#i just see a lot of 'batman is abusive' stuff out there where its just... never addressed | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

devine-fem · 11 months ago

Note

lol might get hate for this but in my opinion in terms of the ranking the SuperBat pairings….

1.) Damijon/Jondami- Yes I’m completely bias but I never felt this strong for such a pairing (regardless either platonic/romantic! ) Such an iconic (chaotic) duo! I’m glad the dynamic of Damian and Jon worked out well and is well loved!

2.) Superbat-I mean they are the OGs and I can get why fans love their dynamic and pair them! I’m more bromance for them but I do look forward to their interactions whenever the two appear together!

3.) Timkon-I’m neutral for them. I like the fanarts if I see them but otherwise I think they seem more aesthetically good together than like actually together. Hey at least Tim has Bernard now and personally Kon deserves better.

Jon + Damian have squashed potential. Their friendship would have done both their characters so much good. Eventually, as they grew Jon would have felt like he’d have to chase after Damian and keep up and Damian would seek and find in Jon when it comes to anything he can’t obtain as a hero.

Out of all the popular ships, this one is particularly rare.

Imagine a world where Jon and Damian did engage in a romantic relationship in later years. I think it would be great queer rep to show two people who knew each other as friends - grappling with the same heroic pressures and coming to terms with the fact that they might not want to be just friends anymore (a common queer experience) I also think that in stories where they are do become Batman and Superman, it’d feel very refreshing to see DC have the courage to portray an iteration of their most popular characters like that.

These characters are both fairly new and not so much engraved into the audience. They both know each other and share chemistry so there wouldn’t be a lot of room for complaint.

Superbat is meh to me. Over the years, It has done a lot regarding DC fandom, it’s a ship that’s become iconic and is popular amongst passive fans which could become quite annoying.

Superbat is realistically, never going to happen. Respectfully, I doubt DC would do anything in all seriousness when it comes to anything romantic between these two.

Especially with the obvious things like how Batman is and how Clark has a wife and kids.

Although, no ship is shipped under the ideation of becoming canon so I give this pair its flowers because honestly, it could be nice in domestic situations or maybe a workplace relationship but I don’t see it being endgame or like anything happening at all in a likable way.

Timkon, I’m very, very bias about how much I dislike Timkon. Most Timkon shippers realistically do not read comics and I know this because I was one at first for a short amount of time and realized how deluded and far off from the truth Timkon actually is.

It’s crazy to me because fandom is so intense about this ship and all for it to be… alright?

A lot of Timkon stuff is boiled down to being one-sided on Tim’s part. It really irks me that Timkon's evidence is like Tim trying to clone Conner while knowing that he has a thing about not being cloned because he’s a clone himself which irks me.

Then him dating his ex-girlfriend is a HUGE red flag to me, especially when their relationship was semi-abusive and built on grief but good thing it didn’t last.

Also, Tim and Conner are NOT as close as people pretend they are. Conner doesn’t know much about Tim beyond him being Robin, they don’t hang out outside of being heroes.

In reality, Conner doesn’t know much about Tim at all and he’s much closer with his other teammates - literally any other YJ teammate other than Tim. Conner's established friendship with Tim caused a lot of really horrible character assassinations on Bart, Cassie, and Conner. It pushed all characters aside in an attempt to emphasize their relationship.

If they were to have a relationship then people acknowledge its toxicity - see toxicity doesn’t take away from shipability but frankly, I think both these characters deserve to be happy.

If they did date, I seriously give them half a year before they break up. I’m happy Tim is with Bernard because he seems much happier than he’s ever been. I’m sorry, reading those comics it felt like Tim was just grieving his friend after having lost a family member and he was spiraling and needing help, that’s not ‘cute’ to me.

Anyway, I notice Timkon shippers use Kon more as an accessory to Tim and melt his character down for that. If they read his comics then they’d know that he is canonically attracted to Bart anyway (I say canonically because of the on-the-nose insinuation which I take as gospel because it’s crazy for a writer to just outright mention Conner might be attracted to Bart.) Which Bart is most of the reason Conner is queer coded like he is now anyway.

Anyway, not saying all Timkon shippers are horrible but I don’t like the shippers or the ship. It’s substanceless for me. If you like it I’m very happy for you. I think all of these ships are iconic and adorable. This is just me being a person with an opinion.

Anyway, my thoughts.

#asks #conner kent #damian wayne #jon kent #jonathan kent #super sons #dc comics #batman #clark kent

25 notes · View notes

caffeinatedattorney · 6 months ago

Text

caped crusader spoilers!!! I need to let my half baked thoughts out. spoilers under the cut

Animation is good! voice acting is good! I love how the caracters sound!

That said, this show... is so mid. The best parts are Barbara, montoya and harley. Bruce kinda tags along which is more than fine, he's not the only character in the show but i cant help but feel like this whole elseworld thing was an excuse? they arent different enough and theres other stuff that just... didnt click with me. like, penguin looked so good but shes never mentioned outside of ep 1? she was so interesting but she feels underused??

The women in this show feel so interesting! and so fleshed out. I loved the harley & barbara & renee thing. I loved penguin, i loved selina, i loved them, i wanted to see more of them.

the other guys are fine? clayface has a similar motivation to btas and as an observation, i find that this show isn't quite btas in exploring on theme with bruce / batman but a weird mission? not necessarily a bad thing but some eps def dragged on. Again, barbara is the star of the show. she and montoya move a lot of things along.

Its weird that bullock sticks with flass for so long. Like, i guess he's a Thorne lackey first and foremost?

And DONT even get me started on Harvey. That whole schtick about him being corrupt didn't change shit, considering his ending and the way his story works, which is the same btw. he puts a dangerous person behind bars and gets Dented tm. then he has a breakdown and does fucked up shit (would've worked anyway)

and his death pissed me off because of teh above. It's like, hes not the tragic character with the abuse backstory but he changed his mind at some point about his own actions??? idk where that happened or where i was supposed to feel like he did so i just feel like the show is trying to convince me that he was good all along or that he wasnt that bad.

like a lot of things in this show are cool with harvey (the date with bruce, his explosive self loathing, his suicidal ideation, his understanding to other patients, him wanting to save people but only near the end) but the fact they have to come packaged with him being an ass that's cool with corruption feels wasted in a way. Like, you can only redeem him when he's already done horrible things and not the guy who wanted to do good (btas) and did horrible things later.

I appreciate the bruharv but his death sticks with me in a bad way. I don't feel like it's earned? its like i, as a fan, want to feel something for this harvey, but i dont. then when i think, okay, whatever, he's cool i guess, the death is there, not as a tragedy of who harvey is (and bruce seemed fine with harvey being corrupt?? he knowingly endorses him and hangs out with him?) but about bruce being so far gone he felt too close to the edge like harvey and that scared him

And its not him saying that, its alfred, who he calls pennyworth. (uh, this bruce isn't a nice bruce and while that's fine, its so... hard to sympathize with his choices sometimes)

just my two cents. I don't wanna hate this. I really don't but man, the last ep made me want to type this out.

EDIt: Love some of the design choices. Hate others. Animation is serviceable. Bruce looks so... weird to me. Harvey what i can only call eVil eyebrows and compared to everyone else they just didnt click with me unfortunately.

#batman: caped crusader #harvey dent #two face #batman #bruharvey #barbara gordon #james gordon #batman: caped crusader spoilers #spoilers #oswalda cobblepot

12 notes · View notes

sporkberries · 2 years ago

Note

I saw your post about Tim and Jason and I’ve never agreed about something more. We need more fics where them getting closer is at least canon adjacent instead of the stuff we get in fanon. A lot of their fanon content really grosses me out because it sort of reads like Tim developing Stockholm syndrome for Jason who repeatedly abuses him but can’t be blamed for it because of “pit madness” 🤢. That might just be because of my personal experiences but it really grosses me out a lot of the time

YEAH NO I 100% AGREE. I think portraying Tim as automatically forgiving Jason for the awful things he does(TO TIM) and ohh Jason wants to hurt him but its not his faulltt. Is so fucking UEGH. I think its not only a disservice to both of their characters but a really weird dynamic to tag as “fluff” and “hurt/comfort”.

I especially dislike the Titan’s Tower stories not just because they misrepresent the actual scene(which is very ridiculous imo) but because having Jason beat the shit out of Tim and then WRITE ON THE WALLS WITH HIS BLOOD and then being like ohh no he’s his care taker now is so 😨. Like imagine someone beating you so bad THEY CAN WRITE WITH YOUR BLOOD and then them kidnapping you and “taking care of you” thats so fucked…

I think the fandom in general can turn Tim into a bit of a punching bag which… fair. Im not going to pretend like i dont like angst BUT when portraying these traumatic events or his interactions with the people around him they kinda make him… spineless? Which IS a valid trauma response but its not Tim. Tim can be literally on the verge of death and he’ll still probably be shit talking you y’know? He can be self sacrificing yeah but… come on.

IDK. Jason pre reboot is kinda not a great person and i think the fandom WANTS him to be and they want to twist it into “pit madness”(which isnt a long lasting thing) or “he protects women and kids”(does he?) when it just… isn’t true?

Fanon Jason as a whole is just kinda an OC with bits of current Jason mixed into him, he doesn’t exist outside the fandom. This is why i sometimes joke about being a “jason todd hater” when i dont really have much against the character(other than most his comics being shit 😔) but because i dislike some aspects of the fandom he represents.

I do think Tim and Jason have the POTENTIAL to get along. They’re both snarky bastards and that dynamic is fun to write and mess around with but there is A LOT of baggage to unpack. Titans tower stuff aside Tim broke Jason out of prison which resulted in Jason donning a batman suit and killing a bunch if people which Tim feels EXTREME guilt for. So even if pre reboot jason wants something to do with Tim(which i think he does as he continually reaches out to him) there is a lot they would need to work on. Which i admit would be interesting to read but sadly a lot of fics dont really follow the comics that well.

Anyhow closing this off i also want to mention again how the fandom prioritizes Tim’s largely fanon(or lobdell written so shouldnt be acknowledged ) relationship with jason over his long lasting canonical relationships with female characters( Cass and Helena[HELENA IS SUCH A VICTIM OF THIS OH MY GOD AND FANON JASON STEALS SO MANY OF HER TRAITS AN-]) 😔

But yeah fanon jason and tim is weird and i’d be interested to see an actual brotherhood develop between the two but i think it would take a lot of work from the both of them(which DC will definitely not put in 😔)

#thank you for the ask btw i have a lot of thoughts on this #I think the titans tower type fic could work if the author actually wrote it as a horror story but pretending its fluff is crazy #fandom critical #jason todd #tim drake #spork says stuff #dc #batfam #sorry if theres any typos <\\3 #this is also super rambling so

46 notes · View notes

tumblingxelian · 1 year ago

Text

Bruce/Batman - Gritty or Gentle

There's often a lot of bickering about Batman's character.

