#but canon comics literally do this too and even worse honestly

[strawberrytalia]

those “putting Damian on a team of superhero kids” concepts are cool in theory, but more often than not, they’re really just ways of shitting on him and making him look feral in comparison to “the nice hero kids” who are then tasked with civilizing him as if that’s not inherently racist. even worse is when he’s paired up in a duo with a white goody two shoes (cough Jon and Colin cough). and doubly worse is when there is no intention at all to give Damian character growth, he’s just used as a tool for shipping (this is 99% of the time).

I only read a bit of Gotham Academy, but I fully do see the appeal in having Damian hang with them, and be proper friends with Maps because that’s like one of the rare times another kid is friends with Damian, and they just accept his weirdness and don’t expect him to get fixed or “civilized” for them. or with Maya, in which there was conflict, a resolution, and growth for both sides and she actually helped Damian develop positively without putting him down.

[celaenaeiln]

Hiii, how are you? I’m new in the Batman fandom, but i saw a lot of people saying that Jason is actually Batman’s favorite child, and when i was reading the comics, i really though that Dick is Bruce absolute favorite, but i saw a lot of posts here on tumblr of the fandom saying is actually Jason and that the batkids all know its Jason, but i don’t know what is canon and what is fanon (quite honestly when it comes about the batfam i don’t like a lot about the fanon version 😭), so i wanted to ask you about it

And sorry if i said something wrong, english is not my first language

Hi and no worries at all!!

Yeah, canonically Dick is Bruce's favorite by a LONG shot and canonically the batkids all know this.

Infinite Crisis Issue #3

It's says right here in the comics. Really explicitly. But not only that, time and time again, there is clear evidence of Bruce's preferential treatment of Dick over the rest of the batkids.

One time the batboys and Bruce are searching for a guy that kinda is using the Gotham criminals as his subjects. So what they decide to do is split up to narrow him down.

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1057

But they run into issues because the villains chose a 'divide and conquer strategy"

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1057

Bruce gets swept away! Because of a carefully planned trap. But do you what he does the second he wakes up?

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1058

JDAKFA;BFJALEC

BRUCE LITERALLY WENT: "I love Dick and all the other not-Dicks equally" !!!!!

As if that's not enough, Bruce's biggest fear is that he's not good enough for Dick.

Bruce's fear about Dick-

Batman vs Robin Issue #3

because he believes this -

vs

Bruce's fear about Jason -

Batman vs Robin Issue #3

because he believed he failed to do this -

Batman: Hush

Reminder: Joe Chill is Martha and Thomas Wayne's killer. Enough said.

If you want to be even more explicit about Bruce's preference for Dick over Jason it can't be clearer than here:

Bruce reflects on Jason's Robin tenure -

Batman (1940) Issue #428

Something a lot of people don't know/refuse to acknowledge is that Jason canonically did have anger issues. There aren't a lot of parallels between Jason and Dick but one particular thing that DC points out is that Jason and Dick both lost their beloved fathers. The difference is that Dick was able to move on and become cheerful even if he didn't get revenge. Jason wasn't able to get over the loss of his father and became angry. UTRH makes a specific point of talking about this too.

Batman (1940) Issue #645 "He knew that Jason Todd was NOT Dick Grayson."

Do you remember why Jason became Robin?

Batman (1940) Issue #416

Bruce wanted Dick. He took in Jason in replacement for Dick. But Jason was not Dick and even on the day he died, all Bruce could think of was that taking in Jason was a mistake.

The batkids are well aware of this. Damian actually calls Jason Bruce's mistake too when he's recounting the story of the robins.

Here's what he says -

Batman (1940) Issue #713

That's Damian's retelling. Tim's is even worse -

A Lonely Place of Dying

Ouch.

Truthfully Jason is like Bruce's 4th favorite. In order of how much Bruce loves his kids it goes:

Dick

Damian

Cass

Jason/Tim (tie)

Tim/Jason (tie)

Steph

I think there's so much confusion about Jason supposedly being the favorite because Bruce grieved over Jason's that but I think a lot of people are conflating grief and self-blame with love. There have been two significant deaths in the family: Jason and Damian. If you look at how Bruce reacted in each aftermath, it becomes clear that he loves Damian more than he loved Jason.

After Jason's death:

Batman (1940) Issue #429

Batman (1940) Issue #431

After Damian's death:

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #21

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #20

He would forcefully make Jason relive the worst day of his life so that his other son could enjoy his.

Bruce's behavior after Jason's death was self-destructive and isolative but his behavior after Damian's death was to beat bloodly every single criminal. His reasoning for beating Dick after Jason's death was "Jason was your replacement. If you hadn't left I wouldn't have had to take him in and he wouldn't have died." His reason for beating Jason after Damian's death was "Your trauma matters so little to mean that all I want is Damian to live again and I couldn't care less about how you feel."

In summary, Jason wasn't Bruce's favorite either as Robin or as an adult. But even if it's not Dick, claiming that Jason is the favorite is so far off that no one is DC would remotely believe it. You would think there would be more analysis on Damian's death in comparison to Jason's because they were two big official deaths but I guess not for some reason. I ran out of image space but yeah there's more than just this overall. This isn't to say that Bruce doesn't love Jason. NO! He very much loves him. But he just doesn't love him the most.

On a different note - coming from someone who went from TT show to YJ to fanfic AND THEN reading comics, I've had relearn a lot about each of the characters. But for people still in the process of transitioning from fanfic to comics or just in the fanfic stage, general rule of thumb when it comes to batfamily content - NEVER trust what people say if they don't provide the evidence for it. People in this fandom are so wild that they'll have you believing the earth is the center of the universe, that you'll fall off the world if you go too far left or right, and that pigs can fly.

[prettylilyanime]

Blooming Hearts ♡ Chapter 04

˚✿˖ Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki x fem reader

˚✿˖ Synopsis: All your life, you’ve had it all—wealth, beauty, and a quirk good enough to secure your spot at UA. But after three years, you still feel more like an outsider than a future hero. Social life? Barely existent. Friends? Who needs them? You’re ready to coast through your final year solo… until fate lands you squarely in the lap of a certain hot-headed blonde—literally.

˚✿˖ tags/warnings: 18+, smut in the later chapters, reader is spoiled, shy reader, they're all third years at UA, Fluff, strangers? to lovers trope, not really strangers, miscommunication, drama, y/n just wants to make friends, reader is canonically pretty, reader is a hero in training, whipped bakugou, she falls first but he falls harder

˚✿˖ Authors note: In which y/n finally falls on Katsuki's lap

˚✿˖ Masterlist ♡ Previous ♡ Next

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Somehow, you managed to sleep through the night.

After a relaxing bubble bath and a pint-sized cup of rocky road ice cream to make yourself feel better, you finally lulled yourself into a deep rest. That leads you to now: shrugging on your silky pink robe and sliding into your fluffy house slippers, ready to head downstairs and grab the boxes lined up at the door.

Yesterday’s manic spending spree? Worth it—because today, it’s like Christmas morning!

Since the dorms are practically empty, you feel comfortable enough to skip your usual habit of dressing up, strolling around in your teeny-tiny pajamas without a care. Your lacy pink shorts barely peek out from beneath the hem of your robe, and the matching top isn’t doing much better.

Normally, you’d never be caught dead like this. You’d have at least thrown on some proper pants in case someone saw you, but right now? Freedom!

Which you deserve, damn all of them!

Even your oversized reading glasses sit firmly on your nose—something you would never wear around your peers. They’re clunky, with thick crystal-clear lenses that magnify your eyes far beyond their actual size, framed by equally thick rims.

Honestly, the look is borderline comical, But hey! You’re too terrified of lasik surgery to seriously consider fixing the issue. You never see eye doctors getting it done, so… why should you trust it?

Sure, the glasses are practical—wearing contacts every day dries out your eyes like crazy—but the thought of walking into class looking like a bug is worse than any discomfort you may face.

Today, though, there’s no one around to judge, so you let yourself relax.

Humming softly to yourself, you make your way to the front door, relishing in the peaceful silence of the dorms. No awkward small talk, no side glances as you try to avoid eye contact—just you and your thoughts.

