#all things considered he was also being really understanding

[soft-pine]

i think it's just really frustrating to me how it feels like in the dean & mary dynamic people are always looking for someone to blame? like i am not a mary crit! i love and support her! her life has been fucking crazy and awful and she has had very little control over what happens to her and i'm certainly not saying i think there's some easy thing i can see that she should have done or anything!

but dean just really does handle that insane situation that he's also dumped in in like... a pretty healthy way all things considered. to the point where in season 12, he's doing a LOT of talking through his feelings and asking for help processing them (12.02 convo with cas eg) in all the ways everyone often criticizes him for not doing? but because his feelings are complicated and involve understanding why mary's doing what she's doing but also being hurt by it and sometimes expressing that.... then.... idk it's bad?

i feel like we could be talking about how sad and impossible a situation they are both in and how they are both trying to navigate it as best they can. and how mary specifically lacks so much context around how her actions are hurting dean. and dean is trying to communicate with her without dumping years and years of trauma off on her.

like i don't know it really frustrates me to make posts about season 12 and get them filled up with mary crit that talks about her being just as bad as john (hisss i am in your walls) but ALSO it really frustrates me when it feels like the corrective course some people take on that is blaming dean?

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Now don't throw tomatoes at me but I'm actually really excited to finally see malleus again— I've always loved malleus since we met him in the story, but I'm also sooo curious about what's gonna happen next,, I'm wondering the obvious thing, about whether or not we might get a parralel scenario like what happened with the KoD and silver will have to "slay" malleus or at least be the one to land a killing blow, but I also saw a really interesting post focusing on how magic is a manifestation of dreams and deep desires and imagination,,,, in that case, I may (VERY delusionally) hope that Yuu finally gets to be a major part of the story for once??? Even reading the novels, there HAS to be something bigger for yuu— while the idea of crowley simply being an incompetent airhead is fun and more comfortable, haven't you thought that meybe he pulled them into this world deliberately??

All to say, what if at some point, Yuu somehow manifests magic in a very dire moment ?? You know lol?? Agh idk. I just want yuu to finally make impactful choices but that IS too much to ask, as far as we can see for now,,, (but hey, that part leading up to ace getting is UM, and the convo between him and yuu,,, it *does* give one a sliver of hope, doesn't it? :') )

Don't worry, no tomato throwing here! 😅 I may not care for certain characters, but I’m not going to shame anyone that does. You’re free to think however you want about Malleus!

dbjsvsJcwhj My personal feelings about him aside, I am actually glad he’s finally relevant to the main story again. He’s missed out on so much of his own book OTL In the time he’s been gone, the fandom has been left to speculate about both his and Lilia’s potential death flags. I really doubt Twst will have the balls to kill off one of them, but it would be cool to at least see Silver delivering the final blow to knock some sense into (not necessarily kill) OB Malleus.

Yes, it���s true that Silver states in the recent update that magic was originally considered “a miracle borne of strong desires from the heart.” But 💦 I don’t think that means Yuu would randomly manifest magic in the final fight?? It feels more like a “let’s save the day with the power of friendship” to me, but I could of course be wrong.

I understand being frustrated that Yuu’s participation in the main story seems to fluctuate a lot, with most of their activity being books 3, 4, and segments of 1, 6, and 7. That’s not much, especially considering how long books 6 and 7 are. Sometimes (even in events) it feels like Yuu is barely there, as most dialogue options don’t involve different reactions from the characters. Even Yuu's quest to find a way home is barely addressed or taken seriously until early in book 7. Yuu hasn't gotten "real" development unless you count them realizing their Disney dreams are prophetic in book 5, taking the initiative to save Grim in book 6, and that dialogue option about them being worried they're not contributing + the related convo with Ace in book 7. All very short moments in the grand scheme of things. And honestly, I think that makes sense for the kind of character Yuu is. A blank slate, a self-insert, an outsider that's easy to exposit information to, someone with which to view the story, characters, and world through. Yuu is primarily there to be the POV character, the lenses, the camera that we see Twst through. They're not really meant to be a traditional "main character". It's possible that Twst gives them a slightly bigger role at the very end (especially with what went down in the dream in book 7), but I doubt it will be a huge triumphant moment where they and they alone save the day or deal the final blow in a crazy act of self-sacrifice. Twst has always been a story that puts the NRC boys first, while Yuu is the observer.

I've noticed that the complaint of Yuu not doing a lot in the story comes mainly from English speaking fans?? And I guess that makes sense, given how western culture tends to emphasize independence and standing out. They want Yuu to reflect that. They want to be the ones to make a difference. I don't even remember ever seeing these same comments from the Japanese speaking fans; it's definitely a less common sentiment for them. The Japanese fans seem pretty content with Yuu being an observer and taking on more of a minor or supporting role. Again, this fits in with what I understand of many eastern cultures. They're demurer, not wanting to stand out too much from the crowd and instead prioritizing group harmony. Very interesting cultural difference to note!

It's a common theory (with many variants) that Crowley intentionally summoned Yuu to Twisted Wonderland for his own nefarious motives. People found him pretty sus right away due to how he seems to not put in any real time or effort into investigating a way to send Yuu home. Plus, there's that ominous opening monologue of his to consider. However, I don't think he summoned Yuu because of their (potential) great magical capabilities. The Mirror of Darkness tells us that it doesn't sense a shred of magic in Yuu, and Leona smells zero magic on them (though that could be because it hasn't technically manifested yet, as some fans claim).

The idea is that Yuu is supposed to be plain. They are supposed to be magicless. Why? To humble the NRC students and to show them that asserting yourself violently or with great magical power ISN'T the way to go. To show them value in strategizing (which Yuu does in the prologue by helping Grim aim at the ghosts), of camaraderie. What does it say about the story's themes if Yuu, the person who is supposed to be showing them the worth of mundane things, is suddenly... "secretly ultra-strong, actually/“just like you guys” (even if it's only a temporary hope-fueled magic)? It might contradict what has already been set up. It also breaks the self-insert appeal of Yuu, since developing magic would also mean Yuu would later have to further develop things like proficiency in magic, best/worst subjects, and an unique magic/signature spell... meaning Yuu HAS to become better "defined", thus losing their blank slate nature. This would surely upset some fans who deeply project onto Yuu, have a Yuusona, etc.

Yuu can still make an impact on the characters and the world--and they have, judging by how much closer the boys are with each other--without having to be The Most Special One or like everyone else. I think it undermines what Yuu has already managed to achieve to say that they haven't made an impactful choice at ANY point in the main story when I believe they definitely have. Yuu made the choice to sign the contract with Azul. Yuu made the choice to approach Malleus. Yuu made the choice to go against Crowley's orders and go retrieve Grim from S.T.Y.X. Yuu made the choice to get Leona’s help with the contracts. Yuu made the choice to stand with Adeuce against Riddle in book 1. Yuu made the choice to let the VDC/SDC tribe train at Ramshackle. Yuu has done a lot, and all without needing to seize the spotlight or to do anything big and flashy. I don't think Yuu needs to be big and flashy. There is pride to be had in simplicity and being humble too. There is pride in representing the 90% of humans in Twisted Wonderland that are ordinary and without magic.

(An aside: so if Yuu wasn’t able to manifest magic in many other extreme instances, does that mean their desire to save Grim in book 6 wasn’t “enough”? That their desire to save Ramshackle, their one and only home in this world, wasn’t “enough”? It implies that Yuu didn’t wish hard enough for these other things they clearly care about and want.)

I think a good way to give Yuu a decent role while staying true to their design as a blank slate would be for Twst to really lean into the whole "beast tamer" aspect that was introduced all the way back in the prologue. This would work well with their deep connection to Grim as well. Assuming that Grim ends up being the final OB... We could easily have the NRC students and staff on the ropes, Malleus at his wit's end after exhausting himself with his own OB, a rampaging Grim about to end it all. And then... one lone figure shakily rises from the rubble and confronts Grim. One human. Magicless, defenseless. A human lost in an unfamiliar world, a human who believes they're useless and don't contribute much. A human who is always in need of being protected by others. But not anymore. This time, it's Yuu's turn to protect what they love--their friends, this world they've come to love, Grim. Ace and Deuce yelling at Yuu to not be stupid, to get back--but Yuu just advances, calling out to Grim and begging him to stop. And maybe it's Yuu's wish that rallies everyone and/or gets OB Grim to hesitate. That's when they can strike. Is that corny? Yeah. Does it sound like the ending to a Disney film? Sure. But it still grants Yuu, a magicless human that is supposed to be there to teach everyone about friendship, cooperation, and humility, their big moment to shine. The best of both worlds, I'd say.

