#also my other friends and I tried to do a bad recap of the show prior for the newbies

[ladynoirzeddison123]

Just had a season 6 watch party with my friends…2 of which had never seen the show before (and one among them insisting it was not her thing and she just wanted to hang out and eat food).

….guess who ended up being the most invested by the end 😂😂😂😂

[sombredancer]

Li Lun, a villain I feel for (Pt. 1/4)

Li Lun was the only character of FoF who stole my heart. From the very beginning it was obvious that Li Lun supposed to be a scapegoat of the narrative. The final plot twist was supposed to be a cherry on the top of the final battle, so GJM needed to bring LL there no matter what. LL's fate is in his very name: 离仑 (lí lún). The character 离 means “to be separated”, “to stay apart”; “to keep distance”; “to be alone”, “to break up”, “to become in opposition”; “to turn away” and also “to break into pairs”.  The character 仑 is used only in the name of the mountain Kunlun (昆仑), which is, as we know, a cradle of demons and a gate to the Great Wilderness. All of these meanings match Li Lun perfectly: he is deeply tied to his demonic homeland, yet is separated from the man who used to be his soulmate and opposites him now in loneliness.

Li Lun also was the only character whose story was shown to us not  as a strange flashback after the main events happened (as it was with any other story-within-a-story in this drama) but was fed to us with small portions (as it should actually have been worked out for each of side stories). It was, firstly, the main reason I was emotionally involved in Li Lun’s story – I genuinely tried to guess what happened between LL and the main hero in the past, it caught my attention. And secondly – reshuffling the pieces of LL’s backstory and spreading them across the narrative were the only ways to conjure the illusion that LL’s part of the plot works at all.

"Zhao Yuanzhou, do you still remember your old friend? Whom of your new friends should I kill first?"

When we see Li Lun for the first time in ep 3, he seems like a real villain of the story: he is in chains, looks insanely hot and hotly insane. We find out very quickly that he is absolutely obsessed with his former friend, the main hero, and wants to take revenge on him so badly as if the main hero killed the whole LL’s family and ate LL’s cutie puppy for breakfast. In the first part of the story he looks really intimidating: it is scary when your enemy could literary be anyone around you because Li Lun can possess any body. (And later we find out that there is absolutely no villain in this story, because LL is a Byronic hero and Big Bad in Mask is just a piece of furniture, because no one of the mains remembers of him and gives a single flying heck about him for the most of the story.)

But to look through their story soberly, let me recap it for you in the chronological order.

Once upon a time, something like 30 000+ years ago, two demons were born in Great Wilderness, a sophora tree spirit and a white ape spirit. They were equals in their powers, were friends for many millennias and finally became Great Demons. Hundreds of years ago they anonymously saved the Great Wilderness from destruction and swore to protect their homeland at any cost.

You all know what a hairpin means in Chinese dramas , don't you? 🌚

LL works his magic to make ZYZ happy. Although they had different mindsets, they genuinely care for each other: the main hero (ZYZ) tried to show his rigid wooden friend things he never even thought about, and LL, in return, tried to learn from ZYZ and to make him happy, too.

LL wanted to silent a kid with magic, but ZYZ taught him that no magic needed to chase someone's megrim away. The kid's as well as LL's. ZYZ loved humans and their world and LL was irritated by them and cautious about them, so ZYZ was teaching him how to treat humans right.

They exchanged gifts, a rattle drum and an umbrella. And it was so important for both LL and ZYZ that each turned mate’s gift into a spiritual weapon.

But they exchanged even more valuable gifts, too: ZYZ gifted LL his unique magic ability – Truth Eye, the ability to see the true essence of everything. Not having it anymore, he could rely now only on his heart to see LL’s heart, so giving it away was the brightest expression of his trust and love for LL. And LL gifted him a root of sophora  – a part of his true body, which was… pretty much the same expression of love and trust.

ZYZ gifts LL his Truth Eye. But one day, 8 years ago, when they both were on a date in the mortal world, they accidently found a dungeon where their fellow demons were kept captive and tortured by humans. Li Lun, who swore to protect his homeland and its habitants and was prejudiced against humans, went to berserk rage and killed not only those who tortured demons, but also everyone in a building where this dungeon was located.

He also set free all the demons in the dungeon, included Ao Ying, the demoness who can change her appearance and will serve him later.

Trying to stop LL from killing even more people, ZYZ accidently mortally wounded LL with the power of Everburning Wood he just got. It was unintentional but fatal anyway.

For his crimes LL was immediately caught and sealed in the place of his birth (a dark and lifeless cave). Although the seal could stop him from dying, it took his freedom away for eternity, which was very painful for a creature who cultivated really hard to get ability to move (he is a tree, after all). ZYZ was somewhat upset with it. OK, being upset because of your former friend’s loss of freedom is a good thing, but what happened between the sealing of LL and the current events of the drama?

So, you were friends for literally millenias, you were very close, maybe in BL way, so close, that each of you literally gave a part of his body to other. One of you flew into a rage (fairly speaking, he had a reason to be enraged) and killed people in the heat of passion. And you accidently killed him trying to stop him. Is he a criminal? Yes, obviously. Should you be surprised by your mate’s behavior and not think of it as of something typical for him? Yes, otherwise why were you still friends for so many thousands of years? Would you try to persuade him or to bring him back into his sanity? Yeah, I think. Would you feel guilt because of unintentional killing him off? Yes, of course. But ZYZ didn’t do and feel any of that.

OK, maybe he is too righteous and any unjustified deed put his relationship with a sinner to its and. Oh, no? He eagerly forgives a spy who works for Big Bad in Mask, he forgives a man who hurt him badly and intentionally sent him into diabolic rage which could lead to numerous victims. He even understands and is nice to other demons who kill people. (And, as I remember, in ep 1 ZYZ killed by himself one of demon hunter’s bureau warriors in order to intimidate ZYC. I watched it only once, so I’m not sure if I didn’t notice some trick there, but still). He only despises LL. Also, he didn’t give a flying heck about who tortured all these demons and why (spoiler: it was Big Bad in Mask, and everything would be much easier, if ZYZ cared about it). And later, he regrets that he unintentionally killed his friend and a family of his current boyfriend, but he never regretted he killed Li Lun.

In the beginning of the drama ZYZ obviously despises him and calls him "a scumbag who has to stay in shadows", although LL has to stay in shadows partly because of a mortal wound caused by ZYZ, and can't be counted as scumbag because all the wrongs he did were caused by desire to protect people of his own kind and not because he liked human sufferings or such evil stuff. LL obviously tries to speak to ZYZ and to find out what happened between them (and honestly, I still want to get this answer, too), and ZYZ, for reason unknown, has absolutely no desire to talk about their problems with LL.

It all feels strange. And not fair to LL. Here is Part 2 Here is Part 3 Here is Part 4

[respectthepetty]

So . . .

I'm fucked.

Pisaeng is now my baby boy, and I'm fully invested in his well-being. He took so many hits this episode, and I'm taking it personally.

Let's recap exactly how this episode hurt Piseang's and my feelings because I need to make sure I deliver the maximum damage to myself:

Kawi telling Piseang that he is intentionally creating distance between them because Pisaeng makes him feel uncomfortable and unsafe in front of the pink neon light and sign that reads "Extending our friendship, connection, and happiness to you all" was the cherry on top of this shitty pain sandwich.

Kawi chasing Pisaeng to the parking lot just to shove money into his face, so he won't owe Pisaeng anything.

DJ Squirtle! Pisaeng was so excited to give Kawi this, only to throw it at him from the car after such a horrible day.

Pisaeng turned down Pear's invite, but lit up when Kawi invited him out for drinks, only to be ambushed by a group that included Knot.

Pisaeng mentioned not being comfortable around him. Knot is misogynistic and Kawi KNOWS he is an asshole in the future, yet Knot keeps making comments about Pisaeng's sex life and the fact that they went to an all-boys school. Knot also mentioned believing Kawi was with Max (aka GAY), so is Knot homophobic and this is another reason Pisaeng does not want this dumpster in his life?

On the topic of Max, my other baby boy - Is this the reason for their dispute? Max could be gay and Kawi didn't like the implication that they might be in a relationship? Also, he was supposed to meet Max later. Did he? Or did he go out with Knot and the guys instead? He check-marked Max off his list, but this won't be as simple as he is making it if he continues to be friendly with Knot if his issues with Max really do stem from queerness.

Back to my other baby boy - Pear does like Pisaeng, but more importantly, IS MY BABY BOY DEPRESSED?! He is lonely. His old friends suck. His new friend said he makes him uncomfortable. He doesn't want to feel the pressure from Pear's dad. What is his relationship with his own parents? WHO IS THERE FOR MY BOY?!

He looked like he was going to cry in that classroom when Kawi told him he was annoying. He was trying to keep his shit together but was *this* close to having a breakdown when he was scrambling to gather his stuff so he could haul ass out of there. He didn't even turn in the quiz.

LOOK AT HIM!

I'm glad Kawi chased after him, but Pisaeng is really begging for someone to care about it, yet Kawi refuses.

