#and the personality is pretty much him trying to comically appear more evil than he actually is.

[goidmage]

league of legends is for sick people.

[ultfreakme]

I’ve honestly just learned to ignore and block all of Jay’s haters atp because all they’re doing is just trying to get a reaction out of people, mostly DC editorial. They literally message, tag, make essays and do all kinds of shit nonstop just so they can “persuade” the writers at DC to give them what they want, it’s like watching toddlers pulling a tantrum tbh.

If DC editorial cared even a little bit about what these people want or think they would’ve done something about it by now imho. But they probably see how disgusting, evil, and malicious the hate is that they refuse to give them what they want especially for a character who isn’t even a bad person. No one’s hurting them or stopping them from liking the things they like either so their hate really is unfounded.

It’s pretty sad especially for LGBT+ Asians to see so many people have such a vicious and scathing reaction to him simply existing but when people are that mindlessly hateful there’s really not much else you can do but ignore them, and I firmly believe is what DC editorial has chosen to do. I’m just glad Jay is still even present and being mentioned by name in the stories and I really hope they keep him.

Also people don’t realize Jon’s content is very scarce since he’s usually overshadowed by Clark just like how Bruce’s content overshadows his kids, so I hope DC will try to pump out a little more content for him.

I;m usually pretty good about blocking people, like my block list is super duper long and like in my head, I know half of this is just to get a rise out of Jay fans, but sometimes monkey-brain react. But yeah I totally get you.

DC is terrible at handling POC characters and if they didn't want Jay around, he'd be gone. But he's only becoming more prominent as the years pass and he's even part of an event now (a thing I thought won't happen for another 10 years). Like you have no idea, how much I was shaking, when I saw Jon asking for Jay right after coughing up blood and being brainwashed, and also saying "The Truth" is what's important to BQ. It feels especially significant to Jay because we got spoilers from the Nicole & Sina stream that Jay is very present in Absolute Power: Super Son, when Jon was fighting against the mind control. At least with Jon, it's a bit of a reference to Jay too, thematically.

On an objective level, I know Jay is here to stay. A lot of characters who were introduced around the same time as him, or even later than him have just kinda disappeared. But I am glad DC themselves have clearly chosen to ignore the haters regardless of the spam and the hate.

I think these days, there's people turning against the de-age Jon stans(especially on twitter and a lot on tiktok) primarily because they are.......the way they are......General comic fans who aren't particularly into Superfam are recognizing it. I think this is the best the atmosphere has ever been in terms of support and love for Jay and Jon.

And you're so right on Jon's content being scarcer. Other than Batman and Superman, no other character gets consistent books or a guaranteed, continuous run. The others who do have been around for decades, like Poison Ivy, Harley, Nightwing, etc. Even Wonder Woman doesn't have her Sensation Comics. In terms of a bigger picture, for how recent Jon is, he's doing pretty fantastic. He's always in events, he's got two independent runs, he's getting a new solo issue with AP: Super Son. I think we've been getting at least one solo Jon project a year since SOKE.

Relatively speaking, he's fine. And I think people also tend to assume he's being too overshadowed by Clark because the de-agers just dismiss any run where Jon shows up these days, unless it fits their perception of what he is now.

Like I had this argument with someone twitter, where they said you can't count Beast World, Lazarus Planet, Nightwing, Action Comics, and DC Pride appearances as Jon content because they aren't solo books. Which is frankly absurd. This also involves a lot of Jay mentions and appearances.

Jay, Nika and Nia are the only characters who were introduced around that 2021-2022 time that are still relevant, and they continue to grow. I think outside of Tom King, everyone else have also started to realize the Damian-Jon friendship just can't be taken back to the way it was so they're each getting stories very separate from one another. Even Jon's stories and themes are getting more divorced from Clark.

Thanks for the message!! Sorry about vent posting like that. I hope we get to see and enjoy more of Jay in the future! I think we might be getting a new run with Jon, or more of just Jon, Jay and Nia based on Nicole's projects and hwo she talks about their future (she called Jay 'Gossamer' so I'm hoping we get to see him function more a superhero in the future!)

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

WIP: The Manipulation of the Spider-man Society

Okay! More wips, this time will share a bit of the post I had been talking about of how manipulative is the Spider Society; of course this is a wip so it still needs a lot of polishing.

I have been wanting to do this post for a while, while I don't think we can flat-out call the Spider-man Society a cult, the reality is that the more you look at it, the more twisted and crazy the spider society becomes.

I had seen a lot of people complain about the spiders in the society (specially on Gwen,) of how they could let this happen and could actually believe is a good idea to let people die. And I don't think a lot of these people realize how many of the things about how the organization is managed is built to keep you down and obeying.

I would estate now that a lot of the things that fall under Cult behaviours are kind of inevitable by the nature of the organization.

I also want to emphasize that I DON'T THINK MIGUEL IS EVIL, or is even aware of the damage he is doing by the way he is running things. I truly believe there is no one who believes more in this than him, and all he does is for the common good.

And he is so focused on that goal he doesn't realize the damage he is doing.

Levels of Information

It hasn't been flat out say, but you can see in the movie that there are levels to the amount of information each Spider has on the organization.

Pav is aware that the Spider's society duty is to stop villains and beings from other dimensions from breaking havoc; these people ended up there by accident and need to be contained and sent to their respective universes.

However, he also says "I can do both," meaning that he has to be unaware about living in a canon event, and most probably, the existence of canon events.

Hobie also, seems to be at a somewhat of an intermediate level.

Here, Hobie says how he actually doesn't have much of an idea of what's going on with the organization.

However, he does appear to know more than Pav and Miles.

Here Hobie confirms that he knows that Miles is an anomaly. At least that's the impression he gave me considering the circumstances.

Now, we need to balance a few possibilities here.

Hobie being aware of anomalies but not canon events isn't exactly the weirdest concept; anomalies are entities from another universes coming in, which is of course, not suppose to be normal occurrence in any universe. Miles being bitten by a spider from another dimension would make him an anomaly just for that alone.

Hobie didn't seem particularly surprised when the canon events conversation came up, but I can buy that 1) He knows how to hide his emotions well, which would make sense if his universe is anything similar to what it is in his comics, 2) He may had suspected something like this was going on with the information he has at hand.

This also makes sense with his character, because I am sorry but I really cannot believe Hobie knew Pav was going to go through something traumatic, and he would let it play out.

There is the possibility that he knows about anomalies from Gwen and not the organization itself, this would track considering he has admitted that the only reason he has been hanging around is because he wants to look after Gwen; and probably Pavitr too. He seems to be the type of person who looks after more vulnerable, young people. Which is pretty punk of him.

I don't think people are realize how absolutely TRUE this rings for Cults.

Independently if this is a religious or other type of cult (because yes, not all are religious;) something that tends to happen is that there are levels to what people know; and the longer and more loyal you are to a cult, the more they let you in.

In fact, the loyalty thing is sometimes more important than time; if they see you are committed enough to one level, they may let you in the next bit of information earlier.

This is because most cults start trying to say pretty reasonably things, a lot of them involved the common good and the possibility of a better life; and then the more they convince you to some ideas, the more they let you in the crazy stuff that is actually underneath. And this is on purpose, because a lot of people wouldn't had stayed too long if they knew the bat shit crazy information from the get go.

This is how you get cults like Scientology, where at first people only had a vague idea of what was going on, until some people got in deep enough to extract some information and reveal to the world how nuts a lot of this sounds

- - - - -

And that's the preview! I will need to look to a bunch of sources for this, but I am really excited.

[devilart2199-aibi]

IDW collection reading update! :3 📖

Just finished Phase 2 volume 2! So it's been 2 volumes since the last update? I think?

These volumes included: The Death of Optimus Prime, MTMTE 1-8, RID 1-9, Autocracy and Spotlights: Trailcutter, Hoist and Orion Pax.

My thoughts will be below! To spare people the long scroll! Haha

All MTMTE stories are very enjoyable, I really love the writing for them!! I love that each character has some kind of quirk and they're all so quippy haha.

I really liked the story on Delphi. Ratchet kick some booty! Also got to finally see this Pharma guy everyone draws, he's fine i guess 🙄 /joking I'm a total sucker for an evil doctor. I look forward to his return! That's not it for him right...?

Also got to experience Tarn! He's a cool character! I really like that he's like a Megatron loyalist to the highest regard. Back during "The Last Stand of the Wreckers" they mentioned the Phase Sixers and I kept thinking "Who is this Black Shadow guy????" (He appeared in like 2 frames lol) the Phase Sixers seem like big deals so I was surprised I hadn't seen him before and then Tarn and the DJD took care of him 💀 so there he was lol.

As for RID, BRUH it's wild, everyone's getting their heads exploded 💀 rip Constructions my beloved. Idk how I feel about Arcee just being super violent and murdering so freely. But yay Starscream in an advisory position. This whole IDW collection i feel like Starscream has been very good leaning, like he's been set up this whole time to be a good guy (or at least questioning Megs in a way that just isn't petty and more towards the way of a better future for the people of Cybertron. Like his intentions are there) Of course this could be hindsight bc I've read ahead by accident.

Speaking of good guy-bad guy, before starting this collection I'd seen a bunch of panel's and artwork with Megs on the Lost Light and it would get me thinking "what is acceptable? what is redeemable?" This is sorta random but I think about it when I read these comics like "holy cow this man gets away with a lot" (this kinda goes for everyone tho lol it is war, but oof) I haven't gotten to his reappearance yet, but I'm curious how he gets to "be free" to some degree, after everything. I imagine they put him to use under the eye of Fortmax or Magnus, I dunno. I'll see eventually! Haha.

The Spotlights for Trailcutter(Breaker) and Hoist were great! Orion's was fine. His stories are kinda confusing me now when trying to make a timeline in my head 😂

Autocracy was interesting 🤔 like with the Orion spotlight, timelines are kinda becoming confusing to me, at least through these. I feel like there is some retconning going on as I read. Orion's personality here is also pretty different. He's very erratic. Of course he's under a ton of stress and his whole understanding of the world has shattered, but still, very different than usual! I feel like things happen fast in this story. Orion also becomes Optimus Prime in this one too! Much goes on! Zeta Prime deserves a good pepper spraying to the optics lol I did enjoy the five minutes of the Autobot and Decepticons teaming up to fight him tho haha.

Anyway that's enough rambling for now! It's all very interesting and I'll probably continue reading more over the weekend :>

[mdhwrites]

Five Reasons Why The Owl House Isn't Inclusive

Someone on Twitter asked me to elaborate on the concept of TOH not being inclusive beyond LGBTQIA+ labels, which I'm still happy it has, and I accidentally just made a five part list of them that helped bring together a lot of the points I've tackled not only recently but also in the past so... Why not? Let's actually make a kind of master post for this. These are five reasons why The Owl House isn't inclusive.

The demons

I don't entirely have an order for this, this isn't a top five thing, but we'll start with probably the thing that's the easiest to never even think about: It's treatment of the demons of the Isles of the DEMON REALM.

Every demon in the show is either a gag, a villain... Or the ones who get to have nuance or be good are the ones who pass the most for being 'human', much like how the witches are just humans with pointy ears. The first point is pretty obvious. A lot of random demons show up just to be made fun of for looking strange and then move on.

The villain accusation though is because like 90% of one off villains in this show, with no nuance or real personality and are obviously evil just because they're evil are demons. They also aren't allowed to be amongst the good guys for the most part. In the main cast, the only demon is Hooty who... Boy his treatment is AWFUL. It actually says TERRIBLE things about Luz that she treats him just as poorly as everyone else, especially when someone else manages to befriend him... Which the show uses as signaling to treat Lilith as lesser than the rest because now she's comic relief.

Finally the passing part. This is actually big for the fact that it's actually kind of racist in general. The only demons who are allowed actual nuance are the ones who look the most like witches or humans. Boscha and Steve are both theoretically demons as far as we know and they get kind of redemption arcs but much lesser ones than any more human character and both start as villains. Then there's Vee who is the only unequivocally 'good' demon and her whole thing is that she can pass for a witch or human. In fact, she's better at being human than LUZ is.

So point one and we've already got a weird undercurrent of an entire race being lesser than the conventional ones or... that'd be it if not for

1.5: Take a lot of what I said about demons and apply it to the guys of TOH because they're also treated like shit by the writers. They are either villains or jokes when they first appear and the only exceptions are either still pretty questionable for fitting one those roles... Or dead. You know, like Manny. I think Dell is literally the only ALIVE male character who isn't a joke or villain at one point.

2. Everyone's really fucking pretty. Like... period. Every character in the main cast is ready for the runway. The only main character who really comes close to being transgressive in their looks is Willow and like... Overwatch came out 7 years ago with Mei and that she wasn't a daring design choice then and Willow wasn't four years later. They're the definition of 'more to love'.

Admittedly, I'm normally fine with things just having pretty people. Yokotaro is based for giving an android a big ass because he likes pretty women. I don't think people should feel ashamed for that. It's just a problem when a lot of your contemporary competitors, or even old school competitors like Recess back in the NINETIES, who aren't even trying to preach inclusivity, have better body representation than the show that does.

And yes, that does tie back into the demon thing too as you might notice that all the demons who are accepted by the main cast or given more nuance are the ones who look the most conventionally attractive. Good job show.

3. Nothing here is actually transgressive.

So now we're getting away from looks and the like and actually getting into how well the show sells its theming and representation of those society rejects. The embodiment of this should be Luz if the show wishes to say that it accepts those with weird interests or behave oddly. The only problem is that Luz doesn't. At all. When she is, the things she's transgressive about are things like the safety of others and common human decency.

