#i know she is in her villain era or whatever but this is so funny to me

[isabellaofparma]

Coronation Street | 2021.07.09.

[ecargmura]

Dandadan Episode 6 Review - Pink Haired Narcissist

The hunt for Okarun’s balls continue. All Turbo Granny gives out is that the balls are coated in gold. Little do they know, one of them is nearby…in the possession of Aira Shiratori, who has a bad case of main character syndrome. On top of that, there is a ghost in a red dress wandering about in school.

While the episode is about the ball hunting, it’s also giving insight to Aira as a character. To summarize, she’s a narcissist with main character syndrome. She believes she is the chosen one because she’s so beautiful that a golden ball she picked up blessed her with supernatural powers. Because of the ball, she is able to see a ‘demon wing’ sprouting from Momo’s back (actually her psychic hands) and a lady in a red dress out in the soccer field. It’s hilarious how her narcissism deludes her so much that she doesn’t believe she’s crazy and her friends are hesitant to call her so. Because she thinks Momo is a demon, she even spread rumors around that Momo sleeps with anyone. She’s clearly an infuriating character, but it’s sort of entertaining to see how much more deluded she can get.

Although she believed the rumors she spread didn’t get any traction, they actually did. One dude in Okarun’s class asked him to introduce her to him, believing she was easy, but Okarun put him in his place. While he does get jittery thinking she’s cute, it’s nice that he stands up for her.

I think the highlight of the episode was definitely Turbo Granny going to school with Okarun. A cat in a bag tagging along the bespectacled main character to school? Is this Persona 5? Turbo Granny was hilarious in this episode because she’s just tagging along because she was curious about school life in the modern era. She eats sandwiches and even steals Momo’s friend Muko’s phone just to look up who Acrobatic Silky is. That’s seriously the funniest part of the episode. Turbo Granny is out of date and did complain about it before, so her trying to modernize herself by looking up her fellow youkai online is so cute yet so funny.

Anyways, Acrobatic Silky is the main antagonist for this arc. She has been haunting Aira because she’s obsessed with wanting this girl to call her mother. I wonder if she’s obsessed with motherless girls or just has a obsessive attachment towards Aira because she saw her spirit and called her mom. Whatever it may be, her motives are clearly maternal but psychotic. She’s also a formidable foe because she can swallow her opponents as she swallowed the three humans before spitting them back out thanks to the fire in that cross-shaped lighter.

Dandadan’s penchant for high quality casting continues with Kikuko Inoue playing Acrobatic Silky. I think it’s been a while since I last heard her voice a villain. She may be known for voicing sweet, kind motherly characters, but I really like her deeper voice when voicing villains or very strong-willed women. If you watch Dandadan in English, she is voiced by Amber Lee Connors, another great voice actress who has a versatile voice. Ayane Sakura still does a good job with voicing Aira. Her English voice actress Lisa Reimold is someone I’m not familiar with, but she does a great job too!

Given how Okarun is able to transform due to Turbo Granny’s curse, it makes me wonder if Acrobatic Silky will curse Aira or give her powers to transform like him. I can’t wait to see how this will be resolved next episode. What are your thoughts on this episode?

[eliotquillon]

alex rider for the ask game :3

my favourite female character:

wow there’s just so many women in this series i can’t possibly choose! jk lmao.

for me it is sabina. my diva, my queen, the only character to consistently call alex on his shit and point out that for all his protests he keeps agreeing to do ‘one more mission’….i will never understand why people hate her (other than misogyny lmfao). i will forever be mad about that weird era of crocodile tears—never say die where ahorz turned her into a bit of a wet wipe because skeleton key/eagle strike sabina is so funny and headstrong and willing to give as good as she gets. i think she is one of the most realistic characters in the series (pun name aside) and her refusing to believe alex in eagle strike doesn’t make her evil or a fake friend…it makes her a teenage girl who was being gaslit by an intelligence agency. from sabina’s perspective the story is basically a horror movie: her best friend is being blackmailed and forced into putting his life at risk over and over, and there’s nothing she can do. there was never anything she could do. he chose danger and adventure over wanting to stay safe with her and her family and there was never any point in trying to change his mind because he is always going to be a little bit out of reach. i love her, and i think she balances alex out so well. forever mad that the tv adaptation didn’t have the foresight to realise that introducing kyra (who i love btw don’t get it twisted) and keeping her as a series regular was going to create some balancing issues with sabina, so they just turned tv sabina into a spineless caricature of all her worst traits because they didn’t need to worry about making her likeable like they did with kyra. book sabina i will love you forever.

my favourite male character:

am i allowed to say ‘the ghost of john rider that is perpetually haunting the narrative’. because to be clear it is the ghost of john rider that is perpetually haunting the narrative.

in all seriousness this is so difficult…i genuinely do love whatever the fuck is going on with the unreliable portrait of john that gets drawn throughout the series, but given that his only real appearance is in russian roulette (a book so filled with continuity errors/unreliable narration that for my own sanity i HAVE to assume that yassen is deliberately lying in at least parts of it) i don’t know if he sincerely counts as a ‘character’. although for what it’s worth i do fundamentally think that whoever john really was, he wasn’t a cut and dry ‘good person’ like we keep being TOLD to believe (too much contradiction going on with him for that).

it’s probably either general sarov OR alex himself. general sarov is cut and dry my favourite villain, is in my favourite book, and i could talk about his decision to shoot himself instead of alex (when sarov was 100% on the edge of victory!) forever. he’s such a tragic figure and i always find myself wishing that we’d gotten more villains like him…characters who genuinely weren’t cut-and-dry evil, whose motivations were actually kind of reasonable apart from the fact that the endgame/means to get to it were all wrong. but since i’m probably gonna talk a lot about skeleton key anyway i’ll put a pin in that. ALEX in the meantime…i love him so much. i love his smug one-liners, i love his fits of bad temper, i love that he never does what he’s told. and i also love how wistful he is. there’s a lot of moments, especially in the earlier books, where it’s clear that alex was actually already pretty fucked up from the simple fact of not knowing his parents. he’s been grappling with that big gnawing question of ‘who am i, really’ for a long time. he has so much guilt and shame. killing is for grown-ups and he’s still a child. i never really got into any of the other ‘teen spy’ novels when i was a kid and i think the reason why i latched onto alex rider specifically is because he is such a good protagonist. as an adult he is still so interesting because it becomes so much clearer how scared and insecure he is a lot of the time. i love him.

my favourite book/season/etc:

my fave season of the show is s1 fyi. ANYWAY.

as previously mentioned my fave book in the series is skeleton key. it is so many things. it’s a coming of age story. it’s a reverse whodunnit. it’s a story about grief. it is so, so uniquely of its time. alex continuously tries and fails at playing happy families (the pleasures, troy and turner, sarov) and never quite hits any of the right notes in any of them because he doesn’t know what it would look like. sarov would rather burn the world than admit that he sent his son to die in a useless proxy war and that it was his fault. it is the last book that was published before the war on terror started in earnest. i know it doesn’t really add to any of the overarcing stuff going on (no scorpia and no rider family drama) and nor does it have many of the other popular elements of the series (again, no scorpia and no rider family, but also no k-unit, no yassen, no julius, barely any whump, alex is basically beaten fair and square by sarov at every term) so i know this is probably an unpopular opinion. but there’s something so gentle about it. it’s so heartbreaking. it’s the point of no return - this is the first time alex chooses to do mi6 a favour instead of strictly being blackmailed into it. sarov killing himself even though he’s on the precipice of victory just because alex has made it explicitly clear that he will never be his son, that he can’t ever really turn back the clock, just fucking guts me. i don’t think this is necessarily the best-constructed book in the series (scorpia is, objectively, the best IMO), but it is my favourite.

also the american edition is totally different to every other edition and features a completely different version of the cia scenes, primarily to make the special agents more sympathetic and less like they fucking hate a child. which is just so cool. i mean the censorship stuff isn’t cool but the difference in editions is fascinating.

my fave episode (if it’s a tv show):

i can’t remember if it’s ep7 or 8 of season 3 but the tv show’s take on what happened at albert bridge. that episode. it was so, so good. i cannot imagine a better way to film it. i loved the interspersing of present with past and they cast john rider SO fucking well. i have a lot of mixed feelings about season 3 (i thought the decision to veer right back into being very book accurate after doing a pretty good job of making it explicitly clear that this was a retelling/its own distinct spin was…confusing) but that episode was perfect. i also really like s1ep8 (because i’m obsessed with kyra).

my fave cast member:

if we’re talking about the show again: marli siu as kyra. she is so fucking cool. and also adding kyra to the show, for all it opened up a can of worms, was the best thing guy burt ever did. i adore kyra so much.

if we’re using cast member to mean ‘recurring main character who isn’t one of my two named favourites’: i have a bit of a soft spot for crawley. i have no idea why, but something about him consistently being described as looking like a second-rate private school teacher forever tickles me. he’s just some guy but he cracks me up for some reason.

my favourite ship:

across the whole AR multiverse of madness, it is probably alex/kyra. i blame them for my sudden het ship renaissance tbh. i was rooting for them like i have never rooted for any heterosexual couple before (although arguably neither of them are het LOL). i think i fainted when they finally kissed in s3.

but if we’re doing book-only (since most of my answers have skewed that way)…hmm. i think i will have a forever fondness for sabina and alex’s invisible string thing they have going on. not friends not lovers but a secret third thing. i also like the toxic yaoi of john/yassen a lot because the fuck is going on THERE. i don’t fuck with alex/yassen because it personally icks me, but like i very much see the vision of yassen recreating the dynamic he had with john but with alex (and the roles reversed). john/yassen most toxic mentorship of all time spread the word.

a character i’d die defending:

sabina pleasure lol. i have in fact made some very snippy posts in the past because like…listen. obviously you are allowed to dislike her. you can dislike any character for any reason. but she has been DISPROPORTIONATELY hated on by the AR fandom. it is pure misogyny. her existence is not ‘getting in the way’ of making any other alex ship canon because sabina/alex isn’t even canon! claiming you dislike her because of ahorz’s bad/inconsistent writing is fair but you cannot say that and then, at the same time, praise the likes of ben daniels (whose identity has been swapped multiple times as a result of bad writing) as your fave character. she reacts badly to the truth in eagle strike but this was not her fault! she was being gaslit! if alex forgave her then i think maybe the fandom can let this go! she is one of the only shreds of normality left in his life and one of her chief functions is to call out alex’s shit and serve as a reality check to him. she did nothing wrong for REAL!!

a character i just can’t sympathise with:

i think it goes without saying that we’re not really meant to sympathise with a lot of these characters, so let me be controversial: mrs jones!!!!

