#garth is so precious tho

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

Steve: How did you all get arrested?

Oliver: Honestly, I don't know

Carter: They got pulled over and when the officer said 'papers', Garth just yelled 'scissors' and Hal drove off.

Barry: tattle tale.

[extreme-close-up-woooaah]

breakfast club headcanons V

andrew - first things first i think that we can all agree that this man is in fact a jean cuffer, he’s a bi man - he had braces from 7th grade to junior year and gets very embarrassed of  precious old photos of younger him - okay so, i need to elaborate on this boys family life, it’s insane - this boy is brothers with the kid in the police office in ferris buellers day off (his name is garth volbeck) and they have a sister named judy because garth mentions her - yes i did this because they are brothers irl and have different last names irl (but for different reasons)  - and their parents divorced a year before the breakfast club so their mother (a very sweet lady who loves her kids no matter what and respects them, she can also bake and she taught andrew to respect woman) she already moved out into another house in another neighborhood - so andrew lives with his dad sadly, and has a hard time escaping it all, garth is in between everything and judy lives with their mother by choice because of obvious reasons - okay hopefully ya’ll understand that :) - next things next this man (even out of my au) grows up to be a librarian - the story to how that happened is kind of upsetting, i don’t want anyone to feel in any way triggered or upset by this so... T W: don’t read if sensitive to stuff like verbal abuse - after highschool he got into a college for wrestling and did his thing and then after that he got onto the wrestling team his dad coaches - andrew had joined but it had drained him, his mental health was deteriorating to say the least - eventually he started to feel pain in his knee but his father kept pushing him and pushing him until he couldn’t take it anymore - he knee gave out  - i’m not educated enough to say why but all i know is that he couldn’t wrestle anymore and was useless in his fathers eyes - his father said very mean things to him and left him at a telephone booth with very little money, enough to get a burger at a mcdonalds, he called garth - asked him to take him to the hospital, he was shaky on the phone but his brother understood and came to pick him up - the ride was completely silent and understandably so, but andrew ended up crying in the passenger seat, he was kind of cold too  T W over: enjoy the rest :) - uh soooo ONCE AGAIN i am NOT educated enough to say what happened to his knee but he ended up having some chronic knee thing and it was only going to get worse and he needed a knee brace for it  - he ends up staying at garth and his boyfriends house (sorry to anyone who thinks brian should just be on his own, me and my bf ship brian and garth like a couple of dorks U-U so please do ignore it if you don’t like it or think of them as roommates :>)  - he ended up getting a job at the local library and he was pretty good at it, this library in particular was very safe and a tame - perfect, so he ended up getting the money from it and a small loan from his brother and getting his own apartment eventually  - he built his life back up and he’d end up in a comfortable house with a cat and perhaps a husband or wife A H E M bENDer - okay now on to the good stuff, lead your mind back to kindergarten - when he was younger he liked the colors pink and purple and he likes blue omg bi pride  but he ended up getting scolded for it from his dad so he vowed his whole life to hate those three things because he thought this was the normal way to live - which would explain why he’d say he hates cats but then meet one or even own one and get crazy attached to it and even name it - him and his brother wrestled around a lot but when it came to their sister they’d never hurt her, she (age: 3) was BRUTAL to them, they all look back and laugh on it later - he’s a middle child but oddly he crushes the idea of middle child syndrome because he gets too much unwanted attention from his dad, garth is two years older, his sister is three years under - in middle school he was kinda awkward and even in highschool wasn’t the most popular kid, he was good at wrestling and considered to be the best of them but girls liked the louder ones better, he’s kind of quiet - he’s got “terrible taste” in clothes according to the entirety of the breakfast club, he dresses like an old man when he’s older, but like an ancient man like me  like full on plaid pants blue shirt tan cardigan kinda thingy - when he’s younger he stays sporty on days where he has a meet but some days my man wears a yucky polo and plaid pants and a big belt once again some ugly old man stuff that i’d wear - he’s a door mat, push over, he cannot say no and that’s one of his main issues NOT PROJECTION but like me 😎 - he’s extremely polite and tries his best at being nice and respectful toward everyone but when it comes to standing up for himself in particular against people who aren’t specifically bender, he’s lost and kinda just ignores it and lets it happen - bender finally gets him to snap cause andrew wouldn’t let anyone hurt his friends or even just a person in general - he’s a little on edge for the rest of his time in detention - ya’ll okay sorry bout this, but the breakfast club is just a group of stuffed animal hoarders, he’s got a regular old teddy bear at his MOMS house so it’s safe :) - lil spoon  - cozy man wears sweaters - OH he’s super short, not a headcanon, HECK its not projection, i just enjoy the fact that he’s short and blonde like meee :} lets appreciate the tiny boy shall we? - his letterman is a size too big because he was told he’d grow into it, he is cozy - he’s at his happiest when he’s a. with his friends b. on a chair with a cat or c. outside in autumn time  - bender makes andrew a small angry bi whenever he’s around, andrew has a lot of pent up anger and he’s a little uptight and bender shakes him loose and gets him annoyed and then continues to baby voice him about how much he loves him in a funny sorta way, mostly when they were younger - andy and allison are super close and tell each other almost everything, they have coffee together and talk about how everything is every now and then, more often when they’re older - benders strong so he’ll give everyone piggy backs, usually he surprise attacks andy tho and picks him up, or if they walk home all together after school, whoevers tired, if its andrew he’ll be gentle in that circumstance - brian and andrew like books, one grows up to be an author and the other a librarian, and once andy discovers his book in his library he smiles and checks it out to read - claire and andy are closer when they’re older, they talk about their shared experiences as a kid and how they ended up where they are and they talk about how lucky they are compared to others - when they were younger claire used to try and show the boys style, bender is already a fashionista but claire picks out some cool ties for him with wacky designs on them, he wears those to work when he’s older - brian enjoys it but only to buy a pair of new shoes, perhaps some loafers and a cool button up - claire has to pick out clothes for andy because andy doesn’t know what he likes quite yet, claire ends up teaching him how to cuff his jeans and :)))))) okay i’ll stop - around christmas, andrew gets the worst gifts, he tries so so hard but he can never seem to get it right, bender gets a kick out of it :}  - in the au they have a cat named mr.ravioli because bender made raviolis and the cat began to feast on them without them knowing so they decided that’d be his name i’ll stop here but it’s not the last part of this series of headcanons, i will write more, some future ones being for all of them together, and then a fbdo bttf pretty in pink cross over where all the cool kidz hang together!! sorry this was so long ;<; i didn’t mean to absolutely pour out my heart but i love andrew and he deserves some headcanons :} i hope their not too bad ;w;

[the-spud-player]

WTF was that season 2 of Titans:

Long post ahead:

SO YOUR TELLING ME TRIGON IS DEALT WITH IN 15MINS OF THE FIRST EPISODE????????????????

