#i also sell shit in a gallery but that's not the point

[trashgremlendoesart]

Not working a "proper" job and instead doing comic con once a year is like having 3 weeks of social interaction shoved upon me in the span of about 48 hours, with no breaks (:

[thankssteveditko]

Sony's PlayStation 5 Presents Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (the third game in the series)

I beat the main story and have enjoyed my time with the game overall! I want to talk about spoilers and things that I liked and disliked in the story, so here's a post with some scattered thoughts.

(Hello! I haven't forgotten that this blog exists! Like I said, no update schedule, I will read more of the Lee/Ditko comics whenever I make time for it. I've actually been sitting on a mostly-complete version of this post since I beat the game in October, thinking that I'd finish the rest of the side quests so I could throw in thoughts on those. But... eh, I'll do that whenever the inevitable DLC rolls around. I just wanna get these thoughts posted.)

Spider-Cop No More

First off: they downplayed the cop shit!!! This was the first thing that really struck me about the game, and I'm stunned that they actually listened to criticism on this. I thought we'd just be stuck with it forever.

It'll never be completely gone, of course. Spider-Man is always going to leave criminals webbed up for the police to take to prison, hoping that they'll do their time and come out the other side as Productive Members of Society. That's just a thing I begrudgingly accept as part of the genre that will probably never go away. But Spider-Man is no longer repairing police surveillance networks. You're no longer beating the shit out of random drug dealers. Gangs of escaped convicts still wearing their orange jumpsuits are no longer terrorizing the streets of New York.

Instead, Peter and Miles are played more as firefighters. Sometimes very literally! They work with firefighters, they rescue people from collapsing buildings, they rush injured people to the hospital. In general there's a huge increase in the number of random onlookers present during the big action setpieces, and the Spider-Men frequently have to save them from harm. One of the major side quest lines is even literally about a cult of arsonists, and you'll routinely find burning fuel tanker trucks you have to extinguish with your webs. It's great! Love this for them.

I also generally liked the side missions in this. There's a lot of good stuff with the Spider-Men being neighborhood heroes willing to help out anyone in need, no matter the problem. Some of them can get corny, sure, but that street level stuff has always been the real heart of Spider-Man to me.

Gameplay

The gameplay's as fun as ever. That probably goes without saying. I will not be spending a thousand words explaining that swinging is fun.

In particular, I really liked the changes to the Focus mechanic. I never loved the way Miles' game made you choose between healing and doing your special attacks, but here your four specials have their own cooldowns, and the Focus meter is spent on either healing or finishers. It still offers that risk/reward element, but those vicious cycles where you can't do any real damage because you keep needing to heal aren't nearly as bad as they were before.

Personally I didn't turn off the swing assist or turn on fall damage, because the streamlined swinging never bothered me in these games, but I'm glad the options are there for people who want them.

Kraven

I liked Kraven in this! I liked the way they leaned into his Hunters being this weird death cult, and him wanting to go down in a blaze of glory against a worthy foe, to the point that he's actually disappointed anytime a foe can't kill him. It riffs on things people liked in Kraven's Last Hunt without being the exact same story. I like that Kraven's gang is renting out this manor or whatever and just being a complete terror to the wait staff. I liked the way Kraven hunting Peter's rogues' gallery clashed with Peter's belief in giving his villains second chances. I liked that they were willing to have Kraven kill off a couple of the minor villains from the first game to sell how dangerous he is. (I know some people hated this, but like, come on. We already fought the Sinister Six. They don't need to do that again.) I like the way Kraven pushed Peter to the absolute brink, turning him more and more aggressive with the Black Suit. Good stuff all around, even if the Hunter enemy types did wear out their welcome a little bit by the end.

The Black Suit arc

I think I liked the way Insomniac handled Peter's Black Suit arc overall, but there's a tradeoff here.

They REALLY lean into the body horror tentacle stuff, with Black Suit Peter basically just being a skinny Venom by the end. The sequence where you play as Mary Jane while the symbiote puppets an unconscious Peter's body around and goes on a rampage against the Hunters was REALLY great at selling how scary Peter is becoming, and it made me completely change my tune on the inclusion of the MJ stealth missions in the sequel. Having to beat an out-of-control Peter as Miles immediately after Peter beats Kraven was also really good. This is all cool!

BUT, the thing is... with the symbiote powers being so freaky from the start, it really pushes my suspension of disbelief when Peter and co. take so long to become wary of it. I guess when you've been bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers, and when you live in the same universe as the Avengers and the X-Men, your perception of what's "normal" is going to be pretty warped. But they buy the whole "organic exosuit created to treat Harry's illness" story WAY too easily lmao. How do the self-aware slime tentacles help with his illness, exactly?

And I'm not sure how I feel about giving Peter Anti-Venom powers in the last act. It feels like it's primarily a concession so that they can give players that branch of their skill tree back, but honestly, the designer in me thinks it would be really cool (if risky) to just permanently lock players out of Peter's most powerful skills past a certain point. Yeah, it'd definitely piss people off, but it drives home the idea that Peter's given up greater power because it's the right thing to do. It'd put you in his shoes! Instead he just gets the symbiote powers back, but it's fine because the Venom voice in his head is gone and also the slime tendrils that explode out of his body are white now, which means they're good.

I have to say it. I'm sorry. The glistening white goo... they turned Peter into the Amazing Cum-Man. I changed back to the Classic Suit after rolling the credits and forgot I still had the Anti-Venom skills equipped, so I just saw regular old Spider-Man exploding his white goo everywhere. Terrible.

Assuming Peter is just stepping into more of a supporting role to Miles and not fully retiring after the events of this game, I really hope the Anti-Venom stuff is gone. I get that he needed it to counter Venom, but that's not what I want for Peter Parker.

Miles

Miles is good in this, and I really like his arc where he struggles with whether or not he should avenge his dad by killing Martin Li. I like how all that plays out. Unfortunately, they don't quite stick the landing when it comes to making him and Peter feel like equals in terms of narrative focus. His arc is definitely the B-plot to Peter's for the middle chunk of the story, which I guess was kind of inevitable since they decided to do the Black Suit arc. But Miles does at least get a lot of moments to shine, and by the end he's very much taking the lead as the main Spider-Man.

Becoming the main Spider-Man also gets Miles a new, wholly original suit that ended up being super controversial, and honestly... I kinda like it? Or at least I like what it's going for, even if the actual design could still use some work. It's something totally unique for Miles, and I like spandex/streetwear combo suits like what the Spider-Verse movies have popularized. But showing his hair is really pushing the limits of his secret identity. He hangs around Brooklyn Visions WAY too much for his classmates to not recognize his voice and haircut. And I understand why people would be wary about it becoming his "canon" look moving forward. But I think it's got potential.

On the subject of Miles, though, I will say that while I liked Miles' side missions, it feels like he's often saddled with the game's broad, kinda touristy, kinda token attempts at Showcasing The Diversity Of New York, in a way that Peter isn't.

I like that Miles has a deaf graffiti artist girlfriend that he and Ganke sign with, and I like that there's a series of side missions that explore some local jazz history, and I like that there's a mission where Miles helps a gay classmate ask his crush to prom. I like all these things! I like Spider-Man being involved with his community, and that said community includes such a wide variety of people! I like that this game slows down to savor these types of moments instead of just being all action all the time! But when I step back, I notice some patterns.

Hailey doesn't have a big role in the main plot, especially when compared to MJ, but Miles gets a side mission where you briefly play as her with muffled audio to teach you what being deaf is like. There are no major queer characters in the story - unless you count Felicia showing up for exactly one mission to mention she has an unseen, unnamed girlfriend in Paris now - but you get a side mission where Miles helps out a gay couple at his school, who then never come up again. To put it very uncharitably, they can feel like Very Special Episode missions. It's like the devs going: we're going to give Miles a Gay Mission, and an Impaired Hearing Mission, and a Cultural History Mission, so that we can say we touched on these things, but we're gonna make them all optional and keep them far away from the full-blown Superhero Stuff like fighting costumed villains. Those flavors cannot mix. Meanwhile, Peter gets to have a whole elaborate subplot about teaming up with Wraith to track down fucking Cletus Kasady. There's an imbalance here, and I think it's part of the reason why Peter still feels like the "main" Spider-Man for so much of the story.

I think this was all written with admirable intentions, but as others have pointed out, you can kinda tell that this game was mainly written by some white guys based in California. These attempts at depicting various marginalized groups can feel kind of detached in the same way that Insomniac's map of New York doesn't quite line up with the real thing. But I dunno. I'm not really the one to dig deep into some of this stuff as a white woman from Florida. I would be curious to read others' takes on this.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical about the writers' well-meaning but corny and kinda out of touch liberal politics because of the podcasts.

The podcasters

I wish Jameson was in this more! They psyched us out by giving him a full character model for, like, two scenes. I like him being MJ's boss, but I wish we saw inside the Daily Bugle offices to get more Jameson.

At least his podcasts are better than the ones in the Miles game, though. Him completely trusting in Roxxon was just too much for me. Here he condemns Oscorp for the symbiote shit, and he also gets some moments where he takes the ongoing crises seriously and isn't just ranting about the Spider-Men. He isn't just a conspiracy theorist crackpot here. Shit like his "fuck Spider-Man, we have a justice system for a reason" speech makes him feel more like a human being with a point of view, rather than just a caricature. Definitely an improvement.

Unfortunately, I still find The Danikast grating. I'm sorry, Ashly Burch. It's not your fault. The quirky heckin' wholesome millennial podcaster lady who catches you up on current events and then reminds you to drink 64 ounces of water a day in the same breath is just too much for me. At least she doesn't have any lines as bad as her throwing in a "damn" and then going (direct quote here) "That's right - no censoring! That's how REAL I'm being right now!" like in Miles' game. Instead they give her this, like, almost psychic insight into the main plot to try and make her the angel on Peter's shoulder. The second Peter gets the symbiote she's like "Wow, y'all. Have you seen Spider-Man's new black suit? Something's different about him. He's been giving me such bad vibes lately. #NotMySpiderMan" Also she's supposed to be this, like, underdog independent podcaster who started her show on a whim and has become the voice of the people... but she's got billboards plastered all over the fucking city. Which makes her feel like an industry plant lmao

Again, there's a detachment with the writing. This is, like, some middle aged white liberal game dev guys' idea of what a modern leftist teenager would think is a Cool Activism Podcast. Unfortunately, because Insomniac thinks Danika's a hero, Mary Jane's triumphant ending is that she quits her job at the Bugle to become a podcaster, too, delivering a thinly veiled monologue about the pandemic to kick off her new podcast literally titled "The New Normal." She's going to save the world with podcasting, because that's the highest form of activism, I guess.

Venom

So! Venom! Venom was... okay.

Surprising no one, Harry Osborn is Venom. Harry's okay both as himself and as Venom, but I'm not sure his arc is a smooth one. He starts out as Peter's comically perfect best friend who returns to reminisce about the good ol' days and hand him his dream job on a silver platter, and then later he becomes a little ball of rage over the fact that Peter gets his symbiote and can't/won't give it back. I'm not sure that pivot is handled the most convincingly. You kind of have to write it off as the symbiote messing with their heads, I guess.

When he actually becomes Venom, I'm... mixed on the execution. On the one hand, the cool factor is absolutely there. He's a very cool big monster, and Tony Todd is great in the role. But he also wants to take over the world and make everyone a symbiote, and aside from any lingering resentment towards Peter, that's really all there is to him. It makes for a good video game to have a bunch of symbiote enemies and creepy symbiote nests and symbiote tentacles climbing up the sides of buildings in the last act... but is that really what I want out of Venom? Probably not. But he sure does look cool as a big monster guy to fight, and I was happy he was briefly playable.

Suits

Part of me feels like there's something lacking about the suit selection here, but almost every suit I liked in the previous games is back, and also I'm the type of person to give Peter the Classic Suit the second I unlock it and use that for most of the game. So does it really matter for me?

Peter's selection feels dominated by the various live action movie suits, but I get that those are going to be some of the suits people want to wear the most. I wish he had the Peter B. Parker skin to go with Miles' Spider-Verse alts, though. No idea why it's missing. Really I think I mainly just want more of the Spider-Verse designs.

