#his parents know this and in fact i think iirc were the ones who made the choice to keep his powers a secret

[transmasccofee]

the more i look at this panel the more sad i get . mr Asou you are doing some evil shit to my mental wellbeing

[cinamun]

we talk so much about how indya and dira are twins but dira & mercy are really two sides of the same coin and in this essay i will...no but forreal sorry for the essay.

so even though jackson was on his bullshit, mercy still really leaned into bishop's bullshit in part because at the end of the day, jackson's control of her was still oriented towards her best interest for the MOST part?? bishop didn't love her because he wasn't capable of that but it does seem like up until bertie snuck in on a drunk man and jackson was content to act like it didn't happen that like...he loved his wife and they were happy besides some typical oldhead bullshit? so when bishop started in on his bullshit and said it was love mercy was like "okay yeah makes sense love can be like this". part of why it took a long time for her to see bishop's shit for what it was bc she was used to being led by people who y'know actually cared if she died or was physically harmed.

but DIRA....iirc the first person to really speak up to her about love in a romantic sense was her culturally appropriative stalker. he showed up with a gun, caused physical harm that almost directly mirrored the harm just caused to her sister by someone dira thought loved her and her family and really made a statement that this was his expression of loving her and needing her. AND SO even though her sister and brunlaw and parents really love each other and are SHARING their lives, dira's immediate connection to knowing where each other are and knowing what the other is doing is to being stalked and tracked by rahul. she's the inverse of mercy, seeing everything through the lens of people having bad intentions bc that's the part that happened first.

You know, I didn't think you could pull the Mercy/Dira comparison off, but I think you did just a lil bit.

My only argument (not really an argument) is Rah wasn't the only one to show what could have been love, its just Ryker was showing it through food and shopping. Sounds familiar. Rah wanted to own and control her and convinced himself that he deserved her more because she came to his lil a/v club. That's Lil Bishop. Only reason he came at her the way he did was because of Ryker (I wonder what he's been up to). Part of me also just thinks Dira has had enough of men/boys and their fuckshit and is taking control in the way she wants to and she's enjoying it this way. Mercy never had that in her. In fact, it was Indya who was trying to teach her about non-toxic dick and how to obtain it. So yes, inverse.

The inverse of Mercy is quite the interesting connection!

[dinosquad-central]

Okay, longer post about a headcanon that is completely integral to my enjoyment of Dino Squad. (Largely copy/pasted from my rant on the Discord server)

I think Caruso might actually be very smart. Genuinely, classically, academically smart.

I know that sounds like a crackpot theory, but hear me out!

He's in the same science class as Rodger (the guy who's explicitly stated to be the smartest kid in school), as well as Fiona (who's also clearly very intelligent), Buzz (maybe not top marks, but since it appears to be a biology class, and Buzz is especially interested in animals it makes sense he'd be in a more advanced bio-class). Max may not be a genius, but most schools require members of the school sports teams to maintain a certain GPA, and he’s on the football team, so he can't be a complete idiot either.

And Caruso is in the same class as them and therefore it's implied that he's at the same level as them in that subject! Because of this, and the fact that the classroom is a lecture hall and not a regular classroom, I also headcanon that it's an AP bio class, or at least honors.

Plus! When Caruso told his parents he was dinosaur, their one insistence was that he not neglect his studies meaning A) his family cares about his education and B) he probably gets at least relatively good grades already.

AND! It's shown in the show that Caruso regularly and *easily* manipulates his friends into doing his homework for him (episode: “who let the dog out”). He also manipulated others during the show, including a TV producer or show host, I can’t remember which (episode: “Zoom in on Zoom” I think). You can't be that deliberately manipulative and a complete idiot like Caruso appears to be.

ALSO Caruso has a line of beauty products which he both invented, and markets/sells himself (episode: “Scents and Scents Ability”), meaning he must also have a small company/business that he personally runs, and the quality of his products are good enough to have a whole spa treatment devoted exclusively to them, which is named after him/his product, meaning the products themselves must be well known and trusted enough to attract customers. This demonstrates that Caruso has some level of skill with chemistry and botany (iirc he made herbal moisturizers but it's been a while, so that detail may be wrong). In addition to that he must have a good sense for business, finance, and marketing.

But wait! There's more! When they were trapped in a cage with seemingly no way out, it was Caruso who came up with the plan to use misdirection and social engineering to trick Veloci into not only letting them go, but also donating a sizeable amount to a local charity as hush money (episode: who let the dog out”). It wasn’t genius Rodger, or leader Max, or competent female character Fiona, it was Caruso, “the dumb one”. This indicates that he can also think on his feet and come up with quick solutions to difficult problems.

Furthermore! A lot of highly intelligent people learn to act like they're stupid because when people know how smart you are, they have high expectations of you, and that's stressful to the point of traumatizing sometimes. There's also an interesting type of stigma around intelligence where people tend to think you're pompous or unapproachable when you're highly intelligent and become intimidated or resentful, which, since Caruso highly values his popularity, would be extremely distasteful to him. Given his fixation with fame and popularity, I don't think it's a stretch at all to think he'd dumb himself down, even around his friends, to avoid that stigma.

So yeah, there you have it. That’s all the reasons (that’s I can think of at the moment, anyway) why I believe Caruso is a big fat liar pretending to be an idiot so he doesn’t have to be responsible for anything. I hope I’ve managed to convince you all because I am 100% committed to this theory lol.

[wyvchard]

another teehee

🤝 How would you describe the nature of Phoenix and their Handler’s working relationship?

Oooh. Good one!

(This gets long.)

IEYTD - Reginald was a bit... dismissive of Phoenix. Nothing personal. They were just one of (most likely) multiple agents he was handling. They were told they were his "third favorite field operative" iirc. Phoenix thinks Reginald is a bit bad from time to time but they're trying to be professional. (For my Phoenix specifically, Reggie was an upgrade over the manager who steals their work and gets credit for it.)

Death Engine - When Solaris fired the death engine, Phoenix realized that they miss his voice and terrible puns (still sulky about the train and vacation though). Reginald realizes he's grown fond of Phoenix. (There's this headcanon that Reggie is the type to get attached to his agents rather easily but knows when to move on. I pretty much consider it canon.)

Pre-IEYTD 2 - Reginald sees more of Phoenix. Their recovery from their wounds from the crash. He was already moving on from their likely death date, however, seeing them grapple with the fact they're technically legally dead (they had a funeral and everything) made Phoenix seem more like a person to him. Phoenix also saw Reggie as a person as he helped them deal with the paperwork. (My Phoenix specifically: Even though they were legally declared dead, it was canceled from being fully processed, which is why they can still keep contact with their family.)

IEYTD 2 - They have a sense of trust. That time in the jet and Fabricator's workshop were soft turning points. (I headcanon that the two ate a meal together after the workshop and Reginald realized just how talkative Phoenix can be outside of missions. Phoenix usually uses sign or morse code during missions because they prefer not to be heard.)

Operation Safe and Sound - This was the point where Phoenix knew that they got Reginald to return to, that Reggie can't be replaced. That someone was waiting for them. Reginald's panic over losing Phoenix was also palpable in the game. (They probably also hugged.)

Rising Phoenix - Reginald is devastated when the connection cuts out. He knew that he's gotten too attached and he was probably this close to retiring if Phoenix didn't come back. Phoenix, once they found their way out of the elevator and to safety, immediately went on their way to Babadag because they knew he was waiting.

IEYTD 3 - They didn't need any words to know they're family. Phoenix knew Reggie is there for them if they need to. And Reggie knows that Phoenix will do everything in their power to return to him safe and sound.

Post-IEYTD 3 -

Phoenix: *Kid who gets into trouble due to their shenanigans but is good at heart (most of the time)*

Reginald: *Parent who is amused, worried, and tired of it at the same time*

IHowever, when it comes to missions, both remain mostly professional and keep their conversations mostly about work in case anyone overhears them. They work hard and play hard. They still tease each other in the middle of work though.

[moonlightdancer26]

Hello There.

this is kinda weird and meta and i cannot tell if it’s written coherently so plz just hear me out

so yk how J*R admitted that, when she was writing OOTP at the same time as the first movie was being made, she made a lot of the changes/revelations we see for severus’ character bc she liked alan rickman’s portrayal so much? her only valid opinion

prior to that it is much easier to see the relationship between james/the marauders and severus as ‘slytherin vs gryffindor antagonistic’

(the prank (PoA) is imo played off more as ‘sirius was in the wrong by organising it, james did better by following severus and getting him out of there’ without input from OOTP)

anyway, this is all to say that pre-OOTP james and post-OOTP james feel like very different characters, bc one is very much good-guy-in-the-making and the other is the worst of the worst, and i think it can be brought back to J*R’s inability to write interesting slyth vs gryff rivalries without resorting to bullying and harassment from one party (the way she writes slytherins makes me want to smash my head against walls)

what do you think? bc this is coming from a kinda biased marauders stan, pro-james perspective, even though i dont hate young!sev in the slightest

i feel like a lot of my issues with this whole thing can be summed up by The TERF Bitch Can’t Write, And Now We Suffer Because Of It

I’ve heard of that claim before, and iirc I’ve seen a source of her saying that a long time ago, but could you tell where cause I’d love to confirm this? 😭 She had already had Snape’s arc planned out because during the earlier films Alan wanted to quit his role because playing Evil Greasy Potions Master might get him type-casted (since he’s played villains before) and he didn’t want that, so Rowling decided to tell him about the grandiose reveal in DH, which is what made him stay.

what do you think? bc this is coming from a kinda biased marauders stan, pro-james perspective, even though i dont hate young!sev in the slightest

I actually think that was the point. In the earlier books we’re led to believe that Snape had no good reason for hating Harry’s dad and only resented James (and Harry) because he was a popular, loved Gryffindor and a talented Quidditch player. It was a bit of a red herring, and in PoA when Sirius and Remus are introduced we’re told about the prank and since Harry already hates Snape, obviously loves his father, and wants to know more info about his parents because he now knows two people who were the closest of friends with them, he assumes Sirius is right and evil Sneep Snoop is wrong and was just being petty as per usual. So for the first five books the readers are like “yo James is the perfect awesome guy and Snape is the jealous bad one,” which is increased when we remember James is a Gryffindor and Severus was a Slytherin, we sort of get the same image as Harry and Draco. It’s an extremely black-and-white image, the dawning realisation that it might not be just a simple rivalry/jealously-issue is what makes SWM in the 5th book so jaw-dropping to all of us, because we actually realise that it wasn’t the whole story. “Snape was right all along” is a super scary realisation for Harry, especially since it makes him completely rethink the image of his father that’s been painted for him by basically everyone around him, everyone except the one character Harry despises most of all.

