#but it's their choice and they have to live with the consequences

[spravdiukr]

People for some reason believe that because Brotherhood is more action adventure shounen typical story it’s better

Which is so honestly sad

Brotherhood is better if you don’t want to think or get your core beliefs about the world challenged

I get the appeal. World is morally grey and dim and most of the time really unjust place so having this story where doing the good thing always seems to lead to the good result and happy ending exists is pleasant and enjoyable. I like Brotherhood for that too.

Except some of the shit it does is questionable. Why are we focusing so much on soldiers (murderers)? And their pain, but there are literally only 2(!) people of the group that was slaughtered that have a name? They’re the ACTUAL victims but somehow they are being sidelined. Like oh no Maes wanted to live? That’s so valid reason to kill children. Roy is also such a nice good guy for deciding to keep murdering people to allegedly eventually change the system (love their decision to make Roy use philosopher stone made of human lives, lives of people from ethnic group Roy participated in genocide of to heal Roy’s eyes that’s def not fucked up and definitely shows how guilty he is) and there’s a lot of this shit.

How much do we learn about feelings of people from ethnic group they slaughtered? Miles gets Jack shit, because the story is so unconcerned with them. He’s there to show the “correct” way to react to having your people being massacred. And while I do agree that just lashing out at the world causing more destruction won’t help you and your people, the show doesn’t focus nearly as much on how fucking deeply devastating being in Scar’s position is. It’s not just seeing death of a single person, it’s it the same as oh no our lil town is now broke and people sad, it’s that places that were part of your life just don’t exist anymore, they are erased out of existence; it’s that people that did not do anything to deserve it are cut out of existence; it’s that your beliefs about doing good thing leads to more good things are completely snapped in half because not only did it not work it feels like mockery, like reality really just decided to laugh at you. This scars the nation; it completely changes geography, it erases entire cities from the Map, but there’s more as it creates generational trauma for people.The consequences of living through war surrounded by death and destruction and torture and there’s no way out. Nowhere to run.

Unlike soldiers that ACTUALLY have an option to stop and get to return to their home, their country in peace and see children unaffected by death and despair and pain, people of Ishval do not have that Luxury! There’s no choice! There’s nowhere running away! Because it’s your country that is being ruined! It doesn’t change regardless of where you are physically! And you didn’t even do anything wrong for that to happen!

So while yes, it’s bad to just cause more aimless and senseless violence, Scar’s pain is so much worse than that of murderers and yet it’s somehow treated in the same way as Roy’s desire to avenge Maes! Scar’s situation is so deeply horrific it’s just incompatible!

It gets even worse when you think about Winry part of it! We are supposed to think she’s so awesome for not killing Scar and even you know helping him despite him killing her parents even though it’s like basic level of not being a dick if you think about it. Scar did not kill her parents out of love of the game or because of hatred, he’s literally so traumatised he thought they were trying to harm him. Murdering him wound have been just punishing victim of a horrible crime for being traumatised basically. This situation is indeed very tragic because Winry’s parents actually were saving Ishavar’s people and not trying to murder them so yeah, if Scar wasn’t ducked up he would have been grateful. But things turned out the way the did. It’s tragedy.

My only problem is that again we are glazing Winry and her parents so hard and there’s so little time spent on letting you taste how cruel Scar’s reality is that it just feels like such an incredible feat from Winry’s side and not action I would expect from any decent person.

Now back to the only other person from Ishvar (kinda; he’s mixed, but still) they bothered to name, Miles. So he’s supposed to be alternative for Scar, isn’t he? What exactly is he doing? He’s in the North working with the army and that’s it really from what I remember. He’s basically obedient puppy barking on command for the corrupt system responsible for slaughter of his people. So how exactly is this good alternative? What even does it sound like? “Stop resisting or trying to destroy the evil fucking government that was destroying your nation and uh let it use you for its purposes, hopefully they’ll have change their hearts”? Did I get it right? This is extremely torn away from reality and is borderline harmful idea to send.

They also like passively tell you he’s aware of discrimination but they don’t really show people being racist to him. It’s pretty peculiar.

They also dismiss discrimination and problems because Olivia’s point and point Brotherhood makes is how we need everyone’s knowledge to succeed (in saving the world). In other words, why be racist when those people’s skills can be useful. Interesting philosophy there. It’s less that “they are human being too” but more so “their culture and them can be useful to you so treat them nice to get to it”. Very weird.

There are other problems too, like design choices. Scar is given these very sharp and aggressive features and Miles having softer ones is such a peculiar Choice. The lapdog is the one you are expected to perceive more favourably and agree to as the correct alternative.