Luz never really defines herself by her interests after all. Azura exists sure but it gets like... A handful of forced references in S1 and then maybe a couple in S2, often not even by Luz eventually but Amity, which is literally what happens in S3 as she abandons the series effectively. This isn't technically bad. She has a healthy relationship to it for the most part. She doesn't hyperfixate or try to interject it into every part of her life. She's just a nerd... Which wasn't even a brave thing back when I was in High School a decade ago.

Straight up: I was a part of JROTC, the American school fast track into the military and people the first guy I ever heard squeal about how the Avengers were gonna happen, he swears, was a really dude in that ecosystem. He was more of a nerd than any of the drama kids I eventually hung out with and no one cared.

And Luz is less extreme than THAT. The only time she actually is is during her character introduction where she, you know, releases spiders on a classroom and also snakes that attack people. Or how about those fireworks? What was her plan with those? Set them off inside and kill burn down the whole building in the BEST CASE scenario? Because if she's been bullied so much, why would she expect her class to come outside for that? Regardless of the fact that you'd get expelled just for bringing that much gunpowder into school, let alone the other reasons she should have been expelled.

The worst part of all of this though is Lilith. Lilith actually hyperfixates. She cares a LOT about her interests and gets giddy about them... And it's almost always framed as mocking. Everything to do with her interest in history is almost always setup for a joke of some sort or to make her look smaller. She is also more genuinely interested in learning and excited about the Isles and its potential than Luz commonly but when she becomes that character, she isn't taken seriously anymore. She's a joke, just like her best friend Hooty.

So now we've rejected nerds. Can we really go deeper? Well, how about the oppressed themselves?

4: The oppressed are inconvenient to the show so they don't show up.

Because the Isles is meant to be bigotry free except for Belos (an ENTIRELY different topic that has bunches of problems of it own) the only people actually oppressed in the show, who are ever actually forced to conform and mind that conforming, are wild witches. But not only is their plight poorly shown but it's also inconsistent.

Eda is our ONLY representation of it and the show ever struggles to decide how genuinely illegal her presence is. She's allowed to just stroll into an Emperor's Coven funded school and enroll her student there. All it takes for her to be free for a day is burning some posters. But also on the other side, she is literally threatened with death ONLY for the crime of being a wild witch and not the rest of her rap sheet.

And why shouldn't it be? Systemic oppression isn't actually that bad by what the show depicts. Dana herself wrote Reaching Out where the coven system is treated like not going to college instead of a crime so severe as to have the death penalty. She also was one of two writers for The First Day where they treat the coven system as just tradition and not like multi-tracking is going to get these kids literally killed, if Bump himself isn't removed by Belos for enabling people to break the law in an episode where he SPECIFICALLY NEEDS GOVERNMENT FUNDING.

And as the coven system is the only form of oppression, no one has to actually deal with the social and sometimes legal pressures that makes one hide who they are. It can't say anything about those actually struggling because it's inconvenient. You can't just have Luz be accepted by all if her dream makes her illegal to most. You can't have her easily fall in love because that relationship is illegal. You can't have members of the government who have done literal witch hunts just turn around and be good guys because they are active participants in bigotry.

So the oppressed, the people actually other'd by the story that's being told, are pushed out of frame for the sake of the escapist fantasy of Luz getting to runaway to a magical world and save it. They exist solely to claim there IS a reason to fight but actually showing their struggle is one step too far apparently.

5. It leans into extremely harmful stereotypes of people with mental disorders and disabilities. Content warning for those topics until the BUT at the end.

This is the last one because not only do I think it's actually the most dangerous but it's also the most personal as someone who is literally disabled due to their depression. Who had to be really careful when writing about characters in crises not to peddle the same narratives most stories do. Extremely hazardous, painful narratives.

Hunter and Eda are both disabled by the logic of the world they live in. Both are incapable of magic in a world that expects it from them and it causes real difficulty in their lives, forcing them to require equipment and/or meds to aid them in dealing with the struggles these cause, doubly so for Eda because of the curse. It actually is good representation... Until you start thinking about and people start getting 'cured'.

Eda's is definitely more of a mental health disability with how much it's connected to emotions, stress, etc. like that than her physically being incapable of doing more. She suffers from not having enough spoons on any given day to do things with some being worse than others. Again, face value, this looks kind of nice.

Here's the insidious part: When she isn't medicated, when she isn't able to hold back her symptoms... she's literally a monster. Anytime she shows her pain, she is actively dangerous to those around her. Full stop. And there is no way to stop this except her murder. She will ALWAYS be a threat for the rest of her life, even after making peace with her diagnosis. After all, in the final episode she literally has to warn someone to get away because she's going to lose control. Worse yet, part of her getting a reprieve from it is to ruin another life. Lilith is made disabled because Eda's illness is so out of control that only through other people's sacrifices can she find help.

If none of this raises red flags, GOOD FOR YOU! You haven't ever had to be told you might lose your apartment just because they don't want to one day find you having done something terrible because they assume that will eventually happen, SOMETHING THAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME. You've never been told to hide and lie about your condition, to pass as just a normal person, so you could get a job or just so you didn't appear wrong to others. So you don't seem like a ticking time bomb that will explode.

Hunter is a mixed bag comparatively. He's better because his disability, not having magic, isn't inherently dangerous. He's not going to kill anyone someday because of it. The problem is that he is still mostly framed as lesser because of his lack of magic and that he is helpless due to it minus one time he gets to show off his skills while without his staff... To no avail. Otherwise, everytime he doesn't have a staff, he is completely at the mercy of anyone around him. His heart to hear with Willow is even about feeling like less of a person due to it and how they've both struggled with the problem, which, you know, feels disingenuous when at the end the plant goddess forces him through the ground against his will because she has her own magic and is one of the strongest witches on the Isles. It's like telling someone missing an arm that yeah, when you were young you broke your arm too but you got better while the other person is still MISSING AN ARM.

And then he is cured... By the death of his best friend. At which point, he is whole, a complete person with his own magic... at the cost of a life. You know, just like how Eda only got the curse to back off by hurting someone she cared about too.

What the fuck?

And finally, for a bit more mental health rep: Luz. People like to claim that Luz is suffering from trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. in the second half of show and especially S3. The problem with this is that after S2A, Luz is just categorically is a worse person. This culminates in what most consider to be her lowest point, Thanks to Them when she has a speech in class that potentially hints at suicidal ideation. However, in the episode she decides that instead of taking responsibility and trying to fix her mistakes like she used to, she is going to just stay home and let an entire world die. Yes, she frames it as self sacrifice and having learned from her mistakes... but it's not. It's self preservation if anything.

Anyone on the Isles should be presumed dead or something akin to it with what she experienced during King's Tide. Anyone who goes back is going to fight a GOD to try to reclaim it. To have to beat someone who is leagues more powerful than any entity they've even fathomed before. Her friends have been trying to get home and planning for this all with the expectation that Luz would be by their side. But despite the fact that she explicitly blames herself for the situation, she's staying. There's no talk about how this means dooming her found family, how it means breaking up with Amity or anything like that. Her focus is entirely on herself and the mistake she made. They can all go rot while she gets to stay home with her mom.

This doesn't even go into Luz's lower empathy or her CONSTANT LYING that was more prevalent in the second half of the show. It all says one clear thing though in this context: Because she is damaged due to trauma and depression, she is a generally worse person. She cares less about others than a functional person would, as she was a better person before all of this, and loses her morality as she is willing to let people die instead of fix her mistakes.

All of this just makes it bluntly better if Luz isn't actually depressed during this time period and more is just being a bad person because things have gotten tough. Otherwise this feeds into a LOT of bad stereotypes for those who are mentally ill.

BUT.

I do not think any of this is done with malice. Any of the five points. It's just careless. I pointed out the narrative problems for properly including a couple of them and I could easily tell you why others regurgitate issues without blinking for many of the others. It's easy to make these sorts of mistakes if you're not thinking about it. If you're just taking tropes you like instead of trying to craft towards a genuinely coherent theme. It's made worse when you know you're in a landscape that is hungry for representation so being praised for it won't be hard so you don't need to fully commit.

As I said earlier though, this is kind of a problem for a show that wants to be about inclusivity. Who's main themes, at best, are about self actualization and self acceptance. About being who you are and finding the spaces that allow you to do that. And yet... So many are left to the wayside. Abandoned because the show has a very narrow definition of a 'correct' identity and if you don't fill those definitions, it will leave you behind.

If you want a show that actually accepts everyone, that allows for all parts of identity, I've seen only one season of Craig of the Creek and it is EXCEPTIONAL at it. All are welcome in the creek. No exceptions. If someone is alone, it's because of circumstance or self selection and even they are given chances to be a part of the community.

I wish TOH had believed in something even close to similar.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[gavillain]

TAGGED: TEN CHARACTERS YOU IDENTIFY WITH (&&&either add what you admire about each, or what it is that connects you to them!)

I never really saw myself as a hero or identified as one, so all of mine are villains. I don't necessarily think that I'm an evil person or that I'm not a good guy or nice person IRL, but for whatever reason, heroes just don't really do it for me. I'm drawn to the villains because they're such individuals. They're theatrical and dramatic in a way that's fun and engaging, they're confident, they're intelligent, they go after what they want, they're not afraid to be leaders and take control, they're either queercoded or explicitly queer, and they have a dark and elegant sense of style and flair - and all of that is what I really value and seek to emulate and incarnate in my day to day life. All of that applies to ALL of them, but here's why each individual one is on here.

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty/Kingdom Hearts) - My favorite and the one who is the most me of any of them. I'm generally pretty level headed and having a grand old time doing what I love, but if I get provoked, it's fire breathing dragon time. I have a tendency to be petty, and I have a very low tolerance for disrespect and thoughtlessness. I'm generally content to be kind of isolated up on my own proverbial mountain top, but I have a soft spot for my "familiars" and animals that I keep close. Sometimes overconfidence gets the better of me in the face of my own "Organization XIII"s but I always land on my feet. I also can be a bit of a control freak, a bit bossy, and a bit self-centered at the worst of times, and, well, that's her whole thing XD

Jafar (Aladdin) - To the people who don't know me well, I can appear to be a quiet and no-nonsense strict vizier, but to my personal "talking parrots" who I show the real me, they know I'm a dramatic goofball with a dark mind. I always find myself wanting more and more of the things that I enjoy and energize me to the point where sometimes I overindulge and find myself trapped in a "lamp" of my own making. I also really relate to his deleted song "Why Me" about growing up feeling unappreciated by my peers and carried down by people who were less than worthy of my time and efforts.

Loki (Marvel comics/2011-2013 MCU) - Loki's entire plot in the first Thor movie is one great big "Does this remind you of anything? HINT HINT" with being a gay allegory, and it hit me right at the same time I was coming out so I felt a strong bond with him and drew a lot of strength from him at the time. The way he embraces everything bad anyone has ever said about him and reclaims it to be a part of his own power is very much I try to live my life and why I'm so comfortable with my own flaws and "darkness." I have a mischievous and playful side reminiscent of him, and also just like him, I can be a full tilt diva who has to make a production out of everything (I actually came out as gay on a literal stage).

Hook (Once Upon a Time) - Firstly, we look the most alike of any of these guys. I've cosplayed him many times because of that. I like to think of myself as devilishly handsome, and I love me a good innuendo or sex joke. But I'm not just a sexual person, I also have a vibrant romantic side. And if anyone messes with the people I love, it's all over. I will launch into a centuries long revenge quest for the ones I love, and you don't wanna be on the other side of that. Oh, but I was also raised to be a gentleman and behave accordingly.

Grimhilde (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) - I like to be the best with the things that I'm good at, and I want to be praised as the "fairest one of all" with regards to my talents. And, unfortunately with that, sometimes I have a bit of trouble embracing those who rival me in the things I'm good at, and that can take me to some dark places. I love witchcraft and working with the esoteric, and I love dressing up in costumes and "disguises" like she does. I also have a dark sense of humor that comes out around those who I allow to see my "old hag" form.

Ursula (The Little Mermaid) - Pat Carroll described Ursula as an ex-Shakespearean actress who sells used cars; I'm an ex-theater kid who sells real estate and works with binding contracts on the daily. I love doing voice impressions and voice acting, and the way I connect to characters and people is most immediately through the voice. Also her relationship with her sister Morgana most directly mirrors my relationship with my brother (I'm the Ursula, he's the Morgana).

Russell Edgington (True Blood) - I'm a Southerner born and raised (he's from Mississippi and I'm from Georgia), and we're both gay men in relationships who care very deeply for our partners. Russell certainly speaks to my wacky and fun loving sides, but he also kind of reflects my cynicism towards humanity and the state of the world. We both care about the environment and have some righteous rage over the ecological damage humanity is doing. Vampires in True Blood in general also kind of mirror the experience of being queer in America, and that also comes into play.

Hades (Hercules) - I feel like my relationships with my extended family mirrors Hades's with the Olympians pretty accurately. I have the glorious intersection of dad jokes and dark humor that makes Hades so stinkin' funny XD I'm generally a cool and collected guy, but as previously mentioned, I DO have a bit of a temper that can explode with fiery brilliance. I'm an Aries - it's part of my star sign description XD I also have a strong connection to Greek mythology and that interest, so Hades acts as a connection to that as well. And, hey, I roleplayed as him online more than anyone else, so he and I are tied to each other in a special way through that.

Dr. Doom (Marvel comics) - I've always been "the smart one" in my family. I always excelled at school, I've always won at Jeopardy, I always am the go-to walking encyclopedia for my family to consult, I'm reasonably good at chess. Point is, I connect to Doom by feeling like the smartest guy in the room, but also, circling back to a similar point with Grimhilde, I'm not often the most comfortable with NOT being the smartest guy in the room. I can't stand a "Reed Richards" trying to show me up XD I also am not afraid to admit that I'm a bit of a mama's boy XD I take after my mother more than anyone else, and I've always idolized her. Doom went to Hell and back to fight the devil himself to save his mom, and I'd like to think I'd do the same if put in the same circumstance.