like listen. i’m sorry to hear your kids got kidnapped yeah i actually am like obviously i’m gonna be upset about that innit yeah and tulip you know the only thing is yeah is that no-one can force me to be your mate or anything yeah and i don’t want to be mates wiv you alright? i know mrs jones is meant to be the ‘softer’ option to blunt. i know we are meant to believe, especially in the reboots, that she is better than him. but she isn’t. she talks a big game about how making alex work for them is wrong and that she’s against it, but she is never willing to put her money where her mouth is. she’s the one to goad alex into going to cairo in scorpia rising. in a lot of ways, i think her softer coating makes her a lot more insidious than blunt. this is one of the reasons i kind of went off the tv show towards the end: they made show!jones WAY too nice and sympathetic, and that’s just not who she is.

and don’t get it twisted: i think she’s fascinating. i love her character and her different faces are so, so interesting in a series that tends to stick women in the whore or mother box respectively. but i do not sympathise with her. i like her character, but i don’t like HER.

a character i grew to love:

am i allowed to say sabina again. because it is, genuinely, sabina. it took me YEARS to come around on her and then when i finally did it it was so worth it. but maybe i can’t say sabina for three different answers LOL.

this is genuinely a difficult question because there are a lot of characters in this series that i don’t LIKE but i LOVE in the sense that i find them interesting. i think jack has genuinely grown on me over the years, mostly as a result of the secret weapon short stories. it didn’t seem like it when i first read the series as a kid, but she’s so young, and she is functionally helpless—she wants to look after alex, but she’s an illegal immigrant with no blood relation to him, who at best is another way for mi6 to exploit him and at worst is a way for scorpia to exploit him. i have a lot more sympathy and respect for her now. and on a similar (yet wildly different) note: i hate ian rider, but he has slowly grown into the alex rider character i think about the most. what the fuck was up with him. what was up with him and john. did he know what he was doing when he raised alex to be a child soldier? is there a reason why yassen killed him but spared alex despite both of them being john’s blood relatives? i’m just so!!!

my anti otp:

sorry guys…it is yalex, i’m afraid. like i said: i can see the vision, but i can’t personally get past them meeting when alex is 14 and yassen is in his 30s. even in aus where they meet as adults i still get squicked out. honestly wish i could get over my aversion to it (at least a little) because i have read some FANTASTIC fics that had background yalex rumblings and i’m almost definitely depriving myself of a bunch of amazing fic by not really being willing to read anything where they’re at the forefront, but it’s just not for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[gamesception]

What do I want from Batgirl (2024)?

It's a bit late to be posting this, since the first issue is out and everyone but me has already read it, but yeah, Cassandra Cain has a new solo Batgirl title, afaik an ongoing, not a miniseries. And yes, I will be picking it up and following along to post my comments on it, even if comments on the first issue will be a bit late as I try to decide whether and how much of post-reboot Cass's existing backlog I want to refresh myself on before starting this book proper. But I can post a wish list I suppose, and people who already know better can enjoy the dramatic irony.

I'm a big fan of old school Cass, and by that I don't just mean pre-reboot, or before the end Batgirl (2000), but specifically during the run of that book's initial creative team. I have complaints about that team - failing to follow through on some wonderfully set up character arcs, an art style that started almost perfect and slowly drifted in a direction that wasn't worse art, but that imo didn't serve the book as well. failing to consider what Cass meant as a prominent Asian or Disabled hero, which resulted into the book blundering into some negative tropes and over-correcting in ways that blundered in new directions. However, for all my minor complaints, that team absolutely nailed the core of an extremely compelling character and an extremely compelling storytelling style.

You might think that means I want to see a continuity reversion to Cass's pre-reboot history. I do not.

First of all, IMO there's a ton of baggage that comes with that history that I just don't want to see again. The Dragon Lady villain arc. Black-Bat - I know this era of Cass has fans, I'm not trying to pick fights, but it wasn't my thing and imo would be a needless complication now. Lazara. Road Hog. The flanderized, one dimensional, store brand Deathstroke version of David Cain. As much as I'm a huge fan of the original take on David Cain, over time his character got shallower and less compelling until it got to the point in Batgirl (2008) that imo he subtracted from, rather than contributing to, Cass's depth as a character. Reboot David Cain from B&RE is at least so breathless a non-entity that he has the good grace to not matter.

literally who?

Post reboot Cass may not have as much that I liked, but she has way less that I don't like (at least less that I've read, which is admittedly not all that much), so I'd rather her new creative team build on what she has rather than throw it away in an attempt to turn back the clock.

Post-reboot Cassandra Cain is her own character, with her own history and stories and relationships. She has her own fans, who I'm sure care as much about her as I care about old school Cass. I refuse to be the kind of cliche nostalgia-poisoned middle aged comic fan who thinks kids funny-books should cater to my old ass and demands anything new be brushed aside to try to restore whatever status quo is enshrined in the amber of my own youthful memories. That's exactly the sort of sentiment that saw Cassandra's character destroyed, sidelined, and retconned out of existence for years in the first place, the sentiment that was willing to throw away Barbara Gordon as Oracle to try to wind the clock back on Killing Joke. 2000 was 24 years ago.

So I DON'T want the original version of Cassandra's continuity restored.

That said, I WOULD like her current continuity clarified a bit, as it's kind of hard to square the Cass in recent Detective Comics with the Cass in rebirth era Detective Comics with the Cass in Batgirls with the Cass in Birds of Prey. How old exactly is she? What level of language proficiency does she have these days? And because I want clarity, I ESPECIALLY don't want the new book to coyly imply old continuity is restored while leaving it up to the reader's imagination what exactly that includes or how much if anything of her reboot history remains.

....

While I don't want the return of original Cass's history, I do very much want the return of original Cass's storytelling style.

The Puckett/Scott era of Batgirl (2000) was characterized by a particular storytelling style:

Each issue tells a complete story. They'll often reference or touch on longer ongoing serialized narratives or advance developing character arcs and dynamics, and obviously on occasion there'll be tie ins to other books or bigger, multi issue stories, as a treat, but if you pick up a random issue of the run the odds are you should get at least some sort of story with a satisfying conclusion. Obviously I'm willing to relax this for the first issue or two as I expect a bigger story to kick things off, but if you look back at Batgirl (2000) #1, they were still able to tell a complete story with the 'MERC' thug, showing us the course of Cassandra's life in the process.

Those stories all either directly or indirectly reinforce Cassandra's core character themes, motivations, and relationships, including:

guilt - the burden of it, the value and shortcomings of acts of penance, questioning whether repentance can be real or how much it even matters if it is. How characters respond to it - pretending it's something else as Bruce does with his Vengeance, or trying to hide it in shame and isolating yourself in a cage of lies and secrets as Cass initially does, or drowning it in alcohol and nostalgia and regret as og David Cain did. The different ways guilt can shape a person - making Bruce hard and distant, making young Cass gentle and empathetic.

interpersonal drama - specifically the kind of dysfunctional relationships that come from people who deeply and genuinely care about each other but whose individual flaws and failures interact in ways that sometimes fail to help each other or actively hurt each other or sometimes even make each other worse. When and how these relationships can be salvaged and when they need to be severed - if that's even really possible.

humanity and human connections - Not just fraught familial bonds, but brief moments of human empathy that transcend language. Small acts of anonymous kindness or sacrifice, the support and love of people who care - no matter how flawed they may be. The idea that despite the weight of guilt and turmoil and suffering there's and underlying goodness in humanity that's worth defending. That every human being from the best of us to the worst is an individual person with their own lives and motivations and interiority. No faceless goons! Even background extras should have unique faces and identifying details.

Sombre tone - As you might expect from a character whose founding motivation is bottomless guilt and penance to the point of self destruction, whose relationships with the people who love her most are too often defined by the ways they fail and hurt each other, Batgirl (2000) was, overall a bit of a downer. Not dark, not grim, never ever gross or grisly, but more often than not sad. Or at best bittersweet. And I do want some of that tone back for Cassandra's solo book. Birds of Prey is too wholesome for me. I want angst, I want brooding... or not even brooding, dwelling. I want tragedy. I want inescapable truths that bind and burden rather than setting anyone free. I want those tiny points of human connection and empathy to be bright stars standing out in a long, dark night.

show don't tell - Cassandra's stories should be told in a way that leans on the panel art rather than narration. I know this is a reductive writing advice cliche that doesn't fit all stories and characters, but it IS critical to stories with THIS character. Even if she can talk just fine now, Cassandra should still be a character of actions more than words. Critically, don't *tell* me what she's feeling with blunt narration, *show* it on her face. I don't care if Cass's costume has a full face mask, shrink-wrap that thing to show her expressions anyway. I'm here for the character drama, not realistic fabric physics. Pick a lead artist based on their ability to do expressions, not fight scenes, and pick a lead Writer whose willing to trust the artist and the reader enough to let go.

no shock twists. Build character and narrative arcs, lay groundwork, foreshadow plot points, hammer core themes. The biggest gut punches should grow so naturally out of those well established themes and character dynamics that they feel inevitable. They should hang over Cassandra's (and the reader's) head right like the Sword of Damocles, or like a time bomb ticking down in plain view with no way to disarm it. Like Cass trying to hide the fact she killed a man from Bruce while Bruce tries to deny it ever happened and you just know a major confrontation is coming when that bubble of lies and denial burst (granted that conflict never really did come, BUT STILL), or the promised battle with Shiva. Or the falling out with Barbara (granted that one came way later than it should have to the point of feeling a bit out of the blue). Or the falling out with Stephanie over Cass valuing her as a friend but never really respecting her as an ally. Or David Cain finally making a move against Bruce for taking his daughter.

Small but serious stakes - Keep the stakes personal and emotional rather than large scale and physical. Cass shouldn't be fighting to save the world, a fight with no tension because she can't lose because we already have solicits for next month's DC comics. She should be fighting to save one man, to give a deathrow inmate one more night to live, to stop one boy's desperate father from making a mistake that could mean he never sees his son again. Stakes woth real tension because Cass can and does sometimes fail, and add the weight of those failures to the guilt that drives her.

street level perspective - few to no scenery-chewing costumed or super-powered antagonists, minimal supernatural or science fiction elements that might distract from the human element. The focus of the story should be tight and personal and human. Most of the criminals Cass deals with are far beneath her skill level, which makes most fight scenes short and punchy, leaving more book space for the juicy character stuff, and makes the rarer occasions when she does have to fight a super villain or a martial artist who's actually on her level more special and memorable.