Whether he should be cruel or kind, his stories gritty or gentle.

His character a serious man with a heavy weight in his shoulders but who handles it well; or a paranoid, toxic and controlling man trying to do good.

I've enjoyed or at least engaged with both incarnations and found worthwhile stories in both. The nicest Batman outside of things like Adam West would be Batman 2004, while for the more cruel Batman, well there's plenty of comics XD

Having enjoyed both, I think I found a way to contextualize why I tend to prefer my Batman to be kind of a fucking mess in comics but can and do really enjoy the more chilled out versions like 2004's in other media.

See, when Batman was first conceived of he didn't have a tragic backstory. You didn't need a reason to go beat up corrupt cops and mobsters, that was just what cool swashbuckling people did or should do.

But when they did give him a backstory it was that he lost his parents was raised by a relative and resolved to fight crime; then supporting character Alfred got retconned in as his parent ETC, you know this part.

The thing is, during this period, while he could be odd and or rather stiff. He wasn't like, a huge asshole or anything, or notably abusive outside of like, stuff that was normalized like spanking which wasn't that omnipresent anyway.

(He did kill that guy one time in an early comic, but if you wanna call that early installment weirdness I'll allow it cos its not very relevant.)

What matters is that there is enough there that I could easily see Bruce and Dick coming to have tension down the line with Bruce not really knowing how to handle Dick growing up and beyond their comfortable dynamic, even if he does try to handle it well. Especially as he likely struggled with being able to slip into the role of a parent.

IE, he and Dick are partners, mentor and student, friends, brothers and father and son. Which is a lot of emotional weight and also means when Dick starts growing more independent I could easily see Bruce bracing against it even if things never escalate to estrangement.

Then Jason is introduced and he gets a Bruce who is much more equipped to fill the parental role without uncertainty, and things seem fine.

But there's also some issues.

Some tied to the occasional misstep on Bruce's part and some of Jason's unaddressed trauma.

But others problems emerging could easily be be tied to Bruce being, ya know, affected by seeing so much crime for so long and also engaging in violence so often that its starting to change him.

Not to a degree where its unmanageable but definitely a problem.

For example, both he and Jason beat the ever loving fuck out of perps who upset them after getting too emotionally invested in a case. Both of them off, not just Jason.

This could have been dealt with, overcome, maybe even a vacation like he took post UTRH.

But then Jason dies.

Now he's traumatized all over again but this time its a parent losing his child rather than a child losing parents but still having a safety net in the form of other family/adoptive family.

Its something more explicitly 'his fault' because of the Robin business and how they ended up there.

Its something he does not have over a decade to come to terms with, process or grieve because he has to get right back into the fight to get Joker and then he doesn't stop.

So his and Dick's relationship starts decaying as Bruce starts lashing out more.

He does so because he has become more and more desensitized to violence and its use as a means to solve problems and coping mechanism that its becoming ingrained instinctual.

He's exhausted, grieving, filled with direction-less anger and isolating. So he doesn't have the chance to start getting better. In part cos there's no one who can really make him do so given the independence, resources and skills he has available and due to his personality always having been stubborn and strong willed.

Because even before he became as fucked up, he was still a very willful person. Its not like he told his uncle his plans or let Alfred dissuade him from becoming Batman. So he's always had an element of being if not isolated, inclined to keep his thoughts to himself and push through resistance to his ideas.

Which could and is easily made much, much worse by these traumatic events and lack of healthy outlets.

After which its basically a case of increasing paranoia from all the ongoing threats, nominal improvements with a somewhat expanded support network. Follow by steps back, steps to the side, good days and bad days.

Events like Stephanie's death, Tower of Babel, his crime control plan and Jason's return all reflecting and enhancing his ever compounding trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Put simply, I can totally see why Batman would become the kind of person he does in a lot of his more unpleasant comics, and I feel its relatively coherent.

Certainly more so than just ignoring it all and framing him as this emotionally intelligence sweetheart who's all about getting rid of police and prisons with perfect and uncomplicated relationships with those he loves.

#DC #Detective Comics #Bruce Wayne #Batman #Meta #Analysis

6 notes · View notes

donnerpartyofone · 1 year ago

Text

I'm in some kind of abusive cycle with the blog where people submit their dreams. I love hearing people's dreams, so I follow it thinking it's going to be interesting, and then I have to unfollow because it feels like 90% of the posts are about celebrities and fandom shit, then I forget about it for a while until a really cool/funny/scary/weird dream gets reblogged onto my dash, then I follow it again out of some kind of moronic optimism, and pretty soon I remember why I unfollowed it the last time. I'm not sure which possibility is the worst,

a) that for the most part people only submit dreams involving celebrities or fandoms because they assume no one cares about anything else,

b) most of the submissions are made up but nobody has the brain power to invent anything that doesn't involve celebrities or fandoms,

c) actually a large volume of young people's dreams really are about celebrities and fandoms, like a lot of tumblr users just don't even dream about anything else.

Now that I've typed it all out I'm pretty sure (c) is the worst of all possible worlds, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were really true for a lot of people just based on the sort of online behavior I see. There's a reason the "blorbo from my stories" post blew up (and I often wonder if that person regrets it), about how you can post the most random non-human image possible and you'll still have people in your notifications explaining how it somehow represents whatever their main fandom thing is; "fandom" doesn't describe an interest or even a community anymore, its more like this condition of extreme narrowing of perception and cognition down to like one subject, and somehow this is something you're proud of. Seeing people reblog the blorbo post not to co-sign what OP was saying, but to say "Yay this is totally me!!!" with no sense that they're being criticized was really disturbing. There's actually an even worse version of this where somebody broke down the most common (generally sexual) characterizations and scenarios in fan fiction specifically to show how much of this content just perpetuates really ugly stereotypes and bigoted attitudes, but the fandom people got it and reblogged it like "Yay this is totally me!!!" while OP was going...oh my god doesn't anyone understand what I said? There's this kind of scary, culty "FANDOM GOOD" thing that's like so pathological that it actually affects people's reading comprehension and makes them unable to even perceive criticism unless you push things to the extreme and bring nazis or pedophiles or something into it, you have to go so far as to tell someone they're a bad person to break through with them.

Anyway I know this isn't a scientific fact but I agree with the popular notion that dreams are a way of processing experiences and feelings that you're not done chewing on yet. For the most part your dreams should be made up of things, however filtered they are through symbolic language, that are somehow unresolved for you. You shouldn't be closing your eyes at night and just seeing a stream of the exact same pacifying stuff you choose to watch on TV. If that's happening more than once in a great while, you might have given yourself some form of brain damage, and I'm only being slightly sarcastic about that.

(Actually I think it's probably abnormal if you have a lot of wish fulfillment dreams in general; I used to have this friend who turned out to be completely toxic and nuts, and he was always happy to tell me these dreams he had where like he's a cross between Batman and Superman and he punishes everyone who was ever mean to him and then everyone worships him and he becomes the king of the universe or whatever. And I always thought oh my god, why isn't he embarrassed by this, if I had dreams like that about myself where I'm the best person ever and everyone else is either my victim or my slave, I don't think I would repeat it to anyone! But ANYWAY)

I've probably written this post before without even realizing it, which means I have my own problem where I need to disconnect from this thought process. Tumblr used to be a place where you could see weird, cool, interesting stuff that didn't really exist elsewhere, and it was reasonably easy to curate your experience; now the fandom thing is just at such a critical mass that it feels like you're always about one degree of separation from it no matter what you do. When capacity made that post the other day about how you can't even search for any media you're interested in on tumblr because all you get is the fan activity around the thing and not the thing itself (or god forbid your search involves a normal English word that happens to relate to a fandom, then you're really fucked)--when I first saw that post it had almost 8,000 notes and it was only 7 hours old. Whether you're someone who likes it or not, everyone knew what that was about, we are all experiencing it.

I would probably be slightly less bothered if I just let myself think that all the celebrity and fandom posts clogging up that dream blog are mainly just made up, due to whatever compulsion makes people make up inconsequential bullshit on the internet. I remember when FML was a thing, and at first it was kind of fun and kind of like this shared catharsis thing, but pretty quickly it became full of obviously fake stories that were so extreme they weren't even funny, like if someone said those things out loud in your presence you'd just feel sorry for them, that they want attention so bad they'll tell degrading lies about themselves to get it. Actually though the site started to degenerate into basically two kinds of content, which were not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it was always either people telling degrading lies about themselves for attention, or people telling elaborate stories about how they ate all kinds of poisonous garbage and then they shat themselves in public. And for one thing, I don't think it counts as a proper FML if you deliberately did something that was not a good idea and then immediately suffered the most predictable consequences, you know like eating hot cheetoes in gravy and washing it down with a liter of grape soda and then shitting your pants is kinda the same as "I knowingly stepped in front of a speeding car and it hit me and I was badly injured and now I'm in the hospital, fuck my life!", it's not really a surprising misfortune or irony, it's just something you did on purpose because you have no self-control even though only one outcome was possible. But I always had the feeling that the pants-shitters were American, and like obviously America has a problem with junk food, so I started to wonder if everywhere you go here you're just always near at least one person who is one more bad decision away from shitting their pants. Maybe it's true, I dunno, it's starting to seem likely. Maybe we should just change the name of the country to Pantshitsylvania and get it over with, it's probably what we deserve.

11 notes · View notes

norahjakobs · 2 years ago

Note

Hittin ya right back w/ #1-15 for the fanfic ask :D

Thank you Randy! I just realized I have no clue how to do a read more on mobile so I'm gonna make that everyone else's problem.

Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

Daydreaming is one of my bigger pad times to be honest, so generally a lot of that happens before words hit the page.

Where do you get your fic ideas?

My brain just comes up with random stuff most of the time. Or I'll see an interesting concept and want to explore it. I did make a random idea generator for myself but haven't really used it

Do you share your fic ideas, or do you keep them to yourself?

I mostly keep them to myself or talk to my twin about them. Maybe I'll start sharing them more, I'd like to do that

How do you choose which fics to write?

How many wips do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?

I honestly have no idea so I'll just talk about my two dc wips in currently thinking about.

