#also i genuinely think a lot of the people coming for jim just genuinely don’t have empathy for his situation

[ropebunnykant]

Am i the only one who doesn't get what Wen sees in uncle Jim 😭 Don't get me wrong i love the show, and i LOVE Heart and Liming, and i quite like Wen's character too, but Jim is just so cold and grumpy and never smiles and i just don't get why Wen is so obsessed with him, like sure the story with his ex is sad but like Heart has a way more traumatic backstory but he's not an ass to people, or Liming whose parents literally left him with an uncle that only fights with him is not half as bitter... I just wish they would have made Jim a bit more likable, or at least relatable like Alan. Sorry for ranting, just needed to get that off my chest 😂

i’m so sorry if my posts making fun of jim made you feel like this blog was a safe space for jim haters but it’s not 💙 SHDKSKDJD like i’m sorry but i just don’t agree with you, i genuinely adore jim and his character

like for one you’re just wrong. on multiple accounts. for one, jim DOES smile. evidence:

isn’t it beautiful? but i get what you mean, it’s not often we get a jim smile. but the man also has a shitton on his plate! he can barely pay his bills, has the diner (which is his LIVELIHOOD) threatening to be shut down, and he has a kid he has to take care of on top of all that. a kid that’s not even his own, mind you.

and when you say he’s an ass to people, you mean when he chose not to pay his car insurance and instead bought leng a gold necklace to use for praew’s dowry? you mean when he refused to use gaipa’s feelings for him to his advantage and returned the title deed because of it, despite the fact he COULD have gotten a loan out of it and saved his business? you mean when he didn’t hesitate to let wen stay with him after he moved out of alan’s despite the fact that jim had made it clear from the beginning he didn’t want complicated and yet wen continued to be persistent in fitting himself into jim’s life while KNOWING he was still living with his possessive ex? no, you’re right. he’s so cold and uncaring and doesn’t give a fuck about the people around him. clearly.

as for li ming and jim, i’ve already made a post about this, but everything jim does in terms of li ming is his attempts at protecting him. i’m not saying he’s going about everything in the right way, lord knows he’s not, but NO character in this show does. like i said, wen continued to pursue jim despite the fact that he hadn’t completely cut things off with alan. alan chose to confront them both at the worst possible time because he was fueled by jealousy and anger, he pushed wen and tried to go for jim, too. li ming continues to go behind jim’s back and put himself at risk of pissing off people much more powerful than him. leng and praew are starting a family they didn’t originally plan for without a lot of money. the only characters you can argue haven’t don’t anything wrong are heart and gaipa!

the point is. this show is great because the characters are real people. they’re messy, they do the wrong thing, they hurt the people they love. but at the end of the day, they love each other and are there for each other. that’s the whole point! and jim isn’t any different just because you don’t find him likable enough.

[ahfrickenfrick]

dsmp as a play? hold my fucking shit, I’ve been thinking about this for TWO YEARS (as someone who did theater for like 12 years)

I absolutely adore the idea of some people seeing the audience and interacting with them and some don’t.

Especially the people who talk to chat a lot during the lore. (Techno, Phil, Tommy, etc.) but I also adore the thought that they gradually become more aware of the audience.

Like Niki for example, she doesn’t talk to the audience or like make them feel involved with her until she’s burning down l’mantree

I want Connor to be in the audience audibly reacting to everything on stage, maybe he even throws popcorn when like Wilbur presses the button and Charlie is just chilling observing everything and becoming more and more aware of the show

Whenever Eret is on stage it’s soft music playing, building up the more they are on until the betrayal happens, subtle and not really noticeable

a Technoblade monologue being performed to the audience, it’s articulate, it’s attention holding, the lighting is dramatic, and Tommy is to the side trying to figure out who tf he’s talking to

Pogtopia Wilbur gets a little more ragged every time he comes on stage, the lighting gets more and more eerie, and it’s the same lighting used in the control room.

DONT GET ME STARTED ON EXILE OH MY FUCK

I think Tommy would talk to the audience more during exile, becoming more aware of them the longer he’s alone. Maybe Dream catches him talking to the audience and takes away his tools again, but they are the only consistent thing in his life, so he continues talking to them.

THE YHINGS I WOULD DO TO DESIGN ERETS COSTUMES

The EGG DUDES, slowly through scenes they grow more and more obvious, maybe it starts out with a simple rose that grows vines and AHSHWKDJDI

SAM NOOK. Making Sam Nook a hand puppet that the actor who plays Awesamdude uses.

There are definitely so many like sad and angsty stuff to put in but like im just thinking about funny stuff.

Tubbo constantly looks at the Audience and gives them the Jim from the Office stare™️, but only until he becomes president and then he suddenly stops doing it.

Ranboo would also be really interesting, cause they talk to themselves a LOT, like their character specifically. Maybe when they aren’t talking they are watching the audience, pulling out their notebook to take notes.

God have you guys looked at stage fighting? Like genuine good stage fighting? Imagine that with the dsmp. I’m so normal about this and everything

When Techno goes into retirement he literally gets off the stage and joins the audience, tsking at stuff and writing shit down in a book, but never getting involved until he gets pulled back in.

DOING THR SCAR MAKEUP WOULD BR SO COOL SNDKEEJR

Anyways yes im ranting and not really sober rn so i hope this makes sense

[the-names-kam]

okay i’m sorry to beat a dead horse but i’m angry about this again. i genuinely cannot believe that we did not get an OUNCE of izzy backstory beyond “oh he and ed have known each for a REALLY long time” (and even then there’s inconsistencies in the amount of time implied). like. not one single flashback to his childhood, or to him and ed when they were younger

now, only three characters in the show actually get backstory flashbacks: ed, stede, and jim. why ed and stede get flashbacks is obvious, but jim is interesting because they only really get flashbacks because their backstory in season one affects the show’s plot. after that, they kind of just get pushed to the side

but izzy is an extremely important character from day one, and he becomes even more crucial to the plot in season two. and i think part of the reason why a lot of people still hate his character is because we never get an explanation for WHY he acts the way he does. we can infer, but without anything concrete it’s very easy to just dismiss it as him being an asshole

i really think a flashback to how his and ed’s relationship used to be was very needed, and an explanation for how everything went downhill and why the two of them turned out the way they did. we can gather that they were very close, and their relationship deteriorated due to ed getting bored of being blackbeard, but there’s so many little nuances to their relationship that are never really explained

not to mention that, in my opinion, izzy has more unexplained character details than any other character in the show. roach’s character design has a lot of details, but as far as i’m aware all of them have been explained, just not in-show. and of course wee john has all his tattoos, but those are just kristian nairn’s actual tattoos, so i don’t think they really count as character details

but we never get any kind of explanation (whether in-show or not) for izzy’s “x” tattoo, or the spade on his hand, or why he only wears one leather glove, or the RING ON HIS TIE, or the fucking LASH SCARS ON HIS BACK. those last two especially drive me fucking insane to think about

because with the ring, some people think that con o’neill requested to have it for his mother, but he actually only asked them to change the gem to an emerald. the ring was always going to be there. but, again, why? it’s so strange to me to have a pirate, and especially one who (at least in season one) totes being a pirate as this big, scary, masculine career, wear a dainty little ring around his neck with absolutely no explanation as to why

and with the lash scars, that is SO MUCH makeup and special effects work just for them to a.) never be addressed, even though stede could clearly see them; and b.) be barely even visible to the viewer because of the dim light and the lack of a clear shot of them

and idk if you guys have seen that BTS picture of the scars, but uh. there are a LOT of them. and again, where the fuck did they come from? i use them as fuel for my headcanon that izzy was in the navy, but is that what we’re meant to assume? is that what’s being implied here? or is it that he served on hornigold’s crew with ed and jack, even though that’s also never mentioned? did ed give them to him? we know he canonically enjoys pain (thanks for that at least, guys), at least to a certain extent, so is it meant to be implied that he had that done to him as a kink thing? is it supposed to be a joke and that’s why it’s never addressed?

i truly don’t know. i can talk myself in circles about this for hours, but at the end of the day the only good answers i can think of for why izzy didn’t get a backstory are budget and bad writing. and no, it really isn’t that serious, and i’ll move on eventually, but it’s still just extremely disappointing to me. okay, rant over

[speedforce-zoomies]

Something I think that’s funny (not in a judgey way) is how a lot of the fandom views Tim’s relationships with the other Batfam members/Gotham heroes

Tim might be the bat fam member/Gotham vigilante with the most positive relationships out of every one but for the angst a lot of people ignore that (again not judging, also love a good angsty fic, just think it’s interesting) and I listed it out below : )

Tim & Alfred - Alfred loves him, that’s one of his boys

Tim & Jim Gordon - as far as I’m aware Gordon has never had anything bad to say about Tim

Lucius Fox - they worked well together to stop Ra’s al Ghul from destroying Wayne enterprises/Industries (whatever its being called now) in Red Robin

Tim & Bruce - that’s his son and most of the time Bruce acts like it

Tim & Selina “He’s a goody two-shoes but I like that kid” (Catwoman #31)