It’s just in a way kinda undermines what Brotherhood is selling. It wants you to look at truth no matter how uncomfortable and yet it’s trying to make you look anywhere but ugly and shitty, far more terrifying outlook on the situation this story decided to tackle.

Oh and also Homunculus bring responsible for slaughter starting is another way to say see Soldiers weren’t that bad after all! Almost forgot that shitty detail!

Okay but the weirdest thing about the whole "Brotherhood is better you should skip 03" discourse that's become commonplace now, it sort of forgets the world Brotherhood came out in and why you should watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist. When Brotherhood came out, the original Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the most beloved and most watched animes of all time. Brotherhood assumes you the audience have already seen it because of course you have, everyone has seen it, so it skips important information and speeds the story up because it doesn't want to bore you with things you already know. Have you ever wondered "hey why does the first episode of Brotherhood kind of suck, and why am I being introduced to like 50 new characters, and why are they acting like I know what the hell an alchemist is?" It's because Brotherhood thinks you've seen 03.

The first 7 or so episodes of Brotherhood constitute dozens of chapters in the manga, and the first 25 or so episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nina Tucker episode in Brotherhood, in FMA 03 takes up nearly three episodes. Yoki gets a backstory in 03 and it's genuinely one of the best episodes and taken directly from the manga and Brotherhood glosses over it because: duh, you've already seen it. And so if you skip the original you miss out on dozens of really great character building episodes like Ed and Al meeting Hughes for the first time and getting to spend a whole episode helping him free a train from terrorists, or Ed and Roy having a duel that expands on the relationship they have, or episodes where the brothers just help out random people in towns before the major story gets going.

The original also paces itself quite a bit better than Brotherhood and is more in line with the mangas storytelling. In the manga we don't find out about The Gate until nearly two dozen chapters in, and the same goes for the original anime. Like, that's a twist reveal in those stories, and it's weird that the most watched series is the one where they tell you all about The Gate in the first two episodes because they assume you've already seen the original show.

What's more, people don't know that Hiromu Arakawa helped write for the anime while she was still in the middle of writing the manga, and as a result was inspired to write scenes in Brotherhood that the anime did first. That scene of Edward getting impaled by a falling beam? Directly inspired by a similar scene in the original anime. There's a lot of little instances of that and they're great when you can recognize parallels and things in Brotherhood that are direct references to the original anime, but people don't notice any of that anymore. Because the original anime is just an automatic skip these days, and it's a bummer because people don't realize what a giant it was back before Brotherhood was released. They treat it as *bad,* not realizing it was one of the most beloved anime of its time and the problems people take issue with have a lot more to do with personal taste than any kind of actual flaw in the writing. Brotherhood was never meant to dethrone it, and the original anime was always supposed to be part of the viewing experience which is why those first few episodes of Brotherhood are so fast paced. So like, please stop telling people Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is a skip, or it's bad, or you don't need it because Brotherhood is better. Regardless if you think Brotherhood is better or not, the original wrote Brotherhood's check. It was huge, it was beloved, and Brotherhood is *banking* on the knowledge you've seen all of it and loved it. And trust me when I say there is so much to love about the original series. It's still my favorite branch of the FMA franchise, and it's worth your time, I promise you.

[arxims]

ANGEL BABY, ANGEL 1.1

After committing a serious violation of the Higher Realms protocol, You were punished to live on earth for 30 human days without your powers. Considering your lack of experience on earth, you doubted your survival on the mortal plane especially without any powers, you only had one choice, the human you met 8 mortal years ago. But you were completely oblivious of the chaos awaiting you on the mere mortal plane of earth.

au /genre : human!Jungkook x guardian!reader, fantasy au humor, fluff, crack, a bit angst, supernatural au

Warnings : mentions of dark elements like satanic worship and black magic, and human sacrifice, magical elements, spiritual elements, eventual smut.

Rating : 17+

This is a work of pure fiction and has no relation with the BTS members in real life. Please take it in a story sense.

© All rights of this story belong to arxims. This cannot be modified, translated or republished without my permission or knowledge.

Word count : 1 k

"I will be fine. I hope."

You gently smiled, but even that smile had an underlying confusion in it. You wouldn't be fine. You knew it. The sacred realm you were sworn to protect had become your prison—where you were about to be stranded. But this was your sentence to serve, like it or not. The consequences of wielding celestial powers came with horrific responsibilities. One simple mistake, and here you stood: empty-handed, power-stripped, and utterly lost about your next move.