Your eyes light up as soon as you spot the pile of brightly colored boxes stacked neatly by the door. Designer logos flash proudly across the packaging, and some of the stacks are even taller than you.

Honestly, it’s a bit ridiculous, but who cares? Nobody’s here, so it’s not an inconvenience for anyone but you. Or so you thought.

Confidently, you bend down to pick up one of the taller stacks. You’ve got this. Balancing the pile against your chest, you steady yourself, sliding your glasses back up your nose.

And then—

“The hell is all this?”

A voice comes from behind, sharp and familiar, startling you so badly that you let out a scream like you’re being attacked. The stack wobbles dangerously, and before you can regain balance, you feel yourself slipping backward—your bunny-shaped slippers betraying you at the worst possible moment.

Boxes tumble down with you, but before you hit the floor, two strong hands grab your waist, steadying you—barely. The weight of the falling boxes sends both of you crashing down anyway.

“How are you so fucking jumpy?” Bakugou’s irritated voice rumbles from beneath you, disbelief coloring his tone.

You barely register his words, your brain short-circuiting from both shock and utter embarrassment. “YOU COULDN’T WARN ME, YOU FREAK?!”

“OI, WHO ARE YOU CALLING A FREAK?”

“Y-YOU! OH MY GOD!” you stammer, scrambling to swipe your crooked glasses off your face and adjusting your very revealing pajamas.

Bakugou snorts, his crimson eyes narrowing in amusement. “I think a freak would actually enjoy this. Can’t say the same for myself.” He jerks his chin toward your current predicament, and that’s when it hits you.

You’re straddling him.

Your thighs are braced on either side of his waist, your hands planted against his abs—which, feel more like carved marble than anything remotely human. The realization sends a fresh wave of heat rushing to your face, and you squeal in pure mortification, launching yourself off him like you’ve been burned.

Now upright, you press your back hard against the wall, silently begging it to absorb you and erase the last few minutes of your existence.

Meanwhile, Bakugou stands effortlessly, not even bothering to dust himself off. He towers over you, broad-shouldered and imposing, one blonde brow raised as he surveys the mess around him.

Boxes lie scattered across the floor in every direction, and there’s still a mountain of them waiting outside. Then there’s you—pinned against the wall like a cornered animal, clutching your oversized glasses in your manicured hands.

With an exasperated sigh, Bakugou pinches the bridge of his nose, voice low and rough. “Y’know, princess, if you’re this jumpy around me, I gotta wonder how you’re gonna survive out there when we graduate and you actually have to fight people.”

Your eye twitches at the condescension dripping from his words. “That’s not—! I’m not scared of you! You’re just… you’re not supposed to be here right now!”

He scoffs, crossing his arms in that infuriatingly smug way. “Hah? Pretty sure I live here.”

“You’re supposed to be with your friends! On that stupid trip!” The venom in your voice surprises even you, and Bakugou snorts at the sight of your composure cracking.

You, little miss head held high, president of the resting bitch face club, always pretty and quiet—

The sight of you now? Glorious material.

“Well, I didn’t go. Those idiots are slacking off. We already went somewhere before the year started. Decided to stay back.”

Your brain just can't catch up. “But Kirishima went, and he’s your best friend—”

“You think that means we’re glued together?” he asks, his tone sharp, crimson eyes narrowing as if you’ve just said the dumbest thing in the world.

You bite the inside of your cheek, the sting of his words hitting harder than you’d like.

Well, how would you know? You don’t have a best friend. You don’t have any friends. The realization sits heavy in your chest, but there’s no way you’re admitting that to him. Instead, you square your shoulders and pretend it doesn’t bother you, even as heat creeps up your neck.

“Whatever,” you mutter, crossing your arms and looking away, your voice quieter now. “Sorry for blocking your way with all these boxes. I’ll get them out of your way.” You turn, already crouching to start gathering the fallen packages, but you’re unaware of the way your lips pout.

To Bakugou, you resemble a pouting child.

Spoiled.

He again, lifts a brow, red eyes darting between you and the boxes outside.

"Sure you got that by yourself?" He doesn't know why he's still stood here and talking to you really. You look like you'll explode if he keeps talking, and on any other occasion, he'd want to leave the scene as quickly as possible.

All those extras he calls classmates would have to pick up their own fucking boxes.

But you?

He pauses, watching you gingerly pick up some of the boxes from the floor and stack them; on on top of the other. You're so delicate in the way you move, quiet by nature.

Watching you do this when he's right there and capable just feels so...wrong.

He clears his throat, waiting for your response. You pause from your crouched position, glancing up at him awkwardly. It's the second time in his life he's ever seen you from this knelt looking up position, and he can't say he hates it.

Damn...maybe he is a freak.

“I mean, I might... just take a moment, sorry,” you mumble, glancing back at the barricade of boxes blocking the door.

Bakugou watches you for a beat, jaw tightening. He knows you’re more than capable—hell, you wouldn’t have made it this far at UA if you weren’t—but something about the way you look right now, small and uncertain, sets him on edge. It’s not pity, not exactly. Just...something.

Something he can’t quite put a name to, and it irritates the hell out of him.

With a low, irritated grunt, he strides forward and snatches up an entire stack of boxes, balancing them easily with one arm. “Where’s your room?”

Your head snaps up, startled. “Oh! Bakugou, you really don’t have to—”

“It’s already happening,” he cuts you off, his tone flat, leaving no room for argument.

His crimson eyes are locked ahead, like he’s determined not to look at you too long. If he does, he might start questioning why he’s even bothering—and that’s a line of thought he doesn’t want to explore.

You blink at him, caught off guard by the gesture. Then, slowly, a small smile spreads across your face, soft and genuine in a way he’s never seen before. For a second, he forgets how to breathe.

“If you insist! It’s this way,” you say, your voice lifting just enough to betray a touch of relief. You gesture down the hall, and Bakugou follows without a word, the stack of boxes balanced effortlessly in his grip.

When you push the door open, he steps inside, his crimson eyes scanning the space with an unreadable expression. It’s all so... you.

The room is pristine and meticulously organized, with a soft, almost ethereal quality to it. Pale hues and delicate details catch the light—plush white carpet, glittering accents, and soft pastel tones scattered in just the right places. It’s clean. It’s pretty. It’s even a little sparkly.

There’s a small potted plant on your desk, its leaves vibrant but plain, unremarkable—until you step past it. The moment you cross the threshold, the unassuming bud unfurls, blooming into a radiant pink flower that glows faintly, its edges shimmering like a secret come to life.

Bakugou’s gaze flicks to the flower, then to you, and back again. He barely reacts, chalking it up to your quirk doing its thing, the way quirks do. He’s seen it happen before—flowers sprouting around you at random, dotting the ground like confetti whenever you’re near.

“What is it with you and flowers growing everywhere?” he mutters, setting the boxes down in a neat stack near your carpet. His tone is gruff, not unkind, but edged with genuine curiosity.

You let out a small laugh, awkward and breathless. “It’s just... my quirk. Happens sometimes,” you say, avoiding his gaze as you fidget with the hem of your robe.

He watches you for a second longer, his sharp eyes narrowing like he doesn’t entirely believe you but doesn’t care enough to press.

Meanwhile, you glance at the glowing flower, heart racing as heat creeps up back your neck. He doesn’t realize it, of course—that it only happens when your emotions bubble too close to the surface, when you’re too nervous or too something to keep them in check.

And right now, standing this close to Bakugou Katsuki? You’re definitely too something.

“Sorry about the mess, didn’t expect company,” you say with a laugh that comes out thin and shaky, like it’s trying too hard to break the tension.

It’s forced—awkward, even—but Bakugou doesn’t linger on it. What catches his attention more is how much you remind him of Deku: nervous, fidgety, and just one nudge away from stammering out an entire essay of overexplained apologies.

Except he’d never have guessed you’d be like that. Not you, with your perfect posture, pretty face, and quiet, composed aura that usually keeps people at arm’s length.

Now, though? You’re squinting all around the room, looking more lost than anything, even with your glasses clutched tightly in your hands.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asks, his tone blunt but lacking the usual bite.

You glance up, startled. “H-huh? Oh, nothing! I’m just, uh...” You gesture vaguely toward your desk, as though that explains anything at all.

He groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If you can’t see, put on your damn glasses.”

Your face burns at his words, and you reflexively clutch the frames tighter. “I can see fine!” you argue, even though the way you just nearly tripped over your desk chair seconds ago says otherwise.

“Yeah, right.” Bakugou rolls his eyes, stepping past you to straighten the chair you’d bumped. “You’re squinting at nothing like a grandma. Just wear them.”

“It’s not that simple!” you shoot back, flustered now, your voice rising defensively. “They’re... they’re ugly, okay?”

He snorts, folding his arms as he leans against the desk. “Tch. Who gives a shit? Ugly glasses are better than looking stupid running into shit.”

The bluntness of his words makes you gape at him, your mouth opening and closing like you’re searching for a retort but coming up empty. He doesn’t look at you, though—his gaze drifts over to the glowing flower on your desk, his posture relaxed, as if none of this conversation is affecting him in the slightest.

“Seriously,” he mutters, almost to himself, “just put ’em on. Not like I care.”

That makes your breath hitch, and for a moment, you freeze. He doesn’t seem to notice—or maybe he just doesn’t let on if he does. But as the flowers blooming by the window’s edge glow a little brighter, you realize you’re probably not as subtle as you think.

You realize that you really can't do it, already so embarrassed for no reason at the idea of this gorgeous man seeing you look even more stupid than you already do.

In your big bunny slippers, barely there robe and pjs, tripping all over the place, these stupid glasses just can't go back on your face-

Apparently, though, his patience has run out.

Before you can react, Bakugou snatches the glasses out of your hands. You blink, startled, and barely manage to squeak out a protest before he shoves them onto your face. His fingers are firm but careful as he pushes them up the bridge of your nose, his expression completely unreadable, as if this is just another chore to check off his list.

His voice trails off as he leaves, muttering more to himself than to you, but you barely register the words. You’re too busy standing there, completely frozen, the warmth of his touch lingering on your face and your heart hammering in your chest.

Flowers bloom quietly at your feet, their glow soft and warm against the plush carpet, as you try—and fail—to pull yourself together.

“Am I gonna do all your work for you or what?!” his voice booms from downstairs, jolting you out of your daze.

You startle, a small yelp escaping before you gather yourself and rush down to meet him. As you descend, your slippers slap softly against the steps, your robe fluttering slightly in your hurry.

“I mean—you insisted on helping!” you retort, trying your best to sound firm but only managing a breathy laugh at the end.

Bakugou, standing at the bottom of the staircase with a box balanced effortlessly on his shoulder, levels you with one of his signature sharp glares. His red eyes narrow as if daring you to keep talking, though you can see the faintest twitch of amusement in his expression.

“And now I’m regrettin’ it,” he grumbles, though his actions betray his words as he adjusts the box without complaint.

Biting back a smile, you step up to grab another box from the pile. “Well, thanks anyway, Bakugou,” you say softly, not quite meeting his gaze.

“Tch. Just hurry it up, would ya?” he mutters, turning toward the door.

But as you follow behind him, you catch the faintest glance over his shoulder, and for a fleeting moment, you swear his gaze softens.

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[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

An Honest Opinion on Cillian Murphy and his role as Jonathan Crane

This is gonna be long, so buckle up hroo hraas

Cillian Muprhy was the actor who played Jonathan Crane in the Nolanverse Trilogy. For many fans, if it wasn't btas, it was Nolanverse that introduced them to Scarecrow. Unfortunately, it's a pretty poor introduction.

Don't get me wrong, he's a good actor, but is is NO Jonathan Crane. He actually wanted to be Batman but those in charge saw his pretty blue eyes, became obsessed and basically threw away any previous idea of who their Scarecrow should be so Cillian could act in the movie.

The director goes on to host multiple interviews in which he fawns over Cillian's eyes. This is literally the only thing he has to say about Scarecrow. This is also one of the reasons you see them focused o so much in certain clips, Cillian was actually instructed to take off his glasses as much as possible.

Now, whats the problem? Well, Cillian is first and foremost way too traditionally handsome to be playing such a character, a character that was literally bullied for his looks in ever comic released prior. (and I do realize that handsome men can be bullied for their looks, but the comics only ever describe Crane as gangly and nerdy. Unlikable. Queer Fellow. Etc. And I honestly don't expect that kind of nuance when he was hired for his PRETTY EYES ) I don't even think the movie comments on his looks. Anyhow.

His roles in the movies, for me, are largely forgettable. The only iconic comment is "Would you like to see my mask" That's literally all anyone remembers. Oh and maybe the flaming horse, but that's never talked about by fans. So, it wasn't impactful

I doubt Cillian has even touched a comic book tbh. If he did, he's at least TRY to be scary. His costume---which largely isn't his choice--was uninspired and uncreative. A suit and a burlap mask with some maggots for some reason??? Boring. (Note: even the gotham actor read the comics. It's not hard to do some research into who you'll be acting as)

Compare that to comics out at the time, Year One, Batman Adventures, Batman Annual 19, even Long Halloween predated this movie! They had PLENTY to reference.

And what's worse? the fandom. Oh god the fandom. While I'm grateful many current fans got their start with the Nolan trilogy, they all largely have moved on to bigger and better canons. They're not who I have beef with. It's the Cillian Murphy fangirls. Not Jonathan Crane. Cillian. The tag is largely infested with them, and they often tag any and every photo of the man as Jonathan Crane. This does nothing for me, except annoy. I've blocked dozens of blogs for this. It's petty, sure, but I can guarantee you that tagging your Cillian pictures as every character he's acted as ever, does not mean you'll get more interaction. You'll get the opposite actually.

Do note, fanart and illustrated portrayals of Cillian are the one exception. Artists have taken his very boring interpretation and turned it into something awesome. Y'all keep doing you. You rock.

Cillian is not a bad actor, but he's a bad Crane.

-mic drop-

[scarlet--wiccan]

Don't act dumb? Your account is literally nothing but Roma Virtue signalling. If marvel is such a racist company why interact with it? The information on your page is again incorrect. We are not a tool for you to make yourself feel better and feed your saviour complex. Just weird you really should stop speaking about and on behalf of Roma it's giving obsessed and just the most ignorant type of saviour complex and it's all in the name of marvel we truly exist outside of Marvel but idk if y'all can comprehend that.

This is really extreme and unfair. I don't want to continue this conversation, as it's clear that you're not willing to engage in good faith, and frankly, after years of being clear about my background, I don't feel like I owe anything to an anonymous user who could very well be the exact sort of troll I was just talking about. But I suppose it would be helpful to clarify some things, since nobody ever reads my old posts.

I am a second-generation American of Cale Romani descent. I identify as a white-presenting person of mixed race. I have been consistently clear about this and there are photos of me on this blog. I'm not hiding anything. I am a Marvel fan and a long-time comic book reader. This page started out as a general fandom blog, but because I happen to be gitano, I am particularly invested in Romani characters and speak often about issues of Roma representation. I don't think that's weird or hard to understand, and I do still post about other stuff. I'm not trying to be a savior or spokesperson, I'm just talking about what I know and what matters to me. I don't think that Marvel comics are wholly or irredeemably racist, nor do I think that's a productive way to approach critical consumption. This is a massive literary canon and a reflection of many different aspects of American pop culture, and I prefer to engage with it as such.

People are entitled to have different opinions and feelings about these characters, and I've acknowledged plenty of times that I don't speak for everybody-- I've even expressed anxiety about drawing too much attention to comics when I know there are Roma who're sick of hearing about it! But I don't think that it's uncommon for marginalized people to have complex relationships with flawed or problematic representation. I, personally, like these characters and see value in them, but more than that, I think it's important to initiate critical conversations about them because they're very popular now, and they're going to exist in perpetuity, whether we like it or not.

I often make it a priority to direct those conversations towards actual Romani history, because I want readers to learn more about that and to participate in allyship beyond Marvel fandom. In fact, I've repeatedly said that I think fans' tendency to tokenize these characters is detrimental on all sides, and I do post about Romani issues outside of comics, but again, this is specifically a fandom blog, so that's what I focus on. If that's not getting across to you, either you aren't actually reading my blog and you just decided to bother me unprovoked, or I'm a much worse writer than I thought.

