#i just. have so much to say abt john's character

[ro-rogue]

the tragic thing about john doe is that he was doomed from the start.

he was likely born in a low- or mid-tier district: new bostin high's old king, zirian, was the only one john had trouble beating, before he figured out how to amplify abilities, and at the time he beat zirian, zirian was a 3.7. zirian, pre-john, was considered incredibly powerful, nigh unbeatable. in new bostin, someone who was barely an elite was considered incredibly powerful.

god-tiers are already incredibly rare. they're even more rare than high-tiers, and whenever remi, blyke, and isen visit a low-tier district as vigilantes, everyone regards them almost as royalty - unbelievably powerful, unreachable, divinity on earth. they are with dozens, and they’re terrified of a single, non-hostile girl. also, some of the background characters say: “what’s a high-tier doing in branish?” “yeah, they would never come to a place like this.” most low-tiers likely have never even seen a high-tier in the flesh, let alone a god-tier.

add to that that wellston is supposed to be the most powerful school in the province, at least, and before john, there were only two god-tiers in attendance: an 8.0 and a 6.3. and before arlo became king, rei was, and rei was a 5.8. the king of the strongest school in the province was a 5.8.

jane doe was raised in a god-tier family. she knows, presumably, what it means to be a god-tier, when everyone around you is weaker than you, and not by a little bit. but jane has been gone since john was a toddler - and the only person left to raise him was his father. his cripple father, who has lived his whole life being spat on, disregarded, considered less than.

and then you have john. john first discovered his ability in his last year of middle school. unordinary doesn't give us an exact timeframe, but it is mentioned that he first uses his ability towards the end of the school year. if we assume that the education system in unordinary is comparable to the us education system, then that makes john about fourteen years old. it is never mentioned when most kids discover their abilities, but sera mentioned that she got martial arts lessons for a few years when she was a young child, but stopped when her ability came in. assuming sera's development is normal and abilities usually come in at the same age regardless of level, that would place the average age well before ten. another thing: everyone around john seemed to assume he would never get an ability. they considered him a cripple. which either means that late-bloomers are so incredibly rare that it isn't even considered a possibility, or john was so far past the age of ability manifestation that no one thought it was possible.

of course, his dad was also a cripple, and since genetics are a thing in uno, it would make sense for people to assume john would be a cripple even before he passed the manifestation age. (and treat him accordingly)

john got expelled in his second year in high school. when, exactly, doesn't really matter. once again assuming that the uno education system works like the us education system, that would place john at 15-16 years old.

so you have this kid, sixteen years old, who's had his ability for about two years. he spent most of his life being considered the lowest of the low - spat on, disregarded, less than. his dad, his only parental figure, has had those exact same experiences, and the only thing he can tell his child is that that is just the way the world works. it's unfair, but that's life.

but then he gets an ability. and within two years, he is almost twice as strong as the second strongest kid around. none of the adults have ever met someone as strong as him. him, the former cripple, with the cripple father. former lowest of the low, now a god amongst men. the kids, though, his classmates, his peers, they don't really understand his power. how much stronger he is than them. to tell the truth, he doesn't either, not fully. he's never met someone as strong as he is, at sixteen. but his classmates, they just remember when they used to walk all over him. when they would beat him bloody and then complain about getting his disgusting cripple blood on their shoes. and now he dares to stand above them?

they don't like him. of course they don't. cripples aren't able to become gods. they can't comprehend that john did.

and john, obviously, lashes out at his former bullies. he finally has a chance to pay them back, for all the cuts, bruises, broken bones he'd received from them over the years. he's stronger than them, and it's his turn to make them hurt. he goes farther than they did - their abilities are useless against the might of his power - but he doesn't really care. (they never held back, so he doesn't either, and the damage he does is much, much worse. the adults are mad, and he doesn't get why. he's only doing what everyone else does.)

the adults have no idea how to handle him. he's out of control. but they've never seen an ability this powerful before, except on tv, or in stories. high-rankers are supposed to keep order. (but no one listens to john. why would they? he's just a cripple, the lowest of the low, who managed to cheat the system.) his dad, kind-hearted william doe the cripple, has no idea how to help him. he can't relate to his problems at all. (is there even a problem? who wouldn't want to be powerful? for william, for adrian, for claire, it'd be a dream come true. it used to be, for john.) there is no one around who even vaguely knows what it's like to be a god-tier, or even a high-tier, or even just a high-ranker in general, except for zirian, who's barely a high-ranker at all, and who hates john for dethroning him. there is no one who understands him.

so then you have john. sixteen years old. god-tier. angry at the world, and the world is angry at him. how was he ever supposed to win?

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[menlove]

potential times they fucked ⁉️

LISGSHSHS well MOSTLY I'm just like dead certain they fucked in paris. not just 1961 but in 1966. because of john himself. there's this whole post on his short story in skywriting by word of mouth but tldr

skywriting by word of mouth classically chronicles a lot of john's sexual exploits via fictional characters to represent himself & his partners

one of them takes place in paris. the guy is away working on a play & his lover sends him a telegram asking to meet in paris. they meet up at the george v hotel & they fuck to god only knows by the beach boys. there's references to gay culture & sex (ie her name is a play on a drug popular among gay men & john writes about the man basically fondling her "potatoes" lmfao). this isn't their first time in paris & the man is hesitant abt the relationship bc of his status

IN REAL LIFE: john wasn't working on a play but he was filming "how I won the war" in 1966 a few weeks after the beatles' last tour. for whatever random reason (😐) in the break between filming in germany and filming in spain, john & paul met up in paris for the weekend. where they stayed at the george v hotel. and god only knows is Vital here. why? it's paul's favorite song (& don't even get me fucking started on this. he broke down crying when he performed it with brian wilson & it also inspired here, there, and everywhere which is both his AND john's favorite song he's done. which he wrote while waiting for john to wake up. but whatever). they'd been to paris twice before, like the lovers in the story. once famously in 1961 when john took paul to paris for his 21st birthday and they shared a single bed lmfao. and then in 1964 where they stayed at the george v for the first time (& john wrote if I fell. haha! cool!)

as for the 61 trip.... it's already gay but I don't have AS much to say about it re being certain they fucked but there is audio of john singing to paul about paris ("my cheri my pau pau" 😐) & in it he mentions paul's dick (& calls it small lmfaoooo) and just overall is being Extremely Suggestive

honorable mentions of potential times they fucked with WAY less credibility are india ("what WERE we getting up to?" and john proceeding to fake blow a microphone while paul fucking blushes and giggles. okay. it's in get back). and thennnnn there's this which is EXTREMELY threadbare I'm doing everyone a disservice w this but john made a collage for elton john for his birthday that includes a naked man that Suspiciously Looks Like Paul

lmfao that familiar mullet. also:

so is that paul? probably not. but I just think it's funny and I'm going to pretend it is and that they fucked in nature at LEAST once in the 70s

[mwagneto]

okay phew. my thoughts on watson episode 1. might put a readmore coz it'll probably get long. anyway um

so 💥 IN MY OPINION 💥 it was not good but it wasn't bad either it's the exact perfect mid i usually get with american episodic tv especially one trying to adapt something from england. not even a complaint btw i would've been shocked if it was good. i do think they needed a much stronger pilot but it was like... fine? like i had a good time with it overall and then sometimes i went HRHRGH WHAT. but anyway let's go category by category otherwise this'll be even more incoherent than it already is. so yeah cut incoming this is gonna be long as hell i was right

