#aka the destruction part of the trilogy

[meadowsofmay]

thanks to julia now i am thinking about thranduil seeing his son grieving his friends after the passing of gimli, the last mortal one, in undying lands. him sitting by his side on the shore, hugging his hunched shoulders, and legolas leaning onto him, hiding his tear-stained face in his chest as he mutters almost illegibly their names. one by one. starting with aragorn and finishing with the hobbits.

i grew accustomed to the thought that i would lose most of them in the battle, he says, clutching his father's bright green gentle robes, but why does it hurt so much more to lose them to the passing of time, father?

thranduil shuts his eyes tightly and kisses the crown of his son's golden hair, as he takes a deep breath to say the truth that he himself barely accepted,

the war is over, my love.

legolas stills in his embrace, only the rapid beating if his heart gives away his inner turmoil. thranduil is all the more aware of it as it is his guidance on how well of a job he does to console his son.

it might be hard to accept, but legolas, don't grieve those who left the world of living content and settled and loved. they won't want that of you. they would want you to remember, his hand softly finds its way on legolas' chest, and i know you will, you will keep them close for they were the most dear to you. so it's okay to cry, it's okay to hurt for goodbye is always the hardest part. but they deserved their peace after all the great deeds they dedicated themselves to. hold onto that because it is time for you to let yourself accept your well-deserved peace, too.

and he is left to only hope that legolas will listen. that he won't torture his gentle but all the more stoic heart with the memories of funerals. thranduil can only hope as his son fell into slumber in his hands to the sound of waves' lulling murmur.

[riptidesblog]

Would it be a better writing choice to have the Dragon Form prophecy be a lost part of the green ninja one and not an opposite to one's Oni blood?Oni form can be accessed by oni/part Oni so the dragon form that is on the opposite side of the spectrum should be relatively same(and have the person actually turn into a dragon).The one we got can be a power-up accessible to the protectors of the green ninja.Like,the s2 has it's happy ending...but then in the s3 at the start multiple characters claim about smth not feeling right.The characters being members of the fsm family,ninja and especially Zane bc he has 6th sense.The viewers are led to believe that the prophecy wasn't completed and the reason is virus Overlord.S4 doesn't change.In s5 have the ghosts and the Cloud Kingdom scribes mention it again.Morro saying it can easily be mistaken for a part of his obsession with being the green ninja(partly true but also him getting that info from Preeminent or from Fenwick). Fenwick or Nobu can say smth with a hidden meaning(for example when Fenwick is saying that they're the ones who chose the gn he says "we're the ones that chose Lloyd for the destiny that awaits him" or "...chose Lloyd to defeat the evil prophecy speaks of".Could have Zane clarify that little detail but the four aren't given a straight answer).Oni trilogy rolls around and everyone thinks it's ressurected Garmadon.He's defeated.They celebrate.In s10 still there is something wrong.Everyone assumes it's the Oni.By Crystallized we learn that the prophecy we know isn't a full version.Instead of looking for a Dragon Form Wu and Misako look for the rest of the prophecy.Eventually they find the power up meant for the protectors of the chosen one and use it.Ninja get the golden wings and etc. They're present in the battle against Overlord and it'd be nice to have Lloyd unlock both forms and shift between them and serve as balance (the team is creation and garm is destruction. Lloyd?He is the balance between all).In the end they confirm that the feeling they had before is gone aka prophecy is finally done.

[sepublic]

Finally got around to watching Dune Part 2 and that was a wonderfully haunting ending. Everyone just going along in a way almost oblivious, from Stilgar who pushed for Paul mainly for his people’s sake, only to become a fanatic; Or Gurney, who was so caught up in his own revenge plot against Rabban that in his high of triumph, he doesn't realize what he's doing to the kid he was meant to train and protect.

And Chani, especially! The way the film ends with her, it's almost as if... The entire movie is re-contextualized as being from her perspective. It's a story about someone helplessly watching as she sees the monster she unwittingly created, watches everything she knew and loved become perverted. She's the only sane person essentially, so it makes sense to approach the movie with Chani as the audience surrogate.

She represents the Fremen, who they really are, and the horror at what they've become, the death of who they used to be until the colonizers came in. I'm reminded of that scene from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where Maul is screeching desperately that they'll all burn and die, and nobody knows what they're doing; Despairing cries falling on deaf ears. The final shot reminds us of who was the first forsaken by the Lisan Al-Gaib; Chani, AKA the Fremen.

I wonder what happens to Chani; I'm not familiar with the books, but I wouldn't be surprised if Chani just disappears from the narrative after Paul deposes the Emperor. I've heard through cultural osmosis that Dune Part 2 changes the original book to have more involvement and perspective from its female characters. So I wonder if the book ended with Chani in mind as well, or if that was an addition made by Denis Villeneuve.

Because as it stands, I think there's a lot of beauty if that's the last we see and hear of Chani; The ambiguity. The name and face lost to history; People will remember Paul and Princess Arulan, but they won't know about Chani. Maybe she lives the rest of her life out in self-imposed exile, because at first she could support this for the sake of her people, but now? What has she done??!!?

Maybe she'll be haunted for the rest of her life, thinking about what could've gone differently. How Chani could've prevented things, if only she'd said this. Maybe she considers it was out of her hands entirely given how easily Jessica controlled her, it could've been anyone else; In the end Chani didn't matter. Is this a relief? Or is this just despair, that the Fremen were destined for doom? It's a final note inserted by the adaptation to re-contextualize the source material itself; I've heard people discuss that the films are essentially more feminist than the book, so it's like the underrepresented perspective has been given a voice, be it women and/or Fremen.

And if Part 2 is Chani's story, then conversely, Part 1 is Paul's; Obviously, Chani had a minimal role in the first film. And I think that makes a lot of sense, because we get the background for Paul, the set up, the destruction of House Atreides that motivates him for revenge, and the rest... The rest is the natural conclusion to all that. The first part is us entering Arrakis as outsiders like Paul, while the second part is from the more experienced perspective of the Fremen Chani, who shows us the other angle; Her people being usurped by a white savior. Both films, one about Paul, the other about Chani, and how they helplessly see their clans 'destroyed' in a sense.

I think I recall hearing that Villeneuve intends for there to be a trilogy? So the first two films are about the first Dune novel, and the third and final will cover the next book, which I believe has Leto II; So essentially, a follow up that skips forward into the future to explore what new world order Paul has made. Because if Part 1 is about the outsider's perspective, and Part 2 is the insider's, then Part 3 is how the future generation looks back and sees the past; It's about how the legacy of Paul Atreides lingers on in their historical narrative.

...Everything I just said could all be completely wrong. But in the end, it's quite simple; Chani good.

[the-far-bright-center]

The Prequels completed the saga

"The original idea for Star Wars was one movie about the tragedy of Darth Vader. But as the story grew, it ended up being three movies and the backstory was never explained. I decided it would be important to finish it off and do the backstory because things that I thought would be self-evident about the story, the audience didn't get. Over the 10 years after Return of the Jedi, I realized people misunderstood a lot—such as where Anakin came from. So it was a way of finishing the whole thing off." —George Lucas

Lucas repeatedly says here that the Prequels were his way of 'finishing off' the story that he began telling in the Original Trilogy. This is pretty crucial information, but it is yet another element of Lucas' saga that is continually misunderstood. Even after the Prequels were released, not only did many fans STILL completely miss the point of Anakin/Vader as a character (and the fact that his rise, fall, and redemption was the main plotline of the story), but they also failed to appreciate the various ways in which the Prequels mirrored, complemented, and, most importantly, FINISHED the saga. Nowhere is this completion made more explicit than in the RotS novelization (which was written in consultation with Lucas), which states: "it is already over. Nothing can be done to change it". The novelization was released alongside the film in 2005, and it was specifically intended to refer to the events of the Original Trilogy and the Prequels. Far too many fans these days like to apply that famous line to whatever part of 'Star Wars' they want, and in doing so, treat the Disney-canon and Lucas-canon as though they were interchangeable. They are absolutely not. Lucas' saga—aka, the Skywalker saga—is a complete story constructed as two trilogies that perfectly balance one another, both visually and thematically. Disney's canon, by contrast, is inconsistent, incoherent, and open-ended, not to mention inherently destructive to the integrity of the (original) Skywalker saga. It's disingenuous to try to apply that quote to the current Disney canon, which didn't even exist in 2005 and was not factored into that statement at all. The whole point of the Prequels, and particularly the tragic climax of Revenge of the Sith, was to retroactively conclude the story of the Skywalker saga that began with the Original Trilogy. And what story is that? In Lucas' own words, "it’s a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that’s...the end of the story."

[caw4brandon]

Found Families and Why We Love Them

Dominic Toretto once said "I don’t have friends, I got family" with that in mind, that will be our intro for today! Although we find that iconic line cheesy as cheese, the audience loves a great found-family setup.

Something about how a bunch of misfits and inconsiderate douchebags developing to be a family of their own in spite of their quirkiness and tragic backgrounds makes us love them more than the typical and already functional groups. Like most families, there is the father, the mother, and the child. The rest is kind of subjective.

I've talked a little bit about actual families via [The Addams Family] but I think Found Families are a different breed. Let's discuss that and explain why we love them so much~

- Crows Never Forget -

While conversing with a friend I've met on Tumblr. My friend suggested that I should watch the show < Shadow and Bone > based on the Grisha Trilogy by [Leigh Bardugo] The story mainly follows Alina Starkov who lives in a world divided by the haunting dark cloud placed at the center of the three counties known as; The Fold.

Aside from the main plot you can already guess if you know enough fiction. The show features a merry band of dangerous outcasts. The Six of Crows from Ketterdam. Led by the cunning leader; Kaz "Dirty Hands" Brekker.

The team is supported by, Inej Ghafa The Assassin, Nina Zenik The Heartrender, Jesper Fahey The Sharpshooter, Matthias Helvar The Convict, and Wylan Van Eck The Runaway. Like every group that shares this type of beat. The teammates do not trust one another and are only united for the cause.

This will develop as the series goes on and their trust will change from strangers to allies to family beneath the backdrop of a sinfully cut-throat and exciting city. While the series only showed Five of the Six so far. I've grown very quickly to love this group for their chemistry and their respective motivations to stay as a team.

What's so interesting to watch is, despite how typical this trope is. I still couldn't keep my eyes off this concept. It's so much fun to see the Six interact even though for now, it's just Kaz, Inej, and Jesper (also, The Goat; Milo) planning a heist to kidnap our heroine. On the other end of the world, we learn about Matthias and Nina. The Convict and The Witch (Matthias's words, not mine)

Dysfunctional groups like these feel very human. They don't act like they care for the world or for one another but instead, grow in the process.

Similarly, another dysfunctional group called < The Guardians of The Galaxy > shares the same vibes as the Six. Their talent is great but it's their destructive tendencies or personal vendettas that make them less like heroes. Rather, they are people who just so happened to be doing heroics.

- Where is your Supervisor? -

Part of the trick in making fun found families is the will to condense the group down to about four or three characters. In most Shonen manga/ anime, the main character (eg, Naruto) is often supported by a lancer character (eg, Sasuke) and the heart (eg, Sakura) There is also the mentor/senior (eg, Kakashi) and it will always be these four. Other examples like Harry (Potter) and Co are good samples of the main trio with a mentor (Hagrid).

It's rare that we find trios with no mentor figure. Such is the case of another show I recently watched, < Lockwood and Co > based on the book series by [Jonathan Stroud] For a quick summary, Lockwood is set in London with one big exception. The city/ world at large is haunted by lethal ghosts (AKA The Problem) and only kids can sense them. Therefore, fight them.