Kate Kane - as of Tim Drake: Robin their relationship hit a rough spot but he was still wanting to do whatever he could to protect her so I think they are/ will be good

(Tim & Luke Fox - genuinely have no idea if they’ve had any significant interactions so I’m gonna assume they’re good but not sure if it counts so I’ll leave that up to individual opinion)

Tim & Barbara - Barbara has said he’s the only batboy with manners lol and she has fallen for his baby brother charms

Tim & Dick - has literally stated in canon that he would do anything for Tim, he’s Dick’s litte brother, Dick is absolutely Tim’s favorite brother

Tim & Jean Paul Valley - JPV hurt him but due to his reaction to hearing Tim got the clench and trying to save him he obviously still cares and they’ve worked together since so I think they’re on good terms

Tim & Helena - she was so genuinely heartbroken when she thought he was killed by killer croc, has also fallen for his little brother charms

Tim & Cassandra - siblings who have each others back no matter what

Tim & Jason - despite their rocky start, as of Knight Terrors: Robin they’ve been shown to have a civil if not a positive relationship

Tim & Stephanie - besties despite being exes

Tim & Harper Row - what I’ve seen of them has been a fun relationship “I should go. Probably some kind of mischief going on.” “Mischief huh?” (Batman Eternal #52 I think)

Tim & Duke Thomas - they alway come through for each other and haven’t had any beef as far as I’m aware

Tim & Darcy Thomas - good relationship

Tim & Damian - as of Tim Drake: Robin, Tim is calling Damian his little brother. They may have hated each other in the beginning but they don’t now

(Am I missing anyone??)

Out of the other characters that are generally considered to have good/positive relationships with everyone else -

From my understanding, Alfred, Gordon, & Barbara have had mostly positive relationships with the others (sometimes they’ve had bumps in the road but usually the relationship recovered from that) but I don’t recall if they have had a relationship with ALL of the above characters

Cass and Jason did have beef due to extremely different ideologies and I’m not aware of that being resolved

Duke Thomas has not been shown to have interactions with all of those listed above

Dick has some on again off again beefs with some of the others

+ other beefs I’m aware of

Jason & Damian last I recall were still getting into tumbles whenever they made the other angry, which is a lot

Bruce has multiple beefs going on at all times it seems : (

I feel like I’m forgetting some unresolved beef involving JPV but maybe I’m wrong

Anyways my point is, unless I’m majorly wrong about any of the above, or forgetting several people, Tim is most likely the canonical Batfam member with the most positive relationships amongst Gotham vigilantes (if I went past that that list would never end lol) even if a lot of his relationships with the others started out rough or had a rough patch at some point

[nightcolorz]

it's so crazy that people are out here making literal terf arguments over a fictional gay couple

also it was taking me out how that reply was literally citing examples of Louis' textual racial oppression as evidence of him being a subtextual woman like is that really what we're doing now?? Lestat owns the Azalea on paper because Louis can't own it as a black man during Jim Crow not because Lestat is equally invested in running the business as The Man like it's 1000% Louis' thing, and ignoring the strategic ways he operates his business black man just bc you're uncomfortable with the moral nature of that business is so blatantly insulting to Louis character and agency it's ridiculous. Like if Louis is a woman the majority of these people are being unironically sexist towards her because they like the boring self-insert wattpad version of her they created in their heads rather than the actual character.

sorry for the rant you can feel free to ignore it but that was driving me crazy

don’t apologize for the rant I’m so happy u sent me the rant bcus now I feel like I’m not crazy 😭😭. I didn’t actually read that one reply bcus the weird font changes gave me a migraine, but I skimmed enough to know what their thesis was 💀.

the terf shit is genuinely insane. I think a lot of this interpretation comes down to cis women with internalized sexism and transphobia (and racism cough cough) choosing to interpret Louis and lestats relationship in a way that aligns with their heteronormative narrow minded view of relationships (especially abusive ones) bcus they r unable to interpret a story about a gay black man being domestically abused by a flamboyant white man in a way that doesn’t revolve around the oppression of cis women bcus they believe that cis women are the central and only victims of oppression and domestic violence.

even tho it is explicitly shown to us that Lestat is able to abuse louis bcus louis is socially oppressed as a black man and lestat has societal power over him, ppl feel the need to put this “he’s also a metaphor for women” angle on it bcus they don’t want to confront the reality that men, especially men who are oppressed bcus of race or queerness or disability or any number of things, can be abused by their partners, and often are. I’ve noticed a lot of cis women have a problem with acknowledging that men can and do experience oppression that is “for women”. Domestic violence is often leveraged against women, but men are also victimized by it too, and stories about men who r abused deserve to be told without being “secretly about women”. This is especially weird since Louis is a black man, and I think a lot of this interpretation is happening bcus a lot of ppl subconsciously believe that black men can’t be victims of abuse or violence without being somehow women. Which is fucked up, obviously. It also undermines the actual story being told about a black man trying to navigate abuse and power structures by suggesting it’s actually about misogyny, bcus the implication is that misogyny is more important or legitimate then a black man’s experience and therefore he is just a mouth piece for a “real issue”

this is also why I think ppl argue lestat can’t be feminine bcus he abused Louis. They think that a feminine person can’t be an abuser, so they think that when I say lestat is feminine, im actually invaliding that he’s an abuser and suggesting he’s actually not abusive (bcus he’s fem). Believe it or not, u can be feminine and flamboyant or be a woman and at the same time be domestically violent against ur partner. Lestat’s feminine self expression and behavior is completely irrelevant to him being abusive, and he can be abusive and leverage his privilege over Louis while still being a feminine person. I think cis women have a problem with this bcus they are frightened to admit that they are capable of being instigators of violence despite being women/feminine . So friendly reminder, femininity is not the same as being morally good or pure, and femininity and victimhood are not the same. Trying to paint lestat as this embodiment of masculine and patriarchal ideals when he is very much a feminine queer man just bcus u insist that abuse has to fit into ur narrow minded view of what an abuser and a victim looks like is well, ignorant.

so Ppl who r socially oppressed are often victimized, and women are often victimized bcus they are socially oppressed, but Louis is socially oppressed and and that does not make him a women. Got it? 💀

It’s also important to acknowledge that Louis is a pimp who uses the victimization of women to gain social status and money for himself. Equating his suffering with the suffering of women is just not accurate when the show explicitly demonstrates to us that Louis is able to use the victimization of women to his advantage. Louis still operates within the patriarchy as a man, and him being abused by another man doesn’t make him less of a man, doesn’t make him akin to a woman thematically, and doesn’t mean he experiences misogyny the way women do in the narrative

(also, just a disclaimer, I’m not talking about ppl who headcanon Louis as trans or gnc or feminine, that is all awesome and a great way to express urself and how u relate to him. What I’m talking about is ppl who say that iwtv is thematically about domestic abuse against women bcus Louis is presented as the woman in the relationship since he’s abused by lestat )

[bliphany]

The Coffee was not drugged. The Coffee reflected how we related to our own and other people's free will (of making one’s own choice)

So I read this post and agreed with it so much I felt myself vibrating. After a few hours of thinking about it, I wanted to ramble more under op’s post, initially, but found that it grew way too long. So, I decided to make a separate post.

After two months since Good Omens season 2 finale, my view of various theories/metas concerning the final fifteen minutes is that, I am okay with most of them as long as they don't erase Aziraphale’s agency.

Did Aziraphale genuinely want to fix Heaven with Crowley but with Crowley’s strong refusal he took the second best thing he thought he could get? I’m fine with that.

Did Aziraphale tried to fix Heaven to make it worthy of Crowley, the world he loved, and his idea of real goodness (he wouldn’t see the world suffer if he could help it) and with the newly-gained information of Second Coming he made his choice even though it broke his heart? I liked this a lot. It was my initial thought right after the finale and I’m still about 65-70% standing by this take.

Did Aziraphale lie to gain more wiggle room in an urgent, intense, and limited-resource situation while due to his own and Crowley’s backgrounds and characteristics they also hurt each other in the process? YES YES YES. Right now this is my favorite interpretation because it’s a realistic and complex bag of limitation/repression from the system, individual’s agency despite of it, free will and choices (never means we won’t make mistakes but always means we can still choose to do something), and their mutual (mis)understandings and relationship dynamics. It’s SO GOOD. It can lead to so many possibilities. It has its depth and enough twist for both characters and the audience. It well-reflected our world and can bring valuable discussions.

Was there something we weren’t shown and actually Aziraphale and Crowley had come up with some plan? I’m okay with that it might be fun.

What I personally don’t want (aside from “oh it’s all God’s plan God wanted them to love each other God is one of us”… but that’s another post I guess…) is to erase the weight of Aziraphale’s choice at the end of Season 2, along with all the good and bad and everything in between it could bring to the table and all the valuable exploration of “how could we thrive to make hard choices even (especially) under limited circumstances, with "a cup of coffee."

I believe that coffee did mean something though...

"Give me Coffee/Freedom or give me death."