1) characters

watson: i elaborated on this topic in an earlier post but to sum it up, i think watson's personhood, by nature of being the pov character in the novels, revolves so strongly around holmes that it's an incredibly difficult task to define who he is without holmes, and especially to portray it. so far nothing this watson has said or done made me go "he wouldn't fucking say that" but at the same time nothing's made me go "he WOULD fucking say that" either. no actually him immediately jumping into a waterfall without any hesitation coz he saw holmes go in was extremely in character he would fucking do that. but like that just comes back to the whole issue of like, that's in character for him bc it's about holmes. but the rest? like who even is he? esp here where he can't even be defined by his position in his society or his era or his city because he's in modern day americatown instead of victorian england. so like overall i like the guy but as soon as the scene isn't about holmes he stops being watson and just becomes generic medical show leading man. i'm very curious to see if they can manage to make me feel like i really am watching dr john watson instead of just a random guy. but again outside of not really being watson i like him he seems fun

adam and stephens: i don't know why the showrunners would fuck themselves like this like why are you making your job so much harder by having 1 guy play 2 guys. edit ok apparently it's literally coz the showrunner wanted something challenging. well i hate it. also i don't think the twin thing works on any front it just makes me very uncomfortable to watch a guy trying his absolute hardest to pretend to be two separate people. it sucks. hopefully their plots will be interesting at least. calling it now there's gonna be a plot where they switch places

ingrid: i like her she's really hot imean interesting but her energy is so millenial i feel like she's gonna drop an umm that just happened! any second now. but that's not the character's or the actor's fault it's just a vibe i get

sasha: i had to look up her name on wikipedia icl but i only know the other people's names because every time a name was mentioned i rewound and paused and said OK THATS [insert name]. DONT FORGET. she just didnt get a proper namedrop ig. anyway i have 0 thoughts abt her other than her first line being about her accent which then proceeded to completely disappear in her 3rd line and then come and go as it pleased for the rest of the episode was really funny. the adoption thing is interesting tho let's see where they go with that

mary: mary-s (maries?) tend to be very strangely written bc every time they're included the writer wants to do a subversion of the generic irrelevant wife from the victorian era stories so she's usually a plot relevant badass which like. i don't think that's necessary. like you don't have to be doing all that. like i don't mind i'm usually neutral abt any given mary i just think it's annoying that they all default to that instead of doing literally anything interesting. so it's a relief that i actually like this mary coz even though she's still the usual plot relevant badass, it's not accompanied by her being watson's epic cool girlfriend she gets to be her own person. like as far as i can tell they're not gonna get back together #i ❤️ divorce. she's even bisexual!! sweep

shinwell: whyyyyy does he talk like that omg. please. also guy from the east end is a criminal duuuuude thats crazy however do they come up with these. sucks so bad. i'm gonna like him out of spite but he's such a bad character what are we doing

moriarty: what can i fucking say man. why is he here. also the acting was so bad??? like wh??? ???? why was it this bad. i guess you could blame the script but like, second takes exist yknow. you can do another one if the first take sucks. are you aware. anyway i hate it when moriarty is a big bad but we'll get into that in a later section... can't say much abt his character he was only in 1 scene. usually i'm a huge fan of colourblind casting but i don't get making him a poc if you're gonna make him the horrible evil mastermind but hey at least he's not a black woman killing orphans for money like in enola. still don't know why they did that. getting off topic anyway why did he also get hit with the yankify beam. does anyone remember england. sherlock holmes was there

2) the plot

the episode's plot: it was... fine? like it was stupid as hell but it's a medical drama so whatever. patient needs mouse bites to live. this vexes me. etc. i do think the whole today☝️ we're 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 NOT ❌ doctors ⚕️ we're 😎 detectives 🕵️ was kinda cringe but it's like the entire premise of the show so it's very much a megszoksz vagy megszöksz situation. how do you say that in english. my way or the highway. take it or leave it. you get what i mean

the overarching plot: i mean obviously this was one episode so i can't reflect on the entire thing but i CAN look at the setups and think about them. it's nice that a major part of this show seems to be watson coping with the absence of holmes. i think they should focus on it slightly more, like acd watson's life was essentially over and pointless post reichenbach and i don't think they fully emphasise the severity of that but we only have one episode so we'll see. i am very very annoyed that moriarty is a presence at all in this show and especially that they didn't even have enough faith either in the audience or their own material to wait a bit before revealing him. episode one bam he's there and he's immediately named. it sucks. we do not need him. hold my hand. look me in the eye. it's ok to write a holmes adaptation where moriarty doesn't keep coming back from the dead. it's ok to have a different villain. or just regular ass criminals that aren't masterminds. it's fine. it's ok. you can just have moran if you're desperate. in fact you SHOULD have moran we're literally post final problem pre empty house this is moran's main time in the spotlight. but whatever what's done is done. i just think what's done is dumb as hell

3) the technical stuff that reviewers love talking about to make themselves sound smarter

the dialogue: chief. it's not good. like it's not outstandingly bad but there were some lines that made me go 😬 and some of them are just. so bad. eugh. like i alluded to in ingrid's section, if a script feels like it could smoothly fit an mcu style quip without it feeling out of place, maybe reconsider the lines you're writing.

the lighting/colours: i actually really like this, i think it gives the show a very distinctive look. i do think it's weird how ambient all the lighting is in this hospital but it's a lot nicer than the horrible white and blue you'd normally get, plus as a serial surgery haver i would much prefer to have this to the inhumane buzzing leds. not to mention i'm eastern european so compared to our hospitals, this place is like a spaceship.

cinnamon topography: i just watched brilliant minds last week which had some of the most beautiful shots i have ever seen and easily the most beautiful shots i've ever seen in an episodic medical drama which is unfortunate for this show because it's also very competent in this field but my standards are all the way up. but yea overall the shots range from generic-good to pretty good so no complaints there. i really liked the shot of watson and mary talking with the garage pillar separating them, and the overhead shot of a board that says WE LIE in big red letters made me laugh really hard

4) miscellaneous

my cat just crawled into my lap while i was trying to spell meschallenios everyone shut up. ok she was there for an hour and then left so back to it

acd story references: i always think these are fun and very satisfying to clock, and by god there were a lot of them in just this one ep. my episode was like 240p so i couldn't really observe the background details (to be remedied once i get my paws on 1080p) but even then there was a ton of stuff to go duuude 🫵 at. the 1881 robot (year study in scarlet is set in) which was then immediately revealed to be called clyde (elementary turtle) was really funny like why are we referencemaxxing. like i mentioned in the john watson post, i hope they won't overly rely on them, but it was fun to pay a little extra attention to everything to see if there was a reference hidden anywhere

5) overall

my general faith in this is. very little. a lot of people have a lot of goodwill for this show, both because of elementary (which i haven't seen sorry) and because of morris chestnut (who i didn't know before this but i'm very much the kinda person who prefers to not even know the names of actors) but neither of those have any impact on my opinion or my trust in the show, nor do i think it should. even if elementary was my favourite show, i'd still expect watson to win me over just by itself. i'm also very worried about some comments the showrunner made, especially the one abt adler being holmes's lover (what?? 💀) none of which inspire confidence but again that's not part of the show either and if the show itself is good, i don't care what the showrunner thinks.

but is the show itself good? i mean, it's not bad and i never expected it to be good. i'm a huge fan of holmes adaptations and have seen way too many of them (pretty much every single one that's not unwatchably bad, and then some) so i'm always hyped when there's a new one. i don't hate this by any means, i'm glad it exists and it was a fun way to spend 2 hours watching something that's 40 minutes long and then an entire day writing a review of it.

like i said at the beginning of this unnecessarily long post, it's perfectly mid with some tentative swings in both positive and negative directions which is probably why i was able to write this much about it. if it was good i would've just said IT SLAPS YAYY YIPPIE and if it was bad i would've said "holy shit this is the worst thing i have ever seen" and that would've been it but instead here we are. hope you're glad you spent the past 7 hours reading this instead of war and peace. thank you for coming and hopefully my review of episode 2 will be a more managable size coz lowkey what the hell am i doing lol. goodbye

[liverpool-enjoyer]

Would you mind ranking the mission impossible movies from best to worst?