If you don't always agree with me, that's fine, but everything I've said about Romani history and racialization is just verifiable fact. I don't think that I'm wrong to say that whitewashing and erasure are bad, and that if Marvel is going to continue making and adapting stories about Romani characters, we deserve to advocate for ourselves and demand better inclusion. I've never had to speak over or argue with other Romani people about this, because, honestly, the only people who disagree with me on this basic principle are belligerent anons like you! And I know other actual Roma who would agree with me. I have a life, and a relationship with community and culture outside of comics, but you don't see that because you don't know me, and again, this is a fandom-specific blog.

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

what do you think scarecrow and catwoman’s relationships are like, when jon gets together with bruce? is he still jealous of her?

they generally loathe each other’s guts. so if there was pure spite between them before, now it’ll be a total war zone lol. i think, that jonathan wouldn’t stand even the smallest display of her trying to play coy with the bat. esp bc crane knows that she does this to piss him off an’ get under his skin. 

i tend to imagine, that down the line selina kinda gives up on bruce in terms of romance an’ such. she still finds him attractive an’ alluring, but it’s more of exs thing, than anything else. therefore, it’s not serious for her. she isn’t in it to actually try an’ get together with batman or anything. she just likes being mean an’ play around with jonathan’s feelings, bc his jealousy is funny to her. 

an’ speaking of which, jonathan would always be jealous of her to some degree. or honestly, any tree bruce will stand next to. he has a jealous, crazy hoe disease. an’ it’s not that he’s afraid that batman would cheat on him. ironically enough, i think he doesn’t get hung up on this idea almost at all. it’s more so, that he knows that people would throw themselves at bruce the first chance they get an’ he hates this fact. one of the main tragedies of jonathan’s life is that dozens of people wanna bang his man, an’ he’s not always there to scare them away before they might attempt to steal a kiss. 

but then, i also feel like crane would have an even more personal grudge against selina, bc he feels like she deluded batman. an’ it’s similar to what happened to him, when he was in high school. a girl promising him a kiss, but only being there for the sake of pulling a cruel joke on him. jon might see selina in that exact light too. assuming, that she never had any actual feelings for bruce *even if she did* an’ was there only to hurt him. which naturally would make jon sympathize with bruce even more an’ resent selina even harder. 

in reality tho, selina canonically got cucked by crane at least once. so there is that lol. bruce literally didn’t prioritize her, when he had a chance an’ instead went after crane to save his sorry ass lol. all while also offering no comment nor reaction to her sharing a story about jonathan mistreating her an’ kicking her off the small cliff. jon has no way of knowing this, but she does. an’ it hurts her ego. therefore she would take any chance she has to get him ‘back’ for it. 

jonathan is also a very insecure creature. it’s easy to make him feel ‘worse’ by comparison, esp when it comes to one’s seductiveness. but he’s also the one, who bat touches an’ stay with, so he can slowly, kinda make peace with this bit. sure, he won’t look as hot as catwoman is, when she bent or even just stands still. but he kinda doesn’t have to. bruce finds a way for him to know it. 

but other than that, yeah, crane still be like ‘how dare she’. it doesn’t matter that nothing would have come from her lazy attempts, anyways. it’s just the sheer knowledge, that she dares to try smth on his watch lol. their interactions are more comical, than anything else. at least, until they will begin throwing hands at one another.

[weebsinstash]

All the posts on the multiverse and ‘canon events’ has gotten me thinking. I love everything about the Yandere where having a relationship or family is meant to be canon. The inevitable destiny that feels like a chokehold. The peer pressure and complete lack of consideration to accompany an increasing loss of agency. But imagine if it were the opposite. The yandere looking through hundreds of different worlds and finding that they never even cross paths with you in the street. Hundreds more that where you do have a relationship, it always falls apart. The opposite of an MJ and Peter Parker. Just imagine them growing more and more unhinged as they desperately search for any justification, any way that proves their love could and should be reciprocated and have the universe consistently show that it’s not meant to be. Or worse, that you getting into a relationship at all could even constitute as an anomaly.

Honestly like, I'm almost absolutely positive Beyond The Spiderverse will "reveal the truth" because canon events as a concept is way too fucking depressing? I also feel like it's inherently making double meta commentary on, not just the whole "oh people don't want to accept miles/new mantles of a hero" but also, specifically for Spiderman, there's been a trend of trying to find new ways to make him suffer? Despite Peter Parker being literally one of the most friendly and pure hearted comic book heroes --his whole deal is literally being your friendly neighborhood Spiderman who friendly banners with his villains-- Peter has been given some absolutely AWFUL comic book fates

There have been comics where Peter has accidentally killed Mary Jane just by being in love and having sex and his radioactive seminal fluid gave her cancer. There have been comics where the world was overtaken by a zombie virus and Spiderman is running around trying to save a collapsing world from ruin, having to literally weave Mr Fantastic into his webs, literally put the stretching guy's skin in his webs, to try and stretch literal actual rotting people back together. Ironically one of the happiest comic book endings for Peter Parker is when he has to fake his suicide after society shuns him for not being a mutant and he actually stops being Spiderman and gets to live a private peaceful life of seclusion with MJ and their baby. So. His happy ending was literally only achieved by quitting being Spiderman because uh people were literally wanting to rip him apart over, essentially mutant based racism

There's this narrative that "oh with great power comes great reaponsibility" and for Spiderman it's pushing this idea that, in the scope of this movie, these heroes don't actually have a choice and truly ARE "destined" to suffer. It's like. No one wants that kind of story actually. At least not on the scale we are seeing it in this I dusty and franchise. Stories where the protagonist is being constantly spit on despite being nothing but good and doing nothing to deserve it isn't exactly uh, what the super campy hero comic books were made for? It's kinda like some grotesque mixture of writers trying to be edgy and capitalism trying to profit off of "shocking" new ideas. Superheroes are supposed to be campy and goofy and at the end of the day it's about saving the day and getting your happy ending and no one should "have to" suffer to achieve that

Like do yall see how awkward it is to see Peter B with Mayday while knowing that Mayday is absolutely already on her way to being a Spider herself with her own canon events. Like it's actually depressing. She's going to take over the mantle of Spiderman when her father gets his leg broken. Does Peter know? Does he ever think about his baby's future? Does Jessica? Are Spider people essentially being forced to have kids that they know are going to be miserable? Can you even imagine, being told "yeah you're supposed to have a child and also that kid is going to suffer just like you and no actually you don't get a choice not to have them"

Like by all means, upholding the canon is actually kind of frightening. Miguel is genuinely trying to save people's lives but some of these canon events are extremely personal things. I know it's kind of only damaging if you know beforehand but like.... wouldn't it fuck you up if you were in a happy marriage with someone who loved and accepted you and be doing your thing for years and then you join the Spider Society and you find out every version of you is with every version of your partner. I dont... know if I would actually find that romantic at all actually. I think my automatic reaction would be "wait are we made for each other? I literally never had a chance with anyone else? There's literally only one person who would ever love me? Did either of us really even have a choice?"

You go home and look at your spouse you've known for years and it's almost like your opinion of them has been permanantly changed. You're no longer looking at the other half of your heart who loves you. You're looking at the poor victim who got stuck with you. You're looking at your Canon Assigned Lover who is never going to get to experience true, actual love, because you're here. It's almost like, you still love them, but it hurts to love them now, and you're positive in your heart that, they don't ACTUALLY love you, their love isn't "true". And you leave them, straight up leaving signed divorce papers sitting on a table of a home you're never going back to. Somewhere at Spider Society HQ, there's a little light dinging or pinging or something in Miguel's face, "Canon Diverted/Canon Changed" and he's going to start physically tracking you down

I mentioned it before but I still like the idea of Reader somehow being in Miguel's Canon despite being in separate dimensions and he doesn't find this out until both of you are on really bad terms with each other, like the equivalent of not finding the search you need because you're off by a single letter or keyword, his systems miss that You are His future spouse because there's so much data it's combing through. Like, Miguel's obsessively researching all the different versions of you and he has who he thinks is supposed to be your future partner on his radar, he KNOWS basically everything about your future and is trying to nudge you towards it, pressuring you, basically breaking your heart when he and the Society kind of straight up tells you to go home and not come back until you're in a relationship, and after you basically hate his guts you have some idk a Miguel with an eyepatch emerging from the shadows with the rest of the Miguelvengers about "you're one of us, hurry, come, there's no time to explain" and there's some bullshit where this emotionally constipated ass man is told he has to apologize and woo you until one of his alternates is like "or you could just take em, that's what I did and my Canon was Just Fine"

I also like the idea of, lmao, "Miguel and Reader WERE canon but he fucked up so badly another Miguel was actually able to just come in and totally steal you and that's HIS canon and Miguel 1 is forced to watch you ride off into the sunset with basically his replacement when he was there first and loved you first"

Idk i just. I really want to break this barrier and write something 😩 its down to me not being able to decide which idea I have. I've been getting new drafts down but not finishing anything, just today I started something new for Batman/the Batfam/the JL even though we've been crooning over Miguel 😅 I just had like 5 days off in a row and I started more drafts so... I guess it's a start? Getting these drafts done is apparently NOT my canon event 😩

[jellsrants]

Can we talk about how Miguel treated Gwen now?