Coffee means freedom to choose and free will. Coffee/freedom which Aziraphale was half-forced to take, meaning the “free” choice pushed upon you weren’t as “free” as it seemed after all. Especially true under our current capitalism world, wasn't it? But it was not completely drunk without Aziraphale's agency, either. Coffee/freedom which Crowley asked six shots of. Coffee/freedom which Nina served every day but still on her way to break free from a previous not-free situation. Coffee/freedom which Ms. Sandwich claimed tasted better when Nina was happy.

I think it's also worth mentioning that, Aziraphale served Muriel tea and demonstrated how to drink it but respected their choice not to drink just yet. Aziraphale invited Jim/Gabriel to have a cup of cocoa which Jim/Gabriel described as the best thing ever.

The coffee was not drugged. The coffee was a metaphor of many different ways people could relate to their free will and ability/responsibility to choose.

The most interesting part was, theoretically, we people praise free will, we value choices, and we love love characters to have their agency...

Until they made a choice that we personally don't like, against our point of view, or hurt us.**

**This is also why I never truly believed Crowley would Refuse Aziraphale with capital R in canon... Crowley was definitely heartbroken, but between the two of them, he was also the one who valued and respected people making their own choices more. We saw he did that again and again even when he didn't personally agree. The only once he "took" away others choice in canon was to prevent a suicide.**

Then, that was free will no more. We'd framed it as if said individual was nonconsensual. Or the relationship must be bad or unhealthy. Which was understandable, emotionally, but that was also exactly the point of people having free will, wasn't it?

Giving people agency means acknowledging that they are different individuals from us. There's connection. There's love. There's devotion. They're still their own person just like we are our own. Giving people freedom to choose means they might, will, and should be allowed to choose differently. If their choices break our hearts. Well, they break our hearts. That happens because people are people.

People can't truly choose/love us freely if they aren't also given the freedom to not choose/love us. (Not saying Aziraphale and Crowley didn’t love each other because they definitely do. I’m just saying, they’ve been co-shaping humanity from the start of course they would act more and more like people, and to paraphrase what Adam once said, it made no sense to make people people and then be mad at them when they acted like, well, people)

Ursula Le. Guin wrote this short story called "Nine Lives" and it was about real, meaningful connections were created by reaching out a hand in the dark, without knowing for sure whether there would be other people to reach back.

It’s a practice. To love and to love under the blessing and curse of free will choice.

Idk I’m just… the “coffee was drugged theory” especially didn’t make sense to me personally, because Good Omens has always been a story about human free will.

[rodolfoparras]

Exam went alright-ish?? I might not pass but I have another term like week and a half so we'll see.

As for reading tarot, I can't explain it really because it has always been very instinctual for me? If there is something that's bothering me or I need guidance or even just for fun, I take my card and take a bit (few minutes tops) to reconnect with them and get back in tune. If I didn't do any readings for a longer amount of time (weeks to months) I'll cleanse them first and shuffle and just hold them and visualise reconnecting and I see them as extension of myself. If I do it for someone else, I have them also hold cards as well and have cards soak up their energy in a way?? Or if I'm reading for someone who isn't next to me, I tell them to visualise sending their energy my way and to keep their question in mind.

Then I either visualise the question or just let the cards decide what I need to know and shuffle until I feel the right cards or right ones pop out. Sometimes I will keep trying if card pops out because it's possible it popped out because of the way you shuffled but if it's a right card, it will be persistent. And then I do the spread and try to interpret alone first and if I need extra help, I pull up definitions to guide me as I interpret.

It's all about trusting your instinct and spirituality and connecting with your deck. In my (and a lot of other people's) opinion, decks kind of have personality of their own which certainly makes the reading more interesting.

And I would just like to add that in my opinion, there should be even more trans character fics. Trans characters AND readers! It's a trans men galore and we're fucking 😌 literally why would anyone complain about trans characters when they're such a blessing??

And Jim Hopper fucking hell- I have such a massive crush on him, he's fine as fuck I love dilfs-

-🔮

Hoping for the best outcome for you sugar bee!! But if you don’t pass just see it as part of something bigger that’s genuinely what I do when I come across little inconvinces 😭

Oh man this is such an interesting explanation!! I’ve been thinking about this response all day and kind of worried bc I suck at trusting my intuition and what if that causes a hinderance but I was like I’m good at making friends I can just get familiar with the deck don’t have to play q&a immediately

And I love love love how you go about pulling and interrupting cards! This makes it seem less random and more calculated which brings me comfort in some sense! I can’t help it I am a man of logic and I need at least a crumb of coherency to learn something new😭

Also I’ve heard decks have their personalities and I think it’s so interesting and makes the readings more fun/ intriguing!

And I do not understand this policing when it comes to writing trans characters. I absolutely understand fetishizing and dehumanizing trans ppl, that’s wrong and shouldn’t be allowed but me writing 3 pieces every month about hot men getting fucked isn’t a crime😭

I wish they didn’t make him lose weight he was so delicious in season 1

[fancyfade]

What are your thoughts on Batman: Black Mirror? I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with that story mostly because I adore its characterisation of Dick and how the story depicts legacy and history, but Synder's ableism is so apparent.

If it's alright for me to share my two cents: I enjoy that a lot of the arc (particularly the first 3 issues) revolves around the theme of "history repeating; first as tragedy, then as farce" which was typical for Bat titles of the time. The Dealer and James Jr. trying to intellectualise "might is right" despite resorting to same old greed-fuelled murder. Dick Grayson coming into his own as a not-Bruce-Wayne Batman, who's standing on the shoulders of giants and reckoning with the ghost of the Batman's (and his) past. Barbara and Jim Gordon having to deal with Jim's biggest mistakes of all in the form of James Jr resurfacing. I also loved Dick and Babs' moments and their relationship draws on this theme: they have so much history together, they loved each other, they get each other like no one else does, they've been there from almost the beginning, they've been allies, partners, friends, lovers, exes, fiancés, and now they're something pretty un-labellable if you ask me. (Thesis-antithesis-synthesis in a sense :P)

But shit. The ableism is problematic. I think it's two main things, though I might be missing something. First is Dick's nightmare vision where his worst fear is him losing his legs. And second is James Jr being written as a "psychopath" as oppose to, I dunno, the literal embodiment of toxic masculinity (fucking wasted opportunity) to be a foil to our favourite flamboyant, pun-slinging, back-flipping, hoping-inspiring boy scout Dick Grayson.

What do you think of this arc?

I’ll confess that I am the odd one out in that I just. Do not get the appeal of black mirror. Even excluding the ableism (and it is VERY ableist). Like people say it’s great Dick characterization, and it’s fine, but it’s not like it stands out especially among other comics of the time IMO.

Like, Dick and Babs’s moments in this comic are not notable for me, because she is reduced and written as lesser to make her someone Dick has to protect, she is damselled and written as less competent – hwo does James get past her security so effortlessly? Why does she not finish him off when she has the advantage after beating him up initially? Like the whole reason I like Dick and Babs’ dynamic is because they are written as equals in the initial version of their relationship, Black Mirror just made it a stereotypical ‘scared woman (b/c she is treated as scared of James, even tho she does try to break out), strong man saves her’ thing. James Jr would not be a threat to Babs in her own solo title. That means I think it fails in being respectful of the depiction of her history, so I would say that Snyder does not succeed there.

I also would disagree that we see Babs and Jim having to deal with Jim’s greatest mistake, when like I said Babs doesn’t really do much.

I do agree that they had a lot of opportunity to parallel James and Dick as toxic masculinity vs healthy masculinity, but it’s wasn’t the authorial intention at all, so I don’t give it any credit for that. The authorial intention was “Good, neurotypical dick* vs Evil, neurodivergent James”. I would honestly consider the way they diminished Babs capabilities to prop Dick up more ableism in the story as well, in addition to sexism.

I think that critique of the Might is Right mindset is done much better in many 80s/90s Batman comics, including Batman: Venom. The text was much more overt there, and less hidden behind ableism.

Anyway, so sorry :P but basically Batman: Black Mirror is one of those “everyone talks it up” but I’m just like the *insert her GIF*. It’s a pretty stereotypical batman story. In terms of Dickbats stories, I consider it one of the more mid ones. I genuinely don’t know how it is so popular :P

*ignoring headcanons or readings of earlier texts…. The way Snyder writes him is intended to be read as neurotypical

[dropoff99]

—On WoT fandom disagreements and such—

Been reading WoT since 1998. For most of my life it was THE fantasy series as far as I was concerned and still is in many ways. The world and the characters were simply deeper and more realized than anything I was reading. The roster of fantastic characters, scale, the magic system, masterful use of multiple POVs, metaphysics, and general lore Jordan created pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go.

