#helena meta

[trackingthehuntress]

I don’t think I could ever really pick a favorite thing about Helena, but something I think I’ve loved since the beginning of my love for her, - starting with cry for blood and going on to reading her other stuff - something I love is that she’s not really ever a character who gets fixed. Basically all of her connections in the heroism community (except for like. Dinah and Renee) have at one point or another viewed her as a problem, as someone who needs their solution, as someone who needs to be managed or manipulated. So many other characters look at her and see something that needs to be controlled, and at times the individual comics’ narratives agree with this and uphold it. But when you look at the whole of her character history, you see someone who never has the exact answer, who is never sure if she is actually a hero or still that scared little girl whose family was murdered. She’s always throwing away her costume only to pick it up again a few days later. She isn’t static, but her problems run deeper than ones that can be given a simple fix.

where was I? Oh right - she’s not a character who gets fixed. Because every person who thinks they can fix her, or control her, or agrees with people who try, or anything like that? It fails, in any way that matters. Think about max lord, think about batman, think about nightwing, think about oracle. Even if their plans succeeded in the short term, did they have any lasting effect on her or who she is? No - they all ended badly for someone, and only someone who recognized the harm of treating someone like this and apologized was able to get anywhere close to a healthy, meaningful relationship with Helena (that would be Barbara, by the way). So the thing that i love is that even when the people around her are all trying to shove her into a box and then fix the person they’ve imagined her to be, she is allowed to exist as this multifaceted person who has failures and flaws and struggles yes, but ones outside of the two dimensional person the people around her see her as.

[helena-and-helena-meta]

Welcome, welcome!

I'm Helena, Decay, or Phantomato which ever one ya'll prefer to call me! Sometimes I write and ramble, and my blog is based around the characters Helena and Helena META! Though my current obsession is all versions of ANY Yautjas from Predator/AvP(Especially Wolf) except AP, batfamily, Justice League, and Lapis Lazuli from Houseki no Kuni. LGBTQ blinkies by Shortcakeem0ji :3

The things I write can be taken as platonic or romantic unless explicitly stated that they're platonic! I won't write smut though.

So I thought I'd put this here, but here is my Twst acc!

Also, here is my Azur Lane account the server I'm in is Amagi

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Helena's interests

I like games such as Azur Lane(obv), Destiny and Destiny 2, YuGiOh duel links, Minecraft, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Fate/Grand Order, and Twisted Wonderland

My current anime list consists of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Slime Diaries, Land of the Lustrous, YuGiOh, Azur Lane: Slow Ahead!, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Takt Op. Destiny, Wonder Egg Priority, The Fate series, and Bofuri

My favorite shows are Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, Steven Universe, FBI, SWAT, 911, 911: Lone Star, Kitchen Nightmares, Master Chef, and the first few seasons of Red vs Blue

My favorite movies are Twister, Patriots Day, both TMNT bayverse movies, Dunkirk, Unstoppable, and many more, can't name them all :3

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Helena's writing. Most of my stuff will now also be posted to my Ao3, DecayingHelena, though it's mainly just going to be the James Ironwood stuff

For That He Is Thankful (Rewritten)

Do you fear me? (Rewritten)

Memories of Tempesta(AL x TWST)

Floral Fever(OM)

Floral Fever 2(OM)

Ice cream (Rewritten)

"They called me what?"

"I love you."

Kiss(James Ironwood x reader)(Rewritten)

"Shall we dance?"(Ironwitch)(Rewritten)

A strange craft(RWBY AU)

New hopes(RWBY AU)

James Ironwood headcanons

Unwind with me(RWBY au) (James Ironwood x reader)

James Ironwood headcanons 2

Love and Bad Luck(Ironqrow)

The world of yesterday(Ironwitch)

New Light(RWBY au)

James Ironwood headcanons 3

Valentine's Day(James Ironwood x reader)

The one thing he wished for(James Ironwood x reader)

Ironwitch headcanons

Ironwitch headcanons part 2

Project Personality: Penny Polendina post

Ironwitch headcanons part 3

"Pillows don't talk."(Leona Kingscholar x reader)

Fry Thief

Won't be around forever

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Helena's rambling

Yuu protecting Malleus(What made me write For That He Is Thankful.)

