#helen max

[mashbrainrot]

'When the Heart is Young', John William Godward, 1902 || Jamie Farr as Max Klinger, MASH, 1972

[myriam-draws]

everyone read impulse 1995 for The Guy

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

People annoyed at Daniel going for and getting the fastest lap "because RB RED BULL SISTER TEAMS", when Fernando with zero ties to Red Bull tried to do the exact same thing in his Alpine at the Saudi Arabian gp in 2021 to also help Max (he didn't succeed but my man tried goddammit!), I think y'all are underestimating how willing some of the drivers are to sacrifice themselves for Max

[domnorian]

My 3 pages contribution to the Relay Race: A Flash Zine by @flashfamevents : Out of Time.

I'm not crying, you're crying...

[blackbatcass]

i can’t stop being plagued by thoughts of bart allen. can you. can you imagine being fourteen years old and waking up every day knowing that your loved ones will always be beyond your reach? that you have family who are alive and well but you’ll never see them again? that there isn’t just physical distance between you and your mom but hundreds of years? that no matter how much family you have in this time, no matter how much they love you, you’ll never be whole? you will never have everyone you love in one room? that not one single person in the world speaks your native language? that your mom wants you and loves you desperately and you still can’t be with her? that you can never go home?

[cryptocism]

Since I think about clones like I’m getting paid for it, I've been rotating those alternate universe "what if Bart and Thad were actually raised together" scenarios in my brain, with Thad either post-redemption-arc or pre-villainy. Because adjusting Thad's character to fit an ally role while still keeping true to his core motives and personality is so so fascinating to me.

Like I think there's an immediate first instinct to slot Thad into a "bad" twin category: ie rebellious and prickly, doesn't get along with people, mean lil shit. And obviously it's not wrong bc we're outside the realm of canon, but the reading still feels a little left of center.

Because Thad is mean and prickly in canon. In the Impulse comics he belittles Bart and Bart’s friends/family constantly in his appearances. He loves to goad, and monologue about his own superiority and intelligence. He’s very Not Nice, and he causes many problems, and he even does it on purpose.

But, I think it’s important to consider the context. From the jump Thad knows very little about anything except which team he’s on and who he’s playing for. He gets his orders from an unseen authority and he carries out his tasks because success means his team wins.

For all his self-aggrandizing talk, everything he does is in service of an end goal that doesn't actually center him. He's trying to get revenge for grievances he's never personally suffered, retribution for actions never committed against him. Everything he does is on someone else's behalf.

Thad sees in black and white, us or them. Up until the final few issues of Mercury Falling, Bart and co. are Thad's enemies, of course he's not going to be nice.

So Thad's motivation seems pretty simple: Thawne Supremacy™.

But it’s in Mercury Falling where this starts to fall apart, and the real core of his motivation gets revealed. Thad pretends to be Bart and suddenly Helen is nice to him. Bart’s friends think he’s funny. Bart’s teachers are impressed with his grades. Max ruffles his hair and gives him hugs and tells him he’s done a good job.

If he was actually an inherently mean and standoffish character, if Thad actually had significant personal stake in the Thawne VS Allen conflict, the weight of such tiny acts of kindness wouldn’t completely break him the way that it does in canon.

Thad thinks his goal is superiority and revenge and Thawne Supremacy™, but he's chasing validation. Thad doesn’t have a personal stake in the Thawne VS Allen conflict. He wouldn't get much satisfaction if he actually destroyed Bart and his family. Thad's personal victory would be the recognition after the fact: the praise and attention from the other Thawnes (a group of people he has literally never met) for his success.

He wants validation. That's basically it. And the fact that he gets it so easily from Bart's family and friends doesn't align with how he's told himself things are supposed to work.

Actually tangentially, Bart and Thad’s respective relationships to authority is so diametrically opposed and tbh kind of subversive in a superhero narrative. Where the hero is the one carving his own path without regard to social or societal rules, no fucks to give what anybody thinks of it. And the villain is a chronic people-pleaser.