I stilI have visceral memories of the time around RJ’s death, distinctly feeling like nothing resembling a proper ending was going to come to what I felt like was the best fantasy series around . Very few other fantasy authors prior to his passing were eager to cite Jordan in tones of reverence. If anything many “serious” fantasy fans were embarrassed to admit they loved the infamously long series which was the peak of the genre once but had more or less stalled out. Knife of Dreams was amazing to me personally but with RJ’s death and the slog prior you couldn’t argue that a satisfying ending was on the horizon. Fantasy authors like George RR Martin (despite being a friend of RJ’s and WoT definitely influencing both his work and success) constantly railed against many of the tropes of the genre (Chosen ones, Tolkien imitation, lack of moral ambiguity, plot armor, etc.) that Jordan reimagined/leaned into early on. It also didn’t help that Martin didn’t exactly argue when people made critiques of WoT in front of him either (like the famous Stephen King interview he did much later). This wouldn’t really matter if these sentiments were not so common among fantasy readers when Sanderson hopped on board. What was clear to me very early on after reading TGS was that not only was Sanderson a fan but he clearly understood the gravity of finishing the series and the care/respect he had for both the community and Jordan’s legacy was evident. I never had the feeling that it was an outsider coming in who just didn’t “get” the wheel of time. Secondly what Brandon did very well is communicate what was special about the series as a whole to new readers.

I have my issues just like anyone else but I genuinely have enormous respect for the work that both Team Jordan and Sanderson did under circumstances that were obviously not ideal. I can see the arguments regarding Sanderson’s religious/political overtones entering his other works but certainly not Wheel of Time. Yeah he didn’t completely overhaul every institution Jordan created and had to resort to quicker solutions. I’m also not going feign any sort of religiosity or be his apologetic in that regard and consider it to be the thing I like least about Stormlight. His worldview/biases of course will remain (just like Jordan’s). However I really don’t think you can deny he was an enormous fan who had genuine love and respect for both the series and Jordan himself. The fact that Harriet (Jim’s widow and long time editor) picked him based on his work and eulogy mean a lot to me. The reverence with which Harriet still seems to hold for BS and the job he and Team Jordan did seems to indicate that at the very least the people closest to the work and previous author felt that the promise of Jordan’s vision was delivered as best as could be expected.

I’m not someone who is without criticisms for BS. I envisioned the direction of Mat, Padan Fain, Perrin, Logain, Nyanaeve and several others very differently after reading the story well over a decade by that point. I missed Jordan’s unique style on character perspective and gift for painting a visual I could walk into mentally. But I also think in retrospect Sanderson was the perfect choice outside RJ to do the job. Some of his weaknesses at the time (barreling through plot, lack of rich setting, hasty exposition etc.) actually worked in his favor as he converged gigantic swathes of character arcs which still required three massive books. I respect those who think Sanderson’s choices were bad. And if you really hate the guy based on political/religious views go off I guess. I just don’t see how claiming he doesn’t respect Robert Jordan or his legacy holds any water at all. Or at the very least, as someone who’s been paying attention to the community my entire adolescent+adult life, I have not seen compelling evidence for that to be the case.

[flipcitrus]

Has anyone else found themselves really intrigued wondering just how miracles are supposed to work/the nature of their limitations in this universe given some of the events of S2?

Good Omens Season 2 Spoilers and incoherent ramblings below the cut.

I do have to preface this by saying I’m certain I am waaaaaay overthinking things and I’m incredibly rusty with fictional analysis (If English literature A level classes from 10 years ago count). A part of the reason I’m posting this is I’m hoping someone a bit more coherent and clever might have more articulate thoughts on the subject. I only got into the show a month ago so I’m also still catching up on a lot of series associated material/fan based analysis.

What got me stuck on this particular train of thought was Crowley’s question to Aziraphale in episode 2 along the lines of asking why he didn’t just cast a miracle to ACTUALLY make Nina and Maggie fall in love to cover their backs…I thought Aziraphale would say that if it were picked up upon to do so could potentially indicate he was lying about the ~Jim Miracle~ but he doesn’t, he responds that that’s “not how miracles work” instead. So how do they work?

There seems to be implication there that Aziraphale’s powers are more limited than Crowleys (for example instead of doing so himself in episode 3 he asks Crowley to freeze the surgeon in the minisode so they can talk/whisper in his ear - that just being a minor example vs eg. Crowley stopping time in S1) and I’m in half a mind as to whether that’s literal (crowleys more powerful than Aziraphale / heaven puts a block on certain miraculous acts) or more that he feels more constrained in how he can use them as a representative of heaven (or both)- whether he genuinely can’t perform certain miracles or if he personally avoids any that fall into a category of being a bit morally questionable and lets Crowley do them instead. I feel even more so torn when thinking about Crowley and Aziraphales “half a miracle” between themselves being so notably powerful (though not gonna lie I’m a mushy sod that likes the thought that the power of being besties4life amplified that miracle)

Last off - the ball. Aziraphale goes through the pain staking effort to go around each and every shop to convince the owners to attend the ball meeting later that evening, even offering to part with really valuable books. No miracles, literally just convincing people. Either because he wants them there off their own back or he can’t persuade them via miracle working I assume?

Then, later we see each and every attendee affected by Jane-Austen-itis, knowing dance moves they’ve never learned, their entire mannerisms and vocabulary changing and I wonder whether that was a direct or even Concious effort of Aziraphales to pull off or a subconcious side effect of his being so excited by the whole arrangement especially considering all that build up with the scenes before (If he wanted the shop keepers to attend for their own back and went to all the trouble; why then “hypnotise”/change their behaviour to play characters in the ball once in the shop? If Aziraphale has the ability to make his neighbouring shop keepers play characters in a ball why did he need to go through all that previous build up convincing people to come along? I don’t recall that we’ve ever seen Aziraphale hypnotise and/or wipe a humans memory before (we see him unsuccesfully try to do so later to Maggie and Nina) and you’d think to get a whole room like that reannacting pride and prejudice would take a good bit of power.

I could get into this more - but I’m sure to get off track and start pulling the tin foil hat on about semi related speculative stuff so for now I must snooze. Either way would be cool to hear other people’s thoughts.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Adding onto the last anon I think people also overlook a lot of things John did and I don't mean it in a I hate the guy and think everyone should do too, quite the opposite but c'mon we have accounts of him specifically pointed out laughing at Ratty's homophobic jokes, of that weird ass answer in the interview about being gay not being natural in the 80s. It's weird to pretend his choices are not his own.

And I genuinely don't think he was a raging bigot to anyone really and he did love Freddie. I do think his views have shifted and I don't know anything about the man especially now but basing this on what his son said that when he came out to his parents, his dad was fine with it from the start but his mom took a few years to come around the fact that her son was into men.

A controversial take, indeed.

Yeah…I don’t think John treated Freddie or his partners badly—and Jim even said he liked John a lot—but I always wondered if Freddie felt a certain type of way hearing him laugh at those jokes, the jokes he told off Ratty for telling in the first place. And that 80s interview just isn’t right. It isn’t. I wonder, too, if Freddie saw that interview or knew he felt that way about his relationships. It’s uncomfortable, and I think Freddie engaged in a lot of compartmentalization when it came to how many straight people around him viewed homosexuality because he didn’t want to confront them and lose them in his life (maybe John, the roadies, Mary, his parents…).

But if his son said John accepted him when he came out, then that definitely does count for something. I haven’t seen exactly what he (I’m assuming this is Cameron?) said, but John has been out of the public eye for decades, so it’s not inconceivable to think his attitudes changed.

[silversnaffles]

*sigh* guess I have to stop shit posting on here and start posting about horses again now y’all are crawling back (I’m kidding lmao I’m happy people are coming back to tumblr)

I do actually want to post about my life with the horses again im just burnt out by social media, y’know? And it sucks lol I’ll get back on it. I just need to treat tumblr how I used to, and get back into the swing of it.

I currently only really lurk on here to satiate whatever brainrot I have going on as tumblr always has the best fanfiction and art, but it’s time to get back to business baby

For a quick summary: I still have Amera, Tara, Jim, and Sage - Sage is currently on loan on the same yard as the other ponies, I’m unsure whether he’ll be staying under that persons care or not. It depends on them, but tbh I kinda miss having him all to myself lmao brat Hannah coming in strong. In all honesty, I’m not actually sure how dedicated they are to him anymore, which is fine. They also said something drunk to my mum the other week which did upset me though - saying that he’s quirky and “not even Hannah wants him” which really upset me. I only let them have him on loan as I was worried he needed more attention than what I could give him at the time and they seemed to love him as much as I do. Sage is my darling (and he’s not actually quirky but that’s an issue for another time). But hey maybe it’ll work out, I do care about his loaners a lot. They are good friends, I just worry about my horses. But hey, who doesn’t?

