#i'm currently writing down some of the evidence to really sell this one so i hope you can be a bit more patient anon!

[melverie]

wait now im intrigued whats your crack theory

Oh, you mean my crack theory on Nightbringer's identity?

Hehehe >:)

Why, Nightbringer is L-- *gets shot*

[cecilxa]

hellloo!! saw that ur requests are open so I would love to make one! so I’ve recently been daydreaming about playing video games (like Mario kart or smth) with heizou and kazuha (respectively) and I would love it if you could possibly write a fic around it!! i love ur work and make sure to take care of ur self!! <3

loading... ready to play!

contents: fluff, light-hearted, established relationships, use of pet names (babe + love), gn!reader, hcs+ writing, warning for my lack of knowledge on literally every single game mentioned

cw: mentions of food

a/n: first of all, thank you so much for your eternal patience and kindess, anon, i'm so so sorry this has taken so long to fulfill (such a cute one, too) :') i sincerely hope this makes up for the wait!

heizou

would definitely definitely play mystery/ crime solving games that challenge his brain

ace attorney’s probably his favourite

he’s fr writing down every single detail in each testimony, and never gets the cross-examination prompts wrong

never gets the evidence prompts wrong, either, and if he did, would probably need a good hour or two of cuddling to get over the fact that his ‘instincts’ failed him

if you’re with him while playing, he’s got an arm around you at all times, as you give him some suggestions

and when he gets something right (which is like, all the time), he always looks at you, eager for your validation

you give him a little kiss when he’s searching for that validation, and it’s rather endearing to see a large smile grow on his face, determined to get everything right for even more affection from his lovely lover <3

however, he especially loves playing co-op games that he can play with you

take for example: overcooked or stardew valley

overcooked’s considered a very rage-y game, but heizou really can’t get enough of your face when you’re so intently focused on chopping up virtual lettuces, he’s melted on the inside more than once, caught with a dopey smile on his face

and when you take the lead and tell him what to do, heizou’s more than happy to comply! just listening to your voice is more than enough for him :D

on the other side of the spectrum, stardew valley’s definitely more of a relaxed game, and it’s the perfect thing for a lazy sunday afternoon, when the both of you are free from stress 

heizou won’t admit it, but he sometimes gets jealous of the npcs that the players are able to romance (you’d never cheat on him, though- even with fictional characters)

he gets all pouty and whiny when he sees you smiling at your screen when talking to a certain npc

“babeeeee, can we go out now?”

“we went out literally this morning, though?”

“and I want to go out this afternoon, too!”

shoots a dirty look at the character once you’re getting your things, and deletes the tab open on your screen so he doesn’t have to see them :)

but when you’re playing together, it’s a whole other story

“Heizou, I‘m telling you, don’t waste your resources on stuff that you don’t need!”

You know he can hear you through the walls, yet he doesn't respond, and chooses to carry on his merry way throughout town. You sigh, but it’s nothing you’re not used to at this point. He’s constantly been collecting and farming materials just to use them for the most basic of things. He doesn’t even sell them; he just stockpiles them until he’s forced by a certain someone to do so! (Namely- you.)

On your screen, you can see both your sprites walking together at a moderate pace, his character following yours around incessantly, even when doing the most mundane of tasks. You can also hear his voice in your ears, thanks to the wonders of FaceTime, even though he’s currently sitting in a room conjoined to yours by a single, thin wall. You stop, and he stops. You take a right; he takes a right. You turn around to face him; his sprite gives you a little kiss on the lips. Forward and back. 

It’s rather endearing, actually, especially when you can hear his laugh in your ears, and see the sparkle in his eyes when he does so. When you give him a kiss back, well. He immediately goes quiet, breath taken away from your act of affection (even if it is only virtual), and on FaceTime, you see him get up from his chair. You then hear the pitter-patter of his footsteps as your door slams open wide and he runs over to give you a very-real-not-very-virtual kiss on the lips. With a jubilant expression on his face, he smothers you in them, until your sides are aching from laughing too much. 

“All this from a virtual kiss, Heizou?”

“Not virtual to me, babe. After all, my instincts told me that I was going to be surprised with a real one soon after.”

“You-“ You wheeze, gasping for air. “You were the one who kissed me!”