OKOKOK FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU FOR ASKING I LOVE TO RANT ABT MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!!!

now ik you said best to worst but imma go from worst to best cause i think thats more dramatique

OK MY MISSION IMOPSSIBLE 1-7 RANKING:

7. mission: impossible 2 low hanging fruit i know. look i dont dislike this movie - im a diehard m:i fan, so i like all of them. this movie has its moments, n i rlly like john woo as a director, n i loved the rock climbing scene n knife stunt. the romance rlly brings it down for me tho, felt very shoehorned in there.

6. mission: impossible 3 here bc its better than 2 but not as good as 1. loved that it introduced my goats julia n benji, n i loved the building jump n the running scene. rlly solid movie, only this low bc i like the others more.

5. mission: impossible ik its pretty criminal to have the original at number FIVE, but the next four are just so goated. now obviously this movie is great, its the og. but tbh it doesnt stand out to me as much as the others do, doesnt have as much of a huge action setpiece that we've come to love. plus, modern day tom cruise wouldve done that helicopter in the tunnel bit for real.

now i call this next category the FOUR MOVIE PERFECTION RUN,,, bc thats what it is. every one of these next four are absolutely perfect in my eyes, n i could see any of them being someones number one

4. mission: impossible - ghost protocol perfect. down to the last minute detail. i,,, i mean where do i begin. THE burj khalifa stunt. adding benji to the team permanently. paula patton beating ass. the dude from lost dying like five minutes in. tying up the loose end that is ethan n julia. n ik this is niche but the lil outfit change ethan does when hes leaving the kremlin gets me every time. gosh theres just,,, SO much to love abt this movie idk what more i can say. this one was my mission impossible gateway drug.

3. mission: impossible - dead reckoning ok hear me out HEAR ME OUT. before you get mad. OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING, this is the best one. this is THE best one. but this is my personal ranking. the reason i put rogue nation n fallout over this MASTERPIECE is purely bc of,,, The Thing. yknow. the thing that happens to that one character. that one very beloved character. if youve seen the movie you know what i mean. but if youre not a mission fan, n youre not emotionally attached to these characters like i am, this is the best one. unfortunately, i am very emotionally attached to ethan n his pals.

2. mission: impossible - fallout now,,, what can i say abt fallout that hasnt already been said. its perfection. perfect, down to the last minute detail. the STUNTS. the continuity from rogue nation. introducing alanna n having her stab a man while wearing this GORGEOUS white two piece that i still think abt to this day. bringing back solomon lanes bitch ass. bringing back ILSA who is literally my number one my goat my everything. n tell me how every action setpiece n fight is imbedded with fucking CRACK. the club bathroom fight, the HALO jump, ilsa n benji duking it out w lane in that little shack, ethan n walker duking it out on a cliff, THE WHOLE ASS HELICOPTER SEQUENCE where tom cruise just casually flew a helicopter as one does. n OHMYGOSH THE RUNNING. im a simple man ok i could literally watch nine hours of simon pegg telling tom cruise where to run. oh also the fucking fake out in the beginning w the fucking hospital room n benji impersonating that cnn fellow is literally the most impressive thing in the series to me. i was FLABBERGASTED. ok i know im just rambling n listing things but this movie is just,,, so, so good

1 mission impossible - rogue nation see. im aware that fallout n dead reckoning are objectively better than rogue nation. however,,, nostalgias one HELLUVA drug. this movie came out when my family was moving n i was SUPER emo abt it. but i had been looking forward to this movie for like years at that point n even tho i was going through a tough time i was SO stoked to see rogue nation. n rlly i feel like its the perfect mission impossible movie. luthers back after being absent in ghost protocol. tom cruise holding his breath for six fucking minutes as one does. benji is the damsel in distress. n how could i forget the fact that this movie introduces THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE SERIES??? ilsa my GOAT. notice how the three movies shes in are the top three,,, yeah shes the best written character in the series not to mention shes uh just rlly cool n yeah. this blog proudly promotes ilsa faust supremacy.

[your-unfriendlyghost]

you think any of the guys in the s.e. hinton-verse would be into star wars?? I feel like johnny def would, steve at first pretends to hate it but would stand in the living room in that arms-crossed-dad-way while someone is watching and end up being super into it, potentially unpopular opinion but pony would Not be a fan of any sci-fi shit, it feels too easy to mention m&m but I mean c’mon lmao 😭😭 but idk!! dump your thoughts if you’re interested ksjsksjd

Yeah definitely! Star Wars comes out in the ‘77, ig, I think they allude to it in “Tex” (Jamie says smth abt “the smuggler” in the the movie she saw being hot, n the only film w/ a smuggler in it that came out then that I know of is “A New Hope”), so by the time The Outsiders greasers see it, they’re in their mid-late 20s? Idk I’m not gonna think hard abt the timeline lol

-Johnny would automatically like it, b/c it’s fast paced and fun and just a good time.

-Dally would probably be a Han Solo fan but ya couldn’t pay him to admit it out loud. But he high key wants to be Harrison Ford. -Cherry would 100% like Leia I think! She’d go into Star Wars thinking it’s a silly kid movie but she’d end up really liking it

-You’re right, I think Pony’s a sci-fi hater. He’d like Star Wars for the uniqueness (for the time lol lord knows the market’s oversaturated nowadays), but he wouldn’t be particularly eager to see the next films unless he’s going with Johnny or Cherry or some other friend. He just can’t imagine wanting to be someplace so…alien, even if it’s just in your imagination?? (Idk that’s why I don’t usually /love/ sci fi, so)

-Soda would go nuts about the ships. If he’d been a little kid when he first saw it, he’d have totally collected little starship toys (totally not projecting or anything) He’d get bored during the slower parts, but he’d get real into the fight scenes

-Steve would dislike Luke Skywalker because he reminds him of Ponyboy. But he’d love the starships like Soda, and he’d like Han Solo like Dally. He’d act like he’s too cool to like it, but he also is one of the first ones in line to get tickets when “Empire” comes out a few years later. He’d definitely prefer American Graffiti tho over Star Wars- more hot rods, more drag racing, more good music (btw John, the greaser in AG, and the little girl, Carol, are like 70% Steve and Ponyboy to me lol)

-Darry would think it’s a kid film, but he’d end up liking it okay

-Two-Bit would think it’s cool, but he’d also be kinda drunk and not sure how much of it was actually in the film and how much of it was just him being buzzed. Leia would low-key remind him of Marcia, although that could just be because they’re both hot brunettes with sharp tongues. Marcia would adore the comparison

-M&M strikes me as a sci fi enjoyer so I bet he’d become a Star Wars nerd. The only thing I guess he wouldn’t be keen on is the war part seeing as he’s a hippie n all. But ig the point of Star Wars is…ending the war and achieving peace, so that seems in line w/ his beliefs? Idk my Ma’s a former hippie and she always dug Star Wars so I think it’s fine lol

May rb w/ more characters later, idk!