Fish Mooney (Gotham) - I love pretty things. Beautiful sparkly aesthetically pleasing things like her myriad of outfits and her nightclub's décor. I'm very particular about the aesthetics surrounding me and making sure it reflects who I am. I also connect with Fish over our value system - she's all about building a sense of "family" with those she's close to, whether they're by blood or by choice, and I've always felt very strongly that family is who you choose. She looks out for her own first and foremost, and so do I. I also have a competitive nature and like to climb to the top when I can, and being a gay man in settings dominated by straight people often feels similar to Fish being the only black woman in the straight white male dominated mob.

tagged by: @marciabrady

tagging: @eerieeyes, @tampire, @violetrose-art, @gordhanx, @heddagab, @violethowler, @101bangzoom, @corvidreavenart, @thefinalboss387 and anyone else who feels like doing this (and no pressure to you guys if you don't want to either)

[theoversky]

The fact that t0mberly is literally “teen love/first lovers” thing and the fans can’t get over it always catch me. How many couples you know from your school that are together until nowadays???

I mean, they literally met each other at 16 years old (in comics, 15) and I really doubt they lost their virginity together. When I was at high school literally 1 couple lasted until today (I mean, I gratuated at 2008) and we had like 150 people at senior high in each senior class, at least 4 couples dated at this time.

Enjoy that t0mberly happened because they wanted to make Tommy likeable and maybe were afraid since he was under Rita’s spell. In original version we all know the green ranger died and since Tommy got all that popularity, he came back to be propped as leader, most powerful ranger, most pure energy and get the most popular girl of the school (let’s not forget he took not only Jason’s leadership as ranger, Jason’s girl, but also his spot as the quarteback even when he never played football before lol).

So, yeah, I’m for Jimberly and Katherommy. Not only because Jason and Kim are my fav rangers of all, but also because Jimberly was hinted all the way in the show until Tommy appears and they changed plans due, first of all, they were afraid kids couldn’t accept the evil green and made him link to Kim, second because salary war with actors and JDF was already a dad with wife and kid that saw his big opportunity to make money by his popularity in a kid’s show and hold AJJ and David Yost with him. ASJ was a baby with 17 years old with a big ego and so many hours to work and much less money to spend, thing that the ASJ himself said. I won’t take sides here because I can understand both sides (ASJ and JDF) in this case, also it is not a post about the actors, who I know that aren’t saints, none of them.

It’s pretty clear the cliché dynamic between leader jocker x popular pretty girl that existed between Jason/Kim and things were meant to be this way because, at first, Tommy won’t last long in the show. And so is truth what I said, that Tommy took all spotlights and, guess what! Dynamic leader jocker x popular pretty girl!

Also for the things the way happened, made much more sense to me Tommy and Kat to marry and have kids than his highschool sweetheart first love he met at 16. Katherommy has a mature dynamic, where Tommy is more responsible and mature, knowing how to deal with things in his team and personal life. One thing more that made TomKat better (in my POV, of course) is the fact Kat doesn’t was always in dangerous screaming for Tommy to save her, even when she was interested in him since the first time they met and she was under a spell + he was dating Kim or after she joined officially the team.

Don’t ever come to me to say Kat is a replace to Kim in Tommy’s heart. Kat was always brave, good and never ever tried to take Tommy from Kim, even when they dated long distance, she was always respectful and polite. Also risked her life UNMORPHED to make spelled!Tommy recover his sense when no one in the Zeo team did the same. THAT IS THE WOMAN SHE IS!

Let’s take Turbo movie again as example! They aren’t in school anymore, Kat is already working as teacher and we see clear as water that all of them are much more mature and trying to live the best they can with the responsabilities they have. Nothing is more clear than Jason going into Kim and Kim running after Jason in any dangerous situation posible + the final winning scene they party together. Same goes to TomKat after the same final winning scene, there’s no a SINGLE moment Tommy look after Kim to party with her or vice-versa. Jimberly it’s a love story that merge from long date friends that fell in love with each other after so many things they have been throught apart and together, conflicts that are better explained in comics and maybe we will see more about in the upcoming novels.

“The Vows” comics, where we se Katherommy’s wedding, also doesn’t show a sad Kimberly looking her ex marrying the woman he dated for years and reconnect for LOVE after so many YEARS apart and together. TomKat broke to go to university and reconnected after because they never forget each other and it’s more than t0mberly ever got (Kim broke up with him by a letter after 1 year apart, if it isn’t clear enough). Things are settle, Jimberly remains as hint and unofficial, but TomKat is more than endgame and no one shipped it more than JDF and Catherine Sutherland themselves.

And NO, I don’t care about ASJ and AJJ’s beef and the fact they don’t like each other. Much less that AJJ ships t0mberly and ASJ ships Jason/Trini, opinions that are based in their close friendship with respective actors. I love the characters and that’s this post about. All respect and kudos to the actors, but I don’t have to agree with all of them.

Also t0mberly fans can enjoy AU! Universe of Olivia Oliver and Jimberly fans can enjoy AU! Universe Power Rangers (2017) and everything is ok, just don’t come at me to say Jimberly came from nowhere. There is a huge background and a beautiful love story if they want to tell in novels, I hope they don’t put more ex actors to involve in anything relationed to MMPR, because Tommy was always the most explored character from OG 6, after JDF’s passing I expect they set his character the way it is, let Tommy age, happily married with his family (Kat and JJ), like JDF himself WANTED and CHOSE. That’s all.

[hn-undercover-9503]

Some HOTP character things because I'm spiraling but I can't draw so I'm just gonna ramble about them for a while

About Martyn:

He's about average height, which annoys him because almost every person around him is taller than him except for Impulse

He doesn't tend to care much about his appearance beyond just running a comb over his hair a couple times in the mornings

I think this was only mentioned briefly in the story, but during our years apart, Ren sent him a necklace in the post; he couldn't wear it while he was in the regiment, but now that he's out he wears it all the time, underneath his shirt normally; it's a really small ruby pendant on a silver chain (Ren didn't realize quite how fancy it was when he sent it because it seemed really understated to him compared to the jewelry he and his father usually wear)

Martyn really, really, really likes wolves; it's maybe a little weird considering he's spent a significant portion of his life now keeping them from entering the outpost, but he's always really liked watching them from afar; he prefers taking the watchtower at nighttime when they start roaming around so he can sit up there and watch them

He still thinks about his friends regularly; he definitely 100% believes they're dead after all this time, but he still thinks back on them a lot, although after a couple of years at the outpost he started accepting what probably happened to them and moved past it

He sees Skizz, Impulse, and Etho as father figures, even if he'd rather jump off the watchtower than admit it

About Ren:

He's such a nerd. Like. That is one of his defining traits for me. He is a nerd through and through no matter the universe, whether it's about video games, shows or comics, DND or TCGs--Ren is a nerd at heart, and in this universe he grew up obsessed with knights, and getting to meet Skizz, Impulse, and Etho and befriending Martyn was like a dream come true for him at the time

Ren is a bit of a people pleaser, although the Commander, his dad, False, and Martyn all constantly try to get him out of this habit because that's not exactly the kind of thing you want a king to have

He also wears his heart on his sleeve, something that's also not exactly the best trait for a king to have; but because of this, most of the people around him usually feel really protective of him, in particular False, Martyn, and the Commander; his father's more the type to try and get rid of this trait in him

He looooooves reading--especially when he was little. When he was a kid, anytime he wasn't working, he spent reading; there were several points where False would find him in the library around midnight-two in the morning reading when he was supposed to be in bed and she would sneak him back to his room. Now, he still reads a lot, but significantly less because he's always super busy with kingdom work; he also will occasionally send Martyn copies of some of his favorite books

His favorite genre is fantasy, specifically those involving classic hero's journey stories; when he was a kid, this favorite was one specific book about a dragon and a knight defeating an evil wizard together

Ren's a pretty tall guy (which bugs Martyn because he's the older one, how come Ren gets to be so much taller than him?)

Ren rips his cloaks falling. A lot. (He's just an awkwardly tall and clumsy guy) Like it's a very frequent problem. Because of this, he has dozens of spares just lying around in his closet. Every month, the palace seamsters give him another box full to replace the ones he probably ripped that month.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do you think there's a connection between the 80s and 90s comics mostly only mentioning him offhand without actual appearances and modern comics like Twojar or One Bad Day making him more violent and increasingly taking away his gimmick ? Because I feel like it's two different approaches to the same idea of wanting to have a villain whose thing is being 'smart' on hold in case they want a story where Batman shows off his mental capabilities but not wanting to deal with everything else that comes with the character like the goofyness or having to come up with riddles that don't suck

oh man okay this is such an interesting question and I'm so excited to be able to revisit it when my reread gets into the 2000s and have more perspective to offer

for the time being I do think that it's fair to say that making the Riddler a central antagonist in a story is challenging because he has, like, a relatively narrow gimmick compared to a lot of other rogues and having to actually come up with riddles is a tall order that a lot of writers simply don't want to fuck with.

personally I think the best way to embrace this is to just acknowledge that the riddles are going to be balls to the wall stupid and let the audience understand that Batman is equally unhinged for being able to solve them at all. Batman '66 is frankly great at this, best exemplified in this scene from the movie that no other Batman adaptation has topped yet:

what are any of you talking about! you sound crazy! they are right though, and that's what living in Gotham does to a motherfucker.

for the record I think Batman Forever also actually does this really well without being quite as unhinged. the riddles are actually pretty solid and straightforward; Bruce solves them easily but the real challenge is in putting them together at the end to figure out who's actually behind everything. (it's Jim Carrey, serving cunt.) it's maybe the only part of the movie that actually shows any restraint at all, and I respect that.

the thing is that this approach kind of falls apart if you want to do a more grounded take on Batman that presents the Riddler as the legitimate threat despite being a man who on purpose calls himself the Riddler. I dog on Batman 2022 a lot but at least there you can (charitably) read Paul Dano's shitty little puzzles as being intentionally messy owing to the fact that his Riddler is, you know, a sopping wet miserable catholic redditor who's really just trying to kiss Batman. I do genuinely like that his master plan is incoherent enough that Bruce doesn't crack all of it and misses vital pieces, it's a nice spin on an inexperienced Batman + the complexity addiction that Riddler schemes are so known for.

and like, to be clear, I do still think that Riddler sucks, but other attempts to make him a serious antagonist are so much worse. you mentioned War of Jokes and Riddles and One Bad Day, the latter of which I do think is just. appallingly misguided on literally every imaginable front and betrays an embarrassing lack of understanding of what people actually like and find entertaining about the character in favor of scrubbing him down to a bog standard Hannibal Lecter-flavored evil genius serial killer manipulator.

which is a fine stock character, where would comic books be without easily recognizable bad guy archetypes, etc, but god, not the Riddler. where the fuck is the fun in that? he's just a silly little guy in a leotard. please, stop trying to make this guy scary.

for god's sake. he's just a baby.

anyway I get why it happens though and it's Marketing, and I think specifically the very online and instantaneous nature of fandom in the 21st century. detective comics comics needs people reading their comics and, maybe even more importantly, talking about their comics, and that means leaning really heavily on well-established characters the people give a shit about. most readers are going to be more interested, even passively, in the Riddler than Random Smart Guy Murderer #623, because he's been around for a long time and he's a very ingrained part of the lore.

but everything has to be a fucking event with high stakes now, again because attention is currency, so it can never just be, like, "oh no, the Riddler has Batman trapped in a giant hamster maze," it's the Riddler and the Joker beefing and also the Riddler murdering Kite-Man's son for ??? reasons ??? idk man look how fucked up he is! this guy's serious! he has a question mark scar on his chest! please take him seriously!

and also, back to the first point, it's frankly just easier to write a generic egomaniac smart guy than it is to come up with riddles that are even a little bit good or interesting enough to carry an entire plot. I bet Tom King really thought he was doing something when he settled down to write One Bad Day and decided that the riddles were actually just a fucking power inhibitor the Riddler was putting in place to stop his massive brainmeat from killing everybody he came in contact with, but I think it's actually the sign of Tom King being a lil punk bitch, actually. just admit you don't have the sauce to come up with a riddle and pass the gig onto someone else!

anyway this is why most of my favorite Riddler appearances have him in a supporting role rather than serving as a primary antagonist (think Batman: Unburied, King Tut's Tomb, the Long Halloween/Dark Victory/When In Rome triptych), and his best antagonist appearances have him working with WAY lower stakes that's mostly just trying to get Bruce to pay attention to him (Vol. 2 of the Batman Adventures and Strange Love Adventures 2022).

tl;dr stop trying to make me take this man seriously

[sokkastyles]

On some level, I can understand where Azula stans are coming from, and I mainly blame the recent shows and movies that have been released. For a long time villains have just been evil with no remorse as presented in media, but recently we have seen movies that are like "hey actually this guy isn't that bad and they are a prodict of their surroundings and its not their fault they are evil" like the movie malefecent or alice into the looking glass. Not to mention, redemption arcs are super popular like Loki, kylo Ren, catra, and the diamonds from Steven Universe. I specifically named these character because i feel like they have done so much bad that it will take a lot more than just a sorry and a tragic backstory to make up for all the bad they did. Maybe Loki is okay, but he did some really terrible things, and i am on the fence about him. Not to mention the joker sympathy that has been rampant for a while because of the movie blaming society, and that is someone completely irredeemable except for the Harley Quinn show, apparently, but that is a comedy.