[misspelledwordswizard]

How about a reaction from the Chain to a witch Reader, but in a Harry Potter style?

Reader, in addition to being scared at first, would undoubtedly be confused by the blatant display of magic without punishment. It doesn’t help that she quickly mistakes and identifies Twilight as an Animagus after seeing Wolfie just once. It would definitely lead to an interesting conversation where Reader reveals herself as a witch and explains how, in her world, the Statute of Secrecy exists, along with the reasons it was created.

The Chain would be horrified not by the massive concealment of magic itself, but by the reasons behind it, with the main one being the indiscriminate hunting of magical beings.

Hey, I'm back baby! After a while on vacation and having to deal with the return of my classes, I was finally able to organize myself to return fully, I hope. But hey, I'm sorry for the huge delay with the requests, and happy new year to everyone, considering that this is my first post of the year!

Oh, thanks for the request, I really love crossovers, and I love Harry Potter!

I’ve been here for a few weeks, traveling with this group of men who claim to be heroes of the realm, or something like that. I’m not sure how I ended up here, but it was obvious that this was a different world from mine. For starters, the humans here have pointy ears, like elves. Okay, I can deal with that. And then there are other races, which I’ve never seen anything like in my world. I mean, a race of stone men, seriously? Not to mention the totally different monsters. 

But none of these things surprised me as much as the lack of care with the exposure of magic. Everyone, even the supposed “muggles” who don’t have magic, are fully aware of its existence. It’s natural, it’s normal. But it’s also strange that they don’t have any organ that regulates its use, considering how much it is used. 

From what I could see, one of my traveling companions, who took me in for some reason when I fell on top of them after passing through a strange portal, has magic and uses it medicinally.  I don’t know if the others can do things like that, but from what I’ve noticed, most of them have some object that has some magical property and makes things easier. That boy with the rings – I think his nickname was Legend – has one for every situation. 

Well, okay, I know they’re all called Link, confusing, even more confusing when I found out they’re from different timelines. Is temporal magic really that normalized around here? I’ve only been with them for a short time, and I still find it hard to associate them with their nicknames, because not only are they all blond with blue eyes, which doesn’t help much, but each one seems to have about three different nicknames, and each one is weirder than the last. 

Okay, I’m in a different world, where magic is common and doesn’t need to be hidden. I’m traveling with a group of heroes from different eras who consider themselves brothers, and are, from what I can understand, reincarnations... so why are they acting like this wolf that appeared is some kind of pet? 

— Soooo... you know that this wolf is one of you transformed, right? – I ventured to say. 

Everyone’s eyes turned to me, surprised. They didn’t know? Seriously? They looked at each other momentarily before someone finally answered me. 

— Well, we do know, but how do you know? – The long-haired hero spoke, the Cook, if I’m not mistaken.  

— And how could you not know? It couldn’t be more obvious, I mean, even the markings on his face are the same as the wolf’s, they’re never seen together in the same place, and, to tell the truth, Twilight kind of smells like dog. It’s pretty obvious that he’s an Animagus.  

— Animagus? Huh, Wolfie, are you that thing she said? – The youngest of the group spoke, and the wolf just tilted his head in confusion.  

— Oh, great, it takes her three minutes to figure that out while eight heroes took months to do the same. – Legend complained.  

— Speak for yourself, I knew from the beginning!  

So, they already knew about it, and were just pretending so I wouldn’t find out? Strange people.  

 While the others debated who had been the first to find out about Wolfie, he retransformed, without having to worry about hiding his secret, and approached me, visibly confused and curious. 

— So, in your world, it’s normal for people to turn into animals? 

— I wouldn’t say it’s common, but it’s possible, and all wizards know about it. 

— Wizards? What about people without magic, don’t they know? – The hero with magic joined the conversation, visibly curious. 

— No, of course not. We can’t let the Muggles find out about magic! 

— Muggles? – The little boy asked, interested in the way I called the non-magic users. 

— They’re the non-wizards, we keep magic hidden from them, or else we’d go to war... it’s very dangerous, that’s why the Ministry of Magic exists, to make sure wizards don’t reveal themselves. 

— For Hylia, your world is confusing. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to live in a society as segregated as this one... – I heard the comment coming from one of the quieter boys, the one called Sky. 

 — Yes, well, but it is necessary, or else wizards would still be burned at the stake for using magic to this day. 

— WHAT?! – Everyone gasped as they heard my last statement, shocked by the brutal concept. Oh man, I think this conversation will go on for much longer than I had imagined. 

[tousey-mousey]

To be clear, I'm about to disagree with this post, but I also do not want to trigger anyone including OP who may be working through some shit. Please do not read below the cut if that would upset you or if right now you're just working through some shit and need to express yourself.

The emotional timbre of your post is valid, even if I wanna disagree with some points. You are allowed to feel hurt, to feel ignored, or to feel isolated. You are allowed to feel pain. I hope that working through that brings you peace.

It is so fucking sinister that the only form of child abuse that society really cares about is sexual in nature.

So. I understand your point? But I simply do not agree. Society recognises an enormous number of things as child abuse that do not, at all, include sexual abuse. However, sexual abuse is unique because it can never FAIL to be abusive. There is no amount of sexualising or sexual contact with a child that can be seen as acceptable by the overwhelming majority of our society. This means that, unlike the other ways that society recognises children can be abused, nobody can raise even a shadow of a doubt that a parent having sexual contact with their child is not abusive. It is ALWAYS abusive.

On the other hand... restricting a child's choices of foods, for example, can be non-abusive. If a 10-year-old wants to drink wine with daddy, then that kid's dad is considered to be abusive if he DOES NOT restrict that choice.

Restricting clothing choices can be the less abusive of two option: if a boy wants to go to school wearing shorts and T-shirt and won't take no for an answer even though it's snowing outside, his parents would be considered neglectful for NOT restricting that choice.

A 9-year-old girl who wants to take up gymnastics needs to be carefully monitored, and both her parents and her coach could be considered neglectful or abusive for driving her too hard when it could and sometimes does permanently damage bone structure. Australia has recently had a massive scandal over the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) being alleged to have covered up cases of parents and coaches allowing children to make dangerous choices, or even encouraging or forcing children to make dangerous choices, regarding gymnastics. While sexual assault allegations are in there, the majority of the scandal is around parents and coaches who were physically and, importantly, emotionally abusing their children with respect to gymnastics at a young age, knowing that it would harm the children but allowing or encouraging it anyway. This is going to result in and has ALREADY resulted in criminal charges and even convictions for abuse. It is taken seriously.

Children can make bad choices in all sorts of ways. A parent is given wide latitude to control things like whether a child goes to a specific church in part because of organisations like the Jehovah's Witnesses, who a few years ago were sued for predatory conduct regarding children at a children's hospital here. They were banned from the hospital grounds or from being within line-of-sight of the hospital while preaching, and part of the issue was that they were predating children and using them to try to wedge their way into families at a young age during a time of strife and fear. Similarly, when a parent DOES go too far the other way, at least here in Australia the courts DO recognise that as abusive. Again using the Witnesses as an example, a Witness family took the government to court because a hospital wanted to force a blood transfusion on a 17-year-old boy with leukaemia and both he and the parents refused. The courts found that the boy had, essentially, been abused into his faith by his parents and that it wasn't a free and fair choice, so he was forced to get the transfusion until he turned 18 at which point he could make the call himself again - by which time, notably, he would be most likely cured. The family were found by the court to have been, basically, abusive, and their rights were removed as a result.

The problem is that kids are fucking idiots. That's by design: they're born knowing nothing and need to be taught everything. They have no understanding of how to make good choices and everything they are and have needs to be given to them over time. However, they do not learn it instantly: it is a process, and one that takes multiple decades to really get good at doing. Children are, therefore, going to attempt to make choices long before they are able to make GOOD choices, and so their carers NEED to be able to control those choices and deny them certain choices in order to keep them safe from themselves.

Kids will see a person claim to make caramel in the microwave by putting sugar and water in a bowl and leaving it on high for 15 minutes. This will, without a doubt, end badly. However, the child does not know that. They do not have the ABILITY to know that. Their parent NEEDS to be able to keep them safe from that.