[verdemoun]

I'm still thinking. Hosea is a grandfather. A grandpa, if you will. There's Isaac, the boy he barely saw before timewarp, the boy he actually *watched* grow up. And Jack. Oh, Jack. (I am so normal about him.) The bright boy running around camp, turned into this. Just as emotionally fucked up as John and Arthur were at his age. And then there's timewarp kids, and then he figures out Jack had a younger sister. How does he handle THAT???

yes. y es i thought abt jack and hosea. because yes i fuckinf think jack would happily put up with hoseas bs. that is his grandpa and grandpa loves him.

oh fuck you you can't attack me in the feels like that and not expect an immediate reply covid has your brain cOOKING. sorry john + abigail jack is actually my son my baby my blorbo

If dad Hosea is intense, papa Hosea is willing to resort to the lowest honor tactics to protect his grandbabies. Like mama grizzly bear to the extreme: he might look the part of sweet old man but he will murder someone with his bare hands if they even LOOK at his grandbabies wrong.

He actually prefers being called Uncle Hosea because he loathes reminders of how old he is (even though growing old is something he is very, very grateful for). Isaac looked him dead in the eye when Hosea tried to correct him and said 'no I am calling you Pa and that's that'. He also calls Bessie Meemaw. Everyone else calls him Uncle Hosea but Isaac has that Morgan stubbornness.

Also Isaac is finally old enough for the 'yeah your dad was an outlaw and all those strange timewarp people are fellow gang members' and is immediately eyes sparkling. Knows outlaw bad but also how cool is that?? He will excitedly sit at Hosea's feet to hear stories about the old days and of course Hosea loves telling very true and not exaggerated tales of their adventures.

Between having no understanding of modern currency and economics and also the excitement of having a grandchild he gets to see whenever he wants because not running for lives anymore, Hosea is the worst when it comes to spoiling his grandbabies second only to Bessie.

Isaac, going from being raised by a 90% of the time solo parent to having such a massive family in the gang, loves all of them so much. Suddenly having grandparents for school events and those dumb family tree assignments. Isaac also inherited the theatrics genes. He's doing a video interview about Hosea's career and of course Hosea is just telling stories about scams and cons he ran but Isaac's in full old timey interviewer garb newsie cap on microphone and clipboard.

Isaac slamming the door at Arthur's fuck you I'm going to Pa's house when he's grounded. Arthur calling to say he's grounded do not spoil him send him home asap and Hosea merrily agreeing only to cut to Isaac getting cake and coffee while they play dominos. Hosea blindly agrees that Arthur is taking him getting suspended a second time far too seriously.

Old man bawling getting to hold baby Maeve. Sean trying to tell him to stop because he's going to wake her up but Hosea is the softest bastard when it comes to babies.

Emotionally ruined to find out Jack has a younger sister but also she was the first Marston to die and so young. He is always the first to offer to babysit and it was a very common occurrence to find her sitting on his lap drifting off as he reads to her. Practices her reading with her and plays tea parties with actual tea and does voices for different characters obsessed with playing with his smaller grandkids.

BUT HOSEA AND JACK. Hosea has been through the emotionally fucked teen outlaw gig so many times he is an expert. He knows when Jack needs space or to talk or company before Jack does.

As easy as it is to focus on that damage all that trauma and emotions and just darkness Jack carries with him, Hosea still sees their little prince.

The sheer emotion of knowing how much reading came to mean to Jack. The hurt but comfort of knowing that Jack, even if he didn't remember Hosea as clearly as Hosea remembers him, held onto something Hosea helped him with and gave him so tightly. How he read so much Abigail teased him despite how proud she was of the life he was going to have before everything turned to shit.

When Jack is still adjusting and understandably awkward and also mentally not coping, Hosea showed him their expansive private collection of books and saw the way Jack's eyes lit up. They both finally have someone to talk to books about.

Not only Jack lighting up a little like a candle being exposed to oxygen again but actually laughing as Hosea starts stacking books he recommends in his arms. Hosea being excited to talk about books without spoiling them also also just so excited to see that bright little boy is still in there.

Catching Jack curled up on what is usually his reading chair, book still in hand but fast asleep. Remembering the first times Arthur, and John, and Tilly and all those troubled young outlaws they picked up along the way felt comfortable enough to sleep around him, and knowing deep down Jack is going to be okay.

[physical-manifestation-of-spite]

i literally cant envision a human john tbh everytime i try i just i blank or his face doesnt feel right, or just the proportions of his body dont fit him as a character. But if he did get a "human" body (at least human enough for people to not notice hes not on the street or something) i think hed have to be at least somewhat offputting, or unnatural in some way. I also feel this way abt kayne, but kayne is more of a plastic fake looking aura to me. While john feels mostly like someone piled on a bunch of meat sowed it together and gave a thumbs up and john was like "are you sure this is gonna fit" and like 2 miracles later boom corporeality.

In truth i believe in the idea that if john does get a corporeal form its gonna be Him, his own form, not fit into a human mold, different but similar to the king(cant change the past), but something that represents him truly and wholly.

I just think John deserves a body he can be comfortable in and I don't think having a "human one" would be that for him. But it is fun to think about human johns especially for like. modern aus and stuff like that<3

Oh I love this whole character analysis. I agree with it 100%. I love the idea of a character's journey and personality embodying their character design, so I'm completely on board with what you're saying. I feel the same way, which is why I tend not to think too much about a "human" John.

[spacetrashpile]

so everything i know abt dc (very little) has come from my mutuals' posts (mostly yours) and i wanted to say congrats on your special guy's return!!! but also i had a few questions! kid eternity's previous iterations were all boys right? is this the debut of a new one or has she been around a while? at first i thought they may have made her trans but then i realized how unlikely that was for a long-standing character, even a minor one. what's her backstory? does her canon coincide with any previous versions? (i'm vaguely recalling a post of yours with 4 versions of this character over the years.)

i'm probably never gonna read any of the comics myself but i think she seems really cool and i really like hearing about comic character lore, so if you're up for an infodump i'd love to hear it :D

HI THANK YOU I'M ECSTATIC. YOU'VE ALSO ACTIVATED MY AUTISM TRAP CARD WITH THE TRANS THING. AND ALSO THE OTHER STUFF BUT THE TRANS THING SPECIFICALLY.

So you are correct, all the previous Kid Eternity incarnations have been guys! And yes, there have been a couple versions of him across the years (four or five, depending on who you ask/how we're drawing lines). This is the opener image I made for my "all Kid Eternity appearances" spreadsheet (still a WIP) that I made, and I feel like that helps give a quick reference for him. (It's not full opacity, but unfortunately I no longer have the original file and can't change that.)

So, this new Kid Eternity seems to be an entirely new iteration of the character. One, she's got a new costume (though it's riffing heavily on the 90s/early 2000s version of the character), and two, everyone is pretty sure she's a girl, which is insanely exciting for me specifically. This JSA issue, which came out today, is her first appearance ever, and that page I've posted like twice now is her only appearance in the actual issue, since it happens right at the end. As such, we have no idea what her deal is, or how she lines up with Kid's past appearances. However, that means it's time to speculate wildly!

