#and pretty fair ones as well
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Some people: Kaeya’s bio father is an abusive monster who abandoned his son in order to achieve his own selfish goals. He is an evil man who deserves everything awful that might happen to him.
Other people: Kaeya’s bio father did the right thing and leaving Kaeya in Mondstadt was the only way to give him a halfway-decent life. He is a better father than he is given credit for and should not be as hated as he is.
Me: Kaeya’s bio father is integral to the general ‘war is hell and bad choices can reverberate across time’ thing that Genshin seems to be going for. He made unethical choices, but mostly because the ONLY OPTIONS HE HAD WERE UNETHICAL. If our understanding of the Alberich’s role in Khaenri’ah is accurate, General Alberich (my name for him until stated otherwise) was suddenly in charge of a hopeless and dead kingdom which begged to be saved. Assuming that there was a reason Kaeya specifically was chosen for this mission, General Alberich was forced into a position where he needed to choose between the lives/future of every Khaenri’an vs the life and future of his young son. Abandoning either is an awful thing to do and a horrible decision, but the bad decisions of Celestia and Rhinedottir have led to a scenario where General Alberich can only make bad decisions. In the end, he chose to prioritize his people and made his young son into a spy. We do not know the process for this, but knowing how much Hoyoverse loves to torment people (especially Khaenri’ans) we can assume that this process was horrific for Kaeya and could definitely be considered abuse. General Alberich is effectively making his son into a child soldier for a war that the majority of people never wanted or asked for, and one Kaeya was likely far too young to understand. At least, until he was forced to grow up far too quickly in order to fulfill his duty. General Alberich likely loathed everything about what was happening and even in his last moments with his son he asks for forgiveness. He knows that what he is doing is wrong, but to turn back now is to both abandon his subjects and make everything that happened to Kaeya in order to turn him into a child spy be for nothing. So yeah, General Alberich is a terrible person who made horrible choices. But war and the bad actions of others have created a situation where he has nothing BUT horrible choices and where being a terrible person is the only thing he can be. And that’s without considering how the curse/abyssal corruption could impact the scenario.
#idk#I just think that Kaeya's father is kinda an Asgore situation#where the only decisions he could possibly make were awful and unethical ones but choosing neither would create an even worse outcome#also I want to clarify that both of the other interpretations that I parroted before giving my own thoughts are valid#because we are working with such limited information and yeah no shit people are gonna have differing thoughts#people have differing beliefs and perspectives on things which are CANONICALLY CONFIRMED to be clear situations with lots of info about it#so of course people are going to go in like 80 different directions with his character#BECAUSE WE HAVE NEXT TO NOTHING TO GO OFF OF#and basically every interpretation of him I've seen is pretty reasonable#Like yeah man's son is a child spy who was abandoned in a far away country for the purpose of being a spy for Khaenri'ah's interests#thinking that he was an abusive asshole isn't exactly unreasonable#nor is it unreasonable to believe that he was actually a decent man who left his son in Mondstadt as the 'only hope' of Khaenri'ah#because he just wanted Kaeya to live on and have a life outside of the Abyss#and Kaeya was mistaken when he thought he was simply being left behind as a pawn#Genshin is no stranger to unreliable narrators and this wouldn't be the first time a character story wildly mischaracterizes something#so like...both of those interpretations are valid#and pretty fair ones as well#But I think that it really is like an Asgore situation where yeah this guy sucks and he is an awful person who made so many bad choices#But also was left with nothing BUT bad choices through war and grief and other factors that were genuinely outside of his control#Sacrifice your son's childhood and happiness by forcing him to be a child spy and abandoning him in the middle of a deadly storm#or let your people (including yourself) rot away into nothingness while facing a fate worse than death while they all but scream to be saved#there are no good options#kaeya's father#don't take this too seriously I just really liked Undertale when I was younger and I'm getting Asgore vibes from General Alberich
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Prompt 273
You know what? We need more Good parents Fentons.
And you know what else? Technically, Jack helped Danny defeat Pariah via the use of the Ecto-Skeleton. And like, that’s his son, his baby boy. Sure Danny is and has always been a mommy’s boy, but it doesn’t change that fact. They’re both already feeling horrible about the fact they could have hurt him, they could have hurt their son- they have hurt their son, killed him with their inaction and never again.
So when these oversized jello-eyeballs try to insist that their baby, their precious baby boy, take a crown? Become a king when he’s not even out of highschool, when he doesn’t want it? No. Hell no! That is his Danny-o, his baby boy who was terrified of his own parents!
Which is how Jack, despite technically still being alive even if so-very ecto-contaminated, became the Ghost King.
And for some reason there’s several ghosts rather happy about this- oh, these are his Danny-O’s ghost-parents? Not-ghost parents seeing as some of them have never been anything but a realm denizen? That’s really fascinating- y’know what, want some fudge and we can exchange childcare- Maddie dear come over and meet our co-parents apparently!
Now it’s not all easy, but they’re trying their best, and that’s all that can be asked.
…
Which is perhaps why it’s so exasperating- or as Maddie would put it, downright infuriating- that it is now, almost an entire year and a half later that the Heroes finally arrive to investigate. Well, at least he has plenty of fudge since it’s almost time for the council meeting.
