#i just know tumblrs destroying the quality

[doodlesnink]

Maxime's rant to Dream ends with two more friends to ask questions!

Please.... ask box always open... just one morsel..👁️

[hollytree33]

JUDGEMENT

Finally, her fourth and final card for Trespasser!!

1. The Hanged Man

2. The Chariot

3. The High Priestess

[valencock]

Idk what they're saying but Hancock's grabbing his ass for sure

I can't believe a ghoul and a synth could be so in love holy fuck

[laamb-sauce]

Sisters! ✨

[oof-ow-my-bone]

look at my lieutenant dawg i’m losing the war 😭

[rockinmusicquarterly]

hm

[josephtrohman]

i also posted about it on twitter and i know probably no one will have an answer BUT if anyone knows the context of this clip (full interview link or even like what’s date it’s from or anything that can put me on a path to figuring it out lol) pls lmk lmao

[chompgwen6]

The angel. @decompose1

[mamawasatesttube]

AND THAT'S A WRAP, FOLKS!!!!

so... which one was the lie?

(drumroll, please...)

"He once threw the Daily Planet globe at Superman."

congratulations to the 5.3% of you who got it right!!! kon has never thrown the globe at superman; i just made that one up bc it sounded funny. get bamboozled!!

as for the rest, explanations and citations below!!! :D

1. He tricked an intergalactic capitalist out of $10 billion in profits off a race.

superboy (1994) #58

yeah this one isnt all that out there comparatively, huh? still, its an arc i deeply enjoyed. demolition run my beloved. it's also just one i enjoy a lot bc it IS a moment of kon being a) really good at thinking on his feet, and b) understanding people he's just met. he calls himself stupid all the time, but he's actually pretty smart!!!

3. He condemned a cyborg woman to eternity floating in space, unable to die.

superboy (1994) #90

HOO BOY I LOVE IT WHEN HE GOES APE SHITT!!!!!!! this woman, amanda spence, is responsible for creating match as well as killing tana (can't blame her for that one lol) and also being a goddamn eugenicist. she's been hurting people kon loves for a long time by this point, and he Fucking Snaps.

"she said she didn't need to breathe. said she had no heart. said she couldn't die. fine by me. but she'll pay. she wants to be eternal... i give her eternity, floating in cold nothing." this is one of kon's most metal quotes ever, in my opinion.

4. He stole a baby and went on the run from the government.

superboy (1994) #88

this is arc is part of the leadup to "our worlds at war" and it is, imo, one of the best arcs in the entire run. guardian is dead, and somehow recloned into a baby, which is classified as property of cadmus and the us govt. but kon knows they're going to force him back into fighting, and he knows guardian's last wish was that he actually be allowed to die and rest, not just keep getting forced back into the battlefield. so he takes that baby and runs.

i love this arc bc it goes hard on a lot of sb94's "clone personhood and bodily autonomy" themes. the fucky thorny morality issues leading into wartime (can guardian's dying wish be used to deny earth an army against apokolips? etc) are handled fairly well and with proper weight, and it's just. ough. kon i have feelings about you.

5. He spent two months being enslaved by furries while on mind-control drugs.

superboy (1994) #50

i dont even know what to say abt this arc. it makes me insane. its SO fucked up if you think about it for more than 0.4 seconds (he was enslaved and kept on mind-altering drugs for TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT and then was so lonely he immediately forgave the people who enslaved him.) but also like... furries????????? lol????

6. He vocally supports his gay superhero friend, who has an alien boyfriend.

superboy and the ravers #13, #19

these two pages are from different issues of the ravers, but refer to the same character: hero cruz!! i love him. he's a gay black man who realizes he's gay, breaks up with his girlfriend, and gets an alien boyfriend. his ex doesn't take it well and spews a lot of homophobia for the rest of the run, but kon defends him against her. which is notable to me bc this comic was written in the late 90s.

in general i just love the ravers. theyre a good squad!!! gay rights.

7. A canon alternate universe version of him is a cowboy named Kid Kon-El.

superboy (1994) #64

hypertime arc my BELOVED. this is one of my other fav arcs in sb94!! kon goes on a multiverse-hopping adventurer to stop a conqueror named black zero from trying to subjugate as many realities as he can get his hands on. there are a bunch of alternate timeline kons in here, including our beloved robin kon who took up the mantle after his tim's untimely death. look at kid kon-el and his legendary telekinetic lasso. YEE-HAW!