What im trying to say though is that there doesnt seem to be just straight up villains now and consatnt blaming of outside forces for a the bad villains do saying it's not there fault because they only blew up a children's hospital because they were hurting, not to mention medias constant depiction of toxic relationships and friendships that keep getting talked about like they are completely normal. I know some Azula stans are just kike that but some i fell are misinformed and seem to surround themselves with so many like minded individuals that they truly believe what they think is true and are hard pressed to change their opinion. (Also, pretty privilege exists)

Well, redemption arcs and villains with complex stories are hardly new. I haven't seen the most recent MCU stuff but has Loki been redeemed? In the comics, and in Norse mythology, he has always been something of an antihero, a character who would be good or bad depending on the occasion. I grew up on comic books and those kinds of characters frequently occur there. Magneto is another example of a character who would sometimes side with the good guys but also inevitably go back to being a villain. They're complicated characters with sympathetic pasts, but their pasts don't excuse their actions. And there's an important distinction there that I think is lost on a lot of people. Another example that comes to mind is Billy from Stranger Things, who I often see idolized on tumblr as if he had become a hero by the end of the story, or should have, just because he had a sad background and then sacrificed himself for the heroes. His death, and life, were tragic, and we understand by the end why he was the way he was, but he was still an awful, unpleasant person, and the show never suggests that we should see him as good now, nor should it.

A lot of the examples you mention with female villains I blame on the rise of liberal "girlboss" feminism. That goes with what you say about pretty privilege. Pop culture "feminism" wants to convince you that being pretty is empowering, the weaponized femininity thing, eyeliner so sharp you can kill a man, etc. When in reality, we're still catering to patriarchal ideas of desirability. And what's especially insidious about this kind of feminism is that it's often other women or other marginalized groups who are the targets of it. Pop culture puts this stuff out to pander to women by presenting a "feminist" ideal that is still non-threatening to the status quo. The idea that Azula or Harley Quinn, who in her first appearance in BTAS was a character who became a villain due to being manipulated and abused by a man, are empowering female characters is bananas. That's not to say they are bad female characters, and Harley is another comic book character who has always been likeable for her propensity to gleefully straddle the line between hero and villain, but I despise the girlbossification of these kinds of characters the same way I despise people making them into poor widdle innocent victims.

The heroization of the joker comes from red pill weirdos primarily, and those have also existed for a long time. See Fight Club for another example, but anyone with a brain knows that Tyler Durden is the bad guy, and that the stuff he's spewing about being woke and masculine is all just nonsense in the end. So I don't necessarily buy that it's all media's fault that people don't understand the point of these characters.

And there are absolutely still just "straight up villains." The obvious answer just by looking at ATLA is Ozai, but even then, the show still does a lot to tell us why he is the way he is, and implies he was once a victim of his family not unlike Zuko or Azula. People often ignore that, especially Azula stans who make such a distinction between Ozai and Azula in order to prove that Azula deserves redemption. I'm not saying that Azula and Ozai are the same in terms of how much sympathy the narrative gives them, by the way, just that I think it's odd that one is seen as so much more redeemable than the other, when their backstories are so similar. Ozai often gets labeled as one dimensional not because he is less complex than Azula, but because people don't want to see him redeemed and are uncomfortable with the idea, so they want to see him as less complex and more villainous. Which to me misses the point of the fire family dynamic and how the cycle of violence was perpetuated in that family.

[izunias-meme-hole]

My Top 10 Favorite Movie Villains (Outdated)

Number 1. Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Star Wars) - In retrospective, Palpatine is easily the best villain in cinematic history. In the first two movies of the original trilogy, he never appears once, he’s only mentioned as “The Emperor,” and based off what we heard from Vader after he chopped Luke’s hand off, The Emperor sounds like a bigger and scarier dude than Vader. Then Return of The Jedi happens, and we see that he’s just a frail old man, yet he somehow manages to not only have Vader under his thumb, and based off what we see in the climax of the movie, it was primarily based off manipulation and not the force lightning he shoots out of his fingers. Then the Prequels happened, and The Clone Wars happened, which is honestly the exact moment that young me liked him more than Vader, and the moment current me rediscovered just how well written Palpatine is as a pure evil, card carrying dark lord, and as a politician. Sure he’s one of the strongest sith lords in the series, but that alone isn’t what makes him scary. It’s his careful planning, and the best part of it is that he rarely appears onscreen, yet his presence can be felt 24/7. I am not as much of a Star Wars fan as I used to be, but I will admit that I LOVE Sheev Palpatine and I’m not afraid to say it.

Number 2. Bowser (Super Mario Bros Movie) - Bowser here is as accurate to the source material as he’s always been, with one small tweak. He’s still goofy, intimidating, and a simp for Peach, but the biggest difference here is that this take on the Koopa King is much crueler than he is in canon, which makes sense because he ain’t a father yet. He casually kills his own koopas, intended to dunking his prisoners into a pit of lava during his ‘wedding’ with Peach as TRIBUTE to her (Bro that ain’t how that works!), threatened to DESTROY the Mushroom Kingdom if Peach didn’t marry him, and almost went through with it if it weren’t for Mario! Also Jack Black KILLED IT in this role! THIS is how a video game villain should be adapted into a movie. 

Number 3. Green Goblin (Rami Spider-Man Trilogy) - The MCU can try all they want, but they ain’t surpassing Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. Norman Osborn here is pretty much portrayed accurately, despite being more pitiable in the trilogy. He’s a bad father, and the owner of a big time corporation, who’s more focused on securing his own success, that just so happens to view Peter Parker as a son. Then he drank an experimental super soldier formula, and got super strength and advanced agility at the cost of his sanity. Now he has two personalities, the “bad but not that bad” Norman Osborn, and the downright devious Green Goblin, who Norman is AFRAID of but also entranced by. The Goblin in these movies are honestly the best take on him to ever exist because he’s the perfect amount of dark due to his actions, fractured mental state, and every last word he speaks being so vile, but at the same time Gobby looks really ridiculous and is a meme machine. I also like the Jekyll and Hyde situation here, where instead of it being a “Normal guy”and his “impulses,” it’s a bad man and his own evil. What can I say other than best comic book movie villain ever.

Number 4. Death/The Wolf (Puss In Boots) - The best take on The Grim Reaper. Inevitable, terrifying, enigmatic, cruel to those who try and delay the inevitable, etc.

Number 5. The Riddler/Edward Nashton (The Batman 2023) - I expected Matt Reeves to make the Riddler an egotistical manchild of a serial killer with a Zodiac Killer design, a very high intellect, and saw style puzzles. I NEVER expected a catholic, terrorist, cult leader Riddler that looked up to a young and angry Year-Two Batman. EVERYTHING about him screams “The Lord will wipe these heathens away and Batman will help us,” yet at the same time it works so well. Sure, he has this whole chaotic cult leader vibe to him, but at his core, he’s still egotistical, he thinks he has all the answers, when in reality he’s just a pissbaby who’s lashing out at the world. Despite how different this take on Riddler is, Paul Dano and Matt Reeves did this character justice.

Number 6. Dr Robotnik (The Sonic Movies) - Jim Carrey’s traditional over-the-top nature works so well with Robotnik that it’s criminal. And the best part is that it doesn’t take away how much of a threat he is in the slightest!

Number 7. Sauron (Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) - Despite appearing in these movies as just a flaming eye, Sauron has a firm grip on the entire narrative through this flaming eye, and The One Ring. No matter where the main cast goes in Middle Earth, Sauron’s shadow is always looming. An accurate adaptation of Tolkien’s biggest evil. 

Number 8. Judge Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) - One of the 3 Disney movie villains that I enjoy, and LOATHE. Frollo is a monster who sees himself as some pure and noble figure, and this is evident through his actions and beliefs alone. This guy tried killing a baby Quasimoto because of how hideous he was, and the only thing that stopped him was the fear of not being “pure,” so he raised the boy in the Notre Dame Cathedral’s bell tower and basically pretended to be his friend. Also lets not forget about his hatred of the Romani and the fact that he LUSTED over Esmeralda, while also hating her! BRUH YOU HAVE PROBLEMS! Well thankfully karma slaps him directly in the face as he dies falling into literal hellfire of his own creation, looking like a complete and utter devil. He was a great villain for the movie, but aside from that GOOD RIDDANCE YOU PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE.

Number 9. Colonel Muska (Castle In The Sky) - The only pure evil villain Hayato Miyazaki has written, and I can easily say that he sticks out in a way that a good villain should, while also being a huge steaming pile of shit.

Number 10. Koba (Planet of The Apes Trilogy) - Making a Bonbono a tragic, yet downright heinous villain is pure genius.

[yuseirra]

Bringing this back because???? If this comic's supposed to give out some sort of valid insight/message about the industry, the answer had pretty much been given to us the moment Ai's wished she wants to pursue her happiness as a human being in the first chapter. And then the work almost spoon-feeds us AGAIN near the finale that she really wanted to build a happy family with the guy she had her kids with

So what do they want to do with this, then? Tsukuyomi calls this couple a liar in the most recent chapter but I've always felt that Ai's iconic line, "Lies are love" had more emphasis on the "Love" than the lie although, the "Lie" is also pretty important I guess. The lie acts as a "medium" to achieve the desired "end" that is "love". If that can be fulfilled in a satisfying way, I don't find it as something that can be just simply shunned, so I was pretty annoyed about this earlier. It was THIS work that made me pay more attention about lies, what is it trying to make of it now? They better make this good, or they're destroying the good narrative they built with their own hands. That's what bugs me even more than the matter of character's life or death, I want to know what this piece wants to say. I'm sure it can bring something really insightful, it's RIGHT THERE and just within reach too. And I don't know what they're doing right now, they shouldn't be messing around in terms of the message.

To add, Kamiki's past is so terrible, his entire life is, that guy must have been suffering immensely. He endured severe levels of child abuse from a really young age, and it seems he was never fully able to make mutual, fulfilling connections with another human being before he's met Ai. That's one of the reasons why I felt his character must be extremely kind, he's more than just "kind"...considering what he's went through, I find it very surprising that he still can appear to be really gentle. That's how I immediately agreed when they said he had a noble soul. This guy used to be so good. It's been said that he even went as far as helping Ai's self-destructive personality change for the better. This guy must have been a saint till he broke down. From what I infer, he isn't "evil", but "hurt" and "broken". And that actually would make it a much more meaningful and better plot than having a flat-out maniac going on a murder spree. I'm not saying we need to know every detail of his sufferings, but it's not even.. properly addressed and acknowledged. The creators need to take responsibility for having created him this way. He has a background like this for a purpose, right? I think it's intentional they never show us what he's been up to, but even if there's going to be some sort of reveal, I doubt it'd be handled in depth with this much space left...I want them to do that though, because I can see what they can do with him. This guy should not be "the evil" and I want to trust the authors would write him in a convincing way.

Anyway, this whole post still stands for me, I don't see the idol's boyfriend being the culprit, it shouldn't be his fault. It won't work.

The answer has been given to us ever since the very first chapter

The boyfriend CANNOT be the culprit or be responsible for what's happened to Ai. It's not that he "isn't", he just "can't" be. Here's why I think that is.

I've written a few things along the same lines since the past few days, I'll just write an organized post and move on...

If they drag on this whole idea of Kamiki having been behind every bad thing that's happened, I'm going to be so tired because that'd be barking up the wrong tree. Hope that gets resolved within a chapter or two, it's so stressful. It's not because I favor the guy, I just feel so distressed seeing someone who isn't at fault being blamed. Yes, he can't be at fault for this.

Okay, here we go:

Aqua was so convinced that his biological father was the culprit, and that person seemed so ominous and suspicious that, until the story neared its end and Ai's video letter was revealed, I also just went along with it, thinking, "Could it be? I guess so."

But no, it can't be that way.

If we summarize the situation, it'd be something like this:

A very talented and beautiful young idol had a child with someone she was in a relationship with, but she couldn't give up on her children. She continued her idol activities while raising them, but a stalker appeared, declaring that an idol having children was unacceptable, and killed her, leaving the children motherless.

If we consider the situation in this way, what could be gained by suggesting that the boyfriend was the cause of the idol's death?

From common-sense, the stalker is clearly at fault here. In fact, it's not even a first or second-degree thing; the stalker is the one that'd be 100% in the wrong.

The idol had children, and the stalker decided that was reason enough to kill her. If the narrative shifts to the boyfriend being the cause of Ai’s death, it implies that idols shouldn't date or have children. It leads to the thought that it would have been better for her sake if she didn't choose to have her kids or date someone. She would have lived, she wouldn't have been killed. However, this directly contradicts what Ai said in the first chapter: "I want to pursue both happiness as a mother and happiness as an idol."

Let’s break it down again. In this situation, the main figures are:

The idol who gave birth to the children,

The idol’s children,

The children’s father,

The stalker.

Without a doubt, the idol and her children are the innocent victims of this crime.

The issue lies with figures 3 and 4, but does it make sense, from a common-sense perspective, to shift more responsibility onto figure 3 in a way that makes it seem like figure 4’s actions were 'justifiable' or that they 'deserve sympathy'?

This is a story, so if it's trying to convey some sort of message, it won't go in that direction. In reality, it could potentially play out like that, but even in real life... in most cases, the chances of someone instigating the murder of the person who gave birth to their child would be extremely low. This is why I paid so much attention when Ai's boyfriend appeared. Why would he want Ai dead? I was curious about that. But judging by his actions, he does seem to have genuinely loved her. He brings flowers to her grave (why would he do that for the person he killed?), calls their children 'yours and mine,' says he would have given his life for her, and every time he meets the children, his attitude is gentle. When he watched the video letter, he broke down on the spot completely. Does it make sense for this guy to have killed her? And given his past that he's shared with AI...? This just doesn’t seem right. We still haven't seen a clear motive on just why he'd do this. It might come out in the next chapter, but...

