#and i think ppl overlook some aspects of those moments

[necrotic-nephilim]

For the ask game

What do you think would happen in an au where the batfam are ALL dating, how do think they react to people harassing dick all the time like in canon? and maybe they discover about all the times he's been raped, how do you think they'd react?

for the ask game!

BATFAMILY POLYCULE. i love this so much and i love the exploration of Dick's canon sexual assault

so of the three main instances of Dick's assault trauma, all of them are *very* different situations, meaning they'd be reacted to very differently. starting with Liu: canonically Liu grooms Dick when he's underaged and he supposedly loses his virginity to her. so i would have the Batfamily get together as a like, polycule properly after this happens. maybe there was some flirting and feelings with BruDick or DickBabs, but nothing quite came to fruition because of all the conflict they had in this era. and that conflict is what Liu takes advantage of to sink her teeth into Dick, using the distance he and Bruce have against him. i don't think Dick would tell anyone for a *long* time. he'd sort of blame himself for it, for trusting her in the first place and he'd insist it was consensual when it finally gets brought up because someone makes a joke about who took Dick's virginity and Dick has to admit it was none of them. i think it's fun if they find out after Liu is dead. because it's easier to grapple with, when you have someone to point the anger at, someone to go beat up and force a confession out of so they can all convince Dick that it wasn't his fault. but if she's dead they just have to live with it, especially Dick. and no matter how many long conversations are had, Dick is always going to hold onto that part of him that believes he was at fault. which spurns on some very protective, almost obsessively so, feelings toward him from the Batfamily. no one wants to leave him alone and they're hypervigilante around him, to the point he has to remind them all he can handle himself.

the second time is Mirage: which, was a whole shitshow of a canon storyline, but the interesting part is she disguises herself as Kory to sleep with Dick. (also she tries to change things about him like his hair and his suit, things he's very attached to, just so he can fit her image of a perfect man) so if the Batfam are all dating each other, it's far more likely she'd disguise herself as one of them to sleep with him. i think Tim is the most fun option. Dick and Bruce *know* each other very well, Dick and Babs have a history, but Tim's newer to the whole dynamic. it's easier to impersonate him because Dick might not know him as well and play off the "shy new to sex" teenager routine. after all the truth comes out, Dick is horrified and once again blaming himself for not noticing until after it happened. she pulls the same controlling tactics, trying to change things about Dick until someone points it out. Dick is apologetic about the whole thing but everyone's pissed and now, there's a target. Bruce gets Mirage removed from the Titans and completely disenfranchised from hero society, if not completely put in prison. Tim is trying to comfort Dick through it and insist he's not angry at Dick. i think for a while it'd stunt any sex from Dick, just because he's so stressed and touchy about a repeat. no one pushes him but once again, everyone is protective over him and this time, he's more receptive to letting it happen just because of how much it fucked him up.

and then, of course Tarantula: that entire storyline is just. interesting because so much of it focuses on Dick trying to save Catalina and trying to redeem her as a person. so with the death of Blockbuster, followed by her taking advantage of him and raping him so openly breaks him down in a lot of ways beyond just the physical aspect of it. this technically happens before Jason is back from the dead, but i think putting it after Jason's return is fun, just to witness Jason's response to it. because he would *want* to kill Catalina, more than anything, for how body she broke Dick, but Dick wouldn't want that. more than anything he would see her being killed as them being just as as bad as her and not breaking the cycle. it's a difficult thing to grapple with your anger over someone hurting your loved one when you want to take action they don't, because you have to put your love for them over your anger for the people who've hurt them. which i think would be especially difficult for Jason. no matter what Bruce or Tim or Babs or Cass do, it isn't enough to satisfy what he thinks Catalina deserves and i think that could be fun conflict. protectiveness can be taken too far when you treat the person you're protecting like they have no agency, and since this has happened three times now, everyone wants to make sure it doesn't happen again while also trying to respect Dick's autonomy. it's messy and he knows they're coming from a place of love. that's the fun of everyone in the Batfam dating, he has a lot of partners who all love him and sometimes, that can be suffocating. but overall? it's safe. there's something relieving to know he's not going to be alone through the worst of facing the emotional aftermath and he always has someone to lean on, someone to hold him in bed. it makes him more open to asking for comfort/help when he needs it.

