#again this was in no way meant to be rude to the op or malicious at all

[inbred-mothman]

While I do *partially* agree with this post I do want to add onto it. I will preface by saying this is in no way with ill intent or malicious, just adding to the conversation with more to think about. (Especially in regards to the 'racist' argument.)

I'm also going to use this post to bring up some other characters of color that were written over and deserved more, etc. Etc.

My first point will be that Sky's writing sucks. And that's at no fault to the character at all. She wasn't written poorly because she was a person of color, she was written poorly because the show (especially season 2) did not have enough time due to corporate greed. She had the potential to be more than just one single flimsy plot point. Just because the character happens to be a person of color does not mean I'm willing to recognize poor writing. I WANTED her to have more and was frustrated when she didn't. Though I do firmly believe this is not because of her skin tone.

We have extremely powerful characters of color in the spotlight such as Mel, Ekko, and Cait(yes I'm including her because I choose not to ignore the fact that she is wasian in the show.) THESE characters were written 10× better than Sky was and are far more relatable, enjoyable, and have plenty of fan content out there. So no, I do not believe people disliking Sky is because of her skin color. I truly believe it is because her writing leaves... much to be desired.

Onto the Steb thing, I do think a primary chunk of Steb's fans exist almost solely because he is an objectively attractive character. But that could be said for ANY background character of ANY species/race in the show. There are going to be people who find different things attractive. This DOES NOT however subtract from the fact that there are also Sky fans who exists almost solely because they find her attractive as well, the same could be argued for quite literally any character ever. From an artist's perspective I personally also enjoy that he is an entirely different species being put into the littlest bit of spotlight. In my opinion it helps the world building and gives viewers a peek into the League universe. If someone *did* want to make it a racism problem (which trust me DOES still exist but not in this context) he's teal. That's... not a real skin tone. If the League universe had only humans in it who knows what his skin tone would be. He could've been Indian, Turkish, Thai, Hispanic, Spanish, etc. Anything. But he's teal. So I do not think he even can be thought about for the race argument. (Again there is still definitely a racism problem within media presence I'm simply stating that I do not currently see how that could he argued here.) They both have little to no writing.

I also want to bring up Gert! An extensively overlooked side character in a very similar way to Steb! I think this could be compared more. Gert (for anyone who doesn't know) is the primary Jinxer, the one that died in Vi's arms. I think she could have had SUCH a good and powerful subtext. But they simply didn't have time. I have so much to say about her and the way she was almost completely ignored. I can confidently say that the way she was written *did not* have to do with the fact that she is black. She had a very good place in the story. The Jinxers, and subsequently Gert, were a symbol of Jinx's impact on the undercity (especially among the youths.) Gert was the primary example of HOW Jinx brought hope and resilience to the citizens of Zaun. She did not die because she was black, she died because it was the end of an era. She died as to portray the end of Jinx. The end of Jinx's current "reign". This is why she died in Vi's arms, and Vi held her hand, coming to terms with how true the impact was that her sister had on these people as Gert took her last breaths. Vi watched as the final threads of Jinx's hold faded. She did not die because she was black. She died to send a message. *This* was a very well written background character. Sky... is not. And she isn't even as background as Gert. Sky just had the unfortunate fate of bad writing. So no, it is not a race thing. She happened to be a poorly written character who was also black.

I also want to circle around back to Mel and Ekko specifically just for the fucks of it. But they were PRIMARY black characters that had incredible plot points. I assure that most people who dislike Sky for the writing also adore these two characters also for the writing.

Mel and Ekko *can* be brought into the race argument though! For the majority of season 2 they were almost completely ignored. I do think this is primarily due to corporate greed and forcing the show to be cut short. Ekko was arguably the one that had *the most* impact in the end. And yet... most of his story was cut short. Mel as well, she had an extremely touching and complex story that could have been one of the best plot lines in the entire show, but she was cut. She, and Ambessa, brought one of the primary story lines from the game into the show (the black rose). This needed SO MUCH MORE. More context, more content, more exposition, more everything. Mel and Ekko deserved better. Do I think they were cut simply because they were black? No, I don't. But I do think it did play a part, even if that part was subconscious.

Cait being wasian is also overlooked when these topics come up typically. She had some of *the most* writing in S2. She shouldn't be ignored just because she passes as white, she is also Asian and I feel that is very important to note. That's it really. She was also cut short at times, not nearly as much though.

Other characters of color I want to highlight the significance of but don't have the energy to go in depth about: Sevika, Shoolah, Marcus, Ambessa

Eh... long story short people don't like sky not because she's black... but because they wrote her terribly and there are numbers of other black and other poc characters with better writing in the show. And numbers of white characters in the show with dog shit writing as well (see: Loris, Maddie, all of the Chem Barons, etc.)

I said I wasn't gonna make a post about this but I'm riled up

I saw a post talking about how there were about 5 people who like Steb, and while there are obviously a lot more, I find it interesting how the objectively attractive fish man character with no lines and no personality STILL has more fans than Sky, a black woman in arcane who is reduced down to a joke about viktor's sexuality.

[technicontrastron]

This may sound stupid but how do I turn off blazeable on my blogs?

And how is this bad? Again, I don't wanna sound stupid or rude. Thank you for the heads up :]

Hi! No worries, you're not the only one with these questions.

On how to turn off the option to get blazed:

On desktop you can turn it off at this link: https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/#blaze It looks something like this

On mobile it's in the account settings menu, there's a lof of screenshots in the additions to my other post like here (i haven't updated since i got a funny little bug that lets me add polls in reblogs of other people's posts so i can't screenshot anything).

Alternatively you can also log into Tumblr in your phone's browser and use the link above there. Don't forget to do it on sideblogs that you don't want to get blazed as well! You can also change the settings per-post in the post menu. I've actually enabled it for my complaint post that's circulating because it would be really funny :D

On how it is bad:

With the way it is set up, people can blaze your posts without active consent. This can be used to bully people, by digging out old or not-adapted posts that were not meant for a wider audience and putting them on blast. This can include vent posts, opinions you might have changed since then, selfies, niche things many people might think are cringe (like 2014 self-insert omegaverse fanfics and the likes ... idk if you've seen the drama that resulted from someone blazing their fic, it wasn't pretty), posts that were only meant to circulate in your carefully curated audience, and more.

Since Blaze's are registered in many minds as advertisement many people will react negatively to them so this opens up a way to bully a lot of people. As usual, people of colour, trans people, and other vulnerable groups will get the worst of it, many are already getting deactivated regularly because of coordinated reporting harassment and since people donate hate organizations all the time they will definitely use the option to make the life of a person they're targeting living hell for 10$.

Staff thought of some safeguards but there are several fallacies:

The option to cancel a blaze before it goes live: Not everyone has access to the internet every day, and staff might accept the blaze while you're asleep / at work / on a trip / in the hospital / on hiatus. Then when you're coming back to tumblr your notes will have turned into a nightmare.