1st is a rewrite of a fan fic I wrote years ago, it's a mystery where after the murder of the Joker the batfamily start getting picked off one by one. It was based off the idea of what if in the Batman who laughed universe someone else had killed the Joker. In the original fic the killer was Jason but I might change that to preserve the mystery, I don't know (dm Randy if you want to know)

2nd is a loose idea following Zach Zatara waking up after a bender to find nobody knows who the Zatara's are and his attempts to set things right without much help.

Neither is focused on shipping or had any planned ships currently. I might sneak me and @kitty-does-stuff's crack ship of Zach x Thad into the 2nd one, idk

What’s the last line you wrote?

It somehow made his wary appearance look better, like he had at least been around somebody who took the effort to show him the most basic of kindness

from a deep dive into Zach's issues focused fic I was writing before leaving the apartment.

Post a snippet from a wip.

From the same Zach fic

Kate twirled, her hand in his as he led the dance. She had a wide grin on her face. Her crimson skirt softly hit his outer thigh as she stopped spinning. The music the DJ was playing slowed down crawling to the end of the song as the few that had stayed on the dance floor for so long started to shuffle off to head to the bathrooms or the doors.

The happy couple stayed on the floo a little longer than the rest, Kate resting her head on Zach’s shoulder. “Thanks for coming.”

Zach held her a little closer. “Of course, you don’t need to thank me for something like this, you know.”

“I know, I just know you don’t like how the adults stare at you.” Her classmates' parents and her teachers, most of them thought he was the one that got her pregnant. Thought he was some sort of child star tempter pulling Kate into hedonism and pre-marital sex.

“That’s their problem, I’m not gonna ever make you dance alone, got that?” He winked.

“Got it.” She giggled.

Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip.

For the rewrite fic (The Last Laugh)

Only someone in the core of the batfamily would know enough about Jean-Paul’s prior abuse enough to use it against them.

Does this word [chosen by asker] appear in your current wip?

Skipping this!

Do you work on multiple wips or stick to one fic at a time?

If I do not have a million projects at one time assume that I am dead

Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?

Almost exclusively in order. Maybe if it's a flashback I'll write it first, but I really struggle if I don't know exactly what has happened before a scene

Do you outline your fics? If yes, how detailed are your outlines? How far do you stray from them?

I do most of the time, a pretty loose one that just covers the most basic event of each chapter. I as far as I remember stick to the outline

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

Nearly every project gets its own playlist as I need music to focus.

That Zach fic I shared a bit of is a song fic so here's the song

What is your favorite location and position to write in?

Sitting at my desk when I have that. Right now sitting in my truck seat is my only option but it's alright

What’s your favorite time to write?

Any time inspiration strikes which might be right after I wake up or could be at 10pm. When I do nanowrimo I try to write a lot earlier in the day so I don't stress

#.txt #my writing #the last laugh

2 notes · View notes

hero-dwelling · 5 months ago

Note

On the "is tenkos dad bad for disliking superheros" message - I think it was not intended. For context, I'm someone who actually does dislike superheroes and find it kinda stupid with all the costumes and stuff - and I also by that point had soured on MHA and only read it to see how it would end - but at no moment thought I "wow Hori is attacking me and calling me a bad person for not watching MCU movies" Still I think there are other moments, where more serious problematic messages were spread by Hoir, so even if this one was true, it would kinda pale in comparison

(I mean, Horikoshi and his associates have done official tie-ins with Marvel, and he has cited it as an influence, so…)

Building off of my previous post:

I think you are correct that it is not intended.

But I do think I am onto something.

By its final chapter, My Hero Academia ends up perpetuating the same superhero system it tries to interrogate, criticize, and reform--with the ending offering almost no reforms.

Maybe the supervillains end up disappearing in this ending.

But the worshiping of heroes persists.

And I can’t help but read Kotaro’s animosity towards superheroes as still a message of, “Don’t be like this guy--keep buying the merchandise.”

Granted, a lot of what I’m writing here is probably plagiarizing what Bob Chipman has already covered when comparing the films The Avengers and Batman v Superman.

To summarize Chipman’s interpretation: The Avengers presents the World Security Council as antagonists who don’t believe the Avengers can work as a solution, the film audience is now put into a position to cheer on the Avengers as an idea and hence the MCU as a viable storytelling avenue. By contrast, Batman v Superman takes more from its director’s previous work on Watchmen, suggesting that superheroes are actually a terrible idea and would not work in society.

(Chipman has gone back to this well when talking about Matt Reeves’s The Batman, so who knows whether he and I are chasing windmills.)

To share a bit where I’m coming from: I got into My Hero Academia right before the anime came out because I had heard good reviews from manga readers I knew, and I was already a fan of both the superhero genre and school life manga series.

And the tone of the story matched largely what I prefer in superhero stories: I want the Adam West Batman, the animated Brave and the Bold, stuff like Dr. Horrible (go to hell, Whedon) and The Tick. I like the goofy, the campy, stuff that can parody the conventions of the genre. I’m not saying My Hero Academia had to be wacky, but when I enjoy something lighter but still a bit subversive or deep, I do tend to be critical when the supposed depth is illusory. And My Hero Academia did feel like it was less deep than it acted like it was. (If I can ever organize my thoughts, how Toga was handled at the very end felt like a refusal to really go further with the queer text with her and Ochaco, and killing her off refused to commit to that story.)

Since you gave your context, I’ll share mine: I have taught, written about, and presented on comics and superhero stories, including My Hero Academia. I appreciated a lot of what My Hero Academia started with--before it just fell apart for me, coincidentally when we meet Kotaro and get Shigaraki’s back story. And I think that moment if fell apart for me still ties into the point I made about Kotaro: the story is making a massive shift in focus from the heroes to the villains, and if you want people to sympathize with the villains, why not have a parental figure who is not only abusive but commanding “No superhero stuff”?

That may be one reason why I’m also reading the manga during that League of Villains arc as insisting, intentionally or not, that the superhero stuff is still cool, because the story just felt like it was struggling to figure out how to both criticize the superhero stuff, while not getting rid of the cool costumes and powers.

I think you could relate that as well to what Overhaul was trying to do, take on the aesthetics of supervillains while updating the yakuza for that time period. (The Seth Rogen Green Hornet film had a ton of problems, but having a villain who also was struggling to maintain his organized crime racket by slowly morphing more and more into a stereotypical comic book supervillain was an idea that had the potential to be a lot better.)

“Sure, these villains are villains, but, first, aren’t they sympathetic, and second, while the villains have legitimate grievances against superheroes, you don’t want to be like Kotaro who just hates the heroes for being heroes! I mean, look how cool all of these characters look! Don’t you want to cosplay Shigaraki’s new outfit? Don’t you think both the superheroes and supervillains have good appearances and fun powers? Buy the video games and play as them--embody them! Buy the merch! Don’t let this dark spin to the story stop you from enjoying the story--keep giving us money!”

However, in defense of that series, I did massively misinterpret a lot about My Hero Academia when I first wrote and presented on it. (I initially thought it was far more aspirational than it ended up becoming: I thought it was presenting a world that figured out how to be anti-racist, anti-bigotry, and pro-accessibility, then the English dub had Jiro insulting Tokoyami’s appearance, Vigilantes talking about NIMBYs and discrimination against larger-size people, and much later the back stories for Spinner and Shoji.)

And to emphasize: I enjoy the camp and the costumes, I completely understand someone else like you not liking the superhero story and the costumes and tropes, and I don’t think My Hero Academia, intentionally or not, was trying to compare someone like you to Kotaro, so much as the story was telling the superhero fans “you don’t want to be like Kotaro, so support the superhero stuff.”

And if I could keep writing, I would talk about whether My Hero Academia had a problem that Attack on Titan ended up having, where the message, iconography, and historical references got so muddled that you don’t know what the story was trying to communicate. In other words, was Attack on Titan anti-fascism or pro-fascism? Because I gave up on that series, and it was too uncomfortable to keep seeing that story take on the icons of fascism without seeming to meaningfully condemn them so much as use them as window dressing. In other words, Attack on Titan seemed more like Starship Troopers the novel rather than Starship Troopers the movie.

But I wish I could figure all of that out, because I think it would help address what you hint at with regard to the “more serious problematic messages” in My Hero Academia.

I won’t put words in your mouth as you didn’t mention what those problematic messages were.

But for me, having the heteromorphs yelling about bigotry at a Black superhero like Rock Lock was poorly done (is this story suggesting Rock Lock is propping up a bigoted system when he as a Black superhero should not do so?), the last-minute lore dumping and worldbuilding with the various anti-heteromoph massacres that could have been set up earlier, Toga just getting absolutely fridged while other characters survive far more brutal injuries and the potential refusal to just commit to a queer story there without it requiring burying the gays (and whether this ties into killing off Midnight, an incredibly in-your-face sexual person), not committing to visuals that show the actual reforms Ochaco and Shoji accomplished, and, outside of the text, the goddamn jackasses online that can’t get over that maybe Izuku is happy teaching and aren’t just insulting Izuku and the women in his life as if he is a loser in case he is still single and as if the women owe him anything.

#dwells whines about mha #long post

0 notes

im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 3 years ago

Text

Sam had convinced him to go to this charity gala the Wayne family was hosting so she wouldn't have to be alone with her parents. It really wasn't that bad when you had someone to talk to who wasn't a rich snob, so Sam was always ecstatic whenever he agreed to come. Danny himself was feeling a bit overprotective of Sam who was just excited to see the city. Gotham was great for its gothic ascetic but Danny feared any number of crooks and creeps might try to take advantage of a rich tourist.

It was once they were at the gala that the trouble began. First of all, Dannys red string of fate pulled taught, signaling that his soulmate was near. Danny had been startled by it and turned invisible on reflex. Thankfully no one noticed. But just the though of his soulmate potentially being a rich snob ruined his mood. Soulmates didn't always get along after all and Danny didn't want to get stuck in a toxic relationship due to social pressures, so he decided just to stay invisible.

Meanwhile, whichever batfamily member you decide to ship Danny with noticed their string pull taught and informed the group chat so that they could begin looking for thier other half. They unfortunately, never found them.

Danny and Sam start quietly freaking out when they realize Dannys string is leading directly to the finger of one of the Wayne family. The princes and princesses of Gotham, who, to Dannys horror, was rumored to fund Batman and his endeavors. This was bad. Very bad. The bat family were known as the world's greatest detectives and could find anything/anyone.

Danny and his friends had done everything in thier power to keep what was happening in Amity Park hidden from the world. The Ghost Zone was a wonderful place of magic, mystery and extreem danger-even to its own inhabitants. It was a place where you could not only travel between dimensions and realities, but could access the entirety of the omniverse. There were so many artifacts of great might and secrets never ment for mortals to bare. If Batman did find any useful info it would likely be stored on a "Secure" computer where the information would be vulnerable to anyone who managed to steal- or ancients forbid- sell it.

