#dis my new blorbo

[valleydewstardrops]

🌑 Stardew Sebastian 🌑

🌖 If I look hard enough

Into the setting sun

My love will laugh with me

Before the morning comes

I see a red door and I want it painted black.

🌻 His sunshiney farmer girl.

[laniemae]

I am a bit too obsessed with this boy he occupies my every thought now help

[thirteenashmctrash]

okay so i have gained a new species of spore for my collective brainrot and i have found the perfect selling pitch to drag everyone i care about down with me. if you know the show this is hilarious. if you haven't watched it pay attention:

the show's called leverage. you know how there's those crime serials that aren't good at all but we've all watched a little too much of at least one of them even though they are blatant copaganda which is morally terrible? take your favorite one of those, but remover the copaganda. all the characters are criminals but their only victim is capitalism. every cop in the show is stupid at best and blatantly corrupt to a disgusting level most of the time. there is just as much genuine and intelligent social commentary as this premise demands.

i sense i already have you hooked. i can make this better. stick with me for a minute on this: the character dynamic is a muppet movie but also the Scooby gang

stick with me here!

You have Parker, who fit into the Scooby gang as Scooby and would be played by Gonzo. her crime thing is that she is a cat burglar and she is very good at it. her skill with it is borderline slapstick (hence Scooby) and she is very autistic coded and misunderstood (hence Gonzo)

You've got Eliot, who is the Shaggy and is played by Sam Eagle. He is the brute force of the team and he wants you to think he is all serious and grimdark. but he loves making the employees and victims of their capitalist targets aware of unions and he is a big himbo. i say he is shaggy because he plays Parker's straight man, he has the second most cartoonlike abilities, and he has a passion for cooking

Hardison is Velma as played by Kermit. he is a geeky hacker with a passion for orange soda and he is the heart of the team. he gets overlooked as leader even though he is the driving force of everything they do. like Velma. he also has that trademark Kermit brand of slapstick and deadpanned humor in balance.

Sophie is Daphne as played by miss piggy. she is basically the world's best grifter, she usually the front man interacting with the target the most. she has that crazy streak and the self defense capacity that miss piggy and Daphne (when she's done right) both have. she also has the confidence and style.

Nate is Fred and he is the human character. Fred has "let's split up gang" and Nate has "then we have to steal *fill in the blank with something comedically unfit to finish the sentence*" Fred and Nate are both flat characters with the main trait "i think I'm the leader but my smart friend does all the work" and the main interest of "trapping and screwing over capitalists" he mainly gets to call himself the leader because he's the idea guy and he has an apartment. his role in the muppet analogy is the peak of my pitch if you're still here. because while this is definitely not the Christmas Carol, Nate is the human character because he is Ebenezer Scrooge if instead of being a capitalist, Scrooge was an alcoholic and instead of character growth he was just steadily losing his mind. his moral compass and general intelligence are on a roulette wheel that is spun at random intervals lasting from seconds to the occasional few hours. also he and Sophie have divorced parents of grown children syndrome and the other three are said children. in vibes, of course, they aren't actually related.

if anyone stayed with me through all of that you should seriously watch it. even if i sound like i pulled this all out of my ass. it's so good.

it's an actively anticapitalist, copaganda free crime show where you get to see fun characters beat up every thing bad in society and fuck it all over. it balances fun comedy and wild characters with serious topics and moments in a way that is very natural and genuine. it also has one of my favorite autistic coded characters, a positive and healthy relationship that develops in a way that feels natural to the characters (as well as a rockier one if you're into drama) and it is in the midst of what looks to be an actually well handled revival series with the original cast. i haven't caught up yet but I'm so excited for it. the original had 5 seasons and the revival is waiting to be renewed for season 3.

please go watch leverage. it's so good and it deserves more fans. also i want more fic and that next season

[silverwhittlingknife]

How do you feel about Jack Drake?? What are your thoughts on him and Tim’s relationship?

