#and like fair tbh I get it

[arsenicpanda]

There are two types of series where kids have to fight shit:

Type 1: It is a travesty that these kids have been forced into being child soldiers. Adults have failed them—society has failed them—and the system must be torn down so no child is ever called to fight again

Type 2: Look, sometimes children gotta punch shit, idk what to tell you, it's fun and cool, so don't think about it too hard. They probably shouldn't, like, have to kill a bunch of people or do Black Ops shit before sixteen or eighteen though, that's kinda fucked

[xxplastic-cubexx]

oh boy 2AM !!!!!!

[tricoufamily]

more ancient ocs i got bored and made as sims. they were doing every tired annoying romantasy trope years ahead of the curb smh i could have been making booktok bucks

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Thinking about Cassian in the hangar, deferential and respectful, standing a solid 2-3 metres away from Jyn who was just belittled and dismissed and is expecting him to heap on. And saying, fuck what my bosses all agreed on. "I believe you." And how much weight that has, because he was a good soldier who followed orders even when they meant getting innocent blood on his own hands. And yet faced with this choice that seems comparatively reasonable, that seems like an order that would be a relief compared to most of his previous ones - an order that is protecting the existing rebels, that was presented as preventing needless bloodshed, all at the small cost of telling one young woman who isn't even part of their group "sorry, you clearly believe this very strongly and it clearly took you a lot to bring this to us, but we are choosing not to believe you" - he says, no. He decides that believing this one woman is worth going rogue for just as much as every justified, terrible act before that would have been worth going rogue to prevent.

Thinking about how much that meant to me when I saw it at age 20, in ways I couldn't even explain until a few months later, when for the first time in my lifetime, believing women became a thing people talked about.

Thinking about a man getting the job to make a prequel for this movie years down the line, and setting out to make the show progressive and political. Thinking about that man not seeing a problem in taking Cassian's deliberately, desperately blind following of rules until this exact point away from the story. Thinking about how this likely wasn't a malicious choice. How, to the show writers, this scene was just a bunch of people talking in a hangar, this was just the lead-up to a cooler more interesting action sequence. Thinking about how clearly, something about the way Cassian was so deferential for most of the movie, deferential in the same way towards his powerful male commanding officer and towards this woman he didn't know but chose to believe and follow into hell, rankled with these writers. Not enough so they'd criticise it outright, maybe not even enough that they noticed it bothered them. But enough to change it.

Thinking about that.

[once-more-with-anxiety]

love love love how even though Gansey is the 'main' guy of the gangsey (hell their group is even named after him) pretty much everybody throughout the series just goes 'oh yeah its Adam and the rest of his crew' like. they immediately look at this group of feral kids and go yeah, that kid with the cheekbones and the not-quite-right eyes is the leader. wait what do you mean it's Gansey? Gansey who?

[hanase]

I am obsessed with Atem right now. It's been going on for a few months. There's a story here but I can't write for shit. I'll upload a lot more soon!

[buggachat]

the "argos is part of the superhero team" thing is soooo funny, because it is so ridiculous and he looks so out of place and I'm sure it's super awkward for everyone involved and very difficult to explain. But it DOES make sense. And I totally believe it. It's just a really funny and awkward situation.

(I mean, what else is Ladybug going to do with him? Initiate battle with him (and by extension, Ryuko) to pry his miraculous from him? And then what? She seems to believe none of the miraculouses should be kept in the same place.... so who would she give it to? Whoever wields it will instantly learn that Adrien and Felix and Kagami are sentimonsters from a glance at their rings. Whoever wields it will automatically become privy to the horrors. Whoever wields it has the ability to murder her boyfriend in a split second if they choose to not value his life. Whoever wields it will have to be given a long ethics class on the treatment and value of sentimonsters and life etc etc etc.... a class that can only be meaningfully taught by like... felix himself?)

but yeah it's pretty funny

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[pigeonentity]

probably been said before but i think we need another regeneration into david tennant for the bit -- but this time its the master

[ind1c0lite]

(Basic context is that AU of Duel Desinties where the phantom impersonates Phoenix to get him found guilty of Clay's murder, I talk more under the cut abt it jkhlj)

-Basically meant to be a parallel to turnabout trump, cause if you can have ONE boss get found guilty of murder, why not a second one?