That last point is probably less possible for modern Cass than for old school Cass, due to modern Cass's history being tied up in various super hero teams and their typical genre-crossing shenanigans, and of all the points its the one I'm most willing to sacrifice IF it means building on the relationships and connections that New Cass has built over that time.

Which I guess brings me to my specific requests. Entirely apart from the broader story telling stuff, if I had to list specific things I'd want to see from this book, it would be particular characters returning to build on some of Cass's relationship dynamics with them.

Shiva we already know will be there from issue one, which fits with the more significant roll new-Cass's mother has played in her story in the absence of any version of David Cain worth speaking of.

Barbara yes, though that relationship at least in theory /should/ be more a focus over in Birds of Prey, and I'll leave my dissatisfaction with Cass's depiction in that book for some other post.

Bruce, of course. I absolutely don't want a return to the Black-Bat or even the Bludhaven days when Cassandra was essentially on her own. Her relationships - both the supportive and the destructive - are the core of her character, and none more so than with Bruce, on both fronts. To that point, I don't want to see Wayne Family Adventures Bruce here either. Save that well adjusted self reflective good father in touch with his feelings to the point of being a downright parody of Bruce Wayne (one that I love, mind you, WFA is good) for fan fics and web toons. I want to see a Cassandra so devoted to Bruce that it's overtly unhealthy, like she has 'sacrifice myself in his name' on a dead man's switch. And I want a Bruce who, despite deeply and genuinely caring about Cassandra, either willfully ignores or outright exploits that impulse in ways that make the reader want to reach into the panel and wring his thick stupid neck.

But those are, or at least should be, just the obvious ones. If I had to pick a few maybe less obvious characters and relationships that I want this new ongoing to build on they would be...

Stephanie. This should be just as obvious as Bruce or Shiva, but I'm more than a bit worried here? I will be big mad if Stephanie isn't at least a regular supporting character in this book, and I'd have been a lot happier if she were a co-star or alternating lead. It's not a matter of shipping, either. These characters are best friends, and their friendship on the page is reflected by a shared bond between fandoms that stood together while their faves were both being put down and cast aside by DC editorial. I will not have Stephanie Brown and her fans disrespected yet again, especially not for the sake of propping up any version of Cass as better or more important or more worthy.

Clay Face. Iirc he's back to being a villain? if so that makes him a perfect candidate for the sort of emotionally fraught interpersonal drama mentioned above, even if he's a weird and distractingly unrealistic supervillain. Cass promised to be there to punch him if he ever strayed from the path - a new-Cass moment that was incredibly true to the spirit and character of original-Cass. Have her make good on that promise! Or maybe she already did - I'm not super familiar with current Cass's continuity, but even if she has this seems like a connection worth bringing back.

Harper Row. As far as I know DC's done fuck all with her since Batman and Robin Eternal? I could be wrong again, though, and please correct me if I am. Admittedly there's a Sci-fi bent to Harper that goes against the last point above, but it's more than worth the exception. Harper Row was a close friend from the moment this new Cass was introduced AND as the daughter of the woman new-Cass killed, Harper's mere presence in the book would open up the door to bring back, focus in, and really dwell on that core theme of guilt I was talking about. Plus the Drama of Cass's devotion to Bruce vs. Harper's disillusion with him. Just a ton of room for emotional tension and angst. Just please, PLEASE don't let her randomly show up as a villain. That would be dumb and bad and only recall the time DC tried that garbage with Cass herself. No Shock Twists!

Xanthe Zhou. A more recent connection, and one that again violates the last rule in the 'story style' list above, this time for their supernatural abilities. But I would like to see the new book let Cassandra build more of a cultural connection to her Chinese heritage, and that's not something I can see coming from her mother. That heritage is however a core part of Xanthe's character concept, and I think they worked together well in the recent Spirit World miniseries. I don't think Xanthe is part of any other current titles - though do please correct me if I'm missing something - and if not then I at least would be happy to have them as a Batgirl regular, supernatural elements not withstanding.

[neonscandal]

If you were asked who is the better antagonist in JJK or BNHA, who would they be? I found some similar ask that asked, "who is better antagonists between Kenjaku, Toji or Sukuna"? And what I think about is the antagonist in BNHA are cool, too.... What do you think?

I can't tell if this is a comparative question of JJK vs BNHA or just generally the best of both soooo I'll try to answer to the best of my interpretation.

⚠️ There's a spoiler warning for the below, I'm just riding the struggle bus today so assume spoilers through recent chapters.

Jujutsu Kaisen

🏆 Best Antagonist: Kenjaku

The Competition

Don't get me wrong, Mahito and Toji are certified demons too but their impact on the story is not as expansive. Admittedly, this is kind of silly considering Toji and his justified denouncement of jujutsu culture is precisely what creates the chasm that informs the greater conflicts we're currently in the midst of. Personally, I think Toji will make one more comeback on the side of the good guys, somehow. It's not outside of the realm of possibility and, based on spoilers around Chapter 236, he's been potentially alluded to as some sort of insurance. Who else's father could Gojo have been talking about unless Jin is still alive?

Regarding Mahito, I think an interesting insight into his character is buried in one of the light novels. He mentions it in the fight with Yuji to a degree to in that he's a mirror of humanity. He rampages as he sees violence in the world. But when encountered by a human at peace, he, too, found peace and his interest piqued. Ultimately, Mahito was a knife in the heart that just kept twisting but he was nothing more than a rabid dog interested in seeing what kind of curse Yuji's turmoil might bring about. How many times could he rend his soul without laying a finger on him.

Kenjaku, however, is insidious in the fact that his power spans millennia and I don't think we've seen the full exposition of his impact. With his ability to commandeer bodies, he did whatever he wanted throughout history using the bodies of countless people and why? Sick curiosity. There's no rhyme, no reason, he just wants to see how big of a clusterfuck he can make of the world and, so far, we've only seen a few of the ripples of that. He is both unpredictable and, yet, exceptionally cunning and resourceful. Who knows how many back alley deals he made with the reincarnated sorcerers. How many other cursed paintings, artifacts or vessels he forged that haven't revealed themselves. Where Toji and Mahito kinda allowed themselves to fly off the handle, Kenjaku is playing a long game of chess. I've considered whether Geto was doomed by the narrative and, I think we'll find that Kenjaku was a part of what pushed Geto to his ultimate defect to better line up his next body. Scarily, Kenjaku had the time and means to plot where that possibility isn't that far off.

Sukuna, similarly cunning, is the villain of the story with all the traditional markers of being the big bad and, seemingly, unredeemable but Kenjaku effectively could have put the whole course of events into action a thousand years ago. I also always think its funny that Gojo randomly rattles off facts from other eras/periods. I don't know that that isn't by design either.

My Hero Academia

🏆 Best Antagonist: Dabi

The Competition

I think we've seen the resolution of Toga's story and, as far as antagonists go, she added a degree of mayhem on the final battlefield when, in mourning Twice, she let forth his Sad Man's Parade. While she has the quintessential recipe of being cast aside, misunderstood and vilified on the basis of her quirk (see also: Spinner and Shigaraki), I think she more served as a device for character development or a parallel to Deku. Having found acceptance with Ochako, her current status is unknown.

Spinner really had a big moment at the hospital but namely as a pawn for AFO. He kind of waffled around, wringing his hands over whether LOV was true to Stain's vision before choosing to follow Shigaraki. But his lack of resolve coupled with a forced power up ultimately fumbles what could have been a huge win for the LOV at the hospital. Actually, Spinner probably could have been utilized better but his story was overshadowed by Shoji coming into his own. Maybe his purpose was really just to be the real time example of someone wanting to do the right thing, ending up on the wrong side, having so many opportunities to do better but sacrificing that path for whatever acceptance he found with the League.

Shigaraki is an obvious choice for villain but, we can see how tenuous his connection to villainy is. He, like the other members of the LOV, are ultimately the product of never having someone reach out a hand to help but I think we're getting closer to Deku untangling the knot of his trauma and it'll be what frees him of the grasp AFO has on him. Further, while Shigaraki was ultimately dubbed the prodigal successor of AFO, his struggle to enact a grand scheme to unite the League and the Paranormal Liberation Front, I think, is more indicative of what we've noted to be a really immature mindset. He's no diabolical genius.

Which leads me to the best antagonist, in my opinion. Ain't no vengeance like that of Touya MF Todoroki. In addition to burying the lede of his identity for so long just to build up to one magnificent, triumphant dance, Dabi's origin story is so zesty. Born into the pinnacle Haves of quirk society, he was on track to follow in Endeavor's footsteps only to have so many odds stacked against him. The right quirk but incompatible with his body. Still, he wasn't deterred and his similarly obsessive commitment to besting All Might for Enji causes him to self destruct. He winds up in AFO's clutches. Found and rehabilitated by Garaki, he dips without so much as a name only to resurface years later. Still a phantom. Still guided by his twisted need to make his father just as miserable as he was when he found out he was not sought after despite the years that passed. Not only that but, spoiler for the big Shiggy Showdown (chapter number escapes me), but he is unaffected by the reconciliation of his family. Unbothered by their pleas or the fact that he'd burned through his own skin, nerves, pain receptors, organs. He is possessed by his need to wreak havoc and he cries tears of blood to boot. This doesn't undermine the tragedy of his origin story - his stolen birthright, the inequities of what should have been his given his quirk and tenacity, the fact that at the height of his power he can't help but cry. Just like the rest of the League of Villains, he is just the product of a family who did not adequately support or care for him and a society that cast him aside. He just also happens to have grander schemes at play, the exposition of which provided a more comprehensive understanding of hero society and its failures which was Shigaraki's desire all along to shift the whole paradigm. What sets Dabi apart from other antagonists, in my opinion, is that there really aren't villains in MHA. Just people waiting to be moved by how earnest Deku is or rehabilitated by their own recognizance. This is as it applies to Stain, Gentle Criminal, La Brava, Lady Nagant and even Overhaul (so I won't bother going into them individually). But Dabi stays 10 toes down on his commitment to madness. I'm still uncertain whether his charred corpse will actually see redemption but it stands to be seen.

All For One is of course the irredeemable demon lord and I'm not sure the power of friendship is going to affect anything there.

Winner Take All

Best Antagonist: Kenjaku. This largely stems from my belief that, despite his death in recent chapters, we're going to get additional exposition into his depraved dealings or another layer of his plans that lays in wait and is ready to devastate us all. The possibilities there are endless with the way the story oscillates from present to past.

Bonus, Best Villain: Gege Akutami. They know what they did.