Anon, I hope you were interested in a novel, because look, I am fascinated by Jack Drake.  He’s key to a whole lot of what I find compelling about Tim as a character, and if I were in charge of DC, I’d bring him back to life.  This would make Tim unhappy but would IMO make for good plotlines.

Jack and Tim’s relationship is Complicated (TM)...

Jack and Tim hug in Nightwing 20 / Jack impulsively yanks a TV out of the wall in Robin 45 / Tim grieves in Identity Crisis

“I could tell the truth.  But I don’t.” - Robin 66

...and it involves a whole lot of Tim lying, and feeling guilty about lying, and thinking about telling the truth, and choosing again and again to keep lying.

And I think that’s great.

Below the cut:

Shorter version - key points about Jack

Really long version - my gentler take (vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports) vs. my harsher take (Jack has some major flaws)

Final thoughts

Shorter version - key points about Jack:

He’s a bad parent.  He’s self-centered, he consistently prioritizes his own comfort and interests over his son’s, and when upset, he does things like order Tim off to boarding school.

But he’s never a bad parent in an actionable way.  He’s not like David Cain or Arthur Brown, who are abusive monsters.  Jack’s not a monster!  He just...kinda sucks.

He genuinely loves Tim. If Jack’s aware that Tim’s disappeared or is in trouble, he’s always worried and upset.  He periodically resolves to be a better dad, and IMO he’s always sincere.

And Tim loves him, a lot.  Tim’s protective of him and worries about him when he’s kidnapped or in danger, and when they’re reunited, Tim’s really relieved and usually hugs him (and Jack hugs back!). 

...But they have very little in common, and that’s a problem. Jack doesn’t value the things that Tim values, or respect the people that Tim admires, or care about the things that Tim’s interested in.  Tim lies to him a lot, but that’s partly because he correctly guesses Jack wouldn’t respond well if he knew the truth of what Tim’s up to.

The Batfamily is a surrogate family that Tim’s drawn to because of the ways his real family doesn’t meet his emotional needs…but also he feels guilty about that and disloyal. (And to the extent that his dad recognizes what’s going on, he's jealous and resentful!)

Very long version:

(LISTEN I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS)

Okay!  So first: Jack’s a character who IMO is pretty up for interpretation.  You can interpret him very charitably, and make excuses for the bad behavior, and fill in the blanks sympathetically when situations are ambiguous; or you can interpret him uncharitably, and emphasize the bad behavior. I don’t think either approach is invalid - it depends on what kind of story you’re interested in!  I have enjoyed Bad Dad stories and also stories that redeem Jack.

My personal take on canon is that Jack and Tim’s relationship is in a gray area.  Jack's definitely neglectful, and he does prioritize other things over Tim, but he’s never so bad that Tim can easily reject him, and he's never so bad that Bruce could justify taking Tim away.  He's just...not great.  Tim loves him, and feels loyal to him, but it’s a very mixed-up complicated love.

I have a gentler take and a harsher one which I switch between as the spirit moves me. xD

My Gentler Take (tl;dr: vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports)

Here’s the core conflict: Jack and Tim are very different people with different values.  Tim idolizes Bruce and Dick and vigilantism, and secretly gets involved, knowing his dad will hate it. He gets increasingly wrapped up in his secret world and lies to his dad...because if his dad finds out, he’ll make Tim quit.

This is a great setup for an ongoing comic.  It’s practical, because it provides endless potential for plotlines, and it’s nicely thematic, because it maps closely onto relatable real-life situations with extracurricular activities:

Tim the drama nerd whose dad thinks he’s playing football and not in the school play; 

Tim the closeted-queer kid secretly getting involved in his school’s politically-active Gay-Straight Alliance; 

Tim the choir kid whose dad only values making money and wants him to go into the family business (and Tim keeps promising himself he'll give up choir soon, definitely soon, but maybe he'll stay in just a liiiittle longer, because they need him, you see, the last tenor left town, so...); 

Tim the computer geek with the sports-obsessed dad (this one’s just canon);

etc. etc.  