However, in the process, they are restricting their child's free action, their child's food, their child's behaviours and movements, and may need to punish a child who repeatedly refuses to understand WHY they're being restricted and keeps trying to do it anyway. All those things that you see as abusive are, in this case, VITALLY important to keeping that kid alive and unburnt.

Unfortunately, the ways in which children can be incalculably stupid are similarly incalculable. As a result, parents need very wide latitude to control their children's behaviours and so the wiggle room needed to keep a kid safe is also enough to allow bad parents to abuse children. This does not mean abuse is "built into the system". It just means that there is no good system that can be designed that doesn't make abuse possible. It is not intentional and it is not "built in" - there's just no way to safely "build it out".

It is so fucking sinister that the only form of child abuse that society really cares about is sexual in nature. parents are free to control everything about their child's movement, presentation, eating, faith traditions, information exposure, socialization, and can restrict all of these things to an extreme degree as a form of punishment or in order to shape the child into whatever they want that child to be. and that's all considered completely normal, the parent's right! people don't even see the fact that a parent has the power to control so much about a child's life for damn near 20 years to be a problem. The only time they become concerned about child abuse is when the prospect of an outside stranger behaving in a sexual way toward a child is raised. and yeah a lot of really horrific sexual abuses are enacted unto children, but that's because they have zero control over their own lives and bodies in any other way as well. It is all about power and control. and typically the ones who are abusing children the most frequently are the ones who have the most control over them, the parents.

[mymoshangthoughts]

aight so

moshang modern reincarnation au

so in their og life, things didnt go that different from pidw. obvs airplane's behavior was a lot different from og!qinghua, but he straight up just didnt know the key to survive as mobei jun's minion. basically, og!qinghua woulda prolly died even if he WAS a super great and loyal servant due to the circumstances. and airplane wasnt even a super great and loyal servant. without the foreknowledge that crossing mobei jun would be an absolutely fatal affair, he just did whatever he thought maximized his chances for survival. he had no reason to think that mobei jun would be a more dependable ally than an entire fucking sect, absolutely no reason to like mobei jun despite the frequent beatings, no reason to have a nuanced understanding or sympathy for demons, and no foreknowledge that there would be an upcoming war. he did sorta try to play both sides, kinda looking for who had the best thighs to cling to. he DID have a 'onesided' affection for mobei jun, but he also understood that his feelings were irrational, the violent demon clearly hated his guts, and even if he did have a chance there was no future for demon/human relationships. so he was too hyper logical to surrender himself to those feelings and never admitted to them

meanwhile mobei jun also did develop feelings for airplane, but he never found a way to express those feelings that airplane understood. to top it off, airplane being generally disloyal and duplicitous was a srs trigger for all his uncle issues (someone else who he'd loved so dearly and who had betrayed him at every turn)

so eventually it comes to mobei jun killing shang qinghua. they're both really fucking upset about it. airplane bc he'd like not to die, thank you, but also bc having the guy you like murder your ass is a special breed of heartbreak. mobei jun feels he has no choice, but after the deed is done, he's completely broken over it and is felled in battle not long after. it's debatable whether he was distracted by heartbreak or just no longer cared to protect his own life

SO reincarnation

modern times, the convenience of the internet, and demons are now a thing of myth. airplane doesnt have any memories of his past life persay, but he does have dreams and kinda faint memories, that he chalks up to his own overactive imagination. it seems like it'd make for a great story, so he starts jotting down stuff he remembers to use in a novel. the novel isnt really accurate to his memories, but a lot of the core events remain the same

mobei jun remembers but doesnt really believe it. his memories are a lot clearer than airplane's, but it still feels like remembering a dream. he's not even in denial, he's honestly never even considered the possibility that the incongruent memories are of a past life. it's too fantastical for starters, with demons and cultivators and all sorts of crazy nonsense, so even tho he can fairly clearly remember an entire other lifetime, he kinda just dismisses it and ignores it

especially because he hates remembering the end bits. the sharp pain of murdering a person he loved really fucks with him. but also he doesnt even really relate to the feelings of his past-life self. to him, a human who grew up with human rules and human logic, he has a "ofc the dude would hate you and backstab you, you're literally a domestic abuser???" type of reaction to a lot of the nonsensical demonic culture nonsense. due to the emotional disconnect of being unable to relate to his demonic past life, it's even harder for him to consider that person as himself. if he were really pressed to explain the events he remembered, he'd prolly assume "some dumb cartoon i watched as a kid maybe". the emotions are still sharp and painful, but he's filled with ridicule for his own past actions. also just generally "ya know, if you loved him, WHY MURDER HIM IDIOT??" bc mobei jun has no appreciation for tragic irony

anyway, one day mobei jun starts hearing about a new popular webnovel and he's not that much of a reader of this specific genre, but he starts hearing lil snippets that sound like his own memories and he's like "oh maybe this is the novel that im remembering" except when he looks it up, it's way too new for it to be that. so now mobei jun is thinking plagiarism and he's kinda hellbent to figure out which work this "airplane" asshole was plagiarizing but now he really can't find anything anywhere.

which doesnt make sense. he remembers a lot of the events within this novel SO CLEARLY and has for the majority of his life, but no matter how hard he searches, this novel seems to be the only source of those familiar plot lines

so he's gotta read the whole thing, right? figure out some clues? maybe send some comments calling the author out on his plagiarism to see if he cracks?

and look, it's really not THAT important, but somehow mobei jun just can't let this go. especially when the novel starts distorting events. IMPORTANT events. like shang qinghua in the novel is just way more of a scummy villain aND IT WASNT LIKE THAT AT ALL

mobei jun has gone his whole fucking life thinking of shang qinghua as some sort of tragic character who suffered until he broke, someone who was beaten by the man who loved him before being murdered by that same man, and now THIS ASSHOLE is painting shang qinghua as this two-dimensional canon fodder villain. and mobei jun's character has also gotten a serious glam up??? LIKE THE NOVEL IS ACTUALLY FRAMING THE MURDER AS A GOOD AND RIGHTEOUS THING THAT MOBEI JUN DID???? mobei jun is a beloved sidekick of the main character and basically gets presented as constantly cool and cold and smart and THAT'S ALL WRONG, THIS STUPID AUTHOR CLEARLY DIDNT UNDERSTAND MOBEI JUN'S CHARACTER AT ALL!!! mobei jun was stupid and scared and traumatized and lashed out in dumb ways and lost to his own pride all the damn time and never bothered to understand human courting rituals or grasp they might be different than demon courting rituals and died pathetically becuase he never bothered to understand himself properly AND BASICALLY KILLED HIMSELF BC HE COULDNT HANDLE LIFE W/O SHANG QINGHUA, WHY THE FUCK WAS THIS FUCKER HAVING MOBEI JUN SHRUG OFF THAT PIVOTAL MOMENT LIKE IT MEANT NOTHING TO HIM?!?! DIDNT HE UNDERSTAND HOW AGONIZINGLY PAINFUL IT HAD BEEN?! WHAT KIND OF GARBAGE FANFICTION IS THIS?! THIS FUCKING HACK OF AN AUTHOR!!

so maybe, just maybe, mobei jun has started to get into fights with the author. arguing about interpretations of his characters and stupid decisions and basically known in the forum as "that one really weird shang qinghua stannie who srsly woobified that canon fodder villain". other people fight him too, but mobei jun is primarly focused on This Fucking Author

airplane, meanwhile, is FURIOUS over this mobei jun hater that keeps cropping up in his comments. look. he's not about to ban the guy. he drums up good drama with his STUPID comments and also hater money is as good as anyone elses, but airplane isnt used to having a person try to bash his fav. mobei jun is... special. and he's not gonna have this twobit virgin of a creepy shang qinghua fan DARE to besmirch mobei jun's name and he will make as many alts as he needs to win this argument! but also he's willing to get the word of god involved! fuck it! he'll revive shang qinghua for a chapter just to have mobei jun kill the weasel again!

and look, neither of them are being sane about this, but they just feel Really Impassioned about their opinions oki

so next hmmm

A) meet at a con (either a signing or w/o knowing who the other is)

B) meet in real life, maybe at work or something (def w/o knowing who the other is, mobei jun is his boss? lol) and start developing feelings for each other irl while maintaining a strong hateship online

C) meet in dreams bc their souls are too interconnected, but only in their past life forms so they still can't recognize each other irl. but now theyre playing out fantasies together in the dream world

im indecisive LOL

[qoldenskies]

Thinking about Rise Splinter hate… it always makes me kinda sad. Like YEAH, it wasn’t right the way he treated the boys. But like, Rise is really good at expressing subtle familial dynamics, and one of the big ones for me is the fact that like… there’s always an undercurrent of “It’s complicated” to their interaction with Splinter. IRL, it always pisses me off to see people casting judgments on people’s relationships with their family, because you don’t know!! Yeah, they hurt you, but not everything’s black and white. It’s complicated. Because you love them, and sometimes you get to understand a little bit better why things happened as you get older.

