#i'm a mess again thinking about them

[da-janela-lateral]

How does your garden grow?

[gatoplaga]

"But beyond all my pain, there was you"

Narilamb designs: @runningwithscizzorz

here's an alt version of Narinder without the veil!! :D

[animalpetcel]

Okay after a few hours to sit on it

Okay I read Gretchen Felker-Martin's Beast World story and it was like...fine lol. Honestly probably the only way to interpret Jason's character in a way that still gives it bite without running into the problem that DC will never let him permanently kill anyone who matters. Idk why some feel so strongly about disliking it?

It, and the fact that Felker-Martin cut her teeth in regular book does make me more optimistic tho. Not like..a whole lot optimistic bc there's a lot of writers who I think are amazing who's Jason stories...are not their finest work...but like having an ongoing heavily featuring Jason that isn't from Lobdell will be so nice for once, so I'm holding out hope for at least that.

I also know that some said that Jason/Helena might be solicit bait but I really feel like given how kinda desperate DC is about Jason being the only "Forever Single" batboy, and that they're probably reluctant to have another robin be LGBT+, that they could be trying to cook something quick. They probably don't want to do previous relationships (so Artemis and Rose are out), viewing them as "failed", but I also feel bad for the Helena fans (esp if this goes poorly), and I dislike that like the worst Nightwing fans are (like with Kory, Roy, Rose, Kyle, Donna, Eddie, Danny....all of them are better associated with a different batboy so it's best to keep it that way) obviously going to use it as a continued permanent mark against him (when really I feel like it would be better to just try to isolate yourself from something like this. Like when I tried to read Nightwing's pre-New52/Rebirth comics and didn't like how he treated his friends, I just stopped reading them and choose to live in blissful ignorance). I know some would go "Oh what about Rena/Isabel" and like....Rena is a deep cut that you would basically have to remake her from scratch (in a climate where civilians support systems and non-previously established civilian love interest are getting phased out/harder to implement in a way that doesn't see them erased) esp given that she wouldn't have seen Jason from since they were kids, and Isabel is tainted by Lobdell. I would prefer Strike/Dana Harlowe but now we're asking comic fans & writers to find a black woman to be both a suitable love interest and character long enough that it becomes cemented and that would be an uphill battle... There could also be a new new women but that still runs into the Rena's problems.

So basically we need good-longterm writing before we fix any of the stuff I just said about the possibility of Jason and love. Which I've been saying for years but alas no one thinks about the logistics of anything they ask for anymore....

I feel like some of the negative, knee-jerk reaction a lot of Batfam stans is that things have gotten so...bad when it comes to Jason...in the terms of a lack of direction (making people more split on what should happen to him) that his current stories just make everyone argue at the slightest hint of failure . And that's before the stories that are just flat out bad (Why does Hush 2 exist? A lesser seen character could have gotten a mini instead of creating a terrible sequel for a terrible storyline about a terrible villain)

Anyways I'm done rambling for now. I have realized that it might take longer then September for us to get a feel on whether his new ongoing might bring new life and a clear, not immediately ignored direction that he's been needing since UTRH, as well as tell us if our worried about Helena are unfounded or not....and September is already so far away.

Fun.

[lloydfrontera]

i think about this version of them a normal amount i promise

[love-songs-for-emma]

don't get me wrong,, i have Sobbed throughout my watch of buffy the vampire slayer. there are deaths that had me wrecked through entire episodes. but. even though i didn't cry for him in the moment,, the most upsetting death for me thus far is absolutely jonathan. my god. he was trying so hard. through and through to the end, he believed in the good of people, in helping and loving people,, even if they'd never think twice about him. he was beaten down on and alone and still,, still,, there are things he did that ultimately saved the world and i doubt the scoobies or anyone will ever know it :(

[impbites]

OCtober day 18 - swap 🩸👼 (their original forms look like this!)

