shake your head and put your palms right out in front of you; Hell bent on putting as much space between you and it as possible.

“No! Absolutely no way!”

The steed paws at the crumbled concrete as if bored, it’s ghost-like mane flowing in the soft wind that sends a chill through your body.

'Strife', crosses his arms, looking down on you with those glowing eyes.

“What,” He's smirking, you can just tell. “Scared of a horse?” Quickly your face goes from shocked and frightened to angry and frightened, as you take yet another step back and hug your shoulders. You only pull one away from a moment to point at it, and as if on cue, the horse looks up at you seeming almost with banality.

“That, is not a horse! That, That is a-” He turns to look at his ‘horse’, for a second, before looking back to you and shrugging his armored shoulders.

“Looks like a horse to me.”

You never remembered Jones being this smug.

The horse snorts as it stands behind it’s rider, bored with it all as you continue to fight going anywhere near it.

“Mayhem doesn’t bite.”

Of course that's it's name.

You look at the way his eyes glow and the almost ghost-like nature of his mane, and find that reassurance hard to believe. The Horsemen however seems to not notice or doesn’t care that you don’t seem entirely convinced, and instead hits the saddle. You shake your head and speak at a more normal tone.

“No, I can walk.”

Strife seems to almost deflate at the way you refuse his offer, oddly enough. But he seems to reinflate fast enough to attempt at convincing you. He hits the saddle again.

“You’re not going to make it in one piece alone. Just,” He blows air from his lips that sounds similar to a raspberry from behind his mask. “Just let me get you back."

As much as you don’t want to admit it, he’s not entirely wrong. You’re out in the middle of nowhere, and running out this far has already sapped a good bit of your energy. You don't like the idea of taking up his offer, but it's not as if you have any better alternative.

So perhaps the ghostly steed and his lying owner could give you a ride. But once you’re in the tree, you don’t want to be near him anymore. You need time. To figure this all out.

“Ok," He perks up so much so you startle, shifting your feet. "So I just, get on?”

Strife, you have to remember his name, moves his hands, grabbing the saddlehorn with one and gesturing with the other.

“Like I said, Mayhem doesn’t bite.”

The jury is still out on that; You see the way this horse is staring at you as you approach his flank. He seems to only be allowing you this close because his rider is the one asking you to be. Or maybe his bored face just looks intimidating, but you're not going to take the risk and find out.

Grasping the edges of the saddle you heft yourself into the stirrup after a few tries, and eventually make it up without assistance. He originally moved to quickly help you, but when you shifted away, he seems to take the hint that you want none of that.

Shifting around in the saddle it's huge, fitted for a larger than human rider, but at least it's somewhat comfortable. Your toes can barely reach the stirrups however, now that you're seated.

Just as you're attempting to put a foot in one Strife Puts his right foot in the right stirrup, grasping the saddlehorn and suddenly shifting the whole saddle to one side. You grasp tight underneath his armored hand, the edges sharp against your skin before he takes it away once he's seated right behind you.

With one heel he gives the horse a gentle nudge and you’re moving forward, the jingle of metal the foremost sound in your ear. If it’s Strife’s armor, Mayhem’s, or perhaps a combination of both is unknown.

"See, It's not so bad," He says, The chains that serve as the steed's reins jingling in his hand.

"I mean Mayhem's probably the least scary one out of all of them," You assume by 'them' he's referring to the other Horsemen's mounts. "Maybe Ruin? He's just big."

"The one that helped start the Apocalypse?" You say quietly. Strife lets out a nervous laugh, and you can even hear him thickly swallow.

"Oh yeah... Right. That's still a sore spot."

Did he, think it wouldn't be? Humanity is still in shambles, and unless his outlook on life is overwhelmingly positive it's a bit hard to deny that.

It's not exactly something you want to think too hard about right now, pursing your lips.

"Don't worry," He says, continuing to ramble on despite the fact that you really aren't talking back; A combination of being like a deer in the headlights and still a flurry of emotions. "Me and Mayhem are far better than those angry louts anyways."

Hands tightening around the saddlehorn you see the tree coming closer and closer, and with it your home base.

You can almost feel the tense, borderline nervous energy Strife is exuding behind you, as he ushers his steed to pick up the pace. But even then he still doesn't get the hint that maybe you aren't in the mood to talk, rambling on and on.

You get the hint that besides his occassional words as 'Jones', he hasn't had someone to talk to for a long time.

When you stop at the base of the tree, you’re off the horse as fast as you can possibly go, beating even him to the ground. You have to hand onto the saddle and effectively plummet to the ground, but you manage it well enough.

“Don’t get into too much trouble.”

