#but their resolution makes sense

[watermelonsloth]

I’ve seen a handful of people in the Naruto fandom complain about Naruto using force or threatening to use force on Sasuke in an attempt to bring him back to Konoha and I want to talk about it. Not to complain about the fandom again or to discuss my thoughts on the argument, don’t worry. I just want to point out that the story actually agrees with this sentiment.

(As a quick aside/reminder, most major fights double as the characters involved having a conversation/debate and all of Naruto and Sasuke’s are meant to be visual representatives of their beliefs/perspectives/goals clashing and shouldn’t be taken literally.)

Naruto first goes after Sasuke at the end of part 1 and attempts to drag him back to Konoha by force. He doesn’t understand Sasuke’s motives at all, he nearly dies, and, more importantly, he fails his mission. He tries to bring Sasuke back again at the start of shippuden, this time by convincing him, but he fails to listen to/understand Sasuke’s motives and subsequently fails to bring Sasuke back. (Side note: Naruto attempts to find Sasuke by chasing Itachi, but how he intends to bring Sasuke back is unclear so I can’t say much here.) Then the Pain arc happens where two important things happen: 1. Jiraiya, Kakashi, and many of the other people he knows and loves die and his home gets destroyed. 2. He learns to use his empathy/emotional intelligence consciously and put effort into understanding the motivations of his opponents. Basically, he has a personal point of comparison to Sasuke’s backstory/motivations and he starts putting effort into truly understanding Sasuke. The next, and last, time Naruto tries to bring Sasuke back to Konoha is at the end of Shippuden. The two of them fight, Naruto fully understands why Sasuke is doing what he’s doing even if he doesn’t agree with it, and only then does Naruto succeed in his mission when Sasuke returns to Konoha of his own free will.

The series doesn’t blatantly state it, but it very clearly paints Naruto’s attempts to force Sasuke back as the wrong decision that doesn’t work. His attempts are proof that he doesn’t understand Sasuke and still has a lot to learn. The series is about people coming together through understanding so it makes sense that Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship only gets mended after the two finally reach an understanding.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i have suddenly become obsessed with a theme that HoO established but never proceeded to extrapolate on, which is:

You are Percy Jackson, and you have been swapped with a boy who was allegedly everyone's favorite person, but they have decided to replace him with you. They just met you. You stand next to his best friend and the people he's known his entire life. In his home. In his cloak. In his place. They stopped looking for him.

You are Jason Grace, and you have just found out you have a long lost sister who completely replaced you in her life with this girl you just met. Your lives and personalities are mirrors. She is you, living the life you were robbed of.

You are Annabeth Chase, and you have just become starkly aware that you have been inhabiting the void left behind by your best friend's long lost brother. You and Luke were just replacements for him. Now you have to look him in the eyes when he has nothing and know you took that life from him.

You are Piper McLean, and you have just found out your relationship is fake and built entirely on the memories of Annabeth Chase. You have been given a boyfriend when hers has been taken away. You have no idea how much of it is real or not but regardless you feel like if your relationship isn't exactly in their image that you have failed.

You are Leo Valdez, and you have just learned that you are the echo of your great-grandfather. You are not your own person. You just exist to be a mirror of him. A doppelganger. An actor and stunt double facing all the danger he never had to but wearing his face. To be there for his best friend decades later simply because he couldn't. You are playing a role. A seventh wheel and a pawn for a goddess who carefully sculpted your entire life for her own purposes.

You are Hazel Levesque, and the only reason you are alive is because your brother couldn't save your his sister. You are a consolation prize. An apology. Your existence here is misplaced in every way but you inhabit it anyways.

You are Frank Zhang, and you are a shapeshifter. Inhabiting your own body feels strange and clumsy when you could be literally anything at any time. You are anything and everything and live your life with the simple certainty of knowing exactly how you will die.

[aingeal98]

More Jason and Cass thoughts (sorry but also not sorry) but if I was magically given full control over DC and could write what I'd want obviously I'd make Cass Batman but I've been thinking of what sort of reaction and role Jason would have in response. I think I'd write his version of "Congrats on the new job!" as a test, involving the Joker and civilians and gangs and Red Hood and a ton of explosives. Bruce failed me, and now he's given up. You're his successor, let's see how you handle this dilemma that freaked him out so badly he threw a batarang into my throat rather than let me avenge my own death in front of him.