Where was the FAMILY DYNAMIC from the first season???????????

I do not care about Dove and Hawk, they have their struggles so bland isn't the word I'd use but,,,, they were just pointless.......

Blame dick for something that wasn't his fault, then come running back to him when something goes wrong? Can't have it both ways...

We just ignoring Rachel turned into a demon creature???

I'm so so tired of Dick being angsty. And leaving Gar on his own????

Kory abandoning her family for a stretch because of a crown she doesn't want?

LEAVE GAR ALONE

Again, I don't care about Dawn and Hank

While I'm on the subject: Donna, Hank and Dawn, they can get f*cked, their hands aren't clean but they have the moral high ground here??

Dawn: "You should tell the kids Dick"... Why don't u tell them yourself? Your so "connected to Rachel" then act like it. But I guess the character is too much of a wet blanket.

Doctor light being taken out was unfortunate but I liked the subversion, put Slade up there in guys that don't mess about.

Superboy, oh boy. Love the character and how he was played. Love that he saved Jason by chance. Hate they introduced him in a whole episode to himself right after a crucial part of the story. Pacing hit the breaks so hard I got whiplash

Kinda the same as how Hank and Dawn were introduced in the first season, pacing is all over the place.

Hank and Dawn get way too much screen time for being side characters

Btw, Jason? I feel for u, but u not gonna have some sympathy for the guy that just talked you off the ledge? But all in all you deserve better.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO ANOTHER POINT.

Dick comes back and says: "Hey guys, Slade's in the house somehow" then he talks Jason down, admits his guilt, people leave, THEN ITS NEVER MENTIONED EVER AGAIN.

I REPEAT, HE LEAVES GAR AND SLEEPY SUPERBOY IN A HOUSE THAT TO HIS KNOWLEDGE SLADE HAS INFILTRATED SOMEHOW.

This was before they knew Rose was working for him, and before the "truce" he had with Slade.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, THEY ALL LEFT, GAR, ALONE, IN THE TOWER THEY KNEW TO BE UNSAFE.

Not that it's even Titans Tower... Just some fancy high rise

Jason and Rose were pretty cute tbf

Turned into prison break 2.0 and although I liked the new origin to Nightwing, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL TO SEE HIM ESCAPE.

Btw: NIGHTWING IS IN THE HOUSE WOOOOP!!!

But if Dick gets the new costume, you could at least give Rach her peaked hood, I mean c'mon how hard can it be...

Love the Fever Dream that is Enko

And the whole dynamic of Bruce's hallucination with Dick.

Jericho is precious and is the best new addition to the show, better than Bruce, better than Connor, than his own dad tbh.

Krypto is the bestest of boys and is the only rival of the best new addition to Jericho.

Garth, Aqualad, y'know what, was enjoyable, good character.

(Also, Amazonians have pretty hard skin, so for a u put there saying how weak it was for Garth to die to a bullet, remember it was a bullet meant for an Amazonian warrior and that Slade wouldn't have shot a bullet that wouldn't pierce a super like that)

Can we have Kaldur come and pay respects? Like, they're practically brothers, I'd say maybe S3 but im not sure I want to watch it.

Rose "The titans are my family" Wilson, shut up, that's not earned, u were closest to Jason and he skipped on them.

Maybe if we had more development between you and Rachel and less OG titans doing the big SAD™, and less of H&D in general, that would've been more believable.

Good on Dick accepting her a second time tho, guy sticks to his guns.

Kinda

Also, U EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE 1, 1!!!! SWORD THRUST KILLS DEATHSTROKE, WHOS DAUGHTER CAN RECONNECT BONE AND LIGAMENT, GROW BACK A HOLE IN HER HAND???????????????????

Get on the level, decapitating him would be more permanent, he's got Logan healing beta version. Even a throw away line about his age (problems with his hands throughout if u noticed) getting to him so his heeling won't be as effective would have been better...

Donna Troy. Sigh. Maybe if you weren't written as such a, such a, such a pancake this season I would have cared that you died..

I don't..

But I do care how they killed you off...

A F*CKING POLE. ELECTROCUTED AFTER THE CLIMAX. THE DISRESPECT. THE AUDACITY. I AM SO MAD.

I just, I can't believe the writers thought that was a good move.

Have Hank sacrifice himself for Dawn, they can get their weepy moment now and not later distracting from the MAIN CHARACTERS again.

Also, SUPERBOY WAS STANDING THERE SND HE DID NOTHING. . . BULLSH*T!

[INSERT JOHN MULANEY GIF HERE]

YOU KNOW THE ONE

Also, Bruce just doesn't care about Jason huh?? Just gonna ignore him disappearing?

As much as I like Glen I did still feel he was abit old for the role, not quite Bruce Wayne, 15/20 years too old... But he acted the heck out of this more, feelingsy type, guess supes has been doing work on him in the league

Kory should have said Dawn's last line, I mean she's one of the MAIN CHARACTERS, and not a SIDE CHARACTER.

Also, how did we barely get any DickxKory this season???

Bullcr*p

And Rach just, LEAVING? Without saying goodbye to Garth, or MUMMA STARFIRE????????!!!!

And shut up Garth you never new Donna you have plenty of trauma to be sad about instead. WHICH DOESNT REALLY GET ADRESSED.

Maybe S3? Do I care????

This whole season was a mess. Trigon gone and not being the source of Rachel's alterations in powers is wrong. Because now there's no explanation. Yet. But they swept it under the rug so much that I don't care anymore, either have the risk of her messing up when it matters. Or don't have it at all.

I just. I'm so disappointed. The first season had its flaws but it was good. Didn't appreciate the cliff hanger. Appreciate it more than it being resolved quicker than I can catch a fly in my room though.