You purse your lips tight and nod.

“...You too.”

He may have lied to you but… It’s not as if you hope he gets hurt. Your feet scrape against the bark of the tree as you back away from him, before turning and racing upwards.

When you’re halfway up and glance over the side, you can see he’s still there, oddly enough. If he’s still when you enter the tree you don’t know, as instantly you feel multiple sets of eyes on you.

You can hear the voice of one of the Makers asking what’s on your heels, but you don’t answer. Instead you keep pace forward, up the rickety steps and out onto one of the larger branches of the tree. Outside of the main central 'room'. You can update them later, as you've going to make yourself far too hard for them to reach and try and force you to do so.

This is a go to spot for a few of the humans when everything is just a bit too much, and you don’t want one of the Makers bugging you. Or really anyone for that matter. As getting more than one person out on the branch would be precarious at best.

It’s decently cold tonight, and you would’ve needed something to bundle up with if you weren’t still so hot from running for your life. And while you are cooling down, the torn and weathered jacket you have on is enough for now. You wouldn't want to go get anything more anyways.

How do you even, how do you even deal with this?

Sickly for a moment you think you’d rather have just found Jones dead or gone, before instantly throwing out that thought.

No, you don’t want Jones dead. Strife. You’re just frustrated. Need a minute.

The two are nothing alike; And that will take more than awhile to get used to.

Get used to, as you assume you're going to see him again. What if he's just gone forever now?

Thats not really something you want, even after everything. His façade versus the real deal are so incredibly different, but he is still technically your friend.

You can here people talking inside the tree, probably about your raging entrance, but you just drown it all out.

A horsemen? This whole time?

You don’t know exactly how much time has past with you sitting out here, as it's not completely dark.

One rare nice thing about the Apocalypse was with most of the light pollution gone, you can see the stars in the city central again.

I need a fucking nap.

[nono-uwu]

hi this is kind of random but. ive seen a few posts so far from people in the fandom expressing they don't like/aren't interested in mikayuu anymore and i was curious if you knew why? it's been like a long time since i was into ons (like 2018? 😭) so im pretty out of the loop and was wondering if smth crazy happened ig lol 😭

I'm more of a recent addition to the fandom (watched/read ons for the 1st time in 2021 lol) but here's what I observed I think (not sure if you've read the manga but just in case huge spoiler warning)(also I may or may not be biased against them since my favs are the vampires and shinoa squad without mikayuu lol):

- there is just too much of them. Obviously they're the main characters but ons always had a colorful cast of characters and a lot of them (mainly Shinoa squad tbh) were sidelined during the shibuya arc and basically turned into cardboard cutouts that shout "Yuu!" every few chapters. Though they did get their personalities back in ch 133, it took way too long imo.

- Mikayuu barley changed as people and their relationship stayed basically the same. Once they reunited and Mika 'joined' Shinoa squad their relationship dynamic could be boiled down to: Yuu is kinda stupid and wants to do smth bc fAmLIy or whatever, Mika disagrees, Yuu does the equivalent of puppy dog eyes, Mika begrudgingly agrees, Yuu gets what he wants with minimal consequenz. After a while it's just not interesting to have the main character constantly winning. Heck, Mika's 'death' and demon transformation barley did anything in the long run.

Like at one point, it got brought up that Mika is losing his emotions for everything except Yuu, which was a pretty interesting idea and could have brought conflict into their realtionship. But a few weeks later (in-story, took a few years irl lol) Mika gets turned into a demon, regains his emotions and the former conflict is left in the dust.

Now with Mika as a demon, he lost all of his agency. He is literally stuck to Yuu and the most he can do against him is refuse to give him power but Yuu can just force it out of him so. Pretty fucked.

After they split off from the main group post Shibuya arc, they once again have an inkling of a conflict.

For context, they split off bc Yuu had to either choose between resurrecting humanity or only Mika (at least that's how Guren phrased it). Yuu's gayass chose Mika and at first they had an argument bc Mika doesn't value his life and would rather have everyone revived at his expense. Yuu goes 'nuh-uh' and makes a run for it, devoures Asuramaru/Ashera in the process.

Once they've run off, Mika confornts Yuu and shouts at him, saying he should have a happy life with his human family instead of Mika. Yuu once again goes "nuh-uh" and decides to revive all of humanity, Mika included.

- They restate their goal, plans and whatnot too much. Ons is a monthly manga with ~35 pages per chapter. In Mikayuu centric chapters, almost half (if not all) are wasted on restating the goals they've stated LAST FUCKING CHAPTER. Maybe Kagami doesn't trust the readers memory but man, you didn't do this before, did you? Why now all of a sudden? There's plenty of plot to get through, we can reread old chapters if we forget something.