[pyrrhicraven]

I love your TMNT fics too! Can you galk about all of your TMNT ships please? 🥺

Fic name followed by the pairings as currently, my three fics have three very different versions of these characters lol

Last Knight Saki/Raphael: Saki has always been one of my favorite villains, and it's almost difficult not to see the goofy guy from the 87 series. But In some versions of TMNT Saki is a cold-hearted monster and in Last Knight, he isn't a good guy, Saki is a mobster, he is a killer, and more importantly he is a human being. He has feelings, and for the most part, he knows some of the things he does are really fucked up. Raphael is very much a ninja capable of killing, but he's also the heart of his family. If anything Saki's bringing the true ninja out of Raphael even while they're falling deeper into a romantic relationship. This is also probably the closest I'll get to writing a soulmate fic for TMNT 😂 I enjoy writing these two interactions because there is so much I can do with them, they both are very versatile characters. Mikey/Tiger Claw: I wanted to try out this pairing as I hadn't written for Tiger Claw before and toeing the line between enemies and not enemies has always been something I'm fond of writing. These two might not stay in a relationship but they'll have fun while they are in it lol Bebop/Rocksteady: Funny to say but this is one of my OTP's, you just don't get Bebop without Rocksteady, and the same in reverse. I hadn't written for them before and I really wanted to at least hint at it as they aren't the main pairing or even the secondary lol Hamato Yoshi/Tang Shen: A Canon Pairing but one I'll keep because it is tragic and Splinter is really messed up from her death, it's fun to write different ways she died, and also how much everyone involved regretted her dying so needlessly.

Pac-Man Mikey/Delisha: Delisha is an OC of mine that I made for Mikey to fall in love with. De is my first attempt at a trans character and a romantic partner for Mikey! She's funny and adores Mikey, she also works for Shredder as a receptionist and sometimes as a medic. That actually doesn't bother Mikey that she works for the enemy because he adores her. Of course, if she worked against him and his brothers that would certainly start an argument and a possible breakup for these two. Donatello/Saki: The Main pairing for Pac-Man. They are going to hurt each other, Both of them are really messed up Donnie having gone through a situation that really made him switch up his game and Saki just being the normal paranoid bastard that he can be lol Of course their differences are going to start arguments and Saki isn't just going to allow Donnie to control whatever their wacky relationship is and Donnie isn't going to give up power that easily. Casey/Raphael: Not my usual cup of tea, but I don't mind occasionally writing pairs that I wouldn't normally, and I also got the idea because someone asked me if Donnie's with Saki who's Raph with lol They are best friends so it's easy to transition that into a more romantic relationship. They still do all their normal stuff, but now they also cuddle on the couch to watch movies-kiss, etc. Leo/Rocksteady/Bebop: I was learning about terminology and QPR caught my attention. I'd already planned for Rocksteady/Bebop for this fic but adding Leo in a Queer platonic relationship with them had all the guys dating lol April/Venus: I was researching and was reminded once again that Venus was a thing and I should add her coming back into the guy's lives after having been away for a while. Pairing her off with April gave me Casey/Raph vibes and I liked that so I added it in, Not sure If I'll write this paring again after this fic but I'll have fun exploring their dynamic in the fic.

Nova Saki/Raphael: The Saki in this is a much better person than he is in Last Knight and Pac-Man. He's also really messed up from a long possession and learning how to live in a new era. Raphael in this is learning what it's like to be stabbed in the back by 'friends'. They begin to trust each other and eventually grow romantic feelings for each other. Now when the family finds out well that's going to be fun to write lol

[tothetoonandback]

PV post cause i have to learn to post what i want girl🙁. Hello tumblr omg!

Main sillies down yonder to be so fr… YES i’ve been silly abt one guy YES i can be silly abt his relationships (female friends). Colleen cruiser and ethan earle friendship my beloved y’all are crazy. Seen each pther at ur worst phases (7th grade and beyond)

Also in the read below i’m yapping just so ur aware girls

Just like talking abt my guys… first ref w Lawrence specifically! He’s so funny to me idc. Was sort of a sidekick/ally to Sierra’s mom, and his whole thing was just being rlly fast LMAO. Speedster if u will… he managed to run himself into the future and at some point during Sierra’s Bplt era ran himself back and just retired as soon as he found Paige, one of the last living ppl in his family besides ppl out of state. He’s living comfortably to say the least!!! Paige also is good friends w Leah and Sierra!

Ellie oohh… lovingly married to Cal and a proud choir teacher fr! Loves her students a ridiculous amnt! Her shtick is being able to control certain parts of ppl, which she’s still working towards LMAO, but she mainly sticks to vocal cords, eardrums and parts of the brain related to speech. She managed to let herself go crazy w her voice without hurting anything and has a craaazy range LMAAOO.

T.V. and Carmen…. Carmen specifically is a menace on her blog, which she purely posts abt the latest hero/villain news, including drama shit and general news happening. T.V. is her little sidekick and manages to get whatever info they need, though she has a very easy time doing it on her own. Cam also runs the yearbook club and does the same damn thing with her own school. T.V. is much more chill and aspires to be a big comic artist, very much taking inspo from ppl like the Blaukers :-)). They also have a secret dream of hosting some sort of television segment or show LOL.

The Blaukers… both retired from being comic artist/writers interchangeably but Chris is more seen from his art and Bobby’s more seen from his writing. They met from both starting comic series abt Carolina’s Bolt, and eventually started to make the series together, making probably the most memorable series of any real-time hero. They sort of got the trend of it going as well, but at some point retired due to realizing that it was a bit immoral to treat heroes that way LMAO. They’ve been lenient on speaking on the issue seeing how more modern heroes act but are still very invested in the comic industry, even if they aren’t directly in it. Definitely caught in what’s going on and know everything happening with everyone

Kyra and Sean yaaayy! Not much to say abt them, but Sean is Sierra’s step brother and the both of them have always had a big influence on both Sierra and Luka. Mostly Luka when he was still with the family!

Chief Frye is just funny i just like thinking abt her sometimes

CAL colleen beloved thing oh my god. Lovingly married to Ellie!!! Local artist as hell, has worked w abt every medium u can think of and has sold her work to plenty of art shows and fairs. Def knows her craft. Also a good ally for heroes and villains alike, tho mostly villains LMAO, because she can get her say abt just anything. She gets her shit together for a good price fr. Also a childhood friend to Ethan, they’re silly!:-) type to get picked the hell up by her large wife and her large friend

Also for the doodles: mayzie go crazy i need to post abt her more. And cal having tats just makes me soooo so crazy!

Girlcode w the pads i love sierra and e’s relationship, even pre-everything. They’re so

[flower-boi16]

A new era of Disney TVA is upon us...let's talk about that.

So recently the finale to The Owl House titled Watching and Dreaming aired on April 8th, not only is it the end of that show, but was also the end story-driven serialized era of Disney TVA. In this post I'm going to discuss my thoughts on this current era of Disney TVA we're in and my thoughts on each of the shows in it. Note that for most of these shows, this going to be just my first impressions on each of them based on how much of each of them I've seen. So...let's begin.

Big City Greens

In this current era of Disney Channel we've been getting more episodic shows, these shows still have continuity character development and some major status quo changes, but they aren't super story-driven like shows such as The Owl House or Ducktales 2017. Big City Greens is the first of these. Big City Greens follows the misadventures Cricket Green, a mischievous country boy whose family moves into the big city. The main appeal of the show is to see whatever hilarious chaos the green family can unintentionally cause.

The show currently has three seasons with a fourth season coming next month and a movie coming out next year. I've seen a lot of episodes of Big City Greens whenever the show pops up on Disney Channel and this show is pretty great! I like Cricket as a protagonist; he's a mischievous little shit but a little shit that still cares about his friends and family. Most of the other greens family is cool too. This show is also really funny, from the episodes I've watched I laughed a lot while watching it. I'm not saying much about this show because I'm planning on making a review on it, hopefully, I can watch all of the first three seasons before season 4 comes out, but for now, my thoughts on this show are pretty positive so far!

The Ghost and Molly Mcgee

This is the second show of this new era of Disney Channel. The Ghost and Molly Mcgee follows an upbeat and optimistic 13-year old girl named Molly Mcgee, whose family moves into Brighton. However, turns out their house is already a home, a home to a ghost named Scratch, and Molly and Scratch become best friends over the course of season 1. That was probably a bad description of the show's synopsis but ehh whatever. The show has two seasons so far with the second season still airing. This is another show that I'm planning on making a review on so I'm not gonna say much about it here, however, I also quite like this one.

I think Molly is a good protagonist; she's funny she's likable and is always willing to help anybody out and wants to en-happify the word. I always kind of like overly optimistic female characters and Molly is one of them. Scratch is great too, his development is decent and he's just pretty funny. Again, I'm planning on making a review of this show soon so I'm not going to say much about it here, but The Ghost and Molly Mcgee is a fun cute little show.

Hamster and Gretal

So...I don't know if I could have much to say about this show. Created by the same guys who made Phineas and Ferb, Hamster, and Gretal is a show about a superhero girl named Gretal and her superhero animal sidekick Gretal. Oh, and she has an older brother too. I don't really think I have much to say about this one, since I've only seen one episode. It was the episode that had that one villain who can talk to onions. Based on the one episode I've seen...it looks fine. I'm not a huge fan of the voice acting, idk it just sounds weird to me, and the animation doesn't really look that great, but it also doesn't look terrible. The characters seemed ok and the jokes were kinda funny. Hamster and Gretal looks like a fine show, I know it isn't fair to judge something based on one episode, but this is a first impressions kind of post for each show, not a review so ya. Anyway, this show looks fine, but I'm not really interested in reviewing it.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

I already made an entire review of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur before so I'm not going to repeat my thoughts on the show here. So I'm just going to say, I LOVE this series. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur follows 13-year-old Lunella Layfatte and her best friend Casey. One day when rebuilding a portal that a scientist left the blue prints for, she opens the portal and a giant dinosaur named Devil comes through the portal, from there they become a superhero crime-fighting duo Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Again, I already made a review of this show before, so just to recap; I absolutely LOVE this show. I love Lunella as a protagonist, I love Casey and Devil, I love the songs, I LOVE the animation, I LOVE the finale, everything about this show is amazing on every single front. This is easily my favorite Disney show of all time and my favorite show to come out from this current era so far. Again, if you want to see my full detailed thoughts on the show, go check out my review of it. Suffice to say this show is AWESOME!

Kiff

Kiff is a show about an anthropomorphic squirrel named Kiff, and the show revolves around her adventures with her best rabbit friend Barry in their town. Of the few episodes I've seen of Kiff, it looks like a fun show. It's pretty funny and I like the characters and some of the songs. Don't have much to say about Kiff other than it's a pretty fun show.

Haily's On It!