"I will be fine," you repeated with a heavy sigh as you turned to face Namjoon, who stood tall beside you. His golden blonde hair danced in the unfamiliar "mortal" breeze. His eyes held a knowing sadness.

"We both say that when we both know it's a lie," he said softly. "But—" He swung his long golden scepter onto his shoulder with casual grace, like a farmer with his trusted tool "—this place has its charms. The mortals can be terrifying and strange, yet fascinating and kind all at once." He nodded thoughtfully. As Guardian of the Realm Gates, he'd crossed between worlds countless times. Adventure was woven into his very being.

"You've been here before. I haven't," you protested, your hands making frustrated gestures of their own accord. "I don't even know how to speak their language, their... idioms."

"I know, (Y/N)." Namjoon's voice softened with genuine sympathy. "And it breaks my heart that you must endure this. But haven't you always dreamed of visiting the Mortal Realm? Consider this your golden ticket—albeit not the way you imagined it."

You knew he was trying to lift your spirits, but his attempt was failing miserably. "Yes, but not like this. Not abandoned here like some discarded tool. Why can't you stay with me?" The plea in your voice was unmistakable.

"I wish I could," he sighed, his broad shoulders slumping slightly. "But the Gates won't guard themselves." Another frustrated sound escaped your lips as you looked away, the weight of your isolation settling more heavily upon you.

"Take heart," Namjoon said, resting a warm hand on your shoulder. "I'll check on you regularly. I promise." His smile revealed that endearing dimple, the one that had always brought you comfort in difficult times. The fact that you were still wearing your ceremonial guardian attire—complete with its shimmering fabrics and otherworldly symbols—seemed to slip both your minds.

"You're starting to talk like them, Joon," you observed, folding your arms across your chest.

His eyes twinkled. "Before long, you will too."

You wished you shared his confidence.

"Oh, and don't forget to change your clothes," he added, suddenly noticing your inappropriate attire. "That outfit will either have mortals thinking you're exceedingly strange or an actor who wandered off a movie set."

Your brow furrowed. "Movies... those are the stories they watch in those rectangular boxes, right?" You tried to recall the limited knowledge you'd gathered about human life over the centuries. You weren't completely ignorant—you had the equivalent understanding of perhaps a three-year-old mortal child. Though even their young ones probably knew more than you did, especially about those thin rectangles they constantly held in their hands.

Namjoon chuckled. "See? You know more than you realize. You'll find your way here." His expression softened. "And that rectangular box is called a television."

"Yes. Television," you nodded, your gaze drifting to the distant line of trees beneath the midnight sky, stars twinkling in a pattern so different from your home. "I will be fine," you whispered, more to yourself than to him.

His voice was gentle but certain: "Yes. You will be."

As the cool night air brushed against your face, you wondered what this strange new world would bring—and whether you would ever truly find your place within it.

Author's note : sorry for the short chapters 😭. I just had a sudden writing urge. I'll try to post the rest soon. I've to figure out the storyline again

[natequarter]

HALF-FACE MAN: I will not die. I will reach the promised land. DOCTOR: There isn't any promised land. This is just— It's a superstition that you have picked up from all the humanity you've stuffed inside yourself. HALF-FACE MAN: I am not dead.

DOCTOR: Perhaps they haven't let you in on the secret, Login. Shall I tell him, gentlemen?  GARIF: Secret?  DOCTOR: Yes! And the fraud of perpetual movement. The endless tasks going round and round. The same old components being removed and replaced.  LOGIN: No, Doctor, that's too harsh. The preparations are necessary.  DOCTOR: Preparations? For what? This Starliner isn't going anywhere.

DOCTOR: I am alone. The world which shook at my feet, and the trees and the sky, have gone. And I am alone now. Alone. CLARA: Are you translating? DOCTOR: The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here. Can't see me. Doesn't see me. Can't see me. CLARA: Who can't see it? I think all of London can see it.

WILF: Yeah, but I thought, when I saw you before, you said your people could change, like, your whole body.  DOCTOR: I can still die. If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead. 

ANDRED: I didn't know you were cursed just as we are. LEELA: Cursed? ANDRED: With living long enough to experience the consequences of our own actions, down through the centuries.

NEFRED: You accuse us of wilful procrastination?  DOCTOR: Yes! The wilful procrastination of endless procedure. You want to hold onto the old order.  NEFRED: You understand a great deal, Doctor.  DOCTOR: True.  NEFRED: But not everything.  DOCTOR: That's certainly true.