There's also way too much goofing around. Obviously down-time is needed in any action packed series but we've gotten so much random cut-ins of Yuu needing food in what are supposed to be tense moments. Also we do not need an entire chapter of them hunting, eating and talking about their plans and others plans.

-

This is all I remembered off the top of my head, anyone feel free to add more

[tubbytarchia]

do you have any posts about the maid dress besides the one comic.. you are The jimmy understander and i cannot believe i only just found your blog

I tried to look and I'm not sure I do, I just know I kept referring back to it in other Jimmy related thoughts... I'm happy to share my thoughts again though haha. The whole maid dress sequence in SOS made me lose my mind I'll tell you that, that was SO hard to watch. Jimmy continuously gives up way too much and gets used imo. (In X Life he literally gave a stack of diamonds to whoever was nice to him.??)

In SOS this notion of Jimmy "owing people" keeps being repeated and it makes me angry!! (In a much later stream Jimmy expresses how he owes fWhip for, something? And fWhip just goes "I know".) Because literally no, he hasn't done anything that'd warrant him not being able to opt out of something like this. He "owes" people for reviving him after he's died, but has anyone else owed anyone reviving them? At least to this degree? For at least most of them, absolutely not!! The way Sausage neglects to give exact details and makes Jimmy think that he'd just be serving drinks, not dancing. I hate that Jimmy's up there asking people to look away and I hate how in a later stream, he tells Sausage how embarrassing that was to do in front of almost the whole server, and Sausage goes "aww you could've done more!". He also said stuff like "I thought I was dreaming, I was happy I wasn't!" this thing has a maid kink but he needs to stop subjecting Jimmy to it..!!

I sometimes see people faulting others in the fandom for infantilizing Jimmy but that HAPPENS. in the VIDEOS. He's naive and easily trusting, and he wants company. He'll stick around just about anyone even when he's not treated well. Sausage mocks and taunts him, but he also tells Jimmy "I like you! I do nice things for you because I like you!" and then kills him, or laughs at him, or makes him dance in a maid dress in front of the server. It's the most barebones positive affirmation attached to all that but then again, how often does Jimmy receive positive affirmation otherwise? Other than Sausage calling him handsome or something. That is the bird cage that he's seated with and the cage is all he knows. I will say that in a later stream he beats the crap out of Sausage and holds out on killing him, which was AWESOME

[threewaysdivided]

How Different do you think Young Justice Season 3 would have been had Jay Olivia and Michael Chang returned?

[For context, we’re referring to this post where I broke down the major writing/directing credits for each episode of Young Justice Season 1 and found that former Teen Titans 2003 directors Jay Oliva and Michael Chang had handled over 75% of the episodes in Young Justice Season 1 before vanishing from the credits of all later entries, and this post where I summarise how those later entries actively destroyed the arcs, themes and narrative of the original season.]

TBH it’s kind of hard to tell.  I have a few ideas, but like I was saying in that first post, it can be unwise to pedestal one or two members of a creative team when there are so many factors that can impact the final quality of a work.

Here I think it’s important to mention what a director does.  In situations where the director and writer are separate roles, the job of the director is to adapt the script to a visual form – working with the writers/editors to make changes as needed.  Directors direct how scenes are constructed, presented, acted and “shot” – which affords them a great deal of subtle influence over the pacing, focus and framing of a story.  The visual language of film can do a lot to control what information the audience prioritises as important, and how they interpret/perceive it.  Unsurprisingly, when you have bad, fragmented or inconsistent directing, you end up with stories that lack direction.

While Chang and Oliva having such a presence in the direction of Season 1 definitely lent it some of their specific personal creative flavour, I also think a lot of the major benefit came purely from having two people (and likely others who formed part of the S1-specific creative team) who were experienced in working together and had direct input/oversight of more than 75% of the season from start to finish.  That kind of creative cohesion makes it easier to track and maintain the continuity and progression of a narrative.  Compare and contrast with Outsiders, where you have a rotating shift of three less-experienced directors and a huge revolving door of new writers, with no-one working on more than a single episode in a row, the same directors almost never getting paired with the same writer twice, and a general sense that the story was being produced episode-by-episode with very few people having a clear sense of what had come before or would follow after.