It physically pains me how much this season was badly done.

Like, no costumes. At all for some reason. A whole 10/15 mins dealing with a pointless plot point with Hank.

Just.

Treat your characters, especially the main ones.

Better. And with consistency.

Im in the UK and have waited months for this.

I can't actually remember when I was so let down after my hopes were so high.

F*ck.

P.s.

I am so sorry, I don't know how to do a "read more" text post on mobile

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

what i want to be is a titan.

woo! interview’s done, job’s clinched, the tea brewed and the episode just watched. let’s get into why titans 2.10 was the show’s usual brand of messy, slow, and unexpectedly thoughtful:

SPOILERS ahead.

1. there’s something to be said for how this show is utterly unabashed to show its characters take two steps back for every step taken forward; how, for all that trigon was defeated in twenty minutes, the issues that brought them together to face him would need far longer to resolve; how flawed heroes can be Complete Assholes to each other but they aren’t defined by those flaws; and finally, how terrible circumstances can bring out the absolute worst in people. there’s the bare whisper of a plot somewhere in there, a frayed thread tenuously holding these episodes together, but it’s an excuse for these characters to be given room to be messy and awful and fail over and over again before being brought together by sheer belief--in each other and in a purpose bigger than them. the titans is a family first before it’s a team--with all of the ugliness and drama that being a family of inheritors entails. 

1.55. ... not that i think titans does this consistently or even especially well; everytime the show hits the nail on the head with, say, dick grayson, someone like dawn or donna or gar is shortchanged. you see their reactions, but you’re given precious little insight into why they might’ve reacted the way they did. which makes it all seem like a tedious soap opera, but the thing is, with every dust-up, every fight and every split, each member of the team is responding to a different kind of trauma. as entertaining as dick’s role as an unreliable narrator has been, it’s made it seem like everybody’s reacting to the same traumatic event as he is, which i really don’t think is the case. 

but, like. that this show is treating superhero show conventions (like plot, costumed fights, a menacing villain) so casually in order to focus on the characters--not to provide a scathing critique of the genre or to dunk on it meanspiritedly but to lean earnestly into what it means to grow up in such a world and meet and love others just like you--is so fucking rare as it is, and i love it.

2. sometimes, tho, i still get fooled into thinking that titans wants to be a regular superhero show, so i honestly thought that dick breaking down in the airport last episode and getting himself arrested was a sign of jericho possessing him and forcing him to stay in america. turns out it was dick letting the weight of all of the responsibilities he’s assumed over the years really sink in, filter them through a near-pathological guilt complex and a sense of justice as layered and rigid as his robin suit, topped off with what i think is a genuinely decompensated mental state. (plus, slade did say that he’d destroy the titans if dick so much as tried to get the team together again, so there’s that.)

in a way, this has been a long time coming--from the moment garth died, or maybe even before that. he has so much to feel guilty about: jericho’s death, letting tony zucco die, his years in the wilderness where he didn’t want to be robin but couldn’t let the identity go, the death of several members of his circus family as a consequence. but guilt is just part of it. he’s wrestled with the legacy of being batman’s protege for so long, unable to accept batman’s methods but unable to let go of them either.  for batman, his very state of being is through continuous, rigorous self-discipline. there are so many moving parts to who he is and what he must do, and each must be carefully walled from the other. making a mistake means sharp, critical reflection, and a drive to ensure that mistake never happens again that borders on... penance. this act of self-improvement through punishment is an intensely private thing. finally, gotham is such a horrific place in and of itself (i think dick’s vision of gotham last season was an exaggeration, but not by much), that it leaves little room for nuance in the crime and punishment cycle. batman and robin fight to keep the city safe, and that usually means locking away the worst of the worst, with little thought to the whats and whys and the nitty-gritties of a flawed system.

i can see dick internalising all of this, and why being imprisoned might’ve brought him some measure of peace, even though he’s frequently been on the other side and knows how flawed and unfair this system of punishment actually is.

2.5. as for his revised nightwing origin story, i see it in a couple of ways:

a) it’s so poignant to see nightwing arise entirely out of hope. batman was born out of a symbol that struck wild, irrational fear into the hearts of those that saw it swooping down at them through the night; nightwing out of pure belief in a symbol of hope even when the whole world has turned against you and there is seemingly no way out of darkness. when dick was spiralling, his job as a police detective did not help; holding that kind of authority while also struggling with his inner demons meant not only bad things for dick but for the people around him. shedding the robin suit meant shedding that job and its toxicity along with it. it’s neat that when dick finally does find his way back to light and purpose it’s when he’s at the other end of the system.

like. the parallels and contrasts are super-neat (and something i want to explore a bit more when i’m, well, less tired) and fit into this universe far better than the usual kryptonian legend origin story.

b) however, i can’t deny that it looks both crass and exploitative to have dick appropriate the symbol of another culture’s deity as his vigilante name. using something as serious as refugees being imprisoned and forcibly deported back to places where they’d likely be killed as mere stepping stones for some superhero to ~realise his place in the world~ is even more so. like. superhero media (and i’m not talking ww2-era/golden age stuff; i’m talking 21st century, the current glut of superhero content) has a tendency to use non-white cultures and peoples as props anyway--either as nameless villains or for the hero to flex his White Saviour muscles. (it’s part of why i could never really get on board with the avengers or the mcu in general--that universe completely lost me the moment they introduced bruce banner in the avengers “saving people” in some indian slum in order to deal with his own issues, then not show a single asian in the entire movie afterwards, because these props people had served their purpose, all right?) i think titans did try and give luis, rafa and santos some texture and nuance, but ultimately--and perhaps unwittingly--contributed to some very pervasive and harmful tropes about how people of colour are represented on-screen. 

3. it’s cool to see more of rachel’s powers, but i’m still very confused about where the show is taking her arc this late in the season. going to wait until i see more in the next episode before i comment on it.