Haily's On It is a show about a girl named Haily who doesn't really like trying out new things. But one day a scientist from the future comes and says that Haily needs to complete every single thing on this list or else the world will end. Haily's On It looks decent based on the episodes of it I've seen. Haily is a likable enough protagonist and Scott is fine, I'm not a huge fan of the art style and animation though...it just looks kinda of stiff. Don't have much to say about this one either, it looks like a decent 7/10 based on what I've seen.

Upcoming shows

There are a few shows that are going to be released soon. First there's...Primos, the show that caused quite a bit of controversy when the theme song dropped due to its racist depictions of Mexicans, and the creator's response to that controversy. I'm not gonna go into much detail about the drama aside from that, but I don't really think I have much interest in this one. The character designs suck and I don't really know if the premise really interests me. Maybe I'll review it when it comes out in 2024, but this still doesn't look that exciting.

I also heard that there's an upcoming Darkwing Duck reboot coming soon so that's cool and Phenias and Ferb is getting a revival for seasons 5&6.

Conclusion & Overall Thoughts

So what are my overall thoughts on this era of Disney TVA? Well, I'd say it's pretty good so far. Sure, most of them are very episodic and slice-of-life but I think that's ok, not every show needs to be story-driven or that stuff. The new shows we've been getting have still been pretty good, I'd say that of all the big three networks (CN and Nickelodeon) Disney Channel is the only one that did remotely well during the 2010s and early 2020s. This channel is still able to create consistently good to great shows to this day, and that's certainly an accomplishment when you look at the current states of CN and Nickelodeon right now. So in conclusion...this era of Disney TVA is pretty good and I'm looking forward to whatever new shows are gonna come out. So...bye.

[brw]

I saw your post about Charles Xavier, and I loved it. I hate when Charles is written by as villainous or seen that way by fans; because of his visible disability and one the fact that he's one of the most prominent disabled characters in comics that is being portrayed/seen as evil.

Also, could you tell me about your thoughts on Charles please.

ooooo yeah i do think writers have given charles a VERY short end of the stick... which is weird because a lot of writers after will continue to write him as a kindly old man figure despite the moral transgressions which i think is where most people's frustration comes from. but i do think he's held to a higher standard? like i keep saying it but emma's name is literally white queen + she once stole & used ororo's body against her will + hellfire trading company is very clearly inspired by the east india trading company, but she's a fan favourite. this isn't to say he isn't an awful person at times but for xmen that means kind of nothing to me. anyway, for me personally i just get frustrated because i think there is a good potential narrative here but because writers aren't disabled & don't understand our experiences this context is always missing.

"charles is a spineless liberal" is funny to say but it makes more sense once you think about him as a disabled man who for most of his life was not disabled. disabled people HAVE to make themselves digestible & acceptable for neurotypical society, so we can get the accessibility & accomodations we desperately need. it makes SENSE from that perspective charles would be more about acceptance & assimilation, because from his experience as a disabled man that's what he needs. it makes sense that erik, as a jewish survivor, knows that you can't make peace with some people & it is much better to be independent, to have the ability to defend yourself & to take out the people who literally want you dead, but those aren't necessarily the same goals as the disabled community, at least not for Charles. Him & Erik are a very interesting potential narrative about how different communities have different goals and different needs, but because few writers who touch Charles have disabilities that nuance is often lost & he becomes the spineless liberal we joke about.

Charles also works as a very good discussion on internalised ableism, were people to take him in that direction. Like I said, Charles wasn't always disabled & for much of his early adult life he was able bodied, & he grew up in an ableist society. It makes sense he would then internalise that & project that onto his own students & the way he approaches mutants. because he's so uncomfortable with himself & the way he looks, he's become uncomfortable with the way visible mutants look too because he struggles to separate the two. that would explain in part why all the mutants he chooses to represent the xmen or to go out for press conferences or whatever are all human passing, because of his internal sense of shame that he's projected onto children who don't deserve that.

& that's one of the biggest let downs of the modern era is that Charles automatically chooses to be walking.Yes, for some people that's empowering, but Charles will always be the first name people think of when they think of wheelchair users in comics, aside from Barbara. That recognisability in my opinion is more important, & I just can't help but feel like it would be important to have Charles be with Karma in a character that has accepted their disability & is not interested in changing themselves. Yes, that isn't everyone's experience & I do think it's important for some people who want those stories to have a voice, but Charles has a pop culture iconography that in my opinion is more important than a justification to erase his disability.

Charles is a very flawed person, & I think he should stay being flawed & imperfect & often ignoring other people's needs & opinions that are based around their experiences that he doesn't share, but I think he also does have a lot of potential as a disabled character & I'm very frustrated at the x-office opting to just erase that aspect rather than try and include those narratives. Like Krakoa still doesn't look wheelchair accessible. We could have an interesting discussion about how even in leftist utopias disabled people are still often forgotten about or ignored & erased out of the discussion, but because nobody sees the inaccessibility that discussion just isn't there. It's disappointing & just another item in the long list of how the X-Men team fail to tackle minority politics accurately or at all.

[piracytheorist]

Which Disney movie do you consider overrated? (Pixar counts)

Peter Pan from 1953. And I'm gonna choose violence here. Skip this post if this is your favourite film.

The most glaring problem with that film is of course the racist depiction of Native American tribes. Sadly, a film can be technically well made while also being racist, so it's not the racism part that makes me think that this film sucks from an entire film making standpoint.

It's the depiction of Hook, and to an extent, Peter Pan. In the original story, Peter Pan represents childhood, but also immaturity, while Hook represents adulthood and all the shit that follows it. While Hook is more of a villainous character, he's not the villain of the story, while Peter Pan is not the absolute hero protagonist and paragon of virtue of the story. He's also pretty fucked up. Pan and Hook are symbols, and of opposite sides to boot, and that's why they're antagonists in the story. Wendy is a character, learning about both and in the end pretty much choosing neither.

So Disney took that and turned it into a black-and-white hero vs villain story while forgetting that the original is about Wendy learning what growing up is all about.

Hook is turned into a caricature of a villain while also being mocked for having a very legitimate fear of an animal that wants to eat him. I don't know, maybe it's because I don't have childhood nostalgia for this film, I first watched it when I was like 14 and I was like dafuq did I just watch. Like I was legitimately cringing and feeling bad that Hook was being made fun of. Phobias and trauma-related fears are no laughing matter.

And look - I'm not saying you can't have a villain who is comical. Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians, which came out a few years after Peter Pan, is also a comical villain... but she's not a ridicule. Roger may make a song mocking her, but it's more of a dark humor song going like "She's the devil and she will eat you alive O_O but not really" while Peter Pan went like "LOL Hook is afraid of an animal that ate his hand and now wants to eat the rest of him he's such a coward LOL!" And no, I don't think it's fair to see a man who's willing to kill children in cold blood and to try and bring him down by laughing at a very rational fear he has. If it was used as a weapon against him and taken seriously - like the Lost Boys or Pan calling upon the crocodile so that Hook will panic and they can escape - it would have been a cool, albeit a little dark (though not too dark for Disney, especially for that era) idea, though not uncalled for compared to what Hook does. But no they just lol about it. It's hideous.

And in general I find that version of Pan unlikable, super annoying and an immature brat - which is funny because that's what Pan is supposed to be in the original story! He's meant to present to Wendy the "bad" sides of staying a kid forever. But Disney just presents him as a hero who learns from his mistakes like NO BITCH the whole point is that Pan doesn't grow up! He doesn't grow more mature and he's NOWHERE near being a person to look up to.

I agree that it's an iconic film but when you actually tear it down it's insulting to people with phobias and/or traumas, poorly translated from the source material, shallow as fuck, and also racist. 0/10 probably the only good thing that came out of it was whatever money the mouse decided to give to Great Ormond Street Hospital for using the rights to Peter and Wendy. (If you don't know what that is, J. M. Barrie, the author of the book and original theater play, gave the rights to the aforementioned hospital so any production getting the rights to make any production of it would essentially pay the hospital, which is a cool af idea. I think that right-holding reached its end a couple years ago and lo and behold what did the mouse do? A live action Peter Pan film :)

[sherrymagic]

For the QL asks: 5, 18 & 20. Thank you! 💜💜

thank you so much Jane for these, had a lot of fun (especially with number 18, was hoping someone would ask for that one aaaaa) 🩷

5. Who is the Asian ql villain you most love to hate?

one of the very few villains that i actually hate, and i love to hate him because he makes sense, he feels like he's well written, nuanced in his story villain nature, and that's what makes the hate so strong and real. i can see what he's doing and why and he still manages to surprise me with his behavior while still totally seeing where it's coming from, so i can hate him for the reasons i love to hate on a character for. also Mek is hot and funny which helps with the love part of this hdbsnsm

18. You get to pick a side character from two different qls to put in a show as a main pairing--who are you choosing and what kind of story is it?

had at least 4 options here but i'll keep the others in case anyone else asks for this question and i choose to go with a gl crackship that's totally not based on the way my souls craves for a CiizeEarn pairing in a lesbian romcom

SOOOO i would love for Charoen to finally get rid of Ton's obnoxious presence and go to a college fair where surprise suprise there's this girl that she initially mistakes for her friend's sister Alpha because they look so much alike (always hated the doppelganger trope but this is different because i say so) but quickly realizes it's not her. Charoen wants to choose a practical major or maybe religious/esoteric related one with the thought of following up her own family's footsteps but finds it hard to leave the art stand being somewhat enchanted by Fai's presence. the two of them end up talking at the end of the fair and Charoen expresses interest in the art major despite never taking it into proper consideration before. time goes by and she doesn't really see Fai again but she keeps often resurfacing in her mind until she starts college herself and despoite going for some other faculty she still chose the same university just because she wanted to geta chance to see her again. they actually do meet again and Fai is very busy with third year stuff and always tired but still manages to give her her support every time they meet. Charoen ends up signing up for some art related club that Fai is hosting at university, they spend more and more time together for some project related to decorating the uni or making a mural or something, the point is whatever this club is doing should lead to the gl version of the Elu (Skam France) paint scene. for reference, this is what i'm talking about:

lesbians making out covered in paint, can you imagine that?? no clear idea about the conflict but canon 23.5 told us Charoen is in the bi/pan spectrum while Fai so far had no indication reguarding not being straight, so there could be either family drama or gay crisis involved. all i know it's romcom shaped with some angsty but not too heavy parts, girls being pretty criers, fights on empty streets at night, almost breakup, and super happy ending. meaningful cameos of 23.5 and We Are characters are well accepted in this imaginary show.