One of the challenges is that the declining quality from Season 2 onwards points to something being fundamentally broken in the creative process at DC Comics/ Time Warner productions.  Young Justice Season 3 was the straw that finally broke my trust in Detective Comics Comics but it came on the heels of things like the original Suicide Squad movie (see this Folding Ideas video for an excellent dissection of those production and editing issues) and the transparently marketing-driven disaster that was Batman vs Superman.  It feels rather like modern-day DC is producing the in-house equivalent of shovelware: underinvesting in the timing and budget that its creative teams need for proper writing, editing, revisions and post-production in favour of churning out superficially saleable high-profit-margin products to cash in on recognisable IP’s and existing fandom markets.  Faced with that kind of incentive structure and production-crunch it can be very hard for a single (or handful of) creative team members to make course-corrections.

That isn’t to say that good media can’t be produced under tight conditions, but doing so generally requires a well-thought-out creative plan for the project.  And unfortunately, that kind of plan is something Greg “I don’t write endings” Weisman is notoriously bad at both creating and sticking to.  This was one of the problems I ran into when doing my YJ: Invasion autopsy: while you can correct some of the surface level problems, the root issue lies in a core story that’s bad from base principles and fundamentally incompatible with what came before.  Again, this can be overcome if other production team members are given enough time and creative authority to review and revise that story-core, but that doesn’t seem to be the production environment S2+ was allowed.

With all that said, I think it’s safe to conclude that, under the circumstances, Young Justice: Outsiders was likely always doomed to be a mess.  The combination of a lack (or even discarding) of a clear show-bible to act as a guide, a lack of clear project-plan (or, at least, plan-communication) from the showrunners,and a lack of pre-/post-production time for other team members to figure out what story they were even telling is pretty much a guaranteed recipe for narrative failure.

However, assuming that a pair of Oliva/Chang-like directors had been on the revival team, with input into most of the episodes, I think we might have at least seen some improvements to execution:

Firstly, we may have seen better cohesion and focus.  In the multi-layered onion of bad storytelling decisions that is the later seasons, the outer layer that many people seem to have bounced off is that it’s hard to care about what’s happening.  YJS2+ are boring and badly paced on rewatch, and a not-insubstantial part of that is bloat.  There is a plague of random new characters, exposition and world-details that don’t meaningfully contribute to the narrative (and for the record, I should clarify that ‘narrative purpose’ is a lot more than just ‘plot advancement’ – the problem here is that these elements are actually purposeless to the point of being distracting), scenes and ‘jokes’ that overstay their welcome due to a lack of proper substance, and ‘twists’ that exist for expectation-subverting ‘shock bait’ rather than moving the story. 

At a surface level, the later seasons desperately needed someone to ask: both ‘what is the focal point?’ AND ‘what is the purpose of this moment/scene for the story?’ and actually make Greg Weisman give them a coherent answer beyond ‘just trust me, it’ll be totes smart when you (read: I) figure it out later’.  Like I’ve said before, there’s a lot of fat that could have been trimmed; shallow scenes that could have been reworked to serve characterisation and themeing, ‘references’ that could have had their screen-time reduced to passing easter-eggs, and other wasted time that could have been better allocated to developing a core cast of ‘focus characters’ with an understandable dynamic to help anchor the broader character web in a relational status quo.  Considering what we saw of Season 1’s character-focus, and Oliva and Chang’s previous involvement in Teen Titans 2003 (which was also very good at prioritising, reinforcing and maintaining characterisation/ character dynamics) I think some improvement in story-focus, especially towards characterisation, could have been achievable.

The other gain we could have potentially seen is more sensitivity and tactfulness in the presentation of certain story beats/ characters.  For this I want to highlight framing:  whether something is respectful or offensive comes down less to the inclusion/exclusion of particular elements and more to the way in which those elements are presented to the audience – the priorities, assumptions and worldview revealed by the delivery.   

Let’s do a couple of case studies just to get our heads around the idea:

For Example One, we’re going to make the point by jumping straight in the deep end of sexual assault and fanservice in media feel free to scroll to the next paragraph if this is a no-fly topic for you.  Our contrasting studies will be The Millenium Trilogy (a noir series I’ve previous referenced in contrast to the YJ revival) and the shounen anime Sword Art Online, both of which contain assault and rape scenes.  Millenium’s depictions of assault keep the perspective on the victims, focusing on the pain/ powerlessness/ degradation/ anger they experience during and after the violation, and examining their reluctance/ aversion to reporting these crimes, while maintaining a respectful detachment towards describing the acts themselves.  In contrast SAO contains an infamous scene where an arc villain attempts to rape the female lead, while the camera fixates on the fanservice of her breasts quivering as he tears her shirt off (in addition to a concerning amount of other fanservice scenes where female characters are penetrated, groped or “peeped on” in ways that are clearly nonconsensual and unwelcome).  From this we can conclude that the issue isn’t inherently with sexual assault being present in a story – how it’s framed makes the difference.  The Millenium Trilogy respects the autonomy of its female characters, using assault scenes as an important narrative device to confront the audience with the violence of systemic sexism and condemn the cowardly entitlement it enables as part of its wider critique of misogyny; Sword Art Online degrades, objectifies and disregards the autonomy of its female characters by using narratively unnecessary sexual assault as a vehicle to ‘reward’ its target audience with fanservice.  What matters is how the subject is handled: is the sexual assault of women treated as a serious problem in need of criticism or as a guilty-pleasure ‘treat’ for boys to enjoy?