TORVALD: Your continuity, Madam. A circle of misery that never, ever ends.

DOCTOR: Lethbridge-Stewart? My dear fellow, how nice to see you again.  MUNRO: He knows you, sir.  BRIGADIER: But he can't do. Look here. Can you hear me? Who are you?  DOCTOR: Don't you recognise me?  BRIGADIER: I'm positive we've never met before.  DOCTOR: Oh, dear. Oh, I can't have changed that much, surely? 

LEELA: You pretend to be one thing when you are really another, you have lived your life behind a mask for so long that now that mask is your own face.

LEELA: My one heart knows the truth. You have two hearts just as you have two faces, and neither speaks the truth. ANDRED: I didn't set out to betray you, Leela. I was confused after the regeneration. You know what it's— No. No, you don't know what it's like. How could you?

DOCTOR: How long can I keep doing this, Clara? Burning the old me, to make a new one?

DOCTOR: Can't I ever have peace? Can't I rest?  BILL: Of course you can.  NARDOLE: It's your choice.  BILL: Only yours.  NARDOLE: We understand.  DOCTOR: No. No, you don't. You're not even really here. You're just memories held in glass. Do you know how many of you I could fill? I would shatter you. My testimony would shatter all of you. A life this long, do you understand what it is? It's a battlefield, like this one, and it's empty. Because everyone else has fallen.

LIZ: Do you know him?  BRIGADIER: What? No, I thought I might do, but he's a complete stranger. I've never seen him before in my life.

CARDINAL: Pope Benedict said that you were more in need of confession than any man breathing. But when the offer was made, you replied it would take too much time. On behalf of the Catholic Church, the offer stands. You seem like a man with regret on his mind.

DOCTOR: You are a broom. Question. You take a broom, you replace the handle, and then later you replace the brush, and you do that over and over again. Is it still the same broom? Answer? No, of course it isn't. But you can still sweep the floor. Which is not strictly relevant, skip that last part. You have replaced every piece of yourself, mechanical and organic, time and time again. There's not a trace of the original you left. You probably can't even remember where you got that face from.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

And here’s some presents! Whenever you’re excited for these it makes me happy so I will keep sending them!

🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁 (for whichever chapter/section you’re currently most excited to share)

🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁 (the story with your current favorite non-Buddie dynamic)

🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁 (the story that has changed the most as you’ve worked on it - like what’s currently the most different from what you originally came up with if that makes sense)

🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁 (whatever’s calling you to write at this moment)

Also I’m just curious - excluding 🔼 since I know that one’s ongoing - how far along are you in each of these stories?

Happy writing Cal! Sending good vibes your way!

- PCA <3

Hey! Thanks for these! Gonna do this one first because right now is the only moment I don't have a large snippet going for something else and can do them all haha.

As for lengths, I think the Chris fic and Upward Over the Mountain are getting closer to the end. Like maybe 3/4 done? Chris fic probably like 20k. Upward Over the Mountain 25k? Could change. I'm bad at knowing. Changeling fic? I honestly don't know. I have a VERY rough outline of the second half in my head... Right now I'm on chapter four?

🎁24 for what I'm most excited about 🗻 (this one is so personal to me, so writing it is cathartic and exciting):

---

 Eddie understands why. 

Artie knows that he isn’t biologically related to Eddie. There was no point ever trying to hide that. His last name is Buckley. He looks more and more like Buck every day. People comment on it in the grocery store, the library, school… You look just like your dad. So they’re open about it. Artie knows that Buck is his birth father, and Eddie is Christopher’s birth father, but that they’re all a family, and that doesn’t change how much they love each other. 

But he’s only eight years-old. He’s still just a boy. A boy who has just been cruelly reintroduced to the question of his origins, and Eddie is the uncertain person. The person whose connection seems tenuous. It’s not true, but maybe it feels true. So Eddie just holds him. Strokes his soft curls, which have been darkening a little, from blonde to sandy brown, in the past year or so. He holds him and he makes sure he knows that Eddie isn’t going anywhere. Not ever.

“Is she really my mother?” He asks them. 

“Yes,” Buck says. “She is. We didn’t know she was living there, though. I’m very sorry that’s how you found out.”

---

🎁 24 the story with my favourite non-Buddie dynamic would be 🔀 (there is a Bobby thread I can't wait to pull on):

---

“To be fair, Chris,” Eddie says. There were a whole generation of children who were waiting to be invited to magical boarding school, and that never happened.”

“Well, that’s just dumb,” Chris shrugs. 

“You seriously saved me, Chris,” Buck says. “I can… I can still have a life. Whatever that’ll look like now.”