He doesn’t offer a reply, only grinning at you with a strangely fond look in his eyes, his smile growing softer by the second. Getting up from your chair (how did he end up there, anyway?), he gives you one last kiss on your forehead- lingering for a few moments-, and walks right out of your room back into his, his figure appearing once again on your phone. 

What’s on your screen is much different, though. A brown box containing a message lies awaiting for your response. 

“Heizou requests to marry you. Accept?”

As the realisation dawns on you, Heizou’s staring intently at your pixelated face, blush adorning his cheeky smile. You never truly realised why he had been farming so much recently. 

Getting up abruptly, you run to his room while slamming his door open, and give him a kiss. Sparkles adorn your eyes, and he swears his heart’s never raced this fast in a long time. Heizou grins, the moles under both his eyes raising upwards. 

“What did I tell you? My instincts never fail me.”

kazuha

often plays peaceful games- lots of sandboxes especially

kazuha’s got a very creative soul, and that branches out into the various designs and builds he manages to make in every single game he plays

it doesn’t matter if if the game’s got less than average graphics, he’s managing to create an absolutely picturesque, pinterest-esque house for the both of you to reside in <3

how he does it? he’d never tell you (he searches up tutorials on youtube in his free time and dedicates like five hours on creating the perfect build catered especially to your tastes)

animal crossing is a particular fav of his- the overall aesthetic of the franchise fits him like a glove

every time you join him in animal crossing co-op, he’s following you around like a little duckling

if you show off your island, he’s oohing and ahhing like his life depends on those phrases, subtly ignoring his own builds 

sends postcards in animal crossing, too, you’ve built up quite a large supply of them- ranging from simple greetings to declarations of love

kazuha can’t resist professing his adoration for your cute face!

“my love, remember to drink water ^^”, or “i love you, and will love you, eternally. p.s. i’m giving you all my bells next time i see you, you deserve it <3”, or “looking forward to our date tomorrow, i know an angel can’t compare to you.”

(kazuha’s love language is complimenting you to the high heavens)

however, for all his flowery language and calming nature, he’s surprisingly competitive- mario kart being the main reason of bringing his competitiveness out

he’s a little less harsh on you, and even lets you win occasionally (not without coming second, though)

the triumphant smile on your face is too cute for him resist, he has to let you win at least some times

but, sometimes is only sometimes, and most of the time, he’s taking the wins left, right, and centre

he has a devious smirk on his face while he’s pummeling you into dust- but when he turns to you beside him, he’s all smiley and innocent

“what’s wrong, my love? would you like me to recite one of my recent haikus for you? :)”

and you’re looking at him with disbelief written all over your face

but- if someone else dares to overlap you on rainbow road- or hit you with a shell in moo moo meadows, he’s unleashing the beast 👹👹👹

every single time he gets a shell, he’s aiming at them, every single time he gets the chance to slow them down or make them look like a fool, he’s taking it

does this while also making sure that you’re far ahead of them- due to your wonderful drifting capabilities and his tormentous destructive capabilities

in conclusion, you do not want kazuha to be your enemy in mario kart unless you want to rage quit on the first lap

the only exception to this is when you make him your enemy- then he’s the one panicking

“Have I told you how amazing you are, love?”

Kazuha musters the sweetest smile he can, eyes turning into half-moon crescents. To an inexperienced eye, it may seem like he was merely complimenting you; but to an experienced one- (i.e. yourself) you knew that he was scared. You’re right, of course. He’s desperately willing his hands not to seem like they’re shaking while holding the controller, and there’s a dark feeling in his gut that sounds like trouble for him.

Sure, maybe he did lap you, and sure, maybe he did let out a gentle laugh when he did, but is that harsh glare really necessary? He’s your lover, after all. Aren’t lovers supposed to get special treatment? He’s not one of those people that hits you with a shell and then overtakes you twi- oh. Kazuha lets out a nervous laugh. Usually so calm and composed, he’s now sweating bullets. 

“Love, I can get you some takeout if you want it? I heard the new place down the road sells exquisite food for cheap…”

You turn your back from him, still playing the game in a dreadful 12th place, while his side of the screen’s displaying a gold ‘1st’. It’s your favourite map too. He pouts at this, eyes shining with hurt, but there’s a part of him that still coos and swoons over how cute you look, focused utterly on the game. 