In a matter of smaller importance, hate for him loses so many opportunities in his character… even things that might just be kinda off-handedly mentioned.

He fought for SEVEN years—give me Splinter with chronic pain. Splinter relating to his boys with their neurodivergence—it’s HIS fault they have it!!!

That was seven years of imprisonment, or even simpler, an abusive relationship. What did he learn from that? How did he change? What things are skewed in his worldview?

His childhood! We saw his relationship with his grandfather a bit, but how did Splinter grow into his dream of being a movies star? HIM BEING A MOVIE STAR. He was both a rebellious team and a literal celebrity, this guy probably took empyrean at some point without knowing it, just like. Recreationally or something LMAO.

I maybe just need more of his old man knowledge. Him being so loser-core was a great move by the Rise team, and I could SEE where his story was going—ROBBED. We were ROBBED.

splinter hate is CRAAAAZY when he's such an INTERESTING character who does actually have a lot of obvious depth. like he's goofy and he's objectively flawed as a parent but he does go out of his way to improve himself and LEARN throughout the show, and he does listen and apologize when he knows he's messed up. his issues are so similar to leo's actually, leo's a kid so he's got more leeway to be shitty but idk when people act like its endearing on him and not on splinter. splinter's hilarious free my man

on the other side of the coin i dont really like when people make him a perfect loving parent either,,, i think people going for all kinds of interpretations in order to serve whatever story they need is fine but i do prefer kind of messy parent splinter, i think its kind of sad to see him reduced down to bad or good. he LOVES his boys so dearly and he would NEVER intentionally want to hurt them, but he's quick to cast judgement when he's angered/feels disrespected (evil league of mutants comes to mind, but also in turtle dega nights when donnie first stops the tank) and he's really a lot more inattentive than he should be. but there are REASONS behind this, coming out of an abusive relationship, fighting in bloodsports against his consent for years, you could probably count the whole draxum thing as traumatic (its presented as kind of silly in the show, but considering what it lead to,, its a pivotal moment in the backstory. its one of those things that i reasonably feel can be recontextualized because its so essential) and then dealing with crippling body dysmorphia and being forced into the sewers with no company other than his children,, it really adds up

idk like ,,,, you can still be extremely traumatized and be a horrible parent. in fact trauma can be a direct CAUSE of being a bad parent because that kind of thing influences every facet of your life and if youre unprepared emotionally, yeah. but splinter isn't the kind of person to double down and become more overtly nasty when he feels cornered. if he gets the feeling that his kids are actually upset with him, he backtracks. this is actually kind of a key trait of his, that he does try very hard to correct himself when he messes up. he's communicative and apologetic, and he tries very hard to be that way.

and also this is maybe something that i just have a wider problem with when it comes to the way people interpret things in cartoons at times but splinter's actions in eps like lair games (especially in lair games) and flushed but never forgotten are meant to be like. jokes. its absurdist comedy that's meant to catch you off guard. there are more serious emotional beats in rise you can use but i think when youre adapting this world and characters into a more serious tone you have to keep that kind of thing in mind because some things are meant to be surprising and absurd for the sake of making you laugh. i think the best comparison i can think of is how in musical movies they're not actually singing (in most cases, sometimes the fact that they actually are is played for laughs it depends. but yk what i mean). the joke is that this is kind of a shitty thing he's doing but taking the actions themselves seriously in a vacuum in order to cast shame on a character has always been odd to me. that'd be like calling raph abusive for rolling up the window on mikey's neck in late fee. or calling the teetz murderers because they caused a robot mass suicide that one time. it just doesnt make any sense

[redcamellia13]

Mitsukou Analysis: Red House Arc

Okay. God, I was not excited for this arc…

*motivational (platonic) KouNene*

Honestly, when I first read this scene I was quite surprised.

Isn’t it sort of odd Kou isn’t super affected by Mitsuba or even Hanako’s disappearance?

Yashiro became a veritable shell of herself, and Akane fell into depression, so to have Kou as his usual smiling self was quite shocking to see.

Woah, woah, can… can we back up a bit Kou? That’s twice now you’ve shown signs of contemplation of killing yourself for your ghost boy friend. (In my opinion, it should be ghost boyfriend, but ya know.)

Wow, so he’s actually considering this. I assumed Kou knew he probably couldn’t die back in the picture perfect world, since it’s supposed to be picture perfect, but he’s genuinely thinking about it.

So. At this point in time, Kou doesn’t know “whether the old Mitsuba is really gone.”

Well, Kou, for better or for worse that’s about to change. Which brings us to the next point of interest:

Right here. Kou has realized, for the first time in (Hanako or Tsukasa’s, I can’t remember) words, “the Mitsuba Sousuke that lived and died in this world is not here anymore.”

I think some subconscious part of Kou’s brain really believed Sousuke was still out there somewhere, and because he only met him very briefly as a human, and still quite shortly as a ghost, he never really processed the fact Sousuke had family that cared about him.

This is divulging into more theory territory than analysis, but why did Sousuke have a picture of the Red House?

His connections with it are nonexistent, and even No. 3 doesn’t know it exists, and is only associated with it because of his relationship with Amane Yugi/Hanako.

This is mostly just context for what’s about to happen next. Aidairo has made it crystal clear the house appeals to your desires.

Ah yes, so of course Mitsuba shows up immediately afterwards, almost as if Aidairo are implying when you say “think of your greatest desires,” Kou’s brain immediately thinks of Mitsuba.

Another interesting thing about these panels, and also the main reason I added it is that this is the first time we’ve seen Kou’s desire to be needed, and be needed specifically by Mitsuba.

“I can’t go on without you Minamoto-Kun. You’re all I have.”

This is saying Kou wants Mitsuba to rely on him and only him, a fact that was already well-established, but confirmation is always nice.

Perhaps this is pulling from Kou’s desires of Hanako being “a run of the mill evil spirit” so he would be easy to exorcise.

However, I believe this is more pulling from Kou’s… suicidal tendencies, and wanting to be with Mitsuba on the other shore.

It might actually be a combo of both.

Actually, this got me thinking for a while. Do Kou and Mitsuba trust each other? Kou certainly doesn’t think so, but do we have examples of them showing mutual trust?

Welp, guys, thats another ding on the “are they a healthy relationship” perspective.

“You know you wanted me to say that.”

My sleep deprived brain cannot even begin to pick out why the hell Mitsuba would say that, but let’s try.

I have a vague feeling it’s because Kou wants Mitsuba to know that he wishes for Mitsuba to know he needs him to need Kou… but why?

Like I said, I am on not a lot of sleep and a lot of caffeine, so I can’t really say. I might come back later with new ideas, but for now this is what you get. (Sorry!)

Kou wants closure from Mitsuba’s death, which is understandable. However, Kou, you might wanna organize your priorities, because a solution for Yashiro’s lifespan isn’t even present, while Mitsuba comes up twice?

*ahem ahem*

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Wow. Real smooth Aidairo. Stopping Kou right before we get an answer as to why Mitsuba (both!) is there, while not being an actual desire.

Yes, I updated my oneshot book- all entries below <3

[manyu-ten]

Calé here! My specific community does consider Gypsy a slur (moreso with younger generations) but other communities have reclaimed the term—it is what it is. Some are okay with it, some aren't. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't singing God Help the Outcasts or Hellfire with the term involved (bad rep aside—it was also the only rep I had as a little kid watching Disney movies 😭).

DC Rebirth is pushing the idea that Mary is Dick's Romani parent and that she is from France. Given this, I think its okay to assume she was probably Manouche or Calé! I like to think she was Calé, of course and for that reason, when I write or make headcanons for Dick, I always like to think that'd he'd be a very passionate Flamenco dancer 😌.

As for languages, I think many of us like to think that Dick wasn't actually born in the USA and eventually immigrated here as a performer with Haly's Circus. Obviously, there are many parts of DC's convoluted canon that objects to this—but it's not as though DC has done a good job with Romani representation, historically.