8. He got into a fistfight with Kara Zor-El's mother.

supergirl (2005) #51

now in kon's defense, alura started it. ksdjhfkjds

this is part of the last stand of new krypton event!!! it's a bit of an undertaking but the story is really fun. the entire new krypton saga is dear to me (although. i have not read war of the supermen and i dont know if i ever will have the strength to. they turned the fucking sun red i gotta leave.)

for those unaware, alura zor-el survived the destruction of krypton because she and her husband were in the city of kandor, which got bottled by brainiac. when clark rescued kandor from him, they (and another ~100k kryptonians) were freed! "new krypton" is the story where that happens. its Good.

9. When homeless, he ended up living in a part of Metropolis called "Suicide Slum".

superboy (1994) #94

if youre thinking "hey. this sucks?" you're right. that's a homeless 16yo getting drawn in by a predatory landlord and its played for laughs. its also not the worst part of this issue! dan didio when i get my hands on you.

after the end of "our worlds at war", cadmus, where kon had been living since he left hawaii (after furry slavery arc, actually), disappeared. the research went underground and the facilities were abandoned. kon was homeless and living out of yj headquarters. after a fight with cassie, he decided to find his own place to live. this... is the direction didio went with it. it's not great. after 6 issues, the run got cancelled and in issue #100 (the last one), superman finds out kon's been living in the goddamn suicide slum and goes hey. no. and takes him to live on the kent farm instead.

10. He has a special hand-stamp that teleports him to an intergalactic rave.

superboy and the ravers #1

hell yeah baby!! the hand-stamps are an integral plot point during the genesis event that happens partways through this run. their instantaneous teleportation capability is a whole Thing.

this is the second part of my pitch to get more people to read ravers btw. it's just fun!! theyre silly!! also the first half of it has the prettiest kons ever. ♥

11. He never actually watched Star Wars because it was downloaded into his head at Cadmus.

adventures of superman #506

MAN people really thought this one was fake!!! i was surprised, i thought more people had seen this panel or heard of people talking about aos#506. i probably live in an insulated superboy bubble.

but yeah! cadmus canonically downloaded star wars into his brain in the tube. he also references star trek at the end of this issue, implying that was also downloaded in there, given that he's barely been alive for a few weeks at this point.

12. He discovered a magic zombie collective city under a silo in Smallville.

superboy (2011) #8

sb11 my beloved. this run is just kon having small town adventures and its soooo dear to me. he basically acquires a gang of small town closeted queers in high school. like, what closeted small town gay hasnt done that?? i know i have.

my fav detail about the first page i cited here is that while poor simon and sajan are walking down all those stairs, kon and krypto are just fucking floating down the middle of the stairwell. ldkjflkdjl

okay yippee thats it!!! thanks for reading!!! if you want to talk abt any of these (or other kon facts) my askbox is always open for kon :)

i got bit by the "two eleven truths and a lie" bug, so heres a lil quiz!!

if you follow me you PROBABLY know the answer. or at least can rule several of these out. but hey if you know, don't say it until the poll's over!!! rb and tag with what you guessed/if you Know, i wanna see if i made it too easy :3

*11th choice should say "at Cadmus", it got cut off and i didn't notice and i can't edit the poll :(

[nbspacegay]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

what’s the story about the generative power model and water consumption? /gen

There's this myth going around about generative AI consuming truly ridiculous amount of power and water. You'll see people say shit like "generating one image is like just pouring a whole cup of water out into the Sahara!" and bullshit like that, and it's just... not true. The actual truth is that supercomputers, which do a lot of stuff, use a lot of power, and at one point someone released an estimate of how much power some supercomputers were using and people went "oh, that supercomputer must only do AI! All generative AI uses this much power!" and then just... made shit up re: how making an image sucks up a huge chunk of the power grid or something. Which makes no sense because I'm given to understand that many of these models can run on your home computer. (I don't use them so I don't know the details, but I'm told by users that you can download them and generate images locally.) Using these models uses far less power than, say, online gaming. Or using Tumblr. But nobody ever talks about how evil those things are because of their power generation. I wonder why.