More than anything the GZ was a place with a lot of power. Power that would be abused.

The entirety of the Ghost Zone would be in danger if Batmans clan came sniffing around to uncover things they shouldn't and Danny doubts they would listen to reason. They've never really seemed the type to turn away an intriguing case. So Danny stayed hidden.

The batclan wouldn't let it stay that way and a few weeks later, Danny saw his first bat in Amity Park.

Edit: I forgot to mention this but they checked the guest list and compared it to other galas and stuff to see which people didn't give the string that reaction and narrowed down the suspects. They then send the bat in question to get near to them until they eventually narrow it down to Sam and her "guest".

Only problem is that the only person in Sams life that matched the description from the cameras and witnesses was a boy who went missing when he was 15 and never found.

Also, what tf is happening in Amity Park?!?!

#prompts #fanfiction prompts #dp x dc #danny phantom #danny fenton #batman #batfam

1K notes · View notes

stxleslyds · 3 years ago

Text

Day 10. Favourite Dick and Tim interaction.

It has to be that funny and lovely moment in Nightwing (1996) #142.

I actually own this comic, well, not the comic on its own but in a compilation of volumes for the Batman RIP story. They are very fancy trades that have hardcovers and I bought them because they had some Nightwing issues from Tomasi's run.

The old Nightwing books don't print in spanish so I have to get them like that, but it was a good investment because Tomasi's run on Nightwing was amazing and this issue in particular is filled with gems. Tim and Dick's interactions being the loveliest part of it all.

I just love how simple they relationship is both drawn and written, it might seem a little too bland but it is actually sincere and nice. It is just brothers that don't see each other very often sharing a couple of moments while their father is away.

I also really love how Tim looks, he is drawn like he is talking to his favourite hero or person. He is simply admiring Dick for doing the most basic stuff while having a comfortable chat. It all just screams safety and appreciation.

But Tim also has this spark and he shows it very clearly, he is funny and comfy and it is very palpable. This banter is something that is completely gone from comic pages these days and it is really sad.

I don't know, maybe it is the fact that Tim isn't in costume, but he just looks like a kid following the steps of someone who they admire a lot and he is just waiting to be noticed. But Dick doesn't look down to him, he plays the part of "brother who is very busy at the moment" because he wants to make his next statement all the more spectacular.

Look at that face! Dick knew that Tim was waiting for that! But he adores his big brother role and cannot help but abuse it!

This panel radiates joy, pure joy. Tim is just so happy about being invited that he just drops everything and joins Dick even though he isn't wearing his suit. It is beyond adorable.

And it is very simple, there is no big deals or announcements, it is just casual, fun and lovely.

I do have to say that it is also a little bit bittersweet, because I can't help but think about how much Tim looked (in this moment) like Jason in his Robin years, and it makes me think about Dick maybe seeing that too and feeling this almost phantom pain about the brother that he had lost and had so little time to spend with.

Ay, I made myself a lil bit sad right there... I am sorry if I made you sad too!

Anyways, it is a great moment, and I can't wait to see the day where Dick and Tim have this dynamic again but more grown up because they are definitely older now.

I would also really like to see a mini or special issue with these two where Tim comes out to Dick. I feel like it would be a great thing for the LGTB+ community and for the characters too! Maybe DC should get some creators from the community and give us that kind of wholesome content that we all need so much!

#dick grayson #nightwing #tim drake #red robin #31DOD

364 notes · View notes

minsu-the-cowardly-human · 2 years ago

Text

Headcanons!(Spoilers 4 the show!)

TW: Talk of traumatic and dark content!! Read with caution Specifically: ED + child abuse Kids: Orel Puppington: -He/Him -Has PTSD from Nature and fireworks scare the shit out of him -Bonds well with Nurse Bendy -Had to give Shapey a bunny plushie that he won from the claw machine -Kins: -Morty(Rick and Morty) Shapey Puppington: -He/Him -Still has the bunny plushie, even if it is tattered -Probably unfortunately develops the habit of hurting himself for attention since he's so often neglected and that's what Bloberta does to get attention, so he probably unintentionally learns from her Kins: -Caliou(Caliou) -D.W(Arthur) Joe Secondopionson: -He/Him -Trans ftm -Used to be a really shy kid, Orel and him were friends cuz of that -Why did he change? Well, Tommy's bullying and the fact he was told at a young age by his "dad" his mom was killed in child birth probably caused him to act out. -Wants to seem like a big scary edgelord so he watches horror movies n stuff, the bloodiest of its kind. However, he also watches MLP, Strawberry Shortcake, Carebears, and other such, not that he would tell anybody. If somebody did somehow find out, he would use the excuse of watching it with his mom. -Has a build a bear with a sound chip of his mom's voice, Nurse Bendy has one with Joe's voice in it -Enemies with Tommy because he reminds him of how he used to be nice and weak and stuff -Orel was the first one to see him as a boy -Kins: -Dan(Dan Vs.) -Sid(Toy Story) -Batman(DC comics) -Wybie(Coraline) -Shadow(Sonic the Hedgehog) -Rodrick(Diary of a Wimpy Kid) -Max(Camp Camp) Doughy Latchkey: -He/Him -Trans ftm -Clingy and abandonment issues of course -Probably had a crush on Orel at some point in time -When he was little in Before Orel, he only "bullied" Orel cuz he wanted to impress Tommy -Kim and Karl forced him to wear dresses n shit when he was young so he gets gender dysphoria from wearing dresses -Tommy and Doughy share a dorm in college -Kins: -Max(Camp Camp, specifically him in Parents Day) Tommy Littler: -He/Him -mlm -Thinks he's really stupid legitimately, hence why he's always wearing the helmet -Grows up to be a scientist or something -Athesist -Only allows Doughy take off his helmet -Cried violently at Brian's confession in Breakfast Club -Good friends with Marionetta -Enemies with Joe because he reminds him of who he used to be. He didn't like being a bully and stuff when he was younger -Adrenaline seeker/trouble maker -Burnt out gifted/honors kid -Kins: -Brian(Breakfast Club) -Neil(Camp Camp) -Amity(Owl House) (Based on what I've heard, I've never watched it) Marionetta Jones: -Her response to you asking for her pronouns: nor/mal -Her actual pronouns: she/they/it -wlw -Really likes bugs and likes playing in the dirt and stuff. Her favorite is ants -Girlboss -Good friends with Tommy Christina Posabule: -She/Her -Hangs out with Marionetta and the gang -Very nice and sweet -Has either anorexia/bulimia due to the standards of women in Moralton and her parents -Kins: -Younger Bojack Horseman's mom(That's where I got the idea from, I don't watch a lot of Bojack horseman so idk how accurate that is but yknow) Billy Figurelli: -Any pronouns -Cat person -Really kind and caring -Mr. Figurelli and him have a good father-son relationship :) Kid One: -He/Him -Abandonment issues -Orphan -Later gets adopted by a single dad :) -Feels invisible/mute to others -Just wants to feel welcomed(hence why his personality can change from episode to episode)

Adults: Clay Puppington: -He/Him -After the whole Daniel incident, he's like really fucking open about how much he loves somebody very upfront. He tells Revs he loves him everyday <3 -Accidentally walked into Buried Pleasures one time, never walked in there again. -Asked Reverend Putty for his number once and he said to look it up in the yellow pages. So...that's exactly what he did :> -Intimated by Reverend Putty just a lil bit because he's the one person whose opinion matters to him -Kins: -Bojack Horseman(Bojack Horseman) Bloberta Puppington: -She/Her -Major, major savior complex -Girlboss Daniel Stopframe: -He/Him -After Honor, I think he's still subconsciously in love with Clay because even though he recognizes him as a bad person, he still flirts with the bear he got from him. -First fell in love with Clay when he was young after Clay showed him an act of kindness. -Girlboss -Kins: -Helga(Hey Arnold!) Stephaine Putty: -She/Her or She/They idk which fits best -Does stuff like not clean her piercings or small things, just go to the hospital and see Nurse Bendy <3 -They later end up dating and she moves in with Nurse Bendy and Joe -Joe and her bond over horror movies and other creepy things -Supports her dad being happy with Clay but will never fully trust him Nurse Bendy: -She/Her -When Joe and Orel have playdates, trying to replicate a real date, she always thinks it's so adorable and unintentionally embarrasses him -She showed Orel how to sew maybe and they bond rather well with eachother Reverend Putty: -He/Him -Has a hard time taking care of himself -Stephaine and Clay have to remind him to -Thinks his problems are a burden to people so it's really hard for him to open up about anything -Gets really red-faced whenever Clay starts flirting with him -Tsundere-ish -Starts knitting a shit ton -His sweater was made by Arthur's farm -Birthday is on Valentine's Day -Father figure to Orel -Still cares for Shapey and Block to an extent -Has to console Stephaine when he realizes he's not straight -Posts 2000000 Minion memes as soon as he gets a Facebook account -Has no idea how FaceTime works Mr. Cartsen: -He/Him -Bisexual -Used to have a thing for Reverend Putty back in college but didn't really do anything about it -Pretty lonely outside of his job -Later gets a part-time position at the libary -Awkward around ladies -Passive in love, gives a lot of compliments -One of the reasons he wants to be a boy scout leader is because he wants to be better than his own boy scout leader. He got molested by his boy scout leader at a young age -Wants to be a dad someday -Miss Censordoll and him read together <3 -Helps pick out books to burn -Kins: -David(Camp Camp) Miss Censordoll: -She/Her -Intersex -Doesn't really get his compliments til they become more frequent -Pulls on Mr. Cartsen's tie a lot lol -Occasionally helps him out with boy scout activities -Girlboss Dottie Trophywife: -She/Her -VERY lonely -BIG FAT crush on Florence -Just kinda teases with Revs because revenge -Has Bulima because Moralton's standards -Tries to grow as a person for Florence so they might be friends again -Buys Florence Zebras whenever she finds something -Takes clay classes -Makes clay figurines for Florence -Projects the insecurities of her own body onto Florence -It was definitely her idea for her and Florence to move in together -Very clingy -Girlboss Florence Papermouth: -She/Her -Bisexual -Binge eating disorder -Just wants love tbh -Very clingy too Millie Fakey: -She/Her -The only one who likes Bloberta's singing <3 And ya! That's all for now :3

44 notes · View notes

taoofshigeru · 2 years ago

Text

27 hours in, still a hell of a ride. Finished out Throné and Temenos' stories, plus their combo chapter.