Once you finally finish (Kazuha suspects you prolonged it), he holds your shoulders to stop you from escaping and tilts your head up to look at him.

“I love it when it rains, but now I see a storm within you, and I want nothing more than to make it go away to reveal a sunny sky. I’m sorry for hitting you with a shell and overtaking you in Mario Kart, which some would say is considered a skill issue, but is there any way you could forgive me?”

He seems a bit too sincere for the plea to be meant in a jokey manner, and maybe he’s just a bit worried that you may actually be angry at him. The fact hits him when he finds himself already coming up with a list in his head about your favourite foods, and items that he’s caught you looking at more than once. 

However, you try to stifle a smile at his mention of your ‘skill issue’, but he sees it, and- Kazuha definitely does not want to admit this- his heart feels a little bit lighter than before. He wasn’t worried about your relationship because of a simple video game, was he? (Yes, he really was.) Relief floods his features, as he hugs you tight to his chest, kissing the crown of your head. 

An increase in volume of the music interrupts your moment together, making you jump. You glare at the screen and rush to turn it off. Kazuha laughs in that soft way you love; his eyes widen, and his hand comes up to cover his mouth. Too late. You’ve already heard it, and you’re already glaring at him again.

“I didn’t mean it, love, I swear-“

“You’d better have that takeout in ten minutes.”

Kazuha tries to contain his fond smile.

a/n: tried out a new format: hcs! these are very fun to do, you can be a lot more informal (at least, I think), so maybe pt. 2?? tysm for reading ❤️ likes, reblogs, and comments are always appreciated! :)

[ikebanaka]

You're the one who brought up voting on that post, though. Presumably anyone with your same "they're both awful but vote for the less awful one" should also want everyone to hate Biden, since your argument for voting for him relies in no way on actually liking him, so why do you have a problem with someone pointing out how he, in specific, sucks shit? And back at ya bud, if you can dismiss anyone who can't give you a 4-month revolutionary outline, how about you give us a foolproof plan for protecting trans kids, abortion rights, and ending the several foreign genocides currently going on? I bet you can't, but for some reason you get the luxury of saying that doesn't matter.

Hi! You seem to have a misunderstanding about how politics works. And also how logic works, so let's start with that.

First, not approving of Biden's actions wrt to the current genocides does not mean I want people to hate him. Those things are not A=B. I understand that that might not really make sense, but I'll explain why.

The reason I want people to avoid spreading hatred of the old bastard and think it is unproductive to hate on him is that shitting on the most progressive viable candidate, i.e. the lesser evil, plays directly into the kind of mindset that will keep people from voting. This is why all those goddamn psyops in previous elections keep fucking doing it. And lo and behold, it fucking worked in 2016.

Second, the problem isn't that quick radical change isn't possible or that I hate the idea and think it'll never work. It will, and people are already taking steps to make that happen. The protests are making a difference, the direct actions are making a difference, the people stepping up to help their community and make it strong enough to survive the ways this country is determined to tear them down are making a difference. The letter writing campaigns, the fundraisers, the calls to representatives, the voting in local elections, it all makes a difference.

But we're still laying the groundwork for more radical change. In the leftist bubble it seems like support is near unanimous, and we're all arguing about semantics, so talking down about enacting radical change right now sounds like being all talk and getting in the way of actual change. And it's true that the idea is gaining traction nationwide! Unfortunately, there's a whole lot of people who exist outside that bubble that don't have the same knowledge or perspective and aren't even aware that radical change is an option, let alone where they stand on it. Enough people to make most catalysts of revolution fizzle out and die.

What I'm saying is, we need more time. Change can happen fast, but not that fast. And the only guaranteed way to get that time is to elect the guy who has proven himself willing to uphold at least the veneer of democracy. And who, frankly, has made a lot of positive changes to infrastructure that just don't get as much press because righteous anger about buzzword topics sells better.

Which, circling back around, makes doing the same things as Russian psyops, who have successfully used them to get Trump elected once, a bad idea. To clarify, the things in question very much include constantly shitting on the more progressive main candidate and insisting both candidates are actually equally shitty and denying or ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

I hope you consider everything I've said here seriously, without immediately rejecting everything out of anger. I hope you can see where I'm coming from, even if you don't agree with everything.

[bones4uuu]

Physical media for the win today, but they will succumb to being chopped up for my vision board in the next couple days.