as for more general harassment that isn't specific to any canon circumstance but just the general mindset of heroes in DC, that's where i think the Batfam would rlly get protective. if someone makes a comment about Dick's ass, assumes he's a slut, etc, they're going to play dirty to protect him. Babs is hacking their personal devices for blackmail. Cass will hit a lot harder in "sparring" sessions. Tim and Bruce will quietly remove people from hero teams for "logistical reasons". and Jason will just shoot people. he can't get away with killing heroes, but if some sleazy villain or henchman makes a comment well, no one has to know *that's* why Jason put a bullet in their head. bu the time Damian comes around and is filled in on all of it, he's just as defensive of Dick, if not the *most* defensive. he's got the spirit a little too strong, forgetting to respect Dick's boundaries in the process. a lot of heroes end up socially ex-communicated for their comments about Dick. god forbid if they actually try to get handsy with him. some new recruit grabbed Dick's ass "as a joke" and Cass put them through a wall before Dick even processed what happened. villains like Deathstroke or Raptor who try to get possessive around Dick are handled with more brutality than Batman and Robin are typically known for.

Dick does eventually figure out all the things his love ones are doing behind the scenes. he's exasperated because really, he's used to this. it's been like this since he was a circus kid, always on stage and putting on a show. but it's a little nice, deep down, to be protected like that. he would preen *just a little* about it, even if he's outwardly scolding them for it. and hey, it's a fun couple bonding activity for the others to get closer to each other by coming up with ways to get revenge on Dick's harassers. so really, everyone wins. they all make sure it won't happen to Dick again, and end up closer for it on a united front.

[akajustmerry]

i'm 100% a roman girlie but people trying to woobify or genuinely babygirl-ify him is so beyond missing the point. like there are aspects of him that make me see him as a human being ultimately because all people no matter how good or evil are still people and while i believe that things like misogyny and harassment aren't taken seriously in his world he is a grown man who makes choices every single day and he CHOOSES to be shitty to shiv and harass gerri and elect a nazi as president. like we can like a character who does horrible things without making excuses or erasing their real impact and stuff.

yeah fr fr!!! I feel like when people really like or even relate to a character in some way they feel the need to validate that feeling by overlooking or justifying their flaws which is boring. when you do that you're literally stripping the character of their characterisation. Roman does horrible shit and occasionally he does kinda nice shit, and he's also a victim of abuse while also being a perpetrater of it and he's all those things at once and more because he's a well written character. I always think: if these people didn't do horrible things AND have horrible things done to them, they would not be legible. neither you or I can really understand anything about the world the Roys move in on a human level, BUT we do understand having a shitty parent or being a disappointment or feeling angry or ignored...those moments where the characters feel those things is how you get invested and understand them, it's not all of who they are. I think a lot of ppl just get really hung up on the part of the characters they understand/relate to and they see it as who they are rather than what it is: their cipher.

I feel like everyone who likes succession can probably point to the moment where a character clicked for them. maybe it's Kendall trashing the bathroom and screaming and then cleaning it up so no one knows he had a breakdown, maybe it's shiv and Roman beating the shit out of each other in the hospital because at the end of the day they're just siblings, maybe it's gerri rolling her eyes at literally all of them, maybe it's the moments they feel concerned for each other despite what's going on, etc. but you're absolutely right those moments serve to show they're humans like us who make choices!!! because if those moments weren't there you'd just be watching awful shadows on the wall and it wouldn't make you think, reflect or invest and it drives me NUTS people watch this show and don't see that.

[minggukieology]

A genuine que I don't get how so many shippers thinks that their ship is real like just cause of skinship or some things they had said about e/o ? If we go by that logic 90% of kpop would have been in relationship with their bandmates or smtg. Do they not pay attention to the conversations they has ? Like there's 100 of moments which can easily debunk that 'my ship is real' narrative which ppl just overlooks at. And I'm saying this for everyone including all ships of BTS even jikook too.

Hi, thanks for your message.

While I still believe most shipping (no matter the fandom) is harmless and just a fun way for someone to consume fictional content that provides a safe escape for many people, I noticed is as soon as the community grows bigger and bigger in size, more and more emotions are invested in it and is reinforced by instances of behavior from the idols that they would deem as legitimizing their ship, this community becomes sort of an echo chamber of the same thoughts, narratives and beliefs. Being inside this echo chamber means you lose an objective point of view on all the information presented as the group of people around you makes sure to filter out any information that would threaten the belief or the narrative that the community is built upon. In this way only those moments which would fit the narrative are acknowledged as legitimate and bind the people inside this bubble even more. It sort of becomes a self-feeding machine.