Also I've complained about how most of the original suits designed for these games make Peter and Miles look like they were bitten by radioactive Alienware products, but I can just, you know. Wear other suits.

Misc thoughts

Everyone's already made this joke, but it's extremely funny that the Avengers didn't help with the symbiote invasion. Took one look at that and decided it wasn't their problem

On the subject of other superheroes, I do wish these games would acknowledge the Fantastic Four more. Peter's close relationship with that team feels woefully underutilized in his various adaptations

I like the trope of a boss fight that's a heightened version of a personal conflict between two people who are close, where throughout the fight the boss is airing out their grievances while the hero tries to get through to them emotionally. That especially works for Spider-Man! But WOW has Insomniac played that card a lot of times by the end of Spider-Man 2 lol

They're teasing the addition of Silk, I guess? I'm gonna be honest, I don't know shit about Silk, but I guess it was inevitable that they'd give us some form of Spider-Woman at some point. Gotta work all those costumes in somehow, and they're not brave enough to let one of the boys cosplay as Spider-Gwen.

They WERE, however, brave enough to let Harry say he loves Peter. I liked that little moment. They presumably meant it platonically, but clearly ol' Yaoi Lowenthal knows what's up

Post-leak addendum

So, obviously, by the time I got around to finishing this post the big Insomniac leak happened. I wish the game industry wasn't so secretive that it took a massive, dangerous data breach just to get our hands on some very basic info that would be public knowledge if Insomniac was a film studio, but here we are.

We now know that Insomniac spent somewhere around $315 million making Spider-Man 2 - triple what the first Spider-Man game cost to make. A quote about this from a leaked presentation has been stuck in my head ever since I first saw it on Twitter. “Is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?”

To be honest, I'm not sure it is.

I liked Spider-Man 2, but I'd probably say that overall I liked it about as much as the first game. It's certainly a somewhat bigger game, with marginally more realistic looking graphics thanks to the power of the PS5. But I think I could do without ray tracing and more realistic hair rendering and whatnot if it meant that these games didn't take like five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make. I could not give less of a shit if the swinging animations were recycled between games. I'd be fine with them being shorter, too.

I like these games, but as we look at that leaked project lineup and realize that Insomniac is turning into The Marvel Game Studio, I think about how many smaller, more original games that those resources could go towards if they scaled back the Marvel stuff just a bit. How many Ape Escapes or Patapons or Gravity Rushes could get made for the budget of just one of these massive AAA tentpole games of Sony's, which are apparently barely even breaking even? How many could be made for the budget of the "smaller, cheaper" Miles Morales game, which somehow cost $156 million to make despite using an updated version of the same Manhattan map from the first game? Hell, how many smaller games could have been made with the $39 million that went into remastering the first Spider-Man game for PS5 a mere two years after launch? How many people will lose their jobs if any one of Insomniac's upcoming Marvel games underperforms - which, in this case, could mean selling "only" 5 million copies? And would hardcore PlayStation fans even accept those smaller games at this point, now that they've been trained to only appreciate mega-budget Prestige Games with cutting edge graphics and treat everything else with disdain? How much worse will this get as the graphical arms race continues?

I think I just miss Japan Studio. Fuck Sony. Uhh but anyway the Spider-Man game this post was supposed to be about was good, some writing complaints aside. 8/10

[lol1tzme]

Fic prompt~

Phum centric..

-setted in future, Every couple are happy and busy in their everyday life, Peem owning his own art gallery and selling few of his arts whislit helping aunt pui with her cafe. Phum joining his dad's buisness, since their older brother was not interested and Fang became an architect, Q handles their family resort, Toey and Matt still studying, Tan handling his family garage, Chain became a dentist and Pun joined as a social worker helping different schools and universities and organizing camps.

-it was phum's b'day, although ever since he got peem and the friend group he never had a lonely b'day, but the past still lingered in his heart. Making him anxious everytime before his birthday arrives, and everytime his friends and boyfriends surprised him with a really nice birthday party.

-However this time, He and Peem had a argument just a few days before his b'day, It wasn't normal for them to have such long argument however it was a really serious argument, both of them too mad at each other due to it.

-It was the night before phum's b'day, the whole day, he was an anxious mess, he had an argument with his dad yet again at the company, due to their different views on one project and the argument with peem still going on, He was feeling like shit and couldn't find peem for comfort due to their argument. Everything happned was enough to make him anxious, he had not received even a single message from any of their friends, not even Fang had wished him. Fang and Beer were always the first to wish. But none had today.

-somehow he managed to sleep, convincing himself that they must be preparing a surprise, morning arrives and nothing...he was starting to lose hope, his thoughts convincing him that no one is going to come..he is alone again. Noon arrives, still nothing. Phum lost all hopes. He locked himself in the house, alone with his thoughts

-Peem who was just mad at phum, due to their argument, met up with the boys a night before, not even remembering that phum's b'day is tmr, he met yp for drinks with just him, chainpun, Q and Tan. He was too drunk that night, everyone where except for Q and Tan. Q and Tan did advice peem to talk to phum since ignoring is not the solution and peem decided to talk to phum the next day, however he woke up with a headache and hangover and decided to talk later, but was caught up with a problem with his next exhibition date, he decided to talk with phum after handling the issue, it got late in noon, he decided to cook for phum after going back home and having a talk.

-realization hit him harder than he expected, It was phum's b'day...he didn't wish him, no one did, reason he asked to not contact them for the whole day tmr, to leave them alone, not even realising that it was phum's b'day, the others thought they would just call in later at nigjt to wish, maybe that's what peem meant. A misunderstanding. Herealised how much he fucked up. He not only himself forgot to wish phum, the others didn't too, cause of his own mistake, he knew the other's must have mistaken his words.

-I don't know how he would make up, but I need some crying, some hurt, I already gave the angst and Comfort, a lot of comfort since phum deserves the world. Peem shouldn't be that guilty since its not his fault other than forgetting the b'day and that was also due to the heated argument they had days ago and his anger took over his usual calm demour.

-you can even chose what could the argument be based on since I don't really much idea...

-just a hurt/comfort phum centric fic and PUPPY PHUM...BOTTOM PHUM If you could pls...(It's just my request, you could make it top phum too but I would prefer it bottom phum)

-hope it's not hard to understand, point out if you can't understand~ TAG ME IF YOU WRITE IT PLS PLS PLS PLS PLS

[galvanizedfriend]

I am me so I must ask about the two Christmas fics (Xmas Fic 2 and Other Other Christmas Fic). Also so intrigued by Mystic Tours Not This (and the what is this because smut obviously)!!!

-Amanda

Hi, Amanda bestie! 😊

I love silly Christmas romcoms (as you know 😂) and I spent the entirety of the month of December almost nothing else, so I get all these stupid ideas I end up never taking forward because at some point I realize they're too dumb to come into existence. 😂

Xmas Fic 2 was Klaus being a hotshot lawyer or something and inheriting a Christmas tree farm (because of course) that comes with a sort of Christmas village (obviously) from his biological father whom he's never really been in touch with. There are a lot of complicated feelings there. But anyway, he first wants nothing to do it, and then he is convinced by Elijah to at the very least take a look at what is there so he can sell it. So he heads over to the farm and that's where he meets Caroline (duh), Ansel's former lawyer ("I'm a good lawyer") and who also has close ties with the farm. She ends up convincing him to sell the place to someone who will be interested in reopening it instead of whoever, because there's a bunch of people whose livelihooods depend on it (Bonnie, Enzo, some other folks), and there are some complications halfway because Elijah sells the place to Tristan de Martel, who's obviously an evil asshole. But anyway, Klaus still very much wants nothing to do with Christmas or farms, but he does want to keep Caroline (also he gets to find out a lot of things about Ansel that Esther kept from him his whole life).

Other Other Christmas fic (lol) is one where Caroline gets invited to spend Christmas with Enzo and his new spouse (I honestly can't remember whether he'd just married Kol or Rebekah, but it was one of the two) at their family's ancestral home somewhere posh in England. But at Enzo's wedding, Caroline had an ~~incident with Klaus and she absolutely does not want to see him again, so Enzo ensures her he won't be there because he's the Grinch, so he doesn't spend the Holidays with his family, going on skiing trips instead. Except there's a snow storm and Klaus' flight gets cancelled and so he is, in fact, there when Caroline arrives, and then stuff happens. Very creative. 😂

The 'Not This' part in Mystic Tours is because I didn't really want to keep that title or that name in the story, but I was totally out of ideas so I kept it there provisionally. It's another AH AU where Caroline runs a mystical/supernatural tour agency in Mystic Falls she inherited from her mom (who started the business with Sheilla Bennett, who not only is a self-proclaimed witch but also a professor who teaches a very popular occult and folklore class at Whitmore). Now her mom's dead and Sheilla has retired and it's Caroline, Enzo and Bonnie working together to keep the business aflotat, but they're struggling. So she gets this chance to participate in some kind of contest which will bring a popular influencer to town to promote her business (I think I got this idea from Lovelight Farm, or something like that. Have you read it? It's really cute!), except she ends up adding a sob story about how the heart of her business if her own love story with her fiancé when she submits her application. She does that because she knows this influencer has a thing for love stories, but the issue is she not only doesn't have a fiancé, she's not even dating anyone. So after a strong reluctance she ends up asking Klaus to be her fake boyfriend for the duration of the contest. They've been unlikely friends forever and Caroline has had a major crush on him, but she's convinced he's not at all interested and way out of her league because he's a hotshot gallery owner in New Orleans who always seems to be surrounded by beautiful women. Loads of Mikaelsons, Kol being a little shit, Carenzo friendship, Damon is a douchebag. Major tags here are fake dating and idiots-to-lovers.

[strawberry-metal]

Download in the description of this post in my deviantart gallery.

I've made the perfect man.... (according to my anons.)

Saki's body guard growing up, Red Rue. Red is a serious guy, but has rare moments where he can be a goofball, and despite his serious exterior, he's really a kind and polite guy.

He's abnormally strong and also good at cooking and cleaning. He's currently 35. He's like an older brother figure to Saki.

I used a Kio head instead of my usual TDA style, because I thought it would actually look more his age. Plus he certainly looks hotter lmao There's an expression to remove his noseline, his sunglasses, and an expression for him to wear his sunglasses instead of resting them atop his head.

He looks best with self shadow off and edgeline off. Unless you need selfshadow or edge for any effects.

Comes with a swimsuit model for fanservice sakes. Equality.

Password: red

Maybe I'll make an event story with him and 15 year old Saki at some point when I actually have the energy. The older I get, the harder it is to do stuff like this now.

Pose by snorlaxin, grid is by Touko-p, dome is by hiro K, svssao effect is by Sovoro, and brushedseriousshader effect is by Elle

Rules:

No redistribution, no claiming as your own, no selling

Credit me (ShannaHeart/Strawberry-Metal, preferably both.)

You can take parts

No editing

gmod and sfm use is fine

blender use is fine as long as its kept to personal use and you still credit me

No R18 (yes yes I know, shocker with Kio, but I actually did my research and it said no sexual material)

NO VRCHAT I WILL PUT ELMERS GLUE INSIDE YOUR EARS

No racist shit

No r18 no p*d*philia no inc*st

Credits:

Head: Rolneeq and Kio

Eye texture: Rolneeq

Base: Blackpeacock10000

Tears and Blush: Techarts3D

Eyebrow piercing: nayabarlaxx

Fur coat and sphs: MikuEvalon

Scalp: HiLoMMD

Cornrows: gep5 , OCBacon

Dreads Ponytail: cherubclaws, KittyInHiding, Zepeto

Hair texture: WolfenMallows

Dreads front: blueoaks

Extra expressions: CrimsonAkato and Senran Kagura

Sunglasses: ka7rek and Leah Lillith

Pants: Helsoseira and Zekal231

Fingerless gloves: Recolored skin

Boots: Madlen

Earpiece: Animasa and GhostiestGhost

Swimsuit: Ranshka

Flip flops: TehRainbowLlama

Swimsuit sunglasses: ruin1110

Toons: Chilkad

[garbagefarm]

Mutucule Farm #12

2023-03-10, Session #12 for Mutucule Farm, Winter 22 Year 1 through Spring 7 Year 2

cast:

Me (@mothmute)

Belle (@snacco​)

Cam (@amanitaspore​)

Erin (@salamand3rin​)

Highlights include, but are not limited to:

Cam decides he wants to keep some sheep sometime

Personally, I’m looking forward to getting a slutch and doing some slusbrandry

Erin forgot about my hat*, and was immediately disappointed

* - legally not a hat

I’m gonna pan for gold, a thing I actually bother doing, and a valuable and important mechanic in the game

(Pompkin makes his tail get big at the sight of it)

I use only the freshest egg to make Belle a chocolate cake (my egg reserves are off-limits)

Erin made some comment about needing hard wood (I don’t remember the full context)

We all agree that fitness is very important

Copper watering can! A can, for watering copper.

