#and 3. relates to

[specterthief]

I been thinking why Joker goes out of his way to help Maruki and even save his life. Objectively Maruki is an awful person who abused his power and hurt teenagers in really terrible ways, but Joker wants to help him somehow. Even as a Maruki fan I don’t get it, which I hc him as Joker both liking Maruki and seeing himself in him. It the only thing that makes sense to me and I don’t like to headcanon my way into solving character motivations.

joker is a traumatized teenager who has both been horribly mistreated by adults and seen everyone he loves be horribly mistreated by adults. even sojiro is, while not nearly as bad as any of the villains, frankly kind of awful to joker when he first meets him. maruki is pretty unfailingly kind to him from the moment they meet, respects his intelligence and opinions and maturity and treats him like an adult friend he can equally depend on rather than a problem child (and treating joker like an adult peer is actually a huge issue with maruki—and several other adult confidants—and a generally inappropriate way for an adult authority figure to interact with teenagers, but having been a lonely sixteen year old who thought i was super mature for my age, is something that can feel really cool when you're the kid rather than the adult who now knows better.) maruki's ideals, that joker has been learning about in depth through their confidant, are also incredibly close to the phantom thieves' own, if ultimately way more extreme, but they don't seem that extreme before third semester actually happens. there's a point in maruki's confidant where joker has two dialog options that are both praising maruki's ideals and plans in different words—one of the immutable facts of joker's personality, as can be gleaned from the things he can say, is that he really does think maruki is a good person and that his ideas about how to treat trauma and psychological pain are admirable.

and no matter what choices you make, joker will always be tempted by maruki's deal at every point it's offered, even if, when taking it on 2/2, that means both going directly against akechi's wishes in the moment and breaking the phantom thieves' "unanimous decision" rule when they've all agreed to stop him. even if you don't agree, he always at least falters. he can even take the deal if you've romanced sumire and doing this would mean allowing his girlfriend to be brainwashed into believing she's a different person again, when he knows at that point that that was never good for her and she can heal on her own. joker does believe, no matter what, that maruki's intentions were good, and the comparisons between them that are drawn directly in the text are, i believe, meant to show that they really are similar people. taking yaldabaoth's deal in the vanilla ending can even put him in a very similar position to maruki with regards to absolute power over reality, and as much as that bad end kind of gets ignored, that can at least feasibly be something joker could want.

even if joker ultimately proves himself the better person (which i think also largely comes from the fact that he actually has an entire support structure and proof positive that people, including him, can move past their trauma) he's still tempted, he still has doubts—what would it say about him if he tried to treat views he believed in as irredeemably evil, you know? and the PTs don't even kill people they do see as completely evil. he's not going to just let maruki kill himself.

this is someone who he thinks of as a friend, who he feels has been nothing but kind and supportive to him for the greater part of the year. would he even admit to himself how much he was manipulated? maybe not. taking on burdens adults shouldn't be putting on his shoulders isn't something that's exclusive to maruki's confidant. how bad this is is obvious to akechi because he doesn't have any personal connection to maruki to make him want to give him the benefit of the doubt—he's very personally dealt with a would-be tyrant who thinks he was chosen by god and manipulates teenagers for his own gain before, nothing else here means anything to him. joker has a very close (mostly) positive relationship to try and compartmentalize here.

there's a point in the royal guidebook interviews where they say that the point where maruki uses akechi's life as a bargaining chip is the point where he really proves himself an enemy to the phantom thieves, but joker can still agree then and there. i think joker still caring about maruki and seeing him as someone who could start over and do better, and deserves that chance, makes perfect sense from his perspective. (i don't even disagree that he could and probably ultimately does in the true ending, as much as i also think it would be very cathartic to just drop him lmao)

[cozylittleartblog]

i dont know how to explain it but joining extremely small fandoms with only a few people in them feels like this

[cainternn]

deadpool and wolverine thoughts

[cosmiclove-heavenstruck]

TORI SPRING: SOLITAIRE

"I think you should know that I make up a lot of stuff in my head and then get sad about it." Tori Spring, played by Jenny Walser

[lordandladywhistledown]

You can tell by the reaction people have to Penelope asking Colin to kiss her whether they ever experienced being a wallflower/insecure fat girl at a party or not.

Because you say it's pathetic, I say it's relatable, no matter how desperate it may sound. If you've never had your insecurity eat you up from the inside (but also the outside, as Portia literally told Penelope that she was delusional for thinking she was gonna find a husband in her third season out) to the point you genuinely, wholeheartedly believe no one will ever love you unless you physically change, then obviously the scene is off to you.

But Pen literally told Colin she felt stupid for thinking she's gonna find a husband (she just started believing what the ton and her mother said) and that she knows no one would want to kiss her. And for a romance girl like her, do you think the thought of never having a kiss, never experiencing that passion, would be easy to bear? I can so relate to being the most romantic of the bunch but also being the loneliest and aching for physical and emotional romantic love.

She is so vulnerable and so real in that moment but y'all gotta bitch about it because it doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense to me either because she's gorgeous, but that's the thing - no one ever told her she's gorgeous and actually meant it. And even if they did, there must be 10 more people who didn't that keep that insecurity in her, specifically her sisters and her mother.

Nicola said this one was for the wallflowers, and it truly is, so if you find scenes like this cringe, you just don't relate to the character enough to feel it and recall moments when you had the same thoughts as her.

[ispyspookymansion]

BOO!

oh sorry….come in…..hello…welcome to my halloween party ^_^ feel free to take a piece of candy and a goodie bag before you go okay? have a fun (and nostalgic) halloween season!!

[xxplastic-cubexx]

obligatory beach divorce doodling

bonus rough cover redraw of x-men #41 (1995) But Beach Divorce below cut

[eatingmarkerz]

vessel

[watcher0033]

Y’all, the Archive admins are made up of VOLUNTEERS. And they have been working for 12-13 HOURS STRAIGHT.

I better not hear any complaints when donation period comes around. OR ELSE.

cosplay by @woahchriswoah on Twitter

EDIT: How do we show appreciation to the volunteers? For me reading these deep dives on OTW issues u guys apparently it's been said multiple times that one of their objective statements is to have paid staff for ao3 and there's a surplus of donations they haven't used up or the other community solutions that needs to address. For those more financially literate feel free to analyze, snipe me or add to the discussion etc. linked here by deepa. They’re cool and these yearly analysis they did aint no joke.

But Seriously what can we do for these volunteers? The probable burn out from this entire fiasco would be no joke. @ao3org

[a-lost-crow]

How to save yourself from a lengthy angst fic

[surprisesausages]

Every girlboss has her weakness😢

[hwathwugu]

A classic western tale

[jamtamart]

the last disco

[sky-scribbles]

I'm not sure how much of it was intentional, but I'm still very amused by TLOVM including a red dragonborn mage from Draconia whose main problems are:

She resents Kima and Allura being together, because she wanted a relationship with one of them

She felt entitled to the spotlight and couldn't stand it when her party members got it instead

She failed to communicate effectively with any of her friends

And then Vorugal stomps her to death with his talons.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]