He is quick to forgive and share his food with Kawi, so when Kawi told him that he is bothered by Pisaeng's behavior (thinking it's funny when Kawi is upset), Pisaeng clearly looked pained to know he unintentionally hurt Kawi. He wanted to fix it, but Kawi left immediately when Knot showed up.

Kawi turning down every offer Pisaeng extended to hang out upset him, and he even mentioned it later in the classroom. He tried to joke it off in the class, but he was hurt when it happened.

He went from being happy seeing Kawi and Pear together, to being somber since the realization of what he set in motion hit him.

Because he likes Kawi, a guy he can't have.

And he has liked him the entire time. TEN YEARS!

The worst part of all of this is Kawi isn't bad. He is trying to fix this, yet is delivering the most blows to my guy. He doesn't want Pear to be hurt in the future, so he must keep his distance from Pisaeng. He doesn't want to owe Pisaeng, so he pays him back. He doesn't want Pisaeng to be lonely, so he tries to mend his friendships. He wants his life to be better, which includes befriending Max again, saving his dad's life, and being with Pear, but he is missing what is right in front of him. He needs Pisaeng for his life to be better.

And then next week?!

Yeah, so like I wrote.

I'm fucked.

[leidensygdom]

ENNU EPILOGUE RECAP!!

OKay! So, our campaign ended! Yesterday was the 81 session, and last one of it- Our DM did a wonderful job at running it. We basically got to ask them for the scenes we'd like to see, and the session was built around that. It's been three years, so it was wild to see it come to an end! Here's a recap tho (a lil bit more focused on my blorbos since they're the ones you know)

The epilogue happened two years after the campaign's end, with a couple of flashbacks going some time back

First scene was welcoming Blasma (one of the party members), who had been on a trip all this time to heal her soul at her grandpa's dubious laboratory. She's pretty okay currently- if we ignore soul healing is something theoretically impossible. Probably many questionable things happened there. Osten traveled with her to make sure she was doing okay

Next scene was her welcoming party. A bunch of shenanigans happened. Yxala tried so play cool aunt, got her a motorbike. They ended in somewhat odd terms and my girl was trying so bad to get her trust again

Pulsar and Tephra- each polycule's kids- appeared to be overall terribly adorable. Yxala talked a lot about her Sweet Potato. Tephra is Yxala and Relé's biological kiddo (as evidenced by the branched horns), 6 months old, and just one of these big hefty babies who is starting to munch on everything (here's a token of baby her, and what she's like grown up!)

we also got to see the closure of Mythannae, Yden and Jorven's polycule! Myth and Yden recovered their enchanted clothing business. They specialize in magical clothing adapted to specific needs- Like fireproof clothing for fire genasi, helmets with bag-of-holding like pockets so you can put them on with horns, that stuff. Jorven has now been working on music again. (For context, Myth was my previous character before I switched for Yxala!)

Blasma's player also had an epilogue for his previous character- she's a tired old lady, who is now joining another tired old lady to get in politics. An improvement, given they were cops before that

Centi got to resurrect the weird celestial wife of an old teacher of hers- Who had been snatched up by Sol Ascensus and transformed into a monster. I can't wait to show Niereva to y'all tho, she's a bit of a weird aminal (a mantis/naga-like aasimar)

She may have done a fucked up pact with a psychopomp tho-

We had Yxala's, Relent's and Uri's wedding, we knew that was coming! It took Urion a long while to recover from after the Deep Lab, and they still struggle a lot with that they did as The Onirist

We had a scene of Urion's recovery. Initially they didn't even want to come to terms with being Urion- They were The Onirist. Relé had a hard time forgiving them too, bc they DID hurt Relent a lot. Yxala was a bit more fine about it, even after having her heart carved out by them.

they're all going to therapy lol

There's actually a cult to The Onirist/Ataraxia now though! Some people loved the idea of a godly machine that could solve everyone's hurts and ailments, and they're asking for them to come back and fix the world. maybe the mind control microchips were fine, y'know

(uri isn't doing great about this)

We had the ceremony- Money and seeds are given to the partners as a sign of prosperity and life. They're gonna have a great garden.

The polycule drank (alcohol-free) wine imbued with each other's blood too bc ceremonies there go hard- (this one is seen as a bit more archaic)

And a major exchange between marrying partners is expected. They exchanged basses- They had them custom made many decades ago, with Urion's being based on clouds (after Relé), Relé's being based on fire (after Yxala), and Yxala's being based on bismuth crystals (after Uri's). Now Uri has the fiery bass, Relé has the bismuth one, and Yxala has the cloudy bass

Urion was the bassist for Demonwire, a group they were a part of with some other anarchist friends. This bass has a very long history and it's very significative. Yxala was a bit shocked.

After that, the wedding after-party took place. Blasma set a date with Osten- They didn't actually get romantically involved up until now (and it's probably gonna be very slow still gfhudhdgf)

I forgot to mention this but Urion and Relent are now involved with an organization to help the people who were affected by the Deep Lab and The Onirist's actions. Uri had a very awkward interview about it.

We had few other closure scenes here and there. Finding out two other npcs are marrying, the fact the weird undead guy somehow has a new kid, that stuff- and then we went onto the final one

Which was a concert by Demonwire. Urion played with them for the first time in 12 years, and gave an awkward speech, and it was super sweet and just a great point to end the campaign in!

With that, we're now set to go play the next campaign- Which will happen 8 years after this epilogue (ten years after the end of the major campaign events). I'm going to be playing Siegmund, one of Yxala's kids, and I'm very excited for that.

Yxala won't be doing any major stuff- She's gonna still go fight corpos in the streets and she's going back to the Mecha Derby (did y'all know she was a mecha pilot in a sports competition lmao. I'm working on her pilot fit, it's cool!). Urion is going to be back on Demonwire, mostly to raise funds for those hurt by The Onirist and Ataraxia, and will have a bigger role coming up- Specially given Siegmund's (and Vyxander, his twin) have a lot to do with that. Relent will also be doing some major stuff, but it will remain spoilery for a time. He's got some big things to handle!

I may have cried a bit at the end because it's been so long. I'm glad the characters won't be fully gone. Next campaign will have a lot more lore stuff to gush about- We're going to adventure outside the city, and meet people from all over the world. There's a country that uses souls in place of nuclear fission. It's gonna be wild! (And thank you for reading-)

[blorb-el]

Don’t know if you made a post on this but what’s your opinion on DCAU Clark and how unapproachable(?) they made him in the later JL/JLU series without ever resolving it? Like I know the Cadmus arc hinges on him never considering himself a possible threat but it seems there was room for no much introspection outside a couple moments (that were later backtracked).

I've had like 6 half finished posts about this buried deep in the drafts for a year because I have capital B Brain Rot about this, but every time I tried to write it out I got six sentences in and wanted to rewatch the entire DCAU in order to get my facts straight. This time I'm resisting the urge, so forgive me if I forget specific episodes

Also, unfortunately for you, it’s nanowrimo, which means my brain is in Type All The Words Mode, and not Communicate Effectively and Succinctly Mode, and also I need a break from WSBF chapter 8, so. You’re getting a 3.5k essay sort of answering this question but not really. you will see

Thank you to my fellow lawyer for the defense of Rectangle Clark @januariat for helping to put this together

I do rewatch STAS and JL a fair amount, but much less JLU, so I actually don’t have much to say about the specific execution there. I’m planning on rewatching it soon. But for now…

To me it boils down to two answers. The Doylist answer, and what I think the writers really did have in mind, is that they came up with the Cadmus plot, knew it was an absolute banger of a storyline, and decided that it was worth compromising Superman's personality in order to write a good story. which is not something I can fault them for - as a fanfic writer, I make the same calculated tradeoffs every time I set out to write a fic. Characters are tools for narrative, even if these particular characters come with an additional weight of the tradition of collaborative storytelling that their most effective stories honor.

However, I do think it’s possible to, post-hoc, cobble together a Watsonian, narratively satisfying (if fucked up and sad) character arc for DCAU Clark if you also take STAS and JL into account. I think the key to understanding his character arc is his relationship with control. Throughout STAS, JL, and JLU, and then one more time in Batman Beyond for good measure, over and over again, he's manipulated and his powers and body are used as resources for other people. Obviously that’s not much of an excuse for becoming more authoritarian/overbearing/etc, Fascism Is Bad and I personally think a more IC superman would retreat more than double down (as in Kingdom Come), but looking at the totality of things that have happened to him before Cadmus, it's a little more understandable why he'd get close to snapping under the strain. Here's my personal reading of his arc, and the events that might have led to Clark behaving so irrationally in JLU.

cut for sheer length, but also mentions of manipulation, sexual assault, victim blaming, that sort of thing

One of the recurring themes in the DCAU is villains dehumanizing, depowering, and/or manipulating Clark. In STAS, Parasite, Lex via Bizarro, Talia and Ra’s al Ghul use him as a source for their own power. The Preserver and Maxima treat him like some exotic prize, disregarding his wishes. Jax-Ur and Mala use him and then betray him. But the most impactful, by far, is Darkseid.