We have two choices for quests. One of them is for bones.

“you got me reading the locked tomb”

We all had a lovely time in the bone mines together! We all survived!

oh shit oh shit oh shit phew

Belle and Cam survived the bones, but died of the tired sleepy.

Oh hey, Robin made a bed, aaand Demetrius is being a smartass about it

“Yea”

Putting the bones in the bone chest ribcage

Deluxe barn!

Boneless skinless dungeon floor

Starmas!

Harvey is grateful there weren’t any medical emergencies. uhhh, didn’t we fuckin’ die a few times?

Belle gets a gift from Willy!

Cam gets a gift from Shane!

Erin gets a gift from Clint!

I get a gift from ... Willy again? Why’d he get two?

It’s nice of Robin to invite us to sit with her at the feast, but the chairs are all decorative. Can’t sit on ‘em.

Anyway, thanks for the gifts, we’re just gonna walk out on the “feast” part of the “feast of the winter star”— seeya!

Pompkin in my bed

“you shouldn’t have said anything”

IT WAS AN AMBUSH

Cam finally gets level 1 farming!! Yay!!

Artifact spot contains bones, a promising bone omen, or bomen

(everybody insists that “bomen” is actually a job)

I’m not gloating about how many bones I’m finding, just ... show-boning

“Peloton town”

Delicious secret notes, full of essential inks

Belle follows a secret note’s instructions to go into the woods in the dead of night to meet a bear

We hit the bone quota!!

Somewhere along the way, I pick up ... The Slammer. I’ve got better, so I hand it off to Belle, who immediately uses it to menace Cam.

borat voice: my wine

(nobody liked this, everybody got a negative moodlet)

Sheep named Buckle!

Cool pig day! Also, pig day!!

Pig name: Officer

Belle upgrades her backpack, giving us the best possible amount of money. (See gallery)

Last day of the season, I pick up a plush junimo.

Winter is over!!

Fella and Pompkin hang out together (see gallery)

Belle asks why my light radius is so big. I’m not glow-ting, but I’ve got multiple glow rings!

Secret note directs me to an ornate necklace. It’s still wet.

Heart event with Emily (Birds)

At some point, my bride-to-be (Penny) caught me digging through the trash! I’ve gotta make it up to her by giving her diamonds. People’ll excuse anything if you give them enough diamonds.

Penny sends me a note to meet her at the bathhouse after dark......

Pale ale for Pam is up, gonna drop it off in everybody’s chests

Cam’s chest overfloweth

Abigail’s mom will never know (about the necklace. It’s still wet.)

Big potato quest!

Belle does not like my potato field

Cam requests my strange buns 😘

(uses it to make a shirt for Belle)

I’ve got a hot date!

Hey, why does penny have a shadow or reflection in the bathhouse, and I don’t?

We agree to stop planting trees in the Beach Farm’s limited splash zone.

We don’t need 200+ common mushrooms, I’m gonna sell ‘em. That’s hog money!

Pigs are pricy, but they’ll pull their own weight. And sometimes a smuggler merchant cart, too!

Second pig: Detective

Emily requests an apricôt (the t is silent)

Mature single trees in your area!

“they have a root system!”

not anymore they don’t 😏

RIP Belle, died to skulls

lost The Slammer!! has to ask Marlon to get it back

Cam surprises me with a trash can shirt! ... but it’s a tank top.

Somebody put a Joja sign in my house??

I am not a corporate shill!

(I don’t need to shill for the cool, refreshing taste of Joja cola)

TO-DO:

Potatoes!

Expanded bees?

Backpack + Tool upgrades

Taller barn? Taller coop?

More pigs!!

Fences for the creatures?

house upgrades

Rainy day... (and 5,000g) (each)

fashion!!

oh right, bundles are still a thing

Iridium Sprinklers

... egg?

Link to photo gallery post!

[practicingbushiho]

Reminder that Cohost exists and is basically the early stages of Tumblr without the embarrassing and obvious 'omg we need investment bux' bullshit the staff have done after seeing that they could use its new influx of users as fucking pawns to facilitate a profit growth. There needs to be some more work done on webpages where you can find like content blogs, but the user interactions there have already shown that they are invested in making sure that the site is usable to people not familiar with like, 2014 Tumblr.

And also, if a selling point is being able to post R18 works, I gotta be honest, cohost is the only place I've used so far that has felt amenable to that specific niche-- and I've also noticed a markedly larger queer artist population there as well. I've had a pillowfort account for 2 years and every time I've gone there it just didn't feel like I was doing anything. And maybe that's because I am more art/creation focused than fandom focused-- but my advice is this

If you use Tumblr because you are a fandom media consumer or a fan of a media property; sign up for PIllowfort. It has awesome community features (clubs, neat) and so you can even further curate your fandom experiences.

If you are a queer R18 artist who doesn't buy into the weird dichotomy of 'anti/proship' bullshit; sign up for Cohost. It's small but it is GROWING and there is a lot of wonderful fucked up shit there made by weirdos like me-- we also will NOT be tolerating fandom generated toxicity and bullying.

If you are a FURRY...I noticed itaku (which is a gallery/tumblrlike fusion imo) seems pretty amenable to those types too. It's less direct about its interactions, but its organizational tools and ability to detail commission info makes it good for both artists and prospective clients for an easier browsing experience.

Either way; please stop assuming that websites that have corporate investors will ever, ever care about its userbase. They didn't listen when we warned them about the nsfw ban back in 2018-- it almost killed their site revenue.

But they survived, because corporations are cockroaches that refuse to die. You will not change their minds; you will delay the inevitable at best. If you want a social media site that represents user needs, it needs to be owned by its users; ALL of the websites above are user funded and will NEED US to thrive and succeed so they can BE a viable replacement for Twitter or Tumblr. So join one, and help it grow. Enough of this shit.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[cherokeegal1975]

Not sure why this particular novel sells more than the other books, but it does. Not that I'm selling very many copies, and as you can see, I don't make much of a profit from the royalties. So, I hate to ask for this, because I'm worried people will try to tell me what they think I want to hear, than...well, what I really want to read as far as feedback. As disappointing as it might be to get a less than glowing review, it's better than the nothing I usually get. I get reviews even more rarely than I get a sale! I do read them and come back to review them once in a while.

I do believe that if I get this professionally edited and published, this story could be good enough to be on Netflix. I mean, if they did a live action version of the books He's Expecting Vol. 1&2 by Eri Sakai, I think mine would do just fine. I just have to get past the financial block somehow. I mean I'm broke and so far the price tag for just editing this book is roughly between $600 to $900. And publishing is just over $900. Then I have to sell no less than one thousand copies before a literary agency would even consider proposing my book to Netflix. My chances aren't good. I have the information, but not the financial backing to get it going.

And thanks to the enormous expenses of getting my work out there, I'm going to have to pick one book and likely let the rest fall to the wayside. I have published five books. Three art journals that no one, not even myself gives a shit about (well I do care a little bit) and two novels, Unexpected Cargo and Eden Symbiotic which were both experimental passion projects that I care about very much. Unexpected Cargo's the one I'm going to pick because it sells the most often when I do make a rare sale.

(I did buy both volumes of He's Expecting out of curiosity since I was lucky enough to have access to Netflix for a little while, so I did get to see the series. Not the best stories I've ever read, but nice enough that if Volume 3 ever comes out, I'd get it. The show got a lot of criticism, but I thought it was alright. My main point of complaint was that even with suspension of disbelief, if men were suddenly able to have babies, nature would never go halfway and they would be fully equipped for the job. In the book, men who got pregnant had to have cesarians to give birth. I guess the writer didn't think that particular point though. But I'm a bit of a science nerd, so I pick up on all kinds of random information about nature and biology.)

Anyway, the main point of this article, before I wandered off a bit, was that I want and need more people to give me honest feedback about my novel Unexpected Cargo. I'd love it read them on my Amazon reviews. I only have two there. I got a few in my DeviantART gallery where I treasure what I have. I have a couple on YouTube and at least one here, but I lost it...but not forgotten. Aside from this one comment, "This is shit," in a language I had to have translated and didn't recognize at all, I pay attention to all of them. It's because of the feedback I did get and put great value into, including the constructive criticisms I received that I began to realize that I need the services of a professional editor. So in depth feedback is valuable and the more I can get the better.

I have this hands-off policy for my work until I get some help, even when I have a few of ideas on how to make some small fixes to some small plot points here and there. I want...need someone who knows what they are doing to help me out. So, when I do get that help, I will also be keeping in mind the feedback I get from my readers. I stepped up my pace of Unexpected Cargo because more than one person said that Eden Symbiotic was too slow. I listen. I'm begging for more feedback and I'm always grateful for it when I do get it...even as it often frustrates me because people often leave it at, I like this, but not telling me why they liked it. I find that I value the feedback more than the pitiful profit I get from the rare sale.

So, please! Give me some feedback. I want to know what you think. Writing a book isn't easy and this was one of the more difficult projects I've ever done...the hardest being making an audiobook for Unexpected Cargo. Too bad the end result of that project was not as good as I'd hoped and that's why it only got posted on YouTube instead of being published on Audible as I had originally intended. Though I did hope that it would receive a lot more attention than it does.

Periodically I do look up my own books just to see if they get any reviews. I don't really expect anything, but I look anyway.

[henlp]

Disgaea 6

Not only does it scrape the bottom of my rankings for Disgaea games, it's probably one of the worst JRPGs I've played. Yes, including Final Fantasy XIII.

Almost 140h put into it, and without question the VAST majority of that playtime was wasted on grinding. Granted, I'm sure part of that was when I left the game running on auto-battle for some sessions, but that's part of the problem.

Disgaea 6 is made to waste your fucking time. Not just because of the stupid 'meme' of Disgaea games, but also because there's microtransactions, namely boost packs and item drops. Sure, they're probably not needed, but their mere existance indicates that NIS was trying to get some cash whales from this.

Even when I give up and accept the meta, to try and cheat the game as fast as possible, I still wasted almost 30h of grinding (some automated, some not) just to get to the point where I can optimize my gains. And it's STILL NOT ENOUGH.

The story is really short and anything before the postlude is anything but a challenge. It has the least amount of available generic classes, even when it does away with monster classes being their own thing. And the additional difficulty modes that you can switch to are just there to pad out the runtime and feed back into that abhorrent loop of constant grinding.

There are some things that I like, sure. But even things like the Juice Bar, or Research, or Squads all seem to be there to feed into this mobile game mindset of the perpetual gameplay loop. I'm very fond of turn-based RPGs, regardless of their subgenre, but I despise games that needlessly waste my fucking time, and anything post-sixth console generation has no excuse in my eyes. An example that comes to mind is in Bravely Default 2, where I gladly went out of my way to max out levels, jobs, and Speed stats for all my characters, because the game is designed in such a way that you can expediently do so.

While I'm still interested in playing Disgaea 3/4/D2/5, and maybe even replay Disgaea 2 one day, I am not fucking touching the upcoming Disgaea 7. The surface level shit of 'more classes' (yeah, now that you can recycle the unstylized, low-poly 3D models) is not a selling point. I cannot trust Disgaea 7 to not continue down this downward spiral of asinine grinding for the sake of trying to milk people out of more money, under the pretense of 'Disgaea goes CRAZY with numbers!!! Look, you can reach FOURTY digits on your stats now!!!".