This isn’t to say JKR doesn’t make shit decisions in writing, I 100000% get what you’re saying, but I think this was deliberately written that way so it can to be a big build-up to the plot twist. (Doesn’t make it very well-written, but it was still her intention ig.) and tbh the fact that we have so many unanswered questions/concerns about the plot holes/arcs/writing/etc and have to fill it in with the most plausible assumptions really goes to show how overrated JKR’s writing is and how her series has been enriched mostly by its fandom.

Also dw you’ve gotten your point across very well, I always get concerned with my writing because I’m worried it just sounds like a pile of unorganised bullshit 💀

[dracothedeatheatingcupcake-ao3]

slides into your inbox

hi i uh. drank a sinister potion (dr. pepper) on the way to school this morning and the problem with perfection filled my head for the fiftieth time so. i'm here now. soooo uh, warning for a very crazy caffeine induced audhd rant. 👍

i just like.... kinda wanna let u know how much this fic means to me. like fr. like seriously. it means a lot to me. we've been mutuals for a while so i feel like now's def a good time (and a long time coming lmao)

iirc i found ur fic when i was in the danganronpa trenches in like, 2021/2022 i think? it was summer and i had nothing better to do with my free time and i was super bored and ishimondo was my personality and i found it while going thru ao3 and was like "yeah. this sounds cool"

and i did NOT know what i was getting into let me tell you. adored the writing really fast. ur skill level actually blew me the fuck away like. instantly. all the characters were incredibly in character, everything was so detailed and i LOVED the fact that you made your writing very emotion driven. like you wrote a lot with like, exaggerated punctuation and pauses and spaces and stuff that i rarely ever see but i feel like your writing was like, so much better for that??? its something i've started to use in my writing because it just draws you in so much and just. puts you into their shoes almost instantly. like it sounds like you're in their head. like i think like that (got that narrator brain in me) and it was just so cool to see someone write like that. got a lot of good moments

and i honest to god binged that fic because it had me by a chokehold. like i'm talking i barely got sleep because i was so excited to read the next chapter the next day that my body would wake me up earlier. and i'd pull it out and binge the next chapter. and when i got to a point where the chapters where still being updated, i remember checking like. every sunday night or so every week to see if it got updated. so many cliffhangers that i was not normal about..........

and i recommended it to EVERYONE i knew that was into danganronpa. like i did not care if they usually read fanfiction or not i would sit there and go on infodump rants about this gay fanfiction i found on the gay fanfiction site and ik i confused them but like. that was how good it was to me. felt like it was a real book. and not only that i honest to god felt like i was reading about me.

like the way you wrote taka meant and continues to mean so much to me to this fucking day because i rarely ever see characters that are like me, at least in an honest to god way. and i was already connected to taka and loved him but i think you made him feel like an extension of me in a way and it just like. idk. it spoke to me man. ik i sound dramatic but it did.

like an autistic queer kid with a strict parent being thrown into so many situations where you just automatically assume everyone else is watching you, judging you, based on past trauma and experiences and just. at the same time so emotional and passionate and just genuine for lack of a better term. and the panic attacks that were written i actually almost had some during reading it because i felt it. that felt like me honest to god (not a bad thing btw!!! i am ok!! but that's a compliment because that's how accurate it was!!)

and during a time where i was dating people who just. idk its hard to explain. i knew they cared about me but there were so many times where there were disconnects. sexuality and gender (gender's not really a part of the story ik but yk what i mean) was a big one. and i felt how he would feel when mondo wasn't exactly the best when it came to his behaviors and expressions of love.

and now i'm with someone who is like. mondo at all his best moments. and even when he matches mondo's lower ones it feels like, there's more times where we can do what they did in the fic and work through it. be there for each other because even if we're both fucked up yk we can like. work through it. and that's so cool honestly?? its not transactional, it means something. i've felt both sides and it's so. crazy to me. it's just wild.

and while i didn't read a lot of it (mental health was NOT in a space where i could i'm gonna be so real) the other installment, the one where mondo comes over to taka's house and they gotta hide and stuff? i've felt that. god i've felt that. my current boyfriend (also a trans man) and i have had so many times where we've had to act as "friends" and hide our romantic gestures and being so deathly afraid of getting caught yk?

idk this fic made me feel seen, and i wonder if there's like... anyone else that feels that way. idk i feel like their definitely is. and i just kinda wanna like. thank you for writing something that just. made me feel heard in a time when i really really needed it. even if we didn't know each other it felt so wild to have a stranger sit there and give me and indirect hug and let me know that i am not the only guy struggling out there with this stuff. it's changed the way i view myself and how i view the world and it's so cool to me that even fanfiction of all things can do that. that's nuts man. you did that and i really wanna emphasize that you should be proud of that. that's so cool. you're writing is so fucking cool man.

and also another thing i. love. that you also wrote about sex being a form of like. expressing love for some people. i am demisexual so like. seeing a character that seemed to also exhibit that and really only feel and have that strong attraction to someone they love romantically and have a connection with, and do it to let the other person know they love them. it's like. that's cool. that's so cool. i'm shaking you that's so cool /pos

and while i'm not fixated on dr right now (as you can. probably tell. (btw obligatory "watch lego monkie kid but also you do not have to i just wanna let you know its cool" plug because of Tha Autism(tm)), and while my comic i was going to make is on a very long hiatus bc adhd is beating the shit out of me, i really want you to know how much i appreciate this fic and how much it just. lives in my brain. how much it makes me emotional to this day because it spoke to me; some random dude who was just getting out of high school who fucking needed that really really bad. and also i want you to know how excited i was when we become mutuals and i'm really really lucky to have someone so cool as my mutual, and you've become even cooler in my brain now that we're kinda yk. in a vaguely similar circle.

anyways i appreciate you so much!!!! and even if we're in different fandoms and stuff, and even if tpwp is also not being continued/on a hiatus i still appreciate what you did with it, and what you do now. don't understand all the fandoms you post but i got that respect for it. i'm in the corner with pom poms cheering u on.

so um. yeah! that was long. but i'm hyped up on caffeine and neurodivergent so ujhm. yea. hopefully this made sense lmao

~ your very much not normal mutual tyler 👍

Okay, sorry for the late response, I saw this when I got up this morning and needed the day to figure how to respond because this was. So much (in a good way I promise!!!!)

So, first of all, THANK YOU FOR THIS!! It's easy as a fic writer to feel discouraged with your writing, or to feel like you're not as "good" as other people, and it's things like this that remind me that whether or not I'm a "good writer," what I write does matter to people. And that's just... really special to me, so thank you for writing this all. It means so much to me.

I'm glad you like the dramatic pauses and the way I write, though! When I was younger, I always tried to limit doing that sort of thing, since I knew it wasn't considered "good" or "proper" writing. But with TPWP I just... decided to let myself write how I wanted to write and not think too much about it. I wrote TPWP kind of how I think, because I wanted it to feel like it was Taka's thoughts and emotions, even if it wasn't in first person. And I'm really glad that came across!

I've always been really big into psychology and introspection, which is one of the main reasons I write about things like that a lot. I like to get into characters heads and try to figure them out. See what they'd be like if this thing happened, or if this thing hadn't happened, etc. I write about struggles, because I struggled as a kid, but in more quiet ways. I mean, all things considered I had a good life. supportive, loving parents and older brother, good grades, people generally liked me and I never got in trouble. But I was so determined to do well that I psyched myself out. I was terrified of disappointing people and losing what I had, and I crumbled in middle and high school. Luckily I had good parents so I was able to stumble through it, but it always left me feeling isolated, since I could never articulate why I felt so off inside. It wasn't until I took an "abnormal psych" class in college that I even realized I had intense anxiety.

All of this to say that I'm glad I was able to resonate with you through my writing. I could never find the words to articulate myself when I was younger, so I took to writing to try and connect with people, to get a message across. Most of my stories have some form of "moral" or "lesson" that I'm trying to get across, lessons that I had to learn myself growing up. TPWP's was that perfection is impossible and that you have to learn to accept yourself for who you are. Honestly, I put the most of myself into Taka, since while I never had a distant parental figure who wanted me to be absolutely perfect, I was kinda that figure to myself. I wanted so badly to be "perfect" and "the favorite" and when I wasn't, I freaked out. I shut down and couldn't even explain to my parents why. So, with TPWP, I wanted to let other people know that it's okay to just... be you.

I don't know if any of this is making any sense, sorry. I had a long day at work and my head is a bit jumbled. Mostly just... thanks for writing this. Things have been tough lately between school and work, and it's nice to be reminded that my stories do matter to people. I never wanted to be a professional writer, but I did always want to write something that made someone, somewhere, feel something. Hopefully something good, something cathartic.

Oh, and as for the sex thing... that was honestly unintended, ha. But I'm Ace, so to me, that's what sex is. Or what it should be. A way to connect emotionally with your partner above all else. Honestly, the only reason I wrote sex into TPWP was to explore the way it would interact with their friendship, not to be like... sexual, ha. Glad you liked how I wrote it!