Just based on Thad’s reaction to simple praise and affection from Max I really think Thad’s motivation has more to do with the response he gets than whatever the details are of any given task. He has no actual personal convictions beyond getting positive attention, and whatever he did have crumbled as soon as Bart’s friends laughed at his joke one time. Which of course leads into the core of his whole conflict at the end of Mercury Falling. He cares too much about Bart’s friends and family now, he doesn’t want to kill them, but worse than that, he’s faced with the sudden realization that he’s on the wrong side.

The Allens gave Thad everything he actually wanted and needed, but his conception of himself is inexorably tied to the Thawnes: who gave him jack shit. These two facts are in opposition to each other, and he can’t reconcile the reality of it.

Anyway all this to say, in an AU where Bart and Thad are raised together or Thad gets an actual redemption arc etc etc, I think my personal take on Thad’s personality whether it be pre-or-post-villainy would be one that is extremely socially conscious. He is much more of a people-person than Bart. Whether he's actually accurate in assessing people's feelings and how to respond to them can be hit or miss, but he wants to behave in a way that gets people to like him.

Pretending to be Bart isn’t remarked upon as, like, a difficult task for Thad. In his internal monologue he’s literally bragging to himself about how easy it is. But what’s especially notable to me is where his act differs from Bart's typical MO. Everyone notices, and lots of people comment, and presumably if Thad didn’t have the excuse of Max’s illness to “motivate” Bart to do better he would’ve been found out immediately. And those things are, specifically: paying attention in class, doing his chores, staying on task, and being helpful around the house. The one thing about Bart he chooses not to emulate is Bart’s rebelliousness.

Thad wants to prove himself, constantly, to whatever authority he respects (probably Max in this scenario) and will do whatever it takes to make that happen. In contrast to Bart, who only listens to authority when the shit they're saying actually makes sense to him. It’s excessively difficult to convince him to go against his own interests. (And I think a key part of that is Bart’s security in knowing that no matter how much he fucks up or doesn’t listen, the people he loves will always love him back.)

Thad’s got the people-pleaser in him that has to deserve whatever he’s given. It’s why he’s happiest when he’s given a clear goal or objective to complete, because it gives him an opening to prove himself.

All this to say that if we are quantifying Bart and Thad as a "good" or "bad" twin, in the eyes of every authority: Bart is the bad twin. Bart is the bad twin, Bart is the bad twin. Bart is the one who doesn’t care about school and whose grades vary wildly depending on his personal interest. He’s the one who goes off to do dangerous shit for fun and gets in trouble constantly and doesn’t do his chores and is thoroughly unconvinced by any authority figure trying to sell him bullshit. 

Thad is the one who needs to know all the rules just so he can experience the joy of following them. Relentlessly obedient. He'll put all his effort into doing all the right things that’ll endear him to whoever he wants to impress - meaning he’s the asshole who reminds the teacher about the assigned homework. Bart might be the most popular boy in school, but Thad is a pleasure to have in class.

Like Thad can (and should) still be high-strung and short-tempered and sarcastic and edgy and mean, because he is. But he can’t be doing all that without rhyme or reason. Colouring every interaction has to be that one-zero binary of ally or enemy. He needs to have somebody he’s proving himself to: a team he’s on and a team he’s against. He’s not an inherently rebellious character. He can go up against The Enemy, whoever he deems as such, but it has to be in service of a hypothetical future in which somebody eventually tells him he did a great job.

And in the interest of continuing to beat a dead horse, it connects to their respective upbringings. Thad and Bart were both raised in VR, but Bart’s experience had the side effect of basically hard-wiring him against insecurity. His world was a playground tailor-made for him, and he was never made to feel bad or insufficient about any aspect of himself. His first interaction with a real human person was Iris moving heaven and earth to save him, without him knowing her, without her knowing him, with no reasoning for the act needed beyond Being Her Grandson. Which is probably a significant factor in why Bart moves through the world with frankly atomic levels of autistic swag.