It's a real shame, because I had a genuinely good time with Disgaea 1 Complete back in 2019, and even though the grinding there wasn't optimal, I was satisfied to have beaten the game's final challenge of Tyrant Overlord Baal and Prinny Baal at least once (even if I cheesed it). I like the art direction, I like unlocking the silly humanoid classes, I like having a gallery for my weapons (something Disgaea 6 also cheaps out on)... but not at the cost of losing so much of my most valuable commodity...

[blast0rama]

Funko Guts Mondo, Posters No Longer to Be Produced

Me, on this very site, 9 months ago:

At its core, this isn’t a horrible pairing. Mondo lives and dies by their ability to get licenses, Funko has all the licenses.

The bigger concern is one of quality control. Funko is a very mass produced product. Mondo is not. Mondo is an artisan celebration of pop culture, with each artist selected and chosen specifically as a pairing.

Will this be able to remain the status quo with this purchase? My cynical side says no, but I’m very willing (if not wanting) to be wrong.

Let’s see how this plays out.

TheWrap, today:

Treasure your Mondo posters even more now. They won’t be making any more… at all.

Earlier this week, Funko unceremoniously laid off most of the staff of Mondo, the Austin-based company whose distinctive and idiosyncratic movie posters, collectibles and records were the go-to ephemera for discerning movie-lovers, three individuals with knowledge told TheWrap.

They killed the poster division, which is a shock considering that’s how Mondo started, along with a division meant for cutting-edge experiences and products called The Lab, which was run by Mondo co-founder Rob Jones, who was also laid off during the process. (Mitch Putnam, another co-founder, also got the axe.)

As of now, the only two divisions of the company that remain are the toys and records divisions. But insiders tell TheWrap it’s unclear how long those divisions will remain as part of the Funko portfolio.

This absolutely sucks.

I know, people are going to want to point a finger in this situation, and lord knows I’m not thrilled about it, but let’s look at the facts:

The Alamo Drafthouse got harmed pretty bad by COVID

Alamo had to focus on their core business, not side hustles, even if it was an incredible company making awesome products, based on (at times) hard to get licenses

Alamo sold it to Funko, a company who makes lots of fan-focused products, and who has licenses with countless companies

Funko is absolutely eating shit as a business right now

Funko…has to focus on their core business

My heart goes out to this amazing company who supported countless artists while celebrating the movies, television and more people loved.

My hope is that someone is watching this, seeing that the heads of a very large, though cult-focused, business and decides to make an offer. This is a group who sells countless posters and vinyl just based on their brand name and experience. So much so, they had books made of their work AND they could run their own convention.

In the meantime, I cannot recommend enough the crop of great companies who also popped up during the time Mondo has existed, here’s a few:

Bottleneck Gallery

Gallery 1988

Hero Complex Gallery

Spoke Art

And also, if there are artists whose work you’ve enjoyed over the years from Mondo, follow them on their socials, get on their mailing lists. I’ve no doubt they will continue to make great work, and I’m pretty sure they’re easy to find: just look at who the Mondo account follows on Instagram.

[xazz]

Only in the past 6 or so years has my mom really started taking on lots of commissions. She's been an artist, a painter, in galleries all over my home city, for about 25 years now? (give or take) And she just... makes art.

She started out small, did a lot of stuff just to get her name out there. Got into a local coop gallery. Did christmas ornaments, painted glassware she bought from big discount stores, bought metal mailboxes from Home Depot and painted them (you can still find them around Key West even tho she hasn't painted one in years!). I remember going to the mainland often just so she could buy out an entire Big Lot's stock of glass salt and pepper shakers and wine glasses and champagne flutes. She painted glass for years while also making paintings. (also the glass stuff is so rare I can't even find pics of it online)

(some older work people were buying. Pretty small too)

Then she stopped doing glass when paintings started selling better. Then she got into more galleries. At one point she was in 3 at once? Maybe it was two (I was a child so memory weird).

(these are like 16x24? From 2016 which feels forever ago since a lot of her Very Old stuff isn't on the internet)

She's been in like 7 very well known galleries in our home city all through her career. She very rarely had commissions. People just bought what she had for sale. She got approached by Margaritaville, the local Chamber of Commerce, organizations in the Keys wanting to license her art but I don't think she ever made art specifically for them. They just paid her the license fee and used it as they had permission to. And only recently she tells me about the commissions she does. The houses she paints for people. All the little details people love about her art they want in their paintings too.

(commission from this year. The story linked to it is very sweet)

You do not need to prostrate yourself for commissions. Make stuff you love and put it out there and let people buy it. And instead of taking commissions make the prints yourself. Frame them yourself. You make SO much more money. My mom still makes and sells framed prints in both matte board and with a wooden frame. She's stopping this year because her gallery is taking care of it now. But unlike using services she turned a 50 cent print into a $50 framed piece of art and she got to keep all of it. Printing companies got $0. My mom sold these prints for 25 years. She's still doing it. And she's also selling big paintings.

(stuff she's most known for and does)

Also now she's doing weird shit like this and people are LOSING THEIR MINDS because it's so crazy from what she usually does and as soon as a $1700 painting is done it's sold within a week.

Anyway; yeah. Agreed. Fuck the commission grind mindset.

I think at some point in time we need to sit down and start explaining to artist who want to make a career out of art that there are FAR more options than just "living off of commissions" and "posting my art online and praying I get paid for it".

[musea-reviews]

Pluimveemuseum

(poultry museum) ‘’the history from egg to chicken’’

 Location: Barneveld, Gelderland, The Nederlands Price: 9,- Duration: 2 - 3,5 hours Transport: Easy to get to from station Barneveld south and then a 7 minuut walk. Language: Dutch Activities: pet chicken, see all Dutch chicken races, history of chicken keeping, selling, and butchering. Buy eggs at the old auction. Date of visit: Tuesday 7 March 2023 Expo at that time: “Roekoe” de duif / ‘’Pluimveemuseum 40 jaar’’ Website

The Barnevelder

So ‘’Pluimvee’’ is Dutch for ‘’Plume cattle’’ or ‘’poultry’’. So all I expected from this museum was that it would most likely have some chicken. And well, that was true. I knew the place name Barneveld from something, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what. Until I was in the museum, and I was reminded of the chicken call the ‘’barnevelder’’.  This chicken could lay way more eggs than any other chicken and was then exported to a lot of European countries. And even outside Europe, she was wanted. This race of chickens is so famous around here that even I knew of it, and I grew up ‘’in dah city’’ you know, I never have to do anything with chicken! But anyway, the museum is finally open again after some years, since it had to close not only for corona but also for the bird flu. The museum was very empty, I thought I was alone the whole time, but there were about 20 visitors total in the museum.

Chicken!So the tour started with where chickens came from, as they are not native here. Even tho we have chickens all over the world now, they used to only live in South East Asia. They showed how they would have incubators 3000 years ago! By having a clay and cane basked with the eggs on the outside and warm animal shit on the inside… yeah. But after the history lesson, you got to see all kinds of chicken behind glass. Then u got to the egg part where you can take eggs and lay them up to a bright light, so you can see if there's a baby inside! After that THERE WERE BABY CHICKEN!! It didn't say if you could pet them or not, but there was no lid on, so I assumed I could. After that, there were loads and loads of history on keeping chicken, and so many things to show. Things I never thought about like people just using chicken as currency and that there are egg sorting machines. After that we got to more and more modern times showing all kinds of modern machinery to make food and keeping them clean when they're in such quantities. It kinda lost my interest there as it got a bit too specific, probably very interesting for chicken farmers, but that's not my field.

Next was the art gallery, showing old and modern paintings, wood and stone work of chickens. And of course a plethora of egg cups, with is now a common household item (at least in my country) but used to be for nobles only. Since egg cups are a sing of luxury, it has very beautifully decorated once. Halfway thou the art gallery, a man who worked there informed me that the auction would start soon. Which seemed to be a once a day event, since I had already been there for 2 hours at this point and had not heard this happen yet. So I sure was not going to miss out and couldn't wait to see that this was going to be like.

The auction

At around 2 the auction started, and they called all the visitors of the museum together to the auction room. I was pleasantly surprised that this room was filled with old benches and a big weel / clock on the wall. it really looked like a movie. At this little auction you could buy eggs, chicken shaped toys, and advocaat. witch is a traditional Dutch alcoholic beverage made from eggs, sugar, and brandy. But sold at auction like they did in the 1950's!Normally when you’re at an auction you count up, one says a price, the next person says a higher price. But with eggs and vegetables, you count down. The auctioneer starts at a high price and counts down to the minimum price. The first person who would say ‘’mijn’’ (mine) would get to buy it for that price, no one else can try to get it anymore. Since there were sometimes multiple people saying ‘’mine’’ at the same time, they came up with a mechanism in the ‘50s. Every chair and table had a button in front of it, then if you are the first person to touch the button your number would light up. Next to that, the price would also now just count down like a clock. Since there was enough for everyone to buy, and we are all Dutch we all wanted the carton of 10 freshly laid eggs for the minimum price 2,50. So it became more of a challenge if you could stop the clock at exactly the last moment. You didn’t have to actually buy the thing you clicked on, you could also just join in for fun. However, if you did click on a bad price, you could only buy it for that price or not buy anything. But everyone ended up buying it all anyway, so it's a very good marketing trick as it made you feel like you won this item, so now you wanted to have it too. Normally I never buy anything at museums, but it did work on me.

Before the whole selling started, the man told the history of the clock and some chicken facts, we also asked all kinds of chicken questions throughout the rounds. We could choose things from the closet behind him that he would then put up for auction, in which it would be sold cheaper than at the gift store of the museum. So all in all, the entire auction thing took an hour, and was the most fun part of the museum in my opinion.

Friendly people

I would categorize this as a big museum in size, but it felt small, it felt local, it really felt loved. Chicken were these people's passion and they were proud of it. It’s what had set this museum apart from other museums I've been to. The people were so welcoming and interested and easy to talk to. I'm never really looking to talk to the museum workers and only ask questions when needed. But these people came up to me asking how the museum was, what had made me interested in coming here and if I have any tips, which was actually kinda nice.

Would I pay the price: yeah, I learned a lot and a load of fun petting chicken and being in a real auction

Would I revisit it: Not by myself as I don't think much will have changed, but if someone else seems interested I would gladly go with them.

Who do I recommend it to: anyone interested in farming, animals, chicken. Also fun for kids. Especially recommend to people working or studying this sector. Don’t recommend to tourist. Interactive:         2 Educational: 3 Storytelling: 3 Price: 4 Memorable: 3 Total score: 3

Interesting facts I learned

-        You can see if the chicken lays white or brown eggs by the colour of a chicken's ear! White ear is white eggs, red ear is brown eggs.

-        Back in the day, people would bury eggs in chalk, so they would stay good until winter! (not for raw tho, they would only use it for baking)

-        If you hold a bright light up against an egg, you can see if there's a baby inside!

-        Roosters can not force sex on a hen, as she will attack him. If other roosters see this, they will also attack that rooster for not behaving. A hen will lay down when she wants a rooster.

-        Chickens are huge, like bro, these chickens were the size of a cat.

-        In the Netherlands, white eggs are cheaper since everyone thinks they look unnatural. So we export white eggs to Germany, where they are seen as the norm.

[zakblogzak]

White Lotus Season 2

In all of cinema there are few things I like better than an intimate moment in a diner, and the extended pancake scene that constitutes the ninth episode of Euphoria is a classic, a kind of photonegative It’s A Wonderful Life in which the angel, Ali this time instead of Clarence, attempts to forestall a suicide on Christmas Eve. In lieu of Clarence’s heavenly projections, Ali has only his voice and experiences with Alcoholic Anonymous’s Twelve Steps. His task is to sell his charge, the teenage user Rue, on the possibility, and desirability, of salvation from drug addiction-unto-death. Like George Bailey, she’s reached a dead end, but unlike George, she has a bleak history of pain to draw on for evidence about who she is. Ali persists. “The sentence you’ve given yourself is that you, Rue Bennett, are beyond forgiveness. That punishment is way too harsh, and it’s also way too easy. It allows you to keep doing exactly what you’re doing without changing, because you deserve it…This is why the world keeps getting worse. People keep doing shit that we deem unforgivable and then in return they decide there’s no reason to change. So now you got a whole bunch of people running around who don’t give a fuck about redemption. That’s scary.”