Anyway, thanks again for writing this!! And I'm glad we're mutuals too! Yeah, I am part of some interesting fandoms on my main blog, but I'm glad it's not too off-putting, ha. I'll try and check out that show some day, though! I don't have a lot of emotional energy to get into a new show at the moment (as I'm sure some people can understand, since starting a new fandom can be a lot at times), but maybe once (IF) things calm down for me I'll take a look! I have seen a lot of posts about the monkie kid show, not just from you, so it's something I might check out one of these days. I'm mostly waiting for Our Flag Means Death season 2 to air tomorrow so I can get washed away into Pirate Town for the next month or so, while the episodes release. 😅😅😅

[clunelover]

Okay wow, My Dark Vanessa is so intense, and I’m glad it was recommended to me. It is definitely a darker (ha) version of some stuff I was working through in some recent writing. (Oh and I did finally get to where you find out that the title comes from Pale Fire - so maybe a lot of people know that, but I haven’t read that and did not know).

I had a teacher in high school who I had a mega crush on. He was younger and very funny and IMO hot. I was on the rowing team, and I knew he was a rower too. It’s a small community, so I heard from other team members that he used to be a coach for my team, IIRC when he was just getting out of college. He got together with a girl on the team. It was a whole big thing, he got fired and everyone was very upset, except for the girl’s parents who didn’t think it was that big a deal (I’m thinking like, 17 and 22. That realm). I don’t have much opinion on that. I know they’re married and have kids. I see him around town sometimes. He brings one of his kids to watch roller derby and my sister does that.

I was very dorky and weird in hs. I had this misguided notion that since this teacher had hooked up with a younger girl at one point (btw I did know he was still with her, maybe engaged, at this time), that maybe I had a chance with him. I stalked him and found all kinds of reasons to hang out late after class and was overall very cringey.

I found out he lived right by school so I would also stop by his house, often with my high school BFF who also had a crush on him, albeit less intense I think. He one time did invite us in, and showed us the “all your base are belong to us” video on YouTube.

At some point, I said something mean to him in class and then we had a 1:1 meeting to discuss it and he said I had hurt his feelings - somehow then we ended up discussing the fact that my dad was in the hospital with some then-mysterious issue that was causing his respiratory system to shut down…I was all messed up from it and acting out. I think the teacher also had something going on with his dad, maybe he had recently died. He quoted some Dar Williams lyrics to me? (More cringe - although I did, and still do, love her, it’s just not a normal thing for a teacher to do!) This made me feel like we were bonding and had some kind of connection.

I definitely don’t think he was ever attracted to me, and nothing happened. However, with the benefit of age I’m now like “wtf was he doing having us come in to his house, and having that emo talk with me?” It definitely did not help matters re: my crush. I remember being on winter break and visiting family in Washington not long after, and just feeling this LONGING for him. I was miserable. Ugh.

Anyway. As to my story - I did this cool writing exercise that was called “shape shifting the autobiographical.” It was a multi step thing where you start with an anecdote about something interesting that happened to you. I picked a time when bff and I got pirate costumes and drove to his house and talked to him like pirates (yes…) and it was very dumb but also very funny to us and fun to reminisce about. We got the idea because the pirates of the carribean movie had just come out, and the ad campaign included these banner ads online that just said “PIRATES!” And we thought that was so weird and funny.

For the next step of the exercise, you retell it from a different POV. I picked his wife. Then you change the time period, so I moved it to present day. Then you write it in a whole other style, like a letter or something - I chose a r/AITA post in which she wonders whether she’s the asshole for being upset with how her husband is handling these students with a crush - with lots of edits and updates as the stalking and her distress escalate (at this point, it veered into fiction, I think she was maybe annoyed by us but not distressed, and I wrote the stalking much worse than in real life). Then you change the genre so I tried to make it more like horror.

Anyway, I think I was trying to get at this idea of a woman who got together with her husband in a dubious age gap/power differential situation, but doesn’t think much about it, until she sees him maybe almost crossing lines with girls who are the same age as she was when it happened, and she sees how much they are just children, and she was a child too, and that realization is the horror in the story. I doubt the real life wife actually feels that way (I mean, I’d have no idea obv), but it was an interesting idea to play with. I also really liked the AITA form cause so many of those letters take the tone of “my male partner is basically a monster…is it possible that it is in fact my fault?” and that’s a fun thing to play with too.

I’m realizing now that I didn’t quite get deep enough into that theme (ahem, why that editor I sent it to said it seemed surface level). And it’s kind of a bummer* but also good to see it done much better (and pushed much further/an actual Wrong relationship is part of it) in this book.

*bummer as in, it always kind of sucks to read something you wish you could write. But is also inspiring and interesting.

[altschmerzes]

ARTEMIS FOUL????? I NEVER WATCHED IT BUT I DO REMEMBER THAT THEY MARKETED THE SHIT OUT OF THAT MOVIE AT MY LOCAL THEATRE AND I HAD NO IDEA WHY BECAUSE ALL I HEARD ABOUT IT WERE BAD THINGS 💀 ALSO I AM VERY POLITELY ASKING FOR THE FOUR PARAGRAPH LAMENT AND ANALYSIS, I THINK IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO HEAR FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE BOOKS WELL

OKAY CRACKS KNUCKLES LETS GO-

anon. i am so happy you never experienced this. it was so bad. it was so fucking bad. to quote the wikipedia page "The film received negative reviews from critics, who criticized the film's plot, dialogue, characters, visual effects, and changes made to the source material." which is fucking hysterical because as you can see, that is in fact..... all of it. the whole movie. that is all of the things about the movie! and boy was this prescient of the experience i was about to have.

so, without further ado, here is my rant as an Artemis Fowl Lover Of Many Many Years on what was insanely, profoundly, hideously wrong with that movie. under a cut for the wellbeing of my dash bc this is uhhhhh a LOT more than four paragraphs i'm so sorry. i still have so much more i could say but. i'll leave it at this. which is already a lot.

THE OPENING & PLOT

literally right from the very opening it was just..... bad. it was very bad. it started with this news blitz of like, clips of reporters talking about some mysterious big drama, and it was the. weirdest possible tone. to start this story from? it was weird and bad. every character's introduction was weird and bad. butler's actor was wearing fucking irradiated blue contact lenses for some fucking reason. artemis was surfing. what is going on here.

so here are some wild choices they made: artemis's mom? dead. artemis's dad? PRESENT AND ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN HIS LIFE. he is a leather jacket wearing, affectionate, involved Cool Dad who just has to go on a lot of work trips. friends, those of you who read these books will remember that the situation is that artemis's father has been gone for like Two Years, and artemis's mother is......... basically comatose in her room. she is very much not doing any parenting. this is the specific collection of factors that lets the whole plot happen, because it leaves artemis without any supervision or parenting, and also just enough like. cover for the plot to allow this to keep happening, because artemis iirc goes to great lengths to cover up his mom's like. catatonia.

i didn't watch most of the movie. i watched less than nineteen minutes of it. so i can't say much about the plot, but this setup of like........... COOL STUNTS and mulch diggums being interviewed by the human-ass police and artemis's dad teaching him about the faeries because they're Bonding (???????) and there's a basement of faerie artifacts in fowl manor it just. i don't. why would you do this.

ARTEMIS HIMSELF

oh my gd. they massacred my boy- like. okay. listen. i was listening to a wonderful podcast - it's called the shrieking shack, i highly recommend it, and it's a podcast by and for, quote "lapsed h/arry pott/er fans" and the hosts are great, it's well edited, it's a wonderful, hilarious read. in one episode i was just listening to, artemis fowl came up! the host liz was saying that she was just generally fed up with and burnt out on the 'boy genius' genre as a whole, which is fair. i respect that and i vibe with it. however, she didn't recall anything from the actual books themselves, which became clear, because her cohost, xeecee, sort of cut in to correct that like. actually, these books were a pretty effective and highly specific deconstruction of the Cool Boy Genius Genre.

artemis is smart as all hell, that's true. he's incredibly smart. however, he's also a smug, irritating, irresponsible little shit who makes bad choices, and the narrative and other characters are not easy on him for this. he's not supposed to. he's not cool, or smooth, or admirable, or whatever. he's just... a shitty baby with no supervision, entirely too much money, yes too smart for his own good, but making bad decisions and seeing consequences for those decisions and having to grapple with like. the way those bad decisions have consequences for other people too. and the movie....... un-subverted that. they ruined it entirely, because actually yes, in that film we are directly supposed to think artemis is Really Cool! we're introduced to him SURFING for fuck's sake. artemis fowl. introduced to us SURFING.

and then there's like......... the introduction, the first couple of MINUTES of this movie. like within the first three or so minutes. they torpedoed any chance i would have at taking this seriously as an adaptation of artemis fowl.

and so what really struck me very quickly as Extremely Wrong is that - and this is something that as an adult particularly reflecting on this makes me profoundly fucking sad - but he's too..... happy. in the first several minutes. he's happy. he's having fun. he's relaxed, he's a kid. that's not........ he's not like that in the books. he's not happy. he's not running around grinning because golly gee gosh does he love being in the outdoors in ireland!!!!! he's severe, and intense, and focused and we see him smug, and self-satisfied, and proud, and like. excited in an intellectual, aha what a clue kind of way, but he is not happy. and he specifically isn't relaxed and like- bouncy-happy the way he is in the first several minutes here. this movie so thoroughly misses the mark that it misses one of the most acute pieces of like. pathos? in these books? which is that artemis himself is a really fucking tragic character. like yeah, he's a shitty baby and he sucks, but that's 1. the point, and 2. he is a Child who didn't have a chance in hell of actually being one.

i think we get to see him like. shed that a bit, later on, and actually have some moments where he is happy. but it's so like........... it takes a longass time and it's extremely hard-won, from a reader's perspective. when we see him crack and act like a kid, it's huge. it's extremely emotionally affecting. so to have his introduction not only involve SURFING but artemis grinning and bouncing around and doing sick skateboard trips..... no. that's not...... no. at this point the protagonist is unrecognizable, and why are you doing an adaptation. just make a different movie.