Thad’s VR upbringing installed self-consciousness in his psyche before any other personality trait. As in: he is immediately made conscious of himself and his relationship with everyone he will ever encounter. He’s told two things: he’s a clone of someone else (inherently derivative, lesser) and that he was made to be superior (a status to achieve). Which is such an instant clarifier for Thad’s everything. Where superiority is a condition that everyone either has, or does not. It’s the one-zero binary again: are they better than me or am I better than them. Being above others is mandatory, and if his superiority is ever challenged by hard evidence or god forbid nuance Thad’s brain physically cannot take it. He needs to be better, to be worse is unthinkable, and there is no other way to be.

And this status of better or worse is, crucially, not up to Thad to decide. He needs The Authority to validate him. Bart never tries to prove himself because he has nothing to prove. Thad’s entire identity hinges on the self-worth he gets from doing a Good Job.

It is such an inherent part of his motives in the Impulse comics canon, which is why it always feels a little off when he’s interpreted as a jackass indiscriminately.

Like I don't think he needs everyone to like him. But I do think he has either one person or a set of very particular people that he needs to like him. Everyone else is either in that circle or outside of it.

(Which is why Bart is such a great foil for Thad tbh. There is no set of words or behaviors that’ll change Bart’s opinion of Thad, because Bart is unaffected by obedience or charm. So ironically Bart is probably one of few people that Thad doesn’t bother to put on even a little bit of an act for.)

While Bart goes with his instincts, his personal beliefs and convictions at all times, Thad is hyper-conscious of big-picture goals. They balance each other out that way. Thad's keeping track of whatever expectations he has placed on him, and how his actions reflect on him and the team beyond short-sighted solutions. He's a team player. AND he's an asshole.

[hotpinkstaples]

kon calling yj meetings sans bart in ma and pa’s barn, complete with a slideshow and ma’s cookies and lemonade bc kon needs to go through his talking points before confessing his love to bart. yj of course gives him pointers and feedback accordingly so he doesn’t fuck this up.

meanwhile barry’s teaching bart how to avoid jailtime in a sciencell by mapping out how to fuck with the timestream this way and that way while maintaining control and giving the speed force, the great darkness, AND the presence enough entertainment that they’ll continue to stick by his side even if he decides to break the multiverse bc of a personal problem. what kinda personal problem, bart asks. oh you know, a mental breakdown or four, says barry. max is watching from five feet away, contemplating suicide while helen helps bart take notes on barry’s tips and tricks on unmaking and remaking universes bc of personal problems.

[travelergirlx]

(door + unexpected kiss is one of my favorite tropes)

[caityrose]

Some drawings from yesterday, lost power for probably 14 hours after we were hit😓

(Our fence had 2 holes in it, but we fixed it)

[itsdefinitely]

HELLO. if you had to assign hatchetfield characters fears from TMA, what would you assign them :]

you and me are on the same wavelength

paul (more specifically infected!paul) - avatar of the stranger & marked by the corruption

emma - marked by the corruption

bill - the eye. he'd be an archivist

ted - avatar of the spiral

charlotte - marked by the lonely & taken by the stranger (or the NotThem. same thing)

tom & becky - the slaughter

lex - avatar of the desolation

hannah - avatar of the web but also marked by the desolation & the stranger

pete - the spiral & the hunt (on the prey end)

ruth - marked by both the vast & the stranger

richie - the end :(

grace - favored by the eye

steph - the hunt (on the prey end)

max - marked by the buried & avatar of the hunt

boy jerry - both the slaughter & the dark

girl jeri - both the flesh & the dark

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt for lottie behind the cut; a pocketful of Kons. (( chrono || non-chrono ))

He’s the only one who cares about that, Bart guesses, since nobody else has to.

So it sucks, yeah. 

It really, really sprocking sucks. 

Helen sighs, her shoulders slumping, then glances back towards the TV. Bart finishes off the last bar and throws the box and wrappers away and glowers at the stupid grilled cheese that’s taking forever and then grabs a couple of bananas and eats them too and then gets back to the couch just in time to see Match start nibbling testingly at his own little chunk of protein bar and Helen finishing turning back to the TV. 

“Is this still on?” he asks, squinting dubiously at it. It’s still the news, and on top of that still footage of the maybe-armored/maybe-robot guy. How much of that do they even have, geez. 

A lot, he guesses. 