For a series-length illustration of his point, see The White Lotus, Season 2, which is replete with people doing shit we deem unforgivable and not giving a fuck about redemption.

What scared me about the show, which was puerile, was that the writer, Mike White, also didn’t seem to give a fuck about redemption, or justice, and neither did a good portion of its audience, which mistook the show for a takedown of the rich, when it was, instead, an irresponsible hall pass of the sort we really can’t afford to be handing out right now.

It is not a deep take on The White Lotus to say that none of the characters are likable. I understand that the repulsiveness is a mirror positioned to show the audience our resemblance to the gallery of character failures onscreen, and that the potentially redeemable characters are offscreen: you and me. The mirror works as well as it does because its characters have just enough complexity to disguise the fact that each is a reality TV-style typecast of a privileged American or Brit—the naif new money, the self-righteous employment lawyer, the recent Stanford grad, and so on—but their unrelenting childishness lost my trust that they had anything meaningful to say about me.

Take the dynamic between Ethan, who recently sold his tech company, and his wife Harper, an employment lawyer. Although both are, apparently, socially aware professionals in their mid- thirties—able to use words like "white passing”—neither seems to have the emotional-communication skill set to navigate what should have been some softball dilemmas in their relationship. Why are they on this vacation in the first place? Couldn't they have discussed their friendship with Cameron and Daphne, as well as their new money and the problems it would present them, before they got to Italy? Is this really the first time they are problem-solving around their sex life? Is Ethan really so blockheaded that he can't accede or emote when his wife is coming on to him, and such a weakling that he will hang around while his friend, predictably, cheats? The answers to these questions may be yes. There are people for whom this would be so, maybe especially in the tech-finance-Hollywood Bropocalypse these characters arise from.

But among the people I know watching The White Lotus, the answers would be no. Because we've grown in our thirties, and learned many lessons these characters seem to have skipped, we would have avoided many of the interpersonal pitfalls on which its plot relies. And though we certainly haven't explored moneyed white viciousness from every conceivable angle (there are just too many), we know some things about this now, and have a lot of new language. If we are anxious to see ourselves in these unsavory people, it’s because we retain the liberal instinct to self-flagilate, and The White Lotus exploits this, but to our credit, we have less in common with Ethan, Harper, and the rest than the show wants to think.

Maybe we are not the target audience, and The White Lotus is speaking directly to the elite, in order to destabilize them with its satire, but if so it misses badly, as it fails to deliver a character one could safely identify with, or any kind of real justice through which the viewer, put on notice, could adjust their personal behavior.

A rule of storytelling is that every person is a protagonist in their own narrative, and will reject a storyline in which they are cast as the villain, dupe, or fall guy. People don’t want those roles for themselves. (This holds for any type of storytelling, including the stories we tell about our friends, families, political enemies, and even ourselves. When Rue gives in to the idea that she’s an irredeemable “piece of shit” is exactly when she resigns to eventual suicide.)

Most viewers of The White Lotus will eventually reject an identification with the characters, no mater how alike they may feel at first, because of the derision the show cynically heaps upon them. Again and again, the path to protagonism seems depressingly blocked for these characters as even their softest traits get painted black. We see Albie blocked when his attempt to chide his father and grandfather on the patriarchy is presented as needling, meek and ineffective. The show then ridicules his judgements of the elder generation. "We used to respect the old," says his grandfather. "Now we're just reminders of the offensive past." Shortly, Albie turns to his father's vices and barters his mother's emotional safety for a 50k euro endowment to a gf he just met, who plays him. Harper's awareness of the world’s power dynamics is seen to cause buzzkill marital frigidity and, god forbid, endanger the vibe among the incurious elite. Dom's sexual addiction is an unbeatable frailty caused and made lonelier by the fact that one's male family can't be counted on for emotional support, only lies and hypocritical outrage. Tanya's longing for love and emotional fragility are foolishly attached to yet another untrustworthy man. Portia, who I thought may be the show's moral foil, falls subject to a rote “bored with the nice guy” narrative. She has her heart broken and her phone stolen by yet another toxic man. All of the Italians are semi-caricatures. The male gays, laughably, would kill for interior (design) beauty. With the exception of, possibly, Valentina, there is no one with whom to cast your lot—and no vision of how your lot would be improved if you did—so the show turns into a spectator circus. We’re not growing with any of these characters, because we can’t identify with any of them, because they aren’t growing themselves.

This would be fine if The White Lotus instead delivered some kind of plausible justice to any of these characters, but it frustratingly does not. After an appalling display of unchecked sex drive and will to power, culminating in a poisonous emo-homicidal showdown—which tracks with a typical endgame plot line from the Transformers series—almost everyone still alive seems frankly fine. The two couples come to virtually no harm. At the end, Cameron and Daphne appear glowing, untroubled. Ethan and Harper’s sex life miraculously reignites through (no, good guess, but not better “communication and trust”) just having sex! The DeGrassos return home negligibly poorer but no worse for wear, and are back to their misogyny. Portia’s kidnapping hasn’t left her visibly scarred. And though Tanya dies, it happens at the hands, not of poetic fate, but the disinterested villain gravity. We’ve spent seven episodes building toward a karmic takedown for these despicable people, but the losers are the viewers, who are left where we started: with the impression that, with enough money, there are no consequences, and nothing matters.

Maybe these rich people feel sad inside? Fine. But so does the large section of America whose material security is challenged by the social, business, and political practices of the winner-take-all economy. We see none of these people. And if this show was a cathartic vehicle in which the elite get to whisper their sadness to the nation, as if in solidarity, while saying next to nothing about the effects of their power hunger, then eww.

Maybe it was all just for fun? Nah. It is a mistake to the subscribe to the “aww come on it was all just for fun” winking and jabbing that does so much work to forgive the unforgivable in our culture. Plus, the show itself would reject this reading. It is satire. It clearly has something it wants to say. And besides, even if it is just entertainment, we should never forget the massive soft power that Hollywood and its financial backers can’t but use to influence our perceptions and debates. Think about the vast and varied violences that the movies have done to Black people over the last century, on and offscreen, for “entertainment,” and the impact of that violence on the public perception of communities of color. Think about the industry's tremendous disregard for women. I am not for creating a permanent class of villains out of anyone in our culture, including the wealthy (they can do that for themselves), but no mass-market production gets to ignore representation, and The White Lotus is representing the rich in a certain, miscalculated way.

People are talking about The White Lotus because it points a finger near the 1% and says, "See?" Yet the effect of the mild critique is to serve as a kind of permission structure for yet more selfish nihilism from just these sorts of people. Unlike Rue in the diner, for whom nothing matters because she has narratively condemned herself, for The White Lotus’s rich, nothing matters because they float on a cloud of privilege, and this is why they also have no belief in redemption or motivation for change.

The White Lotus thus becomes a part of the plutocracy’s fortress of “don’t-look-here”. In this bargain, we don’t question the ascendancy of the rich, and in exchange, we get to watch content in which their (highly paid) avatars fill homes and spiritual vacuums with luxury goods and experiences. The money from the creation of these goods and experiences, demonstrably, does not trickle down, but the behavior pattern does, so that for many viewers the dominant emotion one has while watching Daphne swipe her card is is a kind of comfortable envy. “I have problems too,” we seem to say, “and if I had that kind of money, I could ignore them in Sicily, instead of in front of HBO. But look, they’re no better than me! They behave badly and feel sad too!” And this it the point. We’ll live with their tax breaks and bailouts, thank them for their charitable contributions, keep our affordable housing and kids out of their spaces, and pay their monopolies while they to strip the social contract of meaning, so long as we can plausibly believe it leaves them maladjusted, miserable, and mean. It’s a distraction that works for us, but it works much better for them, since it also reinforces the Promethean self-image that they suffer for the magnitude of their important works, without which society would surely crumble. They serve us this content themselves, on their networks (HBO is owned by TimeWarner). Every once in a while, if we get too close, they'll reluctantly cough up one of their own, like the Sacklers, whose drugs Rue consumes, or like Harvey Weinstein, who has his cheap proxy in The White Lotus. But this is not what mainstream class accountability looks like.

Neither is this a strong critique of masculinity. In the post-#MeToo world, The White Lotus makes no news when it demonstrates that toxic masculinity and the patriarchy are destructive. What would be fresh is seeing culturally-literate, emotionally-agile men emerging from the ashes as a desperately needed solution to the question "How to Be A Man in 2022?” for adults left bereft by their loss of innocence, but eager to do better. Instead, it struck me as of a piece with the tragically forlorn manhood that Gen-X writers have been serving us for going on two decades—see for example some of the works of Judd Apatow, or shows like Succession, or even Curb Your Enthusiasm—without any compensating vision for how to move on from that cultural moment. We've laughed with some of these characters, seen them roasted, and we've been made to empathize with them, pathetically. But this vision of stunted manhood is tired, and it has done enough to shut down the conversation about what masculinity could actually look like if we imagined alternatives. It’s not fun anymore.

Does all storytelling have to be responsible, and who gets to say what responsible means? I'll say this: There is such a thing as irresponsible storytelling. We know this now. Don’t yell “stolen” in a crowded election. And don’t yell “inevitable, tragic, doomed” to adult male millionaires. It only encourages them. Responsibility needs to be among the criteria we consider as we evaluate, produce, and consume stories: we need to examine the intention of a narrative, as well as its effect, and ask “Can we afford this?” In our shared, constructed reality, stories are told before they become real. Asking for more responsibility out of our public storytellers is exactly where we need to start to fix our culture, not the end product we can expect when our culture is "fixed".

As for The White Lotus, I subscribe to the idea that, if we are going to make it through this lifetime without severe social cataclysm, that we are going to need to talk our way down from extreme plutocracy, which, given the captured state of power in the United States today, means that the rich will have to reform themselves: through fear, pressure, coercion, self-interest or altruism they will have to believe in the desirability of change as they divest from addictive destructions and embrace caretaking as the 21st century's new mega-model, where consumption was the 20th's. Responsible storytelling at this moment in history is that which brings people along in this belief. We deserve to catch a glimpse of an alternative reality in which our miseries are offered a middle offramp forward—different, more beautiful, possible. Barring that, we deserve satire that saves space for everyone on the future justice committee, but in The White Lotus we get neither.

HBO itself, along with the other streamers, has shown that responsible TV can be deeply gratifying and entertaining. Many recent shows, including Euphoria and Insecure, demonstrate that well-rounded characters—characters that take our grasping attempts at morality and growth seriously—can be dark and funny, human and dramatic, moving and satirical too.

For a different contrast, see the writing coming out of Sex Education and Ted Lasso. Both offer an alternative universe for our consideration: a world that is just like ours, except that the characters consistently communicate about life's important, challenging matters, and eventually find a way through, to growth and understanding. In Sex Ed, Principal Groff, a character nearly as repellent as those in The White Lotus, struggles to cope with his estrangement from his job, his wife, his son, and the world at large; his change as he finds acceptance and cooking was deeply moving. His son's transformation from bully to sensitivity was equally compelling. On Ted Lasso, Hannah's transition from vindictiveness to vulnerability, for example when she sings karaoke in front of the team, or Jamie's tempering in the face of rejection, offer other examples. Many other shows, written by younger writers and people of color, are doing this really well.

Can we get some of this treatment applied to the uber-rich, whose character flaws, like those of the Greek Gods, really are destroying the world? Not because they deserve it, but because they need to see themselves as changeable moral agents, just like the rest of us, and because it could be culturally therapeutic?

As we struggle with race, class, gender, power, and change in social life, we need to be able to highlight and center the parts of ourselves that are good and worthy. Doing so requires admitting that we have some. It requires seeing moments of upward realization, of redemption, even and especially within characters so wretched. The culture industry should be leading on this. Instead, The White Lotus seems to be saying that money, whiteness, and adulthood are inevitably vilifying, and that millennial/Gen-Z attempts to rectify or imagine alternatives—to care—are inevitably alienating and doomed. Not only do we need that not to be the case, it is not the case, and saying it’s so is part of the problem facing efforts to make real change.