The guarantee that staff will check every Blaze manually to prevent harassment: Let's take the case in which someone's old fic get blazed against their will. How can staff know whether it was blazed with friendly intent (to promote a friend's work) or ill intent (to get people to point and laugh)? They can't as long as it's not against the Terms of Service. In general there will be many false positives (Blazes that get rejected by staff despite being innocent) and false negatives (Blazes that get accepted by staff despite being malicious). After all, the people working at tumblr are only human too. But in this case, false negatives will have devastating consequences - and extinguishing a blaze after it's live will be too late.

Many people don't follow @staff, so many people don't know about this change. In fact many people on that other post commented that they didn't know what Blazes are at all! I think i've read that they will add a login banner to tell you and check your settings, but iirc they had banners like that for the original Blaze function announcement so i don't have faith this will prevent anything.

I should clarify that i don't think the feature itself is bad at all, but it should be opt-in so only people who want to participate get blazed (e.g. art blogs). Or add an active mandatory confirmation by OP instead of a veto option, this would prevent the issues above as well, i think that would be the best option - that way people could leave the option on. I know staff are currently getting bombarded with support requests / flames (please be civil to them guys!) (also sorry. but not sorry. i didn't expect my post to blow up but also i think these are legitimately troubling concerns and i won't make the other post unrebloggable). They're aware of these issues so i hope they will change to one of these options - if they add active mandatory confirmation by OP i would enable to option globally as well (Hint hint this means more money for you, @tumblr, because otherwise many people have and will turn this feature off completely) A bit more time between announcement and go-live (4/20 iirc) would have been helpful as well.

Here's the original announcement by the way:

And since i'm gonna pin the post as long as the other post is circulating: Listen to goatbed guys!

[kazoo-goddess]

So, I've wanted to make a post like this for some time, but I only just got the motivation because of an ask I got recently. I want to give a piece of advice to everyone, in general, to keep in mind when using any social media platform--advice that I wish someone had given me way back when, that I feel is important to pass on:

Not every post you see is for you. Not every post is about you.

This is not meant to be a negative thing, or a put-down! It is not meant to dismiss anyone. It's really what it says on the tin: When you see a post cross your feed, and you disagree with the post or it upsets you because you disagree with the message it has, try and keep in mind that you may not be the target audience for the post. In particular, take this into account for advice and positivity posts--The OP doesn't have anything against you personally when they share words that are meant to be uplifting that you don't agree with. A post that says "Keep going! You can do it, even if you think you can't!" probably isn't meant to put down people who are in a position where they very literally cannot do it or think their way out of their situations. Like this post, it's more likely that the OP is sharing positivity or advice that they themselves would have liked to hear.

Even this post, the one I'm writing now, might not be for you or about you! If you disagree with my viewpoint, that's okay, and there's nothing wrong with that! But I, personally, am writing this post for people who might need to hear it--people like me, who are easily upset or hurt by things they see or hear in passing, whether on the internet or real life. I'm not writing it because I want to spark an argument, I promise.

Posts aren't always meant to spread outside the OP's original circle of followers and friends. But that's a hazard of posting to public social media websites--a joke originally meant to have an audience of 12 people close to you can suddenly explode, getting thousands and thousands of views and reposts and going completely out of the OP's control overnight! It's no one's fault; it's not done maliciously. Sometimes a post or joke just resonates with others. But maybe it doesn't resonate with you--that really is okay! Just try and remember, if it gets under your skin, that it isn't for you. And if it's not for you, it's okay to just ignore it and move on! It can definitely get annoying when it's something you keep seeing over and over from friends and acquaintances reposting it, and I'd never fault anyone for losing their temper over it--but sometimes, just taking a second to remind yourself that you weren't the audience for something can really help calm you down and help you feel better and move on with your day.

While this goes for advice/positivity posts, it also goes for opinion posts! And in this case, to be completely, perfectly clear: I mean harmless opinions. A ship they like that you don't; a tv show they enjoyed that you didn't; a character they really love that you absolutely cannot stand. The kind of opinion you disagree with so much that makes you feel absolutely steaming mad. (Again: This does NOT extend to these things when they go into a genuinely harmful category. No homophobia, no pedophilia, nothing like that. I am talking about harmless, mundane disagreements.)

Maybe you see a post talking positively about a manga that makes you feel ick. The OP more than likely didn't write that post with the hopes that it would reach you specifically just to make you upset! (And if they did, that's rude, and an entirely different can of worms that this post is not about! >_>;) But the post upsets you anyway, even if it wasn't MEANT to. It's understandable, it happens! But the thing is: You don't need to engage with that post if it makes you feel bad! If you have a post blocker, you can block the post or blacklist the tag; if you don't, you may just have to scroll past. It can be so, so, so tempting to try and get in a biting comment in the replies to snap at the OP and tell them, "No, you're wrong, your opinion makes me mad and I don't want to hear it!" Trust me. I know. I get it, because I've been there! But in the grand scheme of things, it's not worth it or healthy to burn yourself out over it. It wasn't for you, and it wasn't about you! And you're better off doing what you can to take care of yourself, and preserving your health and happiness where you can.

I feel like I'm writing this with sort of childish language, and it might feel like I'm talking down to others. But really, I think I'm just writing it in a way that a younger me would have understood and taken to heart if she'd seen it. I hope that, if you read this, you can see it that way too! There's a part of me that feels scared that this post in itself could explode with notes that will be very upset with me for my thoughts on this, whatever their reasons may be, but I wouldn't be making it if I weren't prepared for that possibility. If the message I intend to get out can reach even one person who it can help, then I think that's worth writing it for. Because, I want to reiterate it one more time, because it can be so easy to forget it and get yourself furious in a self-destructive way, sometimes you have to remember:

Not every post you see is for you! Not every post is about you!

[koolfrogz]

Misconceptions Regarding MCC14

Recently there have been a load of misconceptions regarding many of the controversies that happened this MCC, especially on Twitter and Tiktok, so I thought I would make a giant post detailing these and why they are wrong so I can scroll through my dash in peace.

1. Hbomb purposely abused a glitch in HITW that got Illumina and Mefs banned from MCC on the practice server. 

This one can easily be broken down into three components: 1. Misinformation about the glitch itself 2. Misinformation about the Mefs and Illumina incident 3. When does abusing a glitch count as cheating?

Firstly, the glitch Hbomb used is actually very common in HITW and has been around since the game was first introduced. The devs know about it and have not made any complaints about it because the usage of the glitch itself is heavily luck based (depending on the ping of the player) and does not guarantee a win to any player who does get it. Take for example PearlescentMoon who has used the glitch repeatedly throughout many competitions (i.e MCC 11), yet has not gained any significant advantage through it because, again, there is still an element of skill required to use it. This glitch is not only known by the devs, but has been used before in HITW. It is not something new that Hbomb exploited as a means of getting ahead.

Secondly, the Illumina and Mefs situation is not at all comparable to the Hbomb one. Illumina and Mefs were using a completely different glitch which did guarantee a win to the player because it allowed the player to afk on the platform and allow the blocks to pass through them. They were not banned for exploiting this glitch, but rather reprimanded by Scott and the devs for not reporting it to them sooner. Mefs and Illumina are still allowed in MCC and only didn’t compete this time because the teams had already been formed.