To be clear, I don't like generative AI. I'm sure it's got uses in research and stuff but on the consumer side, every effect I've seen of it is bad. Its implementation in products that I use has always made those products worse. The books it writes and flood the market with are incoherent nonsense at best and dangerous at worst (let's not forget that mushroom foraging guide). It's turned the usability of search engines from "rapidly declining, but still usable if you can get past the ads" into "almost one hundred per cent useless now, actually not worth the effort to de-bullshittify your search results", especially if you're looking for images. It's a tool for doing bullshit that people were already doing much easier and faster, thus massively increasing the amount of bullshit. The only consumer-useful uses I've seen of it as a consumer are niche art projects, usually projects that explore the limits of the tool itself like that one poetry book or the Infinite Art Machine; overall I'd say its impact at the Casual Random Person (me) level has been overwhelmingly negative. Also, the fact that so much AI turns out to be underpaid people in a warehouse in some country with no minimum wage and terrible labour protections is... not great. And the fact that it's often used as an excuse to try to find ways to underpay professionals ("you don't have to write it, just clean up what the AI came up with!") is also not great.

But there are real labour and product quality concerns with generative AI, and there's hysterical bullshit. And the whole "AI is magically destroying the planet via climate change but my four hour twitch streaming sesh isn't" thing is hysterical bullshit. The instant I see somebody make this stupid claim I put them in the same mental bucket as somebody complaining about AI not being "real art" -- a hatemobber hopping on the hype train of a new thing to hate and feel like an enlightened activist about when they haven't bothered to learn a fucking thing about the issue. And I just count my blessings that they fell in with this group instead of becoming a flat earther or something.

[elinex]

had the worst idea for a spidersona

(according to google the shortest wavelength of light most spiders can see is green so that’s like. their red yk)

+the reviews because i just know tumblr is gonna destroy the quality

[valencock]

Aint nothing gay bout gracing hands while passing a Doink with ur coworker 😤

Thank u @60-minuteman for recently blessing us with amazing new mallout content 💕

[lovemly4]

Hey hope you have an amazing day! I realised that there's not much logan sargeant request here on tumblr and was wondering if I could request one? Just a very clingy reader and how she always reacts when he comes back to their home ❤️ fluff pls!

Hi darling!! I had an amazing day, what about you? You’re so right, Logan deserves more attention! I specifically wrote about him coming back home after a long time, and how much reader is excited to see him. Hope that’ll do!!

Back to You - Logan Sargeant

Word count: 970 ; Genre: fluff ; Pairing: Boyfriend!Logan x reader ; Warnings: none

It had been three weeks since the last time you saw Logan. Your job didn’t really let you had time to accompany him to the races, nor see him very often, and that caused your mood to drop inevitably.

Furthermore, your love language had always been quality time and physical touch, so being apart only fed your desperation to spend time together. You two video called each other every night, sharing news and tidbits, but no.

It wasn’t enough. You were feeling empty anyway.

‘Just two more days’ you thought to yourself, trying to soothe the painful sadness of his absence engaging in house chores or working compulsively ‘til late hours.

Little did you know, he was in the exactly same state as you. Being this far from you pained him, destroyed by the want to fill every single fiber of his body with your laugh and your melodious voice again.

‘Just two more days‘ he thought, trying to distract himself spending time with his team or walking in the city he was in. And everywhere he went he promised himself to return there with you, and show you all the places that took his breath way.

~

Two days passed, and you got to the airport three hours earlier.

You didn’t even realize it until you got there, and laughed at the sight of your screen displaying the early morning time.

You waited patiently, minutes feeling like hours, hours feeling like days, looking at people dragging their suitcases and the tired face of a mother holding her crying child.

Until you got the text that he finally landed.

You placed yourself in front of the exit, your eyes frantically sorting out each face, but none of them had his ice blue eyes that you loved so much.

You felt a pair of strong arms hugging you from behind and turning you around, his tall figure towering over yours for the first time in what felt like forever.

Your excited squeaks were muffled against his shoulder as his wide hands held your waist, allowing him to hide his face in the crook of your neck, your scent finally overwhelming him again.

~

When he crossed the doorway of your shared home he exhaled in relief.

Despite loving every single part of his job, coming back to you was his favorite part.

He left his luggage next to the door, completely ignoring it as he plopped down onto the soft fabric of your couch, your body following him shortly after.

You crawled onto his lap dying to sense his warmth under your skin, hands softly brushing over his short hair as he told you the most interesting parts of his trip and how the race went.