The conversation about the way Miguel treated Miles is as old as the movie (and, honestly, even older, considering it’s a driving point even in the screenplay).

But Across The Spiderverse has two protagonists. And as easy as it is to see how Miguel wronged Miles, his treatment of Gwen might just be worse.

Allow me to recap.

Miguel first showed up with Jess in Gwen’s dimension, where he helped her defeat the villain. But he was already pretty cold towards her. Then, a tiny bit later, when Gwen’s father pulled the trigger on her, he saved her. And gave her the ability to enter Spider Society. And that seems like a good thing, right?

Except it becomes glaringly apparent, that from the start Miguel held an astounding amount of power over Gwen’s head. She is sixteen, her secret identity has just been compromised, and literally the only person she could even hope to be safe around just tried to murder her. She has no choice but to follow Miguel.

She has no choice but do as he says.

And Miguel doesn’t seem to care about Gwen at all. In the short time she’s been in the Spider Society she seems to have become utterly traumatized. I mean, it’s either that Miguel himself planted the seeds of the “Gwen Stacy falling for Spider-Man = Game Over” idea in her head, with his love for “Canon Events”, or/and he just didn’t care enough to protect her from meeting her dead friend over and over, who looks at her and sees a ghost.

Ghost Spider had to come from somewhere too, you know. And it’s no coincidence that her closest friends in the Spider Society are a kid who’s Gwen Stacy is still alive, and a guy who’s Gwen Stacy (according to comics) was his favorite singer, not a close friend/lover.

And you could argue that he was too busy, that he couldn’t have known. Alright. But what about him sending her back to her dimension with no way to escape it?

He knew as he was sending her “home” and cutting off communication, that he was most likely sentencing her to homelessness or death. That there was no way of knowing that her father wouldn’t attempt to murder her again. And this time no one would be around to help.

So Miguel created a situation of dependency and then discarded of her when she became an inconvenience. Considering Gwen truly believed she could try and change his mind, and was originally too terrified to go against him when he lashed out… yeah, that checks out. Can this girl get a good father figure for once?

[applesandbannas747]

hi there ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

I've been getting into fence recently, and got given the novels for my birthday today, and I was wondering...where do they fit into the canon of the comics, and the reading order?

also, follow up....are they going to ruin the comics for me, because I've read a lot about mischaracterisation, ableism, racism and worse in them recently?

Hey friend! Welcome to Fence!! And of course happy birthday—I hope it’s been a great one! 💜

So the novels exist in a weird pseudo-canon black hole. I honestly believe they were supposed to be more canon than they ended up being but either Pacat realized that he let the author of the novels, Sarah Rees Brennan, get ahead of the story in his excitement OR because of fan reaction/further consideration after Disarmed came out, Pacat ended up backtracking. The novels are meant to take place after RIVALS (volume 4) and before RISE (volume 5) and cover a couple of weeks in that stretch of time. However, RISE picked up right after RIVALS with no hint of any adventures having happened. The novels are not referenced at all—the biggest nod to it is Seiji wearing a watch. That’s the only acknowledgment of it at all, which is strange because some pretty substantial developments happen in the duology that could not be ignored. That is to say, RISE continues to develop something the novels conclusively resolved with no explanation other than the events of the novels simply never happened. Pacat has said that the novels are 80% canon, but the events clearly aren’t included in that 80%—the characterization from the novels does carry over to the comics, so if you notice a difference between volume 3 and RIVALS (volume 4), that’s where that came from. (Striking Distance was written before and during RIVALS (volume 4), despite being published after it.)

The novels are completely unnecessary to read and irrelevant to the plot. So if you read the novels, it’s for your own enjoyment. You probably came to them the same way most Fence comic fans did—through a love of the story and the characters and a desire to spend more time with them. Some people loved the novels, finding them fun and easy read. Some people love what SRB did with the characters. That’s cool for them, but fair warning that the characters are one dimensional caricatures of what they were in the comic and are painfully stupid. Like they are emotionally and cognitively at the level I’d expect to see in 8 year olds. The way Nick is treated by the narrative is incredibly belittling of poor people, treating them like idiots who don’t know anything and are unable to solve their own problems—but good thing the rich people are there to take care of him! Seiji’s obviously written as autistic in the worst way. As someone that’s autistic, I cannot articulate in a way allistic people can understand how much it hurts to have your special interest betray and mock you/what you are. Seiji is like is Sheldon Cooper and Miranda Sings had a child. And the narrative thinks it’s god’s gift to autistic people for it. His entire personality is stripped away and replaced with the author’s idea of autism and it sucks. SRB knows so little about the characters that she looked at Eugene, saw a brown kid, and labeled him Mexican through implication—also had him not understand racism against Asian people despite being Asian too. She implied that Nick’s gay as well rather than his canonical bisexual. Aiden’s honestly bordering on abusive toward Harvard during Striking Distance, and Williams has a really fucked up interaction with some of the boys that’s literally sexual harassment even though it wasn’t framed that way by the narrative. Beyond that, in my opinion, SRB doesn’t know how to write chemistry and in fact turned me heavily off Aiden and Harvard as characters as a ship. She also dented Nichoji’s appeal for me when I consider her characterization. So you’re not even getting any good moments there for the trouble imo.

If I were you, I’d skip the novels. They don’t add anything to canon and you’re not missing any context by ditching them. And you’d be saving yourself a lot of cringing, discomfort, and anger of varying degrees depending on where you fall on things. If you want specifics, please feel free to message me on or off anon! I tried to be as spoiler free as possible here haha

If you want to explore more on your own, you can check out some other asks/thoughts! (These all contain novel spoilers)

My full review of Disarmed

Autism representation in Seiji

Seiji in general

Eugene

Eugesse as a concept in Disarmed

Eugesse interactions in Disarmed

Nick's bisexuality

Coach Williams and sexual harassment

I also found an ask from someone saying they regret reading the novels while going through my posts to compile this list, which I thought was too hilariously on-topic to omit

(PS a birthday song for you to enjoy uwu)

[sickknotdoom]

i love sparklecare ( i really do ) but i don't understand the cometcare au at all and i don't get its hype. the designs look SO rushed ( like it was put together in a 10 minute art challenge ) and is it just me or. is the art style progressively getting worse ( for both sparklecare and cometcare ). i hate how random cometcare is too, i tried reading it and my brain got so fried. i had no idea what was happening. i loved cometcare at first, it was cool when it was JUST pollarrydoomi then they threw in these random ass characters and went "oh yeah. ur dating and have a child." ???? especially with hemera, the only (?) aroace character, why is she with caroline and why does she have a kid. adding hemera and miley into the mix was SUCH a bad idea. also. caroline x doom???? carruni s/x canon ( even though uni is aegosexual/asexual ... ) cometcare had so much potential and it all went down the drain by adding 10 thousand nearsiblings

FORGIVE ME FOR HOW LONG THIS RESPONSE IS

ive been saying exactly this ever since i found out about the cometcare au. literally everybody has a million children with everyone else and im like. why.

this may be a controversial opinion but i am not a fan of carroom (caroline x doom) in the slightest, since caroline is literally shown to hate doom in the main comic. literally all of their interactions involve caroline insulting doom, not to mention the earlier half of volume three.