The extracurricular metaphor works pretty well for Tim’s relationship to vigilantism.  Tim's involved in his "extracurricular" because he genuinely thinks it's important and fulfilling, and he values it and wants to be good at it. He idolizes Bruce and Dick because they're good at it. He's been collecting information about it since he was a little kid, and hiding it from his parents because he knows they wouldn't approve. And mayyyybe there's also an element of low-key rebellion against his dad, and maybe that's secretly part of the appeal. And yet also as Tim gets more and more invested, he starts to daydream: maybe I could tell my dad and he'd be proud of me and supportive. But he doesn't, because actually he knows his dad would be upset and angry and make him quit.

And - again, just like with lonely kids and extracurricular hobbies - one of the things that happens is that Tim starts getting his unfilled emotional needs met ... by people he knows through this secret hobby. And people like Bruce and Dick start turning into a surrogate family. Which Tim feels guilty about. And also as Tim gets more and more wrapped up in their world, he has to lie to his dad even more, which means the distance between Tim and his dad gets bigger and bigger and more and more unfixable.

I love this dilemma. It's simple, it's recognizable, it provides endless sources for conflict, and there's no obvious solution! Tim can't tell Jack: he'll make Tim quit! And Tim doesn't want to quit, because he loves choir / art / theater / whatever.  Yeah, it’s difficult, and there are challenges, and sometimes he has doubts...but at the end of the day, he cares about it a lot.  And everything he values is there, and all the people he admires and cares about are there, and all he wants in the world is to feel like he's one of them and belongs there. So he has to lie, even though he doesn't want to lie, and he feels guilty about it...

...but also he ends up lying more and more.

(Sidenote: I think it's important that Tim chooses to keep lying - Tim's narration often glosses this as "I have to lie to my dad," and that's certainly how it feels to Tim, but this... isn't quite true. He has to lie to his dad, because if he doesn't, his dad will get mad at him and try to stop him, not because he literally has no choice about it.)

Other Reasons Why I Like The "Secret Extracurricular" Interpretation

(tl;dr it complicates not just Tim's relationship with his dad, but also all his other relationships)

Tim's problems have some obvious parallels to Steph and Cass, who both become vigilantes while rejecting their evil supervillain dads. But Jack isn't evil. And that means the Tim-and-Jack relationship is ambiguous and complicated in ways that I like. Steph and Cass can just leave their Bad Dads in prison, and say good riddance, and feel very righteous and triumphant about it! Tim’s more complicated. Tim gets into vigilantism ostensibly out of duty and altruism, but secretly, he's also involved for straight-up selfish self-fulfillment reasons. He's lonely, and bored, and his life feels pointless, but he thinks that Bruce and Dick are cool and amazing and he wants to be a part of the things that they do.  When his dad gets jealous of Tim’s relationship to Bruce, and feels like Tim’s looking for a surrogate family, he’s... not wrong.

And the ways in which Jack is not Actionably Bad complicate things from Bruce's POV.  If Jack was a straight-up villain, it’d be an easy call to keep in touch when Jack finds out and makes Tim quit...but he’s not a villain, not really.  So what do you do?  Do you try to surreptitiously stay in touch with Tim even though you’re ignoring his dad’s express wishes and thus forcing Tim to sneak around?  Do you respect his dad’s wishes and stay away from Tim even though you have a years-long relationship at this point?  

Again: a bit similar to the extracurricular analogy.  Say you’re the choir director and you’ve built this whole relationship with a kid in the choir, and you’re an important mentor to him and you care about him etc. etc. etc.... and then right before a big performance, his dad finds out he’s been secretly involved, and yanks him out.  How would you react?  Well, maybe kind of in some of the ways Bruce reacts.  You replace him. You’re annoyed with him. You miss him. You want him to come back. You’re also worried about him.  You’re upset with his dad.  But also... what should you do, exactly?

Bruce and Alfred and Dick care about Tim as if he were part of their family, but he’s not part of their family, and there’s a lot of interesting tension there.