Finally, in regards to the idea of cheating itself when using such a glitch, the idea that what Hbomb did counts as cheating is absurd considering past MCCs and the various glitches which have been abused as well. I’ve seen a lot of people mention the infamous Wilbur Glitch and I think its a perfect example. The Wilbur Glitch is from the game Rocket Spleef which was not played this MCC but certainly will be in the future. The glitch involves the player becoming stuck in a block and seemingly floating in the air allowing them to basically secure a win without admin intervention. This glitch is much more OP than the glitch Hbomb used, and we have even seen admins purposefully try to kill players for using it (i.e Philza MCC11). However, even when players have purposefully attempted to get it (Wilbur, Phil, Quackity, etc.), I have never seen the fandom react so negatively as to accuse them of cheating. It is not fair to accuse Hbomb of cheating when he abuses a glitch which has been in the game for ages and not do the same with your favourite creators who do a much more busted glitch as well. Personally, I don’t consider either of these cheating, but that’s my opinion.

2. They removed Parkour Warrior because Dream was too good. That’s not fair.

Okay, this one is very simple as its just not true. This falls under the assumption that Dream was the only player to finish Parkour Warrior which is not true (PeteZahHutt completed the course twice and was the first to ever complete it in MCC 6). While the reason the Parkour Warrior map was destroyed in MCC 11 is said to be that EpicLandlord destroyed it because “he was annoyed at how good Dream was at it”, this is mainly a joke (think of the Ranboo being banned from MCC situation, while Ranboo isn’t in MCC there’s no actual beef and he’s not actually banned.) Secondly, if you weren’t around for Parkour Warrior when it was still in MCC, or have only ever seen Dream or Pete’s POV, you might not know, but Parkour Warrior was a miserable game mode (think Build Mart/Bingo but ten times worse because there was no chance to improve your placement other than just being good at Parkour). The game was 10 minutes of pure rage and frustration from competitors, which while entertaining at times, wasn’t the best for content when only two POVs in the entire competition were deemed watchable. This also wasn’t good for a competition because it meant that only two teams at most were progressing (and by a large amount) due to one player while the rest lagged behind. It gave the teams which had Pete and Dream a huge advantage and made the game unfun and unfair to everyone else, so they revamped the game (to Parkour Tag) to make it an even playing field where everyone had a chance to win (in the spirit of MCC). 

3. Scott had an unfair advantage in the competition and should be removed from the Dev Team or the Participants List.

This one is slightly more nuanced and may not have a definitive answer. Yes, Scott does have a slight advantage due to being a part of the dev team in every MCC. However, this MCC was definitely an outlier in that fact. Scott has been known to share info and tips with his teammates in past MCCs, but it has not truly impacted their performance on a significant level because the players knew a majority of the information anyways (the game rules, maps, etc). This MCC was unfair because Scott had a bigger advantage than originally assumed (it doesn’t mean he did it with malicious intent, it just means there was a severe oversight when designing the maps and explaining the rules to players). Also, the idea that Scott was guaranteed a win because he was part of the Dev Team is ridiculous and untrue. 

Scott has always been treated on the same level as any other player and has not been giving special privileges because he helped work on the tournament. Take for example MCC 8. Scott was teamed with Tommy, Philza, and Wilbur, and they were doing very well! Then came (wait for it), Ace Race. Scott experienced a glitch which allowed him to remain with his Elytra activated for half the course and allowed him to skip over multiple checkpoints and placed him in first. However, by skipping over these checkpoints the game corrected his placement and put him in last. This was seen as not fair at the time and the Red Rabbits did complain, to which Noxite responded that there was nothing they could do and Scott would just have to finish the round as normal. This glitch severely impacted the Red Rabbits standings and possibly led to them not being able to compete in Dodgebolt that MCC. Yet, Scott was never treated differently than any other player throughout the glitch despite being a part of the Dev Team.

For the next MCC, I certainly think that Scott should be allowed to play as normal. I truly believe this MCC was a fluke, and although I too felt a little salty seeing my favourite go from 2nd to 30th, I believe that it is not worth getting up in arms about it because at the end of the day there is a whole season of competitions where any team has a chance to win. 

4. They should have restarted the round and allowed the participants to retry the map.

While I too would have loved to see a rematch for Ace Rae, I would like to say that I, and probably many of the people playing, knew that it wasn’t going to happen. Noxcrew is very strict about the way MCC is run, it’s why I think it works so well. However, this means that they will not budge on these rules even in the face of something such as this competition’s Ace Race debacle. In the entire time of MCC, Noxcrew have only once ever restarted a round. This was in MCC 7 during Battle Box after there were server issues causing extreme lag for everyone (and Wilbur and Magistrex blew up their own teammates). It was unlikely that they were going to restart the round due to the mistake, and honestly, it might’ve caused more trouble than good to reset the points and the entire round of Ace Race. 

5. The Spirit of MCC

This last one is more of a general statement than a misconception, but I would like to say that I have seen a lot of newer fans confused and upset about this MCC’s outcome. However, I would like to remind everyone that at the end of the day MCC is a for-fun tournament which brings MCYTs of every background to compete and have fun. Yes, there is an element of competitiveness as it is a competition, but it goes against the very spirit of the competitions to be toxic and rude in spite of not winning or placing lower than you expected. At the end of the day, it is a MC tournament that has no monetary prize other than a golden coin. It is immature to slander, spread misinformation, or send death threats and harassment over such a tournament and I wish shame upon anyone who’s first reaction to not winning or their team not winning was to do such a thing. MCC is a brilliant tournament that has changed the game for how MC Competitions have been done, and it is disheartening to see the hard work Noxcrew and Scott have done be disrespected as such. I hope next MCC the fandom can come together and make this the lovely fandom event it once was. 

[kinkymagnus]

Hey I've read a lot of your posts, where Magnus is a trans boy and I like that a lot, but I was wondering if you don't like the canon cis male Magnus? I'd ask you non-anonymously too, but I'm honestly scared of some people's hate messages for a question like this... sorry

long answer long answer lmao

hmgmgmnggg ok so i, hm. ok, i don’t think this was meant in a rude way at all, and i promise im in Education(TM) mode not Kill The Malicious Evil Transphobe(TM) mode like im not, accusing you of anything here, at all 

but i do have a few Issues with like, the way this was asked i guess

i will answer your question just--give me a sec, im a little uncomfortable here

also like, ok, i get why you’re sending it anonymously, it’s cool--personally i’ve never seen anyone get hate on behalf of trans magnus headcanons (rather than against them) but i mean, hate can come in all shapes and sizes i guess? and anxiety, so. whatever, it’s fine, i get it

but anyway moving on: first, “canon” cis magnus. my dude... my guy... did at any point magnus say I Am Cisgender or pull out his dick.... like... neither trans or cis magnus is really “canon” just as like, you know, izzy isn’t confirmed straight or bi or pan. we know she likes dudes and personally i think the way she looks at clary indicates she sure do like girls, too, but that doesn’t seem to have been intended so it’s debatable, and that’s basically it. 

also, in the context of just like... historical shit, realistically magnus isn’t cis. is he trans in the way i write about (like afab, “pre op”)? no, not necessarily in canon (although he isn’t... not that either i guess--we do see his flat chest, no scars, but HYPOTHETICALLY that could be a glamour, or the scars are magically healed. we know he has an adams apple, but there ways to do that without magic, let alone with magic. so like. i’m just saying.) 