The main cast consists of Anthony Lockwood, the cool and fearless badass gentleman who is strongest with Sight. George Karim, an all-rounder but a highly talented Researcher. Finally, our main character, Lucy Carlyle. An incredibly talented girl who's the most gifted with Hearing and Touch. Unlike the other agencies which are by the book and led by a Supervisor (an adult). Lockwood is purely independent but is unfortunately small and always in trouble with the law due to their incredibly dangerous methods.

Still, they are the best at what they do. Hunting ghosts while solving the bigger mystery behind The Problem. Despite their terrible coordination, the team has proven themselves to be better and far more personal with the cases they crack. Making it less like a job.

They are reminders that less is better. The cast plays the role of Hero, Lancer, and Heart very well and their chemistry is great and funny. Anthony and Lucy will sometimes bud heads, George will do his own thing making two of his partners incredibly proud and, you might see some tender/real moments between them.

Lockwood also removes the typical hero's journey of losing a mentor figure and instead makes the characters each other's mentors. The team relies on one other with their lives to survive every mission and navigate through life as a whole.

It felt more organic for them to grow together because there's a sense for when an adult shares a piece of advice (no matter how good it is) feels very smug and dull. The characters feel like actual teens because the setting for the agency sounds like something actual teens will do. Break the rules and do right for the fun or for some deep-rooted conspiracy that the world has yet to know.

- You Chose The Wrong Side! -

From the dysfunctional groups like the Six or the Guardians to the power of Three. There is one other interesting layer to the Found Family troupe. The Disbanded Found Family.

While most stories tell of how the team came to be, rare stories tell of how they split off and are no longer on speaking terms. For a while, The MCU's Avengers were at war with one another during < Captain America; Civil War > With Steve Rogers and Tony Stark budding heads harshly over the Sokovia Accords.

Seeing a well-rounded team break up is difficult for the characters and the audience because. For all the disagreements they had with one another, they've developed along the way to be close like a family. Seeing them split is like watching a divorce happening on screen and it's heartbreaking and sometimes a little bit awesome because you've got the best of the best competing to declare their superiority.

Perhaps one of the best examples I have seen is through < Kuroko No Baskue > where our main character; Tetsuya Kuroko entered High School and vowed to defeat/ beat some sense to his Former Junior High School Basketball Team with his newfound team; Seirin High

Kuroko's former team is famously known as The Generation of Miracles; an elite team of young talents that excel on the court, thus making them prodigies of their generation.

The Miracles consist of; Daiki Aomine (The Power Forward Beast), Shintarō Midorima (The Star Shooter), Atsushi Murasakibara (The Ultimate Center), Seijūrō Akashi (The Emperor's Eye) and Ryōta Kise (The Perfect Copycat) From the little we have seen, the team is passionate about the sport they play and they share a very brotherly relationship with one another.

As the series develops, we learn more about their personal relationships with Kuroko and with each other. We see the infighting between them and we learn about how their respective egos build. We learn about their vow during graduation and we get to see them reunited once again.

The series as a whole function in two ways. Kuroko develops new relationships with his new team and Kuroko confronts his old team to mend their relationship. It tackles the dysfunctional team setup at its lowest state and rekindles the flame for the respective parties to be healed. Also, it's really cool to see such a colorful cast together.

- I Didn't Pick The Damn Team! -

With that said, it's a wonder for why Found Families are a timeless troupe no matter the settings. But, like how Amanda Waller sets up Task Force X/ The Suicide Squad. Sometimes it's not by choice and it always starts out bumpy.

What I find fun in teams like the ones mentioned is that they share a common language in spite of their unique flavors. The teams are built on trust, a common goal, and the willingness to open up. For all the gimmicks, the core values stay the same.

We, the audience love a good Found Family because in an indirect way. We wanted a group like that. We longed to have a group that we can call family but, the reality of it all is. It's really up to how the characters interact with one another.

Every circle is different and no matter the status or the seasons. All are maintained by the will to reach out. It's something I hope to use for my own team in the process. To have [Them be there for you, Cause you're there for Them too]

Thanks for reading

- Caw4B -

[pentanguine]

Favorite Books of 2023

So I didn’t quite get to it in January, but I did finally finish this list!! (And as always, I'm longwinded)

My reading taste was all over the place last year. I intended for it to be the year I read neglected fantasy trilogies gathering dust on my bookshelf, but instead I joined a book club for grad school and got shoved out of my comfort zone; ended up with a boyfriend (now ex, aka EBF) and read anything and everything he recommended; suddenly got into nonfiction and horror for no explicable reason; joined another book club for work and ended up reading even more books outside my wheelhouse; and discovered that I enjoyed hate-reading books during slow periods at work and on my lunch break. It was a mess. But somehow, a few favorites came out of it!

1. The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel– What the fuck even is this book. It’s a book about a book about teenage werewolves on a quest to outwit some pirates and recover a lost treasure. It’s the story of a young woman in a post-climate crisis earth living in a Gothic mansion in Japan and questing for her favorite author inside a high-tech diorama. It’s about the aftermath of environmental destruction, invasive technology and autonomy, the power of fandom and transforming stories through your love for them, fathers (love for, betrayal by, forgiveness of), and worlds within worlds. It asks meaty questions about the role of technology in generating change for the better and creating hope when that same tech is eroding what it even means to be human and experience reality. It’s the kind of cli-fi that offers hope, that’s warm, that makes you think of alternatives. It’s dense with speculative worldbuilding and plays dizzyingly with metafiction, and the whole damn thing is written in couplets!!

I feel like I can’t adequately express how much I love the things this book does. It experiments with form and language, which would be cool enough, except it goes on to explore complex themes in a thought-provoking way while throwing in a bizarre and delightful clusterfuck of elements like robot werewolves and tree furries. Most importantly, it was just so much fun to read. I want a sequel with these characters. I want to go to a con dressed as one of the garden wolves. I want to study this book for English class and write an essay on it in rhyming couplets. I did not at all expect this to be my favorite book of the year, but it absolutely is. (It also only has 19 ratings and 4 reviews on Goodreads, so if it sounds at all up your alley, please read it!!)

2. The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick– What many of my favorite books have in common this year is that they were incredibly fun to read. Mask of Mirrors is entertaining from start to finish, as schemes that would fill a lesser book are introduced and then resolved in mere chapters, and the climax is nothing but action-packed chaos. The world-building is dense and rewarding, the plot is twisty, and Ren is conning everyone, all the time, in at least 6 different ways, which of course makes it more satisfying when she ends up conning herself into actually caring about her marks. You'll like this if you enjoy a TTRPG flavor of storytelling (it started as an RPG, which makes sense once you know it), or if you enjoyed the basics of Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint but wished it had more action and large-scale worldbuilding. There is a lot going on in these books, in the best possible way.

3. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow – There’s so much I loved about this book: the slow Gothic creep, the stories within a story, the eerie illustrations, the immersive sense of place. Surprisingly, it was the grounded, realistic parts of the book that were the most compelling to me. This is a fantasy, but it’s also a small-town family drama and coming of age story that could have been literary fiction with a few changes. The prose is just gorgeous, beautiful without ever getting purple. This is ultimately the story of the most bloody-minded woman in Kentucky slowly finding a home in the place she’s lived her whole life, while she falls in love with an equally bloody-minded man. Like The Raven Cycle as haunted house story, with overtones of Hades and Persephone and Beauty and the Beast.

4. The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler – This is an 80 page novella that I usually wouldn’t count as a book, but it’s simply too good to leave off this list. It’s a strange and beautiful story about aging, climate change, sexism and exploitation, memory and language and how they shape our identities, and how we move through time. In such a short page count, there are so many powerful images that have stuck with me over six months later, including a sea of deep purple irises and a woman and an alien making love under…amidst…as? the stars. There’s something very Le Guin-like about this story with its setting of stars, shadows, and trees, and its sense of humanity. Mind-blowingly good; I highly recommend anything from Neon Hemlock Press.

5. Heir’s Game by suspu– This is a webtoon and not a novel, but I included a 100k Sherlock fanfic in my best books of 2017, so I’m also counting this. It’s a fluffy, bloodthirsty, melodramatic, swashbuckling high adventure found family story with an entertainment value off the charts. It balances a lot of different story elements and tones, each character and arc is developed so well, and there’s a truly satisfying number of pretty men covered in blood. If you’re devouring it over the course of a few days like I did, you also get to watch the author’s art style improve over the course of the four years it took them to write this. I’m morbidly impressed by the amount of effort that goes into panels I read in 2 seconds. Disclaimer that I read this alongside EBF, which may have biased my feelings towards it.

6. Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson – A lovely blend of sweet(?), sexy romance and lush description with visceral horror, creeping menace, and strong dramatic irony.* The last chapter I found a little dumb and overly conclusive, but I’m willing to forgive that due to the immersive atmosphere and tension for most of the book. Ro, the protagonist, is heartbreakingly vulnerable in her twisted justifications for why her first sapphic relationship is actually so Beautiful and Good, and Ash feels like a good depiction of a non-traditional abuser. It’s indulgent and suspenseful, and it’s also got Things to Say.

*(In response to people complaining on Goodreads that the “twist” is obvious, I would like to say: Ash is a baker/cook, the jacket contains the word “consumes” and “devouring,” and there’s a flayed body on the cover. I think a blurb may have comped it to Hannibal. If you read all that and think the publishers are spoiling the “twist” of the book instead of just advertising what the book is about, that’s a you problem. This is not a thriller trying to set up a shocking twist and leave you guessing; it’s horror, and the horror comes from knowing what’s coming and watching Ro stumble right into it with nothing we can do to stop it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.)

7. The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach– The thing I loved most about this book is that it’s truly, delightfully original. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything remotely like it. There’s living technology that’s based on plants and syncs with human biology, a fresh system of gods and resurrection, a found family pirate ship, and some viscerally disturbing body horror. I often found myself sitting still for a minute with my mouth open, head tilted slightly to the side, thinking “…how the fuck did she come up with that.” This is also such a satisfyingly queer book. It very much centers found family, and unapologetic abundance saves the day. I wish I could remember more specifics of this book, but mostly what stuck with me is that it’s weird as shit and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

8. This is Ear Hustle by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods –This is the book form of an award-winning podcast discussing the realities of life in the American prison system, from those on both the inside and outside. It’s an often intense read, which I took in pieces over two months, but the storytelling is so engrossing, and introduces its audience to people and circumstances they most likely wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. I would never have guessed that San Quentin has skill-building and education programs, including the media lab where the Ear Hustle podcast is produced, or that at least one woman began a relationship with someone already in prison, moved her entire life to a desert prison town, and raised a family there. Each story in this book humanizes people who are often given little sympathy or understanding by society (even if they have been or are cruel and violent; redemption is not the point). The system they live in is definitely cruel and violent, but they are, like everyone, multifaceted people with loved ones and hobbies. Everyone has a story. This is the best kind of nonfiction to me, the kind that alters your view of the world and is still cropping up in your thoughts over six months later.

9. They Were Here Before Us by Eric LaRocca – I went through a big Eric LaRocca phase last fall, and I think this is overall the strongest of his works. The stories range from existentially shocking tales of nature at its darkest and most unnatural(?), to grotesque body horror, to unsettling tension that creeps across the pages like a serial killer stalking outside your window. A lot of the stories deal with the desperation, grotesqueness, and violation that comes with loving another person, and there’s a recurring contrast between bodies as vessels for love and as simply meat. Bearing in mind that I once said, in bemused shock, “Is Gideon the Ninth horror??”: it pushed against the boundaries of what I was comfortable reading and thinking about, without being shock for shock value. His writing is just viscerally fucked up.