Moving to a gentler and more home-field example, let’s compare how pregnancy is handled in Young Justice Season 1 vs Outsiders.  It’s easy to overlook in the wake of the brick-to-the-face that was “you got a baby in there!” but Season 1 also included pregnancy as a plot-beat; Queen Mera announcing the news that she is “with child” during the episode Downtime.  However, there’s that difference in framing:  after it’s announced, Downtime quickly moves past the physicality of Mera’s pregnancy to focus on why it’s narratively important - because Mera and Orin are the royals of a hereditary monarchy and their child will be first in line to the throne of Atlantis.  Despite this being her only episode in Season 1, Downtime also gives Mera multiple characterising moments outside of child-bearing; introduced her first as a Queen and teacher/mentor to the students of the Conservatory, and later demonstrating her power as a battle-mage during the Manta-trooper attack – her pregnancy being almost a footnote outside its narrative-relevance.  By contrast, I think the reason that “baby in there” line from Amistad gets memed so heavily is because it highlights Outsiders unnecessary fixation on the physicality of female characters being pregnant, in addition to a disproportionate tendency to depict female characters as married, pregnant or mothering in the absence (or even at the cost) of narratively meaningful plot or character development – reducing these characters to little more than “pregnant sexy lamps” (as @mimeparadox so eloquently put it in their recent review of similar issues with the Gargoyles revival).  Again, the difference is execution: where Season 1 used pregnancy in a character-specific and narratively-relevant way, Outsiders not only assumes but enforces it as the expected path for female characters – sacrificing both characterisation and screentime for a subtler form of fanservice: one that reinforces and validates a specific worldview of gender (and which has been increasingly revealed to lurk beneath the surface of performative ‘feminists’ like Eric Schneiderman and Joss Whedon).

At this point, I think it’s worth noting that Jay Oliva and Michael Chang are both Asian-American men (i.e. less likely to be blinded by privilege a problem that Greg Weisman has always struggled with), that Chang himself was lead director on TT2003’s anti-bigotry episode Troq and that TT2003 on the whole is often praised for its respectful depiction of female characters (and also Victor’s cyborg status).

Given this, I think similar direction could have resulted in more respectful depictions of non-white and disabled characters.  As it exists, the revival at large (and Outsiders in particular) has a HUGE issue with unnecessary and disproportionate violence towards and villainization of characters-of-colour in a way that inadvertently reveals the bias of the creators; shock-value violence towards marginalised characters being treated as more acceptable and less needing of commentary because they clearly weren’t expected to be as relatable or worthy of empathy as the “main” characters.  Different direction could have seen some of the more needless violence removed in favoured of equally-shocking-but-more-narratively-purposeful elements, some of the narratively-justified violence reframed in a way that was more empathetic to the personalities and bodily autonomy of the victimised characters, or - given more time for revision - used to make a critique of in-story bigotry by presenting the disproportionate targeting of marginalised protagonists as being the product of systemically prejudiced antagonists (rather than casually-bigoted producers).

Similarly, I think better direction could helped respect female/femme characters more.  From Season 2 onwards Young Justice has an increasing problem with the male gaze in how it frames and poses women; Outsider’s borderline-fetishistic obsession with depicting late-term pregnancies again being a particularly egregious example.  Many of these scenes either didn’t need to be included (hence the meme-potential of wasting screen time on a toddler explaining how pregnancy works to a mature audience) or could have been made more narratively meaningful by prioritising specific characterisation over generic ring-fingers and pregnant bellies.   This male gaze issue was at its most insulting with Halo; even if different directors couldn’t change the incredibly disrespectful character-design decision to vacuum-seal a nonbinary, hijab-wearing minor inside a boob-socking, ass-grabbing, wasp-waisted super-suit, they could have worked to preserve Halo’s modesty and gender identity with posing and camera choices that minimised the attention drawn to Halo’s sexual features, and presented their body-language and posture in a less-feminising way.  