Eddie frowns. 

“Happy to help,” Chris grins. “This is so cool. I wonder what else is like in the book.”

Buck considers that. “Who is the author?”

“Q. R. Irving,” Chris says. “He doesn’t have an author photo or much of a bio. He’s really private.”

“Well,” Buck thinks aloud. “I wonder if he did, if he’d look a little green. I mean, that… Evan. He sort of suggested this is a thing that happens.” 

“You think there could be a lot of people like you out there?” Chris asks. 

Buck shrugs. “We wouldn’t know, right?”

---

🎁 24 for the story that has changed the most would be 🔼 (while this is largely the same shape, I adjusted my timeline significantly):

---

“No,” Shannon says. “She doesn’t want to talk to me. She said so.”

Eddie watches her for a moment. Shannon hugs her arms to herself, perceived. He knows her too well. They’ve always known each other’s flaws too precisely. 

“Don’t do this to yourself,” Eddie pleads. 

“I’m not doing anything,” Shannon rebuts. Which is technically true. “She put me in a hard position, I made a choice. I chose Buck. Now there are consequences of that.”

“But there shouldn’t be,” Eddie says. “I mean, if Buck can forgive her, surely she can forgive you.”

“We’ll see,” Shannon shrugs. “But I’m not going to go begging for forgiveness, Eddie.”

“I’m not saying that,” Eddie replies. 

“I’d like to stop talking about it,” Shannon states. 

Eddie’s face tightens, but he relents. 

“Alright. Is there something you do want to talk about?” He asks her. “A lot has happened.”

---

Which leaves 24 for 🥊:

---

Honestly, he wouldn’t have guessed it. Everyone loves Buck so much. Not just Chris and Dad. His sister. Bobby. Chimney and Hen. When they thought he might die, after he was struck by lightning, everyone was heartbroken. Like time stopped moving and all anyone could be was devastated. More people were sad about Buck almost dying than he remembers people being actually sad when his mom did die. 

So Chris can’t imagine it; Buck thinking he wasn’t good enough to be loved.

“I’m sorry,” Chris says. “I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Buck says. “It’s not something you tell a little kid. But you’re not a little kid anymore, right? You’re at that weird, frustrating stage where you’re not quite an adult, but you’re more than just a kid.”

Chris nods. It does feel like that sometimes. 

“So I’m telling you this,” Buck says. “Like an… An adult. Like a young man. And I’m hoping you can really hear me. What your grandparents chose yesterday? It has nothing to do with you.”

[danithy]

Legacy, and why I think he acts the way he does.

Legacy Jack is both an interesting and equally complex character to me, and I’ve been meaning to dive into him recently, so; 

In my opinion, one of the most common misconceptions (that I’ve fallen victim to myself at some point), is that Legacy Jack is somehow emotionless and/or pure evil. Henry himself implies it too: “You have no conscience. No soul pushing you back.” As I mentioned before in my davesport codependency post: Jack’s emotional palate was undoubtedly altered because of Blackjack and his soul harbouring his strong emotions, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of feeling at all. He shows regret when Dee passed and when redeeming himself as Legacy towards Blackjack, and his “It shouldn’t at all be hard to say goodbye to you, and yet, it is” speech towards Dave in dsaf 3’s good route signifies an attachment and fondness which makes it so hard to say goodbye. But then, why does Legacy take after the man who destroyed his entire family to begin with? 

Another angle I sometimes see is that he is under Henry’s control, manipulated similarly to Dave; I don’t believe this. Henry, in dsaf 3’s good route, says that part of him was able to escape the void because it’d grown strong enough, which implies that this had to be slowly grown throughout his time in the void instead of suddenly achieved. The first we see of Legacy is near the end of dsaf 2, over thirty years before Henry made that statement. If Henry had managed to get into Jack’s head at all then, it was likely minimal, and not enough to persuade him into the evil Legacy displays. 

The way I picture it; Jack hit rock bottom. His body is decomposing and hardly considered human, his life is dedicated to a promise to fix another’s evil, and even if he puts everyone back together: he’ll never get to pass and have a happiest day himself. Once you’ve hit rock bottom the only way is up, and an easy way out of the slump of his life - which ultimately has a purpose to anyone but himself - is Dave’s offer to kill with him. Initially it’s a distraction, a change, but eventually; it’s a way to regain anatomy over himself. Jack, towards the end of dsaf 2’s ending, realises the murders are a way to leave a legacy of his own, instead of abiding by the promise forced upon him. This is also why Dave is scared of him, becauce while Dave kills with the intent to shut down Freddy’s, Jack seemingly kills just because he can, because - to an extent - he wants to.