4. none of these fuckers deserve gar, i swear. more than anybody else, gar gets it--what it really means to be a hero, to be a titan. 

there’s something terribly tragic and unsettling about his loyalty, tho. his voicemail to dick, where he assumes that dick isn’t talking to him because he fucked up with conner, was heartbreaking. and so was his insistence that he wanted to remain a titan even when mercy graves correctly pointed out that the others had basically treated him like shit (and you could see that he felt that). gar has every reason to really go off on dick and the others and i really hope he gets to do that at the end of the season and not just go back to pretending that he wasn’t terribly hurt by the people he calls family.

in any case, i wouldn’t mind an entire episode of dick and gar talking, dick apologising, and buying gar as much (vegan) ice cream as he could possibly want. come on, dc, make it happen! it’s not like you ever cared about plot or pacing, anyway!

[dickgreyson]

Other than dick who is your fav Titan?

my brain literally screamed “garth!” “roy!” “donna!” all at once and then “YOU FORGOT WALLY” so no, all of them. all of them are wonderful.

garth is so sweet, and deserves better than being called gillhead by the people he loves the most. he’d go to the end of the earth for the titans, and it really shows. u kno that vine where its like DIE FOR EACH OTHER and the dude falls over at the force? garth @ dick

roy is! precious! he’s so strong, and compassionate, and gentle. i love him. he’s trying so hard, and everything is so difficult but he’s doing his best. he’s so underrated. he manages to hold his own among metas EASY. hes a brilliant fighter, incredible leader, all around genius. he has the respect of the best of the best, and is loved wholeheartedly by the titans. i want to kiss him.

DONNA DONNA DONNA donna donna donna i love donna everyone loves donna shes. shes so beautiful, and so KIND and so wise. she’s the only reason dick and roy arent dead. she’s their common sense, their impulse control. i love her. i want to marry her. she’s my phone background i care for her so much.

and wally is stupid, v dumb, absolute idiot. where would the titans be w/o him. hes so funny, so bright, so charming. i love him, even tho he says rly dumb things all the time. hes a nerd tho and im a jock so i would have to shove him into the lockers, but it would be done w a heavy heart

[howldean]

fr tho: you only get to play one spn character and you don't get to change the script who do you play?

and if you got one (1) script change what would it be?

garth. i'd play garth. i love dean, i'm extremely deancoded, i love cas he's my precious blorbo. but i'd play garth, because he's just this genuine and happy individual who is definitely queer and t4t with his werewolf wife and has a cute little family and i just want to play him. and he's a dentist like come on he's a dentist and he killed the toothfairy

i'd make him canonically trans. i'd love to give him a scene in the bunker where he picks up he-wolf she-wolf: a study in werewolf transgenderism and says like 'good reading' or something like that. we also never got a scene of him meeting cas, despite naming one of his children after him, so i want that scene. but if i could make one (1) change it would be him saying "oh! love that place" like.

dean: i was in purgatory

garth: like, thee purgatory purgatory?

dean: no, the one in miami

garth: oh, love that place, they've got the best oyster bar-

yeah. that's all i need, really

[popcartoonkabala]

A monster is a person in your neighborhood: Satire vs. acceptance on Sesame Street= Netzach/Hod She b Malchut

Super-hero cartoons are arguably as rooted in gangster literature and media as they are in any epic heroic tradition. It's only very recently that there's been a move to return Star Heroes to military legitimacy, as The Avengers become an official S.H.I.E.L.D project... we'll see how long that moment lasts. Because since World War II, the super-heroes have tended strongly to be identified exclusively as private citizens, defined by, if not their hostility to government, a certain amount of government distance from them, manifest as either fear/hostility, or dependence, as in the case of Iron Man, or Superman or Batman.  None of them are government stooges, or instruments, but the local or national state tends to come to them in need of help with some regularity.

The relationship between the state-- Malchuth and the heroes-- Zeer Anpin, is fraught with tension, as is the way of serious long term relationships. One is the stability, the other is the agent of justification.  One just wants to serve, the other just wants to feel good, safe. Gangster literature is what, in many ways, first developed this relationship in the context of the modern city itself. The functional agency of drawing and circulating satisfaction vs. the frustrating maternal Law, defending some kind of innocence at the expense of functionality-- the end of the story is a covenant drawn between the two, making them agent facilitators of each other. It's like every good marriage, until it falls apart perish forbid. The distinction between one and the other demands mediation, and a third emerges naturally in the polarity between the two: The infant is to become the Tzaddik. Trusted somehow by all, and ultimately the most vulnerable, his/her death is the epic tragedy that lets everything fall apart.

Gangsters, like babies and deities, are folk heroes stripped of the conceit of altruism.  What their most selfish values begin to describe are the truest essential concerns of any individual, and any nobility, loyalty, or pragmatic intelligence they express become relatively ennobled, and their folly is only that of the most traditional of ruined heroes: hubris, intoxication, and foolish obliviousness to the consequence of their failed confidence. Scarface dies much like Achilles and Balder, once they've climbed to the top of the world to become the most beloved and feared of the gods, a war god and a sun god all at once-- that's when it's over. A failed hero is the beginning of all cautionary example.

What is Count Dracula if not another of these failed heroes, but cursed with unending success? See the ultimate horror of Dracula in the later films-- frustrated by the nature of what he is, yearning so great that satisfaction and victory cannot satisfy? The vampire hero, redeemed, must overcome even the yearning for satisfaction in order to become profoundly trustworthy. You'll observe, this is also the lesson that creates Spider-man, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, and many other Marvel heroes: only by giving up on personal satisfaction, be it in the form of love, revenge, wealth, or even divinity-- can they become what's trusted as a hero, and then they can overpower anything and everything, even death itself.

Frank Miller's neo-pulp heroes in Sin City take this a step further, rejecting even the appearance of even nobility itself in order to be heroes, and Chris Nolan's Batman is very influenced by Miller's version of gritty austere virtue-beyond-beauty. Here is the point where a Pop/super-hero remains distinct: he does not have to ever, give up his integrity. Pulp heroes, later day post modern comic icons, like John Constantine, Wolverine or any of the Warren Ellis Authority indy heroes outside of the mainstream mold. Their virtue is, partially, willingness to step past even needing to feel whole about their actions in order to do what needs doing. This is why Garth Ennis ultimately prefers to write war comics: that pragmatism is taken as a given, and the super heroic idealism is understood as a decadent privilege, at best.