but like, he wouldn’t be cis how we understand it either by the simple virtue of being much older than the western gender binary as we know it. even if he was born with a penis and all of that and identified as a Man(TM) And Nothing Else that wouldn’t mean his idea of masculinity/manhood would be the same as ours, or that it wouldn’t at least be shaped by very different factors. so like. even if my version of trans magnus isn’t confirmed canon, cis magnus certainly isn’t either i think. that might be slicing hairs or getting finnicky with language, but it’s how i feel about it. 

and just assuming that he’s canonically cis rubs me the wrong way, like, characters aren’t cishet by default, you know? obviously the writers probably weren’t intending to make him trans, and cc certainly wasn’t when she stole his character from dark hunters and made it “her own”, or else there’d be a bunch of transphobic tropes in there, but like, you know, death of the authors, we make sense of canon now. intentions arguably don’t matter, we do with the story what we will, especially when working within it.

again i don’t think you were necessarily being like “well magnus is canonically cis so :/” but it rubs me the wrong way and is something i’ve seen before so like, yeah

secondly, “trans boy” magnus versus “cis male” magnus. why boy, anon. why boy

(god why does “why boy” sound like a bizarre t-shirt slogan or a mbmbam segment--NO, BRAIN. WE ARE ON SERIOUS BUSINESS.) 

but seriously tho like the sort of infantilization of trans men is really a thing (seeing them as “soft bois” and “uwu cute boys” and feminine/soft/small/delicate) and like, specifically calling magnus a trans boy versus when he’s cis he’s a “male” (which technically can refer to any age but has those like, Connotations) sits wrong with me. like, magnus isn’t a boy, you know? i mean i get making jokes like “aw my boys <3″ or whatever, but with this it’s not that say memey context AND specifically it concerns a trans man (not to mention him being asian) so like, it feels, yikes? like just. he isn’t a “trans boy”

im sorry i realize it seems like im just like harshly picking apart your answer and i really dont mean to sound like a bitch here but like, again. Education(TM) mode not Anon Hate(TM) mode. just for learning, it’s cool, i’m not angry at you, it’s chill. 

to answer your question with the yikes language gently nudged to the trash chute: do i dislike cis magnus? 

simple answer: yes.

complicated answer: not really. i already stated why i don’t like Cis(TM) magnus as it feels unrealistic and dumb and also he just doesn’t have cis energy lmao, but if you just mean like... well this isn’t really “cis” but kind of what people mean in this context, AMAB magnus (meaning he was “assigned male at birth” aka has a penis and all that) and he’s canonically gnc so like, he’s “cis” even if his understanding of masculinity might be different than ours and obviously we’ve seen him be gnc and all that.... i don’t really hate that, and objectively, i have no issues with it, but personal taste wise, i basically only read/write trans magnus as you see on my blog now. because i’ve kind of absorbed it as “canon” in my head (fanon, i guess, lmao) 

plus, just generally trans magnus is really important to me because like, a) he is #goals i too want to be a muscular gnc hottie, b) he’s relatable and i project all my shit onto him lmao, c) it just feels very validating, in a lot of ways--with the sexual preferences i write about, his insecurities, just the way he looks, and him being trans is just kind of reassuring, you know? also d) i honestly think it fits him/his character/his backstory and he just has the vibes u kno 

so basically, Cis(TM) magnus? no-go. cis magnus as in AMAB/identifies as a man full stop even if it’s wibbly wobbly compared to current times and lbr no one is going to really explore that much beyond him being outwardly gnc sometimes? fine, whatever. trans afab magnus still being gnc as hell? yessssssss

ldkgjfgh anyway im glad you like my posts!!! and hopefully ive Inducted Another Into The Trans Magnus Cult (thats a joke, but seriously, im just like,,,,,maam do u have time for ur lord and savior trans magnus?? maam blease)  

[batwayneman]

Accomplice Chapter 6

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

The sound of loud, rambunctious voices made Jim suspicious as he walked into GCPD for the beginning of his shift.

It had only been a few days since Batman had literally dropped all of Tolbert's crimes on them, and those days had been filled with silence, punctuated only by sporadic whispering of worries and conspiracy theories.

Neither Tolbert nor the captain had been seen since they had left the break room.

The exuberant voices grew louder as Jim walked down the hall, until he turned a corner and nearly ran into the source of the noise. The group of officers quieted slightly.

"Whoa, sorry Gordon," said the man - Jim recognized him as Aaron Brenner. He made no move to get out of the way.

To Jim's knowledge, he wasn't actually affiliated with any of the mobs, but was far too eager to demonstrate and abuse the power that he had as an officer for them to be anything more than coworkers.

Brenner, and the rest of the group he was with were displaying the same frenzied excitement in person that their voices had been, shifting around restlessly, grinning at each other.

He looked them over quickly, immediately spotting a new model of bullet-proof vests that they were all wearing. Brenner and a few others were also carrying guns that Jim didn't recognize as the officially sanctioned models that they were supposed to carry.

One of the men mock-held the gun as if he was going to shoot the ceiling, tilting it to admire in the light, and Jim caught the edge of the GCPD logo on the side.

Oh.

The never-underfunded GCPD must have gotten a new shipment of weapons in; these ones looked like they were more suited for the military than the police.

"New guns?" He finally asked, taking the bait. The way they were flaunting their guns around made it clear they were desperate for someone to ask about them.

“Oh, this?" Brenner held up the gun like he had only just noticed it in his hand. "Commish put together a task force to take down the Bat vigilante. Spoke to the Mayor and got us some new gear to protect us." He was unable to keep a smirk off his face as he thumped his vest.

"Right," Jim said, inflectionless, hiding the anger flooding his veins.

They had gotten bullet-proof vests to protect against someone who had never once used a gun, and guns to shoot someone that few people had ever seen.

It was such a transparent, dishonest reason to bring more dangerous firepower into Gotham that Jim saw red. Last week Batman took down an arms dealer and they had celebrated, and today the commissioner brought in new arms himself.

How long would it take this time for the mobs and criminals to get this new model onto the streets?

It might already be too late, if the commissioner and Falcone used the same manufacturer.

Jim bit his tongue. Not only was the commissioner using Batman as an excuse to endanger Gotham's civilians by giving trigger-happy cops bigger and better guns, but he only seemed to care about the vigilante because Batman had gone after a cop for the first time.

The commissioner had ignored a potential threat against Gotham for months; only bothering to care after a move had been made against a police officer.

And the fact that Batman had probably already brought in more criminals than Brenner had in his whole career did not make Jim any less bitter.

"Well, good luck," Jim finally choked out, starting to side-step around them.

"Wait! Wait-wait, I just remembered!" Brenner said, suddenly excited again. "The commish wanted to see you in his office! Wanted to talk to you, or something."

Jim froze in place for a second, dread and annoyance settling heavy in his stomach.

"Great, thanks," he said, more sarcastically than he meant to, but the group didn't seem to notice his irritation.

When he ducked into one of the side hallways to go upstairs to the commissioner's office, Brenner and his friends had gone back to talking loudly in the middle of the hallway, ready to interrupt the next person to brag about their new guns.