10. The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer – This is a fucking dark and bleak book that officially hooked me at the end of Part One, when what I thought would be the reveal of the entire book…happened. And so I said “well, now what??” And plunged into a brutally depressing, borderline nihilistic, violently hopeful story about the nature of humanity and finding purpose in life. There are heartwarming moments in this book too, and also some funny or trivial moments that remind you this book is, for some random reason, YA.* If you enjoy sci-fi that grapples with the dizzying feeling of our microscopic place in the unending void of the cosmos, I highly recommend this one. And if you read Emma Newman’s Before Mars and want more in that vein, you’ll find a lot to love here.

*Unlike some people on Goodreads, I do see a reason for the protagonists to be teenagers, but you can very much write an adult book about teenagers

11. So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane – I regret not discovering this book as a child, because I would have loved it. It’s the story of two children who teach themselves wizardry and become embroiled in an ongoing struggle for the fate of the world. The poetic writing, the way trees are held in reverence, and the way language is magic in and of itself are all things that appeal to me as an adult, but would have been even more meaningful when I was younger. I especially loved how matter of fact the children are about discovering magic: of course there’s magic in the world. They’re children, and they can believe in anything.

Honorable Mentions:

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Smiler’s Fair by Rebecca Levene

[patchodraws]

sorry to star wars post on main i’ve been thinking a lot lately about what a new jedi order trilogy - led by rey - could look like, and what it could do to separate itself from the cycle of repetitive star wars storytelling. i remember seeing a post a while back on reddit about having a trilogy with droids as the main antagonists, and decided to expand on the idea a bit. here’s some of my thoughts:

this trilogy would take place maybe ten or so years after the rise of skywalker. the new republic didn’t get reformed, instead being replaced by a new galactic governance called the interstellar allegiance. it’s nowhere near as powerful as either republic was, but without any remnant threat, the biggest issue is pirates and crime lords and not the ideology of the empire.

in the first movie, our antagonists are a droid union known as the binary rise, who have grown impatient with their lot in life with the republic, the empire, and the allegiance not having done anything to fight for their rights in the galaxy after a decade of advocacy. using factory plans from geonosis, the leaders of the binary rise have begun manufacturing droids without the same labour programming used before, allowing them more free will in their efforts to make their goals known to the galaxy at large. i think some interesting plot points could be finn - who’s part of rey’s order and seeing this chaos unfurling in the galaxy - choosing to leave the order and align himself with the union, given his own past as a first order stormtrooper and how he believes all beings deserve the same rights. another point could be to retrieve the main computer from the millennium falcon - aka L3-37 - as both a strategist and leader after her decades-long imprisonment. finally, in looking to gain an advantage over organics in the galaxy, the union could uncover the secret of the Nameless from the high republic series - creatures that drive force users insane - in order to level the playing field.

the next movie could see desperate members of rey’s jedi order scrambling to find something to counteract the threat of the union and the nameless, searching for destructive dark side secrets. rey could catch wind of this and set off to stop her students from uncovering something ancient and powerful, maybe like abeloth? with the allegiance currently in conflict with the union, it could be up to a small number of characters and no millennium falcon to pursue these dark students. poe could join rey and they could even turn to finn and ask for his help, reuniting but under shaky circumstances to stop an even greater threat than the union and the scattered nameless. this would be the movie where the characters grow a bit more and come to understand the plight of the droids, as well as maybe discuss solutions to the conflict that don’t end up like the last several, looking to break the cycle of war in the galaxy. of course, being the middle movie of the trilogy, we could see this ancient evil uncovered and released upon the galaxy, creating a threat both for the union and the allegiance that - in the third movie - they must somehow unite to vanquish. i haven’t thought much about the last movie in this supposed trilogy, but it would be interesting to see the antagonists of the first film join the protagonists (after receiving their rights, of course, as part of negotiations for their help) to stop a massive threat that’s actually built up in the previous film.

obviously, this is nothing more than a jumble of thoughts that a proper screenwriter could probably vastly improve upon, but what do y’all think ?

[shrinkthisviolet]

☕️ on Ace Attorney (Original Trilogy vs Apollo Justice Trilogy)

Ooh this is an interesting one! Honestly, I think we can all agree that the OT was perfect, not much to say there…but I know Apollo Justice tends to be more controversial. I honestly hesitate to call it a trilogy, but…one thing at a time, let’s start with AA4 (aka my favorite of the three):

Here’s my hot take: Phoenix isn’t the issue. The game has its flaws, but Phoenix being more jaded makes sense (and he still has a brightness within him with Trucy). “But Lavi, you don’t like TLJ Luke for exactly the same reason,” yes, I hear you, but although Phoenix and Luke are very similar, the circumstances of their hermit era are different. Luke leaves his family to exile himself after a brief moment of contemplating murder against his nephew, instead of fighting the First Order (after he saw how dangerous and destructive the Empire was??). Phoenix loses the position he worked so hard towards and is then manipulated by Kristoph for 7 years, during which he still comes up with a plan to fight back in secret! Different circumstances…but I digress. Back to the main point: the issue is not Phoenix.

The game’s big issue is actually with Apollo: he’s so sidelined compared to Phoenix that it’s unfair to him. Like…forget not winning a case on his own (because Phoenix had that issue in AA1 too): his game isn’t even really about him! It’s all about Phoenix! Which, for a game meant to introduce Apollo, is bizarre. AA5 and AA6 (mainly AA6) do a better job of introducing Apollo than AA4, which is a shame. He feels like a plot device in his own intro game, and he deserves better than that.

The other issue is more to do with AA5. That game resets the status quo so much that it weakens AA4 in retrospect…which imo is part of why AA4 is so disliked. Phoenix is a lawyer again, and back to his OT self (no seriously, it’s actually kinda jarring), there’s another new lawyer in Athena (who gets a much better intro in this game than Apollo did in AA4).

Also, this game was “OT Cameo Central” with brief appearances from Trucy, Klavier, and Pearl (Maya was AA6 iirc). And oh, do I mean brief. It’s actually annoying, particularly with Trucy, because…these are supposed to be three of the most important characters in Ace Attorney, with Trucy especially as Phoenix's daughter! Why is she so sidelined?? Why is Klavier sidelined, when he’s Apollo’s most meaningful opposition and a great narrative foil to him in AA4?? (Why don’t we see his reaction to Apollo going all Kristoph-esque in the finale in DD? Feels like something he’d have strong reactions to, hmm?)

AA6 I actually preferred over AA5, but…even then, as I was playing, I just went “wow, after three games, we finally know something about Apollo other than his work life and his post-death-mentioned best friend” 🤦‍♀️

Honestly the more I think about it…this isn’t really a trilogy. I like parts of each game, but…it’s not coherent in the same way the OT was, and it’s not even entirely focused on Apollo the way the OT was entirely focused on Phoenix. It’s more of a beautiful mess, in a sense.

(Hey also can we talk about how messed up it is that Apollo and Trucy still don’t know they’re siblings?? Because that’s messed up, right?? Phoenix found out in AA4 and he still hasn’t told them?? And if he has, why tf didn’t we see that??)

Send me “☕️” and (optionally) a topic, and I’ll talk about it!

[aquietgirlsmess]

Who was the most lucky and un-lucky person from The Hunger Games trilogy?

Why do you pick them? Please give reasons.

You can interpret the luck and un-luck thing however you want.

Thank you :)

@curiousnonny

Hi anon :)

This is an interesting question.

[This got pretty long so I'm putting it under read more]

I think, generally speaking, the Capitol citizens are pretty lucky because even if -as we can tell from the Ballads Of Songbirds And Snakes- some are clearly poor, for the most part, they're well off and don't have to worry about food or anything but also -and in a world such as panem that's very important- they don't have to worry about being a tribute and all that entails.

So by opposition, the people living in the districts (and even more the ones in the poorer districts) are unlucky for very obvious reasons I think : The Capitol basically exploits them and, as if it wasn't enough, each year they have to see at least one if not two of their children die in some messed up event. The worst luck being for the ones that did end up in the arena.

If I have to single out characters, I think some cases can be made :

For most unlucky :

Prim -> Someone did a great post about how she was doomed by the narrative and was never gonna survive. That said, I don't know if that makes her unlucky because, actually, in a lot of ways, she was lucky :

She's saved for certain death in the Games by her sister who even after her games keep doing things to protect her.

She survives the destruction of District 12 after the 75th Games because Gale saves her.

The attack on District 13 in Mockingjay could have been fatal to her and several of the people that lived there had it not been for Peeta's warning.

She's always saved from almost certain death. Until she isn't. Because in the end, none of it mattered. She was always gonna die.

Haymitch -> He lives in District 12 aka the poorest district and lives in the poorest part of that already very poor District.

As if it wasn't enough, he gets reaped at 16. When you think about it, that's only 3 years before he was gonna be illegible for the games.

Then it gets worse because the year he gets reaped is a Quarter Quell (aka a special edition) that sees the numbers of tributes double. So, not only does he have to participate in the Games, he also has even less likely odds at surviving. And yet he does. You'd think that'd make him the luckiest man, except it wasn't luck that made him survive the Games, it was the fact that he was smart and used the shield of the arena as a weapon.

He was punished for it. All of his loved ones were murdered. So he goes through this very traumatic experience in worse condition than usual just so he can witness all the people he loves die.

Then, as if it wasn't enough, he has to mentor the next kids that go to the Games. And year after year, he has to watch all these kids die. Katniss and Peeta change everything for him though.

Finnick -> If I remember correctly, we're never told whether he volunteered or not. He's from a Career District where volunteering tends to happen so he might have, but it could also just have been the one year no one did volunteer. In the end, it doesn't really matter. The games shouldn't be a thing to begin with. Anyway, back to the point. This would make him an even better contender for most unlucky though

He's reaped at 14 and he ends up winning and he's the youngest one to do so.

You'd think he'd then be left to live out the rest of his life in peace but, then, because people found him attractive, he ends up getting prostituted by Snow.

Also same as Haymitch, he becomes a mentor and has to watch most of the kids he mentors die.

Then, he gets reaped again for the 75th Games. He survives again but had to watch someone he cares about and was surely important to him (Mags) die.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend gets taken and tortured by the Capitol and all to get to him (which it does). He gets to reunite and even marry her but that happiness is short lived because he dies during the rebellion.

For most lucky :

I thought about it a lot and I actually think it might be Plutarch.

He's not from the Districts so he never had to worry about being a tribute.

He never got caught for any of his scheming against Snow/the Capitol.

My memory could be off but he also never had to be in the thick of the fighting ?

He comes out unscathed at the end of the Rebellion

He gets a good position in the new government which let's be real is exactly what he wanted. and also had a good position in the old one.

He's just never in a bad position. But again I could remember wrong.

[random-movie-ideas]

Superman Villain Movie Possibilities, Part VI: Cyborg Superman

Hank Henshaw AKA Cyborg Superman started out as an astronaut friendly with Superman. After he and his crew, including his wife, were bombarded with radiation resulting in their deaths, Hank uploaded his consciousness as a last resort into Superman's ship, creating a false Superman body for himself. He is most notable for presenting himself as Superman resurrected during the period following the real hero's death at Doomsday's hands.