If we go with him being American—then yeah, he was probably speaking American-English just fine. If he was born somewhere in Europe, it would be alright to assume his first language was something else, though he would probably be taught from a very young age not to speak Romani with outsiders.

He would understand Jason intrinsically and it is odd to me that it is at all debated that he wouldn't understand the banes of classism and racism. When I was a kid, I never told anyone I met I was Romani. It was safer for me to identify solely by another part of my ethnic identity, because I was more comfortable dealing with that type of racism (its silly now, but was a really real fear I had growing up).

Also, the thing about learning to defend yourself from payos—yeah, I feel you on that one 100% 😭😭. Learned that the hard way. Payos of my own family will happily call me a thief or accuse me of 'black magic'. I remember once when I was younger and had told an older woman I was Calé, she had assumed one of my parents must have stolen my sibling because they are much lighter and less "exotic" looking than me.

Let my guy Dick sing Naci en Alamo (NOT THE LEVY VERSION, MIND Y'ALL) passionately! Let him make hearty stews! Let him make all the cabbage and meat dishes available to him. Let him Flamenco till his shoes are worn out. Let him be Roma, please.

One of the things which really annoys me about Dick Grayson’s characterisation by both DC and the fandom is how they treat his being Romani (I say this as a gypsy from the circus myself) also before people cancel me for saying gypsy - I am not American and it’s not a slur where I am from. I am a gypsy myself so please don’t freak out about my using this term which feels comfortable and accurate to me

I know this is a common complaint, but being a gypsy or Romani is such a niche ethnic identity, and so often I see people treat it almost like a nationality. For example, the idea that Dick Grayson grew up not knowing English is so bizarre to me… of course he knew English, he may be Romani and speak it, but he is also American. The shopkeeper who he is buying food from doesn’t speak Romani, nor do the local authorities whose permission we need to even put on a circus/fair, so it makes sense that he’d speak English to them. He works in the circus: his family’s livelihood depended on his being able to draw a crowd - if he can’t interact with the people he’s taking the money from, how does he expect to make it in what is essentially a customer service job (I speak from experience here). Also, historically, by the late 18th century, the vast majority of Romani-speaking gypsies also spoke another language as a first language, and by the 20th century, I could argue that this is about 99.99999% of us, if not all.

The other thing I often see is how Dick Grayson is portrayed as being the Bristol-raised kid who doesn’t understand Jason’s Crime Alley upbringing. And yeah, whilst Dick lived with Bruce from a young age, and might (even based on his personality) have a better chance of mixing with the rich kids, let’s not act like Dick didn’t know struggle as a kid. Even if his parents were fairly comfortable economically, he spent at least half the year living in a trailer/vardo, which people associate with being working class. All gypsy kids are taught to fight from a very young age because whenever we pull on somewhere to open (aka put on the show), we expect a hell of a lot of racism from the locals, which often included getting jumped, often by multiple older gadja/gorja/non-gypsy children - and hell, even adults! As well as knowing how to defend ourselves, this also leads to a lot us developing a bit of a defence mechanism wherein we can talk ourselves out of a situation, or endear ourselves to people quickly in the first place so we don’t get fighting (keeping us safe, and keeping us in the good graces of the locals so we can continue earning a living there) - perhaps this could be explored as part of the reasoning behind the famous Dick Grayson charm? Anyway, all this to say, Dick would fully understand what it’s like to be the poor outsider who has to fight at every corner just to exist, and justifying his existence to others who view themselves as his ‘superiors’.

My final complaint is a small one: every single gypsy I know grows up absolutely BELTING Cher’s ‘Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves’ and the fact that I’ve not seen Dick pouring his heart into that song, screaming the words ‘I was born in the wagon of a travelling show’ is honestly a hate crime which must be fixed immediately.

[ezrasxfics]

Could you do a one-sided Jax x Caine interaction? Jax fell for the one guy that actually pays attention to him/takes him seriously anymore, and said guy is completely unable to compute the feelings Jax has for him, let alone reciprocate. Basically... Jax being a miserable, lonely loser.

..i wish you were real.

-

one-sided bunnyteeth angst

-

jax pov

“man, i dont know. i guess i just wish you were real, but if you were, i don’t think i’d be able to tell you about this dumb stuff.” i groan, talking to caine. our ai ringmaster. “you’re the only person who makes me feel real.”

“well, of course you feel real, jax! you’re a human, after all!” he replies, a look of confusion on his face. just confusion, nothing resembling affection or recognition. i hate when he looks at me like that, it’s just a reminder him and i may as well live in two completely different worlds. it’s embarrassing i managed to fall for someone like him. but i did, hard.

“you don’t get it. of course you don’t, what was i even thinking? i’m stupid for even considering that you might be able to even— i give up.” i ramble, voice drifting off to a whisper of defeat. i hate feeling like this - powerless. lonely. it’s so damn miserable.

“i don’t get what exactly? jax, you do understand that i’m not like you, right. i cant feel the same.. complicated emotions that you do. i can feel happy, sad, angry. but i cant feel love, disappointment and other things like that! i can fake those feelings, if that would help you feel better? my goal as your ringmaster is—“

“that wouldn’t be the same. i don’t want you to fake anything. i want something.. real. but i also want you- and you’re not.. man, this blows.” i put my hands over my face, letting out a loud groan of frustration.

“but jax, like i said, i’m not re-“

“I JUST SAID THAT— do you even f**king LISTEN!? i know you’re not real. you’re not human and it’s ruining my GODDAMNED LIFE. so, i just gotta be miserable forever, because my needs don’t add up, and i cant get what i want. as usual. i never f**king get what i want, no matter what i do, and i’m sick of it.” i yell, interrupting him. i wasn’t sure when the tears started falling down my face, but when i regained my senses, my face was wet.

“jax— jax, im sorry! im sorry, but i don’t understand your feelings!! it’s not within my capabilities.. have you considered talking to..”

“none of the others like me-!! none of them take me seriously, none of them give a damn about me because i’m jax. i cause problems for everyone, and now i’m reaping the consequences. they all hate me. and guess what? i’m starting to hate myself too.”

-

thanks for the request!!!! this was so fun to write.. i’ve never actually thought about this ship before, but one-sided bunnyteeth is actually really interesting!!/pos

reblogs appreciated!!

[11queensupreme11]

Awww kymon being like shu would be sad cuz he was probably so full of life with Percy and his brothers than posiedon came and to change them all 😭 like he probably knows what happened to Percy and posiedon or saw something bad

Would posiedon ever hit Percy or abuse physical infront of their own children or the eldest

And thalassandros who looks like Percy but can’t act perfect like his brothers or the eldest probably does menacing stuff and does he have hatred for human or cares for them??

I can imagine Percy having fun with her eldest when they were babies and trying to teach them to be kind and treat humans good 😔💔

poseidon's abuse towards percy is mostly sexual rather than physical and emotional like with his sons. other than that, he tends to manhandle her and grab her too hard, but still tries to be somewhat gentle as we've seen in previous chapters

and yes kymon knows what's happening to his mother. rape is a very normal thing to happen with the gods, and even marital rape isn't even considered a thing to them smh.

but kymon knows what happens to his mother every time she steps in to try and defend them from poseidon, he knows what happens when poseidon takes her to the bedroom and leaves them alone, he knows that they've been spared for this time and that the "punishment" has fallen onto their mother for daring to interrupt. she's basically offering herself up to poseidon every time in hopes to make him leave him and his brothers alone. back then, kymon didn't understand it, but now that he's older and realizes what's really happening and that there are times his mother doesn't actually want it...... well, it's just better to be numb. he'd rather feel nothing than feel pain and helplessness like when he was young.

as for thalassandros, he's a bitch 💀💀💀 he doesn't hate humans, but he definitely looks down on them and loves to go up there to terrorize ppl who go to sea and even eat them lmao. he thinks they taste yummy and his favorite "flavor" of human are the ones between ages 25-30 cuz they taste the best 😭 also prefers humans with more fat or muscles since "there's more for me to eat!" 😂😂 he's such a menace, i'm sorry percy 😂

also, i forgot to add, but you know how i mentioned that fish can lay 100s to even 1000s of eggs and how i'm incorporating it into here??? well, axiandros, kymon, and thalassandros are from the first 1000-ish batch of baby mer eggs obviously, but axiandros, then kymon, then thalassandros were the first to hatch and even hatched waaay earlier than expected compared to the other eggs. so they were actually raised closely together as babies for some time before the others were born 🥺🥺🥺🥺 they're like the Little Three (get it, cuz poseidon, zeus, and hades are the "Big Three" lmao) 🥺

they were soooo close before poseidon ruined it all 💔

[walkingstackofbooks]

IPS/BIL AU where Tain dies before he can send the message. Garak and Worf never go to the gamma quadrant. Julian and Martok don't get rescued.