No matter how twisted the narrative becomes, it’s impossible that he’s the real culprit.

The one who actually picked up a knife and murdered someone is to blame. What possible justification could there even be for doing that?

The idea that the boyfriend is to blame because having a child with the idol is what led to her death… it could be interpreted that way if he's the one he's behind all this. That doesn't quite sit right with me.

The real issue here is with figure 4, while figures 1, 2, and 3 are all victims. If figure 4 didn’t exist, they could have all been happy.

But why did someone like figure 4 appear in the first place? If you expand the story to that point, it starts to make sense.

Because there’s a mindset in society that idols shouldn’t behave in certain ways, that’s why people like figure 4 can emerge.

If Ai hadn't been a celebrity, there would have been no random stranger deciding they had the right to say, "How dare you have children!" and attempt to kill her. This happened because she was an idol (it's very sad when you think about it, because it shouldn't happen.). Because she was an idol, she lived a lie, broke up with her boyfriend to protect him, and hid her children, raising them in secret.

It was because Ai was an idol that Ryosuke believed she shouldn’t have children, feeling so entitled to to kill her as a "fan". Nino, too, thought Ai needed to be a perfect idol, which led her to try and kill Ai’s daughter, as a "fan".

If you're still confused,

Later on, it is revealed that Ai really loved her boyfriend. She loved him so much that she wanted to be with him forever, but she told him she didn’t love him to avoid burdening him. This is where I got a sense of it. I didn’t realize it consciously at first, but it hit me in my subconsciousness and made me so sure—this is the point where the story won't be overturned.

The moment the author had Ai say those words directly is when the story’s conclusion was set forth. It’s something I grasped instinctively.

If I were the author, I would never write a story where a stalking victim like Ai confesses to deeply loving the person responsible for her death. In fact, she even goes as far as wanting to help and protect her boyfriend. She's really keen about that as her desire. That would be incredibly cruel to Ai. Even if she had misjudged the person and said such a thing, Aqua should have immediately lashed out at his father after he shows him the video, saying, "You’re the one who killed her, and it’s all your fault." Yet he just watches. There's a line in chapter 160 that sort of goes in that direction, but why make a gap in the narrative? That scene should have been much more direct, with immediate confrontation and resolution, leaving no room for interpretation. Instead, they’re dragging it out, creating ambiguity.

It’s all part of the storytelling, leading people to believe the boyfriend might be the culprit, because that's how they’ve been steering the plot. If he were indeed the one who ordered Ai's murder, he should face punishment. It shouldn’t even be up to Aqua to decide whether to forgive him or not. Yet, that’s not how it’s being handled. The guy looks suspicious, always smiling, which leads to misunderstandings. But when it comes to Ai, he’s probably unjustly wronged. He could've have done some questionable things out of his desperation to bring Ai back, that I can picture, but why would he want to hurt her? From everything we’ve seen, this character only wanted to live with Ai and has never once shown animosity toward the twins. As soon as he learned about their existence, he proposed marriage to Ai and wanted to raise them together. I don't think his feelings have changed much since then.

No, Kamiki really intended to give the flowers to Ai. He didn’t want to hurt anyone—that's the truth. I approached this character from an emotional standpoint, trying to figure out who he really is. When Chapter 154 came out, I was like, ‘Huh, what’s going on here?’ and I went back to reanalyze the previous chapters to come to this conclusion. (And the conclusion I reached is that even if this character went mad, it would’ve been after Ai’s death. If anything, he might actually be a really good... a very kind person. Someone sweet enough for Ai to have expressed that sort of feelings towards. Actually, I feel like he's too soft for his own good. How is he still addressing Ryosuke by adding a -kun and Nino by -san, he can't do that!! He shouldn't!! They attack the ones he love!! Why is he so polite?? It's making people believe he'd have something to do with them or even have cooperated with them because he's STILL treating them gently even after all this mess!! He still refers to them saying they were nice people! What the heck, no!! He needs to swear! Get back at their throats and get angry!! Ai needs to slap some sense into him! This is him being way, way too compassionate for his own good. No wonder Ai is so worried about him. Remember how he was all like "they'd be happy if I did that" when he was being ASSAULTED AND USED!!? He's STILL like that! That's why Ai is so protective about him!! He's really that naive!!; Who wouldn't be worried if their lover is like that? I GET AI, oh come on Kamiki please... how IS he like this? It's.. I think he really may be a god at this point you know? If he really isn't at fault. He's too inhuman...by the way, I'm not blaming HIM for being how he is, I'm just upset about how he's been treated if this is how things are. It's just terrible, the things he go through!!! It shouldn't have been this way, I feel really sorry for him if this is it!)

Moving on, doing all that analysis definitely helped in understanding the character (and I was able to make out a lot of his actions accurately).

But when I consider what this manga is trying to say, there wasn't even a need for such analyses in the first place. The answer was clear from the beginning. There’s no way that someone in the boyfriend’s position is the final culprit or the mastermind.

This manga isn’t pure fantasy. We have to think about who would truly be at fault if something like this happened in real life.

If the conclusion is that the boyfriend is to blame, then all that’s left is pain for him, the idol, and their children. It would lead to a message like: 'Why did she meet such a man? Why did she have children with such a psychopath? Well, I guess she asked for it, huh. she’s an idol, she shouldn’t have done those things.'<this is horrible reasoning but there WILL be people who take it this way... This is a story... and the flow of the story becomes the message. This story could go in that direction, but considering what it's done so far, it seems more like it's trying to criticize those kinds of societal views rather than promoting it.

They could drag this whole plot out over another ten chapters or so, but honestly, I think we can relax about it.

The boyfriend isn’t the culprit. He’s another victim.

He could have lived happily with Ai. Now he’s living in grief, having lost her.

[makahimetenshi]

Follow me inside the wastelands - Chapter 4 -Arthur Maxson x Female Sole Survivor Fanfic

This one will be a long fic with a lot of chapters, I already write the concepts. Since I don’t play as Nora in Fallout 4 because Nate for me is the real protagonist the personalities and ideas are pretty fanbased from another fanfics I read

If you are very very very delighted with one fic and want a continuation I didn’t write or post you can donate me at least $5 bucks, most of this fics have next chapters I don’t finish because lack of motivation but hey a $5 is a $5, I see a few reviews and coments that fics that are abandoned months laters receive coments of wanting to know what happends next. Here it is, I finished my handling with you all, enjoy the fic

 Ok ok this cannot be improvised and he had the information to perform well.

The fan, the comics, or the pasterys…

Fixing the fan would be a nice gesture to improve her life quality inside the Prydwen but if she really goes there to chill and not stay in her quarters because is too hot inside if he solve the main problem she wouldn’t have a reason to came out and expend the time together…

For now, it was an evil he was willing to do, for a better future.

There are some comics in the Prydwen scribe office…she surely read them all and besides that he cant lie that much to impress a chick, comics weren’t his thing, is not like it was going to make him look any good stalk her readings and try to talk about it, that would fail for sure.

So…about the pastery…yeah it seemed apropiate, both can eat from it…if he came with a hot box of pastery in the open sky night she wouldn’t say no.

Cool, he can manage this chance.

Chance of what? Of getting closer and that’s all? Why he wanted to be close to her? He surely feeled attracted for something more than her body…

A lot of womans with results appeared to praise him with gifts in the name of the brotherhood and this is the first time he feeled like falling for one.

They have a small turbulent pass together…about Danse…before getting too into her it was smart to make intelligence search, she had a lot of friendships in the Prydwen, that he knows about her. It was going to be easy to found information about her…personality around some other Brotherhood members, no professional.

He sighted, what can be the best scenario? A kiss would be too soon but there was clearly attraction he was no fool, from both sides and it was apparently well received despite the…speed of developing…

What with a kiss anyway? Gosh he feeled small, age never matter to him until now he wants with a woman at least 10 years older, this must be easy for her and he was overthinking a lot…

It wasn’t just desire, she wasn’t just hot and that’s all he desired more.

But it was too soon and his thoughts were all tangled.

Maxson see at lunch Dogmeat walking around being petted by everysoldier that cross his way, is the dog was there she was there too good because the sentinel fucking disappear a lot.

After dinner, a box of warm pastery full glase donuts arrived on his quarters, and he almost took the box with desesperation and went off, walking fast, I mean, walking…but a bit more faster than usual for him.

At opening the door of the frontdeck she was there, sitting on the plataform, a couple of Nuka Cola Quamtums next gave her a light blue glow on her nice curves over the leather brotherhood suit

-You know even as a radioactive generation I always feared that ones…?

-You know what I fear? Diabetes from drinking this

-That’s bad because I have a direct shoot of sugar…-he said going down and opening the box in front of her, the lady went all exited and let a small scream of joy, Arthur smiled at seeing her happy.

-I can turn in a ghoul just fine with all of this…-Arthur raised an eyebrow stranged-I once meet a guy that turned himself into a ghoul after taking too much drugs

He gave no importance, and see her take an atomic orange donut and bite it, a sparkle appeared in her eyes at savouring the almost imitation of sugar orange, it was like being in home again after so long.

The elder sit next and grab a power pistacho donut –I think we are going to need water to not cluy us

-Don’t worry, im fully prepared –she said giving a smack to a bag next to her leg while still eating, Arthur looked at her and notice something odd.

-Changed your hair again I see

-Just styled it, to camouflage and not being the same old fella from yesterday

-You take a lot of precautions

-Im the only sentinel on this chapter and the one that destroyed the institute, I try to stay as much undercover I can

That make sense but still.

-Well you use makeup, I almost never meet womens using make up and I know a lot of rich people

-Rich by wastelands standars

-Right…-sometimes she sounded as despitefull of the lives on the wastelands as he expressed from…other civilians and lifeforms asides from the brotherhood of steel members, in someway they were pretty alike

-Makeup that isn’t dangerous to the skin is pretty difficult to adquiere, I tried a lot and ended up with an alergie testing on but it’s a 200 years old quimical product so I cant expect less, its just luck, I have just 3 shades of lip colours and of course is not a classic bar, is a lip pencil.

-Thing is it makes you recognizable no matter how much you change your hair, is you face is undercover you are done

-I cant control almost anything on how things happends on the wasterlands, let me control this only aspect in my life –she said at picking up a classic glazed donut and eating it

Is true.

In the wastelands theres not much things you can make choices, mostly you are obligued

Obligued to have short hair to not be in the way.

Obligued to not move in the night

Obligued to not use you best clothes because they can ruin so fast…

The only ones that didn’t care were the raiders at all.

Arthur take a breath,  feeling the warm breeze of the summer hitting lightly his face

-Speaking of which you have a very thick beard –well that was a way to call his attention surely daring and weird

-Whats wrong with my beard?

-Nothing exactly, I just said is very thick and black, must take a lot to grow up like that

-I do style and mantein it…you like mens with beard? –he saw her from the corner of the eye smile ashamed and surprised for the question, good, that was a reaction Arthur liked seeing on her

-It don’t know, men my days didn’t have long beards like yours –mmm was that an invitation? Arthur bited his donut- I had something I wanted to talk with you but I had to make a meeting and the waiting list was long, if you don’t mind hearing me about work at this hours…

Oh no…a favour…

He didn’t want her to be the kind of person that pretends to be close just to ask for favors but he was willing to give her a chance.

-Tell me –he said already bored.

-This is not easy to explain –she said with a face full of shame-I have…this big big big ally of drugs –Arthur raised an eyebrow looking at her pretty surprised, a box full of surprises besides drugs- its not like I do…

-In the Brotherhood we don’t encourage the consumption but we do not let a brother down if they need help

-Nononono is not like that, I don’t do…

-Really theres no shame on it, go with Knight Cade he is an expert in addictions

-You don’t get it I don’t consume for pleasure or recreation

-Its alright we all deal with our demons differently, like I said im never going to recommend it but also…

-Jeez is not me who has a problem with drugs!

-Well you are the one saying that has a big ally, are you clean?

-Not totally…

-Then go with the knight and then dispose...

-I scavenged a lot of drugs and now I have a big ally that I not going to consume and I don’t want to give the Minutemen okay? –now he looked at her seriously- like a full deposit

-That’s a lot of drugs

-I don’t know if sell them for caps and use the founds or just dispose them, people are better without that junk and I see it but the money will be also good…

What a dilemma.

-Don’t try to fight the drugs in the wastelands, thousands of mini labs of chems are working even at this hours, its useless

She smiled sadly.

-I don’t want my Minutemens with poor medical services getting that crap of me.

-Of course

-But If I sell them im putting it again in the peoples hand with a price.

-You can also give it to the Brotherhood, drugs can be processed to become med, like med-x or steampacks

-Some ingredients of daytripper if they are separated and extracted must be usefull to create med-x right?

-Exactly, mustly opiums

-I see, it’s a good option, im glad I was able to ask you this professionaly because it was turning into a problem, I preffer more medicines around the peoples hands than just crap to burn their brains

Arthur smiled, she was intelligent and caring too.

Both went to pick another donut.

-So you are not clean?

-You need something before getting in a supermutant basement sometimes…but no, mostly buffouts…they are dugs for work…-she tried to say with a shy smile.

-A soldier doesn’t nee that crap to keep moving forward –her smile turned down for a second and then he realized why.

Danse said that.

-So, scavaging?

-Yes, sir -shit he ruined the mood, a hand asked for the Nuka Cola Quantum and he tried to open it with the theeth, Nora almost had a heart attack at seeing that- nooooooo what are you doing!? –she said taking out the bottle off his hands and using a corner of the plataform to open the cap, Maxson looked and sluddenly had a fear of heights shit she was with the hand and the bottle out the ship like nothing…-you cant put in risk your theets now! Theres no orthodontic anymore!