“I watched it, you know?” you told him softly and his eyes lit up, his reaction as something so obvious confusing you “if I can’t be with you, i should at least support you from home” you said with a pouty face.

He laughed out loud, your hands feeling his toned chest trembling with it as he took your hands in his, bringing them to his lips to place a devoted kiss to the back of your palms.

~

The sun set behind the horizon leaving the living room in a dark golden color, the long gone shadows replaced by the dim glow of the TV screen.

Logan passed out in the middle of the film the two of you were watching, right now being nothing more than a distant murmur.

His head was lying on your lap, soft exhales coming out of his mouth as your hand traced imaginary patterns along his exposed skin.

Looking down at him with a loving expression, you placed your other hand in his free one, lightly squeezing not to wake him up but just enough to make sure that he was actually real, and there with you.

But he was not completely asleep, and he felt his heart fluttered with adoration; despite his exhaustion, he refused to waste his time sleeping. He rathers being half-asleep, listening to your sounds in the peace of the night: your rhythmic heartbeat under your shirt, your breathy laugh as a funny scene plays on the screen, the sound that your feet make as you habitually tap them on the carpet.

~

The morning after, you woke up to the sound of pans slamming to the ground.

Logan was trying to make pancakes on his own, not succeeding much since there was flour on his nose, egg on the counter and sugar on the floor.

You hugged him good morning, examining his skills from behind.

“Here love, let me help you- you gently took the wooden spoon out of his hands, trying to mix what looked like a light yellow blob- scoop it with this motion” he copied your movements, joyfully smiling when the batter started to look edible.

He smacked a loud kiss to your cheek, transferring some of the flour to your skin.

“You know how to cook them, right?” you asked, cocking an eyebrow, “I know how to cook them… Of course” he huffed, heating the pan.

You placed the dishes on the kitchen island, as Logan transferred the food onto the ceramic plates.

You both tasted the first bite, not sure of what expression to assume not to show the actual impression.

“This is…” you start, Logan interrupting you

“Disgusting, it tastes like a sponge. It feels like a sponge. Please, don’t let me go near the stove ever again. Got it?” he asked, a disgusted expression on his face accentuating the little wrinkles under his eyes.

You bursted out laughing, his arms engaging you in a warm bear hug.

He looked down at you through his light eyelashes, his nose grazing over yours.

“Feels so good to be back to you”

[sagesolsticewrites]

Yes, Major

Dom!Croz. “Yes, Major.” That is all <3

Warnings: mature content (dom/sub dynamics, fingering, oral (f receiving), PinV penetration, praise kink), swearing

Word count: 2k

Masterlist

(oof tumblr absolutely destroyed the quality of this moodboard I’m sorry y’all 😭)

You suppress a shiver at the feeling of your husband’s hand trailing up your thigh, his other hand on the steering wheel as you head home.

The two of you had been making eyes at each other and leaving lingering touches all night, so when you finally arrive home, it comes as no surprise that Harry wastes no time in leading you up to your bedroom.

He presses you up against the bedroom door, his lips just barely out of reach, a teasing, predatory glint in his eye.

“Harry…” you whine softly, aching to have his mouth on yours, your gaze locked on his pretty lips.

Two fingers lift your chin, forcing your gaze up to meet his.

“Major.”

Oh, Christ. Just when you thought you couldn’t get any wetter…

“Not Harry or Bing tonight, sweet girl.” he murmurs, thumb dragging lightly over your bottom lip as his brown eyes darken, “Major.”

You feel like you’re on fire, every part of you melting as you gulp and whisper “Yes, Major.”

He hums approvingly.

“Good girl.”

Forget melting, you’re evaporating under the heat of his gaze as his fingertips trail teasingly up your side before he steps away, pulling you with him.

He toys with the side snaps of your dress as he perches on the edge of your bed, leaving you standing between his spread legs.

“Take this off, honey,” he murmurs, his voice soft but the words clearly an order.

“Yes, Major,” you breathe, suppressing a shiver as your hands fumble with the snaps, undoing each one until your dress falls to the floor, leaving you in your slip.

His eyes drink you in, fingers barely skimming over the white satin of your slip, and you think you might actually die if he doesn’t touch you properly soon.

Harry notes this — of course he does, with those navigator eyes.

“Tell me what you want.”

You do, even though you know he won’t do it right away. Bing isn’t quite a tease, per se, but he tends to draw things out. Make you wait for what you want.