This likely wouldn’t have fixed the underlying biases baked into Outsiders’ plotlines but I think there was the potential to soften the execution to the point that they could have felt more like a “missed the mark” than the farcical offensiveness that we got.

That said, I don’t think anything could have truly saved this series.

As I said at the start, I think the thing that ultimately doomed Young Justice was the lack of a long-term story vision; the ego and overambition of showrunners trying to build a story that runs on teasing twists, mysteries and future-resolutions while also openly wanting it to go on forever.  Those two elements are fundamentally incompatible if you want a satisfying experience, and without a clear guiding plan you can’t expect the underlying creative team to successfully find a story’s identity during a rushed pre-production.  You can’t provide direction if you don’t know where you’re going.  It would be like trying to invent an entirely new plane and build it as it’s taking off: a crash is inevitable, the only question is the extent of the damage.

At best, I think we could have seen another Invasion-level non-story: a few isolated good character moments bogged down within a season that, while not overtly offensive, was still thematically confused, overstuffed with characters, driven by contrivance and insulting to the intelligence of anyone actually trying to follow the narrative.  A slow zombification, riding out a few extra seasons on plausible deniability, rather than Outsiders’ rapid crash-and-burn seasonal rot into an offensive cash-grab parody of itself.

And, in a way, I’m kind of glad that Oliva, Chang and the other Season-1-only creative team members didn’t come back for that.  Because, even if it would have resulted in a more palatable product, it would have come from forcing a group of marginalised creators to salvage a privileged dude’s mess.

I’ve spent far too many words over the last few years trying to unpick the layers of why Young Justice is such a narrative failure post Season 1 and now I feel like Benoir Blanc.  Because these problems are a glass onion and at their clear centre, Greg Weisman is an idiot.  He’s a demonstrable bigot, who had a publisher back away after he trashed their franchise with misogynistic queerphobia.  He’s a sex-obsessed loser who tried to launch a Not-Safe-For-Work production company writing Gargoyles Parody Porn while wearing an eye-patch and pretending to be a ‘fan collaborator’.  His writing reveals a consistently toxic attitude towards abuse, consent, boundaries and power dynamics.  Based on some of the creepier things he’s said/written, he could be potentially unsafe for certain fans to be around.  And even setting all that aside (and it’s a lot to set aside) he’s just obviously a hack: he claims things that are neither present in or even supported by the text, he promises future developments and fixes/explanations that he rarely if ever delivers, and he uses those holes as a springboard to pitch separate-purchase side-content that also seldom delivers, in a way that suggests he either has no idea what he’s talking about or is intentionally lying to grift his fans.

And, look, this problem is far from exclusive to Weisman: it certainly didn’t start with him, and it’s not even exclusive to the arts.  Across industries we are currently realising that we’ve let privileged guys who can talk a good game coast by on an assumption that they were qualified to hold their positions of influence, even as we held them to far lower standards of scrutiny than we would equivalent people of any other demographic.

Young Justice was never going to survive long-term (any more than the Gargoyles revival is) because the creative load was always resting on that rotten core.  I think we as a fandom were very lucky that Season 1 had both a sincere creative team and the production schedule needed to overcome it and give us something as good as they did.

I wish we could have seen that quality continue. But, at the end of it all, I’ll make peace with the disaster we got.  Because it was at least a somewhat honest reflection of its lead creator, rather than enabling him to keep failing upwards on the back of his colleagues' contributions.

So yeah. Better directors would probably have resulted in better surface-level polish... but you know what they say about polishing turds. No matter how much sugar they added, Outsiders couldn't be turned into a brownie. You'd still be being fed crap.

And frankly, whether it’s his characters, his audience or his co-creators, I’d rather not continue the pattern of letting Weisman shove the burden of dealing with and correcting for his bullshit onto less-privileged people.

[somethingblu3]

Never Trust A Vampire | Nikolai

Masterlist

Read on Ao3 here

18+ minors dni.

Fandom: Beyond The Rave (2008)

Summary:

@febuwhump day 1

Nikolai and Reader's first meeting at the rave. Nikolai needs to feed, but Reader fights back. Lightly Edited

TW: 

Rave

vampire vs human

Hunting

Predator/Prey

Biting

Vampire Biting

Blood Drinking

Non-Consensual Blood Drinking

Dubious Consent

Mind Manipulation

Compulsion

stalked

Pairing: Nikolai x female afab reader.

Word Count: 1,248

Graphic Credit: @keep-it-light

"And what do we have here?" Nikolai taunted as he pursed his lips, stalking you like prey. A shiver runs down your spine. "I know what you are," you taunt as you reach your hand behind you. Your brother Ed had warned you about them before. Vampires. He had told you about the signs - the clothes were a dead giveaway, not to mention the smell of dirt and an unforgettable metallic scent that was a headache, an indication of blood intake, probably from some poor soul.