Jim knocked once before entering the commissioner's office, not bothering to wait to be invited in.

He had once made Jim wait for half an hour outside of his office while he was on the phone, and Jim didn't intend to give him the chance to do so again.

"You wanted to see me?"

Commissioner Fred Eaton looked up from his computer, and his mouth ticked downwards into a frown.

Even just sitting behind a huge, rather ugly desk, Eaton had the air of smugness to him. He was a fit man; all the charity fundraisers and mob dinners didn't weigh on body him like it did some other men. Grey hair that was always kept perfectly neat, and a clean-shaven face with his expensive suits made him always look presentable for phoney photo ops.

He didn't look particularly ready for a picture now though, with his face twisted into a look of faint disgust, like he smelled something rotten but he was trying not to show it.

Jim's face probably looked the same.

"Yes, Detective Gordon. How's your, uh," he paused, "your, uh, case going?"

"It finished a few days ago, the paperwork will be done soon."

"Good, good," he said with a fake smile, glancing down a pile of papers on his desk.

"What do you want?" Jim said, sparing both of them from this going on any longer than it had to.

Eaton's mouth twisted further into a scowl, but he didn't say anything about Jim's rudeness.

"You were there, the other day, when the... Bat vigilante... left those files in the break room, yes?"

"Yes," Jim agreed slowly. Surely he wasn't in here to be punished for the near-fight with Tolbert, when other man had literally betrayed the most powerful mob in Gotham?

"Detective Tolbert has had to...leave the city, and-"

"Yes, I don't imagine that Falcone likes it when his people kill each other," Jim interrupted frankly. Eaton swallowed, visibly reining back his anger.

"As I was saying, Tolbert has had to leave Gotham, but unfortunately it seems Captain Graham has followed suit."

It took Jim a few seconds to process what the commissioner had said. "The captain left too? I didn't know he was named in any of the files."

"Er, no, he wasn't," he broke off again. The silence stretched between them, as Eaton tried to think of a reasonable excuse for why someone would abandon their prestigious job as a captain, that wasn't 'he was going to be killed by the mob'.  

"You can admit that he was with Falcone too, it's not a secret," Jim said sourly.

Sighing, Eaton ran his hand over his face, suddenly looking exhausted and forlorn.

"Captain Graham was supposed to be supervising Tolbert's... activities," Eaton admitted.

Jim twitched his eyebrows down slightly. "Funny, as a captain, I thought he was supposed to supervise all of the detectives, not just the ones in the mob's pocket," he said, trying to keep the tension out of his voice.

They stared at each other for an instant, before Eaton huffed out a bitter laugh with a small shake of his head.

"Well Detective Gordon," he said, grabbing some papers off his desk and straightening them, before walking around his desk to stand in front of Jim, "since you know so much about being captain, why don't you do it?"

Jim stiffened, looking at the paperwork in his hand and back at the man himself. "Excuse me?"

"The reason that I called you to my office was to tell you that you're replacing Graham. Congratulations," Eaton said, voice dripping sarcasm. He was unable to keep the smug smirk off his face, thoroughly enjoying one-upping Jim.

"What the hell are you playing at?" Jim demanded, angry now. He had been qualified for years to be a captain, and he knew that it was his stout refusal to do business with the mob that had kept him from the promotion.

Until now, apparently.

The commissioner just tilted his head in mock-confusion.

Jim exhaled through his teeth. "Why now?" He clarified, once he was sure that had control of his voice again.

"Because it is required that someone is named captain for our files. Don't worry, absolutely nothing else is changing. It's a puppet title; all decisions will be made by me," Eaton smiled maliciously.

"If you don't want someone to do the actual job, there are lots of other officers who'd be better at it, I'm sure," Jim spat.

"Of course! But at least you'll actually be able to complete the paperwork." His fake smile faded into a deep scowl when Jim didn't respond. "Believe me, you were not my first choice. But here we are. So...?" He gave the papers in his hand a condescending shake and looked at Jim expectantly.

In an ideal world, Jim would like nothing more than to slap the pages out of the commissioner's hands and tell him to go fuck himself; to go find another pawn to do his bidding.

But Jim wouldn't. If he could do even one thing as a captain to help Gotham that he couldn't do as a detective, if he saved even one more person this way, then it would be worth it any indignity that Eaton could dish out.

Jim reached out and grabbed the paperwork from Eaton's hands.

"Wonderful," Eaton grinned, walking back behind his desk and sitting down.

Gritting his teeth, he turned to leave, but stopped before he reached the door.

He turned to look at the commissioner, who sitting peacefully again in his office, happy that he had gotten his way. For a moment, the image of the new firearms that Eaton had brought into Gotham - a city already drowning in bullets - was all that Jim could see.

"I ran into your new task force downstairs," he exclaimed, meeting Eaton’s eyes.

"Oh really? What did you think?" He flashed his poisonous smile again.

"I think that Falcone must be really upset with you for losing Tolbert and the ca- the former captain. It seems pretty desperate; trying to get back into his good books again by taking down the Bat," Jim said pleasantly.

Eaton's smile disappeared in an instant, and his hand clenched where it was sitting on the desk. "Just get to work Gordon," he grumbled, looking back at his computer.

Jim smiled slightly, and closed the door softly behind him.

The following months saw the last of Gotham's spring fade into a hot, humid summer, punctuated with intense bouts of thunder and rain storms.

As Commissioner Eaton had promised, nothing changed at the GCPD.

The mob fighting had fizzled out gradually, in fits and starts, as casualties on all sides became too high for anyone to continue their warpath. The only thing left behind from the months of fighting was a pile of bodies, and further strained relationships between the mobs.

Gotham's summer heat and storms had not deterred Batman, who still seemed to stop crimes nearly every night. Predictably the task force had had no success in hunting him; the closest they had come to finding something new was when they discovered a dulled bat shuriken, which they had officially called batarangs. The dulled ones seemed to be used in combat, while the razor sharp ones were always found far away from the fighting.

Jim hadn't been able to get his hands on any of the dulled ones; the only batarang - which he thought was a stupid name - that he had was the original one from the would-be arsonist case. It was kept hidden in the bottom of the drawer in his desk that also housed his secret mob files in his desk.

Despite himself, Jim found himself begrudgingly grateful that Batman was sticking with Gotham for the summer. After all, Gotham in the summer was hardly a nice place to be, the longer days and warmer temperatures caused an increase in general crime every year. The humidity brought out smog that was thick and heavy in everyone's lungs, and the stench of the hot litter mixed with seawater was known to make entire blocks on the east side reek during hot spells. And then the dampness, the humidity and fog, the endless drizzly days and torrential downpours that soaked the city.

Jim loved Gotham in the summer.

He loved it throughout the entire year of course, but the summer meant going to Robinson Park with Barbara, now that she was done school for the summer, and getting ice cream from the little shop on the corner that had been there since Jim was a kid. He could go to her gymnastic classes more often with the summer schedule. When the instructors told her that though she had executed the flip perfectly, but that she should work on being more graceful, she found his gaze in the viewing area and rolled her eyes before throwing herself back in, and he was so proud.