20. We are retelling your favorite Asian ql from the POV of a side character--who is taking over the story and what do they have to say about the mains?

this one is hard because i don't even know which one my fave would be? the one i would ove the most to be retold in another character's perspective would be Only Friends but i wouldn't call that one a fave of mine lmao. so of the ones within my faves list... Not Me would be interesting from my favorite bitch boy Todd's pov, for the way the show was built i've always felt like they could have showed and say more about him. a ToddBlack past romance that the main characters from the original show never knew about would also fit. the novel isn't really helping with forming an idea here because reading that one revealed that the show surprisingly did a lot of things better queer erasure aside so... i'm leaving this at that bsdsnskd

— Asian QL Ask Game ♡

[mahou-furbies]

Closing thoughts on Futari wa Precure Splash Star

(spoilers)

I had heard that this was better than you'd expect and that turned out to be the case, and I'd say it's the best out of the early Precure era.

Let’s start with the best stuff: Michiru and Kaoru were great. It’s always great to have some darker and edgier characters hanging out with the heroes, when usually it’s the samey team of besties who are all friends with each other. They have a fairly unique role in the story as well and get the most interesting drama of the season. And the Wiki calls them Cures, I didn’t know the are also considered Cures! Granted their designs are really boring but I suppose that balances out Saki and Mai’s Cure designs being bad at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Overall the villain generals were really solid this time around, with memorable designs and personalities and some fun interactions between each other. But unquestionably the best out of them was Kintolesky, who was simply amazing. I already like Kabaton in Hirogaru for being honourable and Kintolesky also does that, with the addition of being really funny. And he’s polite to the Precure, civilians and even the cat!

Speaking of the cat, he would already have been excellent just based on his design (just a regular cat that is huge) but then they give him a powerup and a really deep voice and let him land a hit on the final boss. Incredible. He’s really high on my Precure mascot tier list despite not even being a real mascot, and certainly beats the actual mascots of the season (who were only slightly less annoying than Futari Wa’s)

Then there’s the actual main characters, who were... fine, I even liked Saki even when I usually tend to dislike friendly cheerful heroines. It’s probably that they’re better as one half of an equal pair, instead of being the centerpiece of a team. And she has a really cute smile! Meanwhile Mai was alright and I have to appreciate a fellow artist, but I don’t have strong feelings about her.

Since the villain side was so strong, Saki and Mai ended up feeling somewhat lacking in comparison. Michiru and Kaoru have a personal connection with the villains, go through a huge amount of character development, have to grapple with changing loyalty against their creator and deciding what to do when they learn that they will also die when the Big Bad is killed, and are the only ones to get new forms for the grand finale. Meanwhile Saki and Mai are pretty standard good guys and didn’t even change all that much through the journey.

Another thing that was a bit of an issue for me was how incompetent the villains are and don’t get any closer to their goal for like 95% of the season. Granted every season has the identical structure, the villains send out monsters of the week for a year and only pose a serious threat in the mid-season climax and finale, like for example it’s not like the bad guys have gotten anything out of their attempts at kidnapping Ellee in Hirogaru either. But this time the villains’ situation gets actively worse through the season, they start with having captured all magical springs, and the Cures reclaim one any time they kill one of the generals. It doesn’t change anything about the plot, but I still prefer the season where the villains gather Bad Vibes every episode or whatever.

Minor complaints aside this ended up being a pretty solid season indeed. I really appreciate it having an actual theme which worked pretty well, and the finale was satisfying and there was some really good music too. 

[spongebobafettywap]

I wish this xmen era was more crack than whatever we got because at least it would have been funny. might be a me problem but all those rewritings were completely unnecessary and hurt so many characters, good guys and villains alike. I don't recognize sinister or apocalypse anymore and I don't know what the fuck they pulled with destiny but I was indifferent to her before and now I don't wanna read anymore about her because it's so static and boring yet it gets shoved into any and everything that's related or not to her so you can't even avoid it

On a side note, there's something I've noticed to the added backstory they gave to apocalypse and I can't unsee it.

So he was apparently the ruler of an ancient mutant civilization located on an island in the middle of the ocean until he went to war with powerful magic users, a war which ended with his kingdom being sealed away in a hell like dimension, leaving his people to constantly fight for their lives there while he looked for a solution against those beings as well as a way to bring his kingdom back to earth.

... Isn't that azazel's backstory? Like beat for beat? They just gave apocalypse a wife but like this chunk of lore, she came out of nowhere. Am I hallucinating because if not I'm legit speechless

Yeah thats why I stopped buying the comics back in 2015 it just felt like there was a lot of character assasination done for the Maximoffs it was for the sake of the crappy MCU movies but the other X-men character also just suffered due to a bunch of rewrites and forced drama. Honestly Marvel as a whole has a real problem with writers who just have contempt for their audience and love to troll them that kinda spiteful relationship between the creators and fans is so toxic and there's only a few creators there that do not participate in this behaviour at Marvel.

We have talked on my blog before how this weird Destiny fanclub has somehow come about in recent years with her rabid fans accusing fans of all kinds of things if they don't like her. Its very weird, in the majority of the decade I was a fan of X-men I had barely heard anyone talk about her at all because in all honesty she was never a major character she was just a supporting character for Mystique. For all the hate Azazel gets from these types he had at least been talked about by fans and haters alike and had a memorable role in the films.

It's very weird because as much as DC does stupid things I never get the impression that the creators there just love to annoy their audience. I get more of the impression that the changes they make is an attempt to appeal to more people which I can at least respect in some regard.

Hmmm I recall Apocalypse's old backstory had him as an Egyptian Ruler but nothing about a war with magic users and then being sealed away just that he was put to sleep in a Escophagus. This new one does seem to rip off a lot of Azazel's backstory so thats really weird.

[agenericplaceholdername]

This is the first time I've ever posted something on Tumblr so I'm probably doing it wrong but whatever -- I wanted to get my thoughts somewhere. I'm also a huge fan of your content.

I think first and foremost, I love Dragons Rising because I love Ninjago, and I think that Dragons Rising maintains most of the things I love about Ninjago while telling a grander story that does better at character-based tension than much of the original series.

Why do I love Ninjago? A big part of it has to be nostalgia -- I doubt that I'd pick up the show now having not watched it as a kid. But the lore -- as contradictory as it often is -- has remained from "reboot" to redesign to new episode lengths to new series, so there's one long running story. I feel like I know the characters, with consistently humorous and heartfelt protagonists, antagonists who straddle the line (and sometimes fall off it) between intimidating and funny, and some pretty good side characters. The music is great (probably the most underrated part of the show), the switch to Wildbrain has massively improved the fight scenes, and there's something just relaxing about watching an episode from almost any season.

Dragons Rising maintains all of this. The brand name keeps the nostalgia, the lore is as intact as any Ninjago season has left it, the characters, both old and returning, are engaging and consistently written, and the music and fights are phenomenal.

I say this as someone who thought they were done with Ninjago post-Crystalized, not just because the season wasn't great, but because I had more than aged out of the target demographic and it was supposed to be an ending not just to the 11 minute episode era but to the show as a whole. It seemed like a solid ending point. I was aware that more content was being made and watched the DR Season 1 trailer and thought, "So, most of the Ninja are gone, we've got new protagonists, and we're recycling the dragon hunter plot from Hunted. Hopefully this will be good, but it's not for me."

Then one day in August, I watched Season 1 Part 1 and really enjoyed it. I hadn't quite realized how stale Ninjago had become up until that point -- how it had decided to stop "doing things" with its characters.

My go to example here is Master of the Mountain, which I really enjoy as a season. But... what actually happens in it? How are our characters challenged by the situation they end up in and how do they grow from it? Nya, Zane, and Kai are all written entirely consistently with their previous portrayals, and are fun characters, but they don't change in any way, and Nya and Kai's experiences as leaders is tangential to the events of the season. Lloyd has a running thing about doubting Vania but this is just played for laughs. Jay is completely unaware of Nya's feelings. Wu seemingly has an arc about never quitting, which is actually well founded in the events of S11 and S12. His arc is resolved by a 3 sentence conversation with Vania. Vania should have a unique connection with this season's villain, but her moment of taking control of the Shintaran army happens off screen and then she doesn't interact with Vangelis until he's defeated. And what do we learn about Cole? How does he change? Well, we learn that he promised his mother to stand up to bullies. You know, the thing he's been doing for the whole series? It would be interesting if the season was about living up to his mother's legacy, and it pays lip service to this idea, but doesn't actually do a story about this. Plundar has the best character arc this season! Why? Probably because the main characters were designed for a 2 season story that ended in 2012. And as for the lore inconsistencies that Dragons Rising has (which are mostly light retcons that improve the story, like with the Cloud Kingdom), Lloyd calls the newly-coronated Queen Vania, "Princess" Vania to her face in the same episode she becomes queen. I don't say this to bash Master of the Mountain, but this is the bar that seasons of Dragons Rising have to pass for me to consider them among some of Ninjago's best.

And it does pass them. Lloyd, Arin, and Sora all have major character arcs and develop in ways that Ninjago hadn't done with a major character since the Oni Trilogy for Lloyd. Arin goes from a Ninja fanboy to more and more disillusioned with the Ninja, seeing them as trying to replace and keep him from his "real family." His character affirms the lesson Ninjago has been trying to say since S11: that heroes don't need supernatural powers to be successful, but also shows how being surrounded by people who seem more talented than you can undermine your self-confidence. Sora learns to value herself and realizes that the family she chooses is more important than the one she was born into, when said family has been indoctrinated by an authoritarian society that shunned her, only to collapse once she inspired its people to rise up. She goes from being a skeptic and cynic to seeing potential in anyone, as shown in a moment in S2, E19 (not saying anything further bc of spoilers). Lloyd steps up to become a teacher despite his own doubts, which are amplified in S2P1 by his unwanted visions. I don't think this part is handled perfectly, but like a lot of things in Ninjago, it messily resolves itself to a mostly satisfying conclusion.

Various supporting characters, whether they are major (Wyldfyre) or minor (Euphrasia, Percival, Arrakore, Geo, Egalt, Bonzle), also all have important character development and/or influence the main characters' development. Meanwhile, Kai and Nya both assist in character development in S1 (of Wyldfyre and Sora respectively) and are just cool in S2. I love the "Countershot" scene in particular. Although... maybe it would have been better if they flashed back to the museum fight in S7 ("I could really use a hand, BROTHER!" "I'm here for you, SISTER!") /j.

I think just generally I appreciate that the characters feel more like people, which I think you mentioned in a previous post. Are there missed opportunities? Over-exposition-y dialogue? Absolutely. But while "it's a kids show" isn't an excuse for poor writing, I think that not only does the good, overall stuff outweigh some of the bad individual decisions, but my comparison here is not to every other show in existence (there are plenty of other shows better than Ninjago), but to Ninjago's other seasons, since I do like those.