Aggressive love towards Malleus

Helena's thoughts on Self aware TWST

Helena's thoughts on Self aware TWST 2

Rollo, the twink baguette

Chaotic Yugi Mutou

Helena watches Land of the Lustrous

Silly little twst idea

Silly little twst idea pt2

Silly space idea :3

Aggressive love towards James Ironwood

James Ironwood with a new outfit

Recoil

Helena's obsession with Ironwood

Helena's idea on HnK! James Ironwood

Helena's RWBY tier list

James Ironwood but with Destiny 2 weapons

Helena's back problems

Helena's Hunter

Helena's favorite James Ironwood moments

Helena making fun of their favorite boi

Helena speaks in memes

No sleep Tumblr

Multiships my beloved

Helena's RWDE rant

Helena's nicknames

Helena finding a new obsession

"You brought this upon me."

Cú Chulainns as out of context Discord convos

Cú Chulainns as out of context Discord convos

Cú: Either always kissing death or always going overkill

Nero has no chill

Helena's screentime

Helena condones murder

Clowning on both Europe and America

Helena gets reminded of Malleus

Outta context Discord continues

Outta context Discord: Crime edition

Weather sickness

Outta context Discord: Darkside of the internet

Outta context Discord: We're fucking dumb

Pissing off my bestie on Discord

Helena's thoughts on a Ironwood scene

Helena

Out of context Discord: AvP edition

Out of context Discord: AvP edition part 2

Helena's thoughts on Arthur Curry

Fried Fish

Projector + Malleus

Zigvolts and twinks

Helena's Fae headcanons

Livyatan ideas

Zigvolt questions

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My rants are tagged under "Helena Rants", it's mainly some personal issues so if you don't wanna see that then feel free to block that tag

[royalfortunesmate]

Cute onsen theme, might keep this one <3

[sageshouldknowbetter]

[quiverknife]

also i actually cannot get over the fact that irving does not give a fuck that helly's outie is literally miss evil herself. that doesn't matter to him at all. he finds out that when helly leaves lumon, her body is responsible for all the suffering they've all gone through and Irving. just does not care. Irving, who has probably lost more than any of the other characters to lumon (not counting outie mark lol)! the others are willing to accept the fact that helly wouldn't tell them who her outie is because she's ashamed of her- but Irving isn't. he knows that helly would know that whoever her outie is wouldn't matter to Irving, he would love her regardless. he finds out this awful thing, and then he cradles her as gently as a baby and tells her he's sorry. and then he fucking DIES for her. IM SO SIIIICK

[hollow-stars]

i can’t stop thinking about Helena Eagan as an avatar for conservative women, and what that means for her position in her world, both as an Eagan and in Lumon. she has the authority to preside over most employees at Lumon (milkshake, cobel), the prestige to be their shining example of how safe & successful the severance procedure is, but when it becomes advantageous (to the company) to relinquish her body back to her innie and force her back to the severed floor, she is still not afforded the autonomy to decline.

she has power, until the men above her decide she doesn’t.

[stickdoodlefriend]

Isn't it so so messed up that Helena expected nine-year-old Eddie to help her raise his sisters and be the man of the house but doesn't trust 30 year old Eddie to do the same for his own son?

Like, you raised him as a father and husband not man and then you stripped him of his fatherhood-denied his grief as a widower. What else does he have left in his identity but the one you shaped of him?

[killthefuckinglights]

irving calling helena "kid" right before busting her is so important to me. for him, the MDR innies are basically his children. he's worked at lumon the longest, so his innie is the oldest and that makes him view himself as a guiding parental figure for the younger innies.

"hey kids, what's for dinner?"

those are Irving B.'s kids and he knows his kids. they are all he truly knows. so when one of his kids is switched out for a completely different but identical person, he clocks it instantly. and he wants helena to know that. he wants her to know that MDR are his children, and he knows that she is absolutely not his child.

it takes awhile and a weirdly prophetic dream to determine who she really is, but he knew from the moment he saw her after the uprising that she wasn't his helly. and then when he finally does have helly back, he clings to her and apologizes for hurting her bc he loves her too much to ever hurt her. he loves his kids more than anything else in his limited world.