My Harsher Take

Jack never hits his son.  But his temper is a big deal.

In his worst moments, he takes out his anger on Tim’s stuff - wrecking his room, or ripping his TV out of the wall and confiscating it.  When he’s worried about Tim, he usually expresses that fear by yelling at him / punishing him / sending him away - threatening to send him to boarding school in Metropolis in Robin III, or threatening to send him to military school abroad in Robin 92, or actually forcing him to go to an all-boys' boarding school post-NML.  

This is bad behavior!  It is Not Good!  

And you can easily connect the dots to a bunch of Tim’s terrible coping mechanisms, like the constant lying and or the fact that Tim’s go-to methods for dealing with interpersonal conflict are 1) repress it and pretend it never happened (most of his fights with Bruce), 2) withdraw from the relationship until he can pretend the conflict doesn’t exist (when his friends get mad at him in YJ, he quits the team for a while), or 3) literally run away from home.

Also, Jack is a Manly Man with firm opinions about how men behave vs. how women behave, and he thinks boys shouldn’t be scared and thinks Tim should date hot girls and pushes Tim to work out and wants him to play football and expresses period-typical sexism, etc. etc. etc. ... and though obviously this wasn’t what the writers had in mind at the time, all of that is certainly interesting to read backwards in the light of Tim as a queer character.

More Disorganized Thoughts on Jack Drake

Tim’s our hero, so we’re naturally more sympathetic to him, but it’s also true that relationships are a two-way street, and Tim doesn’t value any of the things his dad values, either.  Jack at various points is shown to care about grades, business, money, boarding schools, archeology, football, a kind of macho bragging-about-dating-hot-women ethos, and a very public and performative kind of caring. Tim tends to respond with discomfort or disinterest or even disgust.  When Jack gets on TV to try to rally the government to save his son from No Man’s Land, Tim isn’t touched—he’s mortified.  When Jack makes some bad investments and loses money, Jack’s deeply upset and his self-image is majorly impacted, and far from being sympathetic, Tim’s annoyed and kind of contemptuous of the idea that this is a problem.  Jack thinks fishing in the early morning and going to tennis matches is a fun father-son activity; Tim finds it exhausting and tedious.  And so on.

This means that Tim often longs to be closer to his dad in theory, but this longing is more tied to fantasy than to reality. He rarely seems to enjoy spending time with His-Dad-The-Actual-Person.  So for example, when Tim’s deadly ill with the Clench, he has an extremely poignant fever dream about telling his dad the truth and getting hugged…even as he insists in real-life to Alfred and Dick that he does not want them to tell his dad what’s going on.

The same is true of Jack, who IMO genuinely wants to be closer to his son and is continually declaring that he’s going to turn over a new leaf and get closer to his son…and just as continually backs out of activities or loses his temper when faced with spending time with his actual son.

Tim and his dad sadly get along best—by far—in Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder situations.  When Jack gets kidnapped or is in danger, Tim worries for him (and Tim grieves him deeply when he dies).  When Tim disappears or runs away, Jack’s genuinely worried about him.  So e.g. they have a really moving emotional reunion and hug when the earthquake hits Gotham, and Tim panics about his dad’s safety and comes running home (and meanwhile Jack’s been panicked about Tim’s safety!).  It’s the day-to-day, regular life stuff where they don’t connect.

Jack's written quite differently by different writers. Mostly, Tim's parents are at their least likable in his early appearances and early miniseries (this is where you get, for example, Jack and Janet being nasty at each other while a pained employee looks on, and Tim disappointed to once again get news of where his parents are via postcard - "I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be–or when–or even how long!” - and Tim alone on school break, and Bruce and Alfred thinking there's something weird going on with Tim's parents, etc. etc.). Jack's more sympathetic but still often unlikable in most of Tim's Robin solo, and he's almost invisible (but positively treated if he does show up) in Tim's team books.