I also like that the story is planned out over multiple seasons, although I recognize that that's a matter of personal taste. Obviously this does mean that my enjoyment of the series is partly dependent on if Dragons Rising sticks the landing (Crystalized part 2 being the go-to example of an entry designed to wrap things up that left most people dissatisfied, if not angry), but what we've seen so far gives me hope. Arin's character changes in S2 are an expansion of what he says to Lloyd in the ending of S1, E10, Sora's character arc in S1 meaningfully impacts her personality in S2, etc. The bigger impact of the longer running story is that there are major story threads that aren't wrapped up in a season, from major things like Ras' plan and his master to more minor things like who put the tooth in the crab from S1, E13. Can it be unsatisfying that not everything is resolved, despite the longer season runtimes? Sure, but on the other hand, it also means that there's a sense of mystery and it keeps me as a viewer interested. I'm confident based on the writers' statements that after at most 4-7 years of story, this chapter of Ninjago's story will end, as opposed to infinite cliffhangers*.

Another thing I like about Dragons Rising is that it tries to grapple with the consequences of what it does with its characters. I hate to keep bringing up older seasons only to criticize them, but I'm only doing it because any evidence of Dragons Rising doing something better than a show I already like is evidence of why I like it. In both Possession and the Ice Chapter, something incredibly traumatic happens to one of its main characters, and then is basically forgotten. How did Lloyd feel about having his autonomy stripped from him by a vengeful ghost and used as a weapon against his friends? How did Zane readjust to life in Ninjago after ruling as a brutal dictator for decades? I don't know, but when things happen to characters in Dragons Rising, the characters actually react and are affected by them (eg. Sora's and Arin's backstories, Arin seeing his parents during the Mergequake storm, Lloyd's visions). That's not to say Ninjago never did this -- Possession also includes a nice story for Cole after he becomes a ghost, and Zane had a story in ToE about coming to terms with his death and new identity -- but by treating its characters like people, Dragons Rising adds a certain emotional depth that makes it seem more mature, even if it's not anything profound or too ridiculously angsty.

After Dragons Rising reignited my love of Ninjago, I rewatched the whole series over the past year, and I realized that as much as I enjoyed it, a lot of it wasn't great! There's a lot of messy writing and just strange decisions even in some of the best seasons (please Hunted I love you but did you need the Dareth pee jokes???) But overall, the core of the series, from the Pilots to today, is solid. For whatever reason a group of color-coded ninja captured my childhood and still remain there today. I could elaborate on about the aspects of Ninjago that I like that are present in both Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu (2011-2022, subtitle status questionable) and Ninjago: Dragons Rising (2023-present), but that's honestly most of both shows. There are main characters I like in both, side characters I like in both, villains I like in both, etc, even if they're different characters -- the things I like about them are similar/the same. I think Dragons Rising addresses a lot of the flaws that had become more noticeable the longer the show went on by shaking up the world and adding new protagonists, while maintaining the improvements we had also seen in recent years. Your milage may vary on my comments.

*https://youtu.be/huA9expVEg4?t=2882

Okay, everyone get in the comments and let me know why you love dragons rising so that maybe I can reverse engineer why I don't-

[sinematically]

WELL then, MCU managed to do a wonderful job with the No Way Home. SUCH a good job.

I’m sure people are going to hate it but, I just have to say as someone who’s watched every Spiderman movie in a cinema hall - god this was so worth the wait for me

Bless you for bringing back the same Spiderman vibe I grew up on, this was such a satisfying end to Holland’s trilogy.

This is just a stream of thought rant/review so,,, let’s go baby. First the non-spoiler parts that we already knew about the movie.

- the villains. very MCU of them. A lot of people assumed it was a disservice to bring them back, but MCU did it them right.

- Max (Electro) was adorable and dumb, major himbo energy in this one but that was about it (biased cause I don’t really like Jamie Fox a lot)

- Otto Octavius my beloved, they did you right!! I mean I was worried they would do him dirty but the DIDN’T (or at least In my opinion they didn’t and I’m so happy!!)

- WILLEM DAFOE MY BELOVED, he did such a wonderful and beautiful job. Norman Osborn is going thru it and they SHOWED us

- Lizard was chilling vibes & Sandman was tired

- Strange was funny, and he was in the movie exactly the right amount. Just right. Not too much, not too little. It was perfectly stand alone (in whatever way Marvel allows for Stand alone now)

Spoilers here on out

- oh they pulled it off. They pulled it off SO well. Seeing Andrew and Tobey made me 6 years old again. It made me 12 years old again. It made me baby. I felt all my years of being alive. I LOVED IT

- GOD THEYRE ALL SUCH DORKS AND I LOVE THEIR PETER-NESS!! So beautiful. So well done!!

- MJ AND PETE (Ramiverse) MADE IT! GOD IM SO HAPPY!!

- Loss!! GUILT!! THE WAY PETER GRIEVED GWEN!! They mentioned Harry but I wanted more but also is okay but man,, that was something.

- FUCK YOU MARVEL FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MAY PARKER BY THE WAY HOW DARE YOU!!????!!!

- BUT THAT YOU FOR LETTING ANDREW!SPIDERMAN SAVE MJ BECAUSE WE NEEDED THAT. HE NEEDED THAT. He needed to know he saved SOMEONE, even if it wasn’t the love of his life, he saved Peters MJ and that’s what matters

- I appreciate the way MCU’s created it’s own narrative, with May taking Ben’s role, but also Tony took Ben’s in a different way. I like what they did, and I really fucking appreciate it cause it felt like a Spiderman movie after so long

- Making them forget Peter. God that was such a good move, because again they pulled it off. Peter Parker went from the MCU Spiderman to the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman

- that was satisfying!! That was SO satisfying. He see’s MJ and a part of me went, “oh, they’re starting over” which is beautiful but I also think he saw her wounds and decided that he didn’t wanna bring her into this. Not now. Maybe never, but she did promise to find him if he didn’t, and I know it’ll happen. But he’ll wait till it’s right, and god that’s character development.

- at the start of the movie he was still naive? Still wanted it all - which is why he even went to Strange. And strange was SO annoyed lmao I love it.

- But Peter made almost the ultimate sacrifice, after all the loss he went through he still gave up the one thing he had left, cause he had to do the ‘right thing’. He did it.

- IDK how Tom did it but Spiderman seems like less of a kid. Like Peter finally grew up. Is it cause he moved out (INTO THE SAME HOUSE TOBEY!PETER LIVED IN???) or like, idk?? But he did it 😭

- Peter went through a lot of trauma but he’s okay now, we know he is. He’s gonna be fine. And he’s got this on his own.

- the suit at the end?? I LOVE WHAT THE IMPLICATIONS OF IT!! HES DOING THIS ON HIS OWN. It’s all him now.

- The way they treated stark tech made me really ?? at the beginning but I get it. It’s a Spiderman post-Tony era. Post-Stark. In a way, post-MCU vibe? Like idk what it is, but it feels like a Peter Parker who’s just… Peter the kid who has a Burt load of responsibility but he’s ok

- It’s like seeing the other Peter’s, and seeing what they went through? It helped. He knows he’s not alone in the world even though he lost ALL of them. But god, the pains nothing and everything all at once

- MATT MURDOCK SUPREMACY I LOVE U?? I didn’t know how much I missed him till right now but baby Matt, you’re the highlight of my week (After Andrew!Spiderman)

- Venom end credit scene I love u so much for not taking away my gay married couple away from me?? I was so scared they would trap him in this MCU-verse and they’d play down the chaotic due that is Venom & Eddie

- MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS SNEAK PEAK!! God seeing Wanda was serotonin and I’m so happy

- the more I think about it the less there is to it. It felt like watching an event unfold? So much happened and it wasn’t that all over the place. Which means gonna watch it a second time yes. I said I would for eternals but never did. This deserves a second time I think.

- GOD I CANT BELIEVE THEY PULLED IT OFF STILL?? Like sure there were leaks and all but, it was good. Pure. Happy. Nice. Lovely. I love it

- THANK YOU FOR GIVING NED GROWTH!! It’s weird you did it with Magic, ok Disney? but I’m so glad he’s not just Ned Leeds, thirdwheel and guy in the chair for spiderman. GIVE MORE WORK TO JACOB I LOVE WHAT HES DOING

- I wish you made MJ… more? But this is another post i think. I’m blinded by Tomdaya so no comments for now. MJ and Pete r lovely

I’m just gonna add to this in a while. The plot holes will surface but right now I can’t think of the more obvious ones??

[nightlight-stardust-and-rain]

So I had this au idea about Steph, Jason and Duke being a trio of slightly (okay, more than slightly) evil vigilantes/villains who rule over crime alley and basically, half of gotham. The core of the idea was that they met when they were like 7 in crime alley, become friends, and decide to conquer the world rule over the underground together.

I mean, since it's an au I'm fumbling with the time-line to make them the same age. Also Duke's parents were attacked by the Joker way sooner and he ended up in an orphanage in crime alley which hahaha nope so he ran away and became a street kid basically at the same time that Jason did. They all met when Duke came to the orphanage in crime alley. Jason still had his mother at the time and Steph was trying to avoid her dad so they met on the streets and instantly became friends.

They help each other as much as they can : Steph brings Jason and Duke some food or clothes that she finds, Jason teaches Steph and Duke whatever bits of fighting he knows and helps them academically, and Duke uses his powers to warn Steph if her father's home and Jason if his mother's in danger. When Jason and Duke become homeless basically simultaneously, they stay together and help each other. Steph is that close to running away and joining them but if she does that she won't be able to help them by bringing food.

In this au they're slightly more fucked up for differents reasons : Duke was sent to an orphanage in crime alley directly after witnessing his parent's attack which uh doesn't tends to give you a positive view of the world... Cluemaster was a bit more involved in Steph's childhood, as in he was trying to groom her into his villain sidekick, but she didn't bend to his whims (her morals may be a bit more fucked up because of that tho...) and Jason saw even more of Crime alley's horrors with his two best friends and yknow what? They're fucked up morally and slightly evil because it's my au and I say so.