#DCxDP#DPxDC#Prompts#Ghost King Jack#Jack is never picking up a gun again#Why yes they did have a one-night stand with Constantine before#The fentons adopt Ellie as soon as they can which also ends with some conversations with Vlad#Lots of conversations & therapy and Y E A H#Jack is like an unmovable object and Danny is like an unstoppable force#Dan gets snatched up the moment he goes back in time from his timeline#He has no clue wtf to do because it’s Not Fair that Danny gets this#That he gets his parents- that he gets acceptance#Dan doesn’t realize until the whole Fentom Family (& Vlad) hugs him that he realizes he can#Jordan is very overprotective of his second chance at family thanks to trauma#Somehow him and Vlad get on well together- probably the villain-leaning habits#GIW had a complete info blackout on Amity to the point they erased the existence of the city#Hence why it took so long for the heroes to find out#Eventually via Deadman after he disappears for a bit & returns telling them there’s a new king & everyone#is getting little information packets on new rules & getting their paperwork taken care of#Pretty much getting visa (Sp?) cards on what they’re doing in the living world
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hockey screencap 2/???
#I had to repost because I forgot my watermark#no one's stealing but sstiilllllll#this post is pretty self explanatory#what's not to get???#well the last was as well to be fair#this is also funny... to me#philadelphia flyers#travis konecny#iasip#mine#liberty bell#yeah let's tag that too while I'm here why not#i kind of don't love the way this looks and I keep having to remind myself that it's jst a silly drawing and I'm only trying to have fun#oh btw if anyone thinks of any uhhh tv screencap redraws that they might wanna see ooo#screencap#hockey art
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day 99
i have NEARLY finished the skirt for my ren faire fit i just gotta get a few finishing details added and also get the undershirt bleached (bc i got a bunch of makeup on it at last years fair and shit Stained) but THEN i can show yall the final fit!!
#day 99#year 5#aradia megido#homestuck#its gonna be cute#i was so fucking stressed abt this one because like.#i bought my fabric and i was like oh yeah dude this is toooootally more than enough for a circle skirt#went to finally cut things#realized i only had enough for a half-circle skirt and it would end up with a bunch of weirdly-shaped scrap at the end#(ie i would have to do a bunch of weird piecing to make the waistband and pockets and such)#and like honestly a half-circle skirt was NOT enough volume for me i need my skirts swooshy#so i was like well. okay. i think i can optimize my fabric usage more if i draft a paneled skirt#but this of course required..... Math.#and unfortunately. i was an art major. so. there was a lot of struggling#BUT I DID IT. THERE WAS STILL A LIIIIITTLE BIT OF PIECING THAT HAD TO BE DONE BUT IT IS MINIMAL AND CAMOUFLAGED PRETTY WELL#and also this is for a ren faire primarily bc i dont wear a lot of skirts in day-to-day#SO. economical fabric usage is absolutely period accurate. even though none of the rest of my outfit or techniques are.#basically all thats left for me to do is add pockets and the closure at the back#i meant to add the pockets as i was doing the main construction but i got too excited and forgor#so theres gonna be some seam ripping but nothing too bad
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Hey (^-^)/
I have a question: What did Atsushi mean in this panel when he said "the fact that you're the one standing in front of me"? I don't get it.
And why Akutagawa's face seem conflicted by hearing that?
I'm not entirely sure - that line is fairly ambiguous - but I can share my own interpretation! Here, Atsushi is trying to explain Akutagawa that the reason why Dazai has not acknowledged him yet is not, as Akutagawa is convinced of, because he isn't strong enough, and that his being powerful is actually of no interest to Dazai. Atsushi suggests that there's something else Dazai is waiting for Akutagawa to grow better at before acknowledging him, and Akutagawa will only be able to see what it is by keeping himself from killing (likely, what Atsushi is thinking Akutagawa lacks is moral virtue to some extent, compassion and humanity. I feel like that's also consistent with how Dazai sees Akutagawa in Beast, and what believes is wrong with him: “It’s human nature to lash out with violence. But if hurting others is your natural instinct… then you are nothing more than a mindless beast” (Dazai, Beast novel, page 18) ).
Akutagawa so far has believed that everything he could do to be seen by Dazai, was proving his own strength; and that his current situation of not being yet recognized was due to his own limits on that front. With that last line, I think Atsushi is telling him: “The reason you are where you are now [both in terms of his path towards being acknowledged by Dazai and overall current status as conjunction of events that led him to be where he is] has nothing to do with your strength or lack thereof. You're here in front of me [in your current situation that led you to this place in this moment] because there's something you've yet to realize [that would be, once again, that strength is not what Dazai seeks in him but rather for Akutagawa to accomplish a moral step up]”.
Additionally, I think Atsushi might also imply: “The reason you're here in front of me, the reason Dazai decided you had to be here, is so that you could see something you still can't grasp”, since both sskk and the bsd author seem to be fairly assured that everything sskk themselves do is because Dazai wanted them to, in some sort of weird determinism (“Why were you so eager to put Akutagawa-kun against that tiger lad? [...] How long have you been aiming for this scenario?” “From the time I met Atsushi-kun.” (Hirotsu, Dazai, chapter 37); “Why do you think Dazai-san put us together?” (Atsushi, chapter 51); “Dazai-san didn't abandon me after all. This was all a trial. A guidepost, lined with wailing.” (Akutagawa, chapter 85); and even more examples could be made; everything sskk do, seems like it's because Dazai wanted them to at some point.)
The reason why Akutagawa looks so conflicted, then, is probably out of bewilderment for Atsushi's words, for the revelation that proving his strength - that is everything Akutagawa has tried to do since meeting him - is actually not the way to make Dazai acknowledge him.