i know enemies to lovers is a thing but if somebody chucked a full bucket of puke on my head, and then gave my sister this Judgemental Ass Look for offering to clean it up, i would honestly Kill Them. regardless of if they secretly had a crush on me or i secretly had a crush on them or whatever. you cannot convince me these two dont fucking hate eachother.

also i mean this in the most respectful way possible but i feel like theyre sorta erasing carolines sexuality with this? i may be attracted exclusively to men, but allow me to speak for a bit.

i am not at all trying to invalidate dooms agender identity, but. speaking as someone whos agender myself. i look exactly like a cis man. i am assigned male at birth, my testosterone is absolutely thriving since im going through puberty, i look like a man and i have zero intent to ever change that. if someone was NOT attracted to men, they would NOT be attracted to me, regardless of me actually being agender. especially not if i Tortured And Murdered Their Friends.

this isnt invalidating dooms gender identity nor is it invalidating mine, im definitely into something here. as someone whos gay (nblm) i wouldnt instantly develop a crush on lizzo if she came out as agender, especially not after the fucked up shit she did. now apply this to carroom, and miloom (miley x doom). but mainly carroom.

i understand carruni since unis a closeted trans woman, but thats different from carroom in a lot of ways. it would make sense for uni to not alter her gender expression as long as shes in the closet, since she isnt ready to explain to anyone else what she really is to anybody else. caroline and uni have an extremely deep bond too, so ofcourse shed come out to caroline first, and ofcourse theyd develop crushes on eachother. in the future (going off of au's and such), when uni is out of the closet, she is shown to present as her authentic self, and she. does a really good job at it. shes fucking gorgeous in cometcare. so it makes sense for caroline to be attracted to her.

and also uni isnt a serial killer. caroline seems to really dislike serial killers to the point where shed throw full buckets of vomit on them, which is. reasonable.

however again, unis aegosexual (if i recall correctly, uni and hemera are the only characters confirmed to be on the asexual spectrum as of volume four, not including characters that havent appeared yet) so it feels wrong to explicitly sexualize her regardless, especially if the clowns are "uncomfortable" with fans doing the same.

while were on this topic, agreed. hemera (the only aroace character in the entire sparklecare universe so far, including au's last time i checked) has like four other partners in cometcare. i dont think thats a very good idea considering they made it a point to explicitly point out her being aromantic in volume two.

and yeah, the artstyle has been very clearly degrading, i have another post about that.

how the fuck do i end this

[cathalbravecog]

one thing i've been trying to wrap my head around is: if hired help is still canon, but everything else relating to it is not then. what happened to the C.J?? does he just not exist? and for that matter where the heck Elvis? and does the witness stand-in still exist? idk is there a statement i'm missing?

IM TRYING TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THIS TOO!! was cj ever canon in ttcc now as of the recent things?? what about winston who mentions him? is that part of the lore gonna be changed or is it gonna be like "he did leave and he is canon, just not how the old comics showed it"

literally in the first panels of hired help break the law is mentioned by name and we see elvis' missing poster but in my opinion almost everything seems to be leading to the clash crew trying to move on from this story possibly?

they possibly didn't wanna edit things out from the comic but since litigation team is still there i guess that hired help is still canon, but to be taken with a grain of salt? like aside from a meeting of two minds we only have 2 cog lore comics that are still deemed as canon and a meeting of two minds is

i believe ther never was a statement about this, aside from the article that mentions the writing team working on a complete re-write for the main taskline and also just.. the story in general and acknowledging how hard to access it is now and how confusing things have gotten

unfortunately with that it's in an even more confusing state now, so honestly it's just... about the wait until any other statements are put out or until any writing updates are released! i wish this was communicated a bit better but again i understand the crew is busy with mix and match and hammerspace currently. still, wish this was communicated better. unless i too, have missed a discord statement...?

it's a bit of a nightmare right now trying to just. solve what's currently canon and what's not. like we know for sure what's visible in game right now with the managers and a meeting of two minds and at least the april toons thomas dialogue stuff is canon (though with this i'd assume some minor old stuff thomas talks about may be tweaked...? again i have a re-read in order)

but anything to do with break the law and diane joining the company and cj leaving is questionable currently. which is... very confusing seeing that it's mentioned several times in hired help. i kinda analyzed that comic for myself just yesterday . especially this stands out

atticus wing is literally mentioned by name here and also the whole affect it had on cog insurance companies (and courtney and barry) is mentioned too. aside from thomas i don't believe we ever saw the full effect that atticus' death had on the cog world which always rubbed me the wrong way, since it was supposed to be kinda a big deal and now it's being put under the rug. and yet atticus still haunts so many parts of the story after. so like

(i think about this a lot and a part of my hc's ive been working on would rewrite atticus' death to have a bit more of an impact, while explaining how exactly he died and couldn't be repaired, while cogs who've gone through worse literally in-game through gags are rebuilt and repaired. though i'd need to re-read and re-watch old things for that, it's been a while... plus i've never seen actual content from the events this took place in myself, i wasn't playing toontown at the time, not even ttr!) uaurgh well done character in an admittedly (yet passionately put together) somewhat messy story . again i need to say this each time i criticize this i love the work staff does but i think it's only fair i get to be honest with my thoughts on these things as a fan. we're all just people here y'know

current state? i dunno. still fun to speculate things though. apologies for my thoughts being scrambled and if i forgot things, i didn't mean this one to be so long

[catgirl-catboy]

When I read the fic I start to tear up a bit Teruteru and Helmet interactions..

Teruteru is.. still having the emotional side of him quite fitting and tragic and hey what do you think about Teruteru, I really needed to ask that

I'm hoping in a good way, but when it comes to darkfic thats a fine line to tread. I think the Izuru sections were my favorite

I have quite a lot of feelings about Teruteru as a character!

Usually, I don't mind perverted gag characters that much (ironically, one of my comfort characters in another fandom is a perverted chef!), so while his comments are obviously out of line they don't immediately put me off of the story.

2-1 is probably one of my favorite trials of the series, and Teru definitely had a hand of making it what it was. The bit with his own perverted nature being his undoing is fantastic, and I wish the blackened's personality was inserted into trials more like this.

That being said, I feel like cook is a talent that could have lended itself to a lot of creative murders (to start with, poison, burning someone alive in the oven), and because he shares a trial with Nagito that can't really come across that well. I would have changed his talent.

I feel like his ending lines provide excellent... momentum? If that makes sense. On my first playthough, I was genuinely invested in finding out what happened to the diner, even if I already likely knew from Dr1's ending. On my SECOND playthrough, I feel shivers down my spine. I don't want to know what happened.

That being said, I have a lot of beef that Teruteru is the only canonically queer character in Danganronpa. To put it bluntly, he's a biphobic stereotype. I wouldn't give a shit that he's canonically bi/pan if literally any other character that wasn't a comic relief stereotype got a canon confirmation too. Just in this game alone we had Mikan, Ibuki, and Nagito! They are all great, non stereotypical characters that didn't get an "I swing both ways moment". I get that Danganronpa 2 is an old game, but it bugs me and v3 quite honestly made things worse with Tenko. (I love Tenko, but god she is a mess.)