Still, you manage to let out a soft whine.

“Want you to touch me, please.”

“I will, honey, I will.” He assures you softly, though the pressure of his fingertips remains infuriatingly light, mouth twitching up into the smallest of smiles as he adds, “In a minute.”

You bite back a despairing moan as his hands leave you entirely.

“Lay down, sweetheart,” he nods to the bed as he stands, moving to undo his tie and unbutton his shirt.

Enraptured by the view before you, you simply nod as you climb onto the mattress, keeping your eyes on the increasing patch of chest hair being revealed to you, dog tags dangling in the middle of his chest.

“Words, honey,” Harry reminds you in a gentle-sharp tone that has delicious shivers racing up your spine— ones that definitely have nothing to do with the way his hands are currently moving to his belt.

“I— Yes, Major,” you whine, gripping the sheets none too delicately as you settle on your back onto the pillows.

“Good girl,” he says softly, his slacks joining the growing pile of clothes on the floor.

Finally he touches you again: a featherlight drag of his fingers along your calf, prompting you to lift it.

You let out a shaky exhale as Harry bends to brush light, barely-there kisses along your calf, up your knee, towards where the hem of your slip brushes your thigh.

Praying that he’ll have mercy on you and give you what you want, you sigh a soft “Please, Major.”

“I will, sweetheart. I promise I will.” He mumbles against your skin, his lips moving… not underneath your slip, as you had hoped, but pressing light kisses to your body through the thin satin covering it.

“Fuck, you’re so pretty, darling,” he murmurs, his lips dragging over your still-covered chest and up along your neck as he moves to hover over you.

You let out a soft whimper when his pretty brown eyes lock on yours, his hand trailing back down along the curves of your body to slide just underneath the hem of your slip, fingertips trailing up the inside of your thigh.

He inhales sharply as he brushes against the damp fabric covering your core.

“Oh, honey,” he breathes, “All that for me?”

“Yes, yes, I—” you ramble, “All for you, Major, please—”

“Shhh, I gotcha, sweetheart,” he murmurs, watching rapt as he slips a finger under your panties to drag through your damp folds.

You let out a high, keening whine, throwing your head back as he slowly pushes one finger into you, pumping in and out before adding a second.

Soft whines escape as he fingers you, mumbles of “feels good” and “more, want more, please” tumbling from your lips as he remains infuriatingly steady in his rhythm. His thumb darts out from where his other hand is resting on the pillows next to your head to stroke along your cheek, his way of getting your attention.

As your eyes meet his once more, he asks in a low tone, still maintaining that slow, steady rhythm in and out of you, “You want more?”

At your furious nodding, a gasp of “yes, please” escaping you, he hums.

“Please what?”

You can hardly think, your need for more speed, more something taking up a majority of your brain, but you manage to dredge up a plea of “Please, Major,” and suddenly more is happening.

Harry slips a third finger inside you, an act that has you moaning loudly at the stretch, and that combined with his thumb on your clit and the pace that suddenly feels faster than a B-17 has you tumbling over the edge with a cry.

You come back to yourself, legs shaking, in time to feel him gently remove his fingers. You let out a soft whine at the sudden emptiness, letting your eyes open to a sight that has heat rushing to your core all over again.

Your husband has his fingers in his mouth, cleaning them of your release, and when he meets your eyes you see something utterly molten in his gaze.

“Christ, honey…” he groans, moving to hover over you properly once more, “You stay right here, yeah? Something I wanna do…”

With that, he moves down your body, pressing kisses over your slip to your chest, your stomach, until he’s settled between your legs, pressing soft kisses to the inside of your thighs.

You crane your neck to watch as he slowly lifts the hem of your slip, revealing your underwear. You watch, holding your breath as he maintains eye contact and brushes a kiss to your core over the fabric covering you as his fingers toy with the waistband.

“‘M gonna take these off now, alright, sweetheart?”

You suppress a gasp at the words mumbled so close to your most sensitive parts.

“Yes, Major.” You nod, and can’t help adding a soft “please.”

You feel him grinning as he presses a kiss to your thigh.

“Good girl.”

He gently peels off your underwear, adding it to the pile of clothes on your bedroom floor.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he sighs, lips a hairsbreadth away from your core, “do you have any idea how pretty you look from down here?”