For some reason I have a constant need to change something about myself or my life every couple months. It's not like I'm not satisfied with myself. I very much like who I am but it just feels like every couple months or so I have to drastically change something or I will go insane. It's all on impulse. Once I get an idea I must act on it or else it will nag in the back of my brain till it gets addressed.

I think it stems from my adhd. From what I read online and see from other who also have it. I don't feel like delving too much into it. I used to do that all the time, try and figure why I am the way I am and why this illness (I guess?) makes me act the way I do. But I've just come to accept that I will be like this the rest of my life.

Anyways, so I got an idea today, I've always collected magazines when my favorite celebrity is on the cover. I have a very extensive Harry Styles and Timothee Chalamet collection if I'm being honest. But I decided why the fuck am I not buying and collecting more magazines for shit I'm into. I love anything and everything fashion along with interior design. I have since I was a small child and could form a coherent thought and interest. So today I went to Barnes and Nobles and picked up a couple magazines and a new book that looked very interesting from what I read on the back. ANYWAYS, back to the magazines. I grabbed these 3 because I gravitated to them the most and were the least expensive from the ones I wanted. I want them to make collages with in my journal but now I'm not sure if I will got through with that, I can't decide at this current moment.

I also have this urge to collect physical media any chance I get if it is something I love and enjoy so that years from now. So that if I ever have kids, that they will have physical evidence of shit their cool Mother/Grandmother loved and enjoyed enough to collect and keep for many years so that they could inherit it and hopefully cherish it like it did. Or maybe if it is worth a shit ton of money they can sell it and buy something they love with it. I have a vinyl collection currently at I think 120 maybe 125, idk I'm not sure.

I don't know what I am saying anymore but this whole blog is my personal public diary of shit that is too much for me to write down because my handwriting is actually terrible, so terrible I can't even read it half time and my brain works faster than I can write. I also need a hobby that isn't spending money because I cannot keep up with that even though I love it. I also have been out of high school 3 years now and am now just going to school this fall and my major is English so I really need to use my brain and freshen up my writing and research skills lol. I honestly didn't know I would type up this much work vomit when I went to make this post but I think that is a good thing. If anyone sees this for some reason please ignore it, it is just a bunch of nonsense and only needs to make sense to me but if it makes sense to you then hell yeah.

ANYWAYS, peace and love xxx

[litcityblues]

My Stargate Pitch

Stargate fans are in a state of rage/mourning at the moment, as SG-1 migrated off of Netflix at the end of November and now appears to be headed behind some Amazon-MGM thing that you might have to pay extra for? (I think Atlantis is still up on Hulu, but don't quote me on that.)

True confession time: I've never actually made it all the way through SG-1 primarily because it's ten seasons long and that would take anyone a while and I either lose interest or it migrates off of whatever streaming service I'm watching it on at the time. (I think I got up to about mid-way through Season 5 on my first Netflix attempt and was breaking into Season 6 on my current run before it was snatched away, untimely, by the streaming Gods.)

The Stargate Subreddit has been awash in whispers that Amazon is looking to actually do something with the franchise (a good thing, IMO) and whether or not it will be a continuation or a reboot (most people are thinking reboot and don't seem to be all that happy about it.) People got excited because I guess the team behind The Expanse wanted a shot at it- whether that will happen or was proposed, no one seems to know, but people thought that would be a good thing.

Reddit comments aren't really the greatest for full and complete thoughts, so I thought I'd go ahead and expand my original comment and lay out my basic Stargate pitch.

I think what made SG-1 so great is that it didn't completely ignore the movie. There's some very loose connective tissue that leads from the movie into the pilot for SG-1 (Children of the Gods) and while Daniel Jackson has a plot arc that revolves around his wife Sha're that hangs around for a few seasons, it's not what the show is about.

Ultimately, that 'loose connective tissue' gets left behind and SG-1 became its own thing.

I think if you're going to reboot it, that would be the best way to go about it. Have some very loose connective tissue to what came before, but strike out on your own and do your own thing.

I am very much on Team Go Public With The Stargate. There are so many different things you could do with that idea, I think it's just the best way to go forward while maintaining a link back to the franchise that has gone before. Consider:

Option #1: Russia, desperate for cash, sells China their Stargate on the sly. SG teams start seeing evidence of 'someone else' messing around on alien worlds and eventually find out it's China. The US wants China to play ball with the deal they had with Russia, and China tells the US to pound sand. (From here, you could either have a nice, spicy, quasi-Cold War/sci-fi thriller thing going on or you could have the US go public in response.)