In Apokolips Now, Darkseid defeats Clark, puts his bleeding body into public stocks, and drags him through the middle of Metropolis. Clark’s only rescued by the last minute intervention of the New Gods, and as a parting shot Darkseid murders Clark’s friend in front of everyone. Even though Clark prevents Earth from turning into Apokolips, it’s a huge emotional loss, and they don’t shy away from showing his rage and helplessness. But it’s when Darkseid returns in Legacy, the finale of STAS, that Clark’s life truly takes a turn for the worse.

Forgive me if this is all plot recap to you, anon, but I feel like a lot of people don’t know that STAS ends with Clark being mind controlled, heavily implied to be sexually assaulted, and forced to try to take over the Earth, killing god knows how many people in the process. When the military finally brings him down with a Kryptonite warhead and imprisons him, they nearly kill Supergirl in the process. Then Lex almost gives him a lethal injection, with a US general looking on, implying that the government approves of killing him. Lois breaks him out, he tries to get help for Kara from Dr. Hamilton, and then goes to Apokolips. Most fights in STAS have him shrug off blows. He ends this one bleeding from his mouth, looking almost dead. When he finally casts down Darkseid, tells the Hunger Dogs (the slaves on Apokolips) that they’re free… they turn away from Superman. They cluster around Darkseid to protect and heal him.

Those universal truths of a lot of Superman stories, that goodness and liberty and the American Way* always win? They don't in STAS. A representative of the US government (as far as he knows) has tried to kill him. He lost his temper and spoke in a harsh tone of voice once, because Kara was dying and he was hurt and desperate, and now his friend Dr. Hamilton, the man he trusted to repair the Kryptonian ship, study his body and his powers, one of the people who knew him best in STAS, is afraid of him - and, as we find out later, takes immediate, drastic, and violating action against Kara and against him. The series ends with the small town man standing on the roof of the Planet, hearing people hate and fear him, wondering how people will ever trust him again.

*I hate this phrase personally when used as a Superman Motto, but it's used here as a contrast to the fascistic imagery of Apokolips Now and Legacy (as well as Brave New World, which, hoo boy, we aren’t even getting into that one).

Six months (iirc) after the STAS finale, in Secret Origins, the US government has agreed to let a visibly older and wearier Superman help disarm the nuclear stockpile - only for this to backfire on him because it was a Plot by the White Martians. Clark’s let down the country again. He’s helped aliens invade again, and to make matters worse, he sped away in the middle of an attack to break into an official government facility to free J'onn. Clark founds the Justice League beginning from a place of personal failure, as a check on himself. Clark has power and wants to help people with it, but he’s been turned against people he cares about, and has twice now failed to protect the world. It’s worth noting that Legacy put him into the world stage; before, in STAS, I can’t think of any true worldwide threats besides maybe Jax-Ur and Mala.

Most of the rest of season 1 of JL isn’t particularly Clark-focused, although he does appear in a lot of episodes, but the themes of some of these episodes are potentially relevant to understanding his character later, so: brief bullet point summaries.

During In Blackest Night, Clark sees his respected colleague turn himself into an authority that turns out to be incompetent investigators looking for a scapegoat. Interesting. Surrendering to governmental authority/oversight didn’t turn out too well here. 

During The Enemy Below, on Clark’s advice, Aquaman tries to solve his problems peacefully with diplomacy and is immediately shot in a life threatening assassination attempt.  Peaceful diplomacy doesn't work so well for him.

During Injustice for All, Lex is dying of cancer. Clark tries to reach out and is rebuffed, with Lex going on to try to found a team to kill him and the rest of the League.

During Paradise Lost, Clark sees his respected colleague turn herself into the authorities and immediately get banished from her home for the crime of trying to save it with all the resources she had at her disposal. Interesting. Surrendering to governmental authority/oversight didn’t turn out too well here, again. 

During War World, Clark’s again captured for exploitation. This is essentially a retread of The Main Man from STAS, doubling down on how some people see him as a thing to be exploited.

During Fury, Clark’s completely ineffective at preventing an attempted genocide of half the world’s population.

Season 2 opens with Twilight, one of the most important episodes for understanding Clark’s mindset during the Cadmus arc. Imagine, if you will, the above happening to you. Darkseid shows up at your workplace. And the man you’ve worked with the longest, your friend, your ally, tells you to cry him a river, build him a bridge, and get over it. Tells you to get over being brainwashed, manipulated, and humiliated. Tells you to get over having your broken and bleeding body paraded around the streets of Metropolis, tells you to get over having your friend killed in front of you for trying to defend you, tells you to get over almost getting your cousin killed. Sure, Brainiac is a planetary-scale threat; Darkseid and Apokolips are in real trouble. Clark was wrong to write off Apokolips and its people, and the League should absolutely have intervened in the situation. But the way Bruce went about it was… one of the harshest things DCAU Bruce has ever done, and one of the only times the narrative seems to actually agree that he was an asshole about it. And even then, you really need the context of STAS to understand why Clark is so furious and hurt in this scene.

Clark relents and goes along with Bruce’s plan to trust Darkseid, only to end up betrayed again, the whole ruse just another ploy for Brainiac to gain control of Clark, torture him, and use Clark’s body to upgrade himself. Clark had spared Darkseid back on Apokolips at the end of Legacy, on Kara’s advice. But now Darkseid’s come after him, again. Used him again to put not only Earth but who knows how many other worlds at risk, now that Brainiac’s even more powerful. It’s the downfall of Krypton, over and over again. And when Clark goes to end it, I think he doesn’t care that the base is about to go, as long as Darkseid goes down with it. That isn’t a price Bruce is willing to pay, so he teleports Clark out. And he’s wrong, again. “No one could have survived that.” Well… no, Bruce. Darkseid does, and Clark knows it.

During Tabula Rasa, Lex manipulates Amazo the exact way he tried to use Bizarro. Clark once again fails to guard against a terrible, potentially world-ending threat, and in fact makes the situation worse by his very presence.

Then we come to Only a Dream, another key episode in understanding this version of Superman. Clark’s deepest fear is that his powers will keep on growing beyond his ability to control them, eventually destroying everything around him. In his nightmare He kills Lois and Jimmy, destroys the Daily Planet, and grows into a brutish, hulking, clumsy figure, first crying out for someone to help him, and then losing hope. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He goes back to the Kent farm and curls up in the spaceship in the fetal position, convinced that he’s only going to hurt anyone who tries to help. Is it any wonder, since that’s literally what’s happened to him in Legacy? Is it any wonder that he’d want to give up, to retreat? If we’re to take the World of Cardboard speech literally, he’s already having to focus on this restraint every day, in every interaction. This is my personal explanation/hc as to why in every single fight he lets himself get knocked around a bit first; he’s calibrating how hard he can hit back without doing irrevocable damage. Anyway. Deeply fucked up 2 minutes of horror. Wish they’d explored this a little bit more in later seasons.

Then, directly after this, it’s A Better World. After we’ve just seen that his worst nightmare is hurting people by being unable to control his powers, we come face to face with a world where he’s hurt people by the precise and controlled application of his powers. Justice Lord Clark uses the same Superman Robots we saw Kara use in Legacy. He’s become quite adept at his lobotomization techniques. Later on in JLU, we see ‘our’ universe’s Clark attempt to lobotomize Doomsday the exact same way Justice Lord Superman did. Again, Clark fails to protect the world from himself, and to make matters worse, the guy to save the day is Lex Luthor. I’d be a little miffed if the maniac who wants to kill me so so bad turned out to be instrumental in saving the world and now I owe him some unspecified favor in the future. Clark’s met with failure and distrust trying to fix things his way, now he tries to do things in an uncharacteristically sneaky way and… gets met with more dislike and distrust.

Eclipsed continues this trend of hurting his friends; he’s temporarily mind controlled and hurts Wally.

In The Terror Beyond, he fucks up and puts the world in danger again, all because from his point of view, he tried to prevent Solomon Grundy being manipulated and used (like he himself has been used over and over again).

In Secret Society, his frustration comes to a peak, amplified by Grodd’s telepathic manipulation. He’s been trying to do his best, but he snaps that he’s had better luck fighting armies alone (dubious plural there, but he did pretty much evaporate an army in Legacy, so at least once, ok) and that he’s had to hold back his abilities in order to be on the League. Again if we take the World of Cardboard speech at face value, this is true, and we see it in the episode when he accidentally hurts Shayera with heat vision despite shouting a warning beforehand. It’s also telling how other members of the League have the ability to constantly voice doubts about its usefulness and cohesiveness as an organization (hi Bruce) but when he expresses the same doubts everyone gasps. When he expresses his doubt and frustration, when he steps away, the organization that’s collectively saved the world several times falls apart; they’re reliant on him, and he has to be aware of the entire existence of the League as an extra burden of responsibility.