"I don't want to hurt you," He tells you. You can hardly see him under the neon emerald lights of the nightclub. This all happened because of a wrong move. When dancing, you tripped over, landing on another couple, and as you tried to pick yourself up, Nikolai grabbed you by the shoulders. He was strong, maybe another sign as well, another sign that he was what you thought. His sapphire eyes looked dead from a lack of sleep. They were haunting as he watched you, flicking back and forth from the smile that curled at the end of his lips. He thought he had you. Here you were, all by yourself and helpless in a nightclub. You were surrounded by other sweaty, drunk, dancing people who wouldn't even notice if you were gone if he had taken you. Would anyone even hear your cries over the blasting speakers? Would your brother Ed even hear your cries? You swallow hard, knowing very well he could listen to the fear of your heartbeat pumping in his ears like the drum of the song that vibrated through the club.

Your hands were sweaty as you grabbed the small stick in the back pocket of your jeans. It was a makeshift stake. Your brother had taught you how to protect yourself from them and what you should do in a situation like this. It wouldn't kill him entirely but render him helpless enough. The only way to indeed kill a vampire was to aim for the head. It would make it impossible for them to come back and be revived. 

"I know what you want. You want my blood-" You don't know why you're telling Nikolai this. Maybe it was the alcohol, something you snorted back in the bathroom. Either way, it was all slipping out of your tongue, or perhaps It was Nikolai's compulsion. You found yourself unable to look away from him. It was merely impossible. It was like he was holding you down without even touching you. 

"I want you to tell me," He says firmly. The light in his eye flickers. He reaches forward and brushes his hand against your shoulder so that your gaze is focused on him. You lick your dry lips. The smoke machine makes you feel hazy as you cannot step away from him. He was like a cage the way he had you wrapped around your finger. You wished your brother had told you how to escape this. Your feet were glued to the floor of the nightclub. You could not leave his grasp as his eyes kept a sharp gaze on your neck, his finger traced over your vein.

"I want you to tell me that you want this. You want me." He breathes against your neck, and you can feel yourself turning to mush. No man had ever had this effect over you. Under his grasp, you felt utterly helpless, and then you felt something in you. It was like you wanted to help him like he had to feed off you, or something terrible was going to happen. Your body wouldn't listen to you even as your brain screamed, "No, no, no, Stake him." You felt your hands ease on the makeshift steak. You dropped it back into the pocket of your jeans, where it rested as he pulled you closer. At first, you thought that he might kiss you as he cupped your chin, bringing him as close as humanly possible, so now your bodies were linked together. His skin was cold as it brushed against yours. He was dead after all, you reminded yourself as your eyes witnessed the punch marks on his neck from his Master. You couldn't help but wonder what the transformation process was like. It must be a painful one, but was it worth it? What was his life like before he turned, you wondered?.

"I know it's not just my lips that you crave," He whispered against your neck. You could feel his fangs contracting, not even piercing yet. "You want more, don't you?" There was a rush at first as his fangs nipped against your skin. You could feel your blood rush to your head. Immediately, you felt the effects. You felt a surge of tiredness, and for a moment, you wondered if you would collapse on the nightclub floor. Still, then he grabbed you by the waist so that you were grinding against you. "I've got you," He told you. "I've got you," He reminded you as he continued sucking his hands lost in your hair. It was almost comforting as his fingers massaged into you. The feeling was practically familiar as you sunk into him. A few moments passed by, but they felt like hours. The only thing pulling you out of your haze was the sucking sounds from his lips against your neck. You could hear a rumble in his stomach as he fed from you, and it was like the two of you were connected as you listened to your own heart beating inside your eardrum. 

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" He teased with a small smile, his teeth dyed with your blood. As he pulled back, you realized what he had done. He had just fed from you. Something your brother had told you repeatedly not to let happen. But now he had an archive of your blood, and if you tasted detectable, he was more likely to come back again. "And I know you found that just as pleasurable as I did. I can feel it, too, now that we are connected. I can feel the rush in you, not just from your blood," Nikolai teases. You frowned, unsure what he was talking about, but now you were trapped in his arms. You felt one hand of his travel down to your jeans, and he snaked his hand around your ass, taking out the wooden stick. "I don't think you'll need this, do you?" He tuts as if he wants you to actually consider it. A chill runs down your spine. Now, you find yourself unable to back away. There's a soft and warm fuzzy rush. It's a nice, pleasant feeling, strangely.