Here's an alternative fantranslation to the official English translation + the raws of that page for further insight :)
#atsushi nakajima#ryūnosuke akutagawa#sskk#shin soukoku#osamu dazai#bsd#bungou stray dogs#bsd ch 53#mine#people asks me stuff#Tbh I never even stopped to reflect on that line a lot before getting this.#I'm pretty sure my brain automatically went#“Oh that's Atsushi and Akutagawa talking their own language no one but them can understand. Okay <3 ”#So actually thank you for making me think of it more seriously ajhvgasjfyvaslwkfiugbha#But to be fair now that I think about it I recall being very puzzled by Atsushi's words as well when I read them for the first time#Re exploring the sskk scenes in the manga is always fun I don't do it enough </3#Mmhh#I don't necessarily dislike the dd (Dazai Determinism)#Not that it's any nice - sucks to be them sskk -‚#but I think it makes for some very compelling dynamics‚ sskk being the pawns unable to defeat their own narrative
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Listening to the isat soundtrack on shuffle is awesome until you get hit with i wont let you go home and how can you help me stardust back to back
#one guy cannot have 2 banger but heart wrenching boss themes its not fair share some siffrin#isat#in stars and time#isat spoilers#one time i got its finally over... (song that plays after the king) and ...isn't it over? (song when the head housemaiden starts to break)#and that was just pretty cool because theyre not actually next to each other on the sound track#(okay well i mean they *are* buuut theyre the last song on disc 1 and the first on disc 2 respectively + it was shuffled)
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GIVE BRAIN A HORSE-- (I'm joining the horseposting, haha.)
---
“…Master Brain. What is that?”
Brain, for his part, didn’t seem particularly concerned with the situation. He wasn’t even looking at Sigurd, calmly petting the—the creature he’d apparently decided to lead into Headquarters. “A horse.”
“…Right. I…suppose I can see that.” Sigurd had the vague urge to rub his temples. Or shake Brain, maybe—but then, he supposed he probably wasn’t supposed to do that to a Union Leader, so vaguely-strained questioning would have to do. “And…why is it here?”
“Followed me.”
“From where?”
Brain finally looked at him and grinned, smile just a little too sharp for his liking. “Don’t worry about it.”
…He was going to have to file an incident report later, wasn’t he.
“Master Brain,” Sigurd said, trying very, very hard to keep his voice level and failing, “you didn’t…steal this, did you?”
“Not as far as you’re aware. Her name’s Lux, by the way.”
“Master Brain—”
“She belonged to Romulus and I owed Remus a favor.” Brain shrugged, like that was a normal thing to do, but Sigurd guessed he didn’t really know what the Union Leaders had done on their off-time. (It was such a strange image that it threw him for a moment. The Union Leaders, engaging in petty theft and pranks? It didn’t fit the image that had been built up in the stories.)
“What would Master Ephemer think,” Sigurd started, trying to get his train of thought back on track, “if he found out you’d stolen someone’s—”
“He’d help, probably.” Brain tilted his head, looking thoughtful. “Maybe not successfully.” Gently, he tugged on the horse’s halter, and it took Sigurd a moment to realize he was bringing her closer, wait no he didn’t know how to act around horses— “She’s not going to hurt you,” Brain said, face crinkling in amusement that seemed sincere rather than the strained sort of thing Sigurd usually saw. “Look, just pet her. She’s pretty gentle.”
The horse nosed his shoulder with a quiet snort, and Sigurd side-stepped a little, hands pulled in. It made her nervous, apparently, because she pulled her head back quickly, ears flicking and hooves tapping an unsteady sort of beat. Brain shushed her, and she calmed quickly, but Sigurd stared at her with trepidation.
…Of all the things the Union Leader had done, this was probably one of the strangest. He’d ditched meetings, harassed the Founders, and generally tried to stick his nose in places he probably shouldn’t, but those all felt some degree of normal. Frustrating, but Sigurd knew how to deal with that. He wasn’t sure he knew how to deal with a horse.
But he looks happy, something in the back of his mind whispered, and—so he did. Brain wasn’t watching him; his expression had gone soft, hand carefully stroking the horse’s muzzle. He looked more relaxed than Sigurd had ever seen him.
He could feel something in him crumbling, and he knew he was going to regret this later, but he sighed, his whole body sinking with the sound. “Well,” he said, resigned, “do we need to find somewhere to hide her?”
Brain glanced at him, head cocked and eyes narrowed.
“…We’re just taking her to the meeting, aren’t we.”
(It was almost worth the odd stares and whispers throughout the meeting to watch Brain introduce the horse to his new-found friends later. Almost.
The fact that Brain apparently didn’t know how to ride the horse, however, felt a little more vindicating.)
#kingdom hearts#kingdom hearts fanfic#khml#brain#sigurd#brain deserves a horse!!#...i DID think about drawing something instead#but uh. i can only draw One Thing#and i'm not sure a horse would fair too well with a bunch of dragons#...on the other hand. 'horse that ditched its knight to hunt dragons on its own' could be pretty funny#brain adopts it. it's entirely unwilling to be here#it keeps trying to fight him#brain thinks it's funny#everyone else is concerned
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Feast your eyes! My pride stars :)!