Super-heroism rages, by it's nature against this criticism. This is most overtly expressed in Joe Kelly's Superman vs. the Elite storyline, notably adapted to animation in 2012. Don't call it naïve, don't call it juvenile-- call it simple, elementary, iconic. The hope of approaching moral depth and the implied darkness accepted in that is more resonant and literary, but betrays the purity that the heart yearns for from it's mythology. Maybe i'm exaggerating-- traditional religion and mythology tends to accept, even embrace, moral relativism and the challenge of dark nature and betrayal of ideals as a certain form of ideal-- but as civilization becomes more sophisticated and self aware, the antidote demands to be more pure, hence the progressively more senseless and emotionally immature nature of super-modern pop music, during any era that should be finding depth and collective appreciation of that capacity to acknowledge the disturbing range of what's clear about being a person, all the more so does the simplest, most even offensively naïve of narratives become resonant. Witness the victory of Christianity over both Roman paganism, Norse Aesir worship and folk Gnosticism-- why did the cruelest of all empires go with the religion that ultimately, theologically, justified its excesses the least? Because they needed the purest of purification to move on and be the kind of bad they were going to become from then on, in order to rule themselves all.

This is the degree to which satirical anti-heroes are central to the maturity of a culture. But once satirized effectively enough they can no longer be national icons-- they must either respond to the satire, and become better and more whole mythic heroes, like Krishna after Buddha, or Elijah after The New Testament critique of his fiery piety in the tale of the good samaritan. The choice becomes ironic pandering, ignoring the critique in search of more naïve audience, or better yet, some sophisticated refinement of character, and ideally a mythic defeat of the criticism. In this, the hero's ideals themselves defeat the villain embodying the critique. This is much of where the Batman vs. Joker conflict has gone in recent super-modernity, where Batman's commitment to protecting, or at least not killing, the monstrous grizzly and willfully chaotic murderer is justified as an ideological triumph-- not defined as a virtue by dint of dated calvinist “commitment to ideal”-- because no one respects that kind of ideological commitment as being authentically virtuous anymore. The triumph instead has been defined in specific contrast to the Joker's preference-- the Joker would like Batman to kill him, ostensibly, because that would prove the virtue of killing problems, and by NOT killing him, Batman proves his virtue and commitment to the legal process, in some strange sense, which strips batman of the danger of being a social terror.

The real reason for this hang-up is much more narratively practical-- the villain is too precious to kill off. The Joker, like almost every other villain of grace and note, is divinized by his meaningfulness. He was actually killed off in his second appearance, but to no avail-- the editors commanded the writers to find a way to bring him back to life only a short time later, and so it has been his practice ever since, much like Dracula or Moriarty.

The degree to which villains are different than monsters is the degree to which there is no reward in slaying villains-- only an end to the great narrative.  Monsters, on the other hand, must be slain, as this is the original sin of demonization-- insisting that violent annihilation is the only solution to the needs of another “human.” A villain is preferred to be captured, and maintained in controlled captivity. This mystic clarity about the reincarnation of the slain enemy into distant freedom, as opposed to the power of sacred captivity, to keep one's enemy close, accessible, and monitored, like the very id itself. As indestructible and precious as the self itself, the moral of the story is Overcome, but never destroy.

Dracula's special and refined thirst is for the Moon, the untouched mother-- and his slave wife is the Venus, although the point where they meet is close. The early evening- But Venus is his weapon, while the Moon, ultimately, is his weakness, what gets him killed, even as much as he lives from nursing at it's behest and it's throat. This is the secret of the two “ה"'s in the four letter tetragrammaton “YHWH”.

One of the profound psychological innovations of Sesame Street is to reclaim the monstrous as synonymous with the human, thus overcoming at the most viceral and accesible level untold generations of demonization.  Where traditionally Dracula and all the monsters represent the repressed and feared aspects of basic hungry humanity (“hell is other people”) Sesame Street takes Dracula and reframes his hunger as simple passion for the abstract and inherently unlimited satisfaction of numbers themselves. Whereas Count Dracula himself is the first amongst modern pop-monsters, The Count falls parralel to the sephira of Hod, sensetivity and co-dependance, the aspect of the god who gives numbers to the stars already created, unthreatening, although perhaps slightly nagging tho graceful and charming. Contrast this with the muppet I would consider his opposite number in rank and value, the Cookie Monster, who I would consider an expression of Netzach/Dominance, his hunger unavoidable and creepingly inquisitive, his pallette insatiable although still somehow respectful of some kind of engagement and personal limit in the context of personal need, reflected in his rectification as a vegetable eater who just appreciates the cookies as a “sometimes food,” even as his monstrous appetite remains intact. The villification of Venus/Innana is that of an insatiable lover who does not care much at all, but cannot long be resisted, or even resented, as the defeated visage of Ernie-without-cookies testifies.

A monster is just another person in the neighborhood; a reflection of our own normal needs and hungers, respected, honored, and safely sociably satisfied. Grouches and Satyrs are just themselves, and honored for and despite this-- what more radical message can civilization aspire to offer? This is, ultimately the great difference between Babylonia and Egypt: Egypt sought not (generally) to assimilate it's monsters and enemies, although there were periods where the Sethian was more integrated-- the foreign was somewhat inherently anathema-- and this nativist impulse endured until the Greeks overcame it, as was the nature of Greeks, to overcome nativisms with a glorious and all-consuming universalism. Rome's innovation was just to weaponize the Greek syncretic clarity, and apply it more aggressively, taking it's perfection for granted as much as was reliable.  Once, to end wars within an empire, polytheistic pantheons were assembled, as a kind of a symbolic senate of the different priorities of different city-states within an empire. Egypt may have innovated this, if Babylon did not, it doesn't matter.  Babylon's aspiration was not just to be an empire, but to be a great city, where things worked-- and it became clear that unless there was co-identification, and cathartic expression, of the different elements within their society, there would be conflict. The great Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh reflects this ambivalence, between the slaying of monsters and their integration and the acknowledgement of their humanity. The hero starts the story as a hated villain, an oppressive king resented by the populace he rules. A hero from outside of civilization comes to confront and slay him, this force of cruel and selfish modernity-- but instead, thanks to the intervention of certain gods, they become friends instead, and go on an adventure to slay another more monstrous monster. This conflict is greatly debated and engaged, before and after, and leads to conflict with greater forces, goddess and her pet cosmic bull. Our heroes slay the cosmic bull, and for this, one  of them must die. A similar narrative is kept by the Greeks, when Kadmos slays the wrong dragon, the beloved of Hera, and so must lose his beloved sister Europa, forever. The moral is clear-- the more you can integrate, and not kill, the less threatened you will be. This is the purest moral of all civilization.  