A quick note about the trans thing- you're right that making any longstanding character trans would be kinda crazy for DC, even a character like Kid who's had less than 100 appearances under DC's ownership, but if it was going to happen to anyone, I could see it happening here. One, Kid is wildly minor. Like I said, less than 100 appearances while under DC's copyright, and when you add in the comics from when he was owned by Quality Comics, he still doesn't cross the 200 appearances line. So while making a character that's existed since the 1940s trans would be kinda crazy, if you're gonna pick any character to do it to, you may as well pick one that everyone forgot existed back in the 90s.

Furthermore, Kid is a character who's played a lot with concepts of gender and sexuality. You'll notice that the two pictures in the middle of the above image feature Kid with long hair (and in the costume closest to the kid we saw in the new JSA), for one, but the second image is a cover from Kid's third solo, which was published under the Vertigo imprint. Vertigo was an imprint that DC started back in the 90s that focused on publishing adult content that wasn't necessarily suitable for DC's primary audience. This means stuff like sex, nudity, drug use, etc. but it also means a lot of queer characters and story lines were published under this imprint. Just to name a few, John Constantine/Hellblazer, the Doom Patrol, and Sandman are pretty famously queer characters/groups, and they were some of Vertigo's big names back in the 90s.

Kid is never explicitly trans in his Vertigo run, and no actual trans characters ever appear to my memory, but they do play with his gender just a bit (particularly, in my opinion, in issue 9, "Hysteria Knows No Gender", but it's not much, just a fun possible read). The comic also deals very heavily with homophobia and hate crimes in some of the last few issues, and don't shy away from the idea of queerness at all. (Genuinely, issues 10-12 of this comic are harrowing reads. Issue 10 deals with violence against women while issues 11 and 12 deal with homophobia and my god are they heavy.)

Also a point that has less to do with Kid and more with the comic itself, but still something worth bringin up- this is happening in JSA (2024), and the JSA has made a couple longstanding and/or much more important characters (in the grand scheme of things) queer in the past! Notably, Todd Rice (obsidian) (first appearance 1983) was revealed to be gay in 2006 and Alan Scott (the first green lantern) (first appearance 1940) was revealed to be gay within like, the last 5 years. Still no trans retcons to my knowledge (though I'm not super up to date on the JSA, so if I may be missing some important stuff), but that's still pretty notable in my opinion.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY that while Kid has never been trans before, this Kid being trans genuinely doesn't feel out of the question to me. I'm not gonna get my hopes up or anything, but hey, wouldn't it be cool???

Anyways, the other questions you asked! Like I said, we ultimately know nothing about this version of Kid Eternity right now, except what she looks like, and that she's in Hell (par for the course for Kid, to be quite honest.) Judging from which comic she features in and what her costume looks like, however, I think I can solidly say that the backstory they'll be drawing on is the 90s era backstory, so I'll give a quick rundown of that!

Kid's initial backstory, from the 1940s, boils down to this: Kid was a child on a sailing ship that ran afoul of a Nazi sub during WW2. Kid and the rest of the crew, including his grandfather, died and went to a place called "Eternity" (legally distinct Heaven). Upon their arrival, however, it was found that Kid had arrived about 60 years before his time. In return for the mistake, he is sent back to earth with new powers and a spiritual guardian from Eternity, Mr. Keeper. These new powers allow him to shout the word "Eternity" and call on any historical, mythological, or fictional characters and summon their ghosts to help him solve problems. The fictional characters fall by the wayside after a certain point because of copy right concerns, I imagine, but I have to bring it up because it's always comical. Shout out to the time he summoned Jean Valjean to talk a thief out of stealing a loaf of bread and when that didn't work he summoned Javert and then Javert and Valjean beat each other up until he sent them back.

The 90s backstory, which is introduced by Grant Morrison in a horror mini series, builds on this backstory with a few retcons. Most notably, Kid never actually went to "Eternity" or any sort of heaven. Instead, he went to hell, where he was picked up by a staple of the DC magical mythos called the Lords of Chaos (which are exactly as bad as they sound), specifically by the one who paraded himself as Mr. Keeper. He was lied to about what happened to him when he died, about what was happening to him upon his arrival in Hell, and was strung along to do the Lords of Chaos' bidding for decades before he was able to free himself in a really complicated series of retcons and dumb writing choices across about 20 comics written and released over about two decades so we won't get into the weeds of that part.

The Lords of Chaos are opposed by a group called the Lords of Order (who could've guessed!) who are very important to the Justice Society, primarily to Dr. Fate, a key member, because Dr. Fate is a Lord of Order possessing/manifesting through a human person (and a helmet). Not only that, but this new Kid has appeared in JSA volume 2. The first JSA came out in 1999, and y'know who appears (and dies but that's less important) in the first issue of that comic: 90s Kid Eternity! It's a part of this whole plot regarding agents of the Lords of Chaos and Order, and since the current plot of this comic has a lot to do with Dr. Fate, I imagine that Kid is being pulled from that original JSA comic to be introduced as a potential foil to the current Dr. Fate (a young man who seems to be close in age to this version of Kid) and/or as another wrinkle in the Everything that's going on.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY! We really don't know much yet, but Kid Eternity is literally one of my nichest favorite characters of all time, and I am beyond ecstatic to see them running around again (fun fact, post New 52 reboot in 2011, Kid has had a whole thirteen appearances, and 6 of those appearances weren't even in the mainline universe. It was dire out here!)

[angelsdean]

I don't get the part of fandom that highlights Dean's supposed codependancy with Sam: he lets him alone x years when Sam was at Stanford, he brings him back to Jess at the end of the Pilot, he is happy to roadtrip with and without Cas in s5 and comes back only because he worries Sam is going to accept to be Lucifer's vessel, etc, etc, etc.

(And there is also Demon!Dean who is like "Fuch responsabilities" lmao)

yea it's like. very clear textually that dean can and will give sam space to live whatever life he wants. even in 1x11 Scarecrow, sam wants to go to california to find john, dean wants to stay and solve the case, he lets sam go !! sam later calls him and dean updates him on the case the the research he's doing bc he doesn't have his nerd brother (putting himself down, self-deprecating as dean is abt his own intelligence even tho he's SO smart) and sam's like joking "oh is this you hinting you need my help" and dean's like, straight up, listen i'm not hinting anything, tells him how proud he is of sam, but i also doesn't beg him to come back, basically tells him to keep doing his own this and to "take care of yourself and call me when you find dad."

sam's often the one projecting or putting words in dean's mouth like "you can't stand being alone!!" at stuff like, not letting sam die ??? not letting your loved one die is being selfish and means you don't wanna be alone ??? in what world. most people will do whatever they can to save a loved one, esp when you're living in a literal horror fantasy show and not like, a basic family drama. and sam will say stuff like but also will do risky things to save dean. hell his plan to save dean from the mark put charlie directly in danger and lead to her death. so like sam is not one to talk abt being "selfish" to save each other. and simply wanting your brother alive is not a bad thing. nor does it mean you can't stand to have separate lives / be alone. though dean very much does not want to be alone, but. he has friends and family outside of sam. he has love interests and people he could build a life with. looking at the relationships on this show you see dean have so many closer bonds with other characters and then sam is notably lacking in comparison. rowena and eileen are the only two recurring characters (off the top of my head) that feel like sam characters. people that are there mainly due to their personal ties to sam. and yea they have lots of joint friends, like gath, jody, donna, etc but even then sometimes it feels like they're closer to dean. sam feels very lonely (and it breaks my heart really) and so a lot of the things he says abt dean and their co-dependency really feels like some projection of sam's own feelings.

anyways this got long and rambly but yea, dean tells us over and over again that he's good with letting sam do his own thing. that he's good with having space and separate lives. the main thing he wants really is just, sam alive. he wants his family and friends alive !!! because he loves them !!!