BUTLER

in his introductory sequence, the narrative says he is never to be called The Butler, even though his last name IS butler, and "you could call him 'dom' or 'domovoi'" which...... lmfao. fuck off. you could resoundingly NOT call him that, that was in fact a major plot point. twice. this really, really fucking bothered me, because like..... that is specifically a character thing that i really really liked from the books, the whole thing about butler's first name. and the thing they did with artemis's parents, with his mom being dead and his dad just sort of Being Here As An Active Presence like. completely undermined the whole...... thing, with artemis and butler. butler was his father figure, but neither of them could really..... they were both kept at arm's length from this for a very long time, because butler was employed by the fowl family and artemis is like. so fucking emotionally repressed that he is practically made of stone. like...

one of the reasons that butler was a character i was always pretty fascinated by as an adult who like, pretty seriously failed artemis but also couldn't really have done any better because of the specific combination of factors that landed both of them where they were in life. and the emotional core of their relationship was something i was obsessed with as a kid who was just getting super into Found Family As A Trope. and the whole thing where like....... one of THE major cracks we see in artemis's persona, the biggest CONSEQUENCES that he sees is when he makes a mistake, he gets outplayed, and butler is fatally shot. he's devastated, he's terrified, and it's his fault. someone he loved - whether or not he could contextualize it like that - was going to die and it was his fault. and that scene of him dealing with this, and making this plan to save him and needing to move butler to the restaurant freezer and being too small to move him effectively was like.... man that hit so hard. and none of that hits without this deliberate distance that's represented by the fact that not only does artemis not refer to butler by his first name, he does not fucking know what it is.

and then in this movie the first line that artemis says to butler addresses him directly as "dom" and i- no. i think i actually said "fuck off" out loud. because come on.

THE UH. CASTING CHOICES. THEY MADE. HOO BOY.

so i didn't get to meet either of them in the movie and this was for the best, but boy did they ever make some casting choices with root and holly.

i love dame judi dench, i love the THOUGHT of her playing root, but like.......... of all the characters you could genderbend, literally pick any of them but that one. any of them. at all. personally? i think it'd be fucking great to make mulch a woman, or trouble kelp. i personally, for my own enjoyment, would fucking LOVE to see a Cool Butch Lady Trouble Kelp. bruh. PLEASE. but........ root?????? genderbending that character specifically undermines the entire Deal with him and holly. because the fact that root was a kinda shitty older man who had to pull his head out of his ass was THE POINT. but uh. not like they got into that i guess, given what i heard they did with holly. who, speaking of-

and casting a kid to play holly? no. no. fuck off. she is a grown-ass adult woman. i'm not even gonna get into this. it's so bad. why the fuck would you do that. that's probably what actually got me to bail because i thought i'd like, hallucinated that or something but my buddy confirmed that no, she was played by A CHILD. good lord. no.

[what-do-1000-swords-look-like]

Eddie: "Well, the rain finally started." (aka the other shoe finally dropped as expected)

Buck: "It's kind of weird but it ended up being a really nice night. Kind of felt like we were an actual family."

Eddie: "You are an actual family."

Buck (with that little familiar smile and duck of his head): "It never felt that way before."

Bobby: "So maybe you all made some progress there. That's good. Life's too short to take those relationships for granted."

Eddie: "Sounds like your family had your back on the whole donation thing. That's definitely progress."

Buck: "No, they, uh, they totally thought that was an idiotic decision. They just weren't going to let Chimney's dad have the last word on it.

1, Eddie has no idea what he's about to be in for.

2, Eddie hasn't been in much of the episode which would be weird given how he was emotionally supportive and present for Buck back in season 4 when Buck's parents came around & it would be even weirder to bring Albert back for it but not Eddie. However, I see what they're doing here. This is about Buck, as we all know, and he & Eddie are not on the same page as evidenced not only be the sweat shirt/suspenders from the turnout gear locker scene but also Buck not being honest with Eddie about his parents' actual reaction to the donor news. Which would be weird considering again what happened in season 4 and how he had no problem being honest with Eddie (or Bobby) then, but this is all setting up Buck to go on this journey that we're about to see so he can come full circle in his arc himself. And he needs to do that himself in order for there to be the full growth/development he needs to experience in order to get to Buck 4.0 and set him up for his future (aka Buddie). So it's no coincidence that he's not being completely honest here with Eddie or Bobby (his father figure & the person that sometimes mirrors Eddie himself).

3, The universe is about to get very loud again. Buck isn't listening to it and it's obvious because of him just saying what he said to Eddie even though we the viewers know differently (and thus we are supposed to question just why Buck is telling Eddie and Bobby something different when we know Buck is probably over the moon about his parents' real reaction, primarily Eddie since they are facing each other & his answer is directly to Eddie's statement). Buck had no problem admitting that it felt like they were a family to Eddie and Bobby who both commented on it. But Eddie was the only one to bring up the donor issue (which means it's on his mind & most likely what's bothering him, just like in 6A when we saw the four-way phone call, also notice no Hen or Chim in the engine at this point, Chim who would call bull on what Buck just said & Hen who Buck confided in before everyone else about the donor decision) and that's when Buck gives him that line. The sperm donor issue isn't just an issue for Buck; it's an issue for Eddie, too. This cements it. The fact that Bobby doesn't comment on it or say anything akin to Eddie shows just who this issue is going to affect/impact moving forward. And I think iirc there was talk about a possible dating scenario for Eddie in this back half of the season? This all jives exactly with that scenario if it happens. Buck and Eddie need to get on the same page first before anything can happen.

4, Bobby! Life is too short to take those relationships for granted??? While it's being made obvious that Buck is still holding something from Eddie and vice versa? You're killing me here. Do I really have to wait another week to see how this is all going to play out with what's coming? Especially for Buck's life? 911 writers, have mercy!

5, for those who say Buddie isn't a real thing, it won't go canon, and whatever else: the fact that the universe (aka the writers/show) has gotten involved each and every single time when it comes to these two guys and their arcs means they're moving towards it. Accept it, love it, live it, and move on. The whole roadmap has been set out before us; season 7 is going to be lit.

[imakemywings]

Idril and Eärendil for the ask game? 😁

Idril:

There needs to be a square for "They did nothing wrong." Idril did nothing wrong! Well...she may be a kinslayer, but other than that!

I've talked before about why I don't think children were taken across the Helcaraxe, so my take is that Idril was an adult when she left Tirion and honestly that makes it more interesting for me because it means she was fully capable of making her own decisions when she went. Both her parents went--Elenwe is the only wife iirc who is explicitly stated to have gone with--which makes me think the whole family was probably on board with this. As always with the Nolofinweans, the question of Alqualonde looms...did Idril kill anyone? Maybe? I think in the heat of the moment she would have, particularly when they didn't really understand what was going on.

So presumably Idril made her own adult decision to go on this quest and then her mom dies and they spent 30 years crossing an icy wasteland and maybe she's a killer now and her parents are probably killers and nothing will ever be the same as it was. Did Idril see anything, when they were crossing the Helcaraxe? Did she see anything about their future in Middle-earth? Or was it all foggy and obscure out there on the ice?

She must be a practical person--she has the wherewithal to start planning Gondolin's escape even when she doesn't know what's coming or when. She's smart enough to keep it from Maeglin. She even has armor made for Earendil, and that ends up saving his life when Maeglin stabs him.

Idril honestly doesn't get a ton of fandom attention, but I have seen some takes that blame her for Maeglin's betrayal or act like she treated him unfairly and I am so not here for that. Maeglin's creep behavior towards Idril is fairly canonical and the idea that she was obliged to put up with that for hundreds of years or even "give him a chance" (!! what kind of misogyny!!) is insane to me. Nor does it state anywhere in the book or drafts that she is unkind to him--only that she's put off by his insistent romantic interest in her and that she doesn't trust him. The dude was ready to murder her husband and child and force her to marry him, and that really doesn't say anything good about their past history.

I do tend to think their relationship had its positive elements, particularly when Maeglin was younger, but I think his refusal to accept her lack of romantic interest in him wore things down pretty far, which only got worse when Tuor came into the picture. I think early on, Idril assumed Maeglin just had a crush that would pass and she wanted to try to be there for him while trying to set some reasonable boundaries, but as he became an adult and still would not take no for an answer, she probably did lose patience with him.

Love her leading the Gondolindrim to safety during the fall, and I love fanon interpretations where she gets close with Elwing in the Havens at Sirion. I'm sure Elwing has other parental figures in her life from among the Doriathrim, but the thought of her having been close with her mother-in-law for years before she and Earendil are married is sweet <3

OH and she's every bit as much of a nerd as Turgon. She's fantastic with administrative tasks.

Earendil:

Earendil, our most beloved star! Earendil is painted so clearly as a hero in the book and as a savior of Middle-earth that some of the takes on him absolute baffle me. It feels like there are fans who don't understand that many Silm characters end up in positions where there is no "good" option--only the one that does the least damage and nets the most good. There is nothing in the text that tells us Earendil wanted to leave his family and go sailing for Aman seeking help against Melkor. In fact, what we do get of him and the fact that he willingly surrenders his preferred choice on the Peredhel question for the sake of Elwing suggests he loved them a lot and would have much preferred to stay at home with his wife and his kids.

I tend to assume these less charitable takes, as with Elwing, are for the sake of making him look worse so Maedhros and Maglor don't look quite as bad for butchering the Havens and kidnapping his children.

I love Earendil/Elwing as a "childhood friends to lovers" romance where they're these kids who have been through so much already but they meet and grow up together in the Havens and it feels so natural when things shift to a romance <3 They may be a little co-dependent at times but that's okay <3

Tolkien describes his first voyage:

"Earendil found not Tuor nor Idril, nor came he ever on that journey to the shores of Valinor, defeated by shadows and enchantment, driven by repelling winds, until in longing for Elwing he turned homewards towards the coast of Beleriand." (Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath)

I do not believe this guy, who missed his wife so much that he went back to see her again when even the perils of the sea had not deterred him, did not love his family.