Before you can even think of replying, his mouth is on you and your hands are flying to grip his hair with a gasp.

You cry out his name before you can correct yourself, hips arcing off the bed, and as soon as it was there, his mouth is gone.

“What was that, sweetheart?” He asks lowly.

“I—”

It takes your mind a moment to catch up, but when you do…

“You said you were gonna be good for me, honey,” he warns, his mouth still far too close to your core for you to truly think clearly, “So let’s try again. What’s my name?”

He licks a fat stripe up through your folds, and you throw your head back onto the pillows with a cry of his rank.

“Major!”

“Much better,” he praises in mumbles against you, “good girl.”

The room fills with your whines and gasps and moans as you lose the ability to form words entirely when Harry’s thumb comes up to gently circle your clit, the combination of his tongue inside you and his thumb on the bundle of nerves enough to have you quickly approaching your second orgasm of the night.

“M-Major…” you stammer out between whines, your fingers raking roughly through his curls.

“Already, darling?” He murmurs against you, sounding almost amused, “Go on then, honey. Let go, it’s okay.”

You reach your second climax with your husband's rank on your tongue and his tongue on your core as he greedily laps up your release.

“Fuck, you taste absolutely perfect, sweetheart,” he sighs as he returns to hover over you, capturing your lips in a heated kiss before rolling off of you briefly to wriggle out of his boxers.

“Think you can give me one more, honey?” He asks softly, grinding his length slowly against you.

You can’t help it: you moan out loud at the feeling of him against you before confirming with a pleading “Yes, Major, yes please, I want to—”

“Christ, sweetheart, okay, okay,” he murmurs, breath hitching as the tip of his cock snags on your entrance. He rocks forward, letting out a groan as he sinks into you.

“Oh- shit, honey, you’re perfect,” he sighs against your lips, your breaths mingling as you gasp into his mouth.

His eyes remain locked on your own as he slowly pulls out and thrusts back into you, hips snapping determinedly against yours. You give in to the urge to squeeze your eyes shut, clamping down on your bottom lip to bite back a moan as he hits deep inside you.

Your eyes fly open once more as he gives a sharp nip to your neck, his nose dragging along your jaw as he murmurs, “Wanna hear you, darling, lemme hear you, come on…”

Your mouth falls open to let out a wanton moan, words tumbling out as tension builds within you with every thrust.

“Major— Major, don’t stop, please, feels so good—”

“Just like that, sweetheart,” he pants against you, feeling you clench around him, “Come on, give me one more, just one more, honey.”

You shatter as you reach your third climax of the night, your body nearly going limp as you cry out. He buries his face in your neck as, with two more erratic thrusts, he follows suit with a shuddering cry before slumping against you, utterly spent.

He presses sloppy kisses up your neck as the two of you attempt to catch your breath, murmuring gentle praise as he pulls out of you — “you’re perfect, angel, did so good for me, such a good girl” — huffing out a laugh as you whine at the sudden emptiness.

“You alright, sweetheart?” He asks softly as he settles in next to you, pulling you into his chest, “It wasn’t too much, was it?”

You hum contentedly, toying with the tags dangling in the middle of his chest.

“Not at all, Major,” you assure him, a teasing sparkle in your eyes on the last word. He laughs, and you continue, “It was perfect, Harry.”

His eyes go soft hearing his name, and he leans down to capture your lips in a sweet kiss. 

“I love you,” he murmurs against your lips, thumb stroking gently along your cheek.

“I love you too, Bing,” you say softly, raking your fingers through his mussed curls.

He pulls you closer, resting your head on his chest as you finally allow sleep to overtake you both.

[cosmic-metanoia]

The Ruler of Life and Death

***Spoilers for Final Fantasy XVI***

<Edited to add some missing scenes!> Over time, I have written several FFXVI character analysis posts and Joshua is intertwined throughout most of them.

But I held off on writing his own post because frankly...there is just too much to say. As Johnathan Case (the English VA) once said, Joshua is "full of contradictions."

But the Tumblr world deserves more Joshua so...here we are!

My angle of approach - I will choose one word that encompasses many of his astounding qualities - self-possession.

(You got it! It's a word that Jote uses in her inner voice about a completely different character.)

Self-possession doesn't just mean "control over one's emotions." Afterall - having "control" over something implies that you can lose it.

Self-possession refers to mastery over one's destiny and being a fixed point within the chaotic storm rather than being pulled under the waves.