[thevindicativevordan]

Why isn't Nightwing a bigger deal? He has all of Batman's skills and Superman's faith in humanity and is arguably the most beloved hero in the DCU, but most people seem to know him either as the leader of the N̶o̶t̶ ̶J̶L̶ Teen Ttians or just Robin.

Thank you for asking me about Nightwing, I've been wanting to write a piece about him for a while now. The short version is that everyone who claims Dick becoming Nightwing was him "moving out of Batman's shadow and becoming his own man" is completely wrong.

Dick Grayson is a fantastic character, someone who saved Bruce Wayne in-universe both by forcing Batman to grow up a bit, and the countless times he saved Batman's life as his partner whether as Robin or Nightwing. Dick saved Batman in the real world as well, hard to believe but Batman was actually in danger of being cancelled due to poor sales early on. Enter Robin, a young daredevil audience stand in the creators hoped would get kids interested in reading Batman. And it worked! Sales on Batman doubled once Robin showed up which is crazy to think about, but Dick Grayson has always been a popular character. Cartoons like Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, and The Batman only helped grow his audience.

Character-wise, Dick Grayson really does fill a number of crucial roles in the DCU. For Batman, Dick is proof that Batman is a positive force. Meeting Batman helped change Dick for the better, helped him heal after his parents died. With Dick, Batman can take comfort in knowing that yes, he has made a difference in the world for at least one orphan boy, which is all he wanted when he lost his parents himself. To the wider DCU, Dick is a friendly face who convinces others that Batman is competent and not a complete asshole. He took this kid in, trained him to be one of the best heroes the DCU has seen, and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. That someone like Dick can confront the evils of Gotham and not break means there's still hope for that city. As Robin, Dick has led the Titans and is an icon in his own right as The Sidekick, the original, the one every other Robin is built around copying or contrasting. The one all other superhero sidekicks are drawing on as a basis. As Robin Dick Grayson is very much on Batman's level.

Just not as Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick has been a second rate Daredevil which means he's a third rate Batman (fully prepared to get hate for this but I've read and enjoyed the Miller and Bendis DD runs so I feel entitled to my opinion). A typical Nightwing run tends to go like this: Moving to Bludhaven (which is Gotham... but WORSE!), Dick Grayson usually enrolls in a pointless job we don't care about in order to provide some meaningless soap opera drama that doesn't go anywhere. Patrolling the city as Nightwing, he fights a variety of bad guys who are usually rather lame and unthreatening, with his big bad being a Kingpin knockoff called Blockbuster. Villains are fought, long running plotlines are set up, then everything is abandoned because it's Batfamily event time, and Dick has to run back to Gotham in order to play sidekick again. Usually his involvement is completely superfluous and it would've been better if the writer had gotten to opt out. By the time we finally get back to Nightwing's solo plotlines, the audience has usually ceased to care and the run gets cut short.

That's how Nightwing has been since the New 52 at least. Anyone who thinks that's "becoming their own man" is out of their mind. Dick is so thoroughly in Batman's shadow that he got shot in the head and spent a longer time as "Ric" which everyone fucking hated and sold like shit, than he did as Agent Grayson which was extremely well-received. Reiterating: Ric went on longer than Grayson because of a fucking Batman plotpoint Tom King wanted where Bruce was sad and cut off from the Batfamily because of Dick getting shot. Not just calling out King either, how many times was Kyle Higgins Nightwing run derailed because of Scott Snyder's crossovers? Or how about that entire run getting dumped to the side because Johns wanted to out Dick during Forever Evil, a Justice League/Lex Luthor story? DC has repeatedly made their contempt for Nightwing clear, he's Batman's sidekick still in their eyes, and he serves whatever story role the Batman writer wants.

Hell his best stories tend to have been the ones where he's not Nightwing. He was Robin in a good chunk of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run. Morrison really showcased his depth as a character when they wrote him as Batman, their time with Dick under the cowl was actually one of the first Batman runs I ever read, and no Nightwing run has ever matched it in terms of quality in my humble opinion. Scott Snyder's work with DickBats also was a high point for the character, showing Dick as competent and examining his relationship with Gotham and the Gordons. King and Seeley gave him one of the best comic runs with Grayson, a series where he wasn't even a "superhero" technically! When it comes to actual pre-New 52 Nightwing runs that are highly recommended where he *is* Nightwing, there's Chuck Dixon and uhhhhhhh... Tomasi's brief run before Dick became Batman? It's not exactly an overwhelming list.

Look there has been good work done with Nightwing, I'm not claiming there hasn't been. Tim Seeley wrote a great run with Nightwing Rebirth. Seeley fleshed out Dick's Rogues Gallery with cool new ones like Raptor, he brought back old foes like Dr. Hurt (why oh why couldn't you have brought back Flamingo too?), he gave Dick's world some character it solely needed. Bludhaven under Seeley is pretty much the only time I've really felt like it lived up to being Dick's city.

The problem with fictional cities is you have to put in the work to give them the character of real cities. You have to make the cities feel like characters in their own right. Gotham is the best example of this, it's a character all it's own, one that tells you a lot about Batman and his cast. In contrast Bludhaven is usually one of the worst. Any place that wants to claim to be worse than the city that is built over the gate to hell and gets wrecked every other month by the Arkham freaks has to really put in the work to compete. Simply put, Bludhaven typically fails utterly. There's nothing about it that makes you really buy it's worse than Gotham, I mean does anyone really think Nightwing's Rogues wouldn't get their lunches eaten by Batman's? No, no one genuinely buys that. When Bludhaven claims to be worse, it just comes across as tryhard, an attribute that does end up telling you about Nightwing in unintentional ways.

So Seeley didn't do that. Instead he created a city built for a hero like Dick Grayson. Someone who is bright and flashy, but does have an element of darkness to him. Someone who loves the spotlight, but often uses it to obscure. Seeley turned Bludhaven into Las Vegas, and that was the fucking best concept for Bludhaven I have ever seen, it makes so much sense. Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and isn't that the perfect city for a hero who got their start working in the circus? Isn't the aesthetics of the gleaming casinos, the glamorous sex appeal of the performers, and the spectacle of the shows, all being used to cover up the seediness of mob bosses meeting backstage perfect for Nightwing? It's so utterly unlike New York City, yet Las Vegas is still dangerous, it's got a crime culture all it's own. Seeley used it to great effect, as did Humphries during his brief run, and I will always be pissed that DC didn't continue to use it. That should have stuck around and been the definitive look for Bludhaven.

How Seeley's take on Bludhaven was treated feels like a small scale version of how Nightwing in general gets treated. Whenever creators pitched ideas for him, if editorial thought there was potential to break big, they asked for those ideas to be repurposed for Batman instead. Anything big or good gets repurposed for Batman or tossed to the side so Nightwing can go back to his default: having irrelevant adventures in a city that is supposedly worse than Gotham but can't live up to it. Just like how Nightwing is supposedly better than Batman but never gets to show it. Goddamn it's so frustrating seeing his potential get wasted like that.

The Nightwing book should be one of DC's most ambitious books in terms of storytelling. You can go from traditional superhero stories, to romantic soap opera, to spy stories, to crime noir, to horror, to cosmic adventures, and ALL of them would fit because Nightwing is someone who has a foot in both Gotham and Metropolis. He's got friends everywhere on every team, and has been a hero longer than most Leaguers have at this point. No reason DC should still be afraid to let him loose and insisting on hewing close to what Dixon established almost over 30 years ago is only holding him back. At the very least get him some better Rogues, why the hell didn't he get to keep Professor Pyg? That's Dick's villain not Bruce's! Bullshit that they didn't let Dick keep him. Hopefully Flamingo comes back, with a slight revamp I think he'd make a great reoccurring Nightwing Rogue.

Luckily it does look somewhat like Nightwing fans have reason to be optimistic. While Taylor isn't to my taste, DC clearly views him as a "big" writer, and that they put him on Nightwing says a lot. Taylor has been selling well so far, so hopefully he gets to tell his story, hilarious that even he lampshaded having to write Dick running over to Gotham for another tie-in after Taylor's big opening arc was all about Dick committing himself and his money to Bludhaven. Scott Snyder is apparently working on a Black Label Nightwing book which will explore how he's a different detective than Bruce. The Gotham Knights video game has him as one of the main stars, and while Titans is... controversial, it's one of the most popular streaming shows and Dick is the main character. There's a lot of content coming that features him in the starring role, and that will only help his star rise further.

For the first time in, well, ever it feels like DC may be serious about elevating him. Time will tell if it pays off, but I for one choose to be optimistic that the 2020s will be a turning point for Dick Grayson where Nightwing becomes hugely popular in his own right. Not just as Batman's sidekick.

[wheelsup]

the taming of the shrew | two

if i be waspish, best beware my sting

after some setbacks, penelope is willing to do anything to get you back on board. but has spencer already ruined things?

A/N: hello! im so sorry that this posting schedule is super inconsistent. the more i thought about this chapter, the less i liked the more technical aspects of it. but! i hope you enjoy to plot aspect of it nonetheless <3 thanks for reading!

category: fluff, slow burn series, spencer reid x fem!reader

wc: 4.4k

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Since that phone call with Penelope, she’d been over nearly every night for a week with plates of treats and onslaughts of apologies. Each time she came knocking, you told her there was no amount of persuasion that could change your mind. And yet the following night, she’d be there, a new type of pastry in hand and a new set of reasons why Spencer was worth the trouble.

First, she brought blueberry muffins and reasoned that deep below that prickly exterior, he really was everything she promised –– sweet and caring. But that must be deep, deep down. Like, The Lost City of Atlantis, deep down, because you didn’t expect it to surface any time soon. 

Then, she brought fudge brownies and explained that his behavior wasn’t personal –– he was getting snippy with everyone lately. And while you maintained that anybody would have a hard time getting along with Spencer, you were absolutely positive that it was now impossible for you. 

Quite frankly, it wasn’t just Spencer who was unwilling to play nice. You hated him. More than you’ve ever hated a stranger. 

You wished him a lifetime riddled with minor inconveniences that would drive him to the edge of insanity. You wanted him to miss all his trains by just a quarter of a minute; close enough so that he could see it leave the platform, knowing he almost made it on. You wanted him to constantly feel like he was about to sneeze. You wanted his socks to be perpetually wet, and if he should happen to put on a dry pair? You hoped he stepped in a puddle.

That was all you could think about as you laid out on your couch, munching on one of Penelope’s lemon bars while she paced around your apartment. She kept going on and on advertising Spencer to you. As annoying as it was, she was also saving you a ton on groceries that week. 

For the most part, you filtered her out. Not a single word that came out of her mouth was believable anymore, especially not when she was talking about Spencer. Despite what Penelope thought of him, you saw in him what she refused to accept. 

As her speech came to a close, she looked at you like she expected a response to dignify her prattling. 

“Give it a rest, Penelope. He’s a lost cause,” you laughed dryly. “He doesn’t need –– nor does he want –– anyone in his life.” At the very least, he definitely didn’t want you. 

“Yes, that’s the problem!” If you’d been listening to her, you would’ve heard her saying the same thing. “He doesn’t want to date!” 

Your head just about exploded when she said that. 

There had been countless, fruitless conversations about this, and all along she saw the gaping hole in her supposedly airtight plan?

“If he doesn’t want to DATE, then WHAT was the point of this?!” Your fingers pressed the bridge of your nose; you suddenly felt a headache coming on. Funny how it always happened around the time of day that Penelope came to visit.

Penelope stopped pacing. She stalked over to your couch, picked your legs up by your ankle, and moved them to make space for herself. You begrudgingly sat upright as she took her place beside you. 

“Because he’s not himself anymore. He’s not open like he used to be. Not to the people who care about him the most, and certainly not to the world.”  

Penelope toyed with the hem of her dress, distracting herself from her quivering lip before pressing on, “Spencer Reid has always wanted love. And it’s not right that he no longer believes he can have it.” 

You hadn’t seen Penelope look so desperate until now. It was concerning. Because what could make her look so hopeless? What could make Spencer so hopeless? 