Option #2: Intrepid reporter tracks down a Julian Assange/Edward Snowden-like figure. (I would do a deep cut and bring back a NID agent from SG-1 here.) The reporter thinks they're on the verge of discovering government secrets. Snowden/Assange type assures them that they are, but not the secrets they think. They get taken into custody upon return to the US, taken to the SGC where a debate between O'Neill, the President, leadership, etc. takes place. O'Neill/Carter, whomever you pick, points out that keeping it a secret is getting harder and harder and more and more expensive anyway, so why not use this as an opportunity? The reporter gets the scoop of a lifetime, a trip to alien worlds, etc.

Option #3: Straight up go public with it. How does the news impact humanity? How does it change the World? How do people react? Hatred, fear, paranoia, xenophobia? Is it all one big conspiracy theory? There's so much you could play around with here and make a show with.

Option #4: Just continue Stargate Universe. I feel like that show deserved at least one more season to explore its potential a bit.

I don't know what Amazon is going to end up doing with the franchise, but I hope it's something, I hope it's got quality writing and top-notch SFX behind it and I hope it at least recognizes the depth of the franchise (both big and small screen) that preceded it in some way. But you can't convince me otherwise: go public with the Stargate. It's the one thing the franchise has never done before and it's got a host of story possibilities you could explore and make an excellent television show out of.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Kuvira and Bryke's Problem with Moral Ambiguity

I will be honest with you...I really like Kuvira.

She is probably one of my favorite characters from Legend of Korra. I like her design. I like a lot of the ideas behind her. And I think Zelda Williams did a great job with the character. So I can understand why Bryke wanted to do something different with her and try to redeem her.

Here's the problem. I love Kuvira...but she's also indicative of one of the show's biggest problems. Mainly the inability to commit to a morally ambiguous conflict.

Again, the whole point of Kuvira's character was that she wasn't a wholly irredeemable monster. That her methods, while heavy handed, weren't entirely in the wrong and her heart was in the right place. And we do see evidence of that early on with her forces giving relief to billages, stamping out bandits, and outing corrupt officials. Heavy handed and early warning signs sure, but nothing too over the top.

Then they made her into a power hungry dictator.

Yeah. Kind of hard to sell her as sympathetic when she takes imagery from real life oppressive and fascist political parties and governments.

Sad thing is, Kuvira here is not the exception to this. Throughout The Legend of Korra, we are presented with many antagonistic groups that are responding to some injustice or moral qualm which doesn't paint the current status quo the heroes are defending in a good light. Non-bender discrimination led to Amon and the Equalists. Unalaq was a response to mankind losing touch with the Spirit World. The Red Lotus were spurned by corruption in high places. And Kuvira was restoring order to a broken Earth Kingdom full of anarchy. It's clear that Bryke intended for all of these groups and characters to have some kind of point to generate moral ambiguity. Asking whether or not Korra and Co were truly in the right.

Yet when it came time to deliver, the antagonists were almost always portrayed as being in the wrong and often were portrayed in a way that makes it difficult for the audience to truly sympathize with them. The Equalists and the Red Lotus become terrorists. Amon is a bender with flimsy reasonings. Unalaq literally fuses with the Avatar equivalent of Satan. And again, Kuvira becomes a dictator. While their points are given some credence, the characters themselves always become a final boss for the heroes to triumphantly defeat. Which...muddies the message since it becomes difficult to see the villains' argument when they're treated the way they are.

Now admittedly, it is difficult to write a character like this. Balancing out the character's reasonable and sympathetic traits with the need to be an opposing force to the protagonists who audiences are normally predisposed to root for. So the question remains: how do you go about finding this equilibrium?

While I'm not a professional writer, I can think of at least two good methods. The first is allowing the antagonist to do genuinely good things that seems at odds with their position. This could include a concern for civilians or their comrades, limiting their violence, or throwing themselves in the line of danger for the sake of others. Kuvira does demonstrate this a few times with sending relief to civilians who need it or choosing to face down the Avatar herself rather than ordering her men to do it.