Sesame Street is in the unique summit between commercial and civil. Concieved, unlike most pop-cartoons, not for profit but for some kind of educational, civic or edifying purpose, specifically bound up in the grand project of universal education for all children, its excesses as far as violence and indulgence of children's affection for sugar and noise compel parental forgiveness and toleration, in light of the hope that the kids would enjoy this educational pop-media over less trustworthy and more commercially pandering tv shows. In it's early episodes, it could get away with a lot as far as puppet violence and questionable exploration of tantalization and titillation of kindergardeners, as it at least had positive tacit integrationist and educational function, about the nature and character of assorted letters and numbers(!). Once Sesame Street became established and somewhat universally successful, and thus, functionally institutionalized, it also became more sensitive to moral criticism, and able to be overtly responsible for the values and graces it would introduce, rather than assume were already part of children's paradigma. Cookie Monster introduces children to consumption, rather than just satirizing a hunger already observed, and becomes a certain kind of role model, now responsible to amend his own nature, so that the lesson of moral clarification become the implied arc of his journey, even as older episodes exist only in archive, except of course for classic routines, which are continually re-integrated into new episodes. The earliest Ernie and Bert routines remain in circulation and translation forever, because they are so fundamental and accessible-- a good omen for pop-longevity. Many classic figures are integrated into Sesame Street, but eventually used less and less because what they meant historically becomes less and less relevant. I was introduced to the character of Charlie Chaplin's “Tramp” in the context of Sesame Street, but they don't use even the Maria who played him so much anymore. Instead, is Mr. Noodles, the incompetent mime in Elmo's world who children joyfully correct as he manically tries to complete the most rudimentary of tasks, to no avail, until the advice of a quorum of offscreen children are able to get through to him, with the help of Elmo's omniscient voice. Elmo is the aspect of Malchus, in that he became the main character of Sesame Street, despite being a later addition to the cast. He is a monster child, like the once central Grover, but unlike Grover or Chaplin, he is defined by his absolute competence. His lessons are those learned after doing everything right, not wrong. He is the aspect of the wise child, not the fool, and so he is given an entire third of every episode of the final few seasons of Sesame Street-- until he himself, that is, the actor who played Elmo exclusively, was implicated in the hubris of the successful, and the good name of all that Elmo and Sesame Street are associated with became suddenly embedded in sexual impropriety. Such is the downfall of kings, specifically: fear of their appetites and preferences, because of their absolute power.

Sesame Street is too big to end because of an underage gay sex scandal or two, but not too big to need to be a bit castrated because of it. Pop-cartoons depend on grace, and the impression of trustworthiness

before both parents and children. As cool as we all want to be with what actors do on their own time, it was a bit more of a problem with Sesame Street, because the actors, especially in the case of Elmo, are so deeply and truly associated with the show itself. Not since Jim Henson himself was alive and available to make Kermit the Frog a celebrity, available for interview and all manner of guest appearance, was a character so genuinely and improvisably identifiable with the actor giving him voice.

It's not that “we” found out that Elmo himself was a chubby older black man with a thing for 17 year old men, it's that Elmo is such a naked expression of erotic power male power, easily identifiable as kind of Libyan Satyr; a naked, red wildman. Identifying THAT cartoon Id with an actual person, might just be a little hard to reconcile for long. So they appear to be phasing him out a bit, making the Elmo's world segments less personal and more theatrical, so that the distance of seeing him as more of a stage muppet that an intimate and eponymous pop force, like the great god Pan himself, kept alive only in Elizabethean chains, taken from the wild forest onto the city stage. A smaller King Kong is a loveable King Kong, unless and until he creeps you out. Then what're you gonna do?

The Sesame Muppets are monsters of the greatest virtue. They will not eat you, and don't even have to promise not to; the question dare not come up. They want to share and play responsibly, learn and help us learn. In this, they are a tikkun on the respective terrors and traditional issues with their respective forms. The Great Eagle, the “Big Bird,” hangs over looking patronizingly down for prey-- but Big Bird on Sesame Street is utterly without guile or threat, taking as much responsibility for whatever goes on as is possible, in his dreamy ignorance. This is the level of the great dove, divinity herself, rather than the predatory eagle or trickster raven-- the hawk coming to bring things to you, rather that to eat the eyes out of your head. Dracula is reduced to counting passionately only numbers and not bride-victims. The unconquerable hunger behind Dracula, the oceanic kraken come asurface, hungers only for cookies.   Grover is something tragic, a hero partially defined by his constant failure. Through him, children learn the grace in not being good at something, and still trying because you care, and the effort is cute. But Elmo informs of the possibility of being inherently right at everything, and STILL being cute, and this is the different between the Messiah of Joseph and the Messiah of David. This is one of the strongest subplots in the old testament, and endures through the entire post Pentateuch bible, when the kingdoms of David and Ephraim (Joseph's son) literally split because of conflicting priorities.  Modern scholarship identifies these two voices as representing conflicting political priorities involved in the bible's construction, Kabbalistic tradition prefers to assume that it's an internal expression of fundamentally complementary models. Joseph, identified with the sphere of Yesod, is identified with unyielding righteousness, and keeping of rules. He must die and fail at some point, if not in every generation, to make the point of the limitation of perfection in this world. The Davidic model, introduced in his forefather Judah, for whom the Jews are named, is about the triumph of earnest imperfection, bound up in a will to constantly do better, in a manner unbound by law or principle, although still beholden to the purpose and meaning of law and principle, and whose life, triumph and clarity can only come after being built by adherence to law and principle. The Davidic Messiah is the one who brings clarity to true purpose and divinity into the already formed Josephean structure. As such, he never dies, and cannot fail, but can only be disgraced into some degree of dismissal, as was the way with Elmo and King Solomon.

[mycasandstarrs]

SPN 8x21: “The Great Escapist”

THEN: Cas takes the angel tablet and runs. Naomi. The three trials to close the Gates of Hell. After each completed trial, Sam seems to be doing worse. Kevin’s convinced Crowley knows where he is. Now he’s in the wind.