So obviously Cass will overcome the traps and the puzzles. That's the fun part to show how competent both of them are and sprinkle in little character moments as we go. But then we reach the emotional crux of the matter, probably laid out as some sort of saw trap because it's Jason. Here I am, a victim of murder. You say nobody dies tonight but I did, and I want the man who did it dead. Not only did Batman fail to avenge me but he failed to stop the Joker from going on to create even more victims. What right do you have to stop me from getting justice for myself? What right does this man have to life after what he's taken from me and from countless others? I'm not trying to kill a random stranger, I'm specifically demanding justice for my own death that I never got while I was gone.

There are two ways this could go. The straightforward route if I knew my time on this run was limited would probably be a pyrrhic victory like the ones Cass's og series was so fond of. Just like Bruce in utrh, she acts on instinct and saves the Joker (and Jason this time) . A win technically, but she fails the test. Jason is once again vindicated but with nothing to show for it. The story ends with Cass sending the Joker back to jail and going back to the batcave, where the old Robin costume looms judgementally, highlighting her failure. It would be the most fitting end given their character molds, all tragedy and conviction and unstoppable force meets immovable object etc.

However... I think the option I prefer would be a little different. Cass levelling with Jason, a killer talking to a murder victim. She has no right to stop Jason from getting justice, she has no love for the Joker but she knows any death she allows to happen like this would devastate her, just like that death row inmate long ago she tried to break out but ended up letting go once the family of the victim talked to her and demanded justice. I think... In this specific situation, she'd just be honest. Morally she has no right sure. Personally she just really really doesn't want anyone to die. Give her one chance, please. Let her try it her way. Not demanding, not lecturing or insisting, just... Please. Don't do this. Let me try another way.

And then what? Jason asks.

In the end a deal is struck. Cass will take the Joker and lock him up, ensuring he never harms anyone again while also trying to rehabilitate him. But the second she fails and he gets free, Jason kills him and she won't stand in his way. It's the kind of deal that leaves both of them mildly disgusted and dissatisfied with themselves, neither of them naturally creatures of compromise when it comes to this specific topic. But Cass is willing to do anything to avoid death and Jason did not expect the new Bat to be so... Flexible? Kind of? Of course maybe she won't actually hold up her end of the deal and when the Joker gets loose she'll try and stop Jason from killing him and he'll get his miserable vindication, but right now this is something strange and new and he's mildly confused and curious about where it will go. He doesn't believe in her ability to contain the Joker forever but he's willing to let her try because her reaction to that future failure interests him. She's given him a sword of damocles to hang above her head and he didn't ask for it or expect it. It's the type of power he never thought the Bat would just... Hand to him.

The conflict ends with neither of them fully winning or losing. They both don't really know what to feel about this.

The thing is, the second Cass let's Jason kill the Joker she's hanging up the mantle. She's staking the Bat on this, because it's always go big or go home with her when it comes to saving others, even someone like the Joker. In this magical universe where I have unlimited power, Cass would lock the Joker in a secret bunker and have Leslie Thompkins talk to him daily, mostly because I think her pacifism speeches and debates in the comics would make a fun contrast to the Joker's evil sadism. (But what about his rights? Doesn't he deserve a trial and to be held in a regular prison? I'm going to be honest I think Cass would be very comfortable bending the rules on this specific situation. Morally questionable but I'd have fun with it. She's going to let Leslie treat Joker like her personal pet project to save his soul because yes she wants him to change but also she's got a city to save every night so go crazy Leslie, have fun.)

And the Batman series would continue with Cass as the lead, new challenges and new antagonists and every twenty issues or so for the first hundred we'll cut back to the Joker briefly if his chats with Leslie can help highlight some thematic element of the current arc. But bit by bit he'd slowly fade away onto oblivion, maybe getting referenced every hundred issues or so until eventually no one remembers or cares about him because there's so much else going on. Meanwhile Jason's got a good thing going as Red Hood, primarily based in Park Row and a tentative ally on the occasion when their vigilante work aligns. Unlike Joker he's a much more frequent character in the comics, and after say 10 years (this is my magical fantasy universe Cass's batman run is going to last for a very long time alright) when people think of DC characters they think of Red Hood long before they think of the Joker.