#pride stars#origami#paper craft#paper stars#handmade#arts and crafts#so it was my cities pride yesterday and I spent the ENTIRE month of July making these lil stars to give out to people!#it went really well actually#I was saying donations appreciated but not mandatory and some people looked so happy just to have some stars!!!#some people were SO generous too like oh my god????#I think there was only one experience I disliked during the event where I was vaguely swarmed and people were helping themselves but#yknow we all get excited haha#got a really cute mushroom bracelet as a trade as well!!!#I have a fair few leftover - lots of aro and ace ones#couple of bi and a couple of pan#ZERO non-binary I should've made more!!#nd obvs some rainbow and trans cause I made the most of them#I'd say lmk if you're near me and you can have some but I am pretty sure none of you know me irl so you can't have any I'm afraid#oh also worth saying - I made the stars I could with the papers I had! Bought purple and pink but I did not try more complex flags cause#I mean. I couldn't really afford to haha?#maybe next year I'll try the lesbian flag too!#ok bye xx#trade-marked
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Write the autitic c!dream essay🙏🙏
Why I think c!Dream is Autistic - Part 1
[context]
[Part 1] - [Part 2] - [Part 3]
Welp… I guess while on the topic of neurodivergence now is as good as time as any to do this. So, at long last…
Since every version of this essay ended up way too long I’m going to break it into 3 parts, and I'm going to make more generalized statements for the sake of brevity. So, if there are things about this or autism in general you would like more clarification on or know more about, my asks are always open (though I do ask that you please wait to flood my inbox until after you’ve read all parts). I would also like to add that for the same reason of length, I am not going to go in depth on all of the facets of autism and diagnosing it. I am not a psychologist, and this essay is not about defining autism and going into full depth about what it is, but about the specific aspects of Dream and the dsmp that I think point to autism, based on what I know and more importantly my experiences as an autistic person. Having said that, just so we are on the same page - Autism means that our brains are literally structured differently (also known as neurodivergent), which means we think differently and process the world differently, it does not make us inferior or broken or less than larger society (neurotypicals), it only means we are human beings who are wired differently.
Now, for part 1 I’m going to briefly go into the traits Dream has that I think point to autism, keeping in mind that this is not necessarily all inclusive, these are not necessarily autism exclusive, and some of these can be effected with masking and personal growth.
Highly obsessive - in general and for specific interest, to the point of not taking care of oneself, like forgetting to sleep, eat, shower, or just not caring enough to do so.
Strong willed, determined and dedicated - not going to give up easily, willing to stay up training or farming for long hours or put in the work especially for our obsession. Our priorities aren’t always productive, but we are not ones for laziness.
Isolated - outcast, odd ball out, set apart, on the outskirts, loner, alone even if surrounded by people.
Highly intelligent - smart, clever, big brained, skilled, knowledgeable to the point of ground breaking (ex: Einstein, Elon Musk, Michelangelo, Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci…etc)
Trouble with emotions and feelings - from recognizing them, processing them, letting ourselves experience them, understanding them, leading us to often then lash out, explode, or have a meltdown.
All about the facts and truth - sometimes to an abrasive and candid point where it can become more important than how people feel or the main point.
Logical mindset - making decisions based on logic and strategy rather than on emotions to the point of struggling to understand others when they follow no such logic
“Black and White” thinking - right and wrong, good or bad, yes or no, on or off, love it or hate it, friend or foe. Everything is in extremes.
Rule follower, one to fight for justice and for others - we are stubborn and in our strong conviction we are out against injustice and misinformation, fairness and what is right and true is imperative.
Unable to forgive and forget - hard to let things go. Often have good memories and are able to remember things with the same detail as if it were happening again and not years ago. It doesn’t really fade with time and that makes us easily hold grudges, and hold things and behavior against people.
Resistant to change - doesn’t matter how big or small nor whether it’s good or bad, we are enemies of change. We like to understand so uncertainty and new things are often disagreeable.
Able to recognize patterns - able to see the full picture, see history repeating itself and people’s behavioral tendencies, which makes us good at scheming and masterminding. We hate change so we want to predict things to avoid being surprised.
Trouble articulating our point - stuttering and stumbling over our words, because our brains are moving too fast for our mouth to keep up and it’s hard to explain ourselves because our brain works differently. (we’ll talk about this more in part 2)
Struggle with body language? - I mean it’s hard to say given the Minecraft format, but to me wearing a mask could be to avoid having to make eye contact (which I hate) and appropriate facial expressions and stuff like that, which are pretty important in diagnosis. So while some headcanon that Dream wears a mask because he's too expressive and doesn't like being exposed I actually think it might be the opposite and saves him a lot of effort and brain power to not have to worry about his facial expression. :)
Stimming - (yes an ADHD thing but also an autistic thing and it's very common for someone to be both - like me ;D) vocally and physically often when more stressed, again hard to say for a Minecraft man, but I see him constantly moving like pacing the cell or jumping around and stuff as stimming and he does vocally stim on occasion as well.
Or in other words - Reasons I think c!Dream is autistic:
C!Dream = me, me = autistic -> c!Dream = autistic… boom, shortest essay ever XD lol jk
But seriously it is a major reason. I read a tumblr c!Dream character analysis (don't remember who's) back before I even joined tumblr and related soo much, which is pretty concerning when you relate to a villain - because like wait does that make me a psychopath? but I have empathy and I care and I'm out to hurt people so why would I relate so much? And that's when I realized I think it is because he’s autistic like me so we think a like... I mean seriously the similarities are scarily uncanny down to things that have happened to me in real life…
Anyways, thank you for reading. I hope I made sense and got the idea across even by not going into super detail on all the points.