“It’s been less than five seconds, Bart,” Helen says, looking frustrated for a moment–a million-billion moments, at Bart’s speed–and then just sighs again. “You need to stop spending so much time in subjective time. It’s doing nothing for your patience.” 

“I guess,” Bart replies with a shrug, and then Helen doesn’t say anything back for so long that he forgets what they were talking about to begin with and runs back to the kitchen for another banana. He forgot to save a bite of the first two for Match to try, and maybe he’ll like ‘em or at least he’ll like getting brought ‘em ‘cuz he liked him setting up the mirrors and stuff for him and why’s he always have to slow down, why can’t anyone else just grifin’ speed up for– 

“Bart!” Helen shouts out of nowhere, and Bart trips over the coffee table coming back into the living room and, uh. Whoops. 

Ow, he thinks from the floor, blinking up at her as Match immediately drops his protein bar chunk and starts screeching at her, for like . . . some reason? 

Bart’ll figure it out later, he guesses. 

“What was that for?” he asks her with a frown. Helen looks frustrated, and Match zips over and starts pushing at his face with his tiny little super-strong hands, for . . . some other reason, Bart guesses, he really doesn’t know. “Stop squishing my face. Why are you squishing my face? It’s annoying.” 

Match scowls at him, then grabs onto both of his cheeks and squishes them together. 

“I think you’re kind of a brat,” Bart says, squinting sourly at him. “Did I tell you I think you’re kind of a brat yet? ‘Cuz I definitely do think that.” 

He really definitely thinks that, yeah. 

“Imp,” Match says accusingly. Bart doesn’t really feel like that’s an answer, really? 

Then again it’s not like Match knows any other words yet and he definitely doesn’t know any Pocket-talk, so that’s probably kinda unavoidable and– 

“Please focus, Bart,” Helen says, pinching the bridge of her nose. “If this is your soulmate on the news . . .” 

“Oh, he’s probably not,” Bart says with a shrug, because Match really seemed annoyed when he asked if the guy on the news was him or not. “Especially if he’s Superman. She’s? They’re? I dunno, I didn’t figure out if they’re piloting a robot yet or not, so who knows.” 

Helen–frowns, and lowers her hand away from her face to give him a weird look. Bart pretends it’s not a weird look. It’s fine. He’s just–it’s fine. That’s all. 

“Bart, your soulmate is Superman,” Helen says. 

“Oh, yeah,” Bart agrees. “But he’s not that Superman. Like, the first guy, I mean. The first guy’s still gonna be dead for like–ummm, what’s the date again?” 

Helen stares at him some more. 

Bart doesn’t fidget. 

At least not slow enough for her to see, anyway. 

“Pretty sure the robot guy isn’t the first Superman either,” he says. “Superman’s real big on people seeing his face. And doesn’t even wear gloves or anything. But like, especially the face thing, right?” 

“Why do you think your soulmate isn’t Superman, Bart?” Helen asks carefully. 

“‘Cuz I asked Match?” Bart replies, wondering why that’s even, like, a question? Obviously he asked Match. A) it’s super-obvious, and b) why would he not ask Match? Who else would even know, anyway? 

“You . . . asked him,” Helen repeats slowly, staring blankly at him again. 

“Yeah,” Bart says, still wondering why this is even a question. “Like, he’d know. And also I wasn’t actually allowed to leave the house and I don’t have the Fortress of Solitude’s phone number or anything so–” 

“Bart,” Helen cuts in, glancing sidelong at the TV for a moment, and then down at Match. “If he’s not Superman, then who is he?” 

“I dunno,” Bart says. “Maybe he’s Nightwing, actually."

“Who?” Helen looks bewildered. Bart squints at her. Do they not have Nightwing yet? At least one of them, anyway? 

“I mean, there’s been a lot of Supermen, and I guess a lot of them looked pretty much the same?” he says, then shrugs purposelessly. Not that he ever really paid attention to all that ancient history stuff, just he vaguely remembers hearing about it a couple times. “I guess, anyway. Though maybe he’s Supergirl, actually, I guess she looks kinda like Superman sometimes too. Match, are you Supergirl?” 

Match fixes him with the most dubious look in the world, then gestures pointedly at himself. Bart has absolutely no idea what said gesturing means, but okay, he guesses. 