I’ll do a proper post on this update soon, but unfortunately I lost Kosha last month. I couldn’t bring myself to post about losing him properly - I just did sort of announcements on ig stories and on my Twitter. It was rough. Unsure of whether it was an benign tumour from his Cushings or potentially acorn poisoning (huge rise in that locally) but he was put to sleep last month. 20 years together 💔

I now live in Norway! Once my residency is officially approved (meeting in Jan - kept getting postponed thanks to covid and I got stuck in the uk for almost 2 years, and I currently pay 50% tax until I get my national ID and don’t have to use a Dnumber anymore yikes), I’ll be putting money to the side to move ponies over here! The plan is to get Jim here first, then Tara. I’m currently only able to have 3 over here, so if Sage stays on loan I’ll bring Amera over, but if I take Sage back then he’ll move over here. Amera will then stay with my mum, and I can cuddle her whenever I go home. Whilst I’d love to have all four here, Im not sure I’ll be able to afford it. Three will be a push. I’ll see how I go financially I’ll talk it through with my boss if I think I can afford it. Otherwise I’d prioritise Sage over Amera purely because my mum gets along with Amera better and honestly I don’t think Amera cares that much about being ridden y’know? I mean no horse really does but she has a genuine lack of interest in it and loves living in a big herd and just getting the regular cuddles and weekly grooming sessions. So we’ll see what happens there. They’ll still get herd turnout here in Norway, it just won’t be grazing all year bc of snow etc, they have like gravel paddocks with smaller herds (they’re currently in a herd of around 16?? Idk I haven’t counted in a while whereas here the biggest herd is a herd of 6) and then grazing for the spring, summer, and autumn.

Anyway that’s all I can think of for now! Hopefully I can get my ass into gear, tidy up ol’ silversnaffles and start posting properly again!!!

[endiness]

the batman lb

~

okay, i guess i'll reserve my commentary to a lb now instead of spamming.

when is a batman property gonna be brave enough to make alfred posh again. bruce pulling the "you're not my real dad" card on alfred. like, legitimately, is this supposed to be a comedy. how did people watch this in theatres and not crack the FUCK up, it is beyond me.

you have THREE hours. why are you speedrunning the cypher. like, why is this so fast paced? WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE REST OF THE TIME IN THIS MOVIE IF THIS IS HOW YOU'RE SPENDING IT NOW. I AM CONCERNED. when this movie isn't unintentionally funny, it's just boring. i mean, why else would you just take a thumb? obvs it would be used to unlock something, duh. also, like, what'd you think was gonna happen putting that mystery usb into your computer? maybe put it into a burner with no personal information and network connection on it next time, maybe.

WHY'D YOU MAKE HIS BOOTS SO STUPIDLY STOMPY. IT SOUNDS FUCKING DUMB. also it just makes me think clang, clang, thunk, scrape. it'd be funnier if this were some bdsm club and then batman would come in and nobody would bat (hehe) an eyelash at his outfit choice. HEY, GUYS, DID YOU KNOW THIS CHICK IS CATWOMAN? LOOK AT ALL THE CATS. DO YA GET IT? DO YA GET IT??? everything about this batcat scene is bad and dumb. also, they don't have chemistry.

why is the place SO destroyed. there's TOO MUCH evidence. it's the riddler? are sure? are you sure you aren't mr jigsaw man? are you really certain? LMAO IT'S LITERALLY JUST JIGSAW THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING. THAT EVERYTHING IN THIS MOVIE IS PLAYED COMPLETELY STRAIGHT. "you got a lot of cats." yeah, duh, bruce. how else would we know she's catwoman. the audience is completely stupid and has to have everything spelled out to them, don't you know anything? (the sad thing is that's true. people ARE that stupid these days. ugh, why'd y'all have to ruin it for the rest of us with brains.)

"they injected him with arsenic." "rat poison." also known as: poison. "what kind of demented sob does this to a person?" jigsaw! :) oh sorry, did you want me to say riddler? but i don't see him anywhere 🤷‍ anyway, remember when jim carrey was riddler. that was at least fun, wasn't it. the complete lack of batcat chemistry lmao. I'M NOT EVEN AN HOUR INTO THIS MOVIE 😭 hey, y'know what makes up for a total lack of chemistry? the old bickering married couple trope, especially for characters that've known each other for like 5 seconds. jk, that's bad. don’t do that. selina would be more interesting if she were just her own character and not selina or catwoman and also if this movie would let her exclusively be about her friend and not, like, batcat nonsense.

when the riddler isn't jigsaw'ing it up he's brainy'ing it up. (y'know, brainy. from hey arnold.) the riddler just blunt force trauma'ing all his victims is so funny. like, i've watched criminal minds. i know that means you're just a coward. especially since you have to get them all when their backs are turned. coward. like, legit, are you supposed to find the riddler in this intimidating? because he isn't. he's funny when he's lurking behind people as if that's somehow supposed to be scary when it isn't, and he's hilarious when he's smashing people's heads in because he must have so non-existent self-esteem that's the only way he feels comfortable enough to attack people, and then he's also funny when he's trying to be the riddler because you're actually just coming up with saw traps. I'M STILL NOT EVEN AN HOUR INTO THIS MOVIE.

oh yay, forcing this batcat narrative despite them having no chemistry. and selina genuinely being a better character far, far away from him. also, you have to keep up appearances beCAUSE YOU NEED A COVER STORY, YOU BAFOON. joker did everything about this better. full offense but pattinson's bruce sucks. he's so boring and awkward. and like, not in a good way like how bruce should be. 'cause he should be a lil awkward. but he should at least be able to FAKE being mr eligible bachelor man, if literally only for appearance and cover's story sake. the bruce in this feels like everybody interviewed about him after he has been convicted of being batman would go "yeah, that kid was always a fuckin' weirdo, i ain't surprised at all." JOKER DID EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BETTER, FFS.

i'd get out of there. a smart person would've made that car a bomb. i guess making the person inside of it is the same thing. this is so fucking boring, honestly. 🙄 AND I'VE STILL 2 HOURS LEFT. clang, clang, thunk, scrapeeeee. batman has come to uh... untape. that man's mouth. "*heavy breathing*" IT'S BRAINY, Y'ALL! no, you're nygma. e nygma. edward nygma. lmao, joker did all of this so much better. this movie is SO embarrassing. really, i'd have thought since you were a child, you loved the saw movie franchise. 🤷‍ bruce, i don't think you're supposed to be helping him cheat. but is riddler gonna call you out or. is that gonna happen when you get to the third one and bruce has answered them all for you. oh, that didn't happen. lame.

the idea that batman would somehow survive a point blank explosion to his face when it took off the other guy's head who he was literally right next to when the bomb exploded... now you've broken my immersion on top of everything else. if you're going to be afraid of somebody high up on the food chain in a corrupt justice system, i'd think you've be afraid of like... the mayor? not whoever the fuck that guy is. OHMYGOD, JIM IS FAKING INTERROGATING BATMAN????? WHO??? COULD HAVE FORSEEN??? THIS??????? does the movie think this looks cool? i hope it knows it looks lame.

somebody add that whip noise effect for how often this scene is switching between coverage of bruce and jim lmao. why doesn't batman just upload all of this evidence to like tiktok or something. modern day technology exists in this iteration. he's actually being extremely ineffective as batman by not doing that. STOP PRETENDING THAT BATCAT IN THIS HAVE CHEMISTRY. THEY DON'T. shouldn't bruce be like brain dead with how many successive concussions that he's had at this point. bruce revving his engine like this is somehow supposed to be intimidating... embarrassing. i must have THE most bored expression on my face watching this chase scene. LOOK IT'S THE SCENE FROM HEAVY RAIN! how does this scene have any stakes. did anybody watch this and care about what was happening. i mean i guess now there's stakes that poor innocent people are being sucked in this clusterfuck lol. but i mean for the main characters? eh, who cares. oh look the car is flipping, you can tell because it's that shot of the stuff in the car goin’ nuts. LOOK HOW COOL BATMAN LOOKS UPSIDE DOWN IN THE RAIN WITH THE FIRE AND HIS STOMPY STOMPY BOOTS. HE'S SUPER COOL, RIGHT GUYS? AND WITH THE SUPER COOL MUSIC PLAYING? WE MADE A GOOD MOVIE, RIGHT? that's what i assume the people who made this movie were thinking.

when i can even take them saying the riddler seriously i just hear method man saying the riddler. *takes a 3min dance break for the song* i'm not joking, i took a break to listen that song. OH THANK CHRIST. i am halfway through this movie. THE EVIL IS 50% DEFEATED. 🎶 THE RIDDLAR 🎶 this movie is soooooo bad lol. i mean el also means god. is that gonna be a thing lol. remember when jon glover voiced the riddler. that was fun, wasn't it? remember when lost did this bit with the old school technology? that was fun, wasn't it? THE TOWER? THE TOWER THAT JEREMIAH DESIGNED? is that what you're talking about? okay, but fr, why is there an HOUR AND A HALF OF THIS MOVIE LEFT.

ohno, bruce, you've put alfred in danger by existing AND after you've already pulled the "you're not my dad" card on him. that's sad, huh. "i'm afraid it already has, sir." dory is hilarious. unintentionally. please explain how alfred is doing so poorly despite at least THROWING THE BOMB AWAY FROM HIM but meanwhile bruce survived a fucking point blank explosion. POINT BLANK. LITERALLY RIGHT FUCKING NEXT TO HIM. like, you can either have realism or fantastical. YOU HAVE TO PICK ONE. YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH SOMETIMES AND OTHER TIMES NOT. every time this movie thinks it's being cool my eyes just roll. 🙄

THEY DON'T HAVE CHEMISTRY. STOP. everything about this is getting lamer and lamer 🙄 THERE'S STILL OVER AN HOUR LEFT. i mean, the joker also thought bruce's parents were his when they weren't. did you get a dna test done or. why's it so laaaaaaaaaame. why are they kissing. this doesn't make sense. ugH. now, you could make this acceptable if she stole shit off of him.