Origin Movie: Now, this is going to be weird and not quite count (maybe?), but say there were a DC Cinematic Universe that just had a major event movie surrounding Doomsday killing Superman (paced much better than the old one). And then one of the followups to that event is a Steel origin movie more or less recreating that period of the comics with Hank being the villain to Steel. It does count as an origin movie, but . . .

Sequel Movie: That is, honestly, the obvious best place to do Cyborg Superman. Removing him from that spot would be difficult to do as an origin, as the thing that makes him interesting and different from, say, Metallo, is his drive for revenge against Superman after the events of a previous story arc that resulted in the destruction of his body and the death of his wife. So, obviously, to do Cyborg Superman right, he at least has to come in a sequel to something else.

Finale Movie: If you didn't want to go the Steel-centered movie route, one could arguably call a movie set at that comics period a Superman finale, if Doomsday came in the movie before and it ended with Clark's resurrection.

Secondary Villain: Honestly, a movie with this setup would feel a bit of a downgrade. Like you took Hank and basically just reduced him to Metallo. No shade to Metallo, obviously, but making Hank second-fiddle to someone else just feels like you're shoe-horning him into a role that should have gone to Metallo.

So, my rankings of these are:

Origin Movie: Obviously, you'd have to do the work to make a successful and well-paced DC universe of movies to be able to get to that point and make it work, but it is clearly the best place to do him.

Sequel Movie: Would still work, it just lacks the full punch of his role as a Superman impostor during that tumultuous time period.

Finale Movie: Same as origin, I guess, but it would feel like an uneven series, at least if it's a trilogy. I mean, Doomsday, in the second movie? Who would do that?

Secondary Villain: The role he would play in this feels like a different villain's role with his face slapped on.

What do you think? Who should I cover next?

[qqueenofhades]

Here is a thing that I love about RotJ that I think some people who maybe didn't imprint on the OT miss. Anakin's redemption is a satisfying ending to his arc, sure, but it's specifically the happy ending to *Luke's* arc. Luke has had 3 movies worth of life trying to beat the idealism out of him to make him into the Jedi Warrior who will kill Darth Vader. But Luke ends up being right. There is hope for everyone, even Darth Vader. You can turn people back. You can *save* people. No one is hopeless as long as there's still some good left in them. That's Star Wars.

YES YES GOD THIS EXACTLY???

The whole thing is set up where you think (with apologies for the HP analogy, but still) it's going to be a Harry-and-Voldemort situation where the boy hero is the only one who's able to kill the dark lord. And yes, obviously, in HP the love of friends and family plays a part in crushing the wizard fascists, which is as it should be. (Truly, how JKR turned into an intolerant radicalized bigot after teaching an ENTIRE generation of children exactly how fascism works and is responded to, or rather not responded to, by the government, the education system, and the so-called "respectable institutions" of society is one of the great mysteries of our time, but never mind that.) And obviously, yes, HP came after Star Wars and was influenced by it. But even in SW's own time, especially in Reagan-era America that was churning out triumphalist action movies about crushing the Evil Empire (aka the USSR) by the bushel, you would think that was what they were going for. (And yes, Reagan famously did use that exact metaphor and talk about "Star Wars"-esque defense systems, so it was absolutely part of the pop-cultural and political zeitgeist).

Instead, you get a story where Luke -- likewise the deconstructed Macho Action Hero who resists every chance to be toxically masculine, brutish, dark, and violent, in direct contrast to his villain father -- actively and radically chooses compassion as the way to save the day. He doesn't try to defeat it by becoming just as bad as it and excusing himself that way, or entering into the same destructive, violent, hateful spiral. In it, he breaks the cycle of abuse both for his ancestors and for himself, and gives Vader/Anakin just enough of the goodness that he used to have, to make a final choice and throw a fascist down a reactor core. And by so doing, of course, saving the galaxy.

Luke validates not only his mother's dying words (insisting to Obi-Wan that there is still good in Anakin), but Qui-Gon, who believed steadfastly that Anakin was the Chosen One; his mentor Obi-Wan, who loved Anakin more than anything else in the galaxy and wanted Luke to save him but not at the cost of becoming him, and the entire belief that there is a better way to do things and that people are still people and never entirely irredeemable or undeserving of being viewed as a human in pain. That's also why the sequel trilogy is such bs, as I have repeatedly said. Sure, Luke Skywalker, who literally saved the galaxy and his supervillain father with the power of love, would just give up, abandon his family and his duty and the new Jedi order, to go live on Space Skellig Michael and be cynical and alone, since happy endings are fake etc etc. (One day, perhaps, I will not be violently embittered about the sequel trilogy, but today is not that day.)

Anyway just... yes. This. Luke is proven right to believe that there was a better way and that the solution wasn't just continuing the cycle of violence, murder, and mayhem. That it was the right way, and it works. And I don't want to hear anything about whether it was "realistic." It's a fictional story deeply patterned by the Hero's Journey and other models of mythic literature, and like the best of those, it is meant to hold up a mirror to us and ask deep questions about life, the universe, and everything, and that is exactly what it does.

[serpenteve]

king of scars rant 💅🏽

cw: spoilers for king of scars

Honestly, I hated this book.

The Lore

I definitely hated how this book pretty much retconned the original trilogy and made it all but pointless. So Alina had to lose her powers because there are comic limits to Grisha power but Zoya can turn into a fucking dragon and become the avatar now?

The Shadow Fold had to be destroyed because it made Ravka weak but now it's open season on Ravka without the Fold holding their enemies back and every other week, there's some new assassination attempt from Shu Han or an open declaration of war from Fjerda or blackmailing debt-collectors from Kerch? How is Ravka still functioning, honestly?

Nikolai

I'm sorry, Nikolai, but this book actually made me low-key hate you. Like, the narrative wants so badly to prove me to me that he isn't like other imperialist monarchs! He....remembers people's names and fights alongside them!!!

Another character in this book (Isaak) spends the majority of his narrative idolizing Nikolai and trying to be like him and talking about how amazing he was to his family and then when he dies........Nikolai barely even gives a fuck? I got the sense this friendship was entirely one-sided.

Also, why is this marketed as a Nikolai duology and named after him when he's barely the main character and has to share the narration with 3 other characters---one of which is literally occupying the same locations as him? 🤨

Zoya

Oof, where to even begin with this one.

Listen, I would have been 100% on board with this book being entirely focused on Zoya. She's the real protagonist in my opinion so the fact that had to share the narrative with 3 other people (including one person who doesn't even influence the main plot and another who gets discarded by the end) was really bringing down the potential of her story.

Because there wasn't enough room for her character development, everything about her arc is completely rushed. Like, she can fire-bend and bee-bend in the span of 3 hours? WELL OKAY THEN. Oh, she can just turn into a fucking dragon now because she opened some random ass door in her mind? WELL OKAY THEN.

I hate hate hate it when female characters get accused of being Mary Sues but there's something to be said when we're jumping heads and everyone is just like "Wow, Zoya is so pretty, Zoya is so badass, Zoya is so cool" while not really having any real consequences for her flaw. Like, we all know Zoya can be bitchy and mean (and we love that about her 😌) but....she pretty much gets away it with and doesn't face any backlash for it. Add this to the fact that she becomes the Grisha avatar with very little training on her part and voila. The entire world of the Grishaverse bends its rules and reality around her in typical Sue fashion.

Nina

Girl, what was even the point of your story? I kept waiting and waiting and waiting, stupidly assuming that her story would somehow merge with the main one but it never came.

We learn that things are still shit for Grisha. The Shu are kidnapping them and making them into crazy supersoldiers and Fjerda are getting them addicted to some parem variant to create their own Grisha slave army from birth?

Why on earth would being a Grisha at the Little Palace be a choice in this world? It's either you become a soldier in the Second Army or....you get a fate worse than death. Wouldn't the atrocities committed against Grisha radicalize most Grisha anyway? Like, sign me the fuck up, I want to kick some ass against people trying to literally experiment on me???

Nina's necromancer powers were pretty badass though, not gonna lie 🙌🏽

Isaak

Isaak was honestly the best part of this whole dumpster book and then he gets killed for no reason. And Nikolai doesn't even give a fuck?

Why introduce this new character if we're just going to use and discard him? I kept wondering why we were getting palace updates from a new character instead of just using Genya or Tamar's perspective.

Also, the whole thing with princess Ehri was a bit racist to me? Like we have a Chinese-coded character being a deceptive backstabber (or front-stabber in this case lol) and nearly dies while giving off some serious dragon lady vibes. I get the sense she did die in the original draft and some editor was probably like "Hmm, well maybe we shouldn't have another dead POC" so she survives. At least she didn't speak in broken English like Botkin 🤷🏽‍♀️

The (Anti) Climax

This was easily the most anti-climactic ending to a Grishaverse book I've read. It's a shame because it has all the elements that could have made it badass? Like we've got saints with god-like powers but Zoya easily defeats Elizaveta by suddenly unlocking fire-bending, bee-bending, and transforming into a fucking dragon. I just can't take it seriously.

Elizaveta herself was too easily distracted as a villain. What the hell even happens to the saints when they die in this place? Do all their miracles that affect the rest of the world just disappear? Who knows. The book ends with Fjerda declaring war and a failed assassination attempt by a Shu Han princess.

Yuri & the Darkling

And finally this brings me whatever mess is going on with Yuri and the Darkling. I get the sense Leigh was super pissed with Darkling stans and created this weird strawman with Yuri's character. Honestly, I thought he was kinda funny because I'm sure even without real-world fans simping for the Darkling, there would certainly be people in the Grishaverse who would gravitate towards the Darkling and see him as a savior of sorts, especially with the world's Grisha being arguably worse after his death and the destruction of the Fold.

What bothered me was the bizarre preachiness of the other characters. Like Yuri literally only exists so that Zoya and Nikolai can take turns being like "Actually, Yuri aka Darklina stan placeholder, the Darkling was the VILLAIN of the series and you were just too stupid to see it, etc"

...Like, girl, we know he's the villain 🤦🏽‍♀️ If we're going to create a character just to preach to Darkling stans, then why does the entire plot revolve around trying to bring him back into the story? It's like Leigh has a weird love-hate relationship with the Darkling. She hates him and she hates his fan club but she still needs him because otherwise there's no magical plot conflict.

Fridge Logic

If there is no limit to Grisha power and you can just take however much you want from the heart at the making of the world, why the hell did Alina get punished for the amplifier nonsense in the original trilogy?

If the saint's powers are limited to the edges of the Fold, how are they able to manipulate stuff outside of it?

Juris claims when you properly possess an amplifier, you become a living amplifier in return. So is how the Darkling and Baghra became living amplifiers? Or is that just still some unexplained merzost nonsense from Illya Morozova?

What the hell even considered merzost now with all this retcon?

If the Darkling can possess Yuri and magically transform his features to be his own, then why did he need his own body?

And if he can change people's features by possessing them, why did Nikolai get to keep his?

Why did the obisbaya ritual fail in the first place?

Prose

The only positive is that the prose is like a million times better than the original trilogy, but considering how terrible the original is, I suppose that's not really saying much.

[onebadwinter]

The Joker Tropes Part 2

Taken From Here and here

Nether Realm Studios especially seems to love making Joker out to be evil incarnate. In Injustice: Gods Among Us and its sequel, he loses all his cred (and life) once he nukes Metropolis; Harley ditches him entirely, Batman just completely gives up on indulging him any more, even Guest Fighters like Hellboy consider him worthless, and non-Batvillains such as Grodd and Brainiac and even Darkseid loathe him for either Metropolis, or just in general principle. Mortal Kombat 11 shows that even the MK cast see him as a scourge upon the realms, and also express distaste toward him for either his nuking, a previous outing, or because he's seen as a buffoon who cannot be taken seriously (this is usually the case for other villain characters).