“Penelope, I don’t know what’s wrong with your little friend, but… there’s a lot more bubbling inside him than you’re letting on.” 

She chewed up the insides of her cheeks, wincing to herself at your incredibly accurate claim. 

“You are hiding something, aren’t you?” You narrowed your eyes on her. You were no detective, or whatever exactly her team did, but she was just awful at concealing her thoughts.

“It’s not my story to tell,” she murmured. 

She could already feel herself about to give it away and doubled down her mental defenses against it. Focusing extra hard on keeping Spencer’s privacy intact. If only you knew her track record with secrets, you’d be proud of her for staying quiet this long.

“What isn’t your story?” 

“That his girlfriend died last year.” 

She spilled it before she even realized what she was saying. You’d just asked so nonchalantly that she forgot she was talking aloud. Penelope turned purple, terrified now that the whole truth was out there. 

You couldn’t even take satisfaction in the fact that your trick worked. You were just as mortified as Penelope, and if you weren’t already sitting down, you knew you’d need to. You assumed there was something deeper going on with him, you didn’t think it was a dead girlfriend. That was some Nicholas Sparks shit. 

“He pretends like he’s fine but I know he’s not. And if he found a way to move on, maybe he’d start feeling as okay as he claims to be,” she sniffled before snot could run from her nose, tears lining the rims of her eyes. “I know I should’ve given you the full picture, but I didn’t think you’d go for it if you knew…” 

You were too floored to process it all right away. This added a whole new layer of complicated to an already uneasy arrangement.

“Well, I know you’re right about one thing. I would’ve said no.” 

She gave you a set of pleading eyes, praying you’d see where she was coming from. 

“I know,” she whispered defeatedly. “But maybe... now that you know, you can understand why he acts out the way he does.”

“Penelope, I can’t just… make someone move on, or –– or get them to believe in love! Especially when it’s fake.”

How on Earth did she expect you to pull that off? Did that guy from A Walk to Remember move on when Mandy Moore died? You hadn’t seen the ending of the movie, but you assumed not. 

“I’m sorry, this is just… a lot bigger than the favor I thought it was ––”

“What if I could return it?” she cut in. The gears in her head started to turn, figuring ways to patch up the holes she made. 

“There’s nothing I need from you.” 

That couldn’t be true. Penelope looked around the room and it didn’t take her long to think of it.

“I can help you sell your art,” she tempted, gesturing to the scattered canvases. “You make all your income from this, right?” 

You didn’t want to give any fuel to her fire, but you nodded. “What if… what if you didn’t have to settle for local buyers? What if I told you that you could make way more money selling them to the whole world?”

You chortled at her idea. 

You were a local artist, through and through. Your art got put in local galleries and sold to local buyers. Nothing more, and that was fine with you. You realized it a long time ago that it was just a pipe dream to think you’d be more. 

“I’m serious! You could get a separate painting studio, and stop living in one? Huh?” She wrapped her hand around your shoulder, waving the other in the air, urging you to picture it with her. “Imagine this: a kitchen that’s separate from your living room. A bed, inside it’s own four walls, and more than twelve feet from where you cook your meals.”

Pushing aside her so blatantly insulting your apartment, if that were a possibility, you’d want nothing more. But it already sounded foolish and you hadn’t even heard how she planned to pull it off. 

“Penelope, I’m fine where I am. I make the money I need, and that’s... it’s fine.”

She gave you a pointed look. “You know, I can hack all search engine results to make sure you are what comes up first anytime someone enters the word ‘painting’, right?

An airy chuckle left your lips. Of course she could. You patted her thigh twice and stood up, prompting her to follow you to your door –– hopefully, so she can show herself to the other side of it. “Still no, Pen.” 

“Just take some time to think about it!” Her voice carried through the wood as you shut it on her.

*

There was this one bench in Kenilworth Park – the one that overlooks the crystal clear pond – that you’d always been able to rely on to fix any problem.

There was hidden magic in the bushes that sprawled out from the edges of the water, surrounded by spiky green blades of overgrown grass. A simplicity you loved in baby ducklings paddling into the tiny body of water, swimming close together so they don’t get lost in, what seems to them, a whole ocean. And clarity provided by the freshest air in the world, under the shade of the big oak trees on a late summer afternoon.

But at the present, none of that came close to being enough.

The artist’s block started off as a minor inconvenience, but without your permission, had stretched into weeks of steadily declining motivation. Each new idea felt even worse than the last, and you were acutely aware that there would come a point where you’d officially hit maximum capacity for how awful they could get.

Still, that didn’t seem to light a fire under you. You happily coexisted with the blank pages of your sketchbook. Staring down at them, laying open on your lap in their stark-white glory, you felt like you were playing a waiting game. If you stared long and hard enough, maybe they’d flinch. 

Unfortunately, you never got to find out who won, because your phone rang inside your pocket. As if the caller had interrupted an incredible genius at work (which couldn’t be farther from the truth), you hastily raised the phone to your ear, slamming your sketchbook shut.

“Hello?” Your voice wasn’t as kind as it could be for someone with nothing better to be doing. Two seconds later, you learned who was calling and came to regret it.

“Hi, This is Rebecca from District Arts, calling with a message from Andre ––”

“Oh, hi!” you tried to walk back your previous tone, straightening up in your seat and pitching your voice higher, “Yeah, I’ve been waiting to hear from him!” 

While Rebecca intimidated you, Andre happened to be your closest friend at the gallery. He worked closely with the artists to curate their collection and help them make sales. 

“Does he want to sort out what to set the opening bid prices at for my new pieces?” A handful of days ago, you sent him pictures of your new work and were waiting to hear his thoughts. You’d always been able to trust his opinion, and a vote of confidence from him might be just the thing to inspire you.

“Uhm…” There was a criminally long pause on the other side of the line, ended by Rebecca’s weary inhale. “Unfortunately, we’re calling to inform you that your pieces will not be included in the next rotation.”

For a minute, you weren’t sure what to make of what she said. You’d never heard those words before.

“What – what do you mean?” you laughed nervously. She probably misspoke. Perks of friendship aside, Andre always included you in sets. 

“Ugh, let me just get him…” her voice faded away as she put the phone down. 

That wasn’t exactly the reassuring statement you were looking for. In the time it took for the call to switch hands, your confusion finally melted in. And then quickly boiled into anger.

The District Arts gallery changed their entire collection every two months. The pieces shown accepted rolling bids throughout the full eight weeks, finally selling at the end of term to their highest offer. After that, the pieces got taken down, sent to happy new owners, and the entire gallery reset with entirely new works. 

So if you missed one rotation, that meant waiting two months to get back in.

“Andre, how am I just cut from the gallery!” you barked before he could get a word in. If he didn’t like your work, he could’ve just said so. 

“No one said that ––”

“Okay, let me rephrase.” You pinched the bridge of your nose, something you found yourself doing quite frequently lately, and took a deep breath in and out. It was seemingly just for show because it did absolutely nothing to calm you down. “Why wouldn’t you put me in the next set? I’m in all of them!”

“I know you are!” He sounded just as upset. “It’s just that… we give you the biggest space we have, because you always manage to fill it up. But this time… I’m not so sure you can.”

“That’s ridiculous,” you scoffed. “What makes you say that?” You asked that, but you knew.

“You’ve only finished three pieces… I’m worried how you’ll deliver seven more before we set up.”

“But… it’s four weeks away, I could do ––”

“And it took you four weeks to make what you have... I’m sorry. We couldn’t take that gamble.” 

He took your silence as an opportunity to turn off the work talk and speak, just friend to friend. 

“You know that I trust you and I’d hold that spot if I could. But, I also know what you’re going through right now, and… I don’t know, maybe letting yourself rest would be a good thing?” 

Your heart paused. By, “knowing what you’re going through”, you assumed he didn’t mean the little artist’s block.

“If you’re implying that I can’t do my job because of what happened with Cyrus –”

“I’m not, I’m not....” he backtracked as quickly as he could. “But take another look at the paintings you showed me and tell me if they feel like you.”

Even if he was right, you wanted to fight him. You wanted to cry. You wanted to beg that you didn’t need that big space; you were willing to downsize and just turn in the three that you had. Even if they got shoved into the corner where hardly anybody bothered to look. You just couldn’t afford to go two months without the income. 

But even with tears beading up, you realized that the gallery couldn’t afford it either. They needed to bring in money and you couldn’t do that for them this time. So they were right to go to someone who can.

“Right,” you sniffled, recollecting yourself so he can’t hear the shakiness in your voice. “I understand. It’s a big risk, like you said… It’s for the better.”

Andre tried to thank you for being understanding and spewed some sort of encouragement. The words flew over your head. You managed to toss in a few ‘mhmm’s and ‘sure’s at the right places to coast you along until the call finally ended. 

As soon as it went dead, you dropped your phone to the side and brought your hands to your face, rubbing them furiously over your cheeks. Your fingertips pressed hard into your eyelids, trying to forcibly reabsorb the tears threatening to spill. 

It almost worked, until you tried to breathe. 

A full sob escaped in that one gulp of air and you succumbed to it. But the loud crunching noise of some pedestrian walking over the falling leaves destroyed your sense of privacy, and you quickly wiped away all signs of your breakdown. The crunching stopped just short of your bench and on instinct you flicked your eyes up to see who the intruder was.

You did a double take. It was him. That fucking asshole.

He was standing there, looking dumber than you could even remember, with his hands in his coat pockets and a curious look on his face as he watched you cry. Tucking your sketchbook under your arm in haste, you made it a point to stand up with as much aggression as possible, rolling your eyes at him.

“Don’t worry, I’m leaving,” you barked. “No need to yell at me this time.”

You bristled past him, barely refraining yourself from checking his shoulder as payback. You wanted to believe you were better than him, but it did sound incredibly tempting. He stood there for a moment before turning on his heel and following you.

“Wait,” he groaned.

You didn’t listen, neither stopping nor slowing down.

“I said wait,” he huffed as he caught up to you, popping up at your side and jogging along as you kept going.

“Yeah, because I need to listen to a guy who yells at strangers in bookstores.” 

Now that you’d brought up the elephant in the room, your feet started moving even faster, working double time to get you away from him.

Damn the fact that he had those long legs. He didn’t even break a sweat trying to keep up. He was inescapable.

“Well, if you waited like I asked, you would’ve gotten an apology for the ––”

“Gee, thanks!” you yelled, stopping for only a second to turn to him and give him a mocking bow of your head, hands clasped together like you were praising at his altar. “I was waiting with bated breath for that! Thank you, kind sir, for now my life can go on.”

“Look, I’m actually sorry,” he snapped. Then in realizing the irony, softened his voice, “I’m sorry for being rude. I was having a bad day… not that that’s an excuse.”

You stared at him blankly, just watching his mouth moving quickly and waiting until it finally stopped. 

“Did you need something?” 

“Did you… did you not hear what I just said?!” 

“No, sorry,” you smiled, voice sweet like sugar. “My ears filter bullshit. Wanna try again?”

He scoffed, looking away like he couldn’t believe you before stepping even closer. “What’s your problem?”

“Me!? The fuck –– what the fuck is your problem?” You turned and stormed off again, seething at his audacity. Spencer just couldn’t relent his annoying tendencies and followed yet again.

“My problem is that I’m trying to be nice, and you’re not letting me!”

You got a good, hard laugh out of that. “Okay, first of all, having to apologize for yelling at me and pushing me isn’t exactly the best starting point for the journey of becoming a nice person.”

“Like I said, I was having a bad day.” 

Under your breath, you muttered, “Well, I hope this one’s even worse.”

“Why are you such a ––” He stopped himself from finishing that thought. Even in his worst mood, he wouldn’t cross that line. 

But he didn’t need to finish it, you knew exactly where he wanted to take it. The soles of your shoes scraped against the loose gravel as you came to a grinding halt, ears ringing.

“A what?” You turned to face him, a sarcastic smile on your face growing wider as he started to shrink more and more. You got up close in his face, daring him to say what he really wanted to. So he could reinforce your belief in exactly the type of person he was. “A what?” 