Is any of this realistic? Right now of course not. It's why I'd go with the pyrrhic victory if I actually got the chance, because it would be the best way to tell the story in the larger context of the Bat narrative. But it's my fantasy DC editor and writer daydream and I'm going to dream big. They're never going to be normal happy siblings, their personal demons will never fully let them be free and the looming possibility of losing everything they currently have narrative wise if Bruce comes back as Batman will always be there. But it's maybe the closest to peace they'll ever get. Unsatisfying and tame compromise that probably violates several laws and ethical codes but whatever. Cass has never read the Geneva convention and Jason's not going to shed tears over the Joker. Let him die relevancy wise if not physically.

[kari-go]

...buttefly!Chloe?

[stimmingandstruggling]

idk maybe it’s just because i’m aro but i truly could not give a shit if ivantill was requited or not. like i will ALWAYS hold firm in my belief that they were CLOSE, till always saw ivan as a friend, but like. i don’t know if it was romantic for him and i don’t really care.

because the tragedy of ivantill is what could have been. if they had more time. maybe till would be able to see past his idolization of mizi. maybe he’d return the kiss, or maybe he wouldn’t. maybe they’d never speak again. maybe nothing would change maybe everything would change maybe they’d stay exactly the same but now they hold hands sometimes.

but they never had the chance to find out. they’ll never know. i think post round 6 all till could think about in those few hours he had was what if. what if what if what if everything was different. and not having an answer. never having an answer.

i don’t know if till loved ivan the way ivan loved him, but he deserved the chance to find out.

[millionsknives]

golden kamuy bloodsucking eye gore klimt ‘the kiss’ reference (none of those words are in the bible)

[mynarco]

i made this for part 2 but didn't put it in the tags because i was nervous. i am no longer nervous. they're divorced

[corntired]

Fanfiction is so goated actually

No monetary incentive, just writing in one's free time. Some incentive for like kudos and comments, because who doesn't want to hear that someone else enjoyed what they wrote. Just writing a story that is good and/or enjoyable, no real-life pressure to keep it going because god forbid you and other people are depending on it financially.

Writing a story because you want to write a good story, so you can write what they want the way you want, at a pace that is realistic for you, with exactly the plot pacing you want there to be.

[mwagneto]

HAAANK DON'T GET MAD AT SCIFI FOR NOT MAKING SENSE HAAAAANK !!! IT'S A METAPHOR FOR REAL LIFE THAT'S MEANT TO MAKE YOU ASK QUESTIONS HANK YOU DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE EXACT MECHANICS!!!! HAAAANK

[sentientsky]

“Wishbone,” Richard Siken

welcome back to another episode of Wren Projects Her Own Gay Angst onto Anthony Janthony Crowley

[askblueandviolet]

MASTER POST

Asks Start 💙💜

Previous 💙💜

Next 💙💜

[emmavakarian-theirin]

the way it kinda just dawned on me we're never seeing alistair again

[eikichi-supremacy]

and they were singin', bye-bye Miss American Pie // american oldie i think kuwabara unironically listens to

(low effort lyric edit im queueing here in May cos im probably gonna forget it exists otherwise)

[starfall-isle]

I’m just a ten cent copy

Of people far more advanced than me

[skunkes]

out of all of ur ocs I’m still Wyatt’s #1 fan,,, holds all of my nonexistent wyatt merch…. But all of ur ocs are so great and I e loved seeing ur art evolve over the like. oh my god it’s been like a decade almost NDKENDOROANDOE scary

wyatt u will always be famous and the original fan favorite... honestly i wish i cld control what my brain fixated on bc i do want to bring her back for a bit since her and talon are the same breed of person (they're both cats.) and they wld have some good interactions! ive thought of two good ones and a text post one inspired one and i wanna see if i can be motivated to doodle em soon if at all lolll ^_^ havent drawn her in a while so im rusty but:

(also thank u for sticking around ^_^)

[mazzystar24]

Wrote this at 3:30am (before reading that interview my last post was abt):

Gerrard hearing about the lightening strike and making some absolutely heinous joke about god striking buck down (homophobic implications included ofc) then Eddie is there and hears this and goes all Fight Club Eddie ™️ on Gerrard I’m talking absolutely FERAL

And then the rest of this I’m copy and pasting and plagiarising myself from something I wrote in the replies of one of my post:

and then tommy says some shit about keeping their heads down and just wait it out being better and then if it’s Eddie (in the reply we were talking about it it’s Eddie who lashes out or buck) I can so see him throwing a verbal punch and being like “hmm what’s your next recommendation join in to save my own ass?”

Then the sheer drama of having buck be in this really weird awkward position between the two