About the only person who can tolerate him for long is Lex Luthor, only because they both have the same level of hatred for their respective enemies. Even then, Luthor prefers to keep his distance from the Joker, if only because a bored Joker screws with everything For the Evulz.

In the animated series, he claims to have been beaten as a child when interviewed by Harley Quinn. It is unknown if this is true. According to Batman, he's simply making it up.

In one issue of New 52, he claims to have been driven insane by an abusive grandmother, who also bleached his skin to its present pallor.

In the same continuity, he is one to a baby gorilla he adopts, trains up as a gun-wielding henchman, and ultimately gets killed off for laughs.

In the comic book adaptation of Injustice, it's implied Harley fears Joker would be one, and gives their daughter to her sister, lest he kill the child. It's left ambiguous whether the Joker's even aware of the ruse.

Averted in one story, wherein one of Arkham's doctors realizes Joker's faking insanity just to piss off Batman as revenge for his disfigurement. Another doctor finds the report and excitedly reveals it to the current head doctor, only to learn that  the Joker left it for everyone to read, since the paper's written by Harley Quinn, and therefore worthless as evidence.

In Batman: The Man Who Laughs, it's established that the name "The Joker" was given to him by the media, and he liked it so much that he decided to call himself that.

The same happens in Joker (2019), where Murray tells the audience to "look at this joker" when talking about Arthur. Arthur took it to heart.

Batman: Arkham Knight takes this even further by revealing that being forgotten is the only thing the Joker truly fears.

Just to demonstrate how much disregard he has for his henchmen, a reoccurring motivation for offing his own lackeys is failing to laugh at one of his jokes. Or laughing too late. Or laughing for too long. Or laughing at the wrong joke. He's... unpredictable.

The Joker loves it when people laugh with him, whether genuine or not, but if someone laughs at him, they're most likely already dead.

Joker loves attention and being above the normals, so never imply that he's not interesting or unique. Terry exploits this flaw in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker just to drive him to a Villainous Breakdown.

The Batman Who Laughs. Since the character's first appearance in Dark Nights: Metal, the mere mention of him is enough to put The Joker in an uncharacteristically un-jolly mood and is a good way to get on his bad side. In fact, the dislike of this twisted version of his archnemesis is so great, that when Lex Luthor and The Legion of Doom started cooperating with him against Joker's protests, he quit the legion (after non-lethally jokerizing every other member of it) in disgust.

If you're going to hurt Batman, do it right. One of the supplementary stories for Joker War had him beyond furious with Bane - to the point of promising him he'd kill him in a way he would never see coming - for showing so little imagination in killing Alfred in City of Bane without even letting Batman listen to it to torture him. By his reckoning, if you have a great gag to break the Bat, use it to break the Bat - don't blow it by having Robin be the only one to witness it.

Originally Conrad Veidt from The Man Who Laughs.

Later portrayals base themselves on his actors, with Cesar Romero a popular candidate, and after Jack Nicholson came in, artists such as Alex Ross base him on him, such as the actor's distinct widow's peak and slicked back hair.

During Knightfall he and Scarecrow killed several members of a SWAT team, and one of his last actions in Batman: No Man's Land was to kill Commissioner Gordon's second wife, Lt. Sarah Essen.

One of the alternate realities seen in Zero Hour! was one where he killed Commissioner Gordon instead of crippling Barbara.

Part of the reason Gordon takes over the post of Commissioner in both The Dark Knight Trilogy and Batman: Arkham Series is due to the Joker killing Gillian Loeb. Additionally, the first game in the latter series, Asylum, he sees several of Arkham's guards killed by him and his men.

He's holding a dead cop's corpse in his intro in Injustice: Gods Among Us and using it as a puppet. He also talks to the body of one of the Regime enforcers who captured him once he breaks out and heads to Gotham.

Whether he was driven insane or was already insane and became completely bonkers.

Where he is on the spectrum between "wacky prankster" and "utterly depraved and sadistic sociopath and murderer".

Whether he is a senseless, performative terrorist wreaking havoc for kicks or a deceptively cunning and competent criminal mastermind. Or both. Usually both.

He's no Batman, but sometimes he is a proficient hand-to-hand combatant, Knife Nut or marksman, and other times a flimsy wimp who goes down in one punch. In some of the grittier settings, his raw strength, numbness to pain and viciousness are enough to level the playing field with Batman.

Whether he actually loves Harley Quinn varies. In the animated series, (where Harley first appeared) the writers haveoutright said he's a sociopath incapable of loving anyone, and just sees her as a useful mook. Some other works imply he really does love her on some level (although he's usually still an abusive asshole.)

He can either be Faux Affably Evil, Laughably Evil, just a Monster Clown, or some combination of the three.

At least one such incident implied he would be interested in Batman... but only after he was dead. Again this may only have been a tactic to get under Batman's skin or truthful admission. The readers will never know for certain.

His plot in The Killing Joke is to put Jim Gordon through the wringer hard in the hopes of driving him mad. He'll also try to drive Batman over the edge (particularly, drive him to break his "no killing" rule), sometimes by cutting off all of Batsy's human connections.

The Dark Knight reworks it into Driving Gotham To Senseless Violence with wanton acts of destruction or terrorism, just to prove everyone's as bad as him deep down.

Ironically, a 1952 story has the Joker get himself falsely committed to an insane asylum, to question a patient who knew the location of a cache of money. The end of the story has him Laughing Mad due to a prank Batman used to disguise his identity.

He didn't have his signature laugh. This seems to have been a way to "goofy up" the character to make him less terrifying in the days of the Comics Code Authority. Later on, he'd learn to giggle while remaining terrifying.

He actually committed crimes for moneynote , and wasn't really interested in causing chaos or terror for a joke's sake.

Building off of that, his plans weren't really "insane" until the Silver Age (at which point it's not even fair to say this was exclusive to him), nor was there any question of the character's mental stability.

His obsession with Batman wasn't there, much less the idea that he would pass up chances to kill the Bat or learn his identity. This aspect was probably introduced to explain the Bond Villain Stupidity he (and every Batman villain) had become infamous for in the Silver Age.

His clown-like complexion was actually makeup in his early appearances. He even removed his makeup to disguise himself as a cop, which was referenced in The Dark Knight. It's later revealed that the look is permanent after falling in a vat of chemicals.

The Brave and the Bold #111 and #191 have him team up with Batman to clear his name after being framed for several murders. The first instance turned out to simply be a framing the guilty part occasion but the second instance was actually genuine on Joker's part (except the person Joker seemingly murdered turned out to be faking their death).

He also does this with Batman whenever The Batman Who Laughs is involved (specifically in the Dark Knights: Metal series).

He abruptly ends a partnership with Red Skull when his Nazi affiliation comes out. Red Skull simply wonders why he is so surprised when he thinks that the Joker would make a great Nazi. The Joker is NOT happy about this, proclaiming "I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic!" It even provides the trope's image. And yes, folks, even an equal-opportunity murderer like the Joker despises the Nazis!note

The exception is mentioned again in the Last Laugh arc where the Joker immediately refused to join the American Neo-Nazi Aryan Alliance group in the Slab after he was offered membership. Joker: I'm evil and all that, but you guys are just plain mean.

Will not harm dumb animals and doesn't condone it. There's no humor to be had in that. Higher primates apparently do not qualify but a lot more effort went into that one.

While in Arkham with villain Warren White, AKA the Great White Shark, Joker calls him the worst person he ever met. He states that while he may kill people, even he doesn't steal their kids' college funds.

Sees nothing funny about someone parking in a handicap spot when they're not handicapped. However, he does think it's hilarious to hurt them in ways that will make certain they'll always be able to park there.

A girl named Janey Bennett, whose class was studying criminal behavior, became pen pals with the Joker while he was in Arkham. When Janey revealed that her father, the mayor of Motor City, was abusing her (exactly how isn't specified, though it was implied to have been really bad) the Joker broke out and, convinced that the authorities would be of no help, tried to force the mayor into admitting to his crimes and giving him Janey (so that he could find a better home for her) by threatening to contaminate the city's blood supply, going through with it (because the ends justify the means) when the mayor refused to give in to his demands. He originally intended to give her to Batman as well so he could protect her but at the end decided to give her to her mom. Joker: I mean, stealing a city blind is something I can admire... but being mean to one's own daughter... that just makes my blood boil.

For a rather literal form of "standard", the Joker's team-up with Carnage in Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds fell apart in part because the Joker, known for his love of theatrics, found Kasady's desire to get straight to killing boring. Conversely, Kasady didn't like the Joker's flair for theatrics.

The Joker absolutely loathes The Batman Who Laughs, to the point where he drops his usual joking demeanor and is deathly serious whenever directly referring to him, even willing to work together with Batman to face him when it comes down to it. When Lex Luthor goes behind his back to make a deal with The Batman Who Laughs (going against the only condition Joker has for joining his plan), Joker responds by Joker-gassing the Legion of Doom, putting Lex into a series of deathtraps, trashing Lex's Power Armor, and quitting the Legion. In the process, he tells Luthor how he had planned on ruining the Legion utterly on the verge of victory, and as nightmarish as his plan sounded, he claims it is nothing compared to what the Batman Who Laughs is going to do.

While he still gloated about it and found Commissioner Gordon kneecapping him funny after remember that he'd crippled Barbara, the actual act of killing Sarah Essen in the penultimate issue of Batman: No Man's Land is one of the few times the Joker wasn't happy with something he himself did, considering he's seen walking away while scowling afterward, leaves the babies he originally planned to murder unharmed and immediately turns himself in to the police.

Emperor Joker sees the Joker disgusted with a corrupted Jimmy O Lsen tormenting the Superfamily and Batman when they're turned int animals.

Later one he is disgusted when his minions vandalize the Moai on Eastern Island.

Again, when he rescues Lex from The Batman Who Laugh's infected minions in Hell Arisen, the mere mention of his alternate universe rival prompts him to have a very uncharacteristic Freak Out. The Joker: I told you. I told you not to deal with him. You should have shot that thing in the head the second you had it in a cage! It is wrong. It is a wrong thing.

Played more straight in his relationship with Punchline. Only time will tell if it lasts.

There’s also a comic storyline when Hush informed that a dirty cop Office Halmet killed his wife Jeannie. The Joker wanted nothing more than to kill said cop in revenge. Then there’s Batman: Three Jokers where, despite it being being heavily implied he was abusive, the “Comedian” Joker is seen setting up fake tea parties with dolls, clearly trying to substitute them for his wife and child showing that he does miss them and desire to be a family with them.

While The Dark Knight is one of the few times the Joker's clown-like appearance is the result of make-up, he does sport a Glasgow Grin.

While Joker still has the permanent clown look, it's combined with the Glasgow Grin.

While Batman: Endgame would see the skin of his face restored with a chemical called Dionesiumnote , at the start of The New 52, the Joker had the Dollmaker skin his face and then, after he recovered it, spent Death of the Family wearing it like a Leatherface-esque mask. And even in Endgame, his restored face ends up badly burned as the result of the finale battle between him and Batman, though it still ends up restored again.

Gotham sees neither Valeska escape this. After his death in season 2, Jerome (the proto-Joker) ends up resurrected in season 3, but because Dwight thinks his attempt to revive him failed, Dwight ends up cutting off Jerome's face ala Death of the Family and Jerome ends up stapling it on when he catches up with Dwight and while he later has it properly reattached, there's still scars from what happened. Jeremiah, Jerome's twin and the show's true Joker, ends up with the "perma-clown" appearance due to Jerome having the Scarecrow brew something up to spray in Jeremiah's face, but season 5 sees his fateful fall at Ace Chemicals badly scar his face and sear off most of his hair with only stringy patches left.