[fantastic-nonsense]

oh my god all this time I believed that what fanon!Jason stans really wanted to read was Helena Bertinelli's books (because of all the relationships and interpersonal dynamics they keep stealing from her to project onto Jason) but what they actually should be reading are Catwoman books

Selina's the one who killed Black Mask and dismantled his operation after War Games. She's the one explicitly protecting the East End (aka Crime Alley) and going out of her way to protect the women and children of Gotham's underworld. She was the one doing mafia kingpin shit in the New 52 while Jason was off messing around in space with Dick's friends. She was the one protecting the Alleytown kids and trying to root out crime by "taking control" of it.

like Selina literally took over a crime family and united the criminal underworld in the New 52 while Jason was off fighting the All-Caste and Crux with Roy and Kory, I can't believe I didn't make the connection sooner

[soleminisanction]

Once again got a bee in my bonnet to spend a night doing obscure fandom research to make a point, so. For all those people who keep making the annoying, "Tim keeps '''stealing'' other peoples' names" comments -- have a table.

EDIT: Updated version with some mistakes corrected.

Everyone with a check mark has used that codename at some point in DC's 80+ year continuity -- Elseworlds and alternate dimensions/timelines count, adaptations (movies, video games, cartoons, etc.) don't unless they've got comic book tie-ins, and neither do in-universe dream sequences/illusions/fantasies/other narrative elements that are objectively "not real" within the boundaries of the fiction.

A purple marker indicates an element that only applies in Elseworlds or alternate timelines. Yellow is for the originator of the legacy title. Star symbol is for borderline cases/extenuating circumstances/it's open to interpretation (with some further elaboration below).

The "other" column is just there to account for people who've held lesser or non-legacy titles, like Renegade, Wingman, Arkham Knight, Drake, Redbird, Talon, Deadman, Black Bat, Orphan and Catwoman.

Point being: the people who have actually gone through the most legacy titles in this family are Dick, Babs and Jason, tied with 5 each (again, not counting "other;" if we counted those separately Dick would've had by far the most). Tim is tied with Steph AND Helena Wayne, so unless you're whining about them "stealing other peoples' names" you're just wrong, and they're all only one higher than Damian, Carrie and Bruce.

This is a legacy family that passes their codenames up and down the inheritance line. It's what they do. It's not a legitimate criticism to level at one character and not the others. Please get over it.

---

Further elaboration on some of the lesser known/niche cases:

- Bruce uses the Robin ID in Superman & Batman: Generations, as well as the pre-Crisis Detective Comics #226 story.

- In the second half of Thrillkiller ‘62, Babs cuts her hair and dons the Robin costume worn by her deceased partner Dick to get revenge on his killer; however the only name ever used for her in the series is Batgirl

- Cassandra was a member of the Robins orphan gang from Dark Knights of Steel.

- Duke was a member of the We Are Robins gang, as well as the aforementioned DKS orphan gang, and has appeared as Robin in a couple of Elseworlds, including I believe a White Knight spin-off.

- Cass was Batwoman in one of the versions of the Titans Tomorrow, as was Bette Kane, depending on changes to the timeline.

- Babs is Batwoman in the Batman ‘66 comics and in the 1980 story “The Secret Origin of Bruce (Superman) Wayne”

- Earth-3 Steph is Batwoman in Young Justice 2019.

- Helena Wayne is Batwoman in the possible future story Last Rites

- Tim is a member of the Batgirls vigilante/little league baseball team in the DC Bombshells universe, as is Cullen Row. Some call them the “Batboys” instead. I call those people cowards.

- Helena Bertinelli wore the costume that would later become Cass’s signature Batgirl look during No Man’s Land. However, she was more often referred to as “The Bat” and her Batgirl status is up to individual interpretation.

- Dick didn’t originate the Nightwing name, it started with Clark in the Silver Age.

- Steph has never been Nightwing. The panel where she appears in the costume is a Black Mercy illusion that happens only in her own mind. It’s a dream sequence.

- Barbara was Nightwing in the Smallville Season 11 comics.

- Terry was briefly Nightwing in volume 4 of Batman Beyond.

- Damian briefly became Nightwing after accidentally killing Dick in the Injustice series.

- Dick is Oracle in the “Eight Wonders of the World” version of Earth 2 (aka the Black Superman dimension)

[welcometogrouchland]

my Stephanie Brown hot take is that she should get mad bitches now that she's single in comics. Yes yes shipping BUT the one time she had sex she was punished by the narrative via teen pregnancy. I think she should be allowed to have as much sex as she wants with zero consequences. Could be a lot of sex, could be a little. Point is she should get to do it without getting narratively baby trapped this time. she should get them pregnant, actually.