Back on DS9 the changeling is stopped pretty much just as it was in canon, with Kira and Dax managing to stop the Yukon from reaching the sun, just as it explodes. (Maybe since Garak is still on the station, he notifies Sisko that Bashir has taken the Yukon out?) This time, however, no-one knows it was a changeling, and among all the shock and grief, there's tense speculation about what the hell Julian was doing out there in a runabout with a bomb.

The changeling had planned to never be identified, believing it would sow more confusion and fear in the Federation if they believe one of their own had been secretly allied with the Dominion. And so the changeling had left behind a trail of "Julian" interacting with highly questionable locked-down message-boards such as "Would enhanced individuals be better off under the Dominion?", which would never have been tracked back to him apart from under such scrutiny he's now post-humously receiving. (The changeling knew about Julian's enhancements - to become something is to understand that thing, after all.)

Of course, it is considered whether Julian may have been impersonated by a changeling, but once the link to his enhancements has been revealed - and his parents can't hide it, they confess, and are sentenced to time in a penal colony - it seems very much decided that Doctor Bashir had become an augment extremist, biding his time on DS9 until he could play out his part in the Dominion plot. There's varying levels of acceptance of this among Julian's friends - even if it seems that they have to admit it, it's still almost impossible to believe that Julian could have tried to do that. But it doesn't really matter what they think - life has to go on, and the war's continuing whether they like it or not, and little by little they move on with their now-Julian-less lives.

Time passes. they get a new CMO. The Cardassians re-occupy the station, and Sisko leads the campaign to get it back. Worf and Jadzia get married. Garak gets a message.

A.L.I.V.E. J.S.B.

And no-one knows what to think. JSB can't be... can it? But how...

Garak argues that Doctor Bashir's death is so well-known that no-one would use his name as the basis for some sort of trap. Miles agrees. Everyone else wants to agree. (For a certain definition of 'want'. Julian being alive, not a traitor... that also means he's been doing somewhere in the past ten months, and it's difficult to think about what sort of awful place that might have been.)

Garak and Worf are sent out to chase this signal - in theory, it's recon, but naturally it quickly devolves. They get captured themsleves, finding Camp 371 and Julian, looking ten months worse for wear. Garak learns about Tain's death, and the subspace transmitter he'd began working on and that they'd only just been able to finish, having managed to recruit a recently-abducted Starfleet engineer. An engineer who's currently in solitary, leaving them with a plan to escape now there's a runabout in orbit, but no way to effect it. Unless there's something Garak can do...

And Worf, of course, meets Martok, and is impressed by the Klingon's tale of daily fights for nearly three years. "Almost every day," Martok corrects him. "There have been times when I've woken up with a sore head to find that the doctor has taken my place."

Worf looks to Julian, nodding. "So you are the man we remember," he says. "Your enhancements may have helped you fight, but it was an honourable thing to volunteer."

"My... my enhancements?" asks Julian faintly. "What- what do you mean?"

"Commander, is now really the time—" Garak tries to interrupt but Julian speaks over him.

"No, Garak, I want to know— I-I need to know. What do you mean, Worf?"

And Worf, in his short, succinct way tells Julian how they had believed he had died, and what they had discovered thereafter, and while they know now that he is not an augment extremist, his parents' confession made it clear that he is an augment.

Julian doesn't say very much after that, apart from what is needed to help with the rescue - he calms Garak down, he volunteers to try and figure out what needs doing in the crawl space ("I've learnt at least a few things from tinkering with it over those seven months...") - but otherwise, he's withdrawn and spacey. Garak perserveres - he must get Julian back to DS9, has to hope there's still time to rekindle that light in his doctor's eyes - and manages to get them out, and even locking onto the engineer's life sign in solitary. They make it to the runabout, and escape.

It's a very different sort of homecoming. This time, rather than having only a few hours to get used to the idea that Julian had been missing for a month, they've been mourning him for almost a year, angry and confused and left with so many questions. And they've had almost a week of wondering what's become of Worf and Garak, and to tie themselves in circles wondering if J.S.B really could be Julian Subatoi Bashir.

Garak gets them all beamed directly to sickbay, and it's obvious that Julian's overwhelmed enough by that without having hordes of emotional friends come to greet him. So they're allowed in, one at a time. Miles petitions to be first, and wraps Julian up in what would have been the firmest of hugs - apart from Julian's so gaunt, so... fragile, that Miles find he dare not squeeze too hard. Words gush out - ones that he'd never have thought he'd admit out loud - about how much he missed Julian and how glad he is none of what they said was true, and it takes him some time to realise that he's been blabbering on and Julian's not been saying a word.

Julian has been clinging onto him tightly, though, and that... that's got to be enough, for now.

[hooked-on-elvis]

hi lally! i wanted to know what books about elvis you have read so far, if that's okay. which ones are your favorites? have you read priscilla's book? i wanna read it, but with the way people speak of it makes me apprehensive cuz i like elvis a lot i'm scared of getting disappointed or something like that lol. anyways, i just wanted to know your opinion :D

Hi, friend! I'm honored you considered listening to what I think on this matter. Thank you.

Well, first of all, on fearing feeling disappointed at Elvis, I had that fear too - and at the first bad story I heard about him I was shocked and I thought my adoration for him was over. That's what Elvis feared, actually... that people would not love him anymore if they knew everything about who he was... but fortunately his life doesn't let us hate or feel sorry for him or whatever... His life, him... he was a lovable person and that couldn't change by anything we hear said about the bad moments in his life, really. As soon as you read everything they say about him, the better. Your love for Elvis will only grow, I promise. You read one bad thing about him and (if it's not a lie, which you will find out as you go reading further, different stories from different people from around the same period in time the events took place), then you read 10 good things about him, amazing things he did or said that only makes our love for E grow stronger. I'm an Elvis fan because of his legacy, his art, but also because of the man he was, and he was the best he could be. I sincerely think Elvis was one of the best human beings ever walking on this earth, so don't worry about getting disappointed with some of his actions because it's not a lasting impression if you read enough about him. Trust me. You just have to read and try to walk on his shoes to understand why he behaved certain ways. One thing you have to keep in mind is that everything said about him is a point a view, not the whole truth, and it comes from a particular place and time, it doesn't mean he was always doing wrong. Another thing to keep in mind is that E was not a perfect man... Never was, never claimed to be and couldn't be such even if he tried his hardest.

Well, now back to your question. I've read some books on Elvis, almost all of his main girlfriends' memoir (my favorites by far are June Juanico's book "In The Twilight of Memory", Kathy Westmoreland's "Elvis and Kathy" and "A Little Thing Called Life" by Linda Thompson). Those are amazing books because those women really loved Elvis. You can feel it by the way they talk about him. They were concerned about what WE would think of him while they were writing those memoirs. It's really lovely.

One of the first ones I've read (I needed to read that book) was Priscilla's memoir "Elvis and Me". To be honest, I feel that book is unbelievably heavy concerning its energy. I think Priscilla knew Elvis too much to respect his memory, you know what I mean? Family, you don't walk on eggshells, you just say whatever you feel and think... and she kinda did just that in that book. Not that blunt and open and harsh in words, but she made us think Elvis was... a terrible partner most of the time, and that's not true. You only know that if you read other girlfriends' memoirs too.