-Actually…

-I see you brutes taking a tooth out with a screwdriver, so, theres no more orthodontic, period –she gave back the bottle and the elder admired the quick thinking…

What the hell quick thinking process she came here since a long time of course this was a trick

-Thank you –Nora nooded her head

She was nice and carefull as a mother.

Well, she was a mother before.

He drank the bottle and then look around feeling again a shiver on his back because of the heights.

-Im gonna ask to put a web in his plataform –Nora looked at him intrigued –safety protocols

-Im perfectly fine now, and if there wasn’t any before I don’t see why the bother

-If the elder is going to expend time here better start using security measures…

-Oh so does the elder likes the place so much that he want accommodations? –she smirked at him and Arthur use it as an invitation, he wont hesitate, he knew what he wanted and he will persued it.

-The elder likes to be here, he would wish for more times like this –Nora had a small shy smile after hearing that, but she went back to the sides of the railing and put her arms out, in the air, back meeting the void, Arthur almost had a heartattack on panic and went desesperatly to grab her by the anckles, pulling her a bit closer and out of danger.

-I don’t know I feel pretty comfortable like this…

-Jeez don’t do that! –that’s it she fucking knew he was kinda scared of heights of this type and was playing with it, she laughted a bit and the elders hands went a bit up as vengeance, he can be naughty and playfull too.

Her cheeks went all red at feeling his hands down her knees and looked at them. He had big fingers, with small nails and veins too marked even with the gloves on. She breathed out, like a something she needed to do at seeing that scenario.

-I wasn’t going to fall…-her voice came out low and her eyes were still caught were his hands were.

-I got the feeling…-he said low too, afraid to break the mood, he didn’t know how to continue now they were so close but then she did something that surprised him a lot. Nora raised her legs and open them, still being sit on the plataform, now with Arthur hands holding her legs a bit up he was obligued to see her in the eyes, otherway his sight would be focused on her crotch and that would be akward.

When their gazes meet the elder feeled like she was going to eat him but only because her presence was so strong and dominant right now…she had him where she wanted, his breath stopped for a minute as her arms went closer, using them as a support to raise her torso and went forward, Arthur also straight his back and sit better still with his hands over her legs.

-I wish to see you tomorrow here –she said firmly, not breaking the eye contact

-Alright –he said unsure of how to continue.

-Put the web if it makes you more confortable to stay around –okokok a clear invitation, she then move a bit back her legs and at getting what she was trying to do Arthur took his hands down looking at her, the woman stand up and take the unopen bottle and blueberry blast donut.

She looked big, and tall and strong and so damn massive from bellow,  Maxson felt like wanting to be crushed.

-Sure –damn he was replying like a godamn puppy, doing as her commands, she smiled and walked at him slowly, his eyes recording every feminine movement until a hand posed onto his cheek, surprising him, a warm hand, his cold skin wanted to melt into that touch but his eyes went up her lips.

-See you tomorrow elder –she said with a smile before walking out, for a moment Arthur was so ready to stand up and stop her, but she runned to the door and quickly closed it.

He went up and touch his cheek, still feeling the warm and the sticky sugar of them eating donuts…

She didn’t gave him time for anything, if he hadn’t run like that he was so sure of pulling her hand and grab her cheeks for a kiss.

Okay okay okay clear as water…

Damn he may visit a stylist too for his beard…

The next day he made some…questions and followings to see what sentinel Nora was up to, althought he cant really get into her business he knew what members of the brotherhood knew better the rules and boundaries than others so he make sure to ask the ones that he knew wont protest or snicht

The sentinel took some soldiers and a paladin in a ventibird with a lot of crateboxes. They wont have news until 4 hours later a ventibird full of crateboxes returned with the paladin in. Spying wasn’t obviously a good actitude from his or any brotherhood side but the reality was that the mission that the sentinel was doing was pretty…covered…his spy will give him information of how they were carefully touching the subject of the arriving of more than 40 crate boxes full of chems, better not spread that information around all the soldiers when just the chemistry and medical team needed to be up, it was just that this info didn’t need to spread further.

Well done sentinel, Arthur was impressed.

Again, she was very smart, not expecting less from the woman that find a way to get inside the institute and destroyed it.

Three more sentinels arrived in the Boston Airport until she came down, after almost 120 boxes…she came down.

Organizing, classifying, and separating that different chems in different crates was a long task she made the effort to make with so little help to be cautious about how the data will spread…

Obviously the soldiers around the airport were curious about the parade of boxes going from the ventibird to the deposits and from the deposits empty to the ventibird but they wouldn’t mind much, weren’t their business and wasn’t an intelligent idea to sneak their noses neither.

A few rumours then and there but…Nora even took the precaution to use the boxes for the ammunition, wonderfull job.

She will be tired for tonight after so much work, so he preffered to make a little sacrifice, she deserved it.

When Nora arrived to her quarters after a long session of talking to selected people and paperwork, she found a new fan over her desk with a little note and a little box too.

“No need to come to the frontdeck today for a bit of fresh tonight, you deserve it soldier, still I wish to see you tomorrow”

It wasn’t signed, and she didn’t exactly recognize the handwriting but…she knew who wrote it.

Nora bited her lips and break the note just for safety reasons altought she wanted to keep it…then went to investigate the little box, inside there was a classic sweetroll inside…now instead of biting she licked her lips and laughted a bit.

Well for tonight she can take the time…think In something to retrieve this favor tomorrow.

Maybe not a gift but a…surprise…

Maxson knew that the sentinel was all the day off the Prydwen and the airport.

At night, he was ready for his usual date, this time he wouldn’t bring any desserts after all he didn’t want her to like him only for his sweetness, joke intended, and he gave her one yesterday…also the kitchen was going to start suspecting things and he preffer his love life away from other brothers…

When he made into the frontdeck…his eyes instinctively went to the light blue moving fabric at the platform tip waving into the warm breeze of the summer. His eyes adjusted at the surprise and his cheeks went all red when she turned to see him with a bright smile.

My gosh it was like one of that old fashioned American pre war fantasys.

-I know I know what you are going to tell me that inside the Prydwen I have to wear the clothes that the brotherhood gave us for uniform purposes but…-she kicked a small bag on the floor looking down –I change here just for this…

Arthur tried to process slowly what she said in order to dissimulate how stupid he was looking at her, she looked stunning –here? At the outsides? You are going to catch a cold…-Oh my the legs he touched the other day were now exposed, not much where he place his hands but…seeing the skin that he touch before was breathtaking…

-Its okay –she said picking up a bit of the skirt of the laundered blue dress- does it looks good? I don’t often wear them…

To keep on the manners he didn’t want to say to say how beautifull she looked but…now she was asking, it wouldn’t be rude to not answer.

He swallowed a bit of saliva and started walking to her, slowly.

-It looks amazing, how do you have one of this? –she smiled and step back, leaning against the bar, Arthur panicked a bit and making a really really big effort also leaned against the bar, but putting an arm behind her back, despite his own fears it reassured him securing her just a bit, just her.

His cheeks blushed again at seeing the view of her back and his arm so close…

He wanted to hug her waist.

-I went back to my old home and pick it, I had dresses still sealed that I didn’t have the chance to wear since when the bombs fall it was autum and it was getting cold already…and I did a lot of off season shopping back then

-Glad it survived the raiders and 200 years of people passing by

-Survived like no other things actually  -she hummed and raise a bit the skirt, allowing the man to see better her legs, she was clearly doing it on purpose but okokok he would be the one taking the first step- the shoes indeed were scavenged, managed to find my size

Does she have no hair? But it was dark and their only light was the moonlight so he could be wrong…

Besides being a pre-war American wife, she really looked like one now…Arthur looked at her red lips and curvy black hair.

His family all life told him about progress and how life should be, how it was before the bombs and how they wished to turn in and…Arthur knew he wanted this to be part of his life.

-You did an great job yesterday

-Oh so you know about it

-Im the elder, I should know everything…and there was a lot of boxes to go unnoticed either, I have to sign a petition to move mechanical storage elsewhere because we needed the space at the airport so…

-So I caused some issues

-Not at all –he said and then caught her looking at him, something hit his chest, he liked to have her eyes on him-what?

-You changed your beard –shitshitshit she noticed and he just do some little little cutouts to have it more…polished

-Just some details…you said that men before the war didn’t use beards?

-It wasn’t with the fashion at the time, they do other things tho, like…jelly their hairs…-she looked at him with a playfull smile and he looked away, after all he did jelly his hair to have that style-despite the war society was wealthy, we still have the money when the bombs dropped, America have money… -he can see how she really missed her old life-I wonder how other parts of the country look like.

-I been…in some other regions…-he caught her attention- im here at the commonwealth because I was assigned but my family is from somewherelse, and I lived all my life in other city

-And how it is there?

-It depends on the place, the commonwealth has…a lot of forest and green but…some other places have more roads and buildings…operating traffic lights, you can even see moving cars, but is rare, its hard to make one work and have the gas to mantein it

Nora eyes had stars, she didn’t expect that.

-I read on some terminals…asked some scribes either but they all have thought lifes so they weren’t good references…

-Well is not common to have a good life for most of the people, that’s for sure, even I as a kid was all thinn with almost no hair eating bread as my only meal

-I can only imagine –Arthur felt an opportunity there and take it again.

-Mmm whys that?

-Turning from a malnourished slim little kid into what  you are today…its hard to imagine

-And what im today? –he smiled at seeing her caught, cornered, all flustered by her own words, he see her bite her lips but then took a moment and smile, looking him in the eyes.

-A fine good looking man…elder…-the response made him smile, relaxed, he had more freedom now…he went in front of her and looked down, neither of them breaking the eye contact but still he wanted something more of her body…one of his arms went back and place a light hand over her waist, while the other cupped her cheek and moved a finger slowly…caressing it…she stayed there and it gave him the courage to also correspond.

-You look beautiful tonight…sentinel…-when he see her close the eyes, Maxson leaned down to kiss her on the lips, a chap and slow kiss, barely pressing one to another…but as her warm breathing and arms moving up his back Arthur pressed firmly on her waist and take the chance to move her away from the rail, a few steps back only, using the movement to start moving his lips against her as she corresponded.

My gosh he was kissing a pre-war American wife, this could not be more perfect.

And the soft and wet her lips were against his were making his head spin like crazy, he was lost in the sensation, yes, he craved for this.

His eyes open in the middle and see her, so close, completely relaxed, hands moving on his back doing circles or squeezing his jacket in some moments they do it good…

He had a warm sensation all over his body, it wasn’t a rush, but a nice feeling over a satisfactory good work of mutual courtship were both were comfortable with the other…

It didn’t last long, she separated to breath, not without beating his lip and make a beautiful sound of pleasure that make the elders body shiver. Her hands moved to his shoulders and started playing with the fingers, around his shoulders and neck, slowly, her eyes were fixiated on his neck and beard…

-I think you should head out –he looked at her stranged, but then her hands went to catch his hands, the one on the waist and the one on her cheek, grabbing them slowly and firm, moving her fingertips slowly on them-I want to go back to my quarters and I need to change, cant go back inside the Prydwen dressing like this…

Arthur had a very very courageus idea but…he felt like it could work, he took out his jacket and give it to her who had such a peculiar and stranged face

-Doesn’t have any sense for you to change, use it and bring it tomorrow to my office

-No way, how im supposed to return this without being too obvious? Also I don’t have a scheduled meeting –Arthur laughted, and picked up her face, placing a small kiss on her nose, he saw her smile at the gesture and he was glad to not being rushing, that it was well received

-I believe you can be pretty… stealthy…to not being caught using it…that way you will be using the uniform without having to change your clothes right? I sure you will manage to go undercover…besides you didn’t give me your proper report after yesterday work…so im sure I can move a few meetings between 9-11am breakfast time to…hear the sentinels report…-he see the woman nail the jacket in her grip and smile looking to other side

-Alright –she laughted and put on the jacket, Arthur looked at her, a pre-war American life with his jacket on…my my what a dream, the woman pick up her bag and then place a hand on his chest, leaning to kiss him on the lips, they both enjoyed before she separated and went to the door-see you for breakfast elder…

-Call me Arthur from now on

She giggled before closing the door –at least when we are alone

  https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14242575/4/Follow-me-inside-the-wastelands

[pluckyredhead]

Please Care About Aquaman With Me: Sub Diego

Welcome back to...not Atlantis? Last time, Arthur was deposed and sentenced to death, but after defeating an existential threat or two against...water...he was ready to return home. But, uh, something comes up.

Specifically, half of San Diego suddenly topples into the sea, along with 40,000 residents, all of whom drown. The panel above is one of the few that isn’t deeply gruesome and upsetting. Arthur is horrified, and determined to help the people of San Diego figure out what happened.

And then suddenly...survivors appear.

This is Lorena Marquez. Like about 10% of the people in the submerged half of San Diego, she survived the deluge - and now inexplicably breathes water instead of air. This means that the survivors can never return to the surface.

Also, Lorena is THE BEST:

UGH SHE IS SO CUTE I LOVE HER

(It eventually turns out that Lorena can, in fact, stay out of the water for indefinite amounts of time. This is never explained. Part of a proud tradition of the comics being wildly inconsistent over whether or not Atlanteans who aren’t Arthur can breathe air!)

(Also, if you’re younger than me and wondering if The Teens were wearing tube tops in 2003...they weren’t. SIGH, COMICS.)