"martha was in and out of asylums" joker!martha canon??? okay. i highly dislike this version of bruce. he is just *sad trombone noise* i don't want *sad trombone noise* for a bruce. ...didn't i play this scene in a batman game or something. why is the plot for this just jumping everywhereeeeeeeee. *sad trombone noise* is so boring. all of the wayne manor designs (sans gotham) have been bad since 90s batman ended. 💅 bruh, he just woke up. calm down. what, you did nothing for your mom? RUDE. ....i miss when alfred got to be posh. i do not accept any of you non-posh alfreds. 🙈 this scene is so touching. is what somebody would say who is possibly easily manipulated i guess. not me though.

i just. do not like this selina. there are only two selina's for me and they are from batman returns and btas. why would you do this plot and make everything so boring when you could've just done white knight. except whoever made this would've just made that boring too. "come on, vengeance." pls stop. literally every time this movie is like look how cool this is, it's just the lamest shit ever.

now it's like you're trying to copy batman returns but like. you have to know batman returns did it better, right. right. if all of you stopped monologuing, you'd solve all of your problems. like, at all. instead of not at all. omg, she scratched him. like a cat. get it. 'cause she's catwoman. GET IT. DO YOU GET IT. everything about this is just the lamest. i mean, batman's secretly recording everything he sees and hears so perhaps not. THERE'S STILL ALMOST A FUCKING HOUR LEFT.

i was going to make a joke about the riddler sniping falcone but i guss it wasn't a joke, huh. i hope it is the riddler who shot him because that makes actually no fucking sense whatsoever. so it's perfect for this movie! remember how fun the riddler's place was in batman forever and they played bad days by the flaming lips? that was fun, wasn't it? ohmygod, is he drawing a question mark in his cappuccino or whatever. because that'd just be. so clever of this movie. so clever and creative. i am not at all being sarcastic. IT'S THE ONE THAT SAYS E NYGMA. AS IN NYGMA. EDWARD NYGMA. oh, movie, you're just oh so creative and clever to have him draw a question mark in his coffee. i'm so super duper impressed by you and your storytelling skills!

no, his name is edward nygma. "suffocating my mind no escape" yeah yeah cut my life into pizza, we get it. "he's got like 500 followers." i have a lot more followers than that. on tumblr. tumblr. wow, is it: I'M GONNA SAY WHO BATMAN IS. i, for one, would gladly have this be the end of THE batman. 'cause this movie is bad and you're a bad lame-o batman, full offense.

...is that collar a joke, because you could easily slip it over your head. like, it's much larger than his head. okay, so on top of being jigsaw and brainy, he's also literally just stanley coleman too? dumb. man, you know things in places like this are recorded, right? or did you stop the cameras? kinda looks like they're still recording so uh, you're kinda already fucked. where's the joker to pop in a bitchslap the fuck out of riddler and be like "WE ALL KNOW HE'S BRUCE, YOU MORON. YOU'RE RUINING THE GAME WITH BATMAN FOR THE REST OF US." the joker did this way better. 🙄 WHY THE FUCK IS THERE STILL OVER 30 MINS OF THIS MOVIE LEFT. why'd people give joker so much shit when this movie and character exists lol. bruh, are you faking this or like everything in this movie: is this supposed to be unironically played straight. let's fast forward outta this scene already pls.

i am at the point where if i could run this movie at 2x speed, i would be already. alas, i cannot. now you're just stealing from jeremiah and gotham. LAME. literally every single thing this movie is copying... everything else did it better lol. jeremiah already did this and he's so much cooler this is so unfair 😤 LITERALLY GOTHAM ALREADY DID THIS AND IT WAS SO MUCH COOLER UGH. also, like, year one/zero year was the inspiration for both, right. BUT GOTHAM LEGITIMATELY DID THIS BETTER AND COOLER.

ohno, the dumbass mayor who thinks she knows better than everyone else got shot. how terrible. also, i totally have emotional investment in all of this characters and not. literally none. oh yay, it's the look how cool batman is fight scenes. yay. waiting for the moment when batman gets saved by catwoman 'cause this is super lame and that's one of the lamest things that could happen. oh i'm sub 30 mins, yay! this random villain taking for fucking ever to just shoot batman when he could've just shot him. lame. also, hey, catwoman stopped him and saved batman. who could have forseen this totally not lame turn of events.

remember when the joker and batman were bleeding out and their blood was making a broken heart on the ground. anyway, that was more romantic than this nonsense. so now he's just using magic juice to pump himself up? lmao. what even is this. "i'm vengeance." yeah, it sounds lame af doesn't it. i know that's not the real reason. but it should be. isn't the entire city there getting deded lol. LMAO ARE YOU FOR REAL. THIS IS SO FUCKING LAME. like, your epic "oh batman dies" moment is him being a fucking moron and cutting an electrical wire to stop it from electrocuting people except THEN you fucking chicken out and don't even have him die (or ‘die’)? EVEN THOUGH YOU SHOT IT AS A DEATH SCENE MOMENT. HOW MUCH FUCKING LAMER CAN THIS MOVIE GET, JESUS. all tea all shade all offense but batfleck did this better. look at how ~emotional and ~moving this scene is. totally not schlocky as hell. wait, was that the dumbass mayor who's there? who got shot? bitch, you're gonna die in those waters. your wound is getting super infected. that's sad huh.

OH YAY THE EMO MUSIC STARTS. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO COME ON WE'VE RETURNED TO THE RORSCHACH VOICE OVER NARRATIONS?????????? THIS IS SO SAD FOR YOU. I'M SO EMBARRASSED FOR YOU. THIS IS REALLY PATHETIC, Y'ALL. ugh, when is this gonna be over. somebody soundproof the riddler's cell. YOU CAN'T SUCK ME IN WITH BATJOKES. I WON'T FALL FOR THIS. is this how it's gonna end. on them. having no chemistry.  "you're already spoken for." YEAH, BY THE JOKER. i mean, not this batman. he's *sad trombone noise* and deserves no jokers. but like, batmans in general. they are all spoken for. (by the joker.) all you have to do is end the movie and you're still making it lame. YAY, IT'S OVER. I'M FREE. anyway, gotham did all of this, everything in this movie, but better. go watch gotham. 💅

[make-me-imagine]

Hi!! Congratulations on your milestone!!! I've been following you for a while and you always write amazing stuff!

for a ship I was hoping I could get one for Star Trek(either AOS or ENT) and Shadow and Bone(season two is giving me life)? I am very bi so I have no gender preference.

A little about me, I'm an introvert. I start very quiet and polite when I first meet people but as I get to know them I become more outgoing and I tend to make fun of people I'm friends with. basically if I don’t like a person i’ll never say something bad to their face but if I do like them i’ll lightly make fun of them all the time.

I'm a ballerina of many many years and I love to sew. I've made dresses and shirts and one pair of pants that was kind of wonky. I also love to study space. I've made my own star maps and one time I thrifted an old telescope, took it all apart and fixed it. I love tinkering and collecting trinkets. I'm studying ancient history/mythology which is a dream come true! I love to learn about how people of the past lived and what they believed in. and I love super heros, at any given moment I could rattle off the entire history of Batman and his sidekicks and his villains.

that’s kind of a jumbled mess of random facts about me but hopefully that’s enough for a ship. thank you in advance :)

Thank you!~

I hope you like them :)

Star Trek AOS:

I ship you with Jim!

Jim is a very fun and compassionate person. As extroverted as he is, he enjoyed being around you, you felt safe and gave him a very calm bubble to escape too.

He adores your teasing side, and can take your jokes well. He could tell you only make-fun of people you really like, so he sees it like one of your love-languages.

You two enjoy watching old super-hero films together, and often quote things, or have inside jokes that no on else understands.

I think on the Enterprise, yo would be a Xenoanthropologist or Xenohistorian, and deal a lot with new cultures you come across on your adventures.

Runner Up Ship: Trip Tucker (ENT)

-----

Shadow and Bone:

I ship you with Alina~

You and Alina have a lot of similarities, and are both very caring and genuine people.

You bonded over your love of history and map-making. She makes maps of the ground, you make maps of the sky. She often jokes that you complete each other because of this.

She can take your jokes and give them in return. Sometimes people are surprised to learn you are in a relationship, but once they know this, they get it. You two suit each other perfectly.

She loves when she finds you practicing dance, and will watch you with a fond smile on her face. Alina also finds your ability to make clothes and tinker with things fantastic, and she praises you for it a lot.

Spending nights ling out together as you look through your telescope are some of her favorite times. Just being with you in the calm night, just the two of you.