[themyscirah]

Simon's flash forward of the future being Jess' first appearance... 🤵🏾‍♂️💍👰🏽‍♀️ anyone???

[charmikarma]

hallo it's me. (crookedgrifter) I'm back and I want your davejade / davejadekat thoughts. gimme

my thoughts huh ... i sure am a rambler so you're gonna get a whole essay on this

i guess in thinking abt davejadekat it always starts with jade. which is well enough because davekat has been talked to death at this point, hasn't it? i don't think i could tell you anything new or interesting about that dynamic at this point.

ANYWAY. jade. i kind of get into this in my polar express fic which ik you've read, but she is SO lonely. what the fuck are you supposed to do for ~10 years alone on an island with just a dog?? a dog who could take you somewhere else, somewhere with people, but he won't. and maybe jade knows why because of her dreams on prospit, but also maybe not! either way i think she puts a lot of faith in her dreams. it's kind of the only hope she has for the future.

i think she also has some hope in dave, this really cool dude she has this awkward internet middle school crush on. and dave is super cool to her too! i think it's implied he furry roleplays with her even?? cutest shit ever. i think this is the thing that has made me always love davejade ... they are just. so sweet to each other. dave clearly cares SO much about her.

the other thing about jade is... she's kinda fucked over repeatedly by the narrative, isn't she? she's the last beta kid introduced, so she has a lot less time to develop. the closest she really gets to developing is being really pissed off at karkat after her dreamself dies (i'll talk about this in a sec). her arc basically ends at cascade. her character arc ends in the dead middle of the comic, in a flash animation that contains exactly 0 character development. hussie says so himself in the author's notes. (don't even get me started on the author's notes jesus christ.) everything that happens on the boat is pretty much irrelevant, because it gets retconned out. instead she spends 3 years completely fucking alone, and we like... barely unpack this in canon.

so her life story up until this point is basically: raised by grandpa till ~3-5ish > living on her own till 13 > meeting dave briefly in the game > DAVE FUCKING DIES IN FRONT OF HER, WITH HER OWN BULLETS > she meets john briefly > JOHN AND DAVESPRITE FUCKING DIE > she spends 3 years alone with no solace except "yeah they had to die but you'll see them again in the new session" from alt!calliope and i guess a bunch of sprites and consorts and chess dudes. she says it herself: as nice as it is to have these folks around, they're not able to relate to her. they're not fellow thirteen year old kids. she may not be technically alone, but she is essentially alone, and she just 1. died twice in one day and 2. witnessed the deaths of several of her friends.

more on being fucked over by the narrative - jade actually has a kind of interesting dynamic with karkat in the middle of a5a2! what happens with this dynamic later on? fucking nothing!!!! like seriously i am so interested in this whole. self-hatred parallel that gets drawn between them and then how jade puts her foot down and is like you are fucking nuts. no more yelling at yourself. and it goes nowhere!! this dynamic exists for like, maybe 1% of the comic. it's really fucking sad honestly. even at the very end of homestuck, she has to be sidelined for being too powerful, thereby excluding her from all the endgame convos. like we cannot win with her

ok anyway, here's where i get into the stuff i think is really interesting. at the end of homestuck, alt!calliope tells jade that she's suffered enough, and that it's time for her to live her life how she wants to. we don't see how this plays out in homestuck proper, BUT...... the epilogues. sighs heavily.

i may be an epilogues lover but even i have to admit that jade's portrayal is.... a mess. i don't think it's wildly out of character, exactly, but it definitely toes the line... and it's definitely extremely fucking uncomfortable. it does, however, give me some insight into how i think about jade now, because while the minutiae don't really feel in character, i do think the broad strokes of what they were going for make sense.

jade took alt!calliope's words and said, fuck it. i will take charge! i won't wait anymore! i am going to have what i want. and she does get a lot of that! she gets to hang out with her friends, hang out with her brother, meet a ton of people, have a bunch of sex (presumably when she's older), and so on. but see... doing a lot of things doesn't really fill the emptiness she feels. she has so much love to give and not enough outlet for it. she needs all the love in the world and has nobody to give it to her. and she still has this big fat ten-year-old crush on dave strider that never went anywhere. but the approach she takes to life now is just... so incompatible with what dave needs. same for karkat. they both need a LOT of patience to come out of their shells, and jade is living life in the fast lane. the more she pushes, the more withdrawn they become. it is a disaster.

i want to fix it so fucking bad.

jade needs a lot of character development for all this to work, but the dynamic is absolutely there. some of their convos in early meat are so fucking funny dude, they are such good friends. it is absolutely not for lack of caring on either dave or karkat's part that things don't work out in the epilogues. it's this disconnect between what jade thinks is helpful and what dave and karkat need. i really want jade to find the balance between living at breakneck speed and waiting ten years for something to happen. i want her to feel loved for once in her damn life. and i want dave and karkat to stop being such depressing shut-ins. please guys you could balance each other out if you would just figure out how to communicate

anyway. there's your essay. it's mostly about jade. hope that's ok. i love jade harley so much my ultimate goal is to see her happy and mark my words i will figure out how

[thewarreview]

The Pacific (2010)

A The Pacific Review and Yap Sesh

!Disclaimer!

This blog post discusses war, violence, and death. The events in this mini-series are based on true events and real characters. Any references to these characters refer to the actors portraying them, unless I explicitly mention the real person they represent. Comments made about the characters are not intended to disrespect the real-life individuals who fought and risked their lives for us.

Short Little Summary

The Pacific (2010) is an HBO miniseries that follows the experiences of three U.S. Marines—Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge, and John Basilone—during the Pacific Theater of World War II. The series focuses on their personal struggles, battles, and the brutal conditions they face while fighting against Japanese forces in key locations like Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. It highlights the intense physical and emotional toll of war, exploring themes of survival, camaraderie, and the horrors of combat. Based on the memoirs of the real-life soldiers, The Pacific offers a gritty, realistic portrayal of the war's impact on the soldiers and the challenges they endure.

Lets Get Yapping

Now I have quite a lot to say about this one. Due to the fact that i was not really crushing to hard on anyone I became real locked into the show. Not saying i dont like any of the men but none that make me tweak out like Speirs does if you know what i mean. Now this is a completely different show from BoB so dont get it twisted. I want into this thinking it would be the same as BoB and wow um i was wrong but not in a bad way. One of the biggest difference is we see a lot of civilian life. We will follow Marines on leave for quite a while. I wasnt a huge fan of that tbh it through off the whole vibe for me. I was apprehensive of this show during the first few episodes. I honestly was a bit board here and there. Tho once i got to the last few episodes (mainly when Eugene Sledge comes in) i was blown away and my mind was completely changed. I couldnt take my eyes off the screen.

This show was shockingly gruesome and violent. The depictions of how disgusting and violence was outstanding. The environment they were trapped in with no sign hope yet they kept it going. I was shocked and dumb founded by the depictions. I was not expecting it to be so graphic. I am not complaining tho i love it. Movie/Shows depicting war are often watered down. Not showing the true experiences of the environment these men were in. The horrors they saw, the edges they were pushed to.