Since both this episode and the Cadmus arc as a whole are meant to show his flaws as a leader, it’s worth examining the foundations of that leadership as established in the DCAU. Clark’s the leader of the League, but narratively, Bruce is its brains and its ethics and Wally is its heart. As a result, Clark is filling the role of leader of the League without the narrative scaffolding that gives him the respect comics incarnations of the character are generally accorded. (I’m admittedly only drawing here from the JLA runs I’ve personally read, Morrison/Porter 90’s JLA and the early Fox/Sekowsky 60’s JLA). Superman might not technically be the First Superhero according to these continuities, but he is respected as though he is (and as we comic book nerds know him to be). The League in these comics treat him as something of an ethical standard bearer, a primus inter pares, as well as being the muscle. In the DCAU, Batman, having founded the DCAU with BTAS, is the First Superhero, and the entire plotline of the Justice Lords centers Wally as the emotional anchor of the team. Clark doesn’t have that pre-established stature. What really qualifies him to be the leader, besides the fact that Bruce doesn’t want to do it? His position seems precarious, relying more on Superman’s pre-established reputation than his actual onscreen characterization. Centering Bruce and Wally are legitimate creative choices I don’t even necessarily disagree with, but it means Clark-as-leader functions quite differently than more traditional JL structures.

Hereafter is something of a healing point for him. It’s a little fucked up that Superman almost bashes Vandal Savage’s head in with a rock, but you take what you can get at this point. He comes out of it fine, but everyone else is forced to reckon with what he means to them. Hereafter coming directly after Secret Society is a very good reunification for the League. Shame about what’s gonna happen in three episodes.

In Wild Cards, he’s useful to address the immediate threat but ineffective to stop the real, countrywide (worldwide?) threat. (I should note that of course I don’t expect every episode’s threat to be solved by Clark; I’m just pointing out a trend that I think his character would perceive as failures on his part. If the writers ever let him reflect.)

JL ends as it began, with another massive alien invasion that Clark helped facilitate in Starcrossed, by working with the Thanagarians during the first part of their plan. As a fellow exile, a fellow alien, he’s hurt and angry with Shayera’s betrayal… even though, in the end, in probably one of his best moments, he votes to allow her to stay in the League.

(Sidenote: almost every interaction Clark has had with other aliens have been despotic societies or individuals: Jax-Ur and Mala, Apokolips, Maxima’s planet, War World, and now Thanagar. The Guardians built robotic police/foot soldiers to enforce their will. Even New Genesis is ruled by a benevolent dictator. Martian society is nearly extinct, overrun by… more alien despots, surviving only with J'onn. Argoan society is nearly extinct, surviving only with Kara. At least Lobo isn’t a fascist? Small consolation.)

JLU begins after a short time skip. I’m not as familiar with JLU episodes since it’s been a while since I’ve watched them, so I’m not going to attempt an episode-by-episode breakdown. Also this post is already way too long. But the point of this post is to look at Clark’s overall arc until this point, and see how it informs his decisions in JLU. For a more JLU-specific informed point of view check this post by januariat!

What we have is a man who naturally wants to take responsibility on his own shoulders, a doer and a fixer who wants to get into the ring and solve problems, who wants to use his abilities to help, being confronted over and over again with a string of personal failures, manipulation, and betrayal. When he tries to set a boundary about not being willing to help the man who took over his body and forced him against his home in Twilight, he’s told to get over it by his most trusted ally. When his deepest fears are revealed in Only a Dream, we see them having been already realized in Legacy. And when he’s presented with his dream of a peaceful life farming, a family that loves him, and no responsibility to save the world, it’s ripped away from him in For The Man Who Has Everything.

Ultimately, I don’t have a good answer for exactly how he doubles down in JLU S2, because I need to rewatch all of it with this understanding of the character. But I think you can see the shape of a traditional Superman character in there, trying and trying again and again to do the right thing, putting himself on the line - only instead of learning from his experiences and letting them inform his actions, he’s carrying the weight of years of suppressed trauma while trying to hold up the entire Justice League. This long, long run of failure, manipulation, betrayal, and distrust adds up. And there’s only so much weight one person can hold on their shoulders, even if they are a Superman.

(And then as the nice little capstone to his story, in Batman Beyond's The Call, he’s kept under alien mind control for years! With the way Starro clings to his chest, he probably hasn’t been touched in years! Trapped in his own mind, forced to watch as yet another alien species uses him as a tool to hurt his own teammates and invade the Earth! And that’s the last we see of DCAU Clark! What a fun little ending to his character arc that doesn’t make me go insane whenever I think about it. Very very very normal about this.)

[raelle-writing]

DFF is such great show and I enjoy the portrayal of the characters and the plot. Although I am not much into JinPhee ship (even though their scene was hot) - meaning I won't actively search fics of them;-D. But I absolutely don't understand the hate this ship gets. Or Jin character gets? Like, did I miss something? Why there is so much hate towards this pairing? I don't get it. Or do they dislike Jin character so much?

So I think there are 3 main reasons that people hate PheeJin and specifically Jin as much as they do, and I'll see if I can explain it coherently below lmao

First is cultural differences.

I've noticed that by and large a lot of the hatred directed at Jin comes from international fans being extremely harsh, and I think it's partially because they don't understand some of the nuance of Thai culture. Which to be fair, why would they?

One aspect is that they get angry that Jin lied to the police without taking into account that the police are corrupt - both in the narrative and also in Thailand in general.

Another is they get mad at Jin for recording Non - which to be fair, really does suck lmao. But they make it about Jin recording Non instead of reporting the assault happening, without taking into consideration that the age of consent in Thailand is 15, which means that what happened with Non and Keng isn't technically statuatory rape. Still bad and awful and Non was coerced and assaulted, don't get me wrong - but that makes it slightly less clear cut IMO when it comes to the question of Jin seeing Non "cheating."

You can even see within the show that the reactions to that video are by and large slut-shaming and not "omg that kid was assaulted."

So to recap: Taking the video = bad. But I think people get a bit too self-righteous about the reasons why Jin took it.

Second is purity/cancel culture.

I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that in the internet age, if you make one mistake you're a terrible, irredeemable person and should be canceled forever. I think that's playing a part in this. All of the characters make mistakes, and because of that they're all irredeemable pieces of shit who deserve to die. Except for Non who is just a victim and has never done anything wrong (sarcasm).

In seriousness, I think that's part of it. And the fact that Non is SO sympathetic it kind of overrides people's sympathies for the other characters. I'm not 100% sure why people hate Jin the most out of everyone else considering he's the one who has tried to help Non the most out of the friend group... I guess they just have higher standards for people who try to help? Idk. Either way it seems to me that they expect Jin to be a perfectly-well-adjusted little hero who always does what's right and never makes mistakes. Instead of what he really is: a kid.

And last is fan favorites/shipping.

A big part of the reason that PheeJin shippers are getting so much hate is because TaCode shippers and PheeNon shippers have decided their ship is The Ship of the series, and think that Phee is just using Jin for revenge and anyone who genuinely ships PJ is fucked up, etc.

It's just ship war bullshit waged by largely Barcode stans, but it's certainly tiresome.

To be clear, I have nothing against PheeNon. I am of the opinion that Phee and Non were a cute high school romance that wouldn't have lasted because they had conflicting styles of showing affection and love (I'll write a post about it someday lol) but that doesn't mean I hate the ship. I thought they were very cute and it was fun to see TaCode on screen since I wrote MacauChay in my KPTS days ahahaha I just like the spice and fire of PheeJin better, and Jin is my favorite character.

I just wish that PheeNon shippers would live and let live instead of acting like they're waging some moral war. They were even crying in BOC's comment section on IG today after they posted the PheeJin poster for episode 9 saying "nooooo Phee is there for revenge he can't really have feelings for Jin!" It's exhausting... 🫠

General disclaimer: if you don't like Jin or like PheeNon better I'm not saying any of the above things applies to you. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, I'm just dissecting some of the over-the-top hate I've seen/experienced in fandom spaces lately.

[sserpente]

Loki Season 2 – Episode 1 RECAP

HERE WE GO AGAIN! FINALLY! LET’S DO THIS, SHALL WE?

As always, HEAVY SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1 BELOW THE CUT!

Also from now on, as usual, in addition to the keep reading tags, I will tag posts that contain spoilers with the hashtag "#loki season 2 spoilers" and "#loki spoilers" so you can filter them from your dashboard until you're ready!

Did I stay up until 3 a.m. to watch the first episode again? Yes. Yes, I did.

We are starting off so damn STRONG. Damn it, I just wanted to hug Loki so bad. He’s been through so much shit and he was so heartbroken and desperate! Imagine you get to cup his face and just tell him to take a deep breath with you! What made it even more painful was the moment he fully realised that Mobius didn’t recognise him—his one friend, the one person who likes him for who he is… and he doesn’t remember him… and then the relief on his face when was in the right place again!

Loki was so panicked about the impending war. For good reason, obviously but it truly shows that Thor: Ragnarok lied. Loki wouldn’t be a bad king, now hear me out—in The Avengers, Thanos had the upper hand. You all remember that one scene where he sort of backtracks and says “It’s too late… it’s too late to stop it…” but can’t join forces with Thor because The Other was watching him? Loki understands the sacrifice for sure and in the first Thor film, when he tried to wipe out Jötunheim, what I believe is that he wanted to prevent the war that Thor himself had started by attacking those Jötuns. Loki’s not about violence and causing pain and destruction, he just got caught in the middle of it several times, and circumstances forced him into choices that were not heroic. We knew that already, of course… but it’s nice to see that reflected in the series. Besides, we don’t need him to be a hero. We just need him to be Loki. 🥰

The jokes were spot-on, not too silly, not out of place, in my opinion, but sprinkled in just right so far. Skin? Also, can we please talk about the warning on the floor that said Spaghettification? Come on! 😂😂😂

Now in that sense, O.B. is indeed brilliant. A lovely and light addition to the serious bureaucracy of the TVA for sure!