Averted entirely in Joker (2019), where his clown appearance is entirely makeup, and the worst it gets is painting his iconic smile on his face with his own blood from a car crash. Not even a Glasgow Grin or anything, the blood is from his hand and his face only has a few normal cuts on it.

While Batman is a rather serious character who refuses to kill anyone, The Joker is a rather comical character who revels in death.

Joker's gadgets tend to be rather goofier but much more lethal, such as the Joker Venom that he often uses to kill his victims.

While Batman gets along well with his sidekicks Robin and Batgirl, Joker frequently abuses his sidekick Harley Quinn and has tried to kill her before, not to mention all the times he has been a Bad Boss by killing his henchmen for any reason you can think of, sometimes for no reason at all.

While Batman's backstory is well known, even by the citizens of Gotham who know of the tragedy of the rich Waynes' in Crime Alley, no one knows anything about the Joker's backstory, but most versions he tells are consistent in two things: he was a nobody, and possibly someone poor.

In most adaptations, his voice is high-pitched in contrast to Batman's Badass Baritone.

Why he went by the name the Red Hood has changed over the years: The Killing Joke claims he was a failed comedian driven to crime to support his pregnant wife. The trauma of his disfigurement from jumping in the acid and his wife's earlier accidental death drove him insane. However, even this backstory is questionable, as the Joker himself calls it "multiple choice".

In Injustice 2, an intro with Atrocitus has the Red Lantern wondering what drove the Joker to nihilism.

In the animated series, he claims to have been abused as a child when interviewed by Harley, but according to Batman, it's just another ruse to escape Arkham.

The purple suit and matching pants with either an orange and/or green shirt with a bowtie or tie, remains the definitive Joker look one that many artists and costume designers have given spin on. He is sometimes known for wearing a cool hat but other times goes hatless. Heath Ledger's custom-designed purple long-coat, trousers, blue shirt and green Waistcoat of Style with a tie has likewise become iconic and famous for its contemporary and downright stylish update on the classic look.

The original Red Hood outfit which is a black suit, white shirt, bowtie with an opera cap and a bizarre red dome is also quite famous.

The Hawaiian tourist outfit he wore in the notorious scene in The Killing Joke.

The white suit he wears in Miller's The Dark Knight Returns as well as the white nurse maid outfit with red wig in The Dark Knight is also quite notable.

The Future Joker look from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker which went with a mime look (black body suit, slicked-back hair) is also quite distinct and unique.

The first issue of Batman with Joker's debut has him described as having "burning, hate-filled eyes" and the moniker, "the harliquin of hate".

The Man Who Laughs had Bruce dosed with a light version of the Joker Venom and he felt his perspective shift into a paranoid vengeance were he felt everyone deserved to be punished for his parent's death just for existing.

Death of the Family had Batman describe how Joker's irises are always narrow when looking at anyone but Batman and that it is usually an indication of negative feelings toward something with Bruce mentioning that his eye are the eyes of someone who hates everything he sees.

In the Justice League storyline "Rock of Ages", Martian Manhunter has to put in incredible effort to reorganize Joker's mind long enough for him to give up the cataclysmic Philosopher's Stone. The briefly sane Joker immediately says My God, What Have I Done? verbatim as he hands it back, before quickly losing his mind and going back to the laughing madman.

The famous example from the end of The Killing Joke, where Batman tries to convince him to allow Batman to rehabilitate him before their vendetta kills them. Joker considers it for a long, somber moment before quietly reflecting that they're both too far gone.

Batman: Cacophony ends with Joker being pumped full of an inhuman amount of antipsychotic drugs to keep him under control while in recovery from a near-fatal stabbing. Batman takes the opportunity to have a relatively-sane conversation with him, though it's somewhat subverted by Joker still being a homicidal sociopath even while heavily sedated.

He even gives multiple reasons on how he came Back from the Dead in Injustice 2 and will go along with whatever his opponent thinks is true, despite being Dead All Along in story mode and only appearing as a hallucination to his ex-moll.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sees him kill David Endochrine and Ruth Weisenheimer, who were clearly based on David Letterman and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

During Knightfall, once he realizes that Azrael isn't Batman, his plan's gone to hell, and one too many criticisms from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert stand-ins, he kills the stand-ins.

In one of the issues for the The Batman tie-in comic, The Batman Strikes, he terrorizes a stand-in for Conan O'Brien. This becomes darkly Hilarious in Hindsight as the real O'Brien voiced Endochrine in the animated version of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In the series proper, Harley's debut had the two of them terrorize a stand-in for Dr. Phil for the climax.

If you want to know how truly terrifying The Batman Who Laughs is, look no further than the way Joker acts whenever discussing him. He doesn't laugh, he doesn't smile. He becomes calm and serious and simply tells whomever he's talking to that the TBWL is "a wrong thing that shouldn't exist". Someone HAS to be scary if the very thought of him makes Joker act like a calm rational sane person.

In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the clown has a massive Villainous Breakdown when Terry mocks him for his failed attempts to break Batman.

On the rare occasion Joker gets bored and leaves Gotham, expect everyone to think of him as just a silly clown, until the bodies start piling up.

One issue of the Robin Series had him talking about having Abusive Parents, only for a psychiatrist to tell him it's the seventh story he's told now.

Batman lampshades on this to Harley in the animated series, thinking it's another lie to gain sympathy.

The Killing Joke claims he was a failed comedian driven to crime to support his pregnant wife. The trauma of his disfigurement and his wife's earlier accidental death drove him mad. However, even this could be a lie, as he himself calls it "multiple choice".

It's even discussed in Injustice 2, as Atrocitus wonders what drove the Joker to nihilism. Despite only appearing as a hallucination to Harley in story mode, he spews out multiple theories for his Unexplained Recovery and will say Sure, Let's Go with That in non-canon fights. Was he resurrected by someone, or is he from another universe? Did he escape from either the Source Wall or the Phantom Zone, or is he just an apparition?

Shadow of the Bat #38, Tears of a Clown: He celebrates his anniversary of the day he was a still sane, but hapless comedian, and was thrown out of an exclusive Stand-Up Comedy club for an unfunny act the patrons mercilessly heckled. It was the last straw as he agreed to provide to his family by pulling a job for the Red Hood gang. So he kidnaps all the patrons and reenacts his act with control collars that will kill them when they laugh. Oddly enough, the patrons are hardcore Stand-Up Comedy fans, so they can't remember the number of times they've booed someone. However, even this origin story could be a lie.

It's come to be his primary disfigurement over the original skin bleaching.

In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Terry McGinnis exploits this by delivering an epic Boring Insult so the clown will have a Villainous Breakdown.

King Barlowe proved to be a big one in his Thanatos Gambit in the episode "Joker's Millions" of The New Batman Adventures. In a spiteful Video Will, he gives the clown his millions, revealing in his tape that most of it was fake. Expecting the clown to splurge on it, he won't have enough to pay off the IRS, allowing Barlowe to get the "last laugh" after his death, without the Joker coming after him.

Alan Moore's "I go Loony" from The Killing Joke, an in-panel song-and-dance tune that was eventually made into an actual song belted out in Batman: The Killing Joke.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold has "Where's the Fun in That?" from the episode "Emperor Joker".

Batman: Arkham City ended with him covering The Platters' "Only You (and You Alone)", Batman: Arkham Origins had him cover Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold, Heart" and Batman: Arkham Knight had him provide an original composition, "Can't Stop Laughing".

Action Fashionista: This incarnation of the Joker has a wide variety of garish outfits for every occassion — most of them straight from the comics.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Metal teeth, lack of eyebrows, and tattoos aside, he's still being played by the youthful-looking real life Pretty Boy Jared Leto; especially since the last two cinematic Jokers were a creepy middle-aged gangster with a botched face-lift and a filthy, scarred vagrant (even the mentally unwell clown-for-hire doesn't scream Mr. Fanservice one bit). This version looks more like Marilyn Manson.

Adaptational Nice Guy: A very downplayed example. While he's otherwise the same Clown Prince of Crime we all know and love to hate, he appears to genuinely care for Harley, and even throws her out of a falling helicopter to save her life. Almost any other iteration of the Joker would do that to save his own skin or rid himself of her.

Adaptational Skimpiness: This version of the Joker tends to be shirtless a lot more than he has in any other medium. It mostly seems like an opportunity to show off his tattoos.

Adaptation Distillation: Leto's Joker seems to be less of the "evil philosopher" that Heath Ledger portrayed him as in The Dark Knight, and instead seems to be a cross between the garish, larger-than-life Mark Hamill version from the animated series and the Arkham games, and the creepy, deeply twisted Brian Azzarello version. David Ayer had also stated that he looked specifically to the Golden Age Joker for reference, providing reason for many to believe that Leto's Joker is a modern re-imagining of that incarnation.

Advertised Extra: Heavily featured in Suicide Squad promotional materials, barely appears in the film for more than seven minutes. According to Jared Leto, several of the scenes he shot were not included in the theatrical cut.

Ambiguous Disorder: In Suicide Squad, most of the time the Joker seems... not all there compared to Harley. In addition of psychopathic tendencies, the Joker has random bouts of maniacal laughter, confusion, and slurred speech-like patterns. All attributes that stem from punch-drunk syndrome. Considering he has faced Batman one too many times, it makes sense that the Joker's mental stability is finally catching up to him.

However, come Birds of Prey, they broke up, mirroring the comics where they do have an Relationship Revolving Door. It appears to stick, as Harley publicly calls it quits between the two of them.

His tattoos are very reminiscent of the Joker in All Star Batman and Robin.

Ax-Crazy: Like all the incarnations before him, calling him a violent psychopath is one of the biggest understatements you can make.

Bedlam House: Spent some time at Arkham Asylum, where he met Harley. Then he broke free from it with the help of both Harley and his gang.

Chewing the Scenery: An important part of the character is his theatricality.

Cool Car: A bright purple sports car with underglow lights and a "HAHAHA" license plate.

Dented Iron: It's subtle, but the numerous scars on his body and metal replacement teeth in his mouth are clear signs that his frequent run-ins with Batman are taking their toll.

Disney Death: He seemingly dies in the crash of his helicopter... only to come back to free Harley from her high security prison at the end of Suicide Squad.

The Dreaded: In true Joker fashion, everyone is terrified of him.

Establishing Character Moment: One that takes place before he even makes his official debut in the setting - he killed Robin (a minor) and vandalized his outfit to mock Batman over his inability to save him.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Insofar as much as the Joker can love anyone, anyway, but he does seem to genuinely care about Harley. Eventually, subverted.

Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He considers the brutal murder of a minor as a joke he played on Batman. When he's torturing Harleen Quinzel, he promises not to shatter her well-kept teeth while flashing his own hideous metal dentures. When Harleen later has him at gunpoint, Joker just says "please don't kill me, I'll be ya friend" in a snarky tone.

Evil Is Hammy: It's not The Joker if he's not Chewing the Scenery. And, sure enough, he does.

Evil Is Petty: The graffiti on Robin's costume seems to imply that Joker murdered him just to prod at Batman. It is confirmed in Suicide Squad that Joker and Harley killed him.

Evil Laugh: It's kind of his thing. One notable example is when he chuckles while surrounded by an arsenal of weapons.