"Great was the sorrow of Earendil and Elwing for the ruin of the havens of Sirion, and the captivity of their sons, and they feared that they would be slain..." (Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath)

Did it hurt Elwing and the twins that he was away? Yeah, at times, it probably did. Did it hurt the twins that their dad was not able to rescue them from the Feanorians? Yeah, it probably did. Unfortunately, turning back would have forfeited bringing the host of Aman out in force against Melkor. Earendil sacrificed the joy of being there with and for his family to make sure they survived, and the rest of Middle-earth with them. At this point in the story we know, and many of the characters seem to understand, that Melkor cannot be defeated without the aid of the Valar. They need the Valar's help. Someone has to get it. Earendil takes that burden on himself and it does mean he can't really be there for his family. But not because he doesn't love them or want to be there with them. Earendil's story throughout is one of sacrifice. He helps save Middle-earth, he defeats Ancalagon, he ensures the survival of Elves and Men alike--but it means he can never see his children again, he can never go home to the Havens again, he is tasked with sailing Vingilot for the rest of time. He is probably the most quintessential folk hero in Middle-earth.

I also want to note, regarding the Silmaril, this quote about Earendil and Elwing's final voyage in search of Aman:

"He stood now most often at the prow of Vingilot, and the Silmaril was bound upon his brow; and ever its light grew greater as they drew into the West. And the wise have said that it was by reason of the power of that holy jewel that they came in time to waters that no vessels save those of the Teleri had known..." (Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath)

Here it is strongly suggest that but for the Silmaril Earendil and Elwing's quest would have failed. If they were not able to reach Aman, they would not have been able to bring the host of the Valar back to Middle-earth. In short: if the Feanorians had successfully reclaimed every Silmaril, it may have ensured Melkor's victory over Middle-earth.

This is, to me, the strongest evidence that Elwing was not wrong to withhold the Silmaril from the Feanorians and that her belief that Earendil needed it was not misplaced.

Also, this, from when Earendil finally comes before Manwe and the Valar:

"Pardon he asked for the Noldor and pity for their great sorrows, and mercy upon Men and Elves and succor in their need. And his prayer was granted." (Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath)

One of the most annoying things I think is when people act like Earendil and Elwing are either obliged to forgive the Feanorians for what they did or else they're heartless bastards. Here we see Earendil explicitly ask for pardon of the Noldor. Earendil and Elwing are not unreasonable or set against the Noldor or whatever. Earendil is part Noldor himself! That does not mean they have to forgive the Feanorians for the brutal war crimes they committed.

ANYWAY as I've said before...Earendil is clearly intended to be a deeply sympathetic and heroic character and I'm not in for takes that don't acknowledge that.

[kob131]

Soooo have you finished off Umineko? IIRC there's still some extra content and a short story that also includes details on some development trivia.

What did you think overall?

Uh...not in my version. Story's over after the 8th Hidden Tea Party.

My thoughts?

It's a very effective story.

I know that sounds like a thinly veiled insult or faint praise but Umineko has such a variety in tones, emotions, themes and general pacing that it's hard to define it in one way. What I mean is you'll have this very dark, gorey and horrifying moments like with the end of Episode 2 with everyone being eaten alive and then you have Episode 4 which begins with Beatrice busting into the room like a sitcom character. Or the despair of Episode 5's ending coming after this almost knight-like scene of Piece-Battler taking and dashing off with Beatrice in tow. Or the fact that we have a character whose parent is currently with Ragyo as 'worst anime parent' (complete with the incestous rape) in the same game as Battler making grabby motions at Shannon's tits and thanking Jessica for hitting him.

Like- Between the really sad factual events like how Sayo fucking kills herself which likely contributed to the long separation of Ange and Battler due to both brain damage from drowning and the immense tramua of the whole situation; the really sweet moments of Battler trying his best to help Ange live as happy of a life as she can and the sheer horror behind characters like Lambdadelta and Featherine- I don't know what to say to really sum it all up other than 'effective'.

The mystery element goes without saying considering the sheer number of times I humiliated myself trying to solve the mystery: it's obvious well hidden without being a sucker punch because many things in the story make logical sense with the knowledge that Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice being the same person.

The sad elements were enough to make me cry at the end as Sayo killed herself or when Battler returns to everyone in the new 'Golden Land' which also implies the new Gospel House will improve the lives of many orphaned kids, likely preventing the tragedy of Sayo's life from repeating.

The horror elements obviously worked- scaring me is not something easily done. I'm a guy who shrugs off horror pretty easily given my mom's love of Nightmare on Elm Street. But I legitimately find Lambdadelta's insanity and juxitposition unnerving and the concept of Featherine's abilities do legitimately come across as almost 'eldritch' in how they're presented between the font change, the sheer lack of malice or effort in her CG and the complete violation of cause and effect. There's also how Battler just...breaks at times, like how he refuses to suspect his family which eventually made him just go mad.

The jokes don't really feel out of place given that they happen in the time before the murders and do get a laugh out of me. Not to mention that some of them, like Battler's fondness for big boobs and Beatrice getting sloshed in Episode 4, actually provide hints to figuring out the core mystery.

The music is really fucking good. Standouts to me include Mirage Coordinator for the sense of hopeless and powerlessness before fickle and cruel beings. Patchwork Chimera for setting up the feeling of a climatic show. Thanks For Being Born for delivering the idea of a deep, throbbing sadness and pain that plagues the scenes it's in. And Endless Nine for that feeling of unstoppable determination.

And, to really emphasize how effective it all was- my general journey throughout the game reflected Battler's own journey. From being ignorant of the events to defiantly fighting against Beatrice to raging against her to feeling uncertain and uncomfortable about ending her to hoping for her return.

That's a sign of a good story.

[bruggle]

Hey its me I'm back. Back with a different idea.

So a couple weeks ago I made a post about Nefarion. Nothing in depth, just a little shitpost. But that coupled with @unofskylanderspages recent posting of stuff from the Mask of Power books got me thinking.

What would happen if Nefarion was never stopped? I'm not talking about what would happen if Kaos screwed with the past too much, I'm talking about what would happen if Wizbit (I think that's his name) chose to take the Obi Wan Kenobi route instead of trying to stop him himself? Because Wizbit stopping Nefarion (one way or another) lead to Eon becoming the Portal Master we all know and love, and the subsequential events of the games. But if that never happened, how would that change things?

So. Let me detail what I'm thinking.

If Nefarion were never stopped, there would not be any Portal Masters willing to expose themselves as such lest they be hunted down and killed. Wizbit and any other remaining Portal Masters would hide themselves away and probably never use their magic unless necessary, and probably not be very willing to train anyone as such either. There also would not be any Skylanders as Nefarion banished the Skylanders of his time, and I highly doubt he would allow any sort of rebellion to take place under his reign.

Now, where does that leave the characters of the time we know? Well, that leaves me to pull some bs from the mess of lore that we have in games. First, I'm going to talk about Kaosandra and Kaos. Because hoo boy is that a freaking contradictory mess, lmao. So according to Giants, Kaos' parents HATE Portal Masters. This is kind of confusing later on as it is later revealed that Kaos' mother is herself a Portal Master. Now, most people just take this as Viarious Visions not paying attention to previously established lore from Toys for Bob. If it is or not, idk. Maybe it's just that they hate Light Portal Masters, but are fine with Dark Portal Masters (Kaos being the exception because... bad parenthood).

Most people take it that Kaosandra just hid the fact that she's a Portal Master from her husband, whoever tf he is. (Because remember, according to game canon, Kaos and Eon are not related). And I can see this making sense ONLY if one goes off part of Spyro's Adventure's lore for Kaos; that being that he is a prince from a different world entirely. Again, this stuff has some MASSIVE contradictions. He's from a different world, but you can also go to his childhood house within a day. He's royalty, but also his parents amassed their wealth from gross soda. Nobody plays these games for the lore.

ANYWAYS. So if Kaosandra hid the fact that she's a Portal Master to gain power and wealth from a man that hates what she is, I can 100% see her doing so to stay alive. ...and still get some power and wealth out the deal. May as well go big or go home even if it puts you within closer ranks of someone who wants you dead, right? Here, I imagine that the man she marries is probably related to Nefarion in some way or another. Definitely not his son, nor some kind of king. Possibly a grandson or even great-grandson. (Also, would Nefarion be alive at this point? I mean, I suppose he could be. For all we know, the mask could grant immorality) I mean, children of princes are still called a prince, iirc. So that would still check the box of Kaos being a prince. It could also grant Kaosandra a bit of invisibility because what Portal Master would be dumb enough to marry into Nefarion's family? Hiding in plain sight, as it were.

Now, this would still probably lead to Kaos being a Portal Master himself, but the threat of death would DEFINITELY subdue at least SOME aspects of his personality. He'd still have a complex and be an ahole, but just a slightly less LOUD ahole. Your great great grandfather hanging death over your head does wonders for behavior, I imagine. Now, whether Kaosandra knows that he's a Portal Master or not would definitely be up in the air; as it could either be a very rare instance of motherly love from her to teach him to hide it, or him just being the disappointing, ugly runt of the litter that she constantly overlooks. Which would still be a slight advantage for him to, again, avoid death. Because he wouldn't know she's a Portal Master either. So this would probably lead to him NOT kicking his father in the shins at a party and leaving. Straight up bad idea in this context.

Now, where would Eon be? Tbh, I can't see him in anything less than a position of power. He's too grandfatherly. Now, according to lore, he was a servant boy to the previous Portal Master who led the Skylanders. Well, that sure can't happen here. So I imagine that on top of being a genocidal maniac, Nefarion is also probably legit racist. He probably wouldn't have any mabu, molekin, dragons, or what have you in any position of power. Perhaps in that case, Eon's family would be granted a lordship or something just because "haha human" idk. I'm pulling stuff out of thin air for this idea. Leave me alone.