Runner up Ship: Nikolai

[the-girl-who-didnt-smile]

DR. LA FICELLE

This is just one of my Hazbin Hotel OCs that I felt like drawing.

His name is subject to change…

You’re not going to believe this, but this is one of my favorite DeviantArt OCs I’ve designed. 

It’s NUTCRACKER-KUN!

I love drawing this guy… He’s just a little nutcracker!

I think I screwed up here, though… I’m pretty sure I made him too tall. 

If you side-by-side him with Alastor, he should be shorter than Alastor but more broad-shouldered than him, in terms of bone structure (he is not very muscular… very average build)

I don’t know how we’re feeling about his facial hair… But that is a style that was worn at this time.

He kind of has trouble expressing his emotions… He’s one of those guys who might look unhappy, but that’s just his face.

On a whim, I felt like redesigning him as an angel. Once again, I did a shit job of imitating the art style of this show. This is a very rough draft, a lot would have to be changed here… But I want him to escape from his horrible fanfiction jail, and attempt to fit him within the canon universe of Hazbin Hotel. 

(at that, I might repeat this exercise with a couple more of my DeviantArt OCs… don’t hold your breath…)

As previously described, he’s a tribute to Doctor Jean Montanet, and Doctor Jim Alexander. This is why he is a man of mixed African and Native American (Choctaw) heritage. 

To recap his ancestry, his father was the half-Bambara, half-Choctaw son of the Hazbin Hotel version of Doctor Jean Montanet. Meanwhile, his mother was a Chickasaw freedwoman, who was Black but had one Choctaw grandmother. Taking an interest in his own heritage, he scarred himself to match his grandfather and connected to the local Choctaw community. 

I have tentatively given him the name “Dr. La Ficelle”, as a reference to a name that was given to Doctor Jean Montanet in "The Last of the Voudoos". His name is subject to change…

In terms of personality, he is eccentric and highly analytical. He was an extremely skilled medicine man with an encyclopedic knowledge of African, Native American, and European healing techniques. He traveled around the South, and was a contemporary of Alastor’s.

On a serious subject, my portrayal of Louisiana Voudou has been unsatisfactory, as it overemphasizes the Afro-Caribbean elements instead of accurately portraying the “layered” cultures found in the tradition. It also misrepresents the sophisticated ceremonies and initiation processes that were involved in Louisiana Voudou. In my insane fanfiction, I rewrote Alastor’s backstory to make him someone who was dirt poor as a child. I genuinely think this makes him a lot more interesting as a character, but I also don’t think that is going to be canon. Realistically speaking, he was probably from the bourgeoisie. 

The problem in rewriting his race and class status is how it misrepresents the leadership of Louisiana Voudou, who were generally from the higher class strata. Not just anyone was a “Queen” or “King”. These were leadership positions that one had to be initiated into, which were typically occupied by free people of color from affluent backgrounds. It does seem that this changed by the Depression-era though; the “Voodoo Queen” Laura “Lala” Hopkins did not come from the social elite, but the bottom of the race/class hierarchy.

When paired with “Dr. La Ficelle”, my weird fanfiction Alastor (ALASTOR D. BARNABET!!!!!!!!!!) can more accurately portray the range of Louisiana Voudou. “FTM Alastor” represents the Depression-era “Voodoo Queen”, serving as a fictional counterpart to “Lala” Hopkins. Conversely, “Dr. La Ficelle” represents 19th century Voodoo “Kings”, representing the free people of color from the social elite. They are contemporaries who were both mixed race, but one comes from the middle class while the other comes from poverty. For this reason, they make for interesting counterparts.

“Dr. La Ficelle” is an interesting character on his own, but through him a number of other interesting characters could be introduced. He was connected to the mostly female leadership of Louisiana Voudou, frequently interacting with these “Voodoo Queens”. Many of his friends were Choctaw; he also befriended Native Americans from other tribes. He was a traveling doctor, who lived on the outskirts of society and moved from state to state to meet with clients. Although he has no European heritage, he could “pass” for an affluent man of mixed European/African descent.  He interacted with a wide range of people of all races, where his mixed race status allowed him to interact with African Americans, Native Americans, and Caucasians of different heritage and socioeconomic classes. Through him, the richly textured culture of New Orleans and these race/class dynamics could be explored with a degree of historical accuracy. 

In terms of Native American representation, it is really wack that Native American characters are so frequently fetishized, where they always wear traditional garb, which is often not accurate to the traditions of their tribe. For example, “Native Americans” are often shown dressed as Plains Indians, even if they are from a completely different culture. Moreover, Native Americans don’t always wear traditional dress. What a shock! (sarcasm) Portraying Native Americans in this manner serves as a means to “other” them, instead of depicting them with realism and the human dignity we all have.

However, in this case, I genuinely think the traditional dress of the Choctaw is very stylish… It’s just in-character for “Dr. La Ficelle” to have an outfit like this (although, his outfit should be redesigned… especially his earrings…). However, this should not be his only outfit. He should be shown wearing a range of suits, where Choctaw elements may or may not be incorporated. He almost always wears the top hat though, as it belonged to his grandfather. (in real life, Doctor John wore a top hat and was apparently very fashionable…) Additionally, his half-Choctaw father did not wear traditional dress; he contrasted with his son, in that he aimed to assimilate to the racial hierarchy in New Orleans.

I suppose I could be criticized for making him male when Voudou was matriarchal, but this was a deliberate choice on my part. I dunno, I feel like most of the time when there’s a “Good/Evil” split, the female counterpart is “Good” and the male counterpart is “Evil”. And when it comes to Voudou, how many positive portrayals are there of Voudou “Kings”...? I haven’t cataloged this, but I think it’s usually Voudou “Queens” who might be shown in a positive light, while their male counterparts are “evil”... This is especially concerning when you consider the racialized aspect, where these characters are generally men of color. So I aimed to create a “Good”-aligned, Voudou-themed male character, to subvert this trend… But in his human life, he should be friends with several high-ranking women within the Voudou community.

To fit him into the canon universe, I would alter the circumstances of his death. He may very well have just died of old age… Rather than going to Hell, he becomes an angel in Heaven. 

I totally think Alastor’s mother has potential to be as interesting as Alastor, where she’s his angelic counterpart and is very powerful within the ranks of Heaven. But realistically speaking, this is probably wrong. If I had to guess, she was probably a meek person, not strong. If this turns out to be true… On the one hand, I think it’s kind of lame because that’s the stereotype. It’s WAY more fun if Alastor’s mom is a hard counter to her son and just bodies him in battle! …But at the same time, it totally makes sense from a character standpoint. Alastor’s mother is weak, which is why he became strong. It makes sense!

Since Alastor’s mother is probably not actually an angelic counterpart to Alastor, “Dr. La Ficelle” is designed to fill that role. He also has the theme of Louisiana Voudou, but his style is totally different from Alastor’s. Where Alastor focused on “bad work”, he focused on “good work”. His powers are oriented around healing and holy elemental. This would be an interesting fight between these two… Alastor should win, but it should be a tough battle. I think “Dr. La Ficelle” would lose, not because he is weak, but due to his rigid thinking. This man has incredible memory, where he can store a vast volume of information in his brain and retrieve that information very quickly. However, he is not an especially creative thinker. To prepare for a fight, he would just study a wide range of battle strategies that have been used successfully in battle in the past and store those in his memory. It presents a challenge to him if he is fighting an opponent who invent novel strategies on the fly. While his general Battle IQ is high, I want to believe that Alastor is smart enough to figure out how this guy thinks early in the fight, then come up with a creative strategy to outwit this guy. He puts up a good fight, but Alastor should beat him in the end. 

The purpose of his character would be to illustrate a relatively weaker opponent with the theme of “Louisiana Voudou”. Although he is a tough opponent, he is actually not the strongest angel Alastor would have to fight; far from it, as in his human life he was focused on medicine and healing instead of hexxing and “bad work”. In other words, his character would reveal that there are a bunch of other angels in Heaven who are a lot tougher than he is… DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO JOIN ME IN HAZBIN HOTEL POWERSCALING??? 

…I know characters in Hazbin Hotel don’t often have noses, but I just love that perfect 75 degree angle on this man’s nose. You could make a protractor out of that thing!