Fake Shemp: Indie rocker Johnny Goth stood in for Jared Leto in Birds of Prey, in the flashback where he and Harley torture and tattoo the big mafia thug Harley later bumps back into.

Foil: To Batman as usual, but with some new additions. After 20 years, Batman became more jaded and cruel, while the Joker somewhat mellowed out and his criminal activity became more professional. Batman didn't settle down until the death of Superman while the Joker grew attached to Harley Quinn.

In Suicide Squad Griggs' smug indifference about his gambling debt immediately becomes pure terror when he realizes the Joker has gotten involved.

He is so feared that even the likes of Black Mask would rather steer clear of him. Harley's enemies only start gunning for her in Birds of Prey when it's become clear that she's no longer with him.

   G-Y

The Ghost:

There is an allusion to him in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ("HA HA HA Joke's On You, Batman" painted across the chest of the dead Robin's empty suit in the Batcave), but he doesn't actually appear.

He gets mentioned a lot in Birds of Prey, but he's only seen very briefly in some flashbacks, always from the back (including footage from Suicide Squad). There is a whole Deleted Scene where he and Harley have a domestic dispute. Harley leaves the house through the window and the Joker throws her stuffed beaver out through the window. In the film proper, she's just kicked out of the house, with no shot of Mr. J.

Greater-Scope Villain: His role in Batman v Superman. Despite not actually appearing his murder of Robin by this point has driven Batman down a darker, more vengeful path that goes against Batman's traditional moral code; the one that the Joker is always trying to prove is wrong. Batman's rage towards Superman blinds him to the possibility of Lex Luthor being the real threat long enough for Superman to die fighting Doomsday. In a way the Joker's actions contributed to Batman's failure.

Guttural Growler: This Joker is noticeably more snarly than previous incarnations.

Handshake Refusal: He doesn't like to shake hands, as Monster T finds out.

Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears a purple crocodile skin duster at some point in the film.

Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Despite being a homicidal sociopath, he seems to truly love his girlfriend Harley Quinn. Then in Birds Of Prey, he coldly and violently breaks up with her.

Joker Immunity: He appears to die when his helicopter is shot down about halfway through Suicide Squad. To absolutely no one's surprise, he shows up alive and well in the final scene. It helps that he's the Trope Namer.

Knife Nut: And by God, does he have enough blades.◊

Lean and Mean: This Joker, while muscular, is quite lean, especially compared to the heavily muscled Batman.

Love Epiphany: Well, "love" is pushing it, but Joker realizes his affections for Harley when she dives in the chemical bath that ultimately turned Joker into what he is. Symbolic in the sense she was agreeing to join him in madness. Further adding to the complexity of the scene; Joker was tying up a loose end, having used Harley to escape from Arkham. He lead her to her demise and intended to leave her for death but at the same moment realized she had entered his world and his madness. Joker never anticipated the amount of utter devotion Harley would have for him, something inside him just couldn't walk away from her, so he jumped in to save her.

Manipulative Bastard: He manipulated Harley into helping him escape Arkham because she fell in love with him. When she served her purpose, he would have had her kill herself jumping into a bath of chemicals to prove her feelings. He instead saves her from this demise because he has a Love Epiphany in the moment.

Monster Clown: Like the previous film versions, Joker is an Ax-Crazy criminal with clownish makeup. Green hair notwithsanding, his white makeup, red lipstick and absence of facial scars make him look closer to a mime than his predecessors.

Noble Demon: In Suicide Squad, his whole motivation is to rescue Harley Quinn. His commitment is so strong he doesn't even waste time with pranks or petty acts of cruelty. Everything he does is for someone else.

Only Known By His Nickname: He's only known as The Joker, or "J" / "Mr. J".

Outlaw Couple: He and Harley Quinn are lovers and partners in crime.

Sadist: Even though there was only a few select scenes of him, one of them is him torturing Harley. It's disturbingly obvious that he is positively gleeful over it. And he doesn't seem to have lost any sleep over murdering Robin, either.

Pet the Dog: David Ayer confirms that while he did push Harley out of the falling helicopter, his intent was in fact to save her life.

Satellite Love Interest: To Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. His characterization revolves entirely around Harley, not even getting involved with the main plot.

Scary Teeth: Several of his teeth are made of metal. According to David Ayer, Batman punched his teeth out after he killed Robin, leading him to replace them with metal teeth.

Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Although he has a presence at the start of the film, The Joker appears to have left Gotham City to be controlled by Black Mask in Birds of Prey, with Roman saying that Joker has already skipped town.

The Sociopath: He's chaotic and remorseless, much like his previous versions. Special mention goes to his murder of Robin, which he topped off by spray-painting a cruel taunt for Batman onto the boy's costume.

Tattooed Crook: His torso is covered in jester-themed tattoos. He also has a few on his arms and face.

Villain of Another Story: He mainly appeared in Suicide Squad, but his biggest act of villainy to date — killing Robin — happened some years before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, in which he doesn't appear. The spray-painted message on Robin's empty suit ("Ah ah ah joke's on you Batman!") in the latter film can't be anything else than his doing.

Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Is seen with a rather impressive arsenal of guns and knives. And even says to warden Griggs, at some point, "I can't wait to show you my toys." note Notably, he manages to hijack the gunship which was sent to extract Waller and the squad so he can rescue Harley.

Would Hit a Girl: In the past, the Joker electroshocks and manipulates Dr. Harleen Quinzel into allowing her to fall into a vat of chemicals, in order to become Harley Quinn.

Would Hurt a Child: He killed Batman's sidekick, Robin, while the boy was an underage minor.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair: His hair is bright green.

   "Knightmare" Joker

"You won't kill me. I'm your best friend..." Appearances:

Zack Snyder's Justice League

"You need me. You... need me... to help you undo this world you created, by letting her die."

The Joker meets up once more with Batman in the nightmarish alternate future where Darkseid has conquered the Earth and Superman turned evil. But things aren't the same anymore between the two legendary foes.

See also the Knightmare page for more on that setting's characters.

Break Them by Talking: He deliberately tries to agitate Batman by reminding him of how many people have died on his watch.

Cop Killer: He wears a bulletproof vest with at least two dozens police badges on it. Whether these were good cops killed prior to the apocalypse or servants of the oppressive regime of Superman after the apocalypse is not detailed.

Costume Evolution: He has ditched his garish gangster suits for what looks like either a medical gown or a butcher gown, complete with orange gloves and a bulletproof vest with a dozen police badges pinned on it. He got rid of his "Damaged" forehead tattoo, let his hair grow and put red makeup around his mouth, looking closer to more common depictions of the character.

Enemy Mine: He and Batman had the worst kind of enmity imaginable, but the Earth being conquered by Darkseid is enough of a Conflict Killer for them to call a truce and work together to try undoing this mess.

Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He utters the line "We live in a society" while gazing upon the devastated landscape in the trailer. This is clearly a Meme Acknowledgement, and it's quite awkwardly used given the context (is there really any society left in this post-apocalyptic world?). It doesn't appear in the actual film, however. The line was improvised by Leto.

Evil Laugh: Even with the world being in such a sorry state and him still being sane enough to acknowledge how bad the situation is, he'll still let some laughs out, even though they sound more subdued than ever.

Evil Versus Oblivion: Even he sees the necessity of teaming up with Batman to try undoing what Darkseid did to Earth.

Future Badass: He survived the apocalypse brought upon Earth by Darkseid and looks like he's geared for guerilla actions.

My Card: He gives a Joker card to Batman as a symbol of their truce. Shall the Dark Knight want to break that truce, he'd just have to tear that card up. The card could be seen strapped on Batman's assault rifle in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Joker gets a high reminding Batman how costly his mistakes in the past have been.

The Nicknamer: He nicknames Mera "my little fish stick" and Robin "Boy Wonder".

Progressively Prettier: Despite being worse for wear, this Joker is arguably even better looking than his previous appearance, with his over-the-top tattooed gangster image toned down and his androgyny played up. Ironically, this version also more closely resembles the Heath Ledger incarnation.

Thousand-Yard Stare: He has such a stare when looking at the devastated horizon as he starts talking to Batman.

Villain Has a Point: While he’s the one who killed Robin, he gives Batman a minor What the Hell, Hero? for sending “a Boy Wonder to do a man’s job.”

Vocal Evolution: His voice is much softer and higher pitched than it was in Suicide Squad.

[age-of-shadows]

yet another Avantasia theory by yours truly on how all the albums are connected

*ahem* OKAY, fellow avantasian brothers, sisters, siblings... We’re all reunited here in this post because I had a big brain moment about a couple of hours ago and somehow managed to connect all of the Avantasia albums as well as uncover what the actual Avantasia world is apart from Tobi’s definition of it.

This post is probably going to be really long and I already would like to apologise if there’s anything you don’t understand because I didn’t phrase it right (english ain’t my first language so... there might be a lot of mistakes), plus, I’m not Tobias so I can be completely wrong about this but HEY, THEORIES. I don’t even know if anyone’s even thought about this but I’ve literlaly never read about it and trust me, I’ve done a lot of Avantasia research in this year. And I’m aware it’s very, VERY hard to get the album plots right (man... I’ve spent months trying to figure out The Wicked Trilogy and Mystery of Time/Ghostlights, and even if I now think I have a clearer idea of what they’re about, whenever I listen to them I discover new things about them); but I do know reading other theories help people understand the lore and I hope this helps in some way.

Here we go: what is Avantasia? Apart from it obviously being the name of the project, Tobias describes it as a “world beyond human imagination”. At first, this definition is actually very clear and direct, isn’t it? Specially in The Metal Opera since all the story is well written down, and besides, the lyrics are clearer. Anyway, I have just finished reading the story from the booklets (I have to look up the one from part one because I only own part two for now... whoops) and I can do a summary of it: 

"Many ways lead to Rome. Seven times one way for all that leads to a world beyond our inagination."

This is said in one of the seven books that is part of the seven books and seven seals. What are these seals and books even? Well, if you’re only able to listen to the music and don’t have access to the booklets like I did just now, you for sure have noticed the seals do have a big part in the plot. These seven seals were made to be able to enter the spiritual world in flesh and blood. And yes, you guessed it: the spiritual world is Avantasia. They were made by three magicians of the universe thousands of years ago because they knew mankind would be born and they would need this spiritual world for themselves to find peace, and they should also take care of it.

Now: the famous Avantasia Tower, what even is it? Well, some higher entity that can be concieved as a God, maybe not much of a good one, though, is sealed in this Tower. If the seven seals were brought to the Tower, Avantasia would be locked and this God would break free, bringing chaos to mankind. And what would happen if Avantasia is locked? Humans would lose this spiritual world, and when things get tough, they wouldn’t be able to turn anywhere to save themselves, and who knows if that would lead to their destruction.

So, Avantasia has to be kept alive and passed on to the newer generations. 

Also, one is also able to reach Avantasia with their spirit only (this is what Gabriel does), but it’s dangerous since it’s as if their soul trascends and so their body is left in our flesh and blood world. Could this also mean that, if a soul dies in Avantasia, it will never return to its material body? Who knows? Definitely not me, but anyway! Let’s keep going!

Now that we know what Avantasia is, how is it connected to the other three stories if it’s never really mentioned at all? How could we know? Again, this is just a theory and I’m probably wrong.