Now, would Eon still be a Portal Master? Yeah. Would he be trained? ...maybe? Maybe one of the few Portal Masters that still knew what they were doing noticed that one of the local lords (that is actually a decent human being that disagrees with Nefarion, but uh... too smol to do something) has some interesting qualities about him and offers to teach him how to harness and hide it in exchange for safety? Could work. What would he be lord over? Probably a small part of the mabu country. And who would he be a lord FOR? Well, obviously, Nefarion or whoever his successor is if I'm not going the immorality route would be the ultimate authority. However, depending on the time period and area, there are cases where children of the king who are NOT very close to succeeding to the throne are given presidence over a land and its lords so they don't have to go to the king directly for things as small as taxes. So heck it, let's put Kaos' family there.

Now, even without being a Portal Master, I'm sure the guy wouldn't like Eon. Eon would be a fair lord who probably doesn't overcharge taxes, and according to most stories, evil people don't like that. So they'd be on board with getting rid of him, but can't because he hasn't really done anything that would warrant it, nor is it their call.

But he is old and doesn't have an heir.

🤔

[femme-enby]

For anyone reading my haunt AU fanfic… I need you to understand just how many “and then everyone clapped” events occur every season. I personally have had at least one each season. There’s also so many things that just sound so stupid, or absolutely insane.

Also I have no problem potentially stating identifying details bc if you identify me that means you’re also on tumblr, and that’s a you problem, not a me problem.

For example- first season, early in the season, we’re getting rained out. We’ve paused, my hicks and the clowns who were our neighbors, (where my love for the clown position started) and while we’re all huddled in a ride’s backroom of sorts, the managers call for a potty break. Randomly they pick me to escort everyone and ensure everyone gets back together. I did not volunteer, for all they know I was gonna get up to shenanigans bc I was pretty quiet my first season.

I take my job very seriously, ofc, and I have everyone walk ahead of me so I can keep my eyes on all of them. We get to the restrooms and iirc I told them to holler something to the effect of “monsters on potty break” to lessen the chances of them startling guests by just flooding in there. I stand outside like a guard dog, and as they come out I have them huddle around me, under the smoke section umbrella now. Did I simply go off of sight to tell me if we had everyone? No of course not, I can’t be normal about shit.

I holler out the hick call- “YEEYEE!” And wouldn’t you know it, even the clowns replied. We did in fact have one straggler who I heard call from the restroom, to which I sent in a monster to check on them (issue w costume I believe?) and once we truly had everyone, we marched back.

The guests were looking at us like this was the cutest shit they’d ever seen- waterlogged monsters traveling for their potty break in a gaggle, being herded by some 5’3 Texas chainsaw lookin ass motherfucker.

Alternatively, another night where we got rained out, I once again opted to bring up the back of the line (this is my norm. I want to ensure I’ve got everyone.) and we were instructed to scare but keep moving.

Well, one of our “Star monsters” at the front lunged at a guy, and he lunged forward grabbing them by the throat. The entire line stopped short and I swear I damn near teleported up to them past maybe 30 or so other monsters bc it was a combo of hicks, clowns, and zombies.

Dude must have been about 6ft, yet I immediately got between him at the monster he grabbed and chewed him tf out. I berated him like he was some misbehaving child and I was his fed up parent. “Do NOT touch the monsters, did you not see the signs? Hear the announcements? Notice how no one was touching the monsters nor were the monsters touching guests??” “Yeah but-“ “So you did. What made you think grabbing a monster, by the throat no less, was acceptable?” “It’s not but-“ “so you knew it was unacceptable. If you cannot control your fear response then you should not be at a haunt because you are a danger to yourself and others. At the very least we have No Boo necklaces. You know that right?” “Yes but I didn’t want to look stupid-“ “I do not care what you want. You hurt one of my monsters, you need to go home. Now.” “Which way-“ bro looked properly ashamed by that point, after looking ready to talk down to me at the start. Pointed him out and told him to put his hands in his pockets if he can’t keep them to himself. He did. Monster was fine, I checked briefly before laying into him, and then again after. From that night on I never saw their partner monster further than arm’s length.

The shenanigans also do not stop once we clock out, regrettably.

We regularly would frequent this one fast food place & camp out in front while we ate. Folks would show up w half faces of makeup, half a costume on (if they had gotten approval to wear their own clothes & have them altered by costuming if necessary) and ofc few of us look like your average cishet, socially conforming members of society.

So obviously by 1-3A weirdos other than us are also out on the streets, also looking for quick cheap food.

We ofc had a few negative interactions there, but the most recent/notable to me incident was when a car pulled up and IMMEDIATELY a dude was clearly inebriated and trying to start some shit. He was already talking shit about us for being weird for sitting on the ground (mind- unless we all wanted to sit on/in our cars, there was no other option, the location did not have outdoor seating.) threatening to spit on us (believe this was the first season after the haunt had been closed for a year due to lockdown, so that was meant to carry that weight unlike it might have prior to the height of the pandemic) and just stomping around and between us trying to start something.

Bless nearly everyone for resorting to just acting as though he didn’t exist aside from a few glances, but… oh, my darling friend. With all of their anxiety, their fear response is “fight” in a sense. For them, verbally.

They start telling him off even as they’re clearly trying to melt into the wall they’re sitting against, voice starting to shake as he also just keeps going, now focused on them and threatening to start shooting.

My personal rule of thumb is- do what you will to me, but not to my people. No, that is not the healthiest mindset to have, no it does not convey me having any sense of self preservation. In that type of situation, I really don’t.

Having had enough of all of that shit, I stood up, ignoring and brushing off folks trying to stop me, and got between him and my friend, now realizing dude is at least 5’10, and simply standing there staring him in the eyes. Blank face, dead eyed stare. He’s hollerin, threatening to shoot me in particular. Ngl, I 100% intentionally squinted slightly and flexed an eyebrow which made him get even closer, (like damn bro we gonna make out?) which seemed to be the tipping point for someone else, one of the managers I believe (I refused to blink or break eye contact in any way) who stood up and started inching his way between us, and then another did the same, and eventually I had about 5? Monsters/managers suddenly in his face, now yelling him down, and his friends FINALLY got their shit together and grabbed his ass, packed him into the car, and left.

Another incident that I heard of (but did not witness), and I will firstly note that haunt acting draws in neurodivergent people like moths to a flame. At least half the folks are autistic, got ADHD, or both. Probably more actually.

At one point, there was this dude who was a major creep to anyone he viewed as a woman (so if you were trans but didn’t “fully pass” then that was good enough for him) and that didn’t exclude minors. People ofc complained, but he had one of THOSE mom’s. She would show up whenever there was a WHISPER of firing him, and threaten to go to the news and talk about “discrimination” bc her “baby has autism! He doesn’t mean any harm!”

Well. Someone had QUITE enough of that shit, when the norm became walking AFAB actors to their cars and ensuring they were loaded up and locked in.

Our hero, a slider, apparently took his gloved hand (with the spark puck attached) and open handed smacked the creep.

When management tried to go after HIM, he, and all the other monsters who got the chance to speak up, said “well he’s autistic! He just got overwhelmed by the dude being a creep and couldn’t regulate his emotions!”

Creep did not come back iirc.

Also, I’ve had guests come into MY space, tell ME to leave, and put their hands on me when I didn’t move from the spot I was TOLD TO STAY AT (Saturday night, crowded af, we had assigned spots for safety), I’ve had folks try to actively push me out of the way as I yell “NO.” “WRONG WAY.” “TURN AROUND.” All while exaggeratedly shaking my head, I’ve had guests run INTO MY ROOM, JUMP ONTO A TABLE, then act like they could not have possibly guessed that they WERE NOT supposed to do that despite bringing up the rear of a line that is actively walking AROUND the table.

I’ve told folks some version of “your mama ain’t raise you right” which MOST responded by looking truly ashamed, some laughed, and ONE actually told me “my mom is right behind me” to which I could not stop myself from lookin at her like she was the monster and saying “damn, and she raised you to act like that?” “Yup!” O_O

That one… that one still actually makes my brain grind to a halt. I had to take a minute after that interaction because my flabbers were completely ghasted. Gobbs were smacked into the ether. I had to go sit out back and just stare at the ground for a minute to try and either process it or just stick it in a box. (How do you process that? Like how does someone truly raise a child like that? How were they raised if they raised their child like that? I’m grown and if I acted like that my mom would snatch my ass up so fuckin fast it ain’t even funny. The entire park would have to hear her bitch me up, down, and out and then walk me out of the park like nothing happened.)

Oh, I almost forgot- one season I got picked in the middle of the shift to be a part of the monster meet and great. By the time I got there the drizzle had become a downpour, I looked like a drowned rat already, and they had me stand behind the stage. Never did come get me for the meet and greet and behind stage was also just open to the sky so by the time they remembered me and just went “oh… you can like… go back I guess?” I was completely drenched.

Went back to my area… and everyone was gone. I had to track them down, asking any straggling monsters along the way (which there had been like… 2, one who pointed me in a general direction and later another who said they were probably headed to a specific enclosed attraction bc that was where my attraction would go if it got rained out.

When I found my people, at least two of them said something like “I TOLD YOU WE WERE MISSING SOMEONE” (bc a manager from a different area had been watching us that night) and she was like “oh, I forgot about you. You can come with us to *enclosed attraction* since you’re here I guess.”

Cue monsters from that attraction asking why it looks like I took a swim & me having to explain the story between scaring the piss out of guests. This is where my true love for that specific attraction started btw.

Being a haunt actor can be truly wild. You witness neurodivergent folks unmasking (beautiful sight to see) you see some of the worst people ever (thankfully almost exclusively reserved for guests) and you just generally have some wild experiences (both good and bad) and you do get to grow as a person.

I know folks who have never been haunt actors might not think so, bc most seem to view it as folks picking out their own costumes and just yelling at people then going home… but think of it like… customer service on crack, with a majority of your customers being inebriated and viewing you as even less than human than they usually do, bc now you don’t even LOOK human.