Spencer pursed his lips and shook his head, refusing to say it no matter how much you challenged him. If he wasn’t going to have the balls to say it, you decided to take it upon yourself.

“Tell you what, you keep thinking about it and get back to me the next time you’re in a cunty mood.” 

The word he was thinking of was probably not as bad, but you had a habit of escalating things. Even if you took this one too far, you didn’t care. 

Before you tried to take off again, Spencer’s hand flew to your elbow. He tugged you back, forcing you to turn around and face him. He didn’t know his own strength; without any resistance, you came stumbling into his chest, at risk of falling over if it weren’t for his tight grip on your arm.

It took you a beat to push him away with both your hands on his chest, vocalizing your disgust for being so close to him. 

“Can you stop trying to disagree with me for a second? I’m trying to tell you that you’re right, I was being a… well, you know…” He avoided the word. Apparently ‘cunt’ was where he drew the line. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve it.” 

Your nostrils were still flared and blood hot as ever, but he made you pause. He looked sincere, if not a little tinged with guilt as well. You were suspicious of it.

“You saw me crying and felt bad, didn’t you?”

He laughed darkly. “Well, I saw you, yes. Did I feel bad? No.” 

“Oh, my God,” you growled, berating yourself for getting close to believing he might be capable of decency. 

“I’m joking! I’m joking.” He squeezed your elbow twice in earnest. “I did feel bad, but that’s not why I wanted to say it.”

“Okay.” You weren’t ready to give him a real smile, so you flattened your lips into a thin line and nodded once slowly, and left it at that. 

You still weren’t a fan, but the apology did dampen some of the resentment. Maybe he wasn’t the worst person alive. You’d settle for saying top ten most annoying, instead.

Minutes later, you came to the startling realization that he was still on the path, just two paces behind you. You flinched when you saw him out of the corner of your eye, not expecting him to still be here. 

“Uhm. Where are you… why are you still following me?” 

“I’m not. My car’s that way,” he gestured to the parking lot at the end of the long walkway. “I forgot my loaf for the ducks.” He didn’t mean to offer that information up, it just slipped out. He could practically see your smug expression coming before it even got there.

“You’re not supposed to feed bread to the ducks. It’s bad for them.”

“I don’t.” He didn’t care to explain this to you, but he couldn’t have you thinking he was any less competent than he really was. “It’s a special bread made from water and seeds that were ground into flour. It’s duck-safe.” 

“They make duck-safe bread?” Now that was something you’d never heard before. 

“No… I make duck-safe bread,” he said softly under his breath. 

You didn’t know how else you were supposed to react to that besides laughing wildly. 

“You make it?” He nodded like you were the crazy one here. As if he wasn’t the one spending his spare time grinding up seeds and baking loaves of bread for ducks, donning a frilly pink apron and oven mitts as he did so. At least that’s how you imagined it. “Why not just feed them the seeds?”

“Because, loose seeds will sink in the water and can potentially clog waterbeds and cause foreign bacteria growth in the pond.” 

“So you… hand-make the seeds into a little loaf of bread so it doesn't do that?”

He confirmed. You pondered silently for a moment, then absolutely had to ask, “You ever eaten the duck bread before?”

Spencer was caught off guard by that question. His cheeks deepened to a rosy color.

“Yeah, well, it was the house so…” he laughed nervously and stared at his sneakers. “It’s actually not too bad.”

You weren’t entirely surprised by that. You remembered what his grocery basket looked like, and given those same options, you probably would’ve tried the duck bread too. Still, you cracked the smallest of grins at knowing he makes bread for ducks. The one, sole redeeming fact you’ve learned about Spencer. 

You reached your car first, and Spencer stopped in front of it with you. 

“I’m actually sorry, you know,” he whispered once more, hand resting at the top of your car door as you opened it. He wasn’t talking about the incident at the bookstore.

“Yeah…” For a while you were so busy being angry at Spencer that you forgot about your own problems. 

He noticed your nose was still red around the edges, eyes still a little bleary. “Are you okay, by the way?” His voice was too soft, too genuine.

You shook your head no.

“Is there anything I can do?” You shook your head again. And then you had an awful thought.

You knew he was just offering to help just to say it, because that’s how people react when you say you’re not okay even if they don’t care. But there actually was something he could do for you… Something that Penelope could do.

“Uh, no but…” you fixed your hair and tucked it behind your ear, seamlessly switching to a flirtier voice. “If you still feel bad about the other day, you’re welcome to make it up to me.”

Spencer cocked his head to the side, unsure of how he could do that. 

“Hang out with me sometime.”

“H-hang out?” You could tell that it flustered him, even if he tried to play it off. He swallowed thickly, nose twitching and brows scrunched together.

“Relax, I really do just mean hang out.” You were lying through your teeth. He didn’t need to know that. 

As if he didn’t want to think about it for a second longer and just get out of this conversation as quickly as possible, he agreed without thinking it through. He didn’t even ask why an almost complete stranger would want to hang out with him. 

You stuck your hand out, expecting him to hand over his cell so you could put your contact into it. He rocked on the balls of his feet, watching as you input your contact and sent yourself a text on his phone.

“Hi, this is…” you read out your message as you typed, pausing at just the right place. “What’s your name by the way?”

“Oh-uh, I’m Spencer.” 

A devilish grin took over your face, hidden from his view while you were looking down at the screen. He was going to be easy to fool.

-

-

agh! im still not in love with how this chapter is turning out, but it came to a point where i just had to stop fiddling with it and just post it. any feedback or comments about this story is very much appreciated 💕

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[stxleslyds]

Has Jason met the Flashpoint Universe's Thomas Wayne? Like, actually spoken with him or voiced an opinion on the guy? If not, how do you envision their interactions?

Hello friend! I really like your questions; they make me read new stuff!

To answer your first question, nope, Jason Todd from main continuity hasn’t met Thomas Wayne from flashpoint! The only issue in which they “appear together” is Batman (2016) #71, but Jason only appears there when Barbara calls him so he can team up with the “Batfamily” to help Bruce. And that’s where this iconic Jason panel comes from!

Now, as a little heads up, I haven’t read flashpoint but I have done my research on Thomas Wayne’s story in Flashpoint. What I have read, though, is Batman vol.3 issues, 21, 22, 50, 58, 60, 69, 71-77, 80-85. I read that to answer this question Batman is not necessarily a book that I follow, from those I think I had previously read four or five issues.

("City of Bane" was so boring, confusing and stretched out too long. It would have been an easier read if Tom King stopped writing everything in pauses, I really don’t know how to explain it, but between that and the “Bat” “Cat” stuff I was ready to cry).

But because I read all that and did my research on Thomas Wayne, I believe I can give a pretty solid answer to your other question, “If not, how do you envision their interactions?”

I think Jason’s first impression of Flashpoint Thomas Wayne would have been, “I now understand why Bruce is so scared of killing the Joker, he just won’t be capable to handle himself and go on a killing spree. Suppose being not strong-willed runs in their blood”

Then as time passes by and he gets a glimpse at Thomas’ actions in main continuity I think that Jason would have reached the conclusion that Thomas was pathetic, crazy and dangerous. I can really see Jason writing down Thomas’ name in his own “to kill” list.

I really don’t think they could have gotten along from the very start. Yes, they both kill criminals but Thomas is deranged compared to Jason as he is now. (I will be talking about Jason as if he were a solid mix between UtRH and RHatO Jason).

Jason kills criminals such as drug dealers that sell drugs to children, rapists, people who work for the wrong kind of people and monsters, or things like the Untitled. Thomas on the other hand kills every kind of criminal, and sometimes he thinks that killing innocents and children is a means to an end.

In the Batman run, Thomas wasn’t happy about Bane killing Alfred but those were the rules, basically, he stepped aside from protecting Alfred because Bane had set a rule that said that if any of the Bat-People stepped foot in Gotham Alfred would be killed, and Damian went to Gotham so Thomas was like “oh well, time for Alfred to die, I guess”. After Alfred was killed by Bane, Thomas took Damian hostage and decided to use him as leverage now that Alfred was dead.

Thomas was nasty. But, I kinda started explaining Thomas’ thinking process from a weird place, so let me give you a little context if you haven’t read this arc.

Thomas Wayne is the Batman from Flashpoint. Flashpoint isn’t another universe, it is like a re-written main continuity universe so that Thomas is main continuity Bruce’s real father. How are they both in main continuity? Flash and Reverse Flash nonsense, I am not a Flash person so that’s the best way I can explain it. Reverse Flash and Flash did something weird and Thomas ended up in main continuity after they deleted the Flashpoint “timeline”.

Thomas Wayne asked Bruce while they were both in Flashpoint that he stopped being Batman, he told Bruce to find happiness and leave Batman behind because it would only bring him pain and suffering. (Batman vol.3 #22)

When Thomas Wayne woke up in main continuity, he got to see Bruce proposing to Selina, and going on a double date with Selina, Lois and Clark. But he also got to see that Bruce and Selina didn’t get married. That was what made Thomas Wayne go to Bane so he could help him break Bruce’s mind so Bruce finally let Batman go.

Yeah, Thomas really thought that the best way he could make his son give up the vigilante life was by helping Bane take over Gotham and breaking Bruce’s mental stability (or whatever he has left of it).

By helping Bane take over Gotham, Thomas was actually working with people like Joker, Riddler, Scarecrow and other villains. So, from that alone Jason would have been like “Who the hell is this guy and how can I kill him before Gotham falls apart?”.

I have to be honest though, I am really happy that Tom King didn’t include Jason in this stupid story, it just wouldn’t have made sense because even though Gotham was falling apart and villains were roaming free and terrorizing Gotham’s people, King actually made the “Batfamily” fight only for Alfred (who was already dead) and then they all got beat by Thomas. Tom King never made anyone care for Gotham itself, and no, I am not counting Selina and Bruce because those two were fucking and having drinks while Gotham fell apart, they only showed up at the very last second.

But your question wasn’t about my thoughts on this dumb story, it was about Jason and Thomas interacting. Well, I think that if Tom King had invited Jason to this party, he would have shot Thomas without hesitation and then would have told the “Batfamily” to get their shit together because Gotham’s people were suffering while everyone was looking away.

Thomas was working with Bane and letting Gotham’s rouges do whatever they wanted, Jason would have killed Thomas instantly! There would have been no talking, no “What are your thoughts on the Joker being alive after he killed me that one time? Do you think Bruce was right?”, Jason would have wasted no time on that because he would have seen his city fall apart at the hands of Thomas and Bane AND Bruce’s negligence. Oh, yeah, I blame Bruce too, I can’t really help myself, I hate that guy.

So, that’s what I think Jason would have done if he got to interact with Flashpoint Thomas Wayne.

Now, there was one thing in Thomas’ whole speech and idea that I kinda thought UtRH Jason (mostly) would have agreed on.

“All of you. He made you. Children fighting for him. An addict spreading his poison. Trying to make himself seem normal”.

Alright, Thomas, I hear you, you are one crazy mf but I see your point! That’s what I think and what I think Jason would have thought if he heard him say that but he would have killed Thomas anyways. Thomas really fits among the type of people that both UtRH and RHatO Jason would kill, so even if he kinda agreed with that statement Thomas would have been done for, no hesitation.

I wish I could have come up with something else but really, I don’t see Jason ever agreeing with Thomas’ ideals as a whole. While Thomas’ initial motivation to kill was to avenge his son then he went on a path of pure destruction, killing just to kill, and that has never been Jason (Battle for the Cowl and Batman and Robin vol.2, I don’t know them), in UtRH he expressed his desire for Bruce to kill Joker but he also said that he didn’t want Bruce to go on a killing spree, that wasn’t going to solve anything! No matter what Zdarsky tried to tell us with his two interpretations of Bruce and Jason’s perfect worlds, Jason has never wanted Bruce to kill every one of his rouges so then they can become a happy family.

That’s just an obscene lie. Jason knows better than everyone else that Gotham is corrupt beyond salvation and that killing Batman’s rogue gallery won’t solve Gotham’s problems. If it were that easy Jason would have done that a long time ago.

Anyway, I hope this isn’t a lame answer, I just don’t think that Jason would want to see or hear more about Thomas in general.

Thank you for the ask! I hope you had a great day!