Back at Fizzles Folly??

Ahh, ok, HERE are demon Sam and Dean.

“You forgot the knock. What's the point of a secret knock if you don't use it?” And that’s when Kevin knew...but he played along.

Why that face thoo.

“We got a tip that Crowley was moving his earth-side operations, so we, uh, laid ourselves an awesome trap.”

“So, uh, Special K, you keep your nose to the God-stone, we're gonna drive out and make a lotta noise a long way from here, keep the safeboat safe for you.”

Yeah, this is definitely not Sam and Dean.

“You. Fake Sam. If you're gonna tip our hand, I'll have to scrub Kevin's short-term memory again. And that's risky, so watch the patois in there.”

“Patois?”

“Your slang. Special K, nose to the God-stone, that's the way Dean speaks. Sam is... more basic, more sincere.”

Crowley has a good read on Sam and Dean tho.

“Alright, here we go. John Winchester's famous cure-all kitchen sink stew. There you go. Enough cayenne pepper in there to burn your lips off, just like Dad used to make.”

Nurse Dean.

“The bloody handkerchiefs, the fever, the shaky legs... this is not good.”

“Well, I'm not good. And I'm not going to be good until we can start moving again. Until I can start the third trial.”

Was that supposed to make Dean feel better?

So Crowley definitely sent this message, right?

“Sam, Dean. I've set up this message with some software on a remote server so it'd send itself to you if I didn't reset it with a command once a week. Which means I didn't reset it this week. And there's only one reason I wouldn't. Which means if you're watching this, then I... then I— I'm dead. I'm dead, you bastards! So screw you, screw God and everybody in between!...Crowley must've gotten to me. And the one thing I know is that I won't break this time. Not sure how I know, but— but I do. I've been uploading all my notes, the translations, I'm sending you the links so you can get all of it. You guys are gonna have to try to figure out the rest. I'm sorry. I know it was my job, but I— but I couldn't...I'm sorry.”

That’s about as well as Dean takes Kevin’s real death.

“Garth still MIA?”

“Yeah.”

Garth is officially MIA aka officially a werewolf. 

“How about the other prophets in line? I mean if Kevin is, uh... is dead, then won't one of them be activated?”

“Nothing, no, not a peep.”

There's your clueee.

“We should've moved him here.” Yeah, that’s a great idea! Do it when you get him back.

Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Cas looks so strung out.

“Uh, I'm sorry, mister, but you're gonna have to order more than coffee if you wanna keep the table.”

“Of— of course, um. I'll have the smart-heart beer-battered tempura tempters.”

That actually sounds good.

“They're getting closer.” Time to go.

Ion. An interesting name.

Palm Bay, Florida. Denver, Colorado. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Portland, Oregon. St. Louis, Missouri...so on and so forth.

“He's using a clever tactic. It's a restaurant called Biggerson's. The humans have built hundreds of them, almost exactly alike....Castiel is using it against us. Now, we try to orient ourselves, but it's as if we're in every Biggerson's at once— Trapped in a quantum superposition. Now, he chooses which to go to next—That's what's giving him the edge.”

That’s an amazing strategy.

“Very well. You say he can't be caught? Then we will simply have to make him stop.”

Sam took a humanities course at Stanford.

“This one belonged to a tiny tribe in Colorado, more of a— a clan, really. It says here they held on to their scrap of mountains when all the other tribes fell to the white men. So this glyph was a territorial marker—closest translation: ‘messenger of God’.” Sam’s got it.

“Messenger of God—Dean, we have to go there!....I'm only gonna get worse. I mean, until we get back to the real job, until we find the third trial—we're out of prophets! We're not gonna figure out what Kevin couldn't! I'd say we go to this messenger of God who wrote it in the first place!” I know he’s right, but Sam looks and sounds off his rocker.

“And you think this Metatron is hiding out in the mountains with a bunch of Indians.”

“Yeah! Yeah, I do....You're not— you're not really supposed to say Indians, it's... We should go.”

This is one of the worst things Naomi has done, and that’s saying something.

RIP people at Biggerson’s. Killed by angels.

Cas wanted to heal her. :(

Route 34, Colorado.

Sam can hear something Dean can not.

RIP Kara, Cas’ waitress. Killed by Naomi.

“How— how many times have you torn into my head and washed it clean?”

“Frankly? Too damn many.”

Oh yeah sure, brag about your brainwashing. That’ll make you look good.

“Honestly, I think you came off the line with a crack in your chassis. You have never done what you were told. Not completely. You don't even die right, do you?”

HE DOESN’T STAY DEAD AT ALL B I C T H

“Where is the angel tablet, Castiel?”

“In the words of a— good friend... bite me.”

Balthazar.

“Go. Search all these Biggerson's. He must have hidden it along the way.” DId he now?

“I can barely see. I need food.”

“Alright, uh, barbecue ribs, mashed potatoes...”

“Garlic mashed potatoes.”

“Garlic mashed potatoes, mixed greens with... baby lettuce, cornbread, and, uh, Pad Thai?”

“Garth says there's a good little place on the other side of town.”

Kevin took complete advantage of these demons, bless his heart. 

“If I wasn't running everything, I could've played Dean myself.”

“Oh, you would've made a great Dean, sir.”

I actually agree.

Winchester stories!

“Hey, you remember when uh... when Dad took us to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on that pack-mule ride?”

“The what?”

“And you're, uh... your mule kept farting, just— l-letting go, like, gale force?”

“Dude, you were like, four years old. I barely remember that.”

“I'm gonna— I'm gonna, uh. I'm gonna follow the hotel manager, D-Dr. Scowley-scowl. He's like a villain from Scooby-Doo.” Why are you so precious, Sammy?

“No, hey, uh, little big man? You should get some rest.”

“Yeah, I can do that too.”

Me.

“What did the great spirit's sacred messenger ask for?”

“Stories. He asked the people to tell him stories.”

Sam finds the boxes of books...then passes out trying to call Dean. 

“I'm just going to have to pull you apart, aren't I?” That would’ve worked.

RIP angel. Killed by Crowley.

“Found you on the floor, passed out, your temperature was a 107. I had to force it down or you were toast.”

Metatron is definitely there.

“I had my R&D people melt down one of your angel blades, cast it into bullets. Seems to do the trick.” Huh, AU!Bobby discovers that little trick too.