#well I better post now at 1am before I waste my gumption…#welp for part 1 we ditched essay format for list and it's still long lol...oof XD#did someone order an essay?#yea I hope this counts... it's just part 1 to be fair... and like I doubt yall wanna read the oneshot length ones I wrote... it's ridiculou#besides I suspect strongly that yall are gonna destroy my inbox so I figured I'll probably cover more things in other essays lol XD#autistic c!dream#dsmp#dsmpblr#c!dream#dreblr#let me cook#this is fine#dream smp#autism#guys when I tell you I've been nervous about this it is an understatement but look I made it out of the innitors pretty unscathed so it fin#dsmp dream#gonna be honest I’m not happy with it but also I may never be and this is 8 times the charm lol…#may need to add part 4 of just personal life events that are like similar and stuff …. hmm
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"Tang Sanzang is completely peaceful all of the time!" Bah. True journeyheads know about that time he got two guys tortured to death and his "smashing yaoguai into meat patties is okay actually" mindset.
#journey to the west#jttw#xiyouji#tang sanzang#tripitaka#to be fair it's more of a 'lets people get killed' situation#and definitely far from true in all cases#and it would be pretty hard to have anything for hatred for the guys who murdered your dad & assaulted your mom for well over a decade#or for the monsters who just wanted to eat or assault you#but still#let this monk be fucked upppppp#one of my greatest wishes for a jttw retelling#is that one would tackle the underlying implication that for all tsz's genuine desire to do good and be peaceful#swk does kind of let the monk vicariously experience what life is like when you're powerful and violent enough to get your way#something very fascinating & disturbing in the push and pull between the two#the journey & all the good it led to wouldn't have happened without tsz's determination to see it through & help people along the way#but it wouldn't have succeeded without swk's tricks and violence either
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okay here's my main group of ocs stands :]
voulez-vous and förutan vind got some small design updates :) they look much better now i think ^_^ and yes calamari's stand has two acts because i thought it would be fun
#mainly i removed a bunch of junk from förutan vind like extra ropes on the joints that bothered me#also it had little anchors on its arms but i didnt like them#andddd voulez-vous colouring was kind of boring before and i didnt really like it#but this new one is so much more fun AND IT GLOWS#sunnanvind pretty girl youre perfect as you are <3 i just reused old art of her teehee#WELL ACTUALLY to be fair. i added the little mouth thingies that the sharks have lol#jjba oc#jjba stand oc#fan stand#how do i even tag stand ocs . whatever#förutan vind#voulez-vous#<- sorry abba fans im making it annoying#sunnanvind#waterfalls#corps.oc#corps.art#I FORGOT I HAD THIS IN MY DRAFTS AND I NEVER POSTED IT. ANYWAY HERES STANDS#all of these are on my artfight too with some extra crumbs of info!
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How do you feel about Jack Drake?? What are your thoughts on him and Tim’s relationship?
Anon, I hope you were interested in a novel, because look, I am fascinated by Jack Drake. He’s key to a whole lot of what I find compelling about Tim as a character, and if I were in charge of DC, I’d bring him back to life. This would make Tim unhappy but would IMO make for good plotlines.
Jack and Tim’s relationship is Complicated (TM)...
Jack and Tim hug in Nightwing 20 / Jack impulsively yanks a TV out of the wall in Robin 45 / Tim grieves in Identity Crisis
“I could tell the truth. But I don’t.” - Robin 66
...and it involves a whole lot of Tim lying, and feeling guilty about lying, and thinking about telling the truth, and choosing again and again to keep lying.
And I think that’s great.
Below the cut:
Shorter version - key points about Jack
Really long version - my gentler take (vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports) vs. my harsher take (Jack has some major flaws)
Final thoughts
Shorter version - key points about Jack:
He’s a bad parent. He’s self-centered, he consistently prioritizes his own comfort and interests over his son’s, and when upset, he does things like order Tim off to boarding school.
But he’s never a bad parent in an actionable way. He’s not like David Cain or Arthur Brown, who are abusive monsters. Jack’s not a monster! He just...kinda sucks.
He genuinely loves Tim. If Jack’s aware that Tim’s disappeared or is in trouble, he’s always worried and upset. He periodically resolves to be a better dad, and IMO he’s always sincere.
And Tim loves him, a lot. Tim’s protective of him and worries about him when he’s kidnapped or in danger, and when they’re reunited, Tim’s really relieved and usually hugs him (and Jack hugs back!).
...But they have very little in common, and that’s a problem. Jack doesn’t value the things that Tim values, or respect the people that Tim admires, or care about the things that Tim’s interested in. Tim lies to him a lot, but that’s partly because he correctly guesses Jack wouldn’t respond well if he knew the truth of what Tim’s up to.
The Batfamily is a surrogate family that Tim’s drawn to because of the ways his real family doesn’t meet his emotional needs…but also he feels guilty about that and disloyal. (And to the extent that his dad recognizes what’s going on, he's jealous and resentful!)
Very long version:
(LISTEN I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS)
Okay! So first: Jack’s a character who IMO is pretty up for interpretation. You can interpret him very charitably, and make excuses for the bad behavior, and fill in the blanks sympathetically when situations are ambiguous; or you can interpret him uncharitably, and emphasize the bad behavior. I don’t think either approach is invalid - it depends on what kind of story you’re interested in! I have enjoyed Bad Dad stories and also stories that redeem Jack.
My personal take on canon is that Jack and Tim’s relationship is in a gray area. Jack's definitely neglectful, and he does prioritize other things over Tim, but he’s never so bad that Tim can easily reject him, and he's never so bad that Bruce could justify taking Tim away. He's just...not great. Tim loves him, and feels loyal to him, but it’s a very mixed-up complicated love.