Tentatively, his animal motif is NUTCRACKER …just kidding. It’s actually ‘Gryphon’. Since he’s supposed to be an angelic counterpart to Alastor, this is a minor animal motif that he has; he looks mostly human, but he has a lion tail, and lion paws that are hidden in his boots. Man, do his boots need to be redesigned... his animal motif is also subject to change… 

For more information about Doctor Jean Montanet, see: “The Last of the Voudoos” by Lafcadio Hearn from An American miscellany, vol. II, (1924) originally published in Harper's weekly, November 7th, 1885. https://www.conjuredoctors.com/dr-john-montanee.html

[philosopherking1887]

I had to look this up because I hadn't heard about it; here's a source for others who are curious:

And because they made me sign up for emails to read the article, here it is (under a cut) so that the rest of you don't have to do that:

Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of a controversial new book largely focused on Israel, is facing widespread criticism for admitting that he may have participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks if he had been born in Gaza. “I grow up under that oppression and that poverty and the wall comes down, am I also strong enough or even constructed in such a way where I say this is too far? I don’t know that I am,” he said in an interview with Trevor Noah released on Thursday. Coates, 49, said he had not “said this out loud” but that he had thought “about it a lot.” “ls there room in the world, and I don’t think there is right now, I actually don’t think there is, to have genuine, genuine horror at what happened on Oct. 7, to feel like there really isn’t a world in which, or reason, that I can apprehend — I’m not Palestinian, I’m Ta-Nehisi Coates — that I can apprehend for justifying anything like that,” he told Noah. “And yet, understanding at the same time that things have histories, that they happen in the course of events.” He cited what he framed as a historical parallel to elaborate on his point. “The example I think about all the time is like Nat Turner,” he said, referring to the Virginia slave who launched his rebellion in 1830. “This man slaughters babies in their cribs. You know what I mean? And I’ve done this thought experiment for myself over and over.” “Does the degradation and dehumanization of slavery make it so that you can look past something like that?” Coates continued. “And I try to imagine, and I think I can accurately imagine as much as possible, that there were enslaved people, no matter how dehumanized, that said, ‘This is too far. I can’t do that.’” The “flip side of that,” he said, is the situation in Gaza, which he compared Gaza to a “giant open-air jail” where Palestinians are at constant risk of being “shot” by Israelis. “I just wish we had room to work through that,” he said, “and to think about that and to talk about that. And I think that is not unique to Israel, that is not unique to Palestine, that is not unique to Zionism. That is human history, that is human beings.” Coates’ comments have faced backlash from numerous commentators, who have accused the author of seeking to normalize Hamas’ atrocities.   “This is the heart of it all, not a call for freedom but the creation of a cultural space in the West to accept never-ending war and brutality until the Jews are gone,” said Haviv Rettig Gur, a political analyst based in Jerusalem. “What you’re witnessing in real time is an elite attempt to justify and mainstream violence as a legitimate response to discontent,” added the former New York Times journalist Adam Rubenstein. Noah, a former Daily Show host who has previously faced criticism for past antisemitic tweets, is also drawing scrutiny for comments in the interview, where he suggested that American revolutionaries could be seen as “terrorists” absent historical context. “You can call it ‘the Boston Tea Party.’ That’s terrorism,” he said. “If you remove the context, everything has no context,” he added, claiming people “remove all context when speaking about Israel-Palestine.” Coates’ new book, The Message, which includes a sprawling essay on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, likens the experience of Palestinians under Israeli occupation to Black Americans during the Jim Crow era. But that framing has also drawn pushback from Middle East experts who argue that Coates is inaccurately projecting an American racial lens onto a foreign conflict with its own unique history. The journalist Matti Friedman, who has written about such issues, argued that Coates’ approach is misguided. “A good reporter looks at a place or goes into an interview or approaches a story with a willingness to understand the story on its own terms, and a bad reporter comes to a story and sees a mirror,” he said in a podcast interview.

“The attempt to kind of map America onto other parts of the world has led Americans into grave errors of judgment,” Friedman added. In his book, Coates writes that his father, Paul Coates, the publisher of Black Classic Press, was an early influence in informing his view of the conflict. “I remember watching World News Tonight with my father, and deriving from him a dull sense that the Israelis were ‘white’ and the Palestinians were ‘Black,’ which is to say that the former were the oppressors and the latter the oppressed,” Coates recalls. “And once — back when I dreamed of being a poet — my father had handed me a book by the Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad titled Born Palestinian, Born Black, and this combination felt natural to me, though I could not have articulated then why,” he adds. Paul Coates, whose company has long been dedicated to unearthing “obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent,” has also been a subject of controversy in recent weeks over his decision to republish an antisemitic screed called The Jewish Onslaught — which seeks to uphold a widely discredited conspiracy theory alleging Jewish domination of the Atlantic slave trade. But the book — first published in 1993 by Tony Martin — is no longer available on the Black Classic Press website, and appears to have been removed after Jewish Insider highlighted its inclusion in the company’s catalog in late September. Black Classic Press did not respond to requests for comment about why the book had been removed.

FWIW, it appears that the Tony Martin Jewish Onslaught thing wasn't entirely a one-off; I looked up Paul Coates' Black Classic Press on Wikipedia and discovered that another author for whom they published no fewer than 11 works was Yosef Ben-Jochannan, who (according to his Wikipedia page) claimed to be of Ethiopian and Yemeni Jewish descent but probably was not, and also claimed to have various doctoral degrees that he did not have, from universities he never attended. One of his books published by Black Classic Press was We the Black Jews: Witness to the "White Jewish Race" Myth, in which, according to the Wikipedia page, "he asserts that the original Jews were from Ethiopia and were Africans. He says that the Semitic (Middle Eastern) Jews later adopted the Black Jewish faith and its customs. He further accused the Semitic Jews of using special powers to 'manipulate and control the Mind of the World' and claimed that Holocaust education is a form of brainwashing."

Many actual historians and classicists have accused him, apparently with good reason, of publishing and teaching pseudohistory that is inconsistent with the documented historical record. Nonetheless, this appears to have had an influence on Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is quoted in a New York Times obituary for Yosef Ben-Jochannan:

“That entire generation of self-trained historians really gave me my first sense of skepticism,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, an editor at The Atlantic, and the son of Paul Coates, Mr. Ben-Jochannan’s publisher, wrote in an email. “What people like Dr. Ben were saying was, ‘History is not this objective thing that exists outside of politics,’ ” Mr. Coates wrote. “ ‘It exists well within politics, and part of its job has been to position black people in a place of use for white people.’ And that notion of skepticism goes with me in all of my work. It runs through everything I do.”

So that might go some way toward explaining the resolute ahistoricism of his recent writings on Israel/Palestine.

so let me get this straight. elon musk retweeted or tweeted an antisemitic comment (because he's an antisemitic asshole from a very antisemitic country south africa) and he was critizised to the point that he took a trip to israel to like reflect and learn about how jews don't eat babies or whatever. but...

Ta-Nehisi Coates, an antisemitic asshole who's antisemitic dad also publishes antisemitic books just one's he's too lazy to write, says in person, recorded on video, without retraction.... that he would join in on the rape, murder, infanticide, and kidnapping of jews, if given the chance... and trevor noah (from very antisemitic country south africa) agreed whole heartedly and adding that it's like the american revolution.... which implies that isreal rode into gaza and lebanon ans was dictating how those countries operate and taking taxes which is WHAT IRAN DOES THROUGH HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH ALONG WITH THE RAPES AND MURDERS... but there's no media outlet saying that might be kind of fucked up and maybe they should apologize or some vague insincere bullshit... I'm sorry?

and also Christopher Columbus... THE symbol for Catholics in America (which is why we that monster even got his own day. literally catholics, the knights of columbus, wanted a celebration of how interconnected the united states and CATHOLICS are) the Christopher columbus with MASSIVE statues around the globe in portugal, spain, america, italy... that guy is now jewish, just like hitler, because .... he has some jewish DNA. and we are just disregarding his recorded actions, relationship to the church, his very catholic life, lifestyle, origins, and catholic life.

and all this during the jewish christmas/ramidan (because goyim don't know what the fuck our high holy days are even if that name alone should tell you exactly how important they are) ??

which idiots are these things for? who is watching the ta interview and saying to themselves, "boy i would love to read the book by the guy who loves murder and kidnapping and rape! what a leftist humanitarian!" or, "WOW! I hate christopher columbus I'm so glad i don't have to feel guilty as a christian that he was under orders by my church because he was obviously a jew going rouge. because i'm a leftist but also a devout catholic? which is a thing that is a totally consistent world view?"

Who asked for this? I don't think this kind of shit is even for antisemitic leftists anymore. this is for some kind of POC leftist white supremesist with white guilt but also an arab supremasist .... i guess that might describe one or two very mentally ill people but... like ... who? is this stuff to get rage clicks from jews? there aren't that many jews you guys. I have no fucking understanding of these people's world's view other than they hate jews. none of this makes sense in any other way than to attack and increase attacks on jews around the globe. it's so mentally confusing because none of these people are saying anything that benefits them in anyway, nothing that is smart or true, nothing that makes sense if it is not generated directly from the thought, "this will increase jew hate, so i should do it!"

these people are risking their careers, being hella racist about arabs generally and Palistinians specifically, making both jews and arabs less safe, saying inflammatory things they obviously spent very little time thinking about, for the chance to normalize antisemitism. what planet are these media orgs even living on? they don't sound like nazis, they sound like fucking delusional Qanon derps who are improving "the day of the storm" ironically like the segments they show on the daily show, with TREVOR NOAH.

it's like really... sad. like, these guys and scientist have wasted so many people's time and their own talents which people tell me they have i guess, but it's sad that this kind of libel from the media doesn't even make sense to people who don't live on twitter.