For obvious reasons, Jack's remembered way more sympathetically after his death. Tim's completely devastated by Jack's murder, which he arrives moments too late to prevent, and he basically never gets over it. We see him grieving Jack again and again in Robin, and also in Teen Titans, and also in Resurrection, and again in the Halloween Special, and again in Batman: Blackest Night, and all the way up to the end of Red Robin. Tim also grieves for an extended time over Janet - he hallucinates a happy reunion with her when he's feverish in Contagion, and hallucinates her in the final issue of Robin, and the reveal-your-buried-emotions song in Robin 102 brings up his grief for her too (meanwhile, other characters dance or laugh or otherwise get giddy).  Tim’s grief over his parents’ deaths is intense and long-lasting.

I'm not going to clip comic panels because this is long enough, but if you're curious, here's a nice and fairly lengthy compilation of comic panels with Tim and Jack.

If you're interested in a Jack-centric story with a softer-but-still-recognizably-canon take on Jack, I really like the way Jack’s narration is written in the one-shots Heart Humble (set shortly before Jack dies) and Never a Hero (Ra's resurrects him during Brucequest, and Jack's archeology skills turn out to be unexpectedly useful).

[cthoseris]

JUST FINISHED TDK: REIGN

HOLY SHIT THAT WAS GOOD

[queruloustea]

true blue in your childlike wonder~

watch the light show~~ feel the thunder~!

shakin the walls of this cage~

of birth, death, disease, and old age~

i′m looking with your bloodshot eyes~

for the light of an endless skyyyyyyyyyyyy~~

[the-indie-owl]

Toddler-Year-Old Me who never really knew who this Character was (since their only exposure was Season 2) & only saw him in a One Video Game Adaptation review through a Critic Gameplay Video (which I never really did care nor crush on him that much) but when re-trying out Season 1, did I not realize that this Obscure DILF is one of my Long-Lost Crushes that I've never seen as a Kid until now as of Recently.

[blorboazula]

I'm torn between more fluff fics and putting Agatha through the blender for once

[mewhenifreakit]

curled up by the fire, tail waggin

[tibtew]

What about Project Moon genderswap Captain Ahab too?

anon I hope you know this concept is making me Scream

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

I need to make a proper report on this, cause I recently finished watching through the first lostbelt and now I am officially Invested…! I was initially just going through it and the LB prologue because I wanted context for LB6 cause I already love Oberon and I want to see him, but was told it would be best to have some additional context, but it was even better than expected, also I now have a second FGO to be obsessed with, Salieri!

I now know what a lostbelt is, and we started in Russia but ruled by Ivan the Terrible for 450 years and also everyone is a furry now because he combined everyone with demonic beasts to survive the cold wave that occurred in this lostbelt. The characters were some of the best part, I liked the cast a lot~ it sounds pretty wild to explain though cause of the nature of Fate having a bunch of famous historical figures. Also Kotomine is there lol. But it turned out not to be him but still just seeing his appearance was like huh?!

I didn’t even think much of Salieri at first, at first he thought he was Mozart and was just the guy keeping the tsar asleep, but then he gets picked up by our party and realizes his identity and joins the team under the condition he gets to kill Mozart

Turns out he’s not great at that either despite being a version of him warped by the false rumors of him being Mozart’s killer, and turned into an “innocent monster” (which is such a cool concept!) and even summoned as an Avenger class servant. But when he’s brought to the palace and remembers what happened when he confronted Mozart when he first was summoned….

YEAH. And after Mozart is literally asking him to kill him. So all his supposed hatred for him just ends up making him somehow come across as even more gay for him, he just says stuff like this

YOU’RE IN LOVE, DEAR

He has his Moments, but he seems surprisingly sane in this LB even with his jumbled memory…? Summoned Salieri seems a lot more taken over by the rumors (and Mozart just makes fun of him for it LMAO?)