And if all the extra shifts and extra crime made things more difficult in the summer, having Batman helping out this summer was certainly making things easier.

When the call came in for a dead body found in Old Gotham, Jim chose Bullock to come with him. Sarah was technically available, and absolutely would have come if he needed her to, but she had never been as comfortable with dead bodies.

Besides, the body was found right outside one of Falcone's main properties, so  Bullock's familiarity with mob politics might be needed, if the crime turned out to be mob related.

"Where's the body again?" Bullock said, starting the car with vigour. Jim was letting him drive for once.

"Two blocks north of Crime Alley. Body was found near that new bus stop they put in."

"Aye aye," Bullock responded with a smirk and a waggle of his eyebrows. It had taken nearly two months for Bullock to stop responding to everything Jim said with "yes sir Mr Captain", but apparently he wasn't quite finished with the pirate jokes.

Yawning, Jim took off his glasses and ran his hand down his face. There wasn't much time left in his shift, and it had been a busy night. Just a few hours earlier Batman had beat him to the house of a suspected kidnapper by just a few minutes. Jim had been in his car on his way to arrest the man when the call had come in that Batman had already been there, and the suspect was apprehended and the victim was safe.

Jim was mostly just glad to have that messy case done with, and was only slightly bitter that Batman had beat him by mere minutes.

The drive seemed to take a long time, or maybe Jim was just too accustomed to racing around at breakneck speeds.

There wasn't much need to rush when the body was already dead and there were no witnesses.

When they finally did get to the crime scene, Jim took his time, pausing to wrap his trench-coat more firmly around him. A cold front was starting to blow in, bringing with it a promise of a storm that would break the heat wave they had been in. The wind ruffled his hair as he followed a few steps behind Bullock towards where the body was.

He must have been a little more tired than he realized, because it took him a second to realize that the dead body wasn't lying anywhere on the ground. He peered around Bullock's large frame, looking for it.

Jim froze, exhaustion replaced by alarm in an instant. Dread and fear formed a hard pit in his stomach; radiating cold throughout his whole body, all the way to his fingertips.

They hadn't described the body on the call, and Jim had assumed that it would be like most dead bodies in Gotham; lying on the ground from a gun-shot wound.

It wasn't. The body was sitting upright on the bus stop; umbrella propped up next to it.

And Jim already knew that the man had died of a slit throat.

"What?" Bullock asked, sensing that Jim had stopped moving, turning to look at him. "Gordon?"

"This is Zsasz's work,” he said dully, walking up and standing squarely in front of the body of the dead man. The hat had been pulled low on the corpse's face, hiding its neck from view.

Bullock froze too, whirling to stare at the body.

"Could be a copycat killer," he pointed out optimistically.

"No, we kept all the details of the murders out of the press, specifically to prevent imitators. This -" Jim gestured to the whole scene in front of them; the recreation of the first murder scene from years ago- "was only ever in police records."

“Yeah, but those police records aren't exactly private anymore." Bullock chuckled darkly under his breath. "Hey, do you think that maybe Batman-"

"Oh, what the hell is wrong with you?" Jim snapped at him.

"Alright, alright, sorry," Bullock said, not really sounding sorry at all. He took a closer look at the body, lifting the dead man's hat off his head, and leaning closer, before suddenly recoiling slightly. Humour drained from his face like water into a storm drain. "Oh fuck."

"What?" Jim leaned closer, the ball of dread growing larger. What could possibly make Zsasz's return worse?

"This is Dan Gotti," Bullock stepped back, revealing the middle-aged, balding, dead man. "He was in charge of controlling Falcone's labour unions. He's tight with Falcone, has been since forever."

Jim ran his hand down his moustache, forcing himself to think around the fear knotting in his stomach. "Why would Falcone have one of his own men killed? Unless Gotti betrayed him?"

"Not Gotti," Bullock shook his head firmly, "He and Falcone were real close. Falcone even had him under his own personal protection." Bullock paused. "I guess not anymore."

They both stared at the body; the sightless pale eyes and the gash along the neck. Bullock swore vigorously under his breath, walking away from the body, pulling his flask out of a pocket, and taking a swig. Jim took a deep breath and knelt down closer to study the corpse.

It looked similar to all of Zsasz's victims; slit neck, propped up in a terrible parody of life. But looking closer, there were differences with this one.

Jim furrowed his eyebrows. This body's lip was split, and there was a purpling bruise on the right cheek.

In theory, Jim supposed that the man could have just gotten into a fight before he was killed, but his instincts told him something else. He rolled up the man's cuff, on a whim.

There was a ring of bruising around the wrist; like the man had been tied up too tightly before he had died.

And the hands themselves, Jim now noticed, had several broken fingers, with three fingernails missing.

"Harvey, come look at this."

Bullock lumbered back over. They were both quiet while he looked over the body the same way that Jim had.

"So, Zsasz had some fun before he killed him, I guess," Bullock said, standing up and taking another sip from his flask.

"But none of the other victims ever showed any signs of physical torture before. It was always just the slash to the neck. Why is this one different?" Jim asked, narrowing his eyes at the body.

"Maybe it really is a copycat killer," Bullock said, but he sounded more bitter than optimistic.

"No, this is definitely Zsasz's work. Something else has changed." Jim pursed his lips together tightly, trying to rearrange the facts in his head into a something that made sense. "He killed one of Falcone's own men. Tortured him and left his body outside Falcone's main territory but why-" he broke off, a terrible thought taking hold of his brain - "You're sure that he couldn't possibly be a traitor?" Everything would be so much easier if he was.

"No, he was as loyal as they come."

"Goddammit," Jim swore under his breath.

Only one explanation was left then, and it was the last thing he wanted to deal with.

Jim heaved himself to his feet. "Zsasz isn't working with Falcone. Someone else must have broken him out in the first place, and now that person is using him against Falcone." Jim looked at Bullock desperately, hoping that he might have hidden information about who could have pulled off using Falcone's former hitman to murder his right-hand man, and leave the body in his front yard.

"Well, it's not Fish or Maroni. There's no way they're patient enough to wait this long before using Zsasz." Bullock sounded so much older, without his typical humour colouring his words. "I didn’t think..." He trailed off, muttering under his breath.

"What?" The dread that had been slowly disappearing as Jim managed put together the story returned with full force, cold and heavy in his chest.

"There were... rumours... months ago, of a new guy trying to start up his own gang. Apparently he was the one who took out one of Fish's men a while back. She was furious, but never found him. They barely recognized the body after everything the Penguin did to him. I guess torture is his thing."

Jim raised his eyebrow. "He's called 'The Penguin'? Seriously?"

Bullock snorted, a harsh, abrupt sound, but didn't say anything more.

"You never mentioned him before," Jim said mildly.

"Didn't really think he was the real deal. Definitely didn't think he had the balls to taunt Falcone."

The rumbling of a stuttering engine made them both look up, as a crime scene cleanup van rolled up. Jim nodded at them as they got out of the car, signalling that they were done with the body.

He spared one last look at the dead man, before walking to stand a little ways away, Bullock right beside him. He leaned against the rough stone wall of a nearby building, momentarily sheltered from the cool wind that was getting harder and harder.