The second is actually giving a concrete reason for why the antagonist is escalating things. Maybe the situation is just that bad where the antagonist feels the need to escalate or is a response to something that the heroes did. Perhaps the antagonist's grievances are legitimate and they have a solid reason to fight. Again, this is explored with Prince Wu's incompetence and the attempted assassination on Kuvira's life by Suyin. While her methods are heavy handed, you could see why she may need to employ them.

The foundations for a solid character are there. If they expanded on that, we could've had a fairly compelling conflict where neither side is entirely in the right nor are they in the wrong.

And then they introduced re-education camps and had Kuvira invent the Avatar equivalent of an atomic bomb.

Uh...hate to be that guy, but why the hell is Kuvira sympathetic again? Especially when other villains who did far less evil get crapped on while she gets a redemption arc in the comics?

glares at what they did with Azula

...I'm sorry but no. Korra wouldn't have ever turned out to be a fascist And trying to say the villain can be redeemed because they're like the hero raises so many flags for the franchise as a whole that I'm surprised they didn't do the same with Ozai. What? He's who Zuko would've ended up as if he went too far.

I get what they were getting at with Kuvira. I really do. And with better writing, maybe she could've been that character I mentioned. The groundworks are all there. But the problem they ran in was consistency and commitment. They failed to keep her sympathy and anti-villain status consistent by making her too horrible to properly feel for. And they never actually committed to fostering this morally ambiguous conflict.

Trust me, I'm not knocking against Kuvira and her fans. I'm really not. I understand the appeal. I even think a lot of her fans have better interpretations and ideas than Bryke (trust me, Kuvira has some pretty good fanfics out there). But if they wanted to redeem who we saw in the series, we needed more than a single comic trilogy. Especially when other characters don't even get a chance at that.

[ectonurites]

do you think there's enough evidence to say that dc is setting timkon up to be endgame? i saw something saying that tim is always given cheating arcs so that's what will probably happen and i don't really want that for him... i like timkon a lot but i mean... if we didn't get timkon when tim's queerness was revealed it's likely not going happen right lol? though i would like to see tim admit in another lightbulb moment that he probably had a crush on kon lol

ok im just going to . break this into pieces to answer. this got very long and definitely has some side tangents

I'd like to give a disclaimer that a decent amount of this stuff is conjecture, just my opinions based on things i've noticed, ya know? I am just a fan and don't know everything lmao

do you think there's enough evidence to say that dc is setting timkon up to be endgame?

absolutely not in any sort of sure way. i'm not saying there's no evidence that it's a thought some people at dc may have had, because i mean i know for a fact there's people who've worked at dc in positions of some power that like the pairing (i mean he's leaving DC soon but, like, Tynion, and he almost certainly isn't the only one he's just the one i can easily link to a source about it) but I think saying there's evidence to prove it's a sure thing is just... a lot of wishful thinking.

I said this a while back but honestly one reason why I thought it was crazy people getting upset about Kon not being the one to be confirmed queer right now when Jon was is the fact that... Kon is not even regularly showing up anywhere right now. He's not in an ongoing, like I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up in Suicide Squad again later on some sort of Match rescue mission, but that's not a sure or guaranteed thing. Yet despite that and how in recent years he's definitely gotten brushed under the rug a decent amount, he's not some entirely unknown character (especially because he's in Titans + the YJ cartoon, despite the differences in those versions of the character, its the name recognition) that they'd just quickly decide 'ok he can be gay now' like... as much as I do personally read him as queer I definitely think he's a harder sell to convince people of that than Tim was, at least from DC's standpoint.

We do know that like for Meghan's situation writing Tim's coming out it was a sort of thing where she was given the task of writing a Tim story and when it became about themes of identity this was just the path she thought it had to go down, but anything even remotely like that sort of opprotunity isn't happening with Conner anytime in the foreseeable future, we don't have something formatted like Urban Legends for Superfam characters. And idk I don't think they'd use Kon as just a supporting character in Tim's life/stories, like, I think the primary most likely way I would see something genuinely happening with them in canon would be if they end up on a team book together again and it happened there, but like... who knows when/if that'll happen

That got a bit off topic, but tldr no I don't think there's enough evidence to support that, I think the circumstances as they currently are don't indicate things clearly enough to think of it even remotely as a 'sure thing', but I also think ya know considering we do have canon queer Tim we're in a far more likely position for it than we ever have been in the past.

i saw something saying that tim is always given cheating arcs so that's what will probably happen and i don't really want that for him...

ok well whoever said that has the reading comprehension skills of a kindergartner. sorry, that was mean. ok. but just ... 'always'???? that is just. that is not correct. Tim's relationships are full of teen drama and they get messy, but people take things so incredibly out of context. There are two short instances of cheating, but neither one would qualify as an arc, and one was during a crossover with another company.