[honestlynoisywitch]

I agree with you comics writing is so inconsistent like imagine my frustration when I can finally get a comic and it SUCKS. And I high-key HATE Tom Taylor. But (and this is just my opinion) I feel like fans not reading canon is what's contributing to it. I can't say they are the sole reason cause no there are some writers that are just so biased and horrible I don't even know how they got their job but not knowing anything about characters and writing them however you like is contributing to characters deviating from their original characterization. Take Dick Grayson for example, a guy who's known for his competence and being the best of the best and look at how he is written today (the whole butt Nightwing is just🤢). Newer fans genuinely believe he can never gat angry or he's too nice when he's known for being an asshole when he gets mad or saying that he's a womanizer when he literally admited that he can't sleep with anyone he doesn't love. Take a fan getting into Tim Drake and Jason Todd and wanting to write them as these perfect human beings who can do no wrong, which is fine I too like my favorite characters to be perfect, but it's taken to such extremes with the robins like one has to be the victim (mainly Tim Drake) and the others have to be so dumb and incompetent and bad brothers (mainly Dick Grayson, Jason IS a bad brother), they read a couple of fics that say dick treated him horribly and so their characterization of dick will be a horrible brother. (For some reason it's always Dick Grayson who gets the short end of the stick). All of this adds up to fans who have these new characterizations (I would go as far as saying it almost feels like they're writing about completely different characters they might as well be OCs) and DC wants to make money so they will of course make comics and retcons that follow what the newer fans want and disregard what these characters are originally like. WFA is also hugely responsible for this. I would love it if there were two separate DC fandoms one for canon and one for fanon but I honestly don't believe it would work cause we will circle back to the issue of fans not even being aware that what they're writing is not canon (i am sorry but from my experience a lot of fics ARE NOT tagged as fanon in any way). I think this happens in all fandoms but it's so extreme in DC and what makes it even worse is the bad attitude of these fans (I am not saying all of them are like that but these is based solely on my experience). Most canon readers I have followed or interacted with are genuinely not trying to gatekeep or prevent fanon readers from enjoying their time. They are trying to correct some misconceptions about certain characters which somehow angers fanon enjoyers? Or fic authors who like to follow canon getting blasted in the commenst cause how dare they mischaracterize the fanon version of their favorite characters?

if you've read hundreds or even thousands of comics stop worrying about whether you know enough to write fanfiction about it. somewhere out there the most annoying person you will encounter is writing another 24k abused tim drake joins the batfamily early fanfiction based on their reading history of six episodes of wayne family adventures and a tumblr textpost. you are fine

[someoneimsure]

I’m seeing a lot of modern comic book writers make the same big mistake, and it didn’t really occur to me just how detrimental that mistake was to the entire comic book run until I read Superboy 1994 Issue 85 (which, as you can imagine, does not make the mistake).

What’s worse is that I know exactly why modern writers are making the mistake and why they think the mistake “must” be made, and I want to caution all future writers from making the same mistake.

The mistake: Telling your entire character’s backstory or telling the audience too much information about your character on the first few pages.

It’s natural for DC, the business, to assume that reintroducing your characters is going to generate more readers and revenue, especially for long running series, but it only works if a) you are telling the readers information they do not already know and has never been revealed before, b) correcting information made in past issues, eg. retconning for the better, or c) revealing new information that puts old information in a new perspective.

However, what they don’t understand is that, if it doesn’t fall under those three categories, then it’s an example of bad storytelling. It’s called an infodump. And if the infodump starts at the beginning of a work, it’s because the writer is only using it as a means to prop up a character they don’t believe can otherwise stand on their own. Or to prop up a story, or prop up a world. It’s weak writing and comes from a place of insecurity.

For a really egregious example, let’s look at the first issue of Robin 2021:

It starts with everyone but Robin. And everyone is directly telling the audience who Robin is. It’s literally a ‘writer speaking through the characters’ sort of situation. It speaks from the inherit lack of confidence the writer and DC has for Robin V. He is literally prevented from standing on his own: everyone else in the narrative has to prop him up.

And what we do understand of the real Robin based purely on that very last two-page spread is that he, apparently, likes to fight for sport. The absolute worst introduction for any character even if it was by itself. It’s a clear indicator that this writer has no idea how to introduce audiences to this character.

Batman vs Robin has exactly the same problem. The fact that these are written by two separate writers and both are about the character of Damian Wayne just goes to show that no one at DC believes their audience could love Damian. Hence, the clunky introductions that span three pages.

For comparison, here’s the first two pages of Superboy 1994 Issue 0.

See how quickly the story jumps straight into the action? See how much it tells us about Superboy?

Another quick comparison, Superboy 1994 Issue 1.

No boxes. Just dialogue and immediately it’s straight into the story.

The first page of Superboy 1994 Issue 85.

Dialogue. Glorious, funny dialogue that tells you everything you need to know about these two characters and their relationship with each other. (Honestly, this is the best example here.)

All three of the above introductions tells us something fundamental about Superboy’s character: he’s a hero who wants to have fun. (That last example is so magical that it literally sucked me in, and I was just picking them at random.)

The mistake of rehashing these old stories stems, of course, from the reboot. Writers aren’t sure what’s canon so they have to reinvent the wheel in order to get audiences invested. And it doesn’t work because the originals were so much better. In other words, this writing choice is a direct result of basic business assumptions.

The assumption: Audiences don’t know who our characters are so we must tell them directly who our characters are--every chance we get. 

They are correct: we don’t know who these characters are. But we can figure out who they are from context clues throughout the story. However, this assumption is how DC writers went from jumping right into the story to 2-3 pages explaining backstory or characters, which is rapidly becoming my newfound metric for determining whether a comic book is good or bad. DC needs to understand: explaining them to us does not endear us to the characters.

Here’s a modern example of good storytelling in DC:

This is the very first page of Task Force Z Issue 1, and it throws you right in. If you know Man-Bat is supposed to be dead in universe, it hooks you. If you don’t, the mystery of why the creature is attacking this weird guy hooks you. It’s extremely good writing.

For comparison to yet another good (not great) modern introduction, see what happened to Damian in Robin: Son of Batman Issue 1.

It jumps straight into the story. (Arguably, not a great introduction either since this part of the story literally serves only to introduce Damian and his bond with Goliath--not the plot of the rest of the run. Damn, Damian’s just getting the shaft all over the place. He needs better comics. :/)

I want to make it clear that the writers who do bad introductions aren’t necessarily bad writers--they are uncomfortable writing characters they don’t understand. It’s insecurity about characters which leads to bad writing. Specifically, insecurity about how well the character is going to be received. It’s a lack of confidence in the final product.

No writer should worry too much about introducing the character. Just introduce us to the story. Why? Because it’s more interesting to see characters act in the here and now, in new stories, then it is to hear their life’s backstory or see the conclusion of another adventure before being thrust into an adventure that promises to be as boring and tired as the introduction. It is setting the run up for failure.

TL;DR: If a comic introduces the characters first, it’s a bad story. But if a comic introduces the main story first, it’s a good story.

[soleminisanction]

I don't have much experience with comics, but one thing that keeps popping up in fic and shocking me is how MEAN people write Stephanie. In a way where it's like they almost don't realize she's being mean, if that makes sense? For example I was reading this fic where Tim and Steph were having this emotional reunion after he thought she was dead, and she called him "boy blunder." And continued to call him that throughout the fic. Am I crazy or is that an awful thing to call someone? I guess they were going for an inside joke, but to me it just seems so cruel, like every time she talks to Tim she's implying he's made a mistake. Of all the plays on "boy wonder" I've seen, that sounds the meanest. Is this something she calls him when they're together in the comics, do you know?

Oh she's absolutely called him Boy Blunder in the comics, along with things like Boy Wonderbread and Boy Virgin once when she was poking fun at him freaking out over her pregnancy. It's true in fics and it's true in canon: a lot of what people try to pass off as Steph being "snarky" or "quirky" is just her being flat-out mean, but never getting called out on it.

It's everywhere. And you're right that people don't realize it -- in fandom or the comics. She turned up in Damian's Robin book recently for exactly one line of dialogue and that line was a judgemental insult -- "Your weird, gross pizza is over there, Damian." She only has a grand total of three lines in the action portion of "The Elephant in the Room" and two out of those are just her insulting Tim (while the third one might as well be "Ooooo, what does THIS button do?"). Hell. half of the so-called "jokes" in Batgirls are just Steph being a catty, judgemental brat while the narrator goes "lol isn't she funny?"

And it's not even a recent thing. I haven't been able to make a post about this because I'm on a freelancing deadline IRL but someday I'm going to go on a massive rant about Jordanna Spence, the poor civilian girl inserted into Steph's supporting cast as Batgirl whose only narrative purpose is to provide one of The Other Girls for Steph to insult and bully constantly for the crime of wearing pink and being in a sorority. (And sometimes she's accidentally racist about it, which is...""fun"")

Steph will spend storyarcs hanging out with like, Damian or Kara or Klarion, and they're all treated like these Big Meaningful Bonding Experiences, but all Steph does the entire time is insult them and make judgemental comments about everything they say or do. And yet every single one ends the story thinking she's the greatest person who ever lived and lining up to suck her dick with everyone else in the comic.