Throné thoughts:

The overall story you see the heroine getting to kill objectively bad people, but in a way that makes you feel a twinge of sympathy for them at the last minute. Father lost his child and still loved Marietta. Mother had someone who needed her. The slave trader lamented his own lack of freedom. All of them are presented as F-minus human beings and the world is better with them gone, but it goes out of its way to take the satisfaction from Throne before she cleans them.

Claude is the only one one among her targets who is totally unsympathetic, and he's also not cathartic to kill because he's set himself up to claim a sick victory either way. Either Throné fails to kill him and she dies, or she succeeds, in which case he guarantees his "legacy" by having left behind a successor stronger than him. Feels like it's getting at a specific type of "I did it to make you strong but mainly so people would respect me" abusive parenting.

This dovetails very nicely with the character's own hatred of killing and the stench of blood specifically. It felt to me like a very nuanced take of how overcoming a state of constant abuse is not as simple as just separating from the abuser. There's a lot that remains to be worked through there despite her having obtained physical freedom.

Also, that chapter 4 was a damn good horror story. The keys unlock the forbidden door to the basement, a mystical guide takes you down a mysterious path to a mostly empty town where the few that populate it can only speak in desperate poetry? Quite the unnerving experience.

Primrose Azelhart had a happy childhood and willingly chose to dive into darkness and seek revenge after the crows stole that happiness from her. Also she was a noble. So when she completed her quest for revenge, there actually was plenty of stuff left. Throné Anguis didn't really have much to ground herself in or retreat to, so she's going to have to start building herself up emotionally from here. Primrose's story is the end of a dark chapter in her life, Throné's is the end of her life as she knew it.

Temenos thoughts:

After 5 hours of being analytical and largely unflappable, I was wowed when Temenos' voice went close to a Bale Batman dose of anger on that single "Where is she?" line towards the end of Stormhail chapter 3. I adore a good bit of passionate gay revenge.

It was hilariously in character how flat the Moonshade Order's attempt to trick/seduce him ended up falling. Him just blatantly calling it out was superb.

Detective vision/"The truth…lies in the flame." is a super-cool effect. Temenos' story does carry echoes of Cyrus' from from OT1, but it's just much, much better delivery than choosing the text prompts. I enjoyed this story way more than I expected to, and I had decent expectations for it going in.

The boyfriend has a last name and it is Crick Wellsley.

Other thoughts:

Got the boat! Love that they made it a whole story thing where instead of just buying the boat and being done with it, he gives Terry a big speech about the value of her labor that ends up picking her up out of a funk. I want to work for and/or forment civil unrest with him.

Castti is now at the point where she can 4BP the entire party and top it off with a health/SP buff every time her latent power gauge gets full. I'm looking forward to seeing the endgame vs. Vide and co (presumably the Dark Hunter and the guy who corrupted Trousseau will be among that squad) where I actually need to put combos like that in play to survive.

Claude's fight had one of the neater gimmicks with the sealing primary job skills feature, also kind of in character. Claude takes away some of the player's motivation to fight in the narrative, then takes away one of their main go-to resources once the fight starts. Not that he was any match for Ochette's bevy of animal friends, tho.

I'm +5 hours into Octopath 2 from the end of demo content, 8 hours total. I expected to enjoy it and I have. Very much so.

Spoilery impressions:

Castti needs a hug. Trousseau needs prison.

Seriously, the Castti story ripped my heart out of my chest from Winterbloom on. Ends of Winterbloom and Healeaks really got to me in different emotional ways. The visual effects for when her Inquire path action leads to her recalling memories is extremely effective. Still need to play that 4th chapter.

I love how the structure of chapters are less linear overall and the player has a bit more freedom in the order they do things. Some chapters don't even have bosses or a dungeon.

They really did put an interactive Russian Roulette sequence right in there, huh?

Battle system is fun, and manages to be pretty challenging. I had a tough time with Castti's chapter 2b fight, a recommended level 24 when my party was in the low 30s. (I did a Tressa solo all bonus jobs run on the first game, so the fact that this is challenging me as much as it is is pretty cool.)

Ochette having infinite uses of Beast Lore opens up the hunter game a lot and makes that class extremely versatile and fun to play. Meanwhile Castti being the party leader and holding the best axe means the healer is generally doing the violence.

The encounter rate feels absurdly high. I don't have scholar yet so the incredibly scruffy Osvald V. Vanstein has been glued into my party for the Evasive Maneuvers skill.

I am saving Ochette/Castti interactions for now because I expect I may need the pick-me-up after how some of these other stories go. There are thankfully light-hearted segments. The overall tone feels a lot darker than Octopath 1, though that may be because I've primarily done Castti/Throné/Ochette chapters so far.

#spoilers #octopath 2 spoilers #octopath spoilers #throné anguis #temenos mistral #octopath crick #crick wellsley

20 notes · View notes

applejee · 2 years ago

Text

I posted 17,813 times in 2022

That's 80 more posts than 2021!

151 posts created (1%)

17,662 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@celeryw

@pishposhbagosh

@blas-ph-emy

@lemontongues

@ officialspec

I tagged 3,777 of my posts in 2022

#dc - 1,160 posts

#batfam - 683 posts

#just us - 204 posts

#csm - 180 posts

#sandman - 178 posts

#q - 143 posts

#batman - 132 posts

#timkon - 104 posts

#cute - 103 posts

#goncharov - 94 posts

Longest Tag: 118 characters

#burning the receipt so you can keep the kid you were handed for a weekend who is painfully cute and a cool little dude

My Top Posts in 2022:

who’s ready for

See the full post

68 notes - Posted December 6, 2022

Hi! Any recs for timkon, or kon centric fics? It only tends to be in the background/implied in batfam centric fics that i read, but i keep seeing you post about timkon and 🥺🥰 I’m catching feelings about it

i’ll be real... im glad u asked bc i read So much timkon ♥ sorting by kudos for timkon is hard bc yeah... its so often background..... kon deserves better!!!!!! so here are some stories u should definitely read, by some lovely authors whose works i am absolutely normal about:

- everything by @batfam-chaos especially this one. kon is injured and tim panics my beloved... their stuff is *chefs kiss*

- everything by @lemontongues especially this one! slowburn in kansas.... their 2021 whumptober is very kon-centric as well!

- everything by @mindshelter, this one in particular makes me CRAAAZY

- composed of us by @starlikeknight which so far is tim centric BUT itll be eventual timkon and its already amazing so you know the timkon will be too

here are some others i like, found in my bookmarks:

- Gonna Be A Better One (A Thousand Miles To Your Door) by Traincat

- Leap, Fall, Fly by malcyon

- A Night In by Musafir

- Three Little Words by timkons

- please don't live in fear by murmurare

- time flies by by Laroyena

- shenanigans’ timkon my beloved

sadly, i read less kon-centric fic simply cause i am so obsessed with tim my little guy, my poor little meow meow, but again there is good stuff out there. u may have to search excluding timkon on ao3. REGARDLESS,

this is everything i can find off the top of my head, really. trust me theres so much more out there i adore (like the pretending to be a gold digger wip, or the catfishing fic, or the hannah montana-style identity shenanigans fic, or this one astolat fic, or the one where dick picks up kon as a cop and tim on the phone asks if he’s cute, or any of the countless other stories out there) so definitely go and have a search!! yeehaw!!!!! hope that helps!

96 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

omg omg i just BLEW through your dc fics (showstopping. incredible. magnificent) and AH TIM and was wondering do you have any Tim-centric fic recs? with that GOOD angst? no pressure or anything, thanks for all your hard work 💕💕💕💕💕

omg anon 😳😳😳😳 thank you im so glad to hear it <3

also FYCK YES IM HERE TO GIVE OUT ANGSTY TIM FICS. first and foremost u should probably jsut go thru my entire bookmark tag with tim drake but i will pick and choose the best for u here, i hopeu enjoy.

also fair warning all these may include, to some degree, violence, torture, child abuse, implied or referenced non con, etc, due to the fact these are very angsty and filled with hurt and comfort and lots of whump, so pls read the tags!

A Meditation on Railroading by eggmacguffin

this one is the best. i love it. @eggmacguffin blew it out of the PARK with this once ive reread it an absurd amount of times. tim's dad leaves him in atlanta so he makes his own way home, runs into jason, and shit happens. also, read ALL their other tim fic ok. u wont regret.

buried birds by envysparkler

have i told you to read everything by envysparkler? read everything by envysparkler. her shit is the BEST. buried birds is one of my faves, as tim is buried alive in a coffin and jason rescues him. luv it

Grilled Cheese by crumpetz

hooooooo 8k of pure tear inducing deliciousness. i reread this constantly for the catharsis. makes me cry everytime. cw for graphic injury

Echoes of You by SilverSkiesAtMidnight

wherein tim dies, is resurrected, and jason is the one to find him fresh out the grave. trauma times two electric boogaloo! check out their current wip and recent works as well!

best laid plans by Valkirin

ra's steals tim away at the same time as jason, freshly unearthed from his grave. Shit Happens. LOVE valkirin’s stuff

The Return by lurkinglurkerwholurks

essential reading. what happens after batman's brought back out of time. read all their other tim fic if u havent yet

It's Not That Funny by Ionaperidot

tim becomes joker junior! uh oh! tim's brain is scrambled by the joker and ra's and he and jason maybe become serial killers and highly codependant but they slowly heal and rejoin the family. so good. cw for graphc violence and so much more, check the tags

On the Way Home by ignesfatuis

little wolf shifter tim is kidnapped, then rescued, and stays with the waynes to heal while he cant shift back. chicken soup for the soul

Fussing Over Scars by maychorian

platonic soulmate au! i cried. check out all of maychorians stuff for more tim angst!!