"You want more, don't you? They always want more....". This time, you don't even notice his hand is practically clawing at the front button of your trousers. "Come on," He murmurs.  "Let's go to a more secluded place. Away from any prying eyes." He smirks. And you follow him hand in hand. You feel full as he guides you, content even You watch your step still wobbly on the feet, and while you know not to trust him, you feel drawn to him like you should be with him now at all times. He had control over you, and it was only a matter of time before you would end up six feet underground. Your brother's words run through your head: "Never trust a vampire."

[meimi-haneoka]

heya cinzia! hope you're having a lovely day. i'm sorry i'm always bothering you with questions 😅 but do you know if there are any forums or communities for ccs fans other than tumblr? i've been a fan for so long but always too intimidated to make ccs friends ;;

Hiiii Doublechocolate!!

I'm quite fine, I'm recovering from a nasty cold! 😅I hope you're having a lovely day too!

You're not bothering me at all 😁 Truth to be told, I probably am not the best person to answer to this question because I've quitted several CCS communities long time ago. They were all becoming full of bullshit, so to speak, and you perfectly know what I'm talking about. I became tired to waste my words and effort in places where there are so many people, each one with their biased ideas and prejudices and in many cases completely unwilling to spare a bit more effort to understand a story, so quick to label it as "boring" or "not making sense".

The only community I still am present in (but I rarely write in anymore) is the Tomoeda server on Discord: the admin is a dear friend and she and her collaborators are managing the community in a healthy way, so I still feel comfortable being there. I've been able to talk about Kaito and Akiho (up to a certain extent....) without any problem and for me this became basically a decisive factor in choosing any place/community where I can talk about CCS with other people. Truth to be told, the community is a bit "dead" now that the manga is over and there isn't a monthly chapter keeping things exciting every month, but we're all expecting the 2nd season of the anime to hopefully revive things. The link to join is here: https://discord.gg/CFgHGFS .

Nowadays I prefer staying on my personal accounts on Twitter/Tumblr/Bluesky. If people are interested in what I say and find some worth in my posts, they will come to me and start an interaction on their own. I'm frankly at this point very very very wary about seeking interaction first, in this fandom. It happens only with people I can see are manifestly Kaito/Akiho fans. I can't even trust my fellow SyaoSaku shippers anymore, because despite the characters, that's not a guarantee that they'll be accepting of my own views and favorite parts of the story at all. I've learned the hard way that just because someone loves a series or their characters doesn't give a shred of guarantee that person will be sharing the series' same wholesome views and messages.

[straightbaittournament]

may the best bait win! propaganda under the cut

mulder and scully:

Infamously treated and teased by showrunners + writers like how a gay couple would be baited and like a gay couple in general, although eventually they do kiss and have a son (although that falls through and they become kind of divorced) during the entire original run of the show i'm pretty sure chris carter would have said they never had a romantic relationship (they had a baby without ever having had sex!) however in the revival their sort of ambiguous What Are We deal was made a lot more explicit so feel free to veto based on these grounds LITERALLY INVENTED 'SHIPPING'. YOU'RE WELCOME while i'm... pretty sure they get together eventually (i've only watched a bit of the x-files), from what i've heard they invented the term "shipping" because of people arguing over whether they would/should be romantically involved, so i think they should be included, for fandom history reasons if nothing else they are a man and a woman who don't get together until ridiculously late but are hilariously devoted to one another, clingy, self-sacrifice-y, and also Forehead Kisses They’re together but they’re not they love each other but barely know each other

roy and riza:

Did you know they’re not canon? Because they’re not! They love and care for each other deeply and spend a ton of time together throughout the series but they never actually are romantically involved. The ship everyone thinks is canon but isn’t it’s that big of straight bait Sooo in love with each other but NEVER admit it… she’s his bodyguard and he also tries his best to protect her and there are a ton of moments that show their closeness but they just can’t have a relationship in their current situation they dont really get together in the end and while there are stuff that can be read as romantic u can still read it as platonic or read them as wlw/mlm roy and riza! you either know it from the series or u are sick and tired of seeing them in other polls! but theres a reason for that—its about the devotion, its about years of pinning, its about the trust, its about knowing each other so well that u can distinguish the imposter posing as each other, it's about the villains using ur other half to force u to do sth, its roy trusting riza to keep him on the line and riza telling him that if he strays she will kill him first and then take her own life, its about riza trusting roy to burn the sigils on her back after trusting him with the sigils and teaching him the fire alchemy and!!!! all of this and still no kisses. pain and suffering on the earth (the good kind) no kissies after 64 episodes leaves the fandom in shambles (clickbait)