Yeah… but hey! I’m much better at speaking up for myself now! And I’m much more comfortable with who I am and more sure of who I want to be. Things I’m not sure I could have figured out so quickly if I had just stuck with usual customer service gigs.

[the4bestgame-blog]

@mycomfortacc

Hi its the BTS guesser Gal from ur fic (I think this is you) here to tell you about Rocksy Stone/Takeshi Ishi.

So, the story starts out with an old minecraft server called "Lords of Minecraft" It was a plotbased RP server ran by some youtubers. One of the districts you could build in was the "Magic District" ran by the Wizard Nisovin. In cannon, no-one but the youtubers were suppossed to have Magic, but there was a small community called Twilight Town that did pretty much just Magic RP.

With everyone playing with Magic, a group of friends decided to try something out and all made characters without magic to see how long they would last and give all the characters that cannonicly could teach magic or give people magic items a group of people to influence. This was the first generation of the Stone Family.

The rules for creating a Stone Family character were simple, No Magic, Family name is Stone, their first name is some kind of Gem (Ruby Stone, Malicite Stone, ect) and they all had a Nickname based on a flower (Ruby "Poppy" Stone, Malicite "Dandylion" Stone)

The Partiarch of the Stone family was "Arune Stone" and there was a running joke that he hated rocks, boldures, pebbles, mountains, dwayne the rock johnson, hated them all.

Now, Rocksy wasn't part of Gen 1 of this, but Gen 1 was a huge sucsess, everyone loved these characters, and so, when we had to move away from Twilight Town and lords of minecraft to another server called Dusk Island, someone suggested Gen 2 of the Stone Family, this time with magic, and I was invited to take part.

Enter Rocksy "Orekid" Stone, a half earth elemental on her mothers side, half human.

This has been the first and most important fact of Rocksys character, her father hates her after a drunk one night stand, and her mother tries to love her but only sees her father. And because of this Rocksy lashes out at the rest of her family who are actually on her side and sympethise with what her parents put her through.

Now, Rocksys power was based on Kevin Levin from Ben ten, speificly the Ultimate Alien version. By touching anything she could absorb it into her body and become made of that material, but she was able to turn into all states of matter and energy, so she could become a swirling vortex of wind with her nails turned into sharp shards of iron for instance.

Now, this came to a head when her half sister got a powerup and they got in an arguement, out of character I didn't know but Sapphire now had the ability to redirect kenetic energy, so Rocksy went all in to combat as Sapphire was trying to talk her down, transformed her body into jagged glass to skewer her and as Sapphire blocked the attack she couldn't control her new powers well enough and shattered Rocksys right arm.

Now, Rocksy lost shards of herself before, and the rule was as long as she put it back in place before transforming back, she would transform back healed. But the shock of losing her entire arm caused her to transform back instantly, stuck there craddling her new stump.

Sapphire was distraught and tried to help but Rocksy was defeated, curled up into a ball unreponsive. She eventually studied under another character to learn artifice and made herself a prosthetic arm, but from that day she took the lesson to not be so rash, and started to repair her relationships, a mixture of loosing her arm and being able to pound her anger out into metal when blacksmithing helped mellow her.

Now that was the first Rocksy, the next was short lived, being a spin off of the above Rocksy in a new setting, but then we get to the first MHA Rocksy and the one named Takeshi.

So this was based in a setting called "Last Chance Hero Program" and the author of the fic encorged people to send in OC's to make it fit. I forget exsactly how I got the name but IIRC its Jappanese for "Angry Stone" and I liked the combonation of "Eshi, Ishi" at the end of the name, so its consistantly been kept as the name used for Rocksy in Jappanese settings.

Rocksy in this setting with a violent vigilantie that was brought in to become a hero instead of causing trouble in the streets, the fic didn't go on very long, but - despite the fact that I never mentioned OG Rocksy loosing her arm, she still ended up loosing her right arm in a fight against a villian, which I always found kind of funny.

Takeshi's main addition to the Rocksy lore was the name and her role as a violent vigilantie, framing her anger that was once pointed at the fellow players playing members of her family as being aimed at the world that hurt her instead, though not without a heart of gold that was trying to do good. It also cannonised her having pure white hair that was actually Diorite from transforming her hair into stone but being unable/unwilling to transform it back.

The Next Rocksy barely got played, but was Sneaky RP Rocksy, ran by the same Youtuber as the origonal Lords of Minecraft, Rocksy went back to her roots in this, as the origonal Minecraft Skin was based on Roxie from pokemon and was a Rock musican. Sneaky RP was very much a calmer Rocksy and had lost her arm many years ago, and was now a semi famous musican moving around the world, probably the happiest she ever got.

Then we have whats known as Shadows Rocksy, set in my friends live streamed minecraft RP server. She was an addition to season 2, showing up at the end of season 1 after they started an appololips to save them. She was a Blacksmith again, and there were talks above the table about maybe loosing her arm again, but the server shut down before we got that far, so she's one of the only Rocksy's to keep both her arms.

Then we have two very similar Rocksys, set in the Worm Parahumans universe. Their father turned into a PRT officer (basicly a cop) and she triggered (got powers from the worst day of your life) from his treatment of her. In one world she becomes a violent vigilanty again, in the other she gets preyed upon by a cult/gang that twists her worldview and uses her as a wepon pointed at the establishment pretending to be true revolutionaries.

The final Rocksy is from Changeling the Lost, a whitewolf RPG. This is also, notibly, the only Rocksy who has a good relationship with her family… had.

Our story starts back around the first world war, Rocksy and her family where Blacksmiths making horseshoes and other such things for the war effort. But poor Rocksy stayed out late and heard something calling her from the woods. She went to check it out, and stumbled into Arcadia, the realm of the fae. There she was transformed into a giant mountain, where parts of her personality and emotions where represented by gemstones, gemstones that could be mined out. For decades she had each part of her soul stripmined by the faeries changlign workers, until everything was gone, everything but the molten rock that was her anger. Over time the faerie forget she was ever a person, just a somewhat alrge mountain, having expected the torment to break her and make their thoughts true reality.

But Rocksy endured.

When all the miners were gone, when the fae turned away, she fled the hedge, breaking free into reality, but forever changed. Physicaly still a giant, with anger as her only emotion, though remembering the faint echos of what she misses. She's trying to collect the gemstones of her self the fae stole and sold to rebuild her personality, but doing so leaves her unbalenced. She got her loyalty back before much else and one of the other members of the party was in danger from a hostil ghost. Rocksy stepped up to defend having the highest HP and being build to endure and tried to punch the ghost back.

Rocksy lost her arm again.

But Rocksy Endured.

The game was put on hold not long after that, but once again Rocksy learnt how to make magic items and has created her own arm and has now left the court of summer (anger/wrath) for dusk (The world is ending, we can't stop it, but we can fight against the dying of the light so those weaker than us have one more day.)

[thegeminisage]

john abused both dean AND sam, just differently. in this essay i will

prove that the abuse manifested in different ways for each of them because that’s how abuse works in real life. this is based on the fact that john saw dean as mary’s surrogate but once he found out about the deal and sam having demon blood he blamed sam for her death. ok let’s fucking go

dean as mary’s surrogate

there are loads of parallels made between dean and mary in early season spn and late season spn. in season 12 dean directly calls himself sam’s mother, but even earlier than that we see him doing the cooking and child rearing. compare that to all the parallels made between sam and john (both of them losing their blonde woman significant others in a ceiling fire) and it’s clear that dean was meant to more resemble mary. it’s not a stretch to say that if we can see it as viewers this is how john saw it in his actual life. i do think john loves dean for being dean but he loves him more for being mary.

sam as the reason behind mary’s death

i think once john learned that sam had demon blood, some part of him must have always been waiting for the other shoe to drop with sam, not ever fully believing this kid was human, and maybe not even knowing if this kid was HIS. a popular theory back in the day was that YED fathered sam (something they had to actually address in season 4 to stop the speculation), and if WE speculated that hard, surely john must have too. i’m sure he loves sam as an extension of mary, and keeps and raises and protects him BECAUSE he’s mary’s, but similarly (or maybe inverse) to dean, i don’t know if he ever fully gave himself permission to love sam for being sam. in fact, i imagine john harbors a lot of self-loathing for failing to save mary. if we directly parallel john and sam, that means by some extent he would also hate sam.

john trusted dean with far too much, and sam with far too little

dean knew about monsters; sam didn’t. dean had memories of their mother and the night she died, and shared that trauma of watching her die with john; sam didn’t. dean knew when john was supposed to be home and who to call if he wasn’t; sam didn’t. dean was given the money and the guns and the CAR ITSELF; sam wasn’t. dean was taught to drive; SAM WASN’T. 

dean was expected to do everything john was supposed to have been doing in his absence - he was to be a mother and father to sam, he was supposed to protect sam from evil, he was supposed to see to sam’s meals and homework and getting to school on time. and he was put under an EXTRAORDINARY amount of pressure not to screw this up even a little bit, despite the fact that he was only a kid. sam on the other hand was kept on a strict need-to-know basis for his entire life, right up until season 1 when they reunite at last. john didn’t trust sam with ANYTHING, and sam knew it. this contributed to his lifelong anger issues because he didn’t DO anything to warrant that kind of mistrust and probably got gaslit about it a lot of times either by john himself or dean (unknowingly, by parroting/believing the things john said). even in the pilot sam says very casually of his mother “she’s gone,” because her memory doesn’t hold the same place of reverence for him - best guess is that john didn’t talk about her much to sam because he didn’t trust sam with emotional stuff either. in s14 we learn that dean was the one who told sam stories about mary, including her terrible casserole - and their attempt at recreating it infuriated john to the point of him throwing the entire concoction in the trash.

john relied on dean for everything, and refused to rely on sam for anything

canonically dean was the one who comforted john after a bad hunt, looked after and fed his brother when john wasn’t around. dean knew how to use a shotgun; sam didn’t. dean knew who to call in an emergency; sam didn’t. dean knew about monsters; sam didn’t. this was done under the guise of “protection for sammy” but turn it around and it’s also protection FROM sammy. think of how angry john gets when he learns sam has been having psychic visions. he’s not just angry that dean didn’t report it to him, he’s angry that the demon’s plans for sam are coming to pass, and that sam is becoming less human. again, he can’t TRUST sam if sam’s not human, and it proves to john that he was right all along to keep sam in the dark as much as possible.