I have a gentler take and a harsher one which I switch between as the spirit moves me. xD
My Gentler Take (tl;dr: vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports)
Here’s the core conflict: Jack and Tim are very different people with different values. Tim idolizes Bruce and Dick and vigilantism, and secretly gets involved, knowing his dad will hate it. He gets increasingly wrapped up in his secret world and lies to his dad...because if his dad finds out, he’ll make Tim quit.
This is a great setup for an ongoing comic. It’s practical, because it provides endless potential for plotlines, and it’s nicely thematic, because it maps closely onto relatable real-life situations with extracurricular activities:
Tim the drama nerd whose dad thinks he’s playing football and not in the school play;
Tim the closeted-queer kid secretly getting involved in his school’s politically-active Gay-Straight Alliance;
Tim the choir kid whose dad only values making money and wants him to go into the family business (and Tim keeps promising himself he'll give up choir soon, definitely soon, but maybe he'll stay in just a liiiittle longer, because they need him, you see, the last tenor left town, so...);
Tim the computer geek with the sports-obsessed dad (this one’s just canon);
etc. etc.
The extracurricular metaphor works pretty well for Tim’s relationship to vigilantism. Tim's involved in his "extracurricular" because he genuinely thinks it's important and fulfilling, and he values it and wants to be good at it. He idolizes Bruce and Dick because they're good at it. He's been collecting information about it since he was a little kid, and hiding it from his parents because he knows they wouldn't approve. And mayyyybe there's also an element of low-key rebellion against his dad, and maybe that's secretly part of the appeal. And yet also as Tim gets more and more invested, he starts to daydream: maybe I could tell my dad and he'd be proud of me and supportive. But he doesn't, because actually he knows his dad would be upset and angry and make him quit.
And - again, just like with lonely kids and extracurricular hobbies - one of the things that happens is that Tim starts getting his unfilled emotional needs met ... by people he knows through this secret hobby. And people like Bruce and Dick start turning into a surrogate family. Which Tim feels guilty about. And also as Tim gets more and more wrapped up in their world, he has to lie to his dad even more, which means the distance between Tim and his dad gets bigger and bigger and more and more unfixable.
I love this dilemma. It's simple, it's recognizable, it provides endless sources for conflict, and there's no obvious solution! Tim can't tell Jack: he'll make Tim quit! And Tim doesn't want to quit, because he loves choir / art / theater / whatever. Yeah, it’s difficult, and there are challenges, and sometimes he has doubts...but at the end of the day, he cares about it a lot. And everything he values is there, and all the people he admires and cares about are there, and all he wants in the world is to feel like he's one of them and belongs there. So he has to lie, even though he doesn't want to lie, and he feels guilty about it...
...but also he ends up lying more and more.
(Sidenote: I think it's important that Tim chooses to keep lying - Tim's narration often glosses this as "I have to lie to my dad," and that's certainly how it feels to Tim, but this... isn't quite true. He has to lie to his dad, because if he doesn't, his dad will get mad at him and try to stop him, not because he literally has no choice about it.)
Other Reasons Why I Like The "Secret Extracurricular" Interpretation
(tl;dr it complicates not just Tim's relationship with his dad, but also all his other relationships)
Tim's problems have some obvious parallels to Steph and Cass, who both become vigilantes while rejecting their evil supervillain dads. But Jack isn't evil. And that means the Tim-and-Jack relationship is ambiguous and complicated in ways that I like. Steph and Cass can just leave their Bad Dads in prison, and say good riddance, and feel very righteous and triumphant about it! Tim’s more complicated. Tim gets into vigilantism ostensibly out of duty and altruism, but secretly, he's also involved for straight-up selfish self-fulfillment reasons. He's lonely, and bored, and his life feels pointless, but he thinks that Bruce and Dick are cool and amazing and he wants to be a part of the things that they do. When his dad gets jealous of Tim’s relationship to Bruce, and feels like Tim’s looking for a surrogate family, he’s... not wrong.
And the ways in which Jack is not Actionably Bad complicate things from Bruce's POV. If Jack was a straight-up villain, it’d be an easy call to keep in touch when Jack finds out and makes Tim quit...but he’s not a villain, not really. So what do you do? Do you try to surreptitiously stay in touch with Tim even though you’re ignoring his dad’s express wishes and thus forcing Tim to sneak around? Do you respect his dad’s wishes and stay away from Tim even though you have a years-long relationship at this point?
Again: a bit similar to the extracurricular analogy. Say you’re the choir director and you’ve built this whole relationship with a kid in the choir, and you’re an important mentor to him and you care about him etc. etc. etc.... and then right before a big performance, his dad finds out he’s been secretly involved, and yanks him out. How would you react? Well, maybe kind of in some of the ways Bruce reacts. You replace him. You’re annoyed with him. You miss him. You want him to come back. You’re also worried about him. You’re upset with his dad. But also... what should you do, exactly?
Bruce and Alfred and Dick care about Tim as if he were part of their family, but he’s not part of their family, and there’s a lot of interesting tension there.
My Harsher Take
Jack never hits his son. But his temper is a big deal.
In his worst moments, he takes out his anger on Tim’s stuff - wrecking his room, or ripping his TV out of the wall and confiscating it. When he’s worried about Tim, he usually expresses that fear by yelling at him / punishing him / sending him away - threatening to send him to boarding school in Metropolis in Robin III, or threatening to send him to military school abroad in Robin 92, or actually forcing him to go to an all-boys' boarding school post-NML.