Arthur and Lorena discover a massive machine underwater that clearly had something to do with the earthquake, and manage to trace it back to a scientist who is still on land, named Geist. Geist claims that he did it because of the threat of global warming: if sea levels continue to rise, eventually everyone will be underwater, and the only alternative to drowning is to learn how to breathe water, so he made it happen by tampering with San Diego’s water supply:

Arthur realizes that this means he knew the earthquake was coming, and Geist says he works with a group that caused it but never knew who any of them were - and now they’ll be coming after him, because he’s a liability. Arthur helps him fake his death, then forces him underwater in a scuba suit to confront what he’s done. Geist will stay down there (there are rooms with the water pumped out where he can live) and use his scientific abilities to help, or Arthur will tell the residents of Sub Diego who he is and what he’s done, which would pretty much instantly lead to Geist being murdered.

A whoooole bunch of issues go by with Arthur trying to figure out the logistics of helping to make Sub Diego functional. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have time to date!

“But wait!” you might be saying. “Isn’t Arthur still married to Mera? Mera, who the last he heard, was being held prisoner and forcibly drugged by evil wizards? Mera, the supposed love of his life, who he has not seen or tried to help since he learned that?” WELL YOU WOULD BE RIGHT. Arthur is garbage! Again! Forever!

You know who’s not garbage? LORENA, THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE:

She is so stinkin’ cute. She is also only the second member of the Aquafam smart enough to realize she doesn’t need shoes underwater (after Dolphin, who has webbed feet anyway). I adore her. Arthur, go get her a seahorse pet like Garth had, she deserves a pony.

It’s around this time that we meet SHARKCOP:

He’s like...basically the only cop in Sub Diego, so he asked Geist to do shark experiments on him to make him really, really good at it. Arthur’s like “Letting Geist do more weird experiments on people makes me really uncomfortable.” Meanwhile Lorena just fucking hates Malrey, because she is my ACAB queen.

Among all these new faces, we find an old one: Vulko, who would really really like Arthur to come back and be king again. Arthur’s not having it:

Arthur has every right to be pissed at Vulko, who claimed to be his friend and then manipulated his son into attempting a coup against him and THEN personally attempted to carry out Arthur’s death sentence, but for the rest of it...Arthur, grow the fuck up. Being king doesn’t mean your people like you all the time. Also, you’re a shitty king.

Arthur decides to focus on figuring out who was behind the submerging of Sub Diego along with his new love interest Esther Marris, in between makeouts. Sigh. Meanwhile, Vulko invites a group of Sub Diegoans to tour Atlantis...AND GUESS WHO’S BACK? IT’S MY BOY!!!

HE’S BACK AND HE’S BEAUTIFUL AND HE’S SIGNIFICANTLY MORE CHILL THAN BEFORE. I guess he just sort of unbanished himself? Fair enough! Also, Lorena continues to be HIGHLY relatable.

Koryak is like, hey, maybe instead of the traumatized Sub Diegoans living in the rubble of their destroyed city, they could...live here?

THE GIRLS ARE CONTINUING TO FIGHT!!! *delighted noises*

Garth, Koryak, and Vulko appear to be just sort of...running Atlantis now? There’s not really a functioning government of any sort. Koryak’s like “I could be king?” and Garth’s like “Fuck kings” and Vulko’s like “I wish Advil existed underwater.”

Anyway yes, Koryak did just call Garth racist. He points out that he’s literally the only POC in Atlantis and that sucks, and also that they’re talking about refugees here, but Garth and Vulko aren’t listening, so he decides to go talk to Arthur instead.

Aw, that’s nice! I bet it will end really well for everyone!

Koryak fills Arthur in on what things are like in Atlantis - and more specifically, what’s going on with Mera. Arthur immediately heads to Atlantis, where Garth ORDERS THE GUARDS TO FIRE AT HIM ON SIGHT:

These pages are fucking incredible. This whole sequence makes me lose my mind.

Garth is absolutely 100% fucking done with Arthur and his irresponsibility and selfishness, but when Arthur insists on seeing Mera, Garth begrudgingly agrees:

He is THE WORST but these panels hurt my heart anyway. He loves her so much! When he remembers! (She’s hiding her face because she didn’t want him to see her like this. UGH MY HEART.)

Anyway, turns out that when Hagen the evil sorcerer was defeated, he turned Mera’s gills into lungs in a last ditch effort at revenge because he’s a dick, hence the emaciation and the tubes. Only the sorcery of some random follower of Hagen’s is keeping her alive.

Y’all are so lucky I’m not just sharing every single page with you. Shut the fuck up, Arthur!!! You knew! You knew Mera was a prisoner and being medically abused while you were cheating on her! Sorry you’re ANNOYED by Garth pointing out how bad you suck!!!

ps garth’s so fucking hot

Arthur’s like “Okay, she has lungs, I’ll take her to the surface” and Garth’s like “No, I’ll make Hagen fix her.” He points out that Mera would be miserable on the surface, which is totally alien to her, AND that Mera is the only semblance of a ruler they have left, AND that Arthur is punishing all of Atlantis because he’s mad at a very small group. (Also Mera is his mommy and he loves her.) Arthur’s like “No one in Atlantis stood by me, waaaah!” as if Garth didn’t ESCAPE HOUSE ARREST TO COME FIND HIM.

Anyway THEN THEY FIGHT:

Have I mentioned that Garth is so OP lately? GARTH IS SO FUCKING OP. LOOK AT HIM STOP THE OCEAN.

Arthur says Garth will have to kill him to stop him from taking Mera to the surface and Garth can’t quite bring himself to go that far, so he lets them go.

MEANWHILE KORYAK FLIRTS WITH SHARKCOP???

Like, the joke here is that Koryak is into Malrey and Lorena is finally clocking this. I’m not kidding. That’s the joke. YOU GIVE ME (maybe) QUEER KORYAK AND THEN YOU IMMEDIATELY KILL HIM, DC??? (Uh, spoilers.)

Unfortunately, just when things get super juicy and emotionally fraught is also when the series gets unbearably bogged down with all the awful crossovers the mid-2000s had to offer. Arthur takes Mera to see Geist...and Geist turns into an OMAC because that was a thing that was happening in every comic then. OMAC-Geist kicks Arthur’s ass all the way onto shore, where his new girlfriend Esther runs to his side - just in time to meet Mera. Meanwhile, Koryak takes the fight back to the ocean, not knowing the OMAC has a regular human inside, and, uh...accidentally drowns Geist when he turns back. Oops. (Also Koryak’s powers have evolved from a hydrokinetic spear to full hydrokinesis like Mera, which is never explained.)

Arthur continues to be a HUGE ASSHOLE:

YOU CHEATED ON YOUR DYING, IMPRISONED WIFE, ARTHUR. STOP BLAMING OTHER PEOPLE FOR IT.

Meanwhile Esther is like “You’re married?” and then Koryak comes up in conversation and she’s like “You have a kid?” and Mera’s like lollllll girl he’s trash. Then Mera and Esther become best friends because they’re great.

Koryak, meanwhile, feels terrible about accidentally killing Geist, who might have been able to reverse what Hagen did to Mera with science, so he decides to go back to Atlantis and help Garth do it with magic. (They continue to bitch at each other the whole time, which makes me so happy.) Garth assembles all the sorcerers left in Atlantis to try to undo Hagen’s spell, but this attracts the attention of the Spectre, who has gone evil because of yet another crossover, and who shows up to destroy Atlantis:

GARTH IS SO OP. He’s fighting the fucking SPECTRE! I mean, he loses, but still!

But yeah, he loses. Atlantis is destroyed. Some Atlanteans survive - we are shown one very clear shot of Dolphin and Cerdian escaping with others on a submarine (remember this for later) - but not many.

Back near San/Sub Diego, Arthur is fighting all of his major villains because something something Infinite Crisis, but when he hears what’s happened to Atlantis, he obviously heads there immediately with Lorena. Clutching a scrap of Garth’s costume, he identifies Vulko’s body, and then Koryak’s. Lorena is devastated, and Arthur finally acknowledges that he was a shitty father:

Meanwhile Mera and Esther are organizing relief efforts because they’re amazing:

I LOVE THEM. DUMP ARTHUR AND DATE EACH OTHER.

The surviving Atlantean refugees flee to Sub Diego, instead of the planned other way around. And as a bonus, Malrey is killed by Black Manta, just kind of randomly. Because killing off Garth, Koryak, and Vulko wasn’t enough, I guess!

Anyway, there’s nothing left for Arthur but sadness now:

(Oh yeah, Cerdian is referred to as a daughter throughout this arc. Good for her!)

Next up: Arthur Joseph Curry, Sword of Atlantis, and...Garth, Koryak, and Vulko? Also, Blackest Night and Brightest Day, probably.

[doctorofmagic]

My thoughts on What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

The very title of the episode sends a shiver down my spine. And this is where we’re going to start.

~ long post under the cut ~

A year ago, I wrote this post as an attemp to dive into one of the most important traits in Doctor Strange’s personality: love. Stephen is a being made of love, made to love, no matter which interpretation you have when you watch Infinity War. If you don’t read comic books, you’ll understand the moment you meet Donna. You’ll begin to understand how her death reshaped his entire subjectivity out of fear of failing, being powerless and unable to control everything around him (especially death), thus the arrogant and yet a disaster of a man we all know.

Where do I even start? Stephen loved her sister deeply and felt responsible for her death. And then, slowly, he also lost his parents and his brother. He fell in love with Clea but he also pushed her away. He loved Zelma platonically and lied to her, which was enough for them to break their bond. He felt attracted to Kanna but screwed things up, even though they remain friends. He was forced to kill the Ancient One, the only father figure he had ever since his father died. And lastly, the only person who would never leave his side... also left. Yes, even Wong. Stephen has SO much love to give but he’s also afraid because he’s cursed. He truly believes his love in poison. And would you look at that? What If really delivered a story where this is actually true.

What If Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

The level of understanding when it comes to the character is... inconceivable. What could possibly reshape Stephen into following a dark path but love? The very premise of the whole episode. This is so much more than a love letter. This is literally too much, in all senses.

Fine, let’s begin.

What if the best of intentions has very strange consequences?

No. You used the word “strange” for the pun but this is not the word. Nah-ah. I’d go with ATROCIOUS, for starters. Things are gonna escalate so quickly, my friends.

Seriously, tho? Christine is SO SO SO SO beautiful, they’re so cute together. I have this feeling that MCU!Stephen was quite toxic because of his arrogance and this is why they didn’t work out. But WhatIf!Stephen???????? He’s always praising her, teasing her in a healthy way, respecting her and listening to her. HE TRULY LOVES HER, I’M GONNA CRY ALL OVER AGAIN, PLEASE, NOT THE CRÈME BRÛLÉE, PLEASE

I’m going to leave this shot here because we need to go back to it later. Hold that thought.

And bonus points to “Yeah, well, I would call that quite remarkable.” / “Well, I would say the same about you.”

GODS. THE PAIN. STOP THE PAIN.

So in this reality, Stephen didn’t caused the car accident because he was checking his phone while driving. Also it was not the reckless attempt to pass the truck. Well, maybe it was the consequence of this act? The fact is, the car behind them loses control, which makes them crash. Does it matter? We’ll learn later that no, it doesn’t.

And yep... Christine dies. Have you noticed the shattered heart? Ah, the pain only gets better and better.

Again, Stephen blames himself. More than anything, this is so important because Stephen is all about guilt. We still need to meet Donna so we can add yet another layer of guilt. But the feeling exists. This is what corrupts Stephen’s heart and soul in all his iterations. This is what makes him the character I love so much. I love this SO. MUCH. In addition, his stubbornness to accept his condition. Man won’t take a no. This, this is Doctor Strange in character. Stop complaining about NWH Stephen, it’s pathetic.

Okay, “grief-stricken”, Stephen found the Mystic Arts and became a sorcerer. That’s when he learned about the Time Stone, the Eye of Agamotto and Dormammu. Nothing changes, he saves the universe. But time does not heal his deepest wound.

I love Wong so much. Every time Wong does something, the world is healed. Really. We’re going back to him as well but for now I’ll just leave this shot.

BUT STEPHEN, DOING SOMETHING RECKLESS? HE’D NEVAH

Aaaaaaaannnnnnd then he did.

He goes back in time. It’s been two years since he lost Christine. I think he reacted pretty nicely, despite the circumstances. Now let’s go back to that shot I said I was saving for later.

Stephen is so light-hearted here. Also, during the first time he lost Christine, he had no idea what “The Price is Right” was. He knows now, which means he probably tried to learn more about the show because of her, because of grief. HAHAHA MORE PAIN

AND THEN HE

AND THEN SHE DIES AGAIN

AND THEN HE KEEPS GOING BACK IN TIME

AND SHE KEEPS DYING

AND THE MUSIC

AND HIS VOICE

AND HE TRIES TO CHANGE FATE BUT IT CAN’T BE AVERTED

HE EVEN TRIES TO STAY AWAY FROM HER LIFE BUT SHE DIES ALL THE SAME, WHY

AND EVERY TIME THEY CRASH, HE FEELS THE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL PAIN AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, WHY

I’M-- *ugly sobbing noises*

Apparently, not.

And this scene when he simply... closes his eyes before she dies again...?

This is where this episode had me in endless tears. It got me the four times I watched it. I’m dead serious.

Okay, so, next the Ancient One appears to Stephen, explaining that Christine’s death is an Absolute Point in time. It cannot be changed. Stephen needs the accident to become the Sorcerer Supreme and defeat Dormammu.

And this is where Stephen starts his journey into darkness. “Nothing is impossible, you taught me that. I only require more power.” Disobeying the Ancient One, Stephen then travels in time, seeking the Library of Cagliostro. Now, if you’re not aware of that, Cagliostro was a sorcerer who studied time in comics, and later became Sise-Neg (there’s a recent post on this because of the new Defenders run). It’s funny to think that Sise-Neg also destroyed the world when he became a god, however he grew past his pettiness and remade reality. Stephen did not possess such power, as we’re about to see.