Since dsaf 2 has no canon ending, there’s still the possibility for Legacy to change between dsaf 2 & 3: I assume his reason to change back to the good route would be that he understands he can’t just live his immortal life killing kids until the end of time, similarly to how Davetrap realises this in the bad ending. Assuming he doesn’t divert from the Legacy route though: I imagine it was especially blissful at first, a newfound freedom to shape his own destiny and with it; his legacy. He's still capable of feeling regret, his choices don't erase that, but I imagine he pushes a lot of it away with the idea that what’s done is done. He can't change the past; he can't bring Dee back, and by the time he faces her in the flipside he's so desensitized from years of living with this mindset that he doesn't consider her death nor happiest day of as much worth as he used to anymore. We also see this in the way he uses it as an accusation towards Davetrap; “You two have killed everyone that I’ve ever cared about… My sister… My brother, Peter. Even myself- ” while simultaneously siding with Henry (albeit in a different form), who is at the root of all those aforementioned things. Despite what he makes Davetrap believe, he doesn’t care for those things, not anymore. 

This is also why Henry holds a fondness towards Legacy: Jack understands the consequences of his actions and how they relate to him and his past, yet he kills without remorse, much like Henry in his research. Henry sticks with Jack because he sees him as an equal, rather than a lackey and test-subject the way he did with Dave; Jack didn't have to be manipulated or coddled to reach this point. On the topic of manipulation; I do think that Henry's presence (the way we see it in dsaf 3 evil route) has an influence on Jack, but it's more so encouragement than manipulation. Jack has nothing to lose, which is also what allows him to withstand Henry's attack in the good route, and therefore isn't as prone to Henry's manipulation. Jack also understands that Henry isn’t as powerful because of how he relies on possessing Jack for a vessel, outright stating: “Henry has been dealt with. He isn’t coming back.” If anything, Henry is a companion to validate him, a tool for Jack to further his Legacy; to leave a mark that displays his autonomy and directly oppose Fredbear. In a way, it’s a big ‘fuck you’ to God himself, similarly to how Legacy says “I am God” while fighting Fredbear in dsaf 2. Between this and Henry saying he will “abolish death” in the Joy_1 tape, they are essentially playing God; especially with Jack immortalised through flesh merged with steel. 

Unfortunately, Legacy isn't a character I've done a lot with, but I think writing this all down has given me a more cohesive understanding of how I view him. This interpretation might change overtime, but until then I'm posting this for the people who're interested! If anyone has fanfiction/oneshot ideas with Legacy please I'm clawing and begging at your door to give me them PLEASE (said the guy who's currently writing character posts instead of actual fanfiction… lel)

[areyoudoingthis]

i love talking to my friends who also have shitty parents cause they immediately understand the situation without me needing to explain and it's like "one of those conversations?" "yeah"

[mamawasatesttube]

peak timsteph to me is like, some situation where they are in the heights of their divorce era, but something happens that gets steph real rattled, and tim doesn't want to comfort her himself but he doesn't want her to be completely alone with it either. so she hears a knock at the door and opens it to find a plate full of steaming hot mashed potatoes. he's nowhere to be found but she knows no one else would've known what her number one comfort food is. the presence of the potatoes means something. so does his absence. who else knows her like he does? it haunts her every time she sees the scars on the nape of his neck. (not that she sees those often. there's a reason he keeps the cowl up and his hair long, these days.)

[etoilesombre]

yes! ok hi as a resident dark content enjoyer and sometimes-creator, and also a mental health professional (i have a license and everything! i know it seems like i spend all my time writing fucked up porn, but i actually get paid to talk to people about how to deal with being a person. kind of the best day job ever) i am here to make a serious case. a fucking plea.

STORIES ARE A GOOD AND NATURAL PLACE FOR HUMANS TO EXPERIMENT WITH DARK CONTENT.

stop interpreting people's taste in media as an indication of their morals, or trauma, or psychological state.

one of the most amazing, unique, wonderful things about being human, probably the thing in which all the other amazing wonderful things are rooted, is that in addition to understanding our own internal lives (which other very big brain mammals probably also do) we are uniquely able to imagine ourselves behaving in ways other than we do. making different choices, experiencing different consequences, living whole other lives. this is essential not only for empathy, but for the development of moral systems, both as a society and as individuals. at the most basic level we need stories about doing things that we should not in fact probably do, unless we want to have to learn that lesson first hand every time.