The end point of this is that they all become the red hood, a gang of three, at some point. They're halfway into vigilantes, halfway into villains because they do want to help kids and other people in crime alley but they also are crime lords who run like half of gotham and ally with other villains. And while they don't mass-murder civilians themselves, they won't do anything if they hear that Two-face is planning on bombing the diamond district. Their sociopathic tendencies make it so thhe only thing they care about is ecah other and, on a broader but less intense scale, crime alley and its people (Jason, being the most caring of them, also cares about Talia, Damian, Roy and Kori but that's about it). That's what I mean by slightly more evil :)

The process to get there is... Something I'm thinking about. I wanted to make them "the red hood" similar to the storyline of the three jokers, in the sense that they would all be the red hood but everyone would think there is only one red hood. But for that to be believable, they would have to be at least similarly built and Jason post-Lazarus is hm.... NOT of the same build as Steph and Duke... But pre-lazarus, given the whole malnourishment thing he could be of a similar size.... I mean, if Steph buffs up a little they would look similar enough under the hood and those layers of armor.

Jason's storyline in this au would go like that : he still loses his mother, but on the streets he's with Duke (and Steph even if she's not homeless) and not alone. It's basically during this Era that they decide to conquer Gotham using the criminal Underworld, since it's something Jason and Steph know better than they should. Their plans are, for now, limited to becoming physically stronger because they know they're too young to do anything for now. Jason thinks that manipulating Batman into teaching them would be neat but the idea is dismissed due to being ridiculous (they all laugh about it). The funny part of that is that we'll, it actually happens, even if it happens differently than they thoughts. Jason still tries to steal the tires of the batmobile, and batman still sends him to Ma Gunn's school for crime. Jason, who already didn't have much faith in heroes before that, loses any remains of said faith immediately and begins to hold a small grudge against batman because seriously, it wasn't fun. He runs away to Steph and Duke (who were worried sick) and they all decide to use the fact that Batman knows Jason to manipulate him. After all, the disappearance of Robin is very clear and they know Batman may be fooled by a sob story like Jason's. What better way to learn how to take over the Underworld than to be trained by Batman?

The fact that their plan works is honestly pure luck. They may be very clever but they aren't quite masterminds level of clever yet.

They don't... Plan for batman to adopt Jason but it's a good thing clearly, if one of them can live in a better home then they should. Duke is still homeless for a while but Jason, being very very good at being discreet at this point, sneaks out of the manor almost every day to give Duke food and clothes and blankets. Their plan to take over the Underworld is still very much going, and Jason teaches whatever combat skills Batman teaches him to Steph and Duke, who practice said skills with each other when Jason isn't around. It's a bit hard for them to be separated like that but they are family and they stick together.

At some point, Jason gets Duke off the streets by telling Batman about this "nice street kid who helped me catch a criminal but he's homeless could we put him in a good orphanage?" Duke ends up in a not abusive but very absent family in crime alley (think the Drakes but way less rich) which suits him perfectly, he has a bed and regular meals but he can still sneak out all day to see Steph and Jason. They begin to try to establish a reputation within the alley and they build the beginning of an informant network (Jason is very good at charming the sex workers and Steph and Duke are no slouch either).

The point of Steph's, Duke's and Jason's relationship is that theyr'e pretty much codependent and at the moment the only people they genuinely care about are each other. They're a family, so I don't see Jason running off to find his biological mother... Hm.

The thing about Bruce's and Jason's relationship in this au is that Bruce genuinely cares for Jason but Jason is only manipulating Bruce so he can learn how to be dangerous enough to control gotham (and pass on the skills to Steph and Duke). Batman is training someone (or three someones by proxy) who will become a dangerous opponent. Jason is a better actor/manipulator in this au, and since his goal is to stay with batman to become stronger, he's playing at being the perfect Robin, the perfect soldier (it's an extremely infuriating role to play and he rants about it so much when he's with Steph and Duke). So their relationship isn't as strained as in canon (prolly cause it's only genuine on one side).

The Joker decides, seeing this new Robin close to batman, to kill Jason (and that's how I manage the joker incident without Ethiopia). Jason himself is very pissed off about this. Mainly because he's in so much pain and it's not even about him?? It's about batman?? This grudge is growing larger. Steph and Duke are absolutely panicking and searching for Jason. Their info network leads them to where Jason is but... Too late.

Jason doesn't dies!! Because if I want all three of them to have a similar build for the "three red hoods" scheme I need him to not get into the Lazarus pit so no death! (he still gets the white strands of hair because of trauma tho). He is rescued (barely in time) by Talia, who was in Gotham and wanted to spare Bruce the pain of losing his child. Jason is still severely hurt and needs a while to recover. The first thing he says upon recovering consciousness is "don't tell Bruce" because hey. He knows precisely who rescued him, you think he's gonna let go of the opportunity of maybe being trained by the league of assassins in favor of going back to play Bruce's perfect soldier? Hell no.

The second thing he does is find a way to contact Steph and Duke, who at the moment believe him to be dead and are both grieving and seething with absolute rage towards the Joker and Batman. Their murderous plans are a sight to behold (and Jason is very touched by the amount of bloodthirst they put into it. He loves them :') a lot). They absolutely collapse with relief when they get Jason's message and yell at him for worrying them. After that, they plot the demise of the Joker and Batman together, because now it's fucking personal. Jason tells them that he has found a way to be trained by the league of assassins and they're both insanely jealous of that. Steph takes advantage of Batman's grief over Jason to become his next Robin and therefore get the same kind of training (Jason is very proud of her manipulation skills). Duke, not to be outdone, manages to find a way to be trained by. Fucking Deathstroke. No one (except Steph and Jason) know how he convinced Deathstroke, least of all the mercenary himself (Slade thinks it's amusing how this kid manipulated him and just keeps training him because he wants to see how Batman will deal with this one)

(later, when Talia sends Jason to be trained by Deathstroke, Jason asks so many questions about how Duke's training went)

Talia stills sends Jason to various teachers because she believes that he's angry at Bruce for not saving him/replacing him so soon (Jason could not fucking care less about Bruce and is in fact very proud of his replacement. His Steph is manipulating the great Batman !! She's so strong!! He's rooting for her) and she wants to distract Jason from that. Jason doesn't exactly gets the reason why she accepted to train him but oh boy is he gonna use it. His training is a bit different this time around due to him still being small but he still ends up being one of the best fighters/shooters ever.

He and Talia develop (to both of their surprises) a mother-son relationship which confuses both of them. Talia for getting attached so soon, and Jason because he's literally never cared about anyone else than Steph and Duke and now he cares about Talia?? What the fuck. He's even more confused when this caring extends to Damian, his little assassin brother. That's a lot of new people to care about and he doesn't knows what to do with that (he also weirdly feels like he's emotionally cheating on Steph and Duke because he's only ever cared about them and now there's other people...? They think it's cute and they don't really care, as long as Jason still loves them more than anyone else, which he does).

(the unintentional side effect of becoming family to Talia and Damian is that Damian grows up loyal to Jason and will still be on Jason's side when he becomes Robin. So in the end, Batman will have more Robins who betrayed him than loyal ones, and Jason thinks it's hilarious).

Steph, who becomes Robin after Jason, befriends Tim Drake (she also doesn't cares about him, it's mostly about keeping up appearances of being a normal kid with friends and using Tim's abandonment issues to make him loyal to her). She doesn't plays the part of the good soldier as well as Jason, but she's a good enough actor to make Batman love her. He goal hasn't been to defeat her dad in a long time, but it is certainly a nice bonus to slit his throat when he gets out of prison. Bruce fires her from Robin for that, but doesn't sends her to Arkham because he still loves her like a daughter. She's quite delighted by these results : fired right on time for Jason and Duke to come back from their training! And now, well now that they're together for the first time in years, they can finally accomplish their scheme to control Gotham.

(also. Duke, Steph and Jason are totally dating at this point. Just so you know)

Tim drake becomes Robin not long after Steph murders her father. Batman, full of grief (for Jason) and guilt (for allowing Steph to become a murderer) is unstable and that's just... Not ok. Obviously he knew who Batman and Robin were, and after asking Dick to come back, he becomes Robin himself.

He still tracks Steph down to ask her why she killed someone, why she left Bruce, why she left him (after all, she was his friend too). Steph, who is very aware of Tim's abandonment and self-worth issues, manipulates him into dating her, knowing that she can be his reprieve from the vigilante life by being the "civilian" who knows about Batman's identity and that Tim don't have to hide anything from. After all, he can't talk to anyone else about this, can he? And it's not like Steph will use what she tells him to do bad things ; she was Robin, she's good, and her killing her father was simply an emotional outburst. Steph isolates Tim from everyone else until all he has left is Robin and her, until she's his entire world, until he's totally devoted to her.

(Jason and Duke are very proud of their girlfriend ; she's so good at manipulation! So awesome! They're awed. And no, she's not cheating on them, that's ridiculous. She's just playing with a puppet. Tim is just her sex toy/source of info, they're not jealous of that, not when she comes home to them at the end of the day. Also, they think it's hot)

Another side of this is Cass. Jason and Steph find her before Bruce does, and while she seems very against killing, mentally speaking she's very easily manipulated. They bend her morals by giving her love and affection until she's nothing more than their killing machine (bar the killing. Cass will do anything they ask, but they won't ask her to kill, they don't want to risk losing their strongest pawn). They become her family, they give her a cause to fight for. After all, they're doing this to protect Gotham's children, isn't it good? Isn't it noble?

Damian is fully aware of his older brother's sociopathic tendencies. He's also aware that he's one of the only people Jason genuinely cares about and that makes him feel special. He doesn't wants to lose that feeling, nor his brother. He does wants to meet his father, but he knows that Jason's fondness for him may not last if he become his enemy. So, he gets both. He becomes Robin, gets to know his father, while being still on Jason's side, ready to betray batman when his brother asks for it.

Duke, more discreet than his two lovers, convinces Rose to become part of their gang in gotham. She's very strong, after all.

The three red hoods take gotham by storm. Batman or anyone else isn't aware that there's three of them (they've trained together so much their fighting styles kind of blend together, even if Jason is still stronger than the other two, and they're careful about keeping up a similar build). Batman doesn't knows how they manage to escape him so easily, to defeat him so effortlessly (and when Steph fucks Tim into the mattress then asks him subtle questions about what they plan to do about the red hood next, well Tim won't remember that, will he? And when Damian speaks to a stranger at the zoo about tomorrow's trap for the red hood, well no he didn't, he was just talking to the air). But they kill the Joker (it was long overdue) they control the underground (no kid is harmed, but there's more corpses in the streets than usual).

Steph quite literally stabs Tim in the back at some point, when he's no longer useful to her, and she's never seen anything as delicious as the shattered, betrayed looks on his face before he dies.

Just realized that I made every one of Bruce's children on the red hood's side except Dick. Nice!

TLDR : Steph, Jason, and Duke are best childhood friends, very fucked up and pretty much evil, who slowly manipulate everyone to control the criminal underground of gotham. A big part of what they're doing is good (helping children, sex workers, abused people...) but everything else is just not so good. They're also in love and super dangerous and clever.