PS: “Stop torturing yourself, Stephen.” Naur but he should use this line like a mantra. Especially comics!Stephen.

Not gonna lie, tho. This place reminds me of the Temple of the Vishanti from T&T (of course I was going to insert T&T somewhere, it’s me).

And of course they’d go for a pun with his name haha. I don’t know how to feel about this, tho. I feel like the episode is too heavy and dark for comedy. But it is what it is.

Okay but why some books are in cages??????????? And wow, it seems Cagliostro also gathered knowledge about several fields of magic.

And then Stephen learns that, in order to break an Absolute Point, he needs to absorb more power. This is when I went “oh-oh, here we go”.

And for real, is this Shuma-Gorath? Why are they keeping his name a secret? Is this the same creature from the first episode with Captain Carter, right? RIGHT? It has to be Shuma-Gorath.

Of course he tries to be polite and ends up all hurt haha. O’Bengh warns him about love but he will not listen. “Love can break more than your heart. It can shatter your mind.”/ “Is she worth the pain?”. Please, this is Stephen. He eats pain for breakfast.

Also, also, let’s take a break. We’re finally going to get monsterf0cker tentacle-lover Stephen Strange. It will cost us everything but here we goooooooooooo (yes, I went frame by frame for your more obscure fanservice needs)

Gods, I love this sequence so much it hurts. Okay, here we go.

Shmebulock???????????

AND HE STOLE THE CAPE??????????? AND DREW THE LINE ON BUGS??????

The grasp this man is holding on me right now...

Some of you will understand. I’m with you.

And here are the grostesque ones. These are hard to take SS but I had to.

Animation, sound effects, OST? CHEF’S KISS TO ALL

And lastly... the tentacles. Yeah, if you’re new... this is a thing.

Fanservice. Fanservice everywhere. (low-key the reason I also waited to write this review, I wanted to enjoy this part so badly but I was too sad for that lmao)

Okay so. O’Bengh is suddenly OLD and DYING, until we realize that Stephen spent CENTURIES absorbing mystic beings. CENTURIES. WTF STEPHEN. He had nothing in mind but the goal to save Christine. And people wonder why he went insane???? I’m sorry, O’Bengh, but I can’t take you serious when you still call Stephen Sorcerer Armani. Oh, and also because you watched him absorb beings for centuries in silence lmao. But I guess I have to because you said that Stephen is split in two since the Ancient One cast a spell on him, splitting the timelines and making them exist in the same reality before he could travel back in time. I know, it’s complex. Anything for the plot.

And now good!Stephen has an evil!twin who wants to absorb him back in order to become whole and break the Absolute Point. Cool.

I said I wanted to talk more about Wong because I think people are not talking about him enough. Wong is so important in this episode. He’s the one who’s trying to heal Stephen after Christine. He’s Stephen’s anchor.

Also, THEY FINALLY USED A SPELL WITH THE NAME OF THE VISHANTI. HOORAAAAY

So, for the sake of our understanding, I’m addressing the characters as evil and good!Stephen. Let’s go. Evil!Stephen summons good!Stephen and gods, he still holds such a strong grasp on me... unbelievable. THE DEEPER VOICE BENEDICT USES???? PLEASE, DIDN’T WE HAVE ENOUGH?

Imagine his strength to hold so many beings inside him, fighting to control him. BRO, THIS IS TOO TOO MUCH

Fine, I’ll not post SS about the fight because I’d be here all night long but I WILL say this: NOT CLOAKIE!!!!! NAAAAAAAAAAUR

Also if you ask me if I recognize any of the spells? Maaaaybe the Flames of Faltine, the not-so-crimson Bands of Cyttorak and a little trick Magik does with her portals. That’s how far I go.

I’ll not comment on the “seducing yourself to stay in the trap”. I will not. I’ll just say that the first person Stephen thought of when “Christine” was talking about the crème brûlée was Wong. That’s it.

And finally evil!Stephen absorbs good!Stephen and releases... UNLIMITED POWER (I love when the stone goes red as if it was bleeding aaaaaaa)

I can fix him...

This scene here? Poetic cinema. (I love his wings so much)

And when Stephen says her name and the other monsters’ voices echo “Christine”, AAAAAACKKKK

AND OF COURSE CHRISTINE WOULD FREAK OUT, BRO. LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE BECOME BECAUSE OF YOUR TWISTED LOVE. I’M NOT DOING FINE.

Oh, but it’s too late anyways because Stephen broke reality haha. This scene is interesting because Stephen is the only one who sensed and/or talked to the Watcher until now. I read an interview that the Watcher kinda showed up but it’s also about Stephen’s keen senses. Bit of both, let’s say. Still, man, 616-Watcher is not that cold. 616-Watcher would watch this and say “how about I intervene anyway?”. WhatIf!Watcher is brutal.

The way Christine looks at Stephen one last time also KILLS ME, DESTROYS ME, BREAK ME INTO A MILLION PIECES.

And this is where my soul left my body.

This is how they end the episode. This is how you leave me speechless and with teary eyes. This is how you give me a whole existential crisis.

This... this was brutal to watch. Really.

What can I say after this? I’m used to reading painful things when it comes to Stephen. Aaron’s and Cates’ runs are heartbreaking on so many levels. Hickman’s New Avengers is not easier. Coincidentally, What If? Magik Became Sorcerer Supreme and The End. And now Death of Doctor Strange. And yet, after everything I’ve been through, I’d never expect to watch something so brilliant, so tragic, so heartbreaking and unexpected in the MCU. Never. This is top tier content and this is my favorite character with SO MANY LAYERS and SO MUCH UNDERSTANDING. I can’t put into words how meaningful this whole episode is to me, or how deep it touched my heart and soul.

I’ve been struggling to find the proper words since then, I still can’t. All I can add is, I cried for the 4th time now. This is too, too much, even for Stephen stans. Even for the ones who are used to pain, regardless of which media you’re into: comic books, live actions or animated movies. This is literally more than I can take and yet I’m so, so grateful. The voice acting, gods, how did Benedict manage to create a better Stephen than the one he’s literally playing in real life???????????? HOW

This episode really took the max potential Stephen had to offer as a character, added tons and tons of layers based on his grief, depression, arrogance and need to control everything and created a tragic masterpiece. In 7 years of being a Doctor Strange fan, I've never read or watch something that could go this deep into the character. The closest I can think of is Mr. Misery and the metaphor of Stephen's depression. This is a whole new level of respect and understanding. This is more than a love letter. This is peak maestry. It’s perfect, it’s heartbreaking, it’s... gods, I can’t.

Sorry for dragging you until this far. Before I wrap up this review, I just wanted to remind you all that Stephen will appear again, he will smile again, he will be surrounded by people again. So this is not the end. It was painful but be brave. We still have a few more steps to take.

[flickrrposts]

This was all too long for a comment, so:

Personally, from what I've seen, a character doesn't need to be anything but evil for an audience to like the character.

Black Hat is inspired by every famous villain in the book, some of them being Disney Villains. Characters like Jafar, Cruella, Ursula, Gaston, Maleficent, Captain Hook, Hades, Mother Gothel, Scar, etc.

People LOVE those villains for plenty of reasons, like:

They look like they're having a lot of fun being evil, and that fun energy is contagious to the audience

Their designs are cool

Their powers or abilities are creative, and fun to watch

They make a compelling threat to the main characters. Even if they have no depth.

When Cruella (2021) was released, audience's first issue with it was that she was made to be a misunderstood villain.

One of the main elements of Villainous as a show, is just that this is the chance to see villains like that as the main characters.

I think that a character doesn't need to be compelling to be likable.

Another note is that Black Hat can be examined under 3 genres, I think:

1. Comedy

The show's mostly been a comedy to this point.

Comedy is subjective, but fans tend to think Black Hat is funny.

I'll also say though, that one of the charms of the original shorts was that Black Hat was the butt of the joke for a few of them. He came across as more of a goofball.

The show has been taking him more and more seriously though, so that charm has kind of been lost.

2. A Mystery/Horror

When it comes to speculating about the lore of the world, I think this is one of Black Hat's strongest qualities. Learning about his cult, his powers, his history, and his influence over others is fascinating.

Arguable spin-off things, and anything outside of the text of the main show shouldn't be considered essential to the show's experience, but it's undeniable that many fans have looked into the livestreams, books, and comics, SO:

In the spin-off comic El Atraco Arriesgado, that just concluded recently, Black Hat never appears once. However, you see his influence bleed into the story in a lot of ways, and it is interesting to see play out.

The whole reason that Illuminarrow, the main character, chooses to take the job she does in the first place, is that she lives in one of Black Hat's apartments, and her rent is due.

SPOILERS if you haven't read it, but it's revealed that the entire plot of the comic happens because one of the main villains, Porccini, has done something that could get him in major trouble with Black Hat, and he's terrified of the consequences.

And you see top hats hidden EVERYWHERE, indicating that his influence reaches further than you'd think.

The comics shouldn't be a required reading for the show, but I think it does reveal one of the intentions of the writers, which is to portray Black Hat as someone at the center of conflicts, and mysteries.

Villains/Antagonists that are so powerful that they're nearly impossible to oppose is also a large staple of the horror genre.

Hereditary, Us, Misery, Coraline, Get Out, Midsommar, The Thing, etc.

The threat of those Antagonists normally significantly outweigh the Protagonists, relative to their stories.

Similar to my earlier point, Villainous is a show where that type of villain/antagonist, is now a Main Character.

3. Drama

This... is where Black Hat is the weakest. As one of the comments under your post points out, Black Hat is probably just going to wind up being a character for the plot, rather then a compelling character in relation to the main characters.

I'd argue that the other main characters are interesting in relation to him though,,

One of the interesting things about Flug as a character is that he seems to be a pretty morally good person.

But the fact that he's Black Hat's second in command, and is trusted enough to LIVE with Black Hat certainly says something about his morality.

I'm trying not to speculate on the future too much to justify elements of the the show now, but I think that however they develop Demencia in the future will be interesting. Even if Black Hat never changes, I think she will, as well as her relation to him.

According to Flug's logbook, 505 was MADE with a PART of Black Hat. And that's definitely going to mean something to Black Hat too.

A character doesn't have to be likable to be compelling. But Black Hat in a void isn't a compelling character.

The fact that he's SO overpowered also makes him a bit boring as a character too. Overpowered characters are hard to write when it comes to writing dramas. It's not impossible (ex. Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls), but it's still hard.

I'm ignoring that interview that stated that Black Hat's going to get a challenge eventually, and might have a weakness, because just looking at the show right now, Black Hat isn't deep.

Bonus, uh, I wanna talk about fanon if you don't mind me rambling:

As for fan-content, I've noticed that fandoms often tend to fulfill a void that's left by the original piece of media.

Fandoms and queer culture are often tied together because many LGBTQ+ people don't have any representation, or, historically our stories have censored, but we've always existed. Shipping is popular because there's something IN the text between two characters, that's left unresolved, or unexplored, often due to censoring. And so fans create art, and fanfiction to create what the canon never could.

It's like an itch that's never been scratched.

A dark, depressing drama like Breaking Bad has a comedic lighthearted fandom to make up for the lack of lightheartedness in the show itself.

My Little Pony: FIM always hinted at cool lore and backstories, but the show rarely explored it due to the slice-of-life nature of it, so fans made entire animations of what they never got to see. The fanbase was often darker than the show too, because of how lighthearted the show was.

The Five Nights at Freddy's lore is so famous/infamous because the creator constantly kept the lore confusing, leading to fans spending thousands of hours filling in the gaps, and trying to figure it out, to the point where the fandom essentially wrote the story of FNAF for him.

Villainous, back when the show was popular in 2017... was just comedy. It was just a bunch of goofy shorts of Black Hat, Dr. Flug, Demencia, and 505 being silly together, even if it had a slightly dark edge to it occasionally.

And so fans LOVED the characters, but because the shorts didn't really have any depth to them, and so they filled that void by creating that depth themselves. And that ESPECIALLY applies to Black Hat.

As the show went on, and the lore got deeper, and stuff like the Instagrams, books, and s1e6 implied that the show WILL be taking its characters seriously.

And so the lore is more serious, therefore Black Hat is more serious, therefore he's just pure evil.

However, I think that enough content of a non-pure-evil Black Hat exists, that the fanbase can still enjoy that take on the character, even though it's now separated from the canon of the show.

And so Black Hat is now only a deep character via the fandom. And I personally love it :D!

But those are just my thoughts! I haven't gone back and re-read everything I wrote, so sorry if I get repetitive! I'm so glad that you've brought this up, because I've been thinking about this for years.

I decided to write a bit about Black Hat because he's one of the strangest characters I have ever seen, writing-wise (I'm trying to be objective here but I might be a bit biased because Black Hat is also not my favourite 😅)

He's super powerful which means no one can ever defeat him but also super evil, so he'll never feel any emotion towards other characters which means he can never change/grow. Because of these things, he can never be challenged in any way and it makes him very one dimensional.

He treats Flug awfully (as well as the rest of his employees) which is common for the "evil villain and his subordinates" trope. Although most stories where this trope is used, the subordinate either gets tired of being mistreated and leaves, or the villain faces consequences for their actions. Except that Black Hat is a protagonist and we're supposed to like him. The show gives no indication that this will ever change, or that Black Hat will receive any sort of comeuppance.

These aren't necessarily criticisms, they're part of what makes Black Hat (and the show as a whole) so interesting, but I'm also very confused at why the writers decided to make him this way. I hadn't seen anyone say this yet so I'd love to hear other people's thoughts!