and! that is not to say stories have to be cautionary tales about what happens if you actually do dark things. another amazing thing about humans is that we are curious. we like stimulation and novelty, we like to push limits, test out situations and experiences. most of us are drawn to thinking about things that are outside of our own comfort zones to some extent. stories are a fantastic, safe, harmless way to play with the potential range of human experiences. and that IS a great way to cope with trauma, actually, but it's also just fun! enjoy your amazing big brain and the weird shit it can get off on! and for what it is worth, i do not have actual data on this, but in a world in which i was given good research funding i am very sure that i could prove that, at a population level, 'reads fucked up shit on ao3' would actually be strongly negatively correlated with 'has been a perpetrator of violence' for a whole variety of reasons.

a talking point i often see when defending the consumption of dark content is that it’s a coping mechanism for those with trauma which is very valid and true but i also want to make this abundantly clear: you can like dark content for no reason. you can enjoy fucked up shit in fiction because it’s enjoyable and entertaining. trauma is not required as a ticket for entry. enjoy your dark content bc it’s fun and sexy and don’t let anyone take that away from you

[crabsnpersimmons]

swapping Y/N's with @starriegalaxy!!

i'm still learning magma, so starrie and i decided to draw our moons swapping Y/Ns from our AUs!

if you haven't yet, check out Starrie's Fear Factor AU: https://www.tumblr.com/starriegalaxy/739357795303014400/dca-x-scared-of-animatronics-mascotsreader-au she's got lovely sketches and drabbles and her DCA designs are so huggable!

[thedolmainblog]

you know arts going well when you start drawing smth completely unrelated

[yappacadaver]

Crazy wild shit man

[marxalittle]

this is what I mean when I say that the smallest moral value, the irreducible moral unit, must be the human life. every human being must be equally human, first because once you are permitted to dehumanize any one human person it will be easier to extrapolate to others and then groups, whereupon killing them becomes easy because they are not human; and second because dehumanizing your enemy on the grounds of their actions makes it easy to excuse your own crimes as not-crimes, because those evil monsters were inhuman and their actions monstrous, whereas you are human and can therefore never be like them, even when your actions are identical. take care that you do not become them, indeed.

i think that there are people who through the enormity of their crimes obviate their humanity. i think that we still need to understand them as human. first because if we don’t, we risk becoming them: so they should be hanged outside the post office, but first we will put them on trial, present their crimes, give them lawyers for the defense, and let the evidence damn them. second because we need to understand that there is no fundamental difference between ourselves and this person: no inherent quality is intrinsic to anyone who would lead a genocide or steal a government or declare himself the second coming of christ and die in a firefight with the fbi and absent in us. the only thing which separates two people is their circumstances. that doesn’t, by the way, absolve them of the actions they chose to take nor the consequences they should face. see “hanged outside the post office.” there are things you can do which make it impossible for you to continue living in the society of your fellow man. rabies cannot be cured either.

but each and every one of us is capable of doing those things, of contracting rabies. but for the grace of not being raised by a monster into a monster go i. but for the grace of people who did not stupidly or accidentally or maliciously fail me at every turn in order to ensure or heedless of the fact that i became a monster go i. there is not some special race of monsters out there from which you are exempt. there are failures every day behind every door that destroy people and leave monsters in their place. we should try to build a world in which interventions are most possible, more timely, more effective; a world in which it is harder to grow monsters from human beings. that is the lesson of empathy, truly.

never mistake my mercy and compassion for a willingness to excuse monstrous behaviour. every action is a moral choice, every decision to turn further and further into monstrosity is on the head of the person who made it. but they did not do it alone, or in a vacuum, and we need to recognize that evil arises in a perfectly ordinary way, like rust on oats, and takes no special mental defect. it is simply a combination of choices and circumstances. what cannot be saved will need to be removed for the good of the whole crop. but mercy and compassion here tell me that the right thing to do is understand how it happened, bring these facts to light, confront the person in question with them, show them to be a failure made of other human failures, determine the consequences for having committed harm at the scale they did, and work to make a world where fewer people are failed and none this badly. the quality of mercy is not strained, but in some cases it is very, very sharp. a short drop and a sudden stop is sometimes the only cure remaining, and the only way to make the present moment safe so that we can work toward that future.

I thought it was fairly normal to feel empathy for bad people.

I thought it was common, even.

But after my Elon/Grimes post... now I'm wondering if I was mistaken about that.