I really wasn’t worried about Loki making it back safely, somehow. Let’s face it, they wouldn’t have killed him in the first episode of Season 2. With that being said… I hope for their sake he stays safe at the end too, otherwise, I will hurt a lot of people! 🙂

X5… X5, what are we gonna do with him? I hate him. Of course, I do. He’s got something about him that just makes you want to slap him in the face. 😒

Now there are two questions we immediately ask ourselves, right? Where, or rather, when did Sylvie come from? And who pruned Loki? Was it another Sylvie, or another Loki? Another Mobius? B15? An antagonistic character who realised their wrongs? A new character? A Kang Variant? They’ve definitely left us some loose ends! 🤔

And lastly… it’s absolutely heartbreaking to see how much Loki cares for Sylvie despite what happened at the end of Season 1. She basically betrayed him! For reasons Loki understands, of course, but still… it broke his heart… and hence it broke mine. He was so ready to stop the others from going after her even though he was facing the very gruesome time slipping problem. 😭

If you’ve seen the video I posted earlier, you’ll know that I have already seen Episode 2 as well today. I won’t lose a word about that one until next week though! 😉 All I’m gonna say is that we’re in for a treat. 😏

PS: I want that TVA handbook as a notebook for my writing.

[ladyluscinia]

Organizing my thoughts on OFMD 2x01 - 2x03

Strong start to a season. I really enjoy the black comedy aspect of the show, and the "all these people are kinda terrible" aspect, so win for me! The opening scene gave me a lot of thoughts. Actually, lots of stuff gave me thoughts that I'm gonna dump here (as I rewatch the episodes since I spent the first go around whooping and cheering more than paying attention to details lol) so I can start picking through them more coherently.

---

Ok, first. OHMYGOD EDWARD AND IZZ- *I am yanked off the stage* Ahem. BlackHands thoughts will go into a different post, so as not to overwhelm the many other things going on worth discussing. (Link to post)

So. Real first point:

Kraken Era

Big thing I was absolutely wrong about was how dark Edward's Kraken arc would go. I was counting on a very handwavy resolution that would still let him do some fucked up shit, but I expected it to be mostly externally directed violence that toed up to a potential line but didn't quite cross it. Reminiscent of Flint's vengeance rampage after Miranda is killed. Self-destructive harm but only tangential harm of others in your social sphere.

That is... we did not get that. But what we did get I am very here for.

I'll be honest - I wasn't sure they were bold enough in a romcom to blast right over the line into horrifying and then be so audacious it looped back to funny, but they did. And I think the tone is working for them so far. Big saving grace is they went way further with Edward's cruelty but they counterbalanced it by going way further with the suicidal themes, which made the whole situation more extreme and sympathetic. He should still probably apologize tho.

The Breakup Boat

Frenchie my beloved! Also Fang & Jim & Archie & Izzy! Literally the breakup boat is a resounding success all around and I adore every second of their fucked up trauma bonding. Win after win after win.

Frenchie is repression king and it's hilarious. I love how he gets named first mate for presumably being the only one who sounds plausibly honest when getting interrogated, tries to turn the job down, and then doesn't follow a single order while vibing. Also the bonding with Izzy?!? He's steps in during the intervention. He hides him after Edward shoots him, and then later he's checking in on him and leaning against his leg in the cell. Please Frenchie get all up in that Edward and Izzy mess!

And I'm trying not to turn this into a breakup boat recap but also Fang sobbing through basically every scene. The wooden boy story. Jim's terrible voices. Izzy hiding in the walls. "He's our dick" to "He was your friend" holy fuckkkkkk. And the whole mutiny scene was amazing. Jim saying fuck this toxic bullshit and Izzy saving them all!!! (Sidenote: love how all the nameless extras got washed overboard in the storm. More bodycount!)

The tearing into a seagull like zombies scene - perfect. Archie recognizing Stede (did they tell her about Stede in hushed whispers or was it literally just Izzy's singular statement?). All backing each other up on the "retirement" story. Izzy taking the blame to motivate Stede in trying to defend the crew again.

Trauma bonding WIN!

Also sympathetic Izzy has been real forever despite misreads of S1 and the mistaken predictions they spawned, but once again... Izzy!!!

BlackBonnet "On A Break"

They are idealizing each other so fucking hard. Also Stede what on earth are you talking about in the first episode??? "He's just blowing off some steam." "I'm afraid that your life is better without me?" MY GUY are you reading that list of what Edward has been up to??? Denial so strong.

So we have Stede still full of self-loathing and simultaneously convinced Ed couldn't want him but also avoiding the realization that he hurt him really bad because Ed wanted him. And we have Edward actively suicidal over feeling unlovable and determined to murder-suicide his situationship and the kids, except he can't kill himself so he's trying to make everyone else do it.

(And, you know, Edward is very pointedly refusing to see how the people around him would care for and support him if he would let them - even when they straight up offer it to his face - because he is more concerned with the misery of his own twisted narrative about being fundamentally unlovable than whether or not that is a true statement. Stede doesn't want him and everyone else is just a prop for his depression's final act. Very "I don't have any friends" of him - shoutout to that flashback in his purgatory sequence too.)

Edward's self-loathing throwing him into the water, but Edward starting to save himself well before merman!Stede shows up. Because he does, deep down, want to live with or without Stede. Very strong. Like that. Also the idealization on Edward's end of envisioning Stede as a legit magical being of golden scales??? Fuck, you two need to get some perspective.

Stede's Crew

Trauma Lucius I was not counting on, but Lucius going from BlackBonnet supporter to FUCK YOU STEDE was fun. Also Stede offering to be supportive and then immediately trying to nope right out.

Sea Witch Buttons!!!!!! We're going to get naked Buttons charging into a scene screaming about how he's a seagull or something, aren't we?

Confirmation that Oluwande can't read in the funniest way. Well I guess on reflection the scrolls are probably in Chinese so reading wouldn't help, so maybe this point is null.

I did like the note of Stede knowing "The Soul Reaper's" real name. Piracy hyperfixation bonus.

JimOlu vs JimArchie... If we get another poly ship then I'm calling SteddyHands real. I'm just saying.

Oluwande taking initiative to step up and flex his boytoy powers to advocate diplomatically for the crew - very Captain material of him. Also conveniently doubled as a distraction so he was essential to the plan. Go Olu!

Antagonists New and Old!

Spanish Jackie was a treat. I enjoy that she still hates Stede. The Swede literally became a new man by marrying her. AND WE SAW THE HUSBANDS!

Prince Ricky is so far just kind of a shady classist scumbag - presumably that's going somewhere.

Zheng Yi Sao on the other hand... interested what's happening with this whole armada plan she's apparently enacting. The whole Olu boytoy arc was fun. I'm not as into the whole "girlboss" approach to every single female character in this show so far, so, uh, concerned about that. Hoping for more exploration of how she's doing Stede's version of piracy but what exactly is off about it? Because so far there's no real reason to resist her, other than maybe the whole "I didn't conquer China by listening to pirates ramble about their feelings" bit.

Hornigold. Yeah, I know he was a subconscious manifestation of Edward's self-loathing but I still have hope. "Last time I saw you, you said you were gonna flay my skin and feed it back to me." Does that not sound like a great foreshadowing for S3???

[omgjayjayposts-blog]

The ending was disappointing.

All I’m saying is it could have been better. The recap episode they included was useless and unnecessary. If they didn’t include the recap episode it wouldn’t have felt rushed and incomplete. I just thought it was weird how they added a recap when it was only 12 episodes.

I understand the theme they intended to label the show, which was family oriented. The two main protagonists having their lives changed by taking care of a 4 year old girl. With both protagonists having different circumstances and how Miri affected them as individuals. But if it’s family oriented shouldn’t that also include their relationship as a couple/friends?

Kazuki and Rei’s relationship confused me during some scenes. Especially when they wanted to separate from each other after Miri was taken away from them. First of all they were friends before Miri, Kazuki literally took care of Rei when he was in his darkest moment. Not only Rei but also Kazuki, he was also grieving from his late wife and then found Rei and tried helping him by reverting Rei’s life and his own. Rei also acknowledged that in episode 8 when they were in the car and were revealing how they met. Rei also admitted he wanted Kazuki to leave him alone yet also liked his company, “I wanted to tell you to back off” and “but… it wasn’t so bad”. How do you go from that to all of a sudden wanting to leave each other? Like if that were me, I would still want to be with the person who was with me in my darkest moments. Like sometimes they had cute moments but then it’s like they had some sort of switch and all of a sudden had zero interest in their relationship.

Kazuki and Rei’s relationship towards the end was great in the sense that they stayed together for 10 years and raised Miri. But it also frustrated me when Miri mentioned Kazuki went out with some girl the previous night. I felt like it was unnecessary and made people bear in mind that Kazuki is STRAIGHT and hasn’t changed his old habits. like they literally wanted the viewers to realize that even though he’s co-parenting with Rei, he still prefers being with women. Even though they had subtle queer references but that’s just me.