As a child, Joshua understandably had imposter syndrome. Makes sense considering who stood beside him. His highly admired and beloved older brother who, for reasons unknown, was passed over by the Phoenix. Instead of selecting the heroic teenager, the Eikon of Fire chose the sweet and frail little brother.

Thirteen years later, we witness in awe as a well-travelled Joshua confidently strides into Drake's Head to protect Clive and Jill. Everything about him emanates self-possession - his gestures, his stance, his diction, his facial expressions. HE is the shield now and he knows exactly how this game of chess with Ultima will end. Every move is intentional.

Five years after that, we see his self-possession when he kindly turns away Kihel's offer to heal him of his blood-ridden coughs while travelling on the crystalline road with Jote. He would rather have Kihel save her medicines to help others.

And despite the couple of times he doubts his abilities to keep Ultima sealed, Joshua presses on with grace and determination.

One of the most BEAUTIFUL examples of self-possession was when he emerges uninvited in Dion's tent. The man who was supposedly dead now stands before all with complete composure and authority. Through his subtle yet monumental gestures, it is plain that Joshua holds absolute conviction in his heart that Dion will not harm him or turn him in - despite the fact that Dion's loyalties lie with the very nation that destroyed Joshua's homeland.

The chilling reunion between Joshua and Anabella really tests Joshua's self-possession in the midst of so many emotional barrages from earlier. Instead of dismissing her or ragefully calling her out for destroying so many lives, he does something extraordinary. He reaches his hand out to her in a last act of mercy that no one else was willing to give her.

Another example of self-possession is when Joshua reveals the extent of his dire situation to Clive and Jill in the infirmary after the fall of the Crystalline Dominion. Notice how he revealed it with a soft smile and a gentle voice in contrast to Clive and Jill's horror and outrage. Joshua knows the consequences of his actions and chose that path willingly without a single regret.

Joshua is far from weak. He's the only Dominant able to seal Ultima within and continuously heal himself. Yet he STILL wakes up every day to fight by Clive's side and slay every beast in their path...all with a kind smile and words of wisdom. Always mindful, always demonstrating self-possession in the midst of pain.

A small but notable dialogue exchange between the brothers is when Clive expresses concern for Joshua's ability to take on a huge ambush of beasts in Waloed. Joshua's answer is one of acknowledgement and even humor. He is clearly in command of his situation - the situation is not in command of him.

One of the most noteworthy scenes that rarely gets touched on is the battle with the Behemoth in Waloed. When Clive reaches out with his hand to stop Behemoth's meteor and wanted to prime into Ifrit, Joshua exclaimed, "Why do you turn to him, brother?! When we fight, we fight together." And does Joshua also reach out to prevent the meteor from obliterating them? Nope....he heals Clive's hand continuously - being his support and his fixed point in the sea of chaos.

And there were several emotional scenes throughout the game where Joshua is spiritually and emotionally the steadfast center in Cilve's tumultuous world as symbolized by the phoenix feather he carries.

Of course, Joshua isn't always perfect in maintaining self-possession at all times.

Generally speaking, he is patient and not easily aggravated....but when he does snap, you freaking watch and listen. I'm talking about THE infamous Clive-gets-a-hook-punch-to-the-face-from-lil-bro that was felt around the world. But even in that context, Joshua was still thinking about Jill and standing up for her.

During the VERY dangerous encounter with Barnabas on the Enterprise, symbolically speaking, Joshua dangled on the edge of the self-possession but kept one hand gripping firmly at its edge. He almost lost himself in the fires of frustration and anger that Barnabas attempted to stoke.

We also see a heart-breaking example of his self-possession - Joshua foregoing romantic attachments in order to spare them the inevitable suffering if he doesn't make it in the end.

In the end....

Despite so many fans thinking Ultima would puppet his body and/or mind, Joshua demonstrates his mastery of self-possession - literally until the moment he dies in Clive's arms.

Joshua had every reason and opportunity to be spoiled (former little prince of Rosaria), self-centered (messiah of the Undying), haughty (like Anabella), unforgiving (Phoenix Gate/Night of Flames incident), greedy (being a Dominant), and hateful (a mix of traumas within his lifetime).

But this man OWNS his trauma and processes it to make him strong in the spirit and self-sacrificing for those he loves.

Perhaps that self-possession is something we can all apply to our own lives.