(My lord I need to rewrite my BoB review bc what i wrote was a master piece and my BoB one was pretty much just me saying stuff until I felt it was appropriate to talk all abt Speirs lmao but i digress)

Overall I enjoyed this series quite a bit. My favorite character would have to be Eugene Sledge, my sweet lil baby, poor thing. I just wanted to give him a hug the whole time. Seeing how the war changed him was intense seeing how he wanted so bad to fight and once he got to he regrated it.

Rating:

4/5

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed!

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

gotta ask abt cogito & the cane, if you don't mind. even as a (phys) disabled person I have a hard time thinking of circumstances with D2 where disabilities wouldn't just be either a. healed by light or b. negligible with abilities or c. too much of risk on the field. hadn't given much thought to exos in regards to all that- I know pretty much nothing about exo anatomy either. I know we see some stuff with banshee's memory impairment, but that's not physical. au thing or did you find a way that the rep makes sense? /gen

Hello! So I think I've talked about it a few times in various Discord servers but didn't make a post so here are all my thoughts on this topic (as examplified by my oc(s))

Case A. Cogito is disabled because he was disabled before he died and it did not cause his death. His exo model is highly custom and a leg he kitbashed from a dead exo (when he was lightless) is very faulty (causes pain when he walks too much or runs, and sometimes doesn't bend).

This could also happen with human/awoken guardians (especially if they were born disabled). As Speaker said: "Devotion inspires bravery, bravery inspires sacrifice, sacrifice leads to death" - it would be fucked up if disabled people were somewhat except from that. If a guardian can be rezzed old (like Osiris) then it probably means that they get rezzed as they were at the point when they died so case closed.

Back to Cogito though - yes, light can help him as a mobility aid (he's a Warlock, he can fly pretty well) but obliviously can't always work (light restriction zones for example). And also yeah, it's very much a problem in the field sometimes. It's a big reason why he does solitary reaserch work and only raids with a big group.

Another example of this would be Kobzar-13 with his poor eyesight (this one is for me. I have very bad eyesight too tho it's not as bad, yet). His optics were damaged some time before he died so now it's like this. He could probably get them fixed but he just rolls with this. His ghost audio describes everything to him in his head which I think would be very cool.

Case B. Wawrzyniec is disabled (amputee) because his arm got cut of by Crota. Aka "various light restricting devices and light restricted zones". In this case soulfire. Cogito's scratch (on his head, I don't always draw them) also goes under this category.

This one is more of a stretch but I think that it's plausible. I guess that guardians more often die in these situations than escape disabled. There is also the fact that ghosts might be not able (or want) to heal certain injuries. You can say that Sloane is a lore example of this.

Another oc example of this would be Enebish who got burn scars and lost an eye during the Red War when the Traveler was caged. I don't really remember if anything was said about it at the time.

Bonus case C. I know that some people headcanon guardians getting disabled because of extended light usage. I personally don't think it makes sense and goes kinda against the healing power of light stuff. Case closed.

And about the non-guardians - multiple characters have these sci-fi prosthetics (Camrin's is super advanced and Variks'es is pretty shabby) that I imagine can depend of how much cash or girlfriend in STEM you have. Eramis even has ones for her both feet so the field must be pretty advanced. There is also brother Vance who is blind and clearly did pretty well (before he jumped into piramid zone and vanished forever (John Bungie, if you heal his eyesight I'll kill you)).

Bungie seems to be generally very indirect when it comes to showing disability. Except for PTSD. Which is to be expected from an fps shooter. Everyone wants a cool robot arm but no one wants to talk about the attitude to disability in different cultures.

Speaking of which - humanity is probably not much different then it's now. There are probably a lot of disabled veterans. I wonder if insulin is expensive in the Last City. Awoken and Cabal are probably weird about it. Neomuni, well, we've seen Maya Sundaresh. Eliksni are the most normal.

So yeah, that's all from me. Thanks for the ask!

[oohbuggypie]

super long discussion abt my headcanons for Don's tattoo, as well as Carmen's and Bull's !

WARNING!! these r very headcanon heavy and probably reach-y ideas so if u prefer to stick to canon / r scared of mischaracterization maybe dont read 🩷 also this is SUPER long so im gonna go ahead and put all of this beneath a cut bcuz i don't wanna flood + this is centered around ship talk and i know some ppl don't care 4 that ✝️ pairs discussed are CarDon and BullDon, but emphasis on Carmen and Don bcuz they're mentioned more than once!!

-------------------------------------------------------

kay so i always talk abt Don having a tattoo but ive never clarified WHAT the tattoo is of / what it says . im usually stuck between not knowing what it would be;; a religious image or a religious quote ? a cross felt too basic, but an entire passage of text would just be way too much for Don in my opinion,, i don't think he'd ever want such a huge, obvious amount of black ink on his body forever. i came up with the idea that Don's tat in the Monster Hunter would be COLOSSIANS 3:2, and it felt very fitting ; it's small and fairly easy to hide, but it reflects a great amount of his world perception and his ideologies . and i think that the exact same style of tattoo would fit his regular universe character very well too !

so after some consideration and many MANY dumb questions, i have concluded: i think Don's tattoo would be JOHN 15:9 .

John 15:9 reads: "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love."

so why that quote ??

Don is a very romantic man :: he holds a very deep love for Carmen and he expresses that in his actions , seeming to dedicate his fights to her and celebrating his victories in her name . not only that, but i think his loving attitude is expressed through his non-romantic actions as well; he shows a considerable amount of respect to his opponents, and he recognizes his own mistakes! he's romantic , respectful , and to an extent - humble . i think that that verse fits him so well because it connects to his romantic personality and religious upbringing. along with being raised religiously, i think Don's parents took extra time to truly teach Don the lesson that love is one of life's most valuable and prominent factors. not only did they teach him to show kindness and respect to his peers, but i think they integrated the idea of finding romance very early in his life. they wanted their son to fall in love with the "right person", and they wanted him to treat his lover with deep devotion and respect. so i think that those two factors ended up melding together as Don grew up; religion reflected love, and his love would reflect his religion. so upon the two merging, i think Don made the decision to get that specific quote as a tattoo as means to reflect his two deepest values, and as a promise to himself that he'd find his true partner one day. so when Don truly did fall in love, he felt an even deeper connection to the tattoo.

Don's canonical partner being Carmen is adorable to me, and this is where the second portion of my headcanon comes in: i think that throughout the course of their relationship, Carmen would recognize the true sentiment that religion holds in Don's life and get a similar tattoo as devotion to her lover ! much like Don, to me, she wouldn't want an obnoxious or obvious tattoo simply because it doesn't fit the way she presents herself. so as a way to match her partner, i think she'd get the exact same kind of tattoo but with a different passage.

i think Carmen would choose ROMANS 1:11 - 12, and the placement would be beneath her right breast.

Romans 1:11 - 12 reads: "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."

i think the first part of the text ("I long to see you...") reflects the majority of Don's life where he waited to find his true partner, and how he and Carmen were bound to be together; she just hadn't met him yet. the second part of the quote ("...to make you strong...") is super fitting in the context of the idea that Carmen is Don's main motivation that drive his passions, like bullfighting and boxing. and the final part of the quote solidifies their love for each other - by sharing a tattoo, they share the love behind it and they serve as one another's guide of sorts.