Dangerous and Noble Things by destiny919

tim is kidnapped by ra’s, and four years later the bats rescue him, and whaddaya know! he comes with a sister <3 love it. they have a bunch of other tim fic too!

more behind the cut!!

now theres a ghost in the back of this room by CosmoKid

tim helps an abused kid and comes to some Revelations of his own

whumptober 2021 by CosmoKid

just read all of it. chefs kiss. cosmokid has a lot of angsty tim fics and u should read them all

Bristol Kids by Anonymous

See the full post

109 notes - Posted January 30, 2022

reminded seeing the collection of the batfam fic survey i voted in (which is fun and exciting, ill be checking some of those out later!!!!!) of some of the batshit collections people have requested my works be added to.

straight up some of you need to just use the bookmark function because it is beyond offensive to have your fic added to a collection titled “dumb bullshit to satiate my escapism”. like, really? obviously i rejected that one, and ive rejected a few others just because. that’s not what collections are for.

do people forget collections are public? do people forget that you see a list of collections a work is in directly under the tags? i’m honoured to accept my works into collections titled “fics i love”; “fics i’ll reread until the end of time”; “fics with good stephanie characterisation”—these are compliments, and things like “robin vs red hood” collect specific tropes and AUs together that ao3 may not have the tags for yet. they serve a function

i dunno, i think collection use has got a bit out of hand. im complaining on main because this keeps happening and at one extreme it’s offensive (dumb bullshit??) and at the other extreme there already exists a function for tracking it (“fics i have read”?)

respectfully, i think some people may benefit from bookmarks and bookmark tags. for one, you can tag nigh limitlessly, and search them on your bookmarks page using both the tags and the notes. also, most importantly, you can make them private. want to leave a note for yourself as to why you didn’t fully enjoy a fic? remind yourself of something that triggered you? want to simply keep track of a fic you didn’t enjoy as much as others? private bookmark, and the author never has to know.

this is a little bit of a rant but when i have rejected my works being added to collections multiple times it adds up, lol.

202 notes - Posted September 4, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

since i cannot find the masterpost i initially used to obtain all these extensions initially, here’s a list of privacy extensions i use in conjunction with firefox! i’ve included a link to each of them which is very easy if you use firefox. pls use firefox. brave is also good for privacy. there are others out there so do your research, and again, please for the love of god, switch from chrome if you can xx

–

Bypass Paywalls Clean - bypasses paywalls. v helpful. this one isn’t verified by firefox however

Decentraleyes - this helps to prevent websites from tracking you and blocks requests

Don’t track me google - stops google from lengthening urls theycan track you with. godsend

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials - blocks tracking, enables https where possible, overall a good and helpful extension

Facebook Container - isolates facebook in its own container so its much harder for them to track you. always a bonus

HTTPS Everywhere - does what it says!

Privacy Badger - blocks trackers, similar to some of the others listed. can never have too many

Shinigami eyes - if you dont have this enabled wyd? marks trans friendly accounts as green and transphobic ones as red, or other colours based on your preference. makes blocking very quick and easy! not verified by firefox, but just as essential as the rest

uBlock Origin - basically an ad blocker, the best of the bunch; also prevents a lot of tracking and coin miners too

–

if you have any privacy extensions you use or find useful, feel free to reblog with your own suggestions!

248 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #mostly reblogged from mutuals hiiii ❤️

7 notes · View notes

lady-of-lyon · 4 years ago

Text

So, I made one post a while back about how awesomely feminist the show Wild Kratts was, with how its two main female characters were women of color in engineering and deserving roles of power, female villains who weren’t motivated by spite or quest for youth, etc, but today I wanted to talk about something slightly different, that I’ve wanted to cover for a while now, because I also think it’s very good - and that’s how the show portrays masculinity, in a way that’s really positive!

First, we have our two main characters, Chris and Martin Kratt. Keep in mind these two are basically self-inserts - and there are plenty of creators, especially males, who have used self-insert characters in really scummy ways - all I have to say is Powerpuff Girls reboot and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Even if they weren’t literal self-inserts, male characters, superheroes especially, oftentimes serve the male power fantasy, being just the strong, stoic, all-powerful person so many boys are told they’re supposed to be. I could get into a whole discussion about how the male power fantasy is present even when males are not (ever look through a fashion magazine and wonder why there are so few men? Sure, part of it is that the industry thrives off exploiting women’s insecurities, and men aren’t as concerned for their appearance, but another part of it is so that the guy, looking through it, can feel like he has no competition for these women - there’s a reason so many comedians have jokes about fashion magazines being their sexual awakening as kids. It’s really scummy) but that’s not what this is about. So, the bros had every opportunity to do just that - make themselves these traditional heroes who aren’t actually really good role models, like batman or what have you. It’s certainly not uncommon for celebrity cartoons to do stuff like that. But Martin and Chris chose a different approach. They’re pretty strong standouts for positive masculinity. They’re openly affectionate - both with eachother as brothers, and with their friends. They cry, sometimes over little things - most of the time when big superheroes cry, it’s ‘cause they lost the girl they loved or their mentor or something like that, only in the big, most agonizing moments do they shed a tear. But here, Chris or Martin will cry just because they’ve had a bad day, or because they’re overwhelmed and overjoyed that someone named a mantis after them! In a lot of shows or movies when a guy cries over something little, it’s usually played for laughs, or to emasculate him, but here it’s casual without being unreasonable or overdone. The brothers cry just ad much, maybe even more (haven’t gone back and counted or anything) as the girls do. Not to mention, it’s a very nice depiction of a loving, healthy sibling relationship. As the youngest sibling myself, it’s refreshing to see a pair who don’t abuse eachother with noogies or cruel and snarky remarks. When they do fight, it’s never a screaming match, and also because they had a conflict of interest or disagreed over a fact, not because, say, one of them stole the other’s shirt or is neglecting the other’s feelings. Kids, being very impressionable, get exposed to a lot of abusive sibling relationships played as normal in media, and start thinking this is how siblings are and should act. For instance, my sister (who is now my best friend and has gotten over all these bad habits over time) when she was younger watched a lot of Kim Possible, a show that is great, but has a bad family dynamic with Kim and her little siblings. The “tweebs” as she calls them are always irresponsible, destructive, and making Kim annoyed to no end. My older brother was one of the most polite, reserved, kind little kids, but she still treated him like he was a brat and a nuisance, because that’s what shows like Kim Possible taught her little brothers were. Additionally, I was always treated like a spoiled crybaby who just wanted attention and got away with everything - I was not any of those things, ever, but that’s what shows teach you little sisters are. Sure, Wild Kratts has a smidge of that, with Chris seemingly being the stereotype of the know-it-all little sibling, but instead of being constantly looked town upon for being too “perfect” like with Hailey Long in American Dragon, Martin often praises his brother for his abilities. Sure, Martin gets annoyed when Chris tries to correct him on things, like in the episode Wolf Hawks, but everyone else does too, so it feels more like a take-down of mansplaining than a sibling spat.

I talked too in the feminist post about how refreshing it is that Chris and Martin more or less willingly put themselves under the authority of Koki and Aviva, two women of color. I don’t think it’s possible to say any one character is the “leader,” they all work as a evenly balanced team, but it’s safe to say that Koki and Aviva make the more responsible decisions. The bros try to get out of their calls a few times, but the show plays it more like they’re being irresponsible, and less like they’re renegade cool dudes who don’t take nothing from nobody, especially not two girls. They are pretty much always punished via karma for their reckless choices, most especially in To Touch a Hummingbird, where their arrogant attitudes blow up in their faces rather spectacularly. We also never see the narrative most present in sitcoms, where the male leads mess up and go out of their way to cover it up and ultimately gets away with it - after all, you have to root for them, right, because sure they messed up and had no consequences, but aren’t they just so lovable? No, here Martin and Chris always have to fix their wrongdoing, and it’s always deserved when they get comeuppance. Another aspect of the show I like is that, many times, when the bros get captured or are in peril, they are saved by the women - and most refreshing of all, there’s never a moment of “wink wink nudge nudge wow I can’t believe I had to be rescued by a GIRL” or even “wow you saved me you’re pretty good honey guess I shouldn’t have underestimated you, you go girl!” No, when the girls save them, it’s just - you know, relief? Because they were saved? It’s never a scenario played as an exception, or any more dire than when the bros need to rescue eachother. The bros are genuinely happy to have them as teammates. The show even did the standard “boys vs girls” episode in the form of When Fish Fly - but instead of being actually girls vs. boys, it’s engineers vs. adventurers. There’s nothing really gendered about it - the girls happen to be engineers, and the boys happen to be adventurers. And the episode doesn’t end with the boys being “wow gosh darn I shouldn’t have doubted you girls are better at everything,” it’s a mutual agreement that both parties have hard jobs. Basically, the bros are very naturally respectful of women. That plays more into their feminist narrative too, but either way, it’s refreshing.

Then, we have Jimmy! Jimmy, the lovable gamerboy pizza man. At first glance Jimmy seems like the stereotypical cowardly, pathetic, emasculated loser. He’s frightened of most things, as of yet has no power suit, and he BAKES for crying out loud! But none of these things are framed as terribly bad traits. Sure, we laugh when he screams and runs from an animal, but though it happens over and over, the crew doesn’t get sick of it. They don’t berate him or belittle him because he’s so gosh darn cowardly. There’s a great scene in Rattlesnake Crystal where Jimmy has to deliver something to the bros alone, in the middle of a spooky desert. He is terrified the whole time, sprinting off after he delivers the goods. When Martin and Chris run into him, they don’t laugh at him for being spooked, they just greet and then bid fair well to their friend. To them, this is just Jimmy, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Jimmy isn’t coddled, but he is reassured many times that he’s a valuable member of the team. I love that little message, that you’re just as important of a person even if you can’t do as much or have greater limits. When his friends do try to get him over his fears, it’s not because they have to, that the day will somehow be ruined by Jimmy’s incompetence p, but because they’re his friends, and want him to experience fun and wonderful things that he would otherwise miss out on. But what Jimmy CAN do is just as important! Jimmy is a gamer, which in a lot of shows, is portrayed as a lazy, useless, mindless hobby. But here, because he plays video games, it makes him essential for piloting the ship and teleporting important items. There’s always the joke that video games improves your hand/eye coordination, but recent studies have shown it has much better effects. It can make you much better at keeping track of multiple moving objects and processing technical but variable information- two traits which, fittingly enough, are really really important for air traffic controllers and airplane pilots! He also demonstrates a lot more courage behind the wheel of the Tortuga, which makes sense - in an impersonal setting, he would have more sense of calm and control and courage, because it’s so similar to a video game world. It’s not all too different with how I feel more emboldened to pick fights with people on the internet, but get crazy anxious if a real person so much as looks at me. So Jimmy’s love of video games isn’t because he’s irresponsible, it has real benefits. A quick last point - Jimmy also eats a lot, but they thankfully don’t make him fat or greedy or anything like that. He never takes food from people, he actually bakes, and shares it with others! Having the baker be a boy is a lovely touch.