john gave dean too much freedom, and sam no freedom at all

“watch out for sammy.” sam was under constant supervision by either dean or john; john made sure of it. again, it’s protection FOR sam but also protection FROM him, in case he did something inhuman or evil. dean on the other hand was left alone without any supervision at all for days or even weeks at a time - he resorts to stealing bread and peanut butter and (according to jackles) turning tricks for money. he had to make it work and got up to whatever the fuck he wanted when john wasn’t looking. sam had to LITERALLY run away from home before he got the simple pleasure of eating pizza and having a dog by himself, independently. dean was given too much independence and freedom but sam was kept on such a short leash he had none at all.

john made dean feel unworthy, and he made sam feel unclean

when dean fails to protect sam from the shtriga in the season 1 flashbacks, he says his dad looked at him differently after. he also implies that john physically beat him when sam ran away in flagstaff. whether he meant to or not, john made it abundantly clear that his love for dean was not unconditional; it depended very much on how well dean performed the multitude of tasks john assigned him. dean grew up believing that his only worth was in what he could do for other people. he demonstrates this an an adult over and over and over, from letting his possessed family members beat him up to refusing to take care of his own needs, emotional and otherwise, and snapping at people who try to talk to him about his own feelings.

on the other hand, sam talks in season 8 about how even at a very young age he felt impure and unclean, even before he knew that he had demon blood, even before he knew that there was any such thing as monsters. kids aren’t stupid, and sam picked up on the vibes john was putting off - that john didn’t trust him, might not have loved him, and might not have considered him human or even his own child. without even knowing why, he spent his entire life feeling unclean and inhuman, not worth of being loved by his own family. even dean, who we all know loves sam unconditionally, admits in season 14 that he often took dad’s side on arguments because he had “his own stuff,” further leading to the alienation that was sam’s constant companion growing up. 

AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY:

JOHN’S ABUSE PITTED SAM AND DEAN AGAINST EACH OTHER

john saved dean after their shared trauma of mary’s death. dean says in season 1 that the reason he stopped talking was that he was scared. iirc john’s journal implies he was mute for over a year, and dean in season 2 says that when he was 6 or 7 his dad took him shooting for the first time. if mary died just before dean’s fifth birthday, the timeline works out to dean talking again because john took him shooting. i believe that dean hero worships his father because after mary’s death, and dealing with the terror that something like that could come in and take his family away by killing them horribly at any time without any warning, john learning to fight back against the darkness - and teaching dean to do the same - is what gave dean his voice again. BOTH of them saw and carried the memory of mary burning on the ceiling for the rest of their lives. “watch out for sammy” and “get the thing that killed mom” were dean’s reasons to get up in the morning, because they were john’s reasons to get up in the morning. these things were LITERALLY his reasons for living. john gave dean a way to fight back against fear and gave him a cause to keep him going. abuse or not, dean never stopped being grateful for that, and he was the only other person in the whole world who understood the unique horror of what john went through that night. even all the way into season 10, he tells other people that john did right by him. it’s borderline brainwashing. part of dean’s self-worth will always be based on how good of a son he was to john.

on the other hand, knowingly or not, john did everything possible to alienate sam. he kept him on a short leash while also keeping him at arm’s distance. he didn’t trust sam with emotional things like the memory of mary, he didn’t trust sam with the truth about monsters and what they did for a living, he didn’t trust sam with his plans, he didn’t trust sam with the truth about demon blood. canon STRONGLY suggests john knew YED bled in sam’s mouth as a baby, but instead of telling sam or even dean about that, sam had to learn about it in a horrible flashback recreated by YED himself. when sam wanted to go to school, john told him no, and when he left anyway, john told him not to come back.

this is an equal but opposite kind of abuse. john totally fucked up BOTH his kids in complete inversions to each other.

which means that, no matter what john did, it caused sam and dean to fight. this isn’t an interpretation. this is straight up canon.

again, dean says in s14 that he frequently took dad’s side in arguments because he had his own stuff to deal with, and he was trying to keep the peace. dean, a victim of emotional (and implied sometimes physical) abuse himself, was not able to shield sam from all of john’s bullshit. he could stop sam from getting hit and having to see john during the worst of his drunken rages, but he couldn’t trick sam into thinking john loved him unconditionally, because john didn’t love either of his kids unconditionally.

when john acted in a way that was not befitting of a parent, sam rightfully took exception, which forced dean (who was ALSO BEING ABUSED, almost brainwashed) to jump to his defense. that led to john getting to do whatever the hell he wanted and sam and dean arguing about the effects. when sam ran away in flagstaff, DEAN was punished, leading dean to resenting sam for that incursion, even though sam was perfectly right to want to get away from an abusive household. when sam did a normal thing wanting to leave for college at age 18, he left, and dean resented him for that because that meant he was alone to bear the brunt of john’s anger. 

sam repeatedly made logical, emotionally healthy choices in attempting to break the family dynamic, but because of JOHN’S BEHAVIOR, not sam’s, those choices wound up causing dean harm. JOHN HIMSELF was the ultimate wedge between sam and dean growing up and beyond.

and let’s not forget the biggest sin - john spent 22 years impressing upon dean that taking care of sammy was EVERYTHING, and then without any explanation at all, he asked dean to kill him, and then he DIED, which meant dean had to carry that weight by himself (because again, he’s been trained not to trust sam with things). like of COURSE sam got angry when he found out - that’s fucking fucked up! once again sam is being treated like a ticking time bomb for absolutely no reason - he didn’t ask to have demon blood or psychic visions or a dead mom or an abusive father. nor did dean ask to be saddled with the upbringing of an entire human at four years old who he then might have to kill. because dean will always feel gratitude towards john, and sam will always feel resentment, and because based on john’s treatment of them BOTH OF THESE FEELINGS ARE JUSTIFIED, john continues to cause fights between sam and dean long after he’s dead and gone, and that will never change.

on a final note: i’d like to bring this around to season 13.

after cas, mary, kelly, and crowley all die (or are presumed dead in mary’s case) in the season 12 finale, season 13 opens with nobody but sam and dean and jack. dean directly blames jack for these deaths. he says so multiple times. he says where jack can hear him that he knows jack is evil and impure and cannot be saved and calls jack a freak. when jack tries repeatedly to kill himself dean says to jack’s face not to bother, because WHEN jack does go bad, dean will be the one to kill him. dean does NOT see jack as castiel’s child - he sees jack as someone who brainwashed cas and kelly both and got them killed. dean does not even see jack as a human person worthy of life. from the get-go, all he wants is to put jack down. jack is born into a world shaped by pain and grief and anger, where people hate him simply for what he is and who died to get him here. 

and again, sam identifies hard with jack. he justifiably protests dean’s treatment of him. jack is a kid and didn’t ask for any of this. jack is terrified of dean. sam reminds dean that john said all these things about sam that dean is saying about jack. john is still causing a rift between his sons over a decade after his death.

eventually, after jack uses his powers and brings back cas from the empty, dean pulls his head out of his ass and admits that he was wrong. he calls jack his kid more than once, and jack refers to dean as one of his dads. but the damage has already been done. jack struggles multiple times with his powers, accidentally hurting people and then wishing himself dead after. he also struggles without them; even when using his powers means using up pieces of his soul, he does it, because dean taught him that he’s only worthy of being loved and trusted if he’s “good.” even when he has NO SOUL, when jack does something bad he panics about it and seeks to undo it at any cost. that’s how deep the damage runs.

i see a lot of people remarking that in the arc of 13.01-13.05, dean became john, and i agree that he did. but dean didn’t do to jack what john did to him. dean did to jack what john did to SAM.

[spn masterpost]

[mad-madam-m]

I had to look up Thomas Elliot because my Batman knowledge is pretty much limited to what I learned from a handful of DC animated properties and I don’t think he ever made an appearance. But, oof. (Short version, for those who don’t want to click through to the Wiki article: Thomas Elliot is Hush, one of Batman’s supervillains.)

Here’s my scattered thoughts on Mattia and Barnaby:

First off, the Batman thing, IIRC, just refers to the fact that Barnaby’s parents were killed when he was young and it drove him to become a superhero. That’s really where the similarities end and I think that’s where the show intended the similarities to end. While I fully admit I’m not up on my Batman lore, I can’t think of any other bits of Barnaby’s background that match up with Batman’s, so I don’t think they’re really going any further in that direction. Now, they could! But I think it’s unlikely.

I’ll probably get a little more in depth on my thoughts about Mattia in the later episode recaps, but in general, I feel like they went out of their way to make Mattia seem untrustworthy in his first appearance in such a way that it was meant to throw us off. The way he comes across to me by the end of the series is that he’s astoundingly (holy shit so astoundingly) naive and like he was being manipulated by his boss. And my gosh, Barnaby needs a friend who is not Kotetsu, and Mattia has the added bonus of being someone who knew him before he was a superhero and before his entire life went to shit.

That being said, the creepy stalker vibes are absolutely there, so I can understand why other people still don’t trust him. I’m still unsure, myself, and it wouldn’t be the first time that someone who wasn’t really a major player in the first half of the season turned out to be a villain in the second half. I personally don’t think they’re going to go the route of giving Barnaby someone untrustworthy from his past yet again---the show doesn’t really retread ground like that---but it’s not out of the question. 

So yeah, overall, I’m personally leaning toward “not a bad guy.”

However, please take everything I say with an entire fucking shaker of salt because my track record of guessing what they’ll do with this show is not the greatest. Case in point: I was 100% positive that they would not bring Ryan back for more than a cameo in this season (if they brought him back at all) and we all know how that turned out. So who knows how this thing with Mattia’s gonna go.