The end of the lostbelt is where it really shined, we have our team of servants at the capital as the tsar awakens, Patxi came along too despite a fear so great he had earlier sold out the rebels, the tsar is awakening, Avicebron just made a golem out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth to stand a chance against him, sacrificing himself in the process (…which this also sounds wild typing it out, anyway I rather liked him, just a chill guy passionate about what he does)

I don’t think I was expecting giant demon elephant for the tsar?! Anyway THIS SCENE. THIS SCENE. THIS IS THE ONE THAT GOT ME AND MADE ME GO OH THIS STORY IS REALLY GOOD. Salieri is at the piano, he must play so they stand a chance. He speaks with Mozart in his mind, and channels all his anger into a passionate performance, Dies Irae! And what really gets me is that it isn’t even Salieri’s own (his entire Requiem is a great piece btw, highly recommend, also his attacks in game use part of his Dies Irae). No, it’s Mozart’s Dies Irae. And I believe it’s part of the requiem he died composing iirc? So Salieri is playing with all his rage in a gorgeous, passionate arrangement of it, and ITS SO GOOD!!!! And it’s the key to victory, they were able to harm the tsar now! It’s really cute when he’s all happy about Mash calling his music beautiful lol (Her return to battle here was also really cool!! Her shield protecting him from the lighting!)

And things seem to be quieting down now but it’s not quite over… Kadoc tries to make a last stand, but Anastasia ends up dying to protect him (and he seemed to genuinely care about her) and he’s knocked out, not killed, my friend is hinting that there’s gonna be more on him later…? 👀

And not just that, the cruel reality of what happens to a lostbelt in order to save proper human history came to light with Atalante and her rebels fighting back… and I can’t even blame them, it’s one of those situations where neither side is wrong, it’s the circumstances themselves…. Patxi went and got himself killed to save Chaldea’s master 😭　despite being from the LB, he wanted to help in the end? But I still can’t entirely blame those who were against it…

And finally, the ending where I cried like a little baby! The tree of emptiness was gone, the eternal storm gave way to clear skies, and the world would soon disappear. With their duties done, the remaining servants disappeared as well, except for Salieri, who still had one more thing to do…. And so he sits down at the piano, and plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mozart’s dying wish to him should the world know peace. Oh Salieri, he’ll act all like:

(His scowl is so cute)

But then two seconds later:

And just. A people that had never known peace, that had never seen a clear sky and always had to worry about survival, never knowing even music, listening to his piano, and getting to see a starry sky for the first time in their lives as the world itself came to an end got me 😭

In conclusion, LB1 was really damn good and oh no I’m Invested now!! Didn’t expect this sort of quality of writing from a mobile game, it’s a proper VN…! I think I still will go to LB6 next cause I Need to see Oberon cause I love him, but now I want to see the rest of thr story too. (…and now thee friend that told me about him in the first place convinced me to play, for better or worse LOL)

[magicalgirlmascot]

Bionicle Ghost Trick AU where Matoro winds up with the "powers of the dead" after his sacrifice and spends the entire rest of the series frantically rewinding time to fix things every time someone dies

[satirickitty]

[tunasama13]

I feel so bad for my brother because he’s taking me to see Across the Spiderverse and knowing my autistic hyperfixating ass I’m likely going to be doing this for the entire 2 hours and 16 minutes PLUS the few minutes of previews and the preview before the movie starts

[dhampiravidi]

PJO Chalice of the Gods Rant

please explain to me why Percy Jackson, who was literally called a Hero of Olympus by the Greek gods themselves, who did missions while considered a leader of Camp Jupiter (part of the admin, not the overall leader), who’s been training/fighting for years, who has an obvious reason (his important parentage) why he kinda can’t go to normal uni…

why does he of all demigods need a letter of rec to go to New Rome University?

Moreover, even if he needs one as a judge of his character…why doesn’t Artemis write him one* considering all he’s done for her specifically?

& are we saying that every demigod needs a letter of rec? Does it have to be from a god?

*I wanted to pick gods who 1) are explicitly shown to respect Percy & 2) gods he’d clearly helped out. He saved Artemis in The Titan’s Curse.

[mychlapci]

just finshed reading the oscar winning transformers comic Lost Light published by IDW stusdio l9ve and peace on planat earth