I might do another post about the toxic masculinity of the two villains, (or four villains, I guess, if I wanna discuss the minions) but I’ve got other work to do, and this post is long enough already, so I’ll get around to it later. I’ll sum it up with this - Wild Kratts is a show that teaches boys it’s not only ok to be kind, but essential. The brothers protect defenseless animals, advocate for things “icky” and “weird,” like bugs or snakes or worms - not because they’re boys, and boys like icky things, but because they genuinely see the beauty in all life, and are encouraging us to slow down and do the same. The Wild Kratts are heroes who save the world not by being the strongest or smartest or coolest, but by looking after those who are exploited and vulnerable, who are essential to the world, even if they can’t always do everything. In Wild Kratts the only weaknesses a man can have isn’t what he can’t do, but what he does do that he shouldn’t have. Sure, it’s a cute show about two funny guys who have cool powers, but it’s also a show about accountability, compassion, respect and trust. The show says “boys will be boys” in all the right ways - Martin is a lovable goof with a heart of gold, but he still has to get his act together when he messes up, and he’s still creative and smart and openly sensitive. Chris is a bit of a know-it-all show-off, but he can also mess up as much as his brother, and is still bold, brave, adventurous, and can put his money where his mouth is. Jimmy is a cowardly, napping, eating machine video-gamer, but he’s still a valued member of the team, has incredible skills and talents, and will always help his friends, even if he is really, really scared. It is so important to have role models like these, in a world dominated by unhealthy machismo. The Wild Kratts are heroes who save the world - both animated, and real.

All they need now is a canon queer character, and I’ll stan them forever! My money’s on Aviva!!

#wild kratts #chris kratt #martin kratt #long post #hottake #feminism #meninism #positive masculinity #toxic masculinity #jimmy z #wk jimmy #kratt brothers

368 notes · View notes

witchyfoxelf · 3 years ago

Text

[movie review] batman vs. robin (2015)

“beware the court of owls, that watches all the time. gazing in the shadows, behind cement and lime. they see you at the hearth, they see you in your bed. take care, beware, or they will send a talon for your head.”

(cw: child abuse)

what this movie basically does is takes some of the broad strokes of the fan-favorite night of the owls storyline and uses them as a vehicle to continue the storyline with damian that started in son of batman. it’s honestly not a bad direction to go!

if you find yourself siding with bruce over damian in this one, which a lot of people i’ve seen comment on this movie have, i genuinely do not think you should ever be left unsupervised with a child. you’re scary. damian is an annoying little brat, but he’s doing his best, and bruce is the worst father in this until he isn’t.

so, let’s get the bad shit out of the way first. the dollmaker stuff at the beginning was just so unnecessarily grimdark. i’ve seen extremely creepy versions of this character where he’s victimizing adults instead of children, and this depiction added nothing to the movie other than “oooh look how edgy we are!” and giving him a line of throwaway dialogue indicating he himself had been victimized as a child did nothing. you weren’t trying to make this character three dimensional, it’s not like you were keeping him around long enough for that. so why the fuck even go there? this whole intro is just gross. and, for what it’s worth, is not featured in the comic in any way, shape or form.

i mostly like the rest of the movie? i’ve mentioned before that i’m always an easy mark for stuff involving batman, robin, and nightwing. it’s understandable that they didn’t do a straight-up adaptation of the court of owls storyline, but i do like this simplified version and i’m really glad they brought it onto the screen in some fashion.

one thing that the movie adapted pretty straightforwardly was the flashbacks where bruce was searching for the court of owls as a child. i was initially making fun of them for how heavy-handed they were but i actually ended up really liking where they went? they showed him actually learning how to be a detective, failing, and more importantly it set the court of owls up as a massively ominous big, bad threat when they turned out to be real. all of this ruled, honestly.

and i even liked bruce and damian’s story! ... to a point. i appreciated that the point of it was that bruce was in the wrong. i enjoyed damian’s continued antagonism with nightwing, and banter with alfred. and i especially appreciated alfred and nightwing trying (and failing) several times to be the voice of reason. this entire conflict could’ve been avoided if bruce had listened.

i hated how bruce was interacting with damian for 90% of the story, and when damian and him came to blows i was rooting for damian to beat the shit out of him, but that ended up being the point. and bruce realized he was wrong. i would’ve appreciated a heartfelt onscreen apology between them instead of bruce realizing he was wrong and apologizing to a hallucinatory avatar of damian and never actually apologizing to the real him onscreen, but it’s reasonable to assume that that might have happened offscreen. i’m nitpicking here.

but what really saves this for me is that damian had to save bruce, not the other way around. because for all its missteps, this movie is smart enough to realize that damian is the hero of this story, not bruce. bruce fucked up. bruce majorly fucked up. and he doesn’t get to be the hero. not this time.

but at least he admitted he was wrong. a lot of fathers like him never do.

b-rank

#batman #batman vs robin #dc universe original movies #robin damian #damian wayne #cw: abuse #cw: child abuse #movie review #reviews #movies

5 notes · View notes

thejudgingtrash · 4 years ago

Note

Annabeth is a good person,but not a nice or pleasant one,IMO.

YES.

That’s it. That’s the post. Pack it up everybody, we just cracked the case and cleared up one of the most compelling fights in the PJO fandom since forever. Good job everybody, clap it out and there’s the door! Don’t forget ordering the drinks at Starbucks, Mitch! They’re on me!

Okay, but on a more serious note: YES. YES EXACTLY.

And before some of you roll your eyes or grab your pitchforks – put your biases aside and hear me out for once. I like Annabeth. She’s my in my top three characters only second to Percy himself. I love Percabeth. It’s my favorite ship in the entire series and to be frank, the only ship that I care about PJO wise. Hell, I spend my time creating my own headcanons or writing my own fanfics with Percabeth being the star in them.

But that is not to say that I’m unable to see how certain things have developed over the years or where they stand now in regard to Annabeth. I’m not here to ignore things that have been said and/or done due to or in the name of Annabeth and I’m not here to vilify anyone that doesn’t like her. And I’m here to admit that I’m guilty of some of the things that may be addressed in this meta essay that you will read in just a second. However, I try my best to assure you, that I’m for once able to recognize my own bias.

Warning: a monster essay lies right upon you.

This should count as a paper of its own.

Back to the statement on top: I would go out even further to reframe your claim, anon:

Annabeth Chase is a good character but not a nice or pleasant person.

Annabeth is a wonderful character but she isn’t a nice one. Or at least not nice to everyone. She is (construction wise if I dare say) the best character out of the series. She has her positive traits (she’s caring, she’s emotional, she’s encouraged and volunteers, she fights for what she believes in, she forgives (even if doing so begrudgingly)) but she also has her negative traits (she’s stubborn, she’s brash, changing her mind takes forever, she is prejudiced, she baits others). That balances things out. She is branded as the intelligent kid but does irrational things (like I’ve just said a) she’s a kid and b) she’s not a robot). She should probably know better, but we all make mistakes and hopefully grow and learn from them. The clouds in the sky do blur and cover our visions sometimes.

Annabeth had clashes with other characters or was about to have fights due to her stubbornness or jealousy (Rachel, Reyna, etc.) and has of course her problems with the mortal world and her family but she also found new friends, some things cleared up throughout the narration and she was/is quite popular in Camp Half-Blood.

The thing is: she doesn’t have to be nice or pleasant (as a character). Or at least not all the time. Her character is humanized. That is what or who she is. Human. She does stand out as a character, not just because she’s the (future) love interest. She feels like someone you could meet in real life and either adore from the top to the bottom or declare as your biggest enemy. And that’s totally okay if you lean either way – liking or disliking her. Or even feeling indifferent about her. Also great!

To say that she has been the best character that Riordan has crafted is easy to say, because she has been sculpted after Riordan’s wife. He had a model he could rub some of real-life events or traits on. That’s not the problem. The problem truly doesn’t lie on Riordan’s side for the most part for once.

The problem is inherently on the fandom’s side. What the fandom does, how it acts and how it treats Annabeth as a character is the problem. The problems vary but it’s mostly the mischaracterization of Annabeth, starting fights and fan/ship wars, internalized misogyny (in some cases) and how some of the Annabeth stans lash out (ha, got firsthand experience in that field among many of my friends and mutuals!). There is a reason why many people are wary of people that have Annabeth or Percabeth related URLs.

The fact that we see Annabeth mostly through Percy’s lens and (until the Heroes of Olympus saga hits) we never really see her in chill everyday situations is essentially Riordan leaving the back door of the house open, ready for all of you asshats to rob his mansion in Boston. Because a frame on a character means that we don’t get to see the character in its entirety (unlike we do with Percy in PJO for the most part). That means a bunch of stuff is left open for interpretation which is the reason why Annabeth gets so many polarized headcanon and opinions tossed around. I think that is one of the true appeals of Annabeth. You can add on stuff and it necessarily doesn’t have to contradict itself.

We have people calling her abusive due to a (n admittedly stupid and unnecessary) judo flip and we have people that act like she’s never done anything wrong. People sorta use this excuse to form and shape Annabeth however they want and distort her characterization.

People in the fandom act like Annabeth is some weird prized possession. We perceive Annabeth mostly through the eyes of others (Percy, Apollo, etc.) and when we had some sort of insight in her ways (MOA, HOH) it felt… weird? Somewhat? Like Riordan left two bullet points of her characterization and told the ghostwriter: aight, fuck it up, gringo, see you on Tuesday and greet Fred the next time you see him for me.

There have been many posts lately (by Tharini, Simi, Sawasawako, Jewishpercy and Annie I believe?) that HOO Percabeth felt weird. That they felt weirdly constructed, that there was no conflict, no growth. It felt stagnating, like we’re turning back. We had five books prior where we had Annabeth and Percy slowly shifting from disliking to liking and crushing each other. True development. And when we finally got the cake it felt… dissatisfying. Like the cheap box stuff and not the delicious exquisite taste that we were promised.

I said it previously in my Percabeth ship roast, but let me repeat myself: many Percabeth related things are straight up fanon. Some of it is very old fanon so that’s been unable to distinguish unless you’ve read the books recently and subtract nearly 99,9% of things you see on Tumblr (and occasionally the other shitty parts of the fandom like Reddit, IG, Twitter. Although they mostly steal and recycle tumblr stuff oh well. But back to the topic).

The way people treat Annabeth is so strange. She’s either an innocent fluffy smush baby that’s never harmed a fly and all that she wants for Christmas is being Percy’s lapdog or she’s the devil incarnate, broke into your house, killed your parents Batman style, kicked your puppy and didn’t flush the toilet on the way out. I think this is what mostly makes people hate her or the ship Percabeth. And both extremes are wrong and right at the same time? She is multifaceted so both stereotypes are true and untrue and sorta cancel each other out in the same way.