In this situation a well known principle of human psychology kicks in: cognitive dissonance. The situation becomes even more significant as the beliefs around ships are typically built with a huge emotional investment from the people involved. Imagine this: If your belief, your whole "worldview" which you are deeply emotionally invested in, the narrative that binds the whole community which you found acceptance and place in is threatened by information that would deconstruct and debunk it and "see your whole world crumbling", your brain goes into a state as if under attack and naturally does all it can to minimize the discomfort by either: 1. avoiding this information (consuming content only related to the ship- so it's kind of what the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't feel) 2. deligitimizing this information ("other ship moments are fake or scripted;" -even if the way you argue against it is false it doesn't matter, truth is subjective in this instance and the community will gladly accept alternative explanations that fit their belief) 3. undermining the importance or impact of this information ("my ship does this more", "everyone does this so it doesn't mean anything").

Shipping hits on many aspects of human psychology and sociology: the need for community and socializing, the need for a role and acceptance in social group, internet subcultures, building of belief systems through which we view our world and many more.

Lastly, just to express my own stance even though I hope or believe you didn't send the message to attack me: I am not here to argue about "my ship being real." On my twitter account for the past few months I have tried to provide objective explanations (many times debunking false narratives, translations etc even about "my own ship"), more cultural context and hopefully lead a sound discourse in connection with topics within the fandom.

[sapphicwhxre]

tiny pansy rant, cut short so it’s *hopefully* not too long:

i. wanted. to. see. her. change! and in my opinion the reason she never got the chance was because jkr used her character to make fun of people she disliked :/

pretty much all the other noteable slytherins had some sort of redemption arc,, and yeah they’re still mostly problematic people but they got chances: snape, draco, narcissa, regulus, slughorn, leta and technically andromeda? you get the point i just—

like miss ma’am decided to make pansy,, the like slytherin stereotype? and have her want to betray harry? she was seventeen ffs, not bellatrix lestrange. she was in the middle of a war? in my personal opinion i don’t think that she wanted to hand harry over out of cruelty like. it’s possible? but maybe she was just scared? also don’t we know that pansy was terrified at the thought of like. voldemort coming to hogwarts? again: everyone expects all of the children in harry potter to be these selfless brave individuals,, they’re kids :( yes ik it’s ya fantasy but cmon. they were supposed to be stressed about the N.E.W.T exams not the upheaval of their society?

and don’t get me wrong i know that she was. not a good person. she was a bitchy teenage bully who was taught hateful views. but i wanted to see her change even a little– even draco marries someone who presumably teaches him how to treat people equally? like. there was so much room for change: she was a prefect, she was capable of some kindness seeing as she liked draco, or alternatively, we could’ve seen her break away from draco and potentially stop hating harry/all his friends quite so much or develop her own opinions. or maybe her group of friends that she used for validation throughout her school years was uprooted during the war and she had to learn that independency? or her pointing out harry could’ve been turned into trying to be selfless, like she thought they’d be safe that way, or she returned later fighting with reinforcements to show she was on Hogwarts’ side. jkr is always like "well they technically came back to fight, if you squint » but that’s not enough. also? let’s say we did get a glimpse of her during the actual battle: there could’ve been anything, the smallest scene, that showed some sort of support or reconciliation or something between her and hermione, considering how hermione was often pansy’s target. everybody wants to see forgiveness between draco and harry because of minor events/details (i dislike drarry but that’s besides the point), but imagine what could’ve changed with some semblance of apology or assistance from pansy to hermione. there were so many chances for r*wling to give her a smallest redemption

but instead we got her characterized as evil and a stupid, cowardly traitor. she the only person we ever see her care for marries her friends younger sister. she’s the written depiction of jkr’s bitterness and her arc is jkr’s vengeance.

also, another reason that i’m so mad she got nothing is because of the whole slytherin=evil thing. she’s made into a stereotype of a “slytherin”— cruel, selfish, shallow, ugly, and asinine. (also i could rant about slytherin forever, but can we just mention that jkr consistently refers to slytherins as physically ugly and just how fucked up that is? i– wtf). but anyway: to give pansy a chance to change is to give the slytherin house a chance to change its reputation. trying to justify that the slytherin house got its redemption because of the actions of ppl like snape or regulus, etc isn’t possible. because all of those “slytherin heroes” were described again and again as being “different from all the other slytherins”. they set themselves apart by being decent. they weren’t normal slytherins, no, they were set apart, they were brave and smart and kind— not evil. there’s no redemption to be found there. i wish jkr would just fucking say that being sorted into slytherin was being made into a villain. she dodged around it with rhetorical questions and pointing out how not All of them are bad,, and then will go on to mock the other slytherins and talk about how the heroes were Not Like The Other Snakes... again: there’s no redemption of slytherin as a house, as a quality, as a concept there. it’s just the redemption of an individual.