i went with "role in the story" for this one. i've thought abt this AU a bit before, but i think a lot of things would change if gwyar was sacrificed instead of claret…

The Cooler Claret spawned from a face monster and so i thought it would b cute to have gwyar mutate from a crimera! (<- objectively uncute thing to say). the monsters r somewhat significant bc they represent unfulfilled desires from when they were still ppl, like claret becoming strong enough to protect her home/family and gwyar's desire to be free (hence y she can fly now).

even though claret emerges as an adult in canon, i chose to keep gwyar as a child in the swapped version bc it felt more fitting. clarets new role in the story is similar to gwyars in that she aims to purge the crimson, but where gwyar becomes quite apathetic, claret takes on a much crueler personality... 😔

[kyouka-supremacy]

I'm once again consulting you to ask

[keeps-ache]

you'll forget all but what you chose

[night version below: eyestrain warning]

[mymarifae]

ever since the thought of robin boarding the astral express instead of sunday crossed my mind i've been mad as fuck

as the one to reject and dissolve the order cult's dream world, this should have been robin's story! not sunday's! it is beyond unfair that she got sidelined so hard and is now just sort of stuck in penacony cleaning up sunday's mess and filling in as the oak family's head representative, which is a role she never wanted. she's a free spirit just like the astral express crew, and she's so goddamn passionate about making a palpable change in reality

the whole conflict was she hates the cage her brother and the order cult designed and doesn't want it imposed on anyone else even if it offers "safety" and "happiness" because nothing is more rewarding than being part of the real world. and then she's put in the stupid cage anyway while sunday slips out to be free

this idea of them switching places - robin giving up her freedom to secure sunday's as a parallel to how he bore the brunt of the cult's abuse and grooming to shield her - doesn't work. not when sunday's wrongdoings amount to reinventing fascism. he would have had to be a far less extreme antagonist for this particular concept to be satisfying. as it is it's like no i don't want robin giving up so much for him are you fucking crazy? i want to see him actually suffer the consequences of his actions, actually. and the fact that the narrative babied him and allowed him to brush everything off onto this stupid "me-but-not-really-me" figure feels gross

there are so many aspects to robin's life that are about confinement. control. etc. and she resists it every time. her fans, her managers, and the paparazzi have such a specific image of who they want her to be in their heads, but she's not afraid to defy that! the pressure weighs on her immensely, and she has experienced the worst the real world has to offer, but she still believes in the good of the universe. she continues to believe that when given a choice, many will choose to do good. and then in comes her brother and the order cult wanting to take that choice away entirely and she's like wait what the fuck, no????? she's the first to break out of the cage when sunday tries to force the "perfect" dream on everyone anyway. and then she leads the way as they all come together to destroy it entirely

like UGH she was set up to become such a powerful and emotional character but it literally all got thrown out in favor of catering to sunday fans as much as possible... to the point of speedrunning his "redemption" arc so they could hurry up and shoehorn him into the astral express crew. whatever role they needed filled for the amphoreus storyline robin could have done the same exact thing, with infinitely more grace. AND they wouldn't have had to write off a bunch of literal fascism before letting her hop onto the train 😭 you can't even begin to understand how frustrating this is for me. oh my god

[lesbianphan]

I've been having real serious real life issues so I haven't been online as much as I'd like and I won't have the mental capacity for a full rant, but I just gotta say: promoting Adobe is bad. it's a bad look, it just is. I love them, but I question this decision and I do think everyone who got disappointed has every right to be. At the end of the day, we have a right to be angry about being advertised to by really bad companies, and influencers have a responsibility to try and do better. It's impossible they don't know how this looks with a company as big as Adobe, so it's a deliberate choice that is bad. That's all I'll say. Doesn't have to make you love them any less (I know I don't!), but you do have a right to criticise them and also question them professionally about this choice, because you expect better from them as a brand. I know I do!