He pulled out his pipe, loaded and lit it quickly, the actions automatic from years of practise.

"Seriously?" Bullock said, staring pointedly at the pipe.

"What?"

"You were smoking when the call came in!"

He exhaled smoke and glared at him witheringly over his glasses. "I'm not accepting any judgement from a guy who carries a flask in his pocket," he said, holding the pipe between his teeth as he spoke.

"You can't prove that it's not a healthy smoothie," Bullock said indignantly, but he couldn't quite keep a smirk off his face.

Jim snorted loudly.

They stood by the wall for several minutes, Jim smoking and Bullock drinking side by side. It could have been a nice night, except for the gruesome murder, and the knowledge that there was yet another gangster to worry about.

And this one, in a city known for being gruesome, was considered ruthless by Fish of all people.

In the quiet of the night, Jim started to chuckle lowly under his breath.

"You wanna share the joke Cap’n?" Bullock looked at him sideways.

"It's just, it's just that," Jim forced back a near-hysterical chortle, "we've got Fish, Batman, and now a Penguin." He turns to look at Bullock. "We're in a fucking zoo!"

Bullock burst into barking laughter. "What'll the next exhibit be?"

"Well," Jim said between chuckles, "Maroni always kinda reminded me of a peacock. Always trying to show off."

"Not to mention his fucking strut!" They both broke into renewed laughter, ignoring the strange looks the clean-up crew was shooting them.

"Do they even have peacocks in Italy?" Jim snickered.

"I don't fucking know," Bullock said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Wait - wait. What does that make Falcone?"

They both fell into silence, thinking. A gust of wind blew some litter down the street, which disappeared into the shadows.

"He's a snake," Jim finally said, taking one last draw of his pipe. Bullock huffed quietly.

Cunning and deadly, choking the life out of Gotham to feed himself; the metaphor worked well for Gotham's longest reigning gangster.

Jim's exhaled smoke floated away, as the weight of Zsasz's return and the Penguin's entry weighing on them again, stealing the good-natured laughter from before.

"It's a helluva zoo," Bullock muttered under his breath.

Jim furrowed his eyebrows, staring into the dark shadows of the street corner.

"Batman doesn't know about Zsasz," he said suddenly, giving a voice to the unease in his chest.

"What are you talking about? Batman's been in the police records for months. He can definitely find out about Zsasz."

"No, I mean -" Jim broke off, trying to put his distressed thoughts to words -"I mean that he doesn't know about how Zsasz worked for Falcone. I left that out of the official reports, after Renee had to leave."

"So?" Bullock sounded exasperated now.

"So Batman won't see that this murder was a threat against Falcone. It'll just look like Zsasz the murderer is back, not that Zsasz the fucking mob hitman is back."

"Jim," Bullock said, eyebrows climbing increasingly higher on his face, "are you worried for the Batman?"

"No," Jim said quickly, but his gut twisted when he realized that he wasn't sure whether he was lying or not, "No, I'm just pointing out that Batman doesn't have all the information this time. He can't exactly fly in and solve the case like normal without the info."

Bullock continued to look at Jim like his hair had turned bright blue. "Well, what are you going to do about it? And since when have you cared about what Batman is doing in the first place?"

"I was just pointing it out," Jim repeated, sounding meek even to his own ears.

Bullock stared at him, but thankfully let it drop, and they fell into silence again, watching the crime scene cleaners move to gather up the dead body.

"We might as well head back. If Penguin was confident enough to taunt Falcone with the body of his right-hand man, he's not going to leave clues around," Jim said dejectedly.

"Want me to drop you off right at your apartment?"

"You are not driving after chugging your flask," Jim said, raising his eyebrow, judging. "And I have something I need to do in my office anyway," he added on, an idea blooming in his mind, despite the pang of the anxiety in his stomach.

Jim's office was very similar to most other offices in the GCPD building. It wasn't used for impromptu meetings with Sarah and Bullock as often as their offices were, because Jim's was tucked away far from the hustle of high traffic hallways. There were only two things in Jim's office that made it unique. One was the window, with a view of eastern Gotham.

The other was the stack of files, hidden under more mundane paperwork, that detailed all the information that Jim been gathering about the mob over the years.

The official police report may not mention that Zsasz had anything to do with Falcone, but Jim had kept a record nevertheless. The file in his desk had held all the details of the case, including the records and proof of how Falcone had used Zsasz as a hitman to intimidate and attack the other mobs.

That particular report was no longer sitting hidden inside his desk.

Jim splashed cold water on his face, trying to shake himself out of his thoughts. It was nearly dawn, not that anyone could tell with the pouring rain outside. It had been hours since he had gotten home, and he hadn't been able to stop himself from fixating on the stupid pile of paper.

He still can barely believe that he dared take it out in the first place.

But he had, had taken Zsasz's truthful report and had haphazardly cleared a spot of it in the middle of his cluttered desk and-

He sighed, staring at his reflection - blurry without his glasses - in the mirror. "You can't even admit it to yourself," he muttered at his reflection, which thankfully didn't reply.

When he had returned to the GCPD building, he had gone to his office and put Zsasz's accurate report on the middle of his desk. He put new batteries in his biggest flashlight, and he had propped it up against some files so that it shone out the window. He had left the window closed, but unlocked. Most people who could see it from the street would just assume that he had left his lights on.

Jim's plan really counted on Batman's ability to recognize the difference between the normal lighting and a single flashlight.

He sighed again, breaking eye contact with himself as he rubbed tiredly at his moustache.

At the office, he had been so full of anger and fear at Zsasz's reappearance in Gotham, so full of desperation to do something more than just send a mere memo to the GCPD and tell them that a serial killer was back. And so he had left out a clue for a vigilante.

The guilty writhing in his stomach forced him to bend, leaning against the sink, with his head in his hands.

He couldn't even explain to himself why he had done it. Whether leaving the information was a cry for help, showing Batman how dangerous Zsasz really was, to try to get him to take him down - or whether he was just trying to warn the vigilante, so that Jim wouldn't have to respond to a call that ended with the Batman with his neck slit.

Even now, despite the horror and shame he felt at what he had done, the image of the shapeless form of Batman's dead body on the ground made his blood turn cold.

But did it even matter why he had left the information? He had done the one thing he said he would never do.

He had colluded with a criminal.

He had willingly shared information - information that was so outrageous that it had literally driven Renee out of Gotham - with a vigilante that he knew almost nothing about. His whole career had been spent lamenting and complaining about his fellow officers' dealings with the mobs, only to turn around and do the same thing.

But it wasn't the implied plea for help, or the nonsensical worry for Batman that was making Jim feel like scum, and it wasn't even the fact that he had shared information with a criminal.

It was that he didn't feel remorseful at all for leaving Zsasz's information. The fact that he couldn't bring himself to regret his actions was by far what was making him feel like his gut was digesting itself.

He had made a solemn promise to himself, when he first got his badge, that he would never work with criminals; that he would be different than the corrupt police that he had grown up with and worked with. He should be mourning his broken promise, cursing himself for doing the unthinkable.

He was not.