-

as for Don being in a relationship with Bull, i think Bull would have conflicted feelings about getting a tattoo. Don, by no means, thinks that Bull NEEDS to get a tattoo to encapsulate their love ,, it was never a "required" or expected action to be reciprocated and Don understands that very well! both of them have already given each other deeply valuable gifts as ways to express their devotion. however, if Bull were to get a tattoo, i think he'd prioritize it being very small and very private.

to me, Bull's tattoo would be of the Virgin Mary in colored ink, placed on his inner, left thigh.

this is solely my opinion and i def don't expect anyone to agree, but that one is soo special to me . i think Don would have a very strong admiration of the Virgin Mary as an entire concept, and Bull took note of that love. he decided to represent it by choosing an intimate place that practically nobody else would ever see. neither of them see it constantly, but when they do they're reminded of just how deep their love runs . 🥹

OKAY I THINK IM DONE OMGG . this could be worded so much better but it's past midnight and this was literally ripping my brain to shreds all day so i HAD to get it out immediately 😭✝️ thanks 2 anybody that read all this omg i didn't think i was gonna talk THAT much .. srry but Don and religion r just sooooo good paired i HAD to share 🩷 okay goodniiiiiight

[crystallizedkingdoms]

Ship With Under 5 Works: Johann/John

The first and final kiss. An elegy.

wc: 1,271 // tw: major character death

day 4 of @do-you-ship-this-taz-ship’s TAZ Rarepair Event!! i was excited for this day :] im kind of obsessed with these two tbh. please read my Peacemaker fic first for the context of this fic, but if you really don’t wanna, just know that Johann is a Bird and specifically took Merle’s role as Peacemaker with John. and they were kinda gay tension abt it

you can also read this on ao3 <3

“You know, out of the two of us, I expected myself to be the one who's worse off.”

Johann manages to blink through the pain to realize he’s no longer bleeding out in Fisher’s Chambers. Instead, he lies slumped in a familiar stage he swore he would never see again. A stage he wished that Fisher’s child had taken from his memory permanently.

He has to crane his neck to the side to see the source of the voice, but the act sends a blinding pain across his body. Johann cries out in agony, shutting his eyes tight and pressing his hands against the deep wound that the Hunger had left him outside of parley. He almost forgets the voice and its words entirely as he desperately tries to cradle his injury, but it does not allow Johann that peace for long.

Rough hands covered in black and opal cracks slide their way onto both of Johann’s sides, one of them up against his wound. “I am very sorry for the state they have left you in, Johann,” John says, ignoring Johann’s hisses of pain. “Let me help—”

“Get off of me. You did this to me. You’re killing me. Stop acting like you are any different than this horrible nightmare you’ve made,” Johann seethes.

“Johann, please listen to me. I’m not really in charge here anymore. The Hunger no longer has the priorities I set, this isn’t ascension anymore, looking to surpass existence and its rules. It’s just hungry. It’s going to consume everything in its path.”

“So what? Is that why you brought me here? You saw me dying, failing to protect my Fisher, and you— you rip me away from it, to— to watch me die? To let me get consumed by all this…”

One of John’s hands grips Johann by the jaw. “You know I wouldn’t want that to happen to you,” he whispers. Though Johann’s eyes are still shut tight, he can feel John’s wavering breath hitting his cold face. He must be close.

“Then why? More lectures? More questions, more fucking information? I can’t give any of that to you anymore—”

“No, of course not. I didn’t bring you here for that, Johann, I just… I genuinely just brought you here to say… goodbye to someone. Goodbye to you.”

The words hurt more than all the wounds across Johann’s body. He hates that John’s words still affect him in this way. After all the years of hearing him out, shutting him down, and then forgetting him for a decade; it should've been enough to disenchant him. Except now, all it does is hurt him.

“Look at me,” John whispers. He’s even closer to Johann now. The tips of his hair tickle Johann’s forehead, breath mingled with the splattered blood on his cheek, and most painfully, the thumb on his face begins to caress the side of his jaw. “Please. Look at me.”

Against his better judgment, Johann opens his eyes. He’s greeted with John’s face, which has that same silvery allure that it had all those decades ago since they last met, now with all oozing colourful rifts that stream off of his skin. But Johann also sees the last emotion he ever expected on that painfully handsome face that he hates so much. Johann sees worry.

“You’re as beautiful as ever. Even when you’re like this.”

“John, stop it. I don’t want to hear this from you while I’m dying. We were never like this.”

“I have had these thoughts with you for almost a century. Never spoken because of our situation. Let me say it, damn it.”

“I’m dying.”

John shakes his head. His breathing grows even more ragged as he presses harder against Johann’s bleeding side. “No,” he says, “you’re not. I won’t let them. I will not let you die because of them. You’re going to live, and I am going to talk to you, I— I had a whole thing planned out. Our stage. Our chess game. Our dance. I just didn’t expect you to be in this state.”

Planned. John had plans for them. “John.”

“But you won’t die, you won’t, I will keep you alive. One of us is going to have to live. It’s going to be you.”

Johann cries. Tears stream down his face, finally breaking past his defences. “John. I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die where they can’t see me—”

“You’re not going to die—”

“—I don’t want them to forget about me!”

John is fully on top of Johann now. His legs almost straddle Johann’s hips, and he presses his forehead against Johann’s bloody one, searching for that closeness. “That’s not going to happen. Not out there. And certainly not in here,” John says. He stares Johann down with wide, crazed eyes. He breathes a little too hard. “You’re going to be safe. Remembered. Stay, please. With me.”

Johann’s lip quivers.

John leans down and kisses it. He presses his lips hard against Johann’s and doesn’t back down. Johann, against everything he thought he learned over their time together and their time apart, closes his eyes and kisses him back. 

It hurts. More than anything, every movement hurts. Blood taints it all, spilling into their mouths as they deepen the kiss. John’s hands and body press so tight against Johann’s, agitating every single bleeding wound on him, and he sobs into John’s kiss. Johann’s heart hurts, aching that this is how it had to happen. This is how they finally end. That they were distant all the way through their strange, cyclical lives. That they could only close the gap as the cycle finally ends. And it hurts.

The pain suddenly sears to unimaginable levels, and Johann’s eyes fling open as he keens into John’s lips. What he sees are eyes, wide and unfaltering, staring at him with intense fervour. Two of them would be John’s, so close to Johann’s face it makes it hard to see the Hunger’s hundred eyes staring at the spectacle from all around the stage.

Johann opens his mouth to warn John, but John takes it as a sign to kiss even harder. The Hunger’s eyes narrow, their intensity increasingly scorching with rage, as Johann and John melt together in this dying embrace.

And then John starts to scream.

Long, tendril-like arms tear through the hard floors of the theatre stage they lay in and seize John. More dart from the curtains, dragging John up and off of Johann’s weakened body. They tear at him, digging into the rifts already in his body and tugging them to rip the skin even further. They drag John down into the hard stage floor, ripping him away from the dying man he had finally caught up to. John reaches towards Johann and screams the whole way down.

Johann throws his body at John even as it further tears at his wounds. He wraps his arms around John and locks him into an embrace, weakly attempting to pull him away from those arms. John tries to embrace him back, but it is no use; those twisting arms pull him further and further down by his arms, until they are both so close to the ground. Soon to be overtaken.

“John, don’t leave me here. Please don’t let me die alone.”

“Stay alive! Break the bonds, Johann, break—”

And then John is gone. Johann collapses onto the ground where John was, smearing blood in the process. John is gone, the stage is gone, and Johann is alone.

The Hunger’s eyes turn to stare at Johann. He stares right back.