The true reason why people dislike Annabeth is because the stans are doing the most. (The haters as well, don’t get me wrong, but oh boy. Piss of a stan and you’ll know what I mean). That isn’t inherently new. Are you guys old enough to remember the ship wars that have happened cross platform? Perachel vs. Percabeth? Oh boy, oh boy. I saw some kids on tumblr a few months ago trying to infiltrate both tags and start shit (and also fail). The fact that Rachel still gets used as the bitchy (ex) girlfriend in fanfics? It’s 2020 guys. I know this apocalyptic year is far from perfect and over but I think we can let this trope die, right? Right? I thought we’ve established that Rachel is a pretty chill charcter by now… right?

If you posted your stuff on FFN back in 2010-2013 and it wasn’t the typical cutesy Percabeth story (Goode High, the gods read TLT, punk/prep Percabeth, college AU, etc.) people would’ve come for your fucking throat. Not because the story or the narration was shit. But because the pairing wasn’t Annabeth and Percy (in the sense that Annabeth had to be paired with Percy. I mean Percy gets shipped with everyone and their mother but for Annabeth it was strictly Percy. As annoying as this whole Connabeth thing is – the people behind it actually had a point. She never had a different love interest unless it’s a Percy centered story and he goes off dating Athena, Artemis and Zoe at the same time for some odd reason. Yeah, FFN Percy ships are something). Or it wasn’t the action filled canon compliant story or it wasn’t an AU that was popular.

People were really stubborn, snobbish and wanted their stuff in the four five boxes that were the most popular ones and that’s it. People have been bullied off the site in many fandoms, so it’s not a PJO-only thing but it’s still sad that it happened. (Off-note: most of these FFN tropes are still alive and well and thriving on AO3. Don’t be so snobbish and pretend that every piece you’d find there is a holy grail. There’s a lot of trash you have to waddle through. Same with Wattpad, Tumblr or anywhere else where fanfics get posted. Also had this discussion with Annabeth stans. Sigh).

And Tumblr back then? Forget it, wasn’t much better.

That view has sorta changed (at least for people that have been in the fandom for several years or have managed to find a way to navigate through it) but some of the negative sentiment from back in the day has survived. Be it by new fans coming in or from old fans that never let their stance die. The aggression feels differently and somewhat not. (I don’t know if the anon function had been abused that much back in the day. I was an observer not a participant in the fandom).

Crack a joke at Annabeth’s expense (Kal’s famous “Annabeth is a Republican” post or Dee Dee’s and many others “Annabeth has the education of a second grader, chill with the college plans, girlie” stance) and you have people insulting you, making callout posts, unfollowing and blocking you (based on only that? Okay, honey), making aggressive counter-posts, etc. in a minute. If you respond with “It’s a joke, it’s not real” you have a 50/50 chance of either getting blown off or embarrassing them so that they apologize for once.

This isn’t just about jokes. You can make a headcanon that’s not the cozy cute convenient mainstream saga and people would react the same way. Or art piece (no, not including the whole Tannabeth Blackchase shtick done by Viria and others) or fanfics.

People project so much onto the unfinished canvas that is Annabeth Chase that any form of negative sentiment as little as someone not liking her to straight up criticism, regardless of how tiny it may be, seems like an affront. Like an invitation to a fight. Like an insult to them, their character, everything they believe in. Let me state something:

You are NOT Annabeth Chase. Annabeth Chase IS NOT you. Annabeth Chase is NOT real. Her feeling cannot be hurt. Someone criticizing, disliking, joking about her or even insulting her will not bother her. Someone making a statement about her is not an insult to YOU.

Let me repeat that:

Annabeth Chase isn’t real. Annabeth Chase isn’t you.

So think a little before you act? I get it when you’re a kid and new to fandoms or haven’t been up with fan cultures in the past and are back in the scene. But if you’re in your late teens or even older as an adult and you’re unable to understand that you aren’t what you like – you aren’t the extension of a fictional character – I feel incredibly sorry for you. Because that’s just incredibly sad. Someone disliking something you like isn’t an attack of your character. It shows you that you are you and the other person is a human just like you. That they just have different taste. Disliking something you like isn’t a crime, you know? But me feeling sorry for the way some of y’all act won’t mean that that’s even remotely okay. Especially if you’re no longer in the intended audience for PJO age wise and should know better.

This isn’t a “white stans” only thing. I’ve seen and witnessed firsthand how people of color, mainly women of color, act the same or not even worse when it comes to her character. People have projected their problems and real-life occurring events into her character (I’m sure that she isn’t the only character nor that this is the only fandom where this is happening) and in some cases like I’ve said cannot separate their own personality from the fictional world. Fights with woc happened because of Annabeth fucking Chase. So many things have happened in the fandom the past few months, mostly due to people being forced staying at home because of the quarantine but I’d say it’s 10% on quarantine and 90% on people for acting up like this.

So here’s a little story: There was the act of Riordan blowing the fandom up because of his own stupidity and being unable to apologize for his mischaracterization and lack of research (the whole Piper fiasco) back in June (?) and admits the upset fandom, people on Twitter, Tumblr and Discord legit thought that none of that mattered and that the outcry was destroying Annabeth Chase’s birthday. That’s right. People thought that Annabeth Chase’s non-existing birthday because she’s a fictional character had a higher priority than the rupture and prevalent racism in the fandom. Okay. This isn’t a great look, Annabeth stans. And this of course pissed a lot of people off. I made a post about it and someone not only berated three other people on said post but no, we had a mighty argument which had disrupted many friendships in our circle which haven’t recovered until this very day. We both had our parts in it and no one is innocent. But the cause of this still remains Annabeth Chase or how people prioritize her non-existing well-being. Anyway. I’m getting agitated just thinking about it.

Let’s go back to the characterization thing with Annabeth. Let me remind you:

Annabeth Chase is an asshole. There I’ve said it in a post ages ago (too lazy to look it up, sorry) and I’ll say it again. And that’s not me insulting her. That’s me actually loving that about her. Annabeth is one of the very few unapologetic female characters that really showed all young readers across the world that you can be a girl, a badass, smart, strong, standing up for yourself and what you believe in. You don’t have to be nice. You don’t have to hide your feelings. You don’t need a man in all cases but it’s also okay to accept help and defeat.

A large reason why I think she’s an incredibly important character in children’s literature/YA because many other novels (mostly (sadly)) have the “Oh, I’m a white skinny dark-haired girl that likes unconventional things like READING. I’m not like the other girls, that take care of themselves and pamper themselves by enjoying shopping and wearing make-up. No, I’d rather be one of the boys but a sweet cute little boy and not the jock fuck that drank vodka shots out of a filthy shoe once. Despite me calling myself hideous every man in a 10-kilometer radius falls in love with me and tells me I’m oh so sexy and by the way I’m only 16 years old” shit going on for no goddamn reason.

Yes, I do blame Twilight for this mostly in recent years, but this trope isn’t by any means knew. Pretty sure that you could even use classics as Pride and Prejudice and dissect them in the same manner (Bold statement: Lizzy Bennet is the OG Bella Swan. There. Go fight somewhere in the corner, people). The new wave of YA focuses on girls belittling themselves and only starting to believe in themselves because someone else (mostly the male love interest) tells them they’re worth it. And these books hit the mainstream because they’re incredibly bland and picture perfect white.

With Annabeth it’s different. She shows up for the job and is done with it. (Brie Larson would probably be the perfect in real life version of her. You either like or dislike her. Or you really don’t care). That is what is so refreshing about her. Her unapologetic nature. Can it be off-putting? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes! Hell, every time I read The Lightning Thief, I want to rip her goddamn head off. And it’s just so well written. Her shift from mistrusting Percy but secretly still believing in him to her opening up. Wow, Riordan did something right there.

Annabeth Chase isn’t a young character. She has existed along with PJO for 15 years. She’s on her way to the second decade. I’m pretty sure that with the success of Percy Jackson (and Harry Potter) many lives have been warped and shaped.

But when I say the problem lies mostly in the fandom, it doesn’t mean that Riordan’s completely innocent. The only problem that I have with Annabeth lies not truly with her but the fact that Riordan is only able to produce three variations of female characters:

The sweetheart (Hazel, Silena, Calypso, Hestia)

The strong feminist (Annabeth, Piper, Thalia, Reyna, Artemis)

The bitch (Drew, nearly every female goddess in the goddamn Riordanverse next to every female monster)

And these female characters only know three endings:

End up married with a mortgage, three kids, two dogs and a cat somewhere in Connecticut by the age of twelve

Get dumped into the hunt

Chill on Mount Olympus and only come down to be a nuisance and/or give a cryptic message before going back and doing a godly rave party or something

We know Annabeth as the badass strong female first (or the bitchy character we’re supposed to actually like. Choose your approach), the blueprint so to speak, so some of the other characters feel almost pale in comparison and almost not needed? Doesn’t mean that other characters can’t behave similarly, but it feels kind of redundant especially if their character arcs end in a rather anticlimactic way (Thalia, Reyna). The new additions are the much needed woc as the main story with PJO was inherently white (anyway stan black!Percy and Grover, folks). So it’s not to bash on the new characters, it’s more Riordan’s fault more than anything.

Since Riordan only knows three female character arcs it feels like he tried to copy the formula several ways with different nuances. Some more or less successful. This is where fandom actually comes in handy and helps create more distinguished and fleshed out characters in form of headcanons or fanfiction.

But even in these cases people still make it about Annabeth when it’s time for characters of colors to shine. Remember that whole spiel and discussion that broke out when people (Kal, diver-up, Caitlyn, Bee, reynaisalesbian, etc.) joked about or criticized that Annabeth thinks that she’s having it harder because she’s a blonde? In front of Hazel and Piper? If she would’ve been a real person that’s an invitation for getting decked. And then all hell broke loose because Annabeth stans couldn’t accept the fact that in the real world and/or in fictional worlds the woc/coc have it harder? That the white woman wasn’t the victim that needed the coddling? Yeah, that was mad pathetic.

I hope you people get my point?

Well fuck. I wrote so many things and have the feeling I’ve said nothing. Anyway, I hope I made sense. This is way too long.

TLDR: Chill about Annabeth please. She’s an important character but that doesn’t mean that everyone has to like her, regardless of being a character in the books or a reader/fan of PJO in real life. She isn’t nice or a sweetheart all the time. She also isn’t the monstrous asshole that some try to make out of her.

Peace out.

#Mel answers #pjo #percy jackson #Annabeth chase #percy jackson and the olympians #Percabeth #pjo Meta #Heroes of olympus #hoo #trials of apollo #toa #hazel levesque #piper mclean #reyna avila ramirez arellano #rachel elizabeth dare #pjo fandom #coc #rick riordan #riordanverse

710 notes · View notes