[kendrysaneela]

“She’s like you. Or you’re like her? I don’t know”

That’s such an interesting line cause it’s true! While the outies and innies have different personalities and different wants and needs they each exist within each other. When Helly is Helly Helena is within her subconscious,when Dylan is Dylan outie Dylan is in his subconscious,when Mark S is Mark Scout Mark S is there in his subconscious. They’re all there. And they’re all influencing each other Irving being the most straightforward version of this what with him seeing the globs of paint sometimes because his outie always paints the same painting over and over.

They each exist within each other’s subconscious. And you can see some of the outies bleeding into the innies as they start to experience similar stuff the outies have experienced! (Except for Helly and Helena Helena is actually the one turning into Helly) I think it goes to show what do memories do how do memories shape a person how much of you is your is subconscious and how much is your conscious memory. Like Mark starts out super peppy and happy and helpful and then as he starts to experience more and grief and slowly starts becoming more similar to outie Mark in the way he handles his grief. But that also makes me wonder. Before Mark Scout experienced all that grief was he similar to Mark S? I bet he was. Or he at least had the potential to be.

And then Irving, his outie is clearly a character that needs meaning and is devoted to a cause. And at first innie Irving finds meaning and finds a cause in like helping to spread the message of Kier and doing his work and following the rules and it’s not until he finds meaning outside of work and finds something new to fight for that he starts to become more similar to who outie Irving seems to be. Someone who is more paranoid and more rebellious. Not to mention both of them enjoying art and both of them painting/drawing the same piece of art over and over again. (Albeit for different reasons)

Then there’s Dylan G who’s outie is kinda insecure because he’s been batted down by life a lot seemingly but he does still clearly love his family he’s just depressed unfortunately and has low self esteem from having a lot of unsuccessful adventures in life clearly. But he does seem to be trying outside and his wife still loves him a lot. Dylan inside starts out confident and convinced his outie is super successful and a body builder and has a bunch of girls on the outside. Then he finds out who he really is outside and then unfortunately. Starts to have some losses inside….and his self confidence starts to fall, and then he learns he has a family and able to be convinced to separate himself from his friends because he cares so much about his family. (I think this will transfer back to him caring a lot about his innie family again) .

Then. There’s Helly. Now Helly is the exact opposite of everyone else and shows that it’s not always innies turning into outies. Helly doesn’t start to turn into Helena. Helena starts to turn into Helly. And the longer Helly exists the further she digs her feet into her rebellion. And the more Helena learns about Helly the more she turns into her. Helena is a woman who has no autonomy who makes none of her own decisions and clearly her whole life has just gone along with what she’s been forced to do without making much of a fuss because that’s what she was raised to do and I assume because the punishments for stepping out of line in the Eagan cult are severe. She has also never experienced love. And I think she’s probably resigned herself to this life. But then she sees Helly. And Helly doesn’t know she’s an Eagan. Helly doesn’t have all the cult programming Helena has, they can’t control Helly with threat of what her father will think or do. So Helly rebels and Helly rebels HARD. And Helly’s first instinct being to rebel is probably because Helena has been trapped her whole life so when Helly woke up on that table locked in that room her subconscious went “WE’RE TRAPPED WE’RE TRAPPED ESCAPE” and Helly didn’t have any of Helena’s fears or knowledge of who she is or what’s happening so she doesn’t repress that rebellion or fear like Helena does so she continues to outwardly rebel.

More than Helena probably ever has or at least has in a while. And she receives love for it from her coworkers. She receives love and she receives friendship and Helena sees all this. She sees this woman this other version of her who’s not weighed down by her name or the expectations put upon it and she sees her become who she’s always wanted to be so she starts to try to become that person. And when she’s pretending to be Helly, she flirts with Mark and she makes Irving little snow seals and she makes fun of her family’s lore and she’s free and she’s taking in love.

I think even with Helena no longer being able to pretend to be Helly, Helena will start to either consciously or unconsciously become Helly outside. I think it’s also why she’s watching Mark at the end of the episode. She’s basically in the middle of an identity crisis right now and she’s probably wondering if outie Mark is the key. What outie Mark is like if he’s anything like innie Mark.

I also think Helly and Helena hating each other is a good illustration of Helena’s hatred toward herself. I think she hates herself because she doesn’t have the courage to be like Helly and to rebel like Helly and to fight for her autonomy like Helly.