Personally I felt like it ruined his development, he had been abstinent from hooking up with women because he had no desire to be with other women. I genuinely felt like it could have possibly been to respect his relationship with Rei, even though they were in a relationship as friends he still felt loyal to him. Maybe it also had to do with the fact that he felt complete with Miri and Rei so he wanted to dodge that aspect of himself and move forward. But then it’s mentioned again in the last episode as if to clarify Kazuki feels incomplete with his partner and wants more. And because it was the final episode it made it clear Kazuki and rei are platonic.

There are some who say it’s because the producers couldn’t make them an official couple for unacceptable reasons. But are together based off of the way the producer keeps liking certain things on twitter that makes them canon. So if they were actually cannon why include that one scene where Miri mentions Kazuki being with another woman ? They could have just removed that scene and left the viewers wondering if they were or weren’t canon.

And yes, I felt like they were sort of hinting at the fact it was a possibility Kazuki and Rei were going to be together romantically towards the end. Certain scenes made it appear that way, like for instance when they were in the car. Not just that scene but also when they retrieved Miri and Rei was telling Kazuki he still wanted to be her father WITH KAZUKI.

And when Miri was trying to take a picture with them. Rei and Kazuki were hesitant and it only implied they became more distant and aren’t comfortable with each other even though they have been together for 10 years. Like why? Shouldn’t they have a better and more comfortable relationship considering they have LITERALLY BEEN TOGETHER FOR 10 years ????? Idk it just rubbed me the wrong way.

I would have loved to see Miri growing up. Rei and Kazuki explaining what happened to her mom and how they ended up together as a family. Rei and Kazuki’s relationship progressing as partners. The ending was okay, though I wish it would have ended differently.

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

ohh tell me about the Titans AU where Grayson has to fight Rachel's demonic presence???? INTRIGUE

OOOOOOKAY I hope you knew you were about to unleash a dragon when you typed this out because I have A LOT TO SAY AND GIFS TO BACK IT UP

Some of it you probably already know because I can't seem to shut up about this particular episode and I know I've made a post about this a while back but TO RECAP: (Beware of spoilers)

Episode 4x10. Two episodes earlier it has been revealed that Rachel and the season's big bad Sebastian (who also happens to be her half brother) share a physical connection - when one gets hurt, the other gets hurt the same way. To quote Dick: "he cut you with a knife and he bled the same way". Dick and Kory make a decision to bench Rachel to protect her, which she isn't too happy about. So Dick makes a call to a friend from London who knows a little something about magic stuff (the person is never named but DC fans might connect the description to John Constantine) and brings Rachel a possible solution to the connection thing - black magic ritual that is supposed to give the "inner evil" a physical form so it can be killed. They meet with a witch who guides them through the ritual, explains that once the evil takes form, Rachel will be left defenseless because the monster will be draining her energy until Dick kills it. If he fails, she dies. The witch also gives Dick a blade - or rather just a hilt of it and explains that the blade will be formed by magic from his love for Rachel.

The evil takes the form of a monster, which is basically a zombie version of Sebastian and it looks like this:

And Dick spends the rest of the episode chasing it around trying to kill it because he's struggling with getting the blade to work (my man was overthinking it too much instead of letting his feelings guide him but he's a rookie when it comes to magic so I forgive him) and only managed to do it when the monster took Rachel as his direct target

Dick kills the monster, Rachel gets back her life force, the connection is broken. Ritual complete.

What I want to do is make it more angsty. Because sure, running around fighting a zombie was a fun idea for the episode but it wasn't the best. I can agree it works with the logistics of Rachel and Sebastian's connection - the part of Sebastian in her that's creating it will take his physical form - but I love the idea of it becoming more personal to both Dick and Rachel, therefore harder.

You've seen season 1 so you know that in the beginning Rachel had this demonic reflection who always taunted her and tried to make her do bad things, a darkness that took over sometimes.

As Rachel's powers evolved through the show, that part of her disappeared and I want to bring it back. I want the inner evil to take her form during the ritual. I want to put that magic blade in Dick's hand and have him realize that the monster he has to slay to save his little girl is his little girl herself, her own darkness she had to fight her entire life until he taught her how to accept it.

There will obviously be no fight. Because Dick won't be able to fight her. Not when she's standing in front of him with this baby face, striped shirt and blue highlights in her dark hair, the little kid he met in Detroit. He'll be standing there, frozen, while Demon!Rachel does what she does best - taunting, teasing, spitting venom and digging into his head, throwing all his greatest hits right into his face, all the while real Rachel is laying there on the floor, her life force fading away.

And I am ripping my hair out just thinking about it

[a-hazbin-reader]

Hiii! I'm the one who asked if I can send my oc to you! I tried to find the og the I wrote but it seems to be deleted somehow form my drafts 😭 so I made sm up quick to recap everything :')) (+and I'm sorry of my Grammar was bad :'))

So for the first oc is helen she was born 1895 and died at 1929 she is supposed to represents an owl but she doesn't look like one 😭 (I don't know how to draw:'))

The other one is mai born in 1896 and died at 1930 she represents as a cat!

Ok so when Helen was alive her Story is basically her parents wanted a boy but got her instead, in there head they wanted only boys so they can work with them and before even Helen born she was already being hated on almost all her life her parents where to shame her for doing anything yeah sure now they have two sons the is 1 year younger then her but they don't stop Hating her, her brothers just ignore her existing until one when she was 12 her grandfather came visited and already knows about everything but he doesn't mind the he had a Grand-daughter he just was happy to have a grandchildren after seeing what is happening to her he offered for her to come with him to help him in his bar, Helen Parents didn't give a darn about her so they send her with grandfather to another city and form there she stared to help him out whenever she cans along the way she meets mia, unlike Helen mia parents doesn't care about the gender as long as their kids work for them and Mia was overwhelmed with everything her parents force her to learn about how to uphold the company when the time comes, a company the sells alcohol and wine no less and it seem Helen grandfather is close to mia parents as he is a well customer to there company and that is how they meet and they hang out as much as they can and even after years Helen grandfather died and mia parents are gone they still do there guardians work continuing while being the closet friends being best friends for an almost 21 years untill one day they got in a big argument in Helen bar, mia just storms out and Helen just getting ready to leave the bar, after closing it she wants to take smoke to At least clam down besides her bar outside, she heard some kid screaming form an allay which she enter to see what is happening seeing a small girl with two man one was trying to hold the girl while the other holding a pocketknife and a gun at the floor and well...at the end the little girl got a way form there and the two man are died and helen was slowly dying because of a stab wound, after few days along with Helen funeral's mia worked extra hard not just for her own company but also for Helen bar the she got it with Force form Helen parents but she couldn't handle it anymore along with the guilt that stared when she found her only friend (that is close to a sister) she sells her company and Helen bar and putting them with good owners before taking her own life and sleeping for an eternity besides Helen grave

-this little pfp for these two:')-

Name: helen

Year:1895 Death: 1929

Animal:owl

Death cause: bleed out by a stab wound 

Likes: her personal space, jazz/classical music, puppets show, Theater, Bitter tastes,her ''siblings'', cooking, quite places,no work to do in her tavern

-

Dislike: anything loud that is close to her ear, drunk sinners, alcohol, sexual remarks, anyone the try to make her "siblings" do against them,VAL, the Exorcists, anything related to her parents

-

Look: light Tan and noticeable-dark brown hair into a high ponytail and Amber blackeyes(honestly she almost looks human of it weren't for her eyes) her bang is still Infront Mia put pans to hold it form her eyes

-

Outfit:a tight dark cherry red button shirt along with a black short front Vests Basic five buttons and two long tails form behind and a white Cross Tie and a black cap toe oxford and short black gloves

-_-_-

Name: mia

Year:1896 Death: 1930

Animal:cat

Death cause: suicide/Overdosing with sleeping pills 

Likes: helen personal space, jazz/classical music, Helen old puppet show,spicy tastes,her ''siblings'', Helen cooking, parts, gambling,wine,the new technology, MONEY 

-

Dislike: cheaters,bugs, Vees, VAL, the Exorcists, a verrry quite places,work, lemons, bitter taste,val

-

Look: she his pale skin (slightly Pink-sy) she his ginger hair that is a low ponytail and red blackeyes (she also has a human form but she his cat ears and tail)

Outfit: black button up shirt along with a red tie (she still doesn't know how to do her tie she gose to Helen to help her) and black jacket and black jeans and a black Loafers

Not me the entire time reading this:

I wish I could go back and protect them!! 😭 In my humble opinion THEY SHOULD BE ANGELS

👏 IN HEAVEN 👏 TOGETHER 👏

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Got some more :D

1: what apps do they like to use? I can see them using twitter & maybe TikTok; probably do silly videos on there.

2: did Nightwing & starfire, plus mar’i tried to hide their superhero identity from Jake? (Probably did the same before mar’i got her powers too.)

3: how would a starburst duo movie start?

4: besides spider-man, do they like other spider-man stuff like the venom movie?