-OK basically: everything in DD happens normally until like- a day before clays murder, Phoenix gets yoinked by the phantom somehow (he is still alive, just being held captive), Phantom is still Fulbright, but they've decided to be silly goofy (target Phoenix and get him found guilty of murder, escape police custody and then murder phoenix and make it seem like Phoenix accidentally died while on the run, thats why they didn't kill phoenix right away unlike the real Fulbright) there is an imposter amo-

-I dont have the logistics as to how this affects solving Metis's murder, and how it effects what evidence is used n whatnot and turnabout for tomorrow as a whole, so im just going nuts HGJKHLJ

-Originally I was actually imagining this taking place during turnabout for tomorrow and I wanted that case to be apollo v klavier instead of phoenix and edgeworth and thats why klav is in here instead of Simon (I decided that Simon got badly injured and couldn't stand in court for the retrial, so klavier was asked to step in)

-The courtroom bombing still happens the same way it does normally, but Apollo decides to take up the case again instead of taking a leave, instead of like, you know, healing from the traumatic event that just happened, turnabout countdown still happens as well

-Apollo and Athena do not find out about the phantom's existence until well after this trial, so they have no idea that Phoenix could've possibly been replaced, though simon, after hearing about the trial, might be suspicious about whether or not that was the real Phoenix

-The Phantom had been not only keeping an eye on Simon for a while, but was also stalking Phoenix and Edgeworth after they both started looking into UR-1, so they were able to impersonate phoenix so well that not even his own daughter thought that anything was up (though while Trucy did find him a *little* bit off, but she figured that it might've been the bombing that caused him to act ever so slightly weird, so she didn't pay much mind to it until she heard about his confession in court and realized it might've been because he possibly, ya know, killed someone)

-it's pretty much just switching Athena being framed for murder with Phoenix, and instead of the trial ending on a cliffhanger, it continues on (probably with Klavier insisting on it) ending with soloman being found innocent and Phoenix being declared guilty

-There's a couple days inbetween the end of the cosmic turnabout and the start of turnabout for tomorrow, so Athena, Apollo and Trucy all get a little bit to process the fact that "oh god my boss/my dad killed someone" (simons execution date is pushed back a bit in this au) and they probably get to talk with Klavier and eventually a lil bit with Simon after he gets out

-Im not sure how it all winds down in turnabout for tomorrow (Phoenix escaping and being at large is basically the perfect cover for the phantom to resume being fulbright for that trial) but they do eventually realize that the phoenix who confessed wasn't the real one and now there's a search on going to find out where the real one is being held captive, hes fineeee just ready to take a week long nap and a good vacation (along with every other waa member)

-I dont have anything else to add on rn but if you want to add something or just throw in a scenario feel free to!! this idea has been bouncing around my head for like a month now and Im very happy to finally show yall it

[saberpastel]

Friends, I present to you... blorbo from my dreams

Old Man Sampo isn't something I expected or knew I wanted but boy do I want it now.

[1-800-i-ship-it]

omg i just finished orv im going insane im im i can finally look at that doc of things i saved for after i finished orv and can look at spoilers...i can finally unblock that orv spoiler tag...im so normal about orv

[swimmingchicken9]

!!be warned... this post contains spoilers for tales from the gas station!!

i think it's really funny how in the 1st 2 books or so spencer is viewed as this absolutely irredeemable animal abuser psychopath murderer but by the 4th book its revealed that actually jack was the shitbag all along

like spencer may or may not be a sociopath but at least he doesnt pick apart grasshoppers or whatever it was in the 1st book

hes just a gun for hire with questionable morals that refuses to die and i think thats the best kind of character honestly

[eta-volantis]

I'm legit confused about people complaining that Hugo is no longer muscular like he's never meant to be?? Bro is a twink all the way from his art in Lycaon's backstory, they just made him somewhat more realistically proportioned in the game. Pompey is big and buff in art, for example, but in the game (or whatever we saw of him if I recall) he looks WAY more normal. And the only thing they changed from 1.5 is his head proportions!!? So his body hasn't changed at all!!? Like where are people getting that he's buffed??