Because times had changed; there was a vigilante flying around Gotham nightly, and for Jim to continue to deny that Batman was helping Gotham far more than he was hurting it would be negligence.

He met the gaze of his own reflection again. Was it was better to break his promise, and give information to Batman; or to uphold it, and let Gotham suffer for his stubbornness?

His mouth twitched slightly upwards. He already had his answer, much as it pained him; had had it since he had shone his flashlight out the window. It was a decision made of months of watching Batman save people, months of fewer muggings, of drug dealers off the streets, of murderers and rapists and child abusers put behind bars.

If his ultimate purpose for being a police officer was to truly help Gotham, then he had to give Batman - someone who had proven again and again his commitment to putting away its criminals without killing them - every opportunity to help, to do more than Jim could.

And if Jim's information helped Batman at all in bringing down Zsasz, it was absolutely worth all the guilt and pain that the decision was causing him.

Helping Gotham always came first.

Besides, he thought, finally settling back into his bed, even if Batman did see his meagre signal for what it was, if he would have to be able to reach it.

And Jim still wasn't convinced that Batman could fly.

[bondsmagii]

hey uh, i don't wanna be rude, like i know men aren't all axe murderers, but that Shining post sounds like it was about the potential for abuse in men? as someone who loves King, i can't read the book bc jack is a mirror image of my loud, violent stepfather. running, hiding, the suspense of hearing his angry footsteps - that's what i think the post was about. how yeah, obvi not all men are influenced by demonic forces, but they still have the potential to strike that One Specific Fear in others

like i know jack was under the control of the hotel, but he was violent towards his family prior to that. the way his family interacted with him, even before any contact with the hotel - that’s a very real, very common, and very scary situation that the malicious sentient hotel just magnified. that’s what i think OP had in mind with that post

I see what you mean, but I still think that post is moronic and kind of disrespectful to Jack’s character. a huge part of the book was about how Jack was abusive, and how he terrorised his family, and how he himself came from abuse. but another huge part of the book was how Jack was trying with everything he had to better himself and not make those mistakes again. does this excuse him from his previous abuse? no. does it make it right? no. but somewhere along the line Jack realised he was repeating the cycle of addiction and abuse he had come from and he decided to try to change it. Wendy decided to give him that chance, which is her choice. it doesn’t come across in the film (and King, I believe, dislikes the adaption because it does leave so much out) but Jack was making a pretty solid go of it. he was actually succeeding in changing himself.

for me, a huge part of the horror comes from the fact that Jack meant well, and was doing well, and would have likely succeeded and turned his life around and become a good husband and father had the hotel not corrupted him. clearly Jack had those malicious forces somewhere inside him – it was the same part of him that made him an abuser, after all. but it’s said often that what makes us good or bad are the choices we make, and Jack chose to better himself. the scary element, for me, is that that choice was then ripped from him, and he was forced into doing what he feared the most: hurting his wife and child. I cannot think of anything more horrific for a parent.

so while I can see what you’re saying, I have to disagree when you say that OP had what you’re saying in mind. its flippancy, its dismissive tone, and the current culture on tumblr makes me think it was simply another one of those posts that seems to truly believe that every single man out there is an abuser. this culture has grown so incessant that it’s even stripped this argument from me: I’ll probably just get accused of being another one of those ‘not all men’ types even though what I’m saying is true. not all men are abusive. men don’t just “be like” that. The Shining has a lot of other complex things going on and if all you take away from it is that Jack chased Wendy with a baseball bat then you’ve really not taken anything else into account. I can totally understand why people who have been abused by men might dislike the book/film and feel uncomfortable re: Jack’s character, but if you’re trying to tell me that that particular post wasn’t meant as a flippant, generalising insult, I have to disagree.

[yaz-the-spaz]

I wasn't policing you... Like at all? As I stated multiple times, my question wasn't an attack on you or your blog, it was a genuine question as to how those two stories connected. Janelle was there to perform a song, which she did. How were they supposed to know that she wanted to make a speech if it was randomly attached at the end? And as for the kid, this is the today show getting scared because he's suing certain people and news outlets for defamation. They're giving the kid a platform...

… Because he was wrongfully villianised by the media for a whole week and had death threats sent to him and his family, as well as bomb threats to his school. The difference between the two was the fact that he was scheduled for an interview and she wasn’t. Still, honestly not trying to attack you, rather giving the situation a little more perspective. I wasn’t asking that question out of malice and I apologise if it came off that way.

i didn’t make the post? if you can’t see any connection then whatever, but idk why i should be the one to explain that to you, maybe ask the original poster? not me? as i said i mostly reblogged for the quote and when you come to someone’s blog criticizing what they choose to post that’s…kinda policing

like if you had just asked ‘why did you post such and such’ that would be one thing. that would have come off as more of an innocent and ‘genuine’ question. but when you come to someone asking why they posted something and then proceed to list all the reasons why you disagree with said post or the message behind it, you’re essentially saying ‘i don’t like that you reblogged this post/you shouldn’t have reblogged this post and here’s why’…and that’s essentially policing*

and like i get that you said you weren’t trying to be rude but…i’m not sure how else you expect it to be taken when you come to a blog and make a whole big thing out of a reblog? esp when you could have just as easily just ignored the post or even unfollowed me. like…personally i’ve never gone to another blog (on anon or otherwise) to go on a whole tirade about a post i don’t like or don’t agree with, b/c it’s not my blog and it’s just unnecessary. i either just ignore the posts or unfollow the person, it’s that simple. so to me having someone come here and go on and on and start all this about the meaning behind a reblog, even though you said it wasn’t meant to be malicious, feels a bit malicious to me cause like i just don’t see the point otherwise? i reblogged something, you disagreed with it, and for whatever reason you decided to make your dislike known by sending in four asks about it when you could have just kept scrolling? if you really, truly, genuinely didn’t understand the connection and this all was actually just innocent curiosity (which considering how long you’ve gone on about it and everything behind it it doesn’t feel like it was) but if that’s really all you were coming here to ask about then idk how i can help you, cause again i didn’t make the post and didn’t choose to put those two images/headlines together, i simply saw something meaningful in it and reblogged, and that’s all there is to it

(and as for the other stuff i’m not saying i expected them to know janelle was gonna make a speech but like…generally when they have those performances the host and the crew are watching along with the performance as it happens [and presumably would’ve seen her start to make the speech] and they do have the power to extend air time/delay commercial breaks cause they do that all the time when they want to for certain stories, and as i said if they felt it was important enough they could’ve done that or they even still could’ve circled back after the break and given a quick interview with janelle re-hashing what she said or replayed the footage of the speech in its entirety later which are all things they’ve done with other stories they deem important enough but they didn’t do any of that and to me when you see them taking the time out to do that for other stories that they deem important enough to do it for and not this one it hurts on a personal level b/c this is something that affects my community and it feels like they don’t feel this was important to do that for and that hurts and makes me feel some type of way about media and media focus/portrayal, as for the boy that’s a whole other can of worms that i won’t get into rn cause i just don’t have the energy and this has already gone on long enough…could the op have chosen better examples for the post? sure. but again i didn’t make it and i shouldn’t be the one to have to explain the meaning behind it or why i chose to reblog it to you, a faceless blob on anon)