5: do they play battle royale games? I can see them both playing Fortnite (& doing the dances both in & out of costumes) but Chris likes COD Warzone & Jake like apex legends.

6: silly question, since they are pre-teens almost & have girlfriends, what do they prefer: butts or boobs? or personality XD

Sorry for the wait @gothicghost2000 But Here we are XD

1. They have three primary social apps: YouTube (the first one respectively), Twitter and Tumblr. All three apps have specific tools The Duo can use for their particular hobbies and interests, Tumblr for example being the blog space where they can give their predicts and hypotheses about their favorite ongoing shows and where it can go from there.

YouTube is their video library place, for all sorts including live streams, recaps of favorite shows/games, and yes thank to the Shorts function, TikTok style videos. Chris and Jake thankfully have both Jake’s tech expertise and even Oracle on some occasions to help them make sure they don’t get busted for copyright by the algorithms.

2. Not entirely actually. Even as a toddler, Jake was a relatively smart cookie and everyone knew it so before he was able to piece it altogether by the time he was 3 to 4 in his own way, Dick and Kory came clean to him about everything and even Mar’i pitched in about her training to one day be a great superhero like Momma and Daddy are since she has powers while Jake’s are still not kicking in.

I can just imagine little Jakey looking at his family, taking it all in and then finally breaking the silence saying “Does that mean I blast lasers from my eyes too later?” Akin to when Marky found out his powers at the end did the original Invincible comic

3. Basically I’d have first a colorful and detailed title sequence that through simple comic panels and even some motion comic elements, details the basics of how the Duo were born, Chris’ arrival on Earth and adoption by the Kents, the two first meeting as little kids who look up to their parents as their heroes, Jake’s power first kicking in when fending off a bully at school, the Duo training on their powers together and gaining renown slow but steadily, then once the title scene ends, we open with a bang as we are catching up with the Duo in the middle of a massive superhero battle in Metropolis against all sorts of baddies and villains, something akin to the opening shots of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

4. They have a good laugh and thrill at the first and second Venom movies respectively. They also are big time fans of the Spiderverse films; there actually is a strongly passionate debate between Chris and Jake over which Spidey films are better. Chris vouches for the Raimi trilogy while Jake sides firmly with Spiderverse. Other than all that though, both also watch every single Spidey animated series, good or bad, collect what their friends online consider the best runs in both Marvel Prime and the Ultimate Universe (the latter Jake is really into thanks to his Uncle Tim(my) loving Ultimate Spidey) and regularly playing co op on the Playstation games

5. Only once a month really and it’s mainly Fortnite. I can’t really see them playing COD or Apex not just because those two are more FPS centric which even if fictional in universe doesn’t sit that well with them for various reasons, but also for COD especially there egregious money practices from all that miscellaneous DLC, Lootboxes when they are a thing, battle passes, etc. it just doesn’t sit right even if technically Jake can be considered a millionaire’s kid at best

6. Personality. Full stop. Even if they’re aware of the more scandalous and fanservice side of true love, they have the content of a female’s character above physical appearance of any kind. Chris and Jake respect girls and women, plain and simple.

[hoztthespunkieball]

The Court of Thorns and Roses: Chapter 4 Recap (Spoilers)

This is when the story gets really good. It's the moment Feyre goes on an adventure and leaves her family behind.

My takes:

The beast (Fae) is looking for the one who killed the wolf, as it turns out they were friends and it was a Fae in a wolf form. You know, the one Feyre gutted and sold to the Big Muscle Mommy? Yeah, that's the one.

Nesta and Elain are rightfully terrified, because they are pussies whom never learnt how to fight and relied on Feyre's survival skills their entire lives. *Alexa play Bad Idea by Girl in Red.*

The father firstly is like 'Fuck dude, what do I do?'. But then when Feyre confesses to killing the wolf he finally decides to grow a pair and bravely says 'It's me you're looking for. I killed the wolf.' The beast looks at him, then at his crippled leg, then back at him and shots him a side- eye before turning back to Feyre.

The beast gives Feyre two options: 1. She'll be brutally gutted right here, right now. And 2. Feyre will go with the beast to the Fae land and face the High Fae Court for her crime. If she survives then she can live there with the beast.

Confused Feyre asks the beast why he showed her mercy, he didn't reply. Which is an important later on, because Fae can NOT lie. They are obligated to tell the truth, however they are allowed to choose how much information they reveal, because apparently not sharing information is not the same as lying. (It's an opinion for sure.)

Feyre is understandably confused as fuck and not sure what to do. If she goes her family will survive, but she has no idea what is going to happen to her, she can not trust the beast that just tried to kill her. OR she can die right here and now in front of her family.

During her existential crisis her father chimes in and offers the beast money in exchange for his daughter's life. The beast politely asks 'How much is your daughter's life worth according to you then?' And he couldn't answer his question. He would have to borrow money from other people and spend the rest of his lifetime paying off his debt. Alternatively he could name a low price he could pay, inevitably insulting Feyre. So he did the next best thing (according to him). He very dramatically grabbed Feyre and said 'Go my daughter, save yourself. And if you manage to escape never come back, live your life, be free.' Which basically translates to 'I don't want to see you being ripped to shreds right now, so go, so I can say that I gave you up in order to save you. Also, I told you not to come back because your chances of survival are lower than my self- esteem and not knowing how you're doing is better than having your death on my consciousness.'' Asshole.

Not having much choice Feyre agreed to go. Before she left though she told her fam that if they need help they should go to Isaac (the fuck buddy) since she taught him how to hunt one year prior. And told Nesta NOT to marry Tomas. His dad regularly practices MMA on his wife and their GROWN bitch ass sons never do anything about it. So, unless Nesta wants to become next Kenny (Southpark) she shouldn't marry this dude.

Then Feyre and the beast took off.

Once again, I love the pacing. The chapters are fairly short and easy to follow (I'm just kinda stupid sometimes). In chapter five some shit is about to go down.

[nikatyler]

𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟚

Time for a recap of the last twelve months! It's basically my tradition at this point. This year was a weird one. I'm not even gonna get into real life issues. It sure was something and I'm going into 2023 with no energy and zero expectations, lol. But with this mindset, I can only be pleasantly surprised, right? Or...the world will show me that when you think it can't get any worse, it will.

Anyway, simblr stuff! This is the year I started drifting away from tumblr. It makes me sad, but really, it just isn't the same as it was when I joined. The interaction is not what I wish to get so I'm simply moving to places where I feel like I'm actually heard and seen. Idk. I've tried a few times to "be the change I wanna see" but it's hard to change stuff around here. But oh well, to each their own. I'll probably stick around, even if I hang out more somewhere else and what you see are mostly queued posts. And, well, if twitter burns down, which I wouldn't be surprised if it did, you know I'll fully come back here. I love this hellsite. Genuinely. It makes me mad but I love it.

But I still love you guys. TS3 discord and a few other people who are not in that discord, I do seriously love you.

So, what was happening on this blog this year?

𝕛𝕒𝕟𝕦𝕒𝕣𝕪

I was still posting my previous BC! Well, I was finishing it. Vi became a parent and hadn't become a cheating jerk yet. 😅

𝕗𝕖𝕓𝕣𝕦𝕒𝕣𝕪

*this* is Vi's cheating jerk era. I still feel bad about how I resolved the whole thing, it was too rushed. I guess I was focusing more on the gameplay part and the NSB rules and less on whether their actions are logical? Prince shouldn't have come back to him, that's the hill I'll die on :D I know, I know, NSB rules and all, but he shouldn't have.

𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕙

We're slowly moving onto Bloom's very short generation, as well as gen 3 of my lepacy. It's Ginevra's time to shine, but first, we spent a lot of time with the winners of Axel and August's BC.

𝕒𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕝

Bambi and Candy are born, as well as the BC babies. Loads of baby cuteness in April on this blog. Oh and Ross flourishes in his babysitter era. Well, he's always been a babysitter to his descendants, but I feel like this is where he 100 % accepts it 😂

𝕞𝕒𝕪

Gins' era truly starts now (why do I keep saying era in this recap lmao). I had a lot of fun playing in Twinbrook again and Ginevra and Lori were so great. <3

𝕛𝕦𝕟𝕖

Alongside my lepacy (hi Elias & other gen 4 babies), I started posting the pink gen of NSB and also, my 100 Baby Challenge! I still can't believe I actually did that, and that I completed it in like two months only. Wow. What. I mean, yeah, I hyperfocused on it, but still. How did I do that.

𝕛𝕦𝕝𝕪

Again, gen 3 of lepacy and gen 7 of NSB, not much to say here. As for playing, I mostly just played the baby challenge. Oh! And Maeve's BC, of course.

Ohh, and July was the month when I decided to dive into the wonderful sims community on twitter. Probably one of my best decisions this year as I made many great friends there...🥰🥰

𝕒𝕦𝕘𝕦𝕤𝕥

Gen 3 ends and Sawyer is ready to take over Bridgeport but he has to wait for a bit. Pastel enters the blog and her bonding with Ross is seriously one of my most favourite things. I didn't think of this at first when I was playing, it only came to me later when I was posting the generation, but he definitely grew fond of her because she reminds him of Sunset so much ;-;

𝕤𝕖𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣

Good news: Bambi and Atsuko get married. Bad news: Ross and Caleb break up. *sigh* There's so much to unpack with their breakup storyline. Yes it makes sense that they'd hit a few bumps on the road, yes it makes sense that some of them would be bad, but...deep down, the breakup only happened because of my insecurities and lowkey being afraid of using a townie in my stories. At least I kinda got over that this fall (thank you twitter moots).