Like, listen, I need people to understand there is a difference between a love triangle/having conflicted feelings for multiple people and like, actual cheating.

Tim met Ari and began dating her. Tim met Stephanie and worked with her in their hero identities.

Tim almost died (almost suffocated in a van buried under concrete with Steph's dad) early in his solo (Robin #5) and Steph was the person there as he was saved so he kissed her as a 'holy fuck im alive thank you' type of thing. Is that something he should have done? No, it's not good to kiss other girls when you have a girlfriend. But it's a very specific situation and he was 14 and thought he was about to die so I think the way people treat it like him purposefully trying to cheat on Ari behind her back is strange (especially when Ari during the same issue... goes on a date with another guy because Tim stood her up? [i mean not purposefully he was. fucking dying. but she didn't know that] Like I don't think we should vilify Ari here either as an alternative, but both it was a situation created to make teen drama and we need to keep that in mind). Also like i'm sorry but giving the nearest person a kiss after you almost died/something crazy happened is like, a pretty common media trope (to pull from TVTropes: its the Accidental Kiss/Smooch of Victory overlap). I'm not trying to minimize that it was something he shouldn't have done, but it's also nowhere near as deep or malicious as people act like.

After that, any other times Tim & Steph kissed while he was dating Ari, Steph was the one to kiss him and he kept pushing her away, telling her he had a girlfriend, and to stop. That is not the same as cheating.

Now, Tim was developing feelings for Stephanie during all of this, and it obviously left him conflicted. But that's a love triangle, where he's torn between staying with Ari or instead moving on to date Steph. When he realizes he does want to date Steph he decides to immediately break up with Ari and it just takes a few days because this was 1998 and teens communicating with one another worked a lot differently than it does now. (and she ends up even breaking up with him first LMAO)

Did he handle things messily? Sure. Did he kiss Steph purposefully while dating Ari once which would count as cheating? Yeah. But is this an arc about him purposefully cheating on his girlfriend until he eventually leaves her? No.

Now, if the person who said that was talking about the Jubilee thing in the Marvel crossover which happened while he'd been dating Ari... im sorry but that is a crossover with a whole other company. Trying to hold that up as if its prime characterization that holds strong bearing on regular canon is like, insane. Again, was it a good thing? No, absolutely not, but that wasn't a story focused on making the most in-character Tim in the world, it was focused on making an interesting crossover story for people who wanted to see interactions between DC and Marvel characters, and Tim & Jubilee were just selected for 'teen romance where they can't be together in the end because they're from different worlds'

And those are the only actual instances of cheating!

While he's dating Steph there are two instances she thinks he's cheating on her (with Star during the Brentwood era and with Darla just before War Games) but that wasn't what was actually happening in either situation (Star was just a friend who'd taught him how to skateboard, and Darla had kissed Tim without his permission and he pushed her away telling her he had a girlfriend, Steph just hadn't stuck around long enough to see/hear that part, Tim didn't willingly kiss Darla until after Steph & Darla had both died and Darla came back as Laura Fell/Warlock's Daughter) so considering that stuff a 'cheating arc' is nuts.

Things with Zo and Cassie between his solo and the Teen Titans book do happen in vaguely similar timeframes but those actually don't overlap as much as a lot of people think (like before I did the rereading for the stuff i'm about to talk about I also thought they overlapped more tbh!)

I was already making a Tim relationships chart before I got this ask, it's not completely done yet but I finished the section for that 2006-2008 era for this. This is by specifically what issues came out which month, to lay things out as factually as possible, the yellow column is Cassie & pink is Zo

It's not until the Robin book suddenly starts switching writers a ton (as in, it had been Adam Beechen from #148-166, and then the annual is Keith Champagne, #167 is Brandon Thomas, #168-169 is Peter Miligan and then #170 starts Dixon's second run, so between #166-170 there are 5 different writers on one book) that things actually start to conflict between Tim being with Cassie in Teen Titans and Tim being with Zo in Robin, it's absolutely just that nobody working on Robin was communicating (with each other or the Teen Titans creative team) and that caused things to get confusing.