What get me is people saying Lighter is actually slim when bro got cake IN GAME (which is a treat, thank you ZZZ). He wears clothes that fits him, guys. If the women like Evelyn and Caesar get the same treatment, their boobas also won't look as big. Like if you look at Zhu Yuan, while her booba his huge it looks more like how it actually is wearing clothes while still have fanservice flairs.

Like I'm so sorry Hugo is pretty and has some femininity because apparently that is a crime for men to have. Clearly he's not for you then like if you're upset he's not a bodybuilder and that he has a cute face.

If they had changed him completely, I'd kinda get that they gave a different expectation, but he hardly changed!! They just brushed him up to make him standout more as a playable character ong

Edit:

I also want to point out that Hugo is tall af because Lycaon currently stands at 198cm so Hugo is likely at least 180+cm in height at the very least like even standing next to Lycaon, he is not a small man he is just small by comparison because Lycaon is MASSIVE

Like going by other screenshots where Hugo is standing more in line with Lycaon, he's likely ~185cm since he reaches around Lycaon's eyes height

[spicyvampire]

THE SIGN (2023 - 2024) EP. 9 dir A Natthaphong Wongkaweepairod LAMENTATION OVER CHRIST (1436 - 1441) Fra Angelico [source]

[asexualbookbird]

Okay, so, I didn't read a whole lot this month. Hear me out. I'm not mad about it. I got SO much crafting done across different mediums. Nothing to show for it, really, but I'm having so much fun being creative in a way I haven't felt in a very long time. I think I might actually be able to set up some type of tiny shop about it, too. Got my embroidery machine up and running in a way that allows me to create my own designs, and when I tell you the creative juices are flowing, boy howdy it's like a dam has broken. I also started pokemon Violet, and while that's slow going, I'm having a lot of fun with it. So, no I'm not mad at my reading habits this month.

In the Ravenous Dark by AM Strickland ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Phew. Okay. This was. A very bumpy ride. The first half was a slog, honestly, and the writing and pacing is not great, but the last third or so reminded me a lot of Beyond the Ruby Veil which was also not outstanding, but it was fun. Fucked up, feral lesbians. Poly family friendship going on. The plot is so basic, the magic neat, the worldbuilding lacking. I would not read it again, but at the end I'm not entirely mad I did.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch ⭐️ - I don't even know what to say. I didn't expect to be wowed, I went in expecting no more than a mediocre thriller. What I got was A Book Written By A Man™️. How many times can a guy fridge one wife? Infinitely, apparently! I was semi on board until he started fighting his other selves. That was dumb as shit.

The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - *Gordon Ramsay voice* Finally, a good fucking book. This took me most of the month to read, but I'm not mad about it. It was nice to sit quietly with this book, and while it took it's time, I never felt bored with it. I can't really pinpoint what keeps it from five stars, and maybe my rating will change in the future, but I did really enjoy this. It has a wonderful cast, everyone felt very real and well rounded, it was bloody, but never felt gratuitously so. It was a good book and I very much want to continue the series.

Favorite of the month was most definitely Art of the Prophecy. Kind of unfair because Dark Matter was such a disaster, but Ravenous Dark had it's perks. Mainly being batshit crazy and ending in polyamory.

My friends, as always, have been incredibly kind to me. I could not have gotten through the last couple months without them. Would like to do a couple of buddy reads in the coming months. I really did like taking my time with a longer book, and I think I'm ready to tackle the final book in the Rook and Rose trilogy. My library also finally got a copy of The Bone Maker on audio and while I haven't listened to an audiobook since December, I'm excited to give that a listen. As always, be kind whenever possible.