I wrote a post about Trump being traumatized after his assassination attempt and a post about his poor adaptation to aging. I expressed sympathy for him in both cases. But I still maintain my white hot hatred of him and wish for him to face consequences.

Elon was abused by his father. Some of the stories are incredibly tragic. Hearing those stories triggers an involuntary response in my emotional systems that I can't stop no matter how much I despise present-day Elon. I also wonder if that abuse never occurred maybe we wouldn't be dealing with this current clusterfuck.

I have never held so much anger towards a single person as I do my brother. But I also see him as a victim of abuse. I know he was once a really good person and he was slowly corrupted. I feel sorry for him. I mourn the amazing person he used to be. And I still love him.

But that doesn't make me any less angry.

[fjordfolk]

My two greatest character flaws are that I'm cranky and lazy.

My third greatest character flaw is the acute lack of compassion for people who smuggle exotic animals (like a serval) into a country where they are illegal (like norway) because keeping one as a pet is 'their dream' and then throw a pity party when said animal is seized and at risk of euthanasia. I'm sorry pal but you did that.

[scootersscooter]

Hazel Wells I love you,,,,,

[biblically-accurate-dca]

KILL!!!!!!!!!

[batboopp]

honestly, I’d say Duke probably has one of the biggest reasons to not like Jason or at the very least insult him.

it’s no secret that one of the first things Jason did after becoming Red Hood was to start killing goons/drug dealers/mob bosses and gang leader, no matter their age or why they even chose (if they had the choice) to do that all. And this fucked up most of Gotham/Its general wellbeing/a lot of its people, to say the least. Duke might not have been actively affected, but since he lived most of his life as an average civilian in the Narrows, it’s safe to say he probably got a good glimpse of just how collateral the damage Red Hood did to Gotham and its inhabitants was (considering how most say that taking 2 wrong turns in Gotham would get you face to face with any number of dangers) and how Jason’s decisions still affect Gotham.

moving from Robin and going into his Signal identity, Duke saw even more in depth of what Jason did. and i’d bet that-like a lot of other characters-he is pissed that Jason can still get away with minimal (if any) consequences, especially from people like Batman! Gotham’s Dark Knight of all people!! who wouldn’t be angry, or at the very least annoyed? Especially when all you want to do is shine light onto the cracks of Gotham.

i mean, check out Duke’s word choices here. he could’ve just said ‘vigilante’ to describe Jason (as many are accustomed to doing), but he full out called Jason a villian because that’s exactly what he is. Jason made the conscious choice to hurt people, whether innocent or not, for his own selfish reasons.

which also brings me to Duke’s very fair accusation: He is saying Jason did not have to hurt/kill so many innocents for no reason (“…You got dead and came back as a vigilante villain! And you’re telling me to ‘brighten his dark side?’”).

i like how writers also chose to add Duke saying that no, actually, Jason out of all people has no right to tell Duke to fit anyone’s specific definition of ‘good’, or to even be anything at all, which he has shown constant dislike for.

this means so so much to me considering how hard Duke works to prove that he can work alongside others with his own identity instead of being a sidekick.

i mean, if I went from fighting tooth and nail to prove i can work alongside someone without being their sidekick or replacement, just to have a fucking mobster villian cliche walking around with zero consequences-which must hurt so much more especially after you saw up close on all the twisted shit he was up to, back when you didn’t even know he existed-then he starts telling you what you ‘have’ to be as if you haven’t been handling impossible standards all on your own. as if you haven’t been fighting so hard for your own identity. personally i would be seething but that’s just me. Looking at the panel on the bottom (where Duke is talking to Jace) Duke could be talking about the countless people he has faced, including Jason.

But to touch on how freely Duke insults Jason to others-it really makes what Duke says to Jace here all the more interesting to me. does Duke really want to associate with Jason much, or is he doing it to be good and quiet and to keep the peace? It isn’t impossible considering that one of Duke’s biggest fears is that he is a placeholder who can be discarded easily. 

who knows, and i really really want more writers to dive into this in the future, especially to grow and evolve their relationship/dynamic. im a sucker for seeing how other characters-who devoted themselves so much to batman/the batfam and what it stands for, to build and grow far beyond that-just to see an actual murderer get what is essentially a free pass on top of telling you how to be Robin (which isn’t out of character for Jason) or even your OWN identity.

(sorry to hijack your post i just love love duke thomas and I don’t see many posts about him!)

Every Time Duke Thomas Is Snarky Towards or Insults Jason Todd (So Far)

Batman & The Signal TPB // Batman (2016) #33 // Detective Comics (2016) #1000 // DC Rise of the Power Company