Let’s go into The Wicked Trilogy then, which is probably the most abstract album and also the hardest to understand, maybe. I already talked about my headcanons about Scarecrow in a post, but I definitely think he’s got some sort of mental illness and that’s why he does the things he does. Anyway... the setting is kind of confusing, but to get a clear starting point: Roy Khan’s character is named Psychiatrist, and he’s the first one that appears in the album along with Scarecrow. There’s a theory going around that this story happens in a hospital, or maybe a psychiatric, so we can guess Scarecrow is hospitalised because of this illness. However... does the rest of the story happen in the hospital physically? This is when Avantasia comes in:

I don’t believe Scarecrow’s journey takes place in the hospital... but in Avantasia. Taking into account almost all of the characters are his own feelings or just parts of him (aka, Bob Catley being Conscience, Jorn Lande being Mephistopheles as a form of temptation...) except for Amanda Somerville’s character, who definitely exists in real life as Scarecrow’s real love interest; it makes a lot of sense. But, oh, how can that world be Avantasia if none of the elements described in The Metal Opera aren’t there? Well, I won’t write the conclusion just yet, but the Avantasia world in The Wicked Trilogy really looks like how we can perceive Scarecrow himself: empty, cold, fucked up... Can you see where this is going?

And now, getting into The Mystery of Time and Ghostlights, there is a very, VERY clear reference to the Avantasia world we see in The Metal Opera, in Savior in the Clockwork. Our protagonist Aaron Blackwell is working non stop in a mantlepiece clock whose hands don’t move for some reason, he overworks himself to the point he loses conscience... or as he says in the booklet notes, he loses the conscience “he had been used to”; in anyway, he passes out on the table. This is kind of similar to how Gabriel gets into Avantasia, isn’t it? Plus, the lyrics of this song are very, very interesting...

“Now am I half asleep or half unconscious, Half 'adream'? I can't move as I am stuck in bright lucidity I can feel and hear and see But I won't comprehend I see fire that I won't decipher I see giant evil tower to a blackened sky I feel blessed with evidence of what I can't define Swinging blade of the lowering perpendicular I see clarity I won't remember Do I dream Is it only fantasy and matter just a thought I see And time is all they need to seal away eternity”

“Giant evil tower”, “seal away eternity”... Yes, that is definitely Avantasia, a version that’s more close to the The Metal Opera’s Avantasia than the one in The Wicked Trilogy. Aaron accidentally gets into Avantasia... the real Avantasia... and this, my friends, is why the Scientists and Magician go to Aaron and ask him for help: they somehow know he has seen the real thing.

This mystery of time... it has something to do with Avantasia, this is why they’re keeping it as a secret, just like the three clerics in The Metal Opera.

Now... Ghostlights, which is more symbolic than this previous album... and I think you can now guess why: it mainly takes part in Avantasia, during Let The Storm Descend Upon you is when it happens, precisely. I have no idea if the Mystery of a Blood Red Rose video can serve as a clue, but Aaron falls unconscious in the end so... perhaps he entered the Avantasia world in the spiritual form, however... that’s not the same Avantasia world he had been to previously, this is more like Scarecrow’s Avantasia in a way.

In this Avantasia world, it’s where Aaron finds these Ghostlights, as well as some of his Scientists mates, did they get in all together? Perhaps it was the Magician who let them into this sort of spiritual world. This whole album really does seem to happen in another dimension, I already talked about the final tracks in my Aaron-Entity theory post, but they make it seem as if Aaron trascends to another plane completely. And the voices calling Aaron? Very much similar to Gabriel’s inner voices in The Metal Opera.

Last but not least, my favorite: Moonglow. We’ve got this Misplaced Entity, who’s thrown into a world they have no place in. They seek shelter in the night, the only place they’re comfortable in, until, when we reach the time the album is set in, they run to never come back to that one place, hiding from the dawn.

Now... How does Entity enter Avantasia? Easy: They enter in Ghost in the Moon, pretty quickly I must say. Let’s say... the glow of the moon is they gateway to Avantasia. Realized how they start talking about turning into a different being? That happens when you enter the spiritual world through your actual spirit, just like what happened to Gabriel (his appearance changes to fit the world). All the night, mysterious, eerie world in Moonglow is Avantasia.

I think all of this is enough to reach a conclusion:

There’s not only one Avantasia... there’s thousands, millions, even. Though, there is one real Avantasia, which is the core: that’s the Avantasia that appears in The Metal Opera, and the one Aaron sees when he passes out. Then, what are the other Avantasias? Easy: the connection each human has to the core, which means each human has a unique way of experiencing that connection; that is how the core of Avantasia is kept alive, even without letting every human into this core (let’s remember, it could be dangerous if the core of Avantasia was locked by humans).

This way, we can deduce how each of the protagonists experiences Avantasia: Gabriel goes to the core; Scarecrow and Entity experience Avantasia as a gateaway from their real, tormented lives and try to find happiness there instead of in the flesh and blood world; Aaron gets into the core by accident but, later on in Ghostlights, he explores his own connection, related to his thirst for knowledge... Remember?

"Many ways lead to Rome. Seven times one way for all that leads to a world beyond our inagination."

I think this is it for now... It is now 1am and trust me, I’ve tried my best to explain myself, so I hope you can understand this!

[finicky-finnick]

Finnick might have voted YES for another Hunger Games

I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but during my recent reread of THG trilogy it struck me that Finnick might actually have voted ‘yes’ to another Hunger Games had he lived in order to protect Annie (and possibly also himself, although I don’t think he cares much about his own physical safety) from Coin.

Annie says that Finnick would vote no if he were there. I do not doubt for even a second the truth of that statement if the vote were solely about his personal convictions. I am in no way saying Finnick personally wanted another Hunger Games. But I still think there is a possibility he might have voted with Coin. 

This is going to get long. Apologies. 

First of all, there is evidence early on in Mockingjay that Finnick has Coin’s number. You can see this when he and Katniss watch the Distirct 8 hospital bombing propo. Finnick’s political awareness and strategic intelligence are on full display. The most striking part of the scene is how quickly his mind works. 

What happens is this: an interview with Peeta comes on right after the rebel propo about the Distict 8 hospital bombing. Finnick and Katniss watch it. Peeta is in very bad shape. He implores Katniss to stop making propos, asks if she can trust the rebels, insists she is being manipulated into being a cause of death and destruction.

Finnick presses the button on the remote that kills the power. In a minute, people will be here to do damage control on Peeta’s condition and the words that came out of his mouth. I will need to repudiate them. But the truth is, I don’t trust the rebels or Plutarch or Coin. I’m not confident that they tell me the truth. I won’t be able to conceal this. Footsteps are approaching. 

Finnick grips me hard by the arms. “We didn’t see it.”

“What?” I ask. 

“We didn’t see Peeta. Only the propo on Eight. Then we turned the set off because the images upset you. Got it?” He asks. I nod. “Finish your dinner.” 

And Finnick’s plan works. (“I pull myself together enough so that when Plutarch and Fulvia enter, I have a mouthful of bread and cabbage. Finnick is talking about how well Gale came across on camera. We congratulate them on the promo. Make it clear it was so powerful, we tuned out right afterward. They look relieved. They believe us.”)

This demonstrates that Finnick has Coin’s number while also demonstrating that he understands Katniss well enough to know she is not capable of playing the game she needs to in order to survive right now. He is in such bad shape mentally at this point that he “basically lives at the hospital” and yet he is sharp enough, astute enough, and quick enough to realise in a matter of seconds that: 

a) people will be checking on them any minute, 

b) Katniss will have to publicly respond to Peeta’s comments as well as assure Coin and Plutarch that she completely trusts them and the rebels if word gets out they saw Peeta, 

c) Katniss does NOT trust the rebels or D13 or Plutarch, and especially not Coin, 

d) Katniss is, in that moment, incapable of acting well enough to convince Coin and Plutarch that she does trust them, and 

e) the consequences of that would be bad, bad, bad. 

Therefore, it is highly likely that Finnick would be aware of the fact he and his loved ones are unsafe when it comes to Coin, and this knowledge would have been a factor in how he voted during the Games vote at the end of Mockingjay. 

In fact, he probably realised this a lot sooner than the Games vote. Finnick probably understood immediately that he was now expendable - and potentially a threat - the moment he laid eyes on Peeta, the newest member of the Star Squad. 

Katniss is a lot less politically astute than Finnick, so Boggs has to spell it out for her. 

“But you’ll throw support to someone. Would it be President Coin? Or someone else?” [Boggs says]

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it,” I say. 

“If your immediate answer isn’t Coin, then you’re a threat. You’re the face of the rebellion. You may have more influence than any other single person,” says Boggs. “Outwardly, the most you’ve ever done is tolerated her.”

“So she’ll kill me to shut me up.” The minute I say the words, I know they’re true.

“She doesn’t need you as a rallying point now. As she said, your primary objective, to unite the districts, has succeeded,” Boggs reminds me. “These current propos could be done without you. There’s only one last thing you could do to add fire to the rebellion.”

“Die,” I say quietly. 

“Yes. Give us a martyr to fight for,” says Boggs.

Boggs tells Katniss explicitly that Coin wants Katniss dead because whomever Katniss supports as the new leader of Panem is who the new leader will be.  Katniss has this amount of influence because she is “the face of the rebellion.” Aka she is extremely famous at this point - dare I say, as the Mockingjay, a living legend.

Who else is a living legend in Panem? Finnick. 

I think Finnick would have realised Coin might now consider him a potential threat the minute he understood that Coin saw Katniss as a threat, which I think he would have pieced together the moment Peeta joined Star Squad. While Katniss undoubtedly has the most sway over who will be Panem’s new leader, it is highly likely Finnick held some influence, too. He is one of the most famous people in all of Panem and is now famously a rebel due to the several propos he made. Being the Capitol Darling for 10 years probably limits how much political sway he has over the general public, and his mental breakdown in D13 probably lost him some credibility with the rebels. However, he probably gained quite a bit of credibility points and general influence after his powerful confessional propo that revealed Snow’s forced prostitution of the desirable victors, Snow’s deadly rise to power, and other salacious details about the other most powerful people in the Capitol. His primary use was his ability to turn the Capitol against Snow. Now that he’s accomplished that, he is expendable to Coin - just like Katniss. It just took longer for Katniss to become expendable than it did for Finnick. 

So Finnick would have  known he could not afford to give Coin the impression he did not support her fully and without hesitation. He had Coin’s number from pretty early on and has a sharp political mind. This leads us to the vote. 

If you look at the Victors who voted ‘no’, you realise the none of them have much influence over public opinion. Peeta (a ‘traitor’ due to his capitol tv spots during MJ, then an ‘evil Capitol mutt’ when returned hijacked) doesn’t have much influence. His credibility is shot. Annie, who has a very public reputation as the mad victor, also votes no. So does Beetee. Beetee has more credibility than Annie or Peeta with the public, but he is older, in a wheelchair, and not one of the most famous victors so he likely doesn’t hold much sway. He also cites political concerns for his vote, not moral objections, a move reminiscent of a wise advisor to a king. He also demonstrated his loyalty with the bombing of the Capitol that killed Prim.

So basically, the victors who vote against Coin are the ones who don’t pose a threat to Coin. Johanna and Enobaria vote yes out of a desire for revenge. The victors with more credibility and sway (Katniss, Haymitch) vote yes knowing that they can’t be seen to not support Coin (Kat) and knowing what Katniss is planning (Haymitch). 

I think Finnick would have known immediately what Katniss was planning, but I don’t think that would have any influence on his vote. 

Bottom line/TL;DR: I think he would have voted ‘yes’ to protect Annie. Because he would have known Coin might see him as a threat and his experience has taught him that presidents use his loved ones to punish him or keep him in line. He has seen the similarities between Coin and Snow from the beginning and has been given no reason to assume Coin will behave differently.