It's honestly messed up, but here's the thing: it's absolutely not a Steph-exclusive issue. You know who else I've heard these exact criticisms leveled at? Bella Swan. And Hermione Granger, to a lesser extent only because she's the author self-insert but not the point-of-view character. That's part of why She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's adult novels are so much worse, because they are told from the PoV of the self-insert character and thus we're constantly barraged with her judgemental opinions about men, trans women, poor people, people with heavy accents, any woman who doesn't perform femininity to the author's exacting standards and, of course, fat people.

It's a symptom of the self-insert character, is I guess what I'm saying. Which of course means that it also gets applied to literally everyone else in the Batfamily on occasion too -- the boys and Bruce especially but also like, I'm sorry, I don't think Cass suddenly learning to curse and be casually mean is funny, I think it's a sign of lazy writing.

The difference being of course that the guys get written by a lot of different people, many of whom are interested in them as characters instead of just as vehicles to project themselves onto. Several others (especially in fandom) do just use them as vehicles (Damian hasn't been given to a good writer in over a decade and god knows Jason got more than his fair share of Very Special Boy treatment during the New 52), but it's not the only part in their canon.

Steph, though? Since the end of War Games forward, she's been nothing but a self-insert character designed for straight white women to project themselves onto. Which is sexist and sucks and obviously can't be called "the character's fault" or anything, but knowing all of that doesn't make her mean-spirited bullying any easier to put up with if you're not one of the people getting off on the power fantasy of being the bully.

[antiloreolympus]

7 Anti LO Asks

1. Do you know what really gets my blood boiling about this comic? Persephone and Demeter's relationship.

In the myths, Demeter and Persephone loved each other more than anything. Their reunion is so important - it marked the coming of spring and growth. A whole cult was dedicated to this for crying out loud. Yes, the myths were far from perfect, but the Persephone and Demeter myth showed the strength of a loving mother-daughter relationship with Demeter searching endlessly to find her child that was ripped away and had her innocence forcibly taken.

Now, RS is not the only author to make Demeter this over-bearing mother type in order to put more positivity onto the Hades-Persephone relationship. However, RS takes this trend to a whole new level - to the point where I would even consider it misogyny.

How is it, she takes this beautiful mother-daughter relationship and makes it out to be an abusive and controlling one, and then takes the Hades-Persephone relationship from a forceful one to a loving, perfect relationship with no problems? How is it ok to ruin one relationship to elevate another?

I understand that many versions of the myth try to downplay Hades' actions, and even make it so Persephone actually falls in love with him and there is no rape. But it doesn't change that this relationship was problematic, and meant to represent the loss of innocence.

Then fans have the gall to claim this comic is feminist and then claim on top of that that Demeter and Persephone's relationship was the same in the myth? These fans clearly don't know the myths, and neither does RS.

Making Hades a good person is fine. Changing it up a bit to make Persephone's loss of innocence something else is also fine. But ruining Demeter and Persephone's relationship? Especially when Persephone has to spend half the year with her? So horrible. 

2. im sorry, but rachel cant introduce KRONOS coming back and then dropping it for several episodes to focus on a stake-less trail and persephone not knowing what lingerie to seduce hades in. like thats too much of an earth shaking development and huge stake plot point to just ignore for months to focus instead on something as minor as hxp's relationship, which only points out a huge flaw: why is hxp's relationship so minor in this? isnt the whole point supposed to be about them?

3. I think LO completely dropped the ball over Hades’ characterization. 

From the first ep I thought ok, this is good, we have some bones to see he’s not that lucky in love and is just tired and lonely, and while ignoring the creepy actions towards Persephone, I thought ok, Artemis hates him, Hestia hates, even Ares hates him, maybe once Persephone finally sees the underworld and probably gets to know him it’ll be a clever twist and they’ll be proven wrong. The underworld will turn out to be fair and just, the citizens will love Hades, he’ll be revealed to be a good leader and king and not like his brothers, it’ll be like everyone saying Hades of myth isn’t actually that bad, and it’ll help reinforce why this sweet and bubbly Persephone wants him, she sees the real him, not the mean rumors and assumptions, this is perfect.

And then it just didn’t happen. The exact opposite happened, actually.

We’re shown the LO underworld is cruel and unjust, where the poor dead are forced into slavery and Hades created a harsh class divide with him and him only on top, the citizens hate him, the underworld gods don’t trust him and openly seem ok if he’s taken out of power, he’s not a good leader and king and doesn’t even want the job yet keeps it for his own ego and grip of power m, and on top of it all he is just like his brothers, if not worse. He loves to get violent over any little slight against him, he hoards wealth and resources to enrich himself while his citizens starve and struggle to survive, he’s corrupt, he controls all the media and laws to bend to his will, sleeps with his brothers wife for centuries behind his back while claiming to be holier than thou, he has sex with his secretaries who are made dependent on him for any way to survive, and now he lusts after his barely legal intern who is also now dependent on him for her way to survive, and that’s only what I remember off the top of my head.

LO perfectly set up to prove Hades isn’t the devil or the false pop culture assumption that he’s evil and to show some actual facts from myth, and yet Rachel only ended up reinforcing exactly that and even making him even worse with her made up ideas, all while thinking having Persephone ignore or excuse it somehow makes it not bad or even a good thing. It’s honestly kind of impressive just how bad of writing that actually is. 

4. Chapter 172 is not that interesting. It’s setup had me excited to see Hephaestus and Hera and learning more about echo, but it’s cut so short. Because again the story can’t leave HXP out for 2 seconds.

I can also see why Zeus is gonna go insane. 

5. i agree w/ other anon. LO should have pulled a PJO or a BoZ and just made up OCs and have them interact with the gods than whatever Rachel thinks shes doing, which is lying she's being accurate and faithful while completely changing all of it, removing what is needed, and adding what isnt so that it lines up with no actual myth besides like, various 50 shades fanfic she read in 2015 and some popular tumblr text posts.

6 . the animation studio behind blood of zeus literally can only draw one face for the men and one face for the women and they were still able to make the gods all look distinct and hot while LO can't even bother to use more than 6 colors and can only have the women look as tiny as possible with the biggest boobs while the men are all just lego men.

7. ////FP SPOILERS////

Okay so like I stopped reading LO way back before season 1 ended, and a majority of my knowledge of the series comes from what I read here on your blog which is enough for me lol and I decided to read the latest 5 chapters just to see what's up (on zahard. I refuse to give the actual series any views)

And I just. Could not take the whole scene with Daphne running from Apollo seriously? The anatomy and art inconsistency was so distracting that i genuinely could not find it serious. Even when Thanatos discovers her hibernated body I couldn't take it seriously because of how she looked?

And when Hades had that call (??? Was it a call? Or his inner dialogue? I couldn't really tell ngl) with Zeus and said he's causing Persephone unnecessary distress, and that she didn't pose any threat. B!tch??? She killed a ton of mortals??? She has no control over her powers???? She's literally a fugitive for the aforementioned things??? She apparently woke Kronos up? (Idk if anyone knows about that, again my knowledge only spans to whatever I read here) Hello????

And I have a lot to say about the chapters starting the trial but I'll only mention one thing; Hades saying "I don't think blindly supporting my little brother would be doing him any favours (as a ruler)" had me cackling. This is coming from a guy blindly supporting a girl he's literally only known for a few weeks, who's like what, only recently turned 20? Sit tf down Hades you're not cool, you creepy ass overgrown smurf.

Overall I still hate this series lmao. Regarding art though I feel like I wouldn't be so miffed about the anatomy much if the character designs were consistent and the story was compelling. They literally change hairstyles and body types frame by frame, and it's distracting.

The timeline from what I read here is laughable. 4 years in publication with almost 200 chapters and you're telling me only like a month has passed canonically. That's wild and such poor writing.

And as someone who literally will sympathise with any lead character pretty quickly, the story makes me hate them. It makes me want to root against them. I also hate the fact this trash is somehow top ranked on webtoons when so many other stories are far better then it.

Anyway, many thanks to this blog for existing and allowing me to dump so much text here to vent out my hate for this series lmao. You the mvp fam, hope you're having a good day 🥂🥂🥂