in pansy, however, we could’ve found so much more. like i said, she’s The Average Slytherin: not a hero, not a villain like voldemort. she’s made out to be a depiction of the typical slytherin student, one without a “destiny”, so to speak. and so to give her the chance, to see her change, to have her redefine herself? that would be a starting point for restoring slytherin as a whole (obviously not the best way, and the real best thing to do would be not to make an entire house be the bad guys in the first place, but–) to have someone who’s the figurehead of slytherin (like actually a figurehead,, girl is a even a prefect) show remorse and growth gives the entire house the seed of redemption. it would mean that after over a thousand years there could be peace between the houses. obviously not the only factor in reconciliation but still so important.

and not to just continue to heap on my own issues with it, but look. i know that there are so many other ways to introduce “mundane” antagonists without making them a symbol of anything. pansy could’ve been a bitch without representing slytherin. also pansy doesn’t have to break character and become kind for amends to be made. they don’t even have to be fully made, just started. but jkr chose to:

a.) go with bullying as a minor antagonistic element

b.) create and develop a character around that theme

c.) make this character only based on her own negative personal experiences

d.) turn that character into a representation of a much larger group of people

e.) deny that character any final moment that could begin to make amends for her actions and instead, chooses to make her “defining” moment an act of evil and cowardice

f.) either neglects the character or chooses plot points that would humiliate the character in all the glimpses of the future we are shown (ex. how dracos marriage is)

g.) openly mocks and insults the character repeatedly and never directly comes out and proves she didn’t write slytherins as evil

h.) to the best of my knowledge, ignores that pansy personifing slytherin, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and then characterizing both as “bad” and not giving them a chance to grow, is a summary of her thoughts on slytherin ls and is a possible interpretation of the text (i mean her opinions are already TRASH)

i. ignores the consequences of this or the possible effect it has on her entire fanbase and doesn’t seek to remedy it

but yeah, jkr, it was such a good idea to base a character off of your loathesone memories, take your anger out on her, and that choose to have that character partially represent a large percentage of your fanbase. thank you sooooo much. i really appreciate it!

summary:

I. Pansy— deserved an opportunity to have some character development. everyone else’s mistakes get overlooked to some degree save hers. had so many places to draw inspiration/opportunity from. could’ve progressed other ideas in the book and the analysis of her house while still remaining a “dislikable” character

II. Writing— from a “technical?” aspect, Pansy is underdeveloped and stagnant, used for personal reasons instead of as a plot device. perpetuates the slytherin=bad idea via a sloppy and repetitive characterization and emblem. there are ways around this that weren’t used.

III. I have no qualifications to be saying any of this lmao. Am I reading to much into it, knowing that Rowling tends to be shitty with writing details? Am I being dramatic and repetitive? probably!

IV. Fuck JKR (for everything. she’s an awful person)

anyways this has been: my mini-rant on pansy and her analysis,,, and i am terribly sorry,, i offer my apologies in advance for randomly dumping this into your inbox. it’s long and opinionated and there’s no real reason behind it! i just thought of it and then thought about it some more and then. here we are

ilysm mwah <3 should’ve definitely done something more productive but shh😭 rat brain hours

this is everything, you're completely right. i don't have much to add but i agree all the way. and people give pansy so much shit for the harry thing but she seemed genuinely scared of voldemort coming back and i really think that she believed he would leave them alone if they gave him up. from her perspective, it's either her and the people she cares about get to live or this guy that she not only isn't close to but probably sees as the bad guy considering she dated/was best friends with draco and witnessed their rivalry from his side. did she make the best decisions? no, not at all but i see her reasons and i don't think it makes her this antichrist that jkr makes her out to be. she pulled the “he's just a boy” with draco and had people sympathise with him when he did so so much worse than pansy did so why doesn't that apply to her? she's a kid. they all are. i love harry, ron, and hermione SO MUCH but jkr really said fuck everyone who isn't them ─ especially any girl who isn't her precious hermione. she projected her own pettiness onto fictional characters who are CHILDREN and proceeded to get upset when people connected to and loved other people that she herself made. creating such an underdeveloped character and expecting people to hate her just because she imagined her as her bully is beyond immature and ridiculous. anyways. jkr take a fucking chill pill and leave my girl alone.