“I don’t think he’s Supergirl either,” he tells Helen. ”Though if he is maybe somebody should ask her about her pronoun preferences?” 

Helen looks a little stressed, for some reason. Bart doesn’t get it. She starts to open her mouth to say something–and takes a subjective month about it–but gets interrupted when the front door opens and Max walks in through it. 

Max looks at Helen’s stressed expression and then at Match’s dubious look and then at Bart, and then he sighs. Bart–prickles, kind of.

It doesn’t feel good, that Max sighed like that about him. 

Not like it ever does, though.

[mashbrainrot]

'Max Klinger' Monday

'Toledo Native, Klinger' Tuesday

'Why, it's Klinger!' Wednesday

'THE Max Klinger' Thursday

'Fuck me, Klinger is Great' Friday

'Specifically About Klinger' Saturday

'Singing Klinger's Praises' Sunday

[d-criss-news]

Sincere - Elsie Fest 2024 - Darren Criss , Telly Leung, Max Adler, Curt Mega

It’s Gonna Be Me - Elsie Fest 2024 - Darren Criss and JC Chasez

Bye Bye Bye - Elsie Fest 2024 - JC Chasez and Darren Criss

Dear Theodosia - Elsie Fest 2024 - Darren Criss and Jordan Fisher

Maybe Happy Ending - Elsie Fest 2024 - Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss

Granger Danger - Elsie Fest 2024 - Helen J. Shen and Andrew Barth Feldman with Darren Criss

Arthur’s Theme - Elsie Fest 2024 - Darren Criss

Movin’ Out - Elsie Fest 2024 - Darren Criss and Chord Overstreet

Defying Gravity - Elsie Fest 2024 - Darren Criss, Lizzy McAlpine, Rachel Ziegler, Jordan Fisher, etc

[reversedumbrella]

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thank you for reading

and a special thanks to @radioactive-earthshine for helping me. DC may not know what editors are for but we do!

[radioactive-earthshine]

Impulse was so bold to have Helen as a primary reoccurring character who was the result of Bart's mentor being complicit in adultery. She was middle aged, interested in sex, was beautiful and smart, had dynamic and complex feelings, wasn't afraid to clock other heroes for being dumb, was divorced, had no children of her own, was fun and witty and while she was in a caregiving sort of role to Bart she was clearly her own person and acted as a foil to Max. I'm not sure how long Max and Bart would have gone on until one of them killed the other bc Max's means of communication with Bart was just not working until Helen stepped in.

[plutoslvr]

impulse 1995 is genuinely one of the best comics ever made because the way it balances the humour and serious topics and goes in depth about characters and their relationship is so perfect and each character has something to offer and how it shows how bart, a kid raised in a video game reality from the future, is adapting to live in the current times is so interesting and so well done because it highlights how bart has no concept of danger and how max is helping him learn that because he's too well, impulsive.

but i think my personal favourite thing about impulse 1995 is barts relationships with the characters around him like max, helen, preston, carol and the rest of his friend group etc because we can see how bart grows through them specifically max.

because with max it stats off wobbly because barts just a kid with no concept of danger and max is trying so hard to make bart slow down and just think for a moment but barts not used to doing that and in his eyes if a plan works then its fine. but then past the bickering and stuff you can clearly see how much max and bart care for each other and come to see each other as father/son.

its really shown during the mercury falling arc because bart is willing to do anything and everything it takes to help bruce and even ends up breaking down in one of the young justice issues because hes so worried about max whilst max didnt even want to tell bart because he didnt want to worry him.

and then bart gets replaced with thad and thad realises that all he's really wanted is a family and people who care for him and that hes JEALOUS of bart which is where his hatred of him stems from.

and as often as bart is aloof, he's equally as emotional and intelligent like when he talks about how people got used to thad and maybe would prefer thad more because thad was more "efficient" than he was and even before that when they were travelling to the speedforce and bart caught up to max and thad, max and bart offered for thad to come back and live with them and you could TELL that thad wanted it and it's just so interesting because thad and bart mirror each other so much and its so visible in this comic but WHATEVER im so normal about it