I think at the time Priscilla wrote that book she was still resentful for everything that went wrong between them. I genuinely believe she loved him at some point and that he loved her back, in their own respective ways, but he just wasn't the marrying kind because he had women throwing themselves at him and couldn't fix his mind in one only. And Priscilla knew that but she had high expectations and they just didn't see eye to eye. It wasn't meant to be. That's sad. But anyway. I think Priscilla talked much more about her disappointment concerning Elvis and their marriage, on his flaws and wrongs, than in the good about him, that's why I think that book is heavy. But if you go as I did, after reading that one try to balance with a more light-content books on Elvis and you're safe. Truth be told: when it comes to his love life, Elvis is kind of a disappointment but what do we have to do with that? His cheating on his women has nothing to do with us enough to make us not love him as much as we do. Besides, by all accounts, he was a gentleman, very sensitive and kind and generous... but he was also deceiving. I'm mentioning this because that is the only lasting bad impression the all the books on him will cause on you, but you can make your peace with it and separate the Elvis we love from this little part of him we don't agree with. He wasn't a faithful guy, that's not news but reading about it can be shocking, the details and how his women felt about it... it's heartbreaking. But I can guarantee you one thing: There's ways and ways of talking about it and that matters! Linda Thompson and Kathy Westmoreland, for instance, always talked about how Elvis cheated or dumped them (respectively) in a light manner, choosing to take the good instead of the bad. Priscilla on the other hand was very resentful and you can easily feel that reading her memoir book. It's not like she's wrong in feeling this way... If you love someone and you're disappointed at their behavior it's normal you're gonna "hate" that person for what they did to you sometimes but that's a heavy book and that's it... that's how I felt reading it, melancholic. And I will never understand how Priscilla Beaulieu, Elvis' ex wife and the woman who was by his side for the longest time, doesn't have as many funny and cute stories about him to share in her book as the other women he dated. I will NEVER understand that. Now, there's one part in Priscilla's book that is very, very dark and it makes me sick every time I think about it, so beware. What I did was research, and it turns out I found out Priscilla said things weren't exactly the way she described in that specific moment of her book (and some of Elvis' friends don't even believe it happened at all). That's why I believe she hold resentment against Elvis, at least until the moment her book was out.

Well, that being said now let's talk about Elvis by himself.

I began getting to know Elvis in a very funny way, I guess. In 2022, when I watched "Elvis" by Baz Luhrmann, I had to find out who that guy portrayed in the movie was. That was the first time I've seen the real Elvis - not just in pictures from the 50s. Well, I was kind of in love immediately. He was so handsome and sensual, my head was spinning, and his music was good... so I wanted to learn all the bad things about him right away before I became a fan and felt like I've wasted my time just to learn he was a bad person when that realization could break my heart. That' why the first book I've read was "ELVIS WHAT HAPPENED" by Red West, Sonny West and Dave Hebler as told to Steve Dunleavy.

I gotta say, I was between gasps and laughter reading that book. Some of the stories were shocking but I found out further on it was a matter of HOW they told those stories. Remember I said you have ways and ways to say the same? Some people talk in a very dark manner to pass a message on when the same could be delivered in a lighter way. We know Red, Sonny and Dave were mad at Elvis for him firing them, therefore they were indeed resentful while writing that book and couldn't care less about hurting Elvis and his image (that's why I think Priscilla was also in this mood when she wrote her book). But all in all, I LOVE THAT BOOK! And you know why? Because many of the things inside are true but when you read other books, you see the way they spoke about Elvis is just out of proportion and you keep only the funny stories inside those pages in your heart. I remember laughing a lot while I was reading this book (not at Elvis, of course, but the stories... he was so funny and his gang, his cronies, all of them together were very amusing in a way).

From that tell-all book, I took a leap and landed on Elvis' faith. Funny, isn't it? Hahaha. I don't know why, I just bought this book not knowing what to expect.

I'm a Pisces and a very spiritual person, so I think I felt like it would be an adventure to understand which kind of faith a person like Elvis could have, specially when we grow up knowing a bit about the fame he had of a womanizer and after reading that book above I mentioned previously. I was very curious to understand this side of him, his faith, and I don't regret having this for my first book on Elvis I bought a print for myself. It's small book called "The Seeker King: A Spiritual Biography of Elvis Presley" by Gary Tillery. I purchased mine translated to my mother language (Brazilian Portuguese), thus the cover is different (the one below to the right), and I love it better. If you know Elvis enough, you just know he was the sweetest, caring person he could be and it has everything to do with his upbringing and God. I feel conected to him when I hear him singing gospel songs and talking about God because I know he felt God the same way I do, as a member of his family, as his only trustworthy confidant, as his best friend.

Now let's talk about my favorite part: his music.

I have to recommend you to read Trina Young's book "Elvis: The Army Years Uncovered: Behind the Scenes of the Two Years That Changed The King of Rock and Roll's Life" – it has an incredible collection of stories, told in chronological order, about Elvis in 1958-1960. I had a lot of fun reading that book and it was amazing to understand how Elvis' music changed in just two years... the influence opera had on him and how much he was dedicated in improving his singing skills, in being a good artist and not just a rock and roller/handsome guy. That book also made me understand more how Elvis was just a red-blooded boy as he sings in "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and that is important to understand as we talked before... it was always there and everybody knew it from the start (Priscilla really fooled herself on this).

I also need to recommend to you my Elvis Music Bible, my favorite book of all the ones I've read so far and I know it's gonna be my favorite book on Elvis regardless of how many books I read from now on: "Elvis Presley: A Life In Music" by Ernst Jorgensen and Peter Guralnick. This one, tho, is EXCEPTIONAL! It's a complete recording sessions history that goes through it all, all of the years of Elvis' music and acting career (soundtracks, tv shows... All included). I always look for answers on this book when I'm listening to Elvis' music and trying to get understand him better... where he took inspiration from? who were his idols? which kind of music touched him? why he chose to record certain songs? what made him record the ones he didn't like? where was he looking like feeling when he recorded my favorite songs? ALL THE CLUES ELVIS LEFT BEHIND, LET BE SEEN, WERE TAKEN FROM HIS LIFESTORY AND RECORDING SESSIONS TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS AS BEST AS IT COULD. I LOVE THIS BOOK MORE THAN ANY OTHER.

I'm far from reading that many books on Elvis, dear, but everything I've read so far made me love him even more because I could see the good in him, and understand the bad in him too.

Here are, probably, all the other ones I've finished reading until now. All great books:

I've read excerpts from a few others but never read them fully yet, thus I'm not going to mention those ones.

Below are the ones I'm currently reading. I read more than one book at a time and that's not a problem to me, but I take my time reading the books... whenever I feel like having my undivided attention on the stories told I read, because most of the times I find little parts that I want to share with you here on my blog (I just can't let it go without sharing), so that's why I'm taking so long to finish those books but I'm enjoying them very much so far:

See? That's what I'm talking about. To get to know a bit about who Elvis Aaron Presley really was, you have to read many different books and magazines articles, watch as many interviews as you can find, on top of watching his films and concerts and listening to his music, and put all the little pieces together.

Elvis wasn't perfect but he was so talented, dedicated, wise, funny, sweet and caring that whatever you read about him that doesn't put him on a good light, you take as a moment in life he wasn't feeling okay and let the bad emotions take the best in him, but the more you read the more you understand the bad things he did were not coming from his true nature. Most of the time, Elvis was great human being. I'd love if I could have the pleasure to be his friend and share a bit of his splendorous light. He had a great mind for the things in life.

Well, that's it. I hope you're a bit less concerned about reading books on Elvis now. I guarantee you're gonna have a great time! I laugh A LOT with the stories about E interacting with his family, friends and fans, he was such a funny character! I'd love to know which books you've read, if any, and what are your thoughts about them. Take care, friend. ♥

[the-stove-is-divorced]

YES! LOVE ranting furiously about a show. Like it pisses me off so much. I can't get enough of it. Everyone should watch.

That's such an interesting point, too, because yeah, that's the entire premise of the idea, no? At least the start? Evil Superman, with bootleg copies of agencies and Leagues and heroes, outright banking on audiences' general knowledge of these to skip out on some important groundwork, world-building wise to me, but don't really take advantage? Like why really explore Evil Superman, son of colonizers, and bootleg Justice League? Even just for comedy purposes, like why not? I haven't seen that video in a while to bring up any specifics (+ I am a diehard Batman fan than Superman) but truly!

Man, you make me wanna rewatch Justice League for those team dynamics and YEAH, stuff like Martians being shapeshifters! That's fun and so COOL! I also just plainly love their dynamics and interactions. Watching some snippets and clips myself, it tickles me how much of Batman's standoffish-ness could be used for Nolan, if they wanted to show team dynamics. I want it so bad. Off topic somewhat, but went down a youtube clip rabbithole and ended up seeing one of my favorite action sequences for animated movies, Madagasar 3's driving scene, and MAN, I wish we got like a fun fight or action scene for Invincible as well. Well aware there's a big diff of genre, general tone, but ONE TT or GoG scene that play off powers and personalities in a fun way would be everything to me. Internally sobbing I'm not an experienced storyboarder/animator to storyboard it myself.