This is bad behavior! It is Not Good!
And you can easily connect the dots to a bunch of Tim’s terrible coping mechanisms, like the constant lying and or the fact that Tim’s go-to methods for dealing with interpersonal conflict are 1) repress it and pretend it never happened (most of his fights with Bruce), 2) withdraw from the relationship until he can pretend the conflict doesn’t exist (when his friends get mad at him in YJ, he quits the team for a while), or 3) literally run away from home.
Also, Jack is a Manly Man with firm opinions about how men behave vs. how women behave, and he thinks boys shouldn’t be scared and thinks Tim should date hot girls and pushes Tim to work out and wants him to play football and expresses period-typical sexism, etc. etc. etc. ... and though obviously this wasn’t what the writers had in mind at the time, all of that is certainly interesting to read backwards in the light of Tim as a queer character.
More Disorganized Thoughts on Jack Drake
Tim’s our hero, so we’re naturally more sympathetic to him, but it’s also true that relationships are a two-way street, and Tim doesn’t value any of the things his dad values, either. Jack at various points is shown to care about grades, business, money, boarding schools, archeology, football, a kind of macho bragging-about-dating-hot-women ethos, and a very public and performative kind of caring. Tim tends to respond with discomfort or disinterest or even disgust. When Jack gets on TV to try to rally the government to save his son from No Man’s Land, Tim isn’t touched—he’s mortified. When Jack makes some bad investments and loses money, Jack’s deeply upset and his self-image is majorly impacted, and far from being sympathetic, Tim’s annoyed and kind of contemptuous of the idea that this is a problem. Jack thinks fishing in the early morning and going to tennis matches is a fun father-son activity; Tim finds it exhausting and tedious. And so on.
This means that Tim often longs to be closer to his dad in theory, but this longing is more tied to fantasy than to reality. He rarely seems to enjoy spending time with His-Dad-The-Actual-Person. So for example, when Tim’s deadly ill with the Clench, he has an extremely poignant fever dream about telling his dad the truth and getting hugged…even as he insists in real-life to Alfred and Dick that he does not want them to tell his dad what’s going on.
The same is true of Jack, who IMO genuinely wants to be closer to his son and is continually declaring that he’s going to turn over a new leaf and get closer to his son…and just as continually backs out of activities or loses his temper when faced with spending time with his actual son.
Tim and his dad sadly get along best—by far—in Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder situations. When Jack gets kidnapped or is in danger, Tim worries for him (and Tim grieves him deeply when he dies). When Tim disappears or runs away, Jack’s genuinely worried about him. So e.g. they have a really moving emotional reunion and hug when the earthquake hits Gotham, and Tim panics about his dad’s safety and comes running home (and meanwhile Jack’s been panicked about Tim’s safety!). It’s the day-to-day, regular life stuff where they don’t connect.
Jack's written quite differently by different writers. Mostly, Tim's parents are at their least likable in his early appearances and early miniseries (this is where you get, for example, Jack and Janet being nasty at each other while a pained employee looks on, and Tim disappointed to once again get news of where his parents are via postcard - "I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be–or when–or even how long!” - and Tim alone on school break, and Bruce and Alfred thinking there's something weird going on with Tim's parents, etc. etc.). Jack's more sympathetic but still often unlikable in most of Tim's Robin solo, and he's almost invisible (but positively treated if he does show up) in Tim's team books.
For obvious reasons, Jack's remembered way more sympathetically after his death. Tim's completely devastated by Jack's murder, which he arrives moments too late to prevent, and he basically never gets over it. We see him grieving Jack again and again in Robin, and also in Teen Titans, and also in Resurrection, and again in the Halloween Special, and again in Batman: Blackest Night, and all the way up to the end of Red Robin. Tim also grieves for an extended time over Janet - he hallucinates a happy reunion with her when he's feverish in Contagion, and hallucinates her in the final issue of Robin, and the reveal-your-buried-emotions song in Robin 102 brings up his grief for her too (meanwhile, other characters dance or laugh or otherwise get giddy). Tim’s grief over his parents’ deaths is intense and long-lasting.
I'm not going to clip comic panels because this is long enough, but if you're curious, here's a nice and fairly lengthy compilation of comic panels with Tim and Jack.
If you're interested in a Jack-centric story with a softer-but-still-recognizably-canon take on Jack, I really like the way Jack’s narration is written in the one-shots Heart Humble (set shortly before Jack dies) and Never a Hero (Ra's resurrects him during Brucequest, and Jack's archeology skills turn out to be unexpectedly useful).