And they all do this because they are their innies. Their innies are their outies and their outies are their innies they are each other just if they had different life experiences.

[sageshouldknowbetter]

Some may be apprehensive that Severance won’t portray Mark’s interaction with Helena in the tent as the sexual assault it was. But not only will they — they already are.

Mark’s behavior toward Helly has completely changed. He doesn’t sit next to her at Irving’s funeral. He shuts down attempts at conversation with offhand, vague snarky comments and a defiantly blank facial expression. When Helly knocks on the door to the bathroom, his eyes dart around like an animal cornered. Where he once would have slowed down for her in the hallway so they could talk, he walks much faster ahead. He’s trying as hard as possible to avoid her. To ignore her. To run away.

Now contrast this with his treatment of “Helly” when she first walked out of the elevator in season two. He waited for her to arrive! He was so relieved she’d come back! And when they were walking down that hallway and he was explaining the situation with Ms. Casey, he stopped mid-stride, turned to her with a smile on his face, and said “Look, Helly—“

He never got to finish that sentence. But some say he was going to confess that though his outie had a wife, his affections lay with her. And I think they’re right.

So why is he acting so differently now? The answer is obvious: “Because they are smarter than us, okay? They know everything.”

After the assault, Mark likely feels like a complete idiot. He spent so much of season one deconstructing his beliefs and breaking free from Lumon’s propaganda. And the minute he believes he’s immune to their lies and no longer a corporate slave, he is taken advantage of and hoodwinked by the very figurehead of said company, masking as someone he loves.

A symbol of Lumon convinced him he was safe. Tricked him. Invaded him in the most intimate way possible, with him completely oblivious, “like an idiot.” Right when he thought everything might be okay.

So maybe Lumon’s right. Maybe there’s no point in fighting. Because if he was stupid enough to not realize his own friend was being possessed by her billionaire doppelgänger, then maybe Lumon is correct about innies being nothing more than pawns. Maybe they are people, and he really is… not. (That’s how Helena treated him, anyway.)

And if that’s the case, of course he wants to give up looking for Ms. Casey and lose himself in work! For a moment he thought he was a human being, deserving of autonomy over his own body and capable of something more than sitting behind a desk — but his assault sends that all crashing down. He is an extension of his outie, made for work and nothing more. Going beyond that gets dangerous. That’s what got Irving killed… and him in Helena’s tent. And Helly? He cannot trust Helly. As far as he knows, his only confirmed moment with Helly since the OTC was when he was holding her in his arms, his jacket wrapped around her shoulders. Why should it be Helly coming back to the severed floor? If Helena could trick him before, who says she can’t learn from her past mistakes and trick him again over and over? Mark refuses to be humiliated and hurt after last time, so he avoids her (and Dylan!) and puts up a barrier of cool, snarky indifference — just like how he deals with grief.

But we know that indifference is a mask. When Milchick walked out of the elevator after revealing he knew about him and Helena Eagan, Mark had no one to pretend for — and he went completely stiff, blankly wide-eyed in an expression extremely reminiscent of his usual innie self. Whatever the reasons for this, one thing’s for sure: Mark does deeply care about what happened in the tent. And at least for now, he will lose himself in Cold Harbor to cope with it.

Lumon certainly got their productive worker back. But good Lord… at what cost?

[seilnakyle]

Bruce + Laughing and smiling with Selina

Catwoman (2002) #23

Catwoman (2002) #32

World’s Finest (2014) Annual #1

Justice Society of America (2023) #4

The Batman Who Laughs (2018) #1

Batman (2016) #149

Batman (2016) #15

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures (s3) Ep. 134 - The Bat and The Cat / Ep. 141 - Out of the Frying Pan…

Batman (2016) #15 / Batman (2016) #149

Batman: Dark Age #6

[ohhgingersnaps]

the revelation that it's been helena this whole time puts what she says to mark in the hallway in s2e1 in an entirely new light, doesn't it?

helena emphatically, furiously insisting that innies and outies aren't the same— saying, "we're not the same," and leaving "person" off the end of the sentence, because she refuses to acknowledge that helly r even is a person. ("i am a person; you are not.")

"speaking for myself, i don't think we owe them shit," she says, and means it. she'll happily steal the life and relationships helly's worked to build, because she truly doesn't believe she owes her innie anything. the first time through, when we think she's helly, it reads as righteous anger. when helena says it, it reads as entitlement.