Lazy shipping will forever be the bane of my existence, because I don't care so violently but it'll refuse to be ignored, and LIE to my face about how much these characters MUST be in horribly love, while having the audacity to be boring. Literally get this off my screen. Please go on your gift of jewelry rant by the way, I've already expressed the "get OTHER characters to lazily comment about how these two characters are LOVEBIRDS!" makes me consider abandoning humanity for the woods. JUST WRITE THEM LIKING EACH OTHER. GENUINELY. HAVE A CONNECTION. and for the love of all things entertaining, don't make it BORINGGGGG. But seriously, the fact Mark can't get a DAMN BREATHER, like is Eve a rebound like??? And the refusal to explore their potential and bond makes my ass itch. Like, ethics!!! Superheroism!! Shitty family!!! CHICAGO! Literally the fact they're not in groups like YOU said!

Just have them fly together tbh, like easy short hand of longing looks and excitement together is flying together. Showing off tricks and eventually talking or something.

Mark outright not improving drives me utterly insane. We OPEN with him improving and then nerf him immediately. Throwing my TV. TRULY I DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHY EITHER DIDN'T GO FOR THE OTHER HEROES from the START. Eve, you are an experienced hero, unlike Mark, who JUST got SOME training that's clearly strength based, not strategic. Literally just elevating the danger/situation and using characters' flaws could have been so beautiful but NOOOO. Like, have Mark struggle focusing on both protecting AND fighting, (lethal enough to kill the monster, but careful a giant monster doesn't fall on top of the trapped heros for example), or flinging a monster into the ground / getting smacked and the ceiling collapses faster. Now, Eve's gotta deal with a crumbling ceiling AND rescuing them, maybe she's even rusty working with a team! Heck, have Eve direct Mark to rescue instead of fighting, and he struggles not stepping into the fight, or gets distracted by approaching monsters?

ALSO HECK? JUST USE ANOTHER VILLAIN? You're telling me the original GoG didn't have some seriously menacing, intelligent, heavy hitting supervillains who wants to eliminate the newly weak GoG??? The one that even said they're BAD at teamwork?? How has the dismantling of the GoG not created a whole power scramble of villains trying to prove themselves by taking out the NEW GoG???

Also FOR REAL. CAN DEBBIE BE A WHOLE PERSON PLEASE? Like, how is part of the Super Hero Family Drama: The Show, and we don't even know her HOBBIES? WHO IS THIS WOMAN????? How are we on s3 and I still don't know. Utterly insane. Slow the fuck down, I don't care about some stupid mummy curse of the last episode of s2, a weird alternate Eve demanding her teenage crush to confess to her after he thought he was gonna die in a desert, or the Lizard League, but I DO care about who these characters ARE so I can feel more about the stakes!

Invincible (barely resisting to bash my head into the wall in rage) & Invincible (giggling, kicking my feet, gasping in delight) can function in the same breath istg.

That's exactly why I want Cecil as a mentor so fucking badly 'cause it's like quasi Dad/mentor would sacrifice this mf in a heartbeat, like immediately interesting. Plus the dread of a another inevitable betrayal would be chef's kiss! Plus I'm surprised he hasn't tried it like??? This mf never tried the whole "catch more honey with vinegar" approach? Mark's a kid with too much on his shoulders, he is outrageously In-Need-Of-A-Mentor-Shaped. I mean, we're dealing with Viltrumites and potential Omni-Man Junior, I'd want that kid to trust me, believe me, so I'd know if something's off. Keep your potential emotional unstable nuke closer rather than farther and far less irritable, perhaps? Attempting to slowly chip away at a oneshot as we speak tbh. But again, no GDA counselor/therapists to be snitches? Where's the paranoia, invasive plans, here?

No fr, like ???? She has unexplained beef with him and never tells Mark to avoid him, or even a classic "I told you so"???? Like, another setup and we just??? Don't do anything? You already think he's a liar??? Gimme Debbie eyeing the babysitter, trying to check for microphones/cameras more often or something. Do something with this, I BEG.

Also hitting that on the nail here, I was writing a WIP and Mark kills a guy and I'm just kinda scrambling cause on one hand Cecil doesn't want Mark TOO cool with killing he's uncontrollable, but also this is good if Cecil wants Mark to kill people. And I'm just staring at my screen like ?????? Like give me mentor Cecil so I know how he would act for fanfic, for it for me specifically.

Aso insane over the fact Mark's moment of paralleling his Dad doesn't go farther enough for me, like this is the moment for shit to go crazy and it's GOOD enough for me to feel insane but lacking enough for my insanity to triple of what could have been??? I am this close to adding another WIP of just fun what-ifs/scene rewrites for my own sanity! Like, why not have Mark slamming his fist into the ground while he's got the shriek in his ears? Slamming his head in agony just to make it stop? Or even clawing towards Cecil, on the ground, eyes burning with hatred from the pain? I would fucking love a moment of Mark trying (but still failing) to walk, crawl, move, while in pain to ADD to the scene, even if he just stumbled back down and writhed on the floor.

While I'm not too familiar with the DCU- your batfam meta posts are intiguing- so in transfering some of the broader strokes from them- I think you tackling a 'Mark isn't Nolan's biological son' fic would be fascinating. Sort of a step to the side of the 'what if Mark never got his powers' fic that sometimes pop up in the fandom

OOOOOO chewing on this currently, hm, the much a distinct flavor of exactly what you’re talking about, but the potential for more family drama depending on WHO knows. Does Mark know?? Is he waiting every day only to be crushed? Does he confused non-Debbie features with Nolan’s? I suppose I’m not the most enthusiastic about non-power AUs, but I think there’s something very fun to explore about Mark having to settle with, if he knows all his life, he will never have powers? I think the trajectory of his dreams will obviously shift, I can see him still having that distinct fatherly idolization, but perhaps embraces being useful to the GDA? Cecil’s number one intern—only intern—curtesy of nepotism, ha! There is something tickling me about Mark taking the Robin Route/Role for the Teen Team in terms of having no powers, just insane skills, BUT there’s something way more delicious about intern Mark when s1e01 happens and Mark tries snooping around to find out the truth about what happened to his Dad.

I wonder if, with Mark having a whole another father, if they’re more or less distant relationship, depending on WHEN Nolan entered Mark’s life? Like if Debbie met Nolan later for this, or just for fun, they dated once, separated (Mark being born during then), then they happened to stumble into each others lives again and Mark’s already been born, anywhere from tween to teenager so there’s a gap in how close they are. I feel like one important aspect of the whole Family Drama is how close they’re supposed to be, a functional, loving family turned upside down? So I wonder what more distance does. I wonder how Nolan copes when his family is entirely human and he can’t project onto Mark.

I love thinking about these, omg.

[alleycatchitchat]

did anyone else notice how physically protective shadow was in this episode

[carlyraejepsans]

hibiscia!!! Sorry if youve explained before but is there something specific about reset-remember fics that you hate? I don't really like them either but for me it's just because I feel like a lot of authors type sans in very ooc ways

They're completely antithetical to Sans' character arc for the sake of cheap and easy angst. The nature of his brand of cosmic horror isn't in reliving his life again and again, that's Flowey's. Sans knows OF the anomaly, knows that it's manipulating time and knows it's a threat to the entire universe, but he doesn't know how or why, because he doesn't remember.

And that's crucial! him being mostly in the dark in spite of the MANY warning signs about us... because it's in that doubt that he remains hopeful. YES we could potentially end the world... but what if we don't? yes we have unimaginable power over everyone else and we can bring back time, but what if we're just.... sad? he needs that gap in his knowledge so he can take a leap of faith across it, it's his entire character arc in the pacifist run. sans THINKS he's given up, he wants to have given up, he chose to do it because there's a comfort in that. in contenting yourself with good food and bad laughs. there's peace. but he hasn't given up, not really. on himself? maybe. but not in us.

there's no way to have that arc if he remembers resets.

[joseigamer]

Patalliro! is fascinating to me because of stuff like this. It's unapologetically gay - even within its anime which aired during primetime hours in 1982 - in a way that many later BL manga would never be, like the ones from the early 2000s which would never dare to call their characters actual homosexuals. Patalliro has actually aged quite well in this regard, there's something comforting about how campy it is.