#tim drake#jack drake#ask tag#i wrote this ages ago and now i can't remember what i was going to add to it so oh well draft amnesty? sorry for the long wait anon!! <333#anyway i kept this carefully on topic and virtuously did not derail into talking about the other blorbo but tags are for disorganization SO#for me this kinda half-in half-out place where tim is with the batfamily is SUCH an interesting part of his relationship with dick#and i never stop turning it over in my head#he's kiiiinda replaced dick in that he's robin - but in a very real way he *hasn't* - he's NOT bruce's new son the way jason was#and early!tim makes a BIG POINT of how bruce is not his dad#and i think this relative distance from bruce is a huge factor in why dick is able to build a close relationship with tim at all#(because dick's still pretty estranged from bruce!)#and there's such interesting tension there when dick starts jokingly calling tim ''little brother'' or when villains call them brothers#because they're NOT. increasingly they would both LIKE to be brothers! but dick has zero official standing in tim's life#if tim got hit by a car in his civilian identity bruce and dick wouldn't even be able to visit him without his dad's permission#which jack would be pretty unlikely to give! jack doesn't like or trust bruce!#or like. this is morbid. but if tim died. dick wouldn't even be invited to the funeral you know?#and there's such interesting tension there for me in the contrast between this vigilante relationship that's very very close#but in their civilian lives no one would assume they're anything in particular to each other#anyway the 1st half of tim's robin solo has this thread of tension between tim's family life vs. his vigilante life (plus his mom's death)#and then the second half + red robin has the thread of struggling with grief in a world that's not fair + feeling lost/alone#and these two threads are a big part of my interest in tim as a character! jack's the backdrop that makes a lot of stories possible
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anyways. the "hell" in BFDI is not actually hell but rather an afterlife which resembles hell in looks. the only people who went there were people who died in trash compactors in the charades challenge, and nickel suggets that because they died in a similar manner they were sent to this afterlife. that implies that afterlives seem to be based on how you die, and this is the "crushed in a trash compactor in the charades challenge" afterlife.
#wheucto#wheucto speaks#bfdi#bfdia#bfdi spoilers#bfdia spoilers#has it been long enough to stop tagging spoilers? not sure#NEways#i've heard a lot of people calling it hell. which. fair enough. it does look a lot like hell. i would call it hell in a joking manner#but i do want people to know that i'm pretty sure this ISN'T hell but rather an afterlife which looks like hell. i don't think hell exists#- in the bfdi universe as we know it as a concept. since hell is like where you go as punishment if you've been an immoral person and done#- immoral things but this isn't punishment at all. it's just some place you get sent when you die that has no relation to how you acted in#- life as a person#so this is not hell. this is the “crushed in a trash compactor during charades” afterlife.#well. if nickel's theory is correct#it still could be hell. but i doubt it bc no one else is in there. if this is hell_ there should be more than the#crushed in a trash -#- compactor people.#so i find nickel's explanation better. he might be wrong. but i find it the best explanation
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That's it, next time I make a character for a story, I'm gonna slap them with some kind of chronic pain condition.
If I have to live in the same body with my left foot, I might as well use it as research and make it useful!
Ow.
#shut up paper#to be fair the foot has been manageable lately#it does respond pretty well to the stretches I do#it's just that there's an adjustment period to wearing safety shoes#and now that I'm back to having a job it turns out I've lost my previous ability to safety shoe without pain#and the plantar fascitis is making it extra spicy (on both feet because I'm using the better one to take weight off the bad one and... well)#I was actually fine for most of today's work day!#and it wasn't untill the last hour or two that were actually bad#but hot dang standing on asphalt at the bus stop waiting for my commute?#actual hell. like. so bad#horrible even#exceptionally not good
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This has nothing to do with anything but: you don’t have to be good at anything. Just like fyi. People love to say that “anyone can draw” or “anyone can write” or “anyone can [insert hobby of choice]” and that’s true! You can do anything you want! But you may never be GOOD at it, and that’s still okay!! Practice doesn’t always make perfect, but do it anyway! The point of life isn’t to be GOOD, it’s to feel JOY!
#personal#sorry i was thinking about when i complimented a woman at a craft fair about her crochet stuff#and she asked if i did any myself#and i said no because im pretty bad at it#and she was like ‘well if you can make a chain you can make anything’#and indeed i can make a chain! ive made a lot of chains over my life! but i cannot turn them into anything more than one long single chain#but that’s fine with me#i don’t want to be good at crochet#i just want to do it sometimes and remember my memaw teaching me how to make chains
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Zack is so fun as a character bc when it comes to his relationships, whether the nature is romantic or platonic it still works. The chemistry is so fire, the feelings of love and care are sincere. Zack loves the people in his life, the people loves him back. Whether they're similar to him in personality or complete opposites — it still hits off. Zack and Aerith? The OG, first love forreal. Zack and Cloud? The loyalty, the dedication. Zack and Cissnei? Genuine appreciation and trust. Zack and Sephiroth? Treated each other like actual people. Zack and Tseng? The extra mile, the exception. You genuinely can't lose when it comes to shipping with this guy
#Except for the fact that he's dead. And left the living ones with indescribable amount of guilt and mourning.#Anyways!#Zack Fair#Take a guess who has been diving deep into ship tags w Zack! That's right me!!#So fascinating that his relationship w Tseng is so complicated#Zack is one of the few real friends Tseng cares abt outside the turks#And Tseng simultaneously screwed him over and later on tried to unscrew that screw up#And tbh Zack is arguably the only one who treated Sephiroth like. A normal person 💀#Genesis and Angeal did NOT treat Sephiroth that well even if they cared abt him (*doubting Genesis here*)#And like it's similar to Aerith too. Zack treats her as a person and reassures her it's okay to be weird or different#Zakkura doomed yaoi#And then Cissnei... Like she was pretty warm to him in their early interactions#But it actually took her quite some time to ACTUALLY actually trust him yanno?#And despite no longer having any sort of official obligation towards one another#Zack tries to avoid hurting Cissnei and Cissnei defies orders to help him#Zack's best skill isn't combat it's his ability to befriend others 😭 like if you've played the OG ff7#You'd be boggled seeing CC 😭 lile bro wdym you're close friends with Sephiroth and Tseng?? Zack Fair the man you are
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