“That's right, Cas. I got me an angel on the payroll.” Wow, Ion.

“You guys were right, I— I do need the other half of the tablet to get the trial. It's not too far from here.”

“Awesome. Uh, what's the 10-20?”

Fake!Dean got the lingo right, at least.

“I've been getting regular updates from my expensive friend here.” What did it take to buy Ion out?

Castiel SWALLOWED THE DAMN ANGEL TABLET. WHAT A MADMAN!

“Spanish Flea” by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.  

“The kid told us where the other half was, but it... wasn't. Dab of crap tricked us, sent us into some kind of Hunter mousetrap.”

Kevin has style.

Dean used to read to Sam! I’m telling you, I love learning the smallest details about characters.

“Knights of the Round Table. Had all of King Arthur's knights, and they were all on the quest for the Holy Grail. And I remember looking at this picture of Sir Galahad, and, and, and he was kneeling, and— and light streaming over his face, and— I remember... thinking, uh, I could never go on a quest like that. Because I'm not clean. I mean, I w— I was just a little kid. You think... maybe I knew? I mean, deep down, that— I had... demon blood in me, and about the evil of it, and that I'm— wasn't pure?”

H O W could a young child ever think that?????

Again, I know he’s right but he doesn’t come off as convincing.

Look at all those books! What a dream room.

Hello Metatron, you fcikgn worm.

“What, you really haven't heard of us? What kind of angel are you, we're— we're the freaking Winchesters.” lmao Sam.

Cas swallowed the damn angel tablet AND pulled a bullet out of him. My hero.

“You little prat. Having fun yet?”

“Screw you.”

Fuck yeah, Kevin!

“It started when they forgot the secret knock. But really, it— it was the way they acted.”

“So... my demons were too polite?”

“Yeah.”

“What about Gabriel? And Raphael?”

“Dead.”

Half right at the time.

(Irrelevant-ish question, but what happened to the Words of God in the Apocalypse AU?)

“You soldiers, down in the garrison, at least they let you believe the lie. Upstairs, working for Naomi, working in intelligence, we had no option but to live in the dirt. She never reset me completely. I always knew too much, I had to— I had to do my job.” Ion’s last words.

“Ion...shut up.”

RIP Ion. Killed by Cas.

“That is the true flower of free will. At least as you've mastered it so far. When you create stories, you become gods, of tiny, intricate dimensions unto themselves. So many worlds!”

One thing I have in common with Metatron: our love of storytelling.

“You know what? Pull the frigging trigger.”

“What?”

“Pull the freaking trigger, you cowardly piece of garbage.”

Okay, Sam, hold on.

“You want a story? Try Kevin Tran's story. He was just a kid. He was a good, straight-A kid, and then he got sucked in to all of this— this angel crap. He became a prophet, of the Word of God. Your prophet. Now, you should've been looking out for him, but no! Instead, you're here, holed up, reading books.”

“He’s dead now. Because of you.”

I don't know about that. At least, not yet.

“You have no idea what's on this demon tablet. Right, the power you could have gotten with this, if you weren't running around like a chicken with his head cut off.”

“You think I can't make you tell?”

“I know you can’t. And you do too.”

Kevin was so resilient when he wanted to be.

The power of Metatron compels you!

Metatron saved and healed Kevin.

“You really intend on closing the doors of Hell?”

“Seems like the thing to do, don't it?”

“It's your choice. And that's what this has all been about, the choices your kind make. But you're gonna have to weigh that choice. Ask yourself: what is it going to take to do this, and what will the world be like after it's done?”

Oh boy.

Trial #3. Cure a demon.

Holy mother of god.

“Cas?”

“A little help here?”

Team Free Will reunion.

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

[loud thump from upstairs]

Jess: Woah, are you okay?

Garth: It's cool my shirt just fell.

Jess: That sounded much louder than just a shirt falling.

Garth: That's because I was in it.

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

Zee: Why is there a normal carrot in this bag of baby carrots?

Garth: Because the baby carrots needed supervision?

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

Garth: Today I saved a life. My own. Am I a hero? Can't say. But yes.

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

THINGS THEY HAVE DEFINITELY SAID AT LEAST ONCE

Garth: Why do people bully me? I'm cool! I skateboarded once.

Carter: I'm starting a new trend, it's called 'murder'

Zee: Remember that one time you stole my pink lollipop in the August of 2009? Because I do.

Kara: Do you see that punk over there? I bet you twenty dollars I can beat him up.

Karen: dump him

Jess: If you don't stop with that misogony, I will start an elaborate plot that will end with your ear filled with toilet water

Oliver: Why go out when I can wallow in self pity instead?

Babs: Cereal is a perfectly fine thing to eat for dinner.

Hal: I bet someone wrote me a love poem today

Steve: WHY WOULD YOU STUFF A SNAIL UP YOUR NOSE??!

Diana: Being a princess doesn't make you perfect. I work hard to be perfect. Give me credit.

Barry: You look great!!

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

I'd feel awful if f I never shared this masterpiece

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

[lois is still trying to discover the boys identities]

Lois: what do you want to major in?

Green Lantern (Boy): respecting woman *wink*

Aqualad: minecraft

Flash: Criminal justice and psychology

Hawkman: I'm terrified that I'll lock myself I'm an interest I'll no longer be passionate about

Green Arrow, paranoid: ... Minecraft as well

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

Garth: [holding a bundle of flowers] Carter, you gotta stop giving me flowers.

Barry: It is a little weird. [Holding three roses]

Carter: Steve said it is a sign of affection.

Hal: What the hell? How come I didn't get any?

Carter: [plucks a petal] Here, now shut up.

Oliver: [sniffing his flower] Lol, he's not even subtle.

[super-hero-girls-netflix]

Oliver: It's Zee. No doubt, she's going to say the most fiendish, heartless thing you ever heard!

Zee: What a lovely day!

Oliver, jumping from behind the bushes: Take that back, you fiend!

✨✨✨

Zee, shuffling a deck of cards: Good luck everyone. Let's have a nice, fun card game.

Oliver: Take that back, you fiend!

✨✨✨

Zee: I'm going to kill everyone!

Garth: Oliver, aren't you going to tell her to take that back?

Oliver: Actually I have no problem with that one.