More good news: I'm finally posting the BC!!

𝕠𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕓𝕖𝕣

I finished posting the 100BC and...yeah this was Maeve's month. October was also very vampiric, but I'll probably mention that in a separate recap (if I do a separate recap haha), as this one only focuses on my regular daily content (legacies and such)

𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣

In November, we saw the funniest twist to ever happen in my BCs. Sorry River :D Aaand we also have the winner of Maeve's BC! I can't wait for you all to see them again in the legacy. Next year, hopefully.

𝕕𝕖𝕔𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣

Sawyer's time to shine has come. Well, not really, his siblings are constantly stealing it. Don't be surprised if he one day, you know, steals their organs and sells them.

Oh, and it's also TS3!Ross's time to shine. Because of course it is. I knew I needed to use his TS3 self somewhere, and all things considered, this felt like a perfect time for that.

December was also the month I started posting videos on youtube. I'm sorry if I'm annoying about that, but I just enjoy it so much. Never thought I'd say that. So, if you haven't yet, feel free to check it out (and subscribe maybe? 🥺). I'm hoping to do some fun stuff next year.

What's in store for 2023? I'll probably talk about that later, but to put it simply, I think this blog will be stuck with NSB and lepacy.

Thanks for sticking around with my grumpy self. Here's to a better 2023.

Happy new year, everyone!

[agiantnerdthefirst]

FNAF THEORY TIME: PRESSURE IS ABOUT MICHEAL AFTON

Okay, time to be insane (or sound really stupid one of the two). This might also kind of get repetitive and sound really confusing because I am bad at wording things but I just need people to hear me out on this, okay? Okay.  More below the cut because I talk a lot

SO, first thing first, a recap/telling for those who haven’t read Pressure. Pressure is a tale from book three of the Pizzaplex books. In the story a highschool student known as Luca goes to the Pizzaplex with three of his friends, Asher, Nolan, and Maddy. They pressure (hehe) him into wearing a Springtrap costume for a “roleplay scenario” where they’ll be thrown into a recreation of Fnaf 1 where “Springtrap” will chase three other people around.

Luca doesn’t like the idea of being Springtrap because he doesn’t like the idea of dressing up as, to him in his universe, a real serial killer. Also he doesn’t like the idea of being Springtrap because even if the missing kids he “killed” were simply “ghost stories” or “rumors” he has a deep empathy for the topic because as a kid he had a friend named Kenny (who, to him, was like a little brother), who died. The death is something he blames himself for even though he couldn’t prevent it even if he wanted to.

Luca still gives in to peer pressure (haha) though and puts on the suit reluctantly so as to not soil his reputation and appear as a loser. However, it turns out that the costume is an actual springlock suit. The suit, throughout the story, slowly kills Luca as he tries to reach out for his friends' help only to get abandoned by them. In the end, a group of children enter the area in hopes to play out a completely different scenario. However, a man dressed in the worst Springtrap costume known to man appears and is lurking around with disgusting intentions.

Luca, despite bleeding out everywhere, manages to save the kids and strangle the other Springtrap to death before dying himself. 

This story, if you couldn’t tell, is one of my favorites simply by having someone dressed as the “Real Springtrap” kill a pedophile in a fake Springtrap suit. Really drives the point that William Afton never did nasty stuff with kids and only killed them and that he would kill a pedo on sight.

However, there is more. That’s right, I am looking beneath the surface a bit more than people have already. By that, I mean that this story is one hundred percent (to me and my silly little brain) about Micheal Afton.

How?

Well first, let’s state some basic similarities. 

First, the past. As I have stated before Luca had a friend named Kenny who went missing for a bit and was then found dead and ever since then Luca has been tormented by this loss. I believe this is meant to parallel Elizabeth and Mike.

“Erm, wouldn’t it be Mike and CC-” No. That comes later. And later is right now. Luca is peer pressured by the rest of his friends to participate in being Springtrap for the roleplay. This represents Mike and his “friends” bullying CC. It also shows that he is following the path of his father by putting on the Springtrap suit.

When he puts it on, before the game begins, Luca can feel the metal of the Springlocks poking at his skin. Later in the story he brings up that the moment he felt the pricks his brain immediately realized that they were probably Springlocks. Despite this, Luca lied to himself and went ahead with what he was doing anyways.

This shows that Micheal knew that tormenting CC was wrong but went along with it anyways despite the consequences that may come to him.

As time goes on in the story, the suit begins activating, leaving Luca with fatal wounds that will be his end. He tries to beg his friends for help but they think it’s all an act and thus Luca is left by himself in the fake Fazbear’s in a desperate attempt to chase down a freedom he would never achieve. 

Micheal’s life, as time went on, fell apart after CC’s death. Leaving him down a path that will also be his demise. His goals are not his own. After all, William is the one that leads him to Circus Baby and Rental where he gets his organs removed. He tries to help the spirits his father had wronged which had led him to keep returning to Freddy’s over and over again.

Their friends have left. The only thing remaining for Luca and Micheal is Freddy’s and the will to protect the people inside it. 

Luca and Micheal’s actions lead to the death of a horrible person who would have continued to cause pain and suffering for others had they not given their lives for their cause. They both died satisfied with their final actions.

“Although there was a way out planned for you, I have a feeling that's not what you want. I have a feeling that you are right where you want to be.” - Henry, FNAF 6

“The last thought Luca had before thoughts were beyond him was that his inner compass was working again. His final act had not been someone else’s idea. It had been his own.” - Pressure (Tales of The Pizzaplex 3, page 147).

I may be wrong or I may be right. No matter what, this ends the theory/though process for all of us. End communication.

[chromaji]

alright, watched the 8 episodes of prime so far. I liked it! Like sure there’s a few things i didn’t like so much but overall? I’m pretty ready to see more!

Rambling under rm ⬇️

It just sucks that this was likely meant to be a weekly release, considering how certain episodes recap as if it’s been a little while, and how season 1 is actually 24 episodes split into 3 8-episode releases, but netflix being netflix… yeah. I heard something similar happened to one of the seasons of JJBA where everyone was disappointed because netflix’s scheduling ruined the hype & discussion behind each individual episode, & ruin what I’ve seen people call Jojo Fridays.

…Back to prime. After coming off of Frontiers, seeing Sonic act so bubbly and talkative is very… different. If anything I’d compare Prime Sonic’s attitude to Movie/Wachowski Sonic (keep in mind i dont know every damn iteration/canon of sonic so i’m just basing my comparison off the sonic’s i know)

If there’s one thing I really don’t get about Prime’s who setup though, its this whole “sonic takes his friends for granted” thing. Cause I don’t even really… see that? Idk, Sonic clearly cares for everyone and recognizes their talents, shown mostly in Neo Yolk (like him hyping Nine and his technology up, and the way he introduced everyone to each other in the egg council’s building), he’s just a little more… impulsive, I’d say? And probably doesn’t show his care for others in the conventional way (in his main world).

But even with that impulsiveness, he’s the type to get things done & be reliable, going by how Tails reassured the team that Sonic’ll be there even if he’s running a little late… in the end HE WAS GETTING CHASED DOWN & CONCUSSED BY SHADOW IT AINT HIS FAULTTT

ALSO SPEAKIN OF SHADOW. He wasn’t there much in the first 8 episodes, but I like what we did see. I do hope there’s more of him after the end of episode 8 though, because now him and Sonic are in the same place, and I doubt Sonic’s gonna leave Shadow in that void… right?

Anyway, shadow’s got that business-first attitude, doesn’t say much to get his point across, but still has his moments of concern and isn’t just there to insult and fight Sonic like in boom… Well, no, the fights are one thing. Whenever he’s tangible in prime, most of his interactions so far have been him swinging at sonic.

Shadow doesn’t wanna fight Sonic in this situation just because, but he probably feels it’s the best choice to get Sonic to listen considering Sonic won’t stop for 5 seconds…

…Well. I’m assuming. After all, Shadow & Sonic fighting seems to be a regular occurrence judging by what sonic says to those flickies (something like “i know, we’re fighting again”). That’s a little worrying now that I think about it. But Sonic does call him his rival, so i’d guess there’s not bad blood in these fights? They probably just disrupt the flickies a lot, given how powerful they both are.

Anyway after that, Shadow tries to (vaguely) instruct Sonic whenever he can through the void, and when that doesn’t work, well… the end of episode 8 happens.

Their home is apparently destroyed, Shadow has been trapped in the void for who knows how long (time seems to work differently in shatterverses, so who knows how time works in the void), and here comes Sonic floating in the void after everything. Shadow wants to bite his head off by now.

Anyway, I know Prime Sonic must be suffering from 27 concussions. Hope the final episode is him going to a hospital bc I know his brain is fucking broken 🫡🫡

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They’re air shoes