[slightlytoastedbagel]

Not an ask game sorry but. No fear - with how much the post-4-anni events have been focused on Retcons and Redemption I'm actually terrified they decide to throw us in for a loop and try to villanize Nagi Somehow for An6 because that arc is STILL not over and 2/3 radder revival is over the corner - one fear

(will this happen probably not. But nobody could have predicted the mess that was Touya5 either and An is currently a Character Without An Arc like Touya was in Touya5 and it Scares me)

on miku herself if they vilify nagi I will finally drop the game because. how. you can't make her the driving force/no.1 narrative haunter behind everything and then decide "actually she sucks". also what would that even serve we got a whole 2 and a half hour event on radder exposition plus the sekai ghost PLUS vot/lsv/actually just most vbs events. if they go for it I'd honestly have to applaud them on how ridiculous they've gotten with the writing

[justworthlessreblogs]

thinking about about how interesting the themes of the battle in episode 46 were (everyone having darkness in their heart) and how it felt like a natural conclusion to what the season had been building up to and then they throw it all out for "a world with no emotions is bad"

[cassmouse]

To this day I don't understand how Ghostbusters Frozen Empire had the budget to hire all of these absolutely incredible actors, a surprisingly excellent cinematographer, a SFX team that's second to none, AND a phenomenal composer (HE WROTE THE 2005 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE SOUNDTRACK FOR FUCK'S SAKE)- and yet STILL couldn't manage to hire even semi-decent writers (this also applies to Ghostbusters Afterlife actually)

(whoever came up with the Phoebe/Melody plot goated tho)

[margindoodles2407]

so here's the deal guys. in the past week i reread my way through prisoner of azkaban, goblet of fire, order of the phoenix, and half-blood prince. i am currently halfway through deathly hallows. and as i was eleven the last time i seriously read harry potter. i forgot that it allows me to unlock secret shrimp emotions that humans aren't normally capable of feeling

[notasapleasure]

Kay, thanks for this link, reading the essay was almost quasi-religious to this lifelong atheist. It's an absurdly optimistic piece and all the more rebellious for it, I think.

I could quote so much more from it, but perhaps this is the most relevant bit right now...

For radicals, fetishizing the guillotine is just like fetishizing the state: it means celebrating an instrument of murder that will always be used chiefly against us.

Those who have been stripped of a positive relationship to their own agency often look around for a surrogate to identify with—a leader whose violence can stand in for the revenge they desire as a consequence of their own powerlessness. In the Trump era, we are all well aware of what this looks like among disenfranchised proponents of far-right politics. But there are also people who feel powerless and angry on the left, people who desire revenge, people who want to see the state that has crushed them turned against their enemies.

Reminding “tankies” of the atrocities and betrayals state socialists perpetrated from 1917 on is like calling Trump racist and sexist. Publicizing the fact that Trump is a serial sexual assaulter only made him more popular with his misogynistic base; likewise, the blood-drenched history of authoritarian party socialism can only make it more appealing to those who are chiefly motivated by the desire to identify with something powerful.

-Anarchists in the Trump Era

Now that the Soviet Union has been defunct for almost 30 years—and owing to the difficulty of receiving firsthand perspectives from the exploited Chinese working class—many people in North America experience authoritarian socialism as an entirely abstract concept, as distant from their lived experience as mass executions by guillotine. Desiring not only revenge but also a deus ex machina to rescue them from both the nightmare of capitalism and the responsibility to create an alternative to it themselves, they imagine the authoritarian state as a champion that could fight on their behalf. Recall what George Orwell said of the comfortable British Stalinist writers of the 1930s in his essay “Inside the Whale”:

“To people of that kind such things as purges, secret police, summary executions, imprisonment without trial etc., etc., are too remote to be terrifying. They can swallow totalitarianism because they have no experience of anything except liberalism.”

[waspgrave]

bored and restless enough that i might succumb and replay fallen hero, shepherds of haven, or wayhaven again