That's not Tim as a character cheating, that's pretty clearly just a result of Tim's solo being passed between so many people in such a short timeframe, and causing miscommunications.

When Steph then comes back he and Zo are together at the time but also already kinda tense (after Tim fell asleep on a Roller Coaster on a date LMAO), and like... he was trying to navigate an insane situation as honestly as he could, not cheat on anyone behind anyone's back. 'My girlfriend i loved that i thought was dead came back but i'm currently dating someone else now and everything is weird and tense' isn't a cheating arc, it's ridiculous comic book teen drama. He and Steph also never even officially get back together in this era, they had one kiss when she was initially revealed to be alive and that's it, otherwise he was still with Zo (until he broke up with her in Robin #183)

During Red Robin his budding relationship with Tam is incredibly casual, so I really do not think that the stuff with Lynx counts as cheating even remotely (and also, that was a situation of her making out with him. Although admittedly he's less resistant than he had been back in the old days with Steph, he wasn't formally dating Tam like he had been Ari)

So yeah, no. 'always has cheating arcs' is just incorrect, and saying 'that's what will probably happen' (them saying it, not you) actively makes me mad. The last time he actually genuinely cheated was in 1996 during the Jubilee thing, 7 years into existing as a character, and he's then existed for another 25 years after without doing so... it just really doesn't strike me as particularly likely.

i like timkon a lot but i mean... if we didn't get timkon when tim's queerness was revealed it's likely not going happen right lol? though i would like to see tim admit in another lightbulb moment that he probably had a crush on kon lol

So like, honestly, the fact that Kon wasn't his gay awakening I don't think means it's 100% never going to happen or anything like that. Like... ok this is gonna sound pessimistic but as much as I do like Tim/Bernard and think it's fun, I don't foresee Tim being in a relationship with a civilian (at least not one he hides his identity from) longterm again, mainly because since he's not in a solo book right now, we're not really going to be seeing that much of his civilian life to actually show that he's having that relationship. Unless DC decides to actually put spotlight on Tim's civilian life in some way moving forward... the solutions are either Bernard gets more involved in vigilante things (not even necessarily as a hero, but could be something like over in Jon's book how Jay is a reporter actively investigating things related to Jon's hero stuff, so he's a part of the book outside of just attempts at a civilian life) or they break up.

Now I know above I just complained about how Kon's not really showing up in many places, however Kon is still a LOT more likely to show up in stuff than Bernard is just like, in general as a character. Building a relationship between two characters active in the hero community who both appear places on their own too (and then could also appear together) rather than a hero x a civilian love interest that's only gonna appear in stuff for that hero just... seems more long-lasting to me when the hero in question isn't in a solo book to explore more aspects of their civilian life. But that doesn't really narrow anything down to Kon, that's just more of an argument for 'Tim will probably eventually date another queer hero'

To talk about something a little more positive irt tim/kon because I've been kinda tearing shit down most of this post so far, I'd like to talk about how Kon was involved in Sum of Our Parts to begin with. There was a choice to bring him into the narrative for Tim's coming out story, and... well I'm gonna pull another quote from that same Meghan Fitzmartin podcast interview I keep quoting, where she was asked about Conner:

Starting from 22:48

Interviewer: Soooo- my boy Conner Kent- [laughter] Can we hear this- In your Urban Legends story, and he and Tim have a complicated history of being read as queer coded, was any of this running through your mind while writing their interaction?

Fitzmartin: I mean, I've-I've seen the internet. I've-I'm aware. I'm aware that the internet exists. Umm...

Interviewer: [overlapping] Alright

Fitzmartin: K-Ya know. Conner is part of Tim's history just like Stephanie is part of Tim's history in-in varying different degrees in varying different ways but, um, we are who those around us- we are what others around us are- ma-uh- make us to be. And. so.

Interviewer: Right-

Fitzmartin: [overlapping] I'll leave it at that-

Interviewer: That's a fair- fair answer, I will take it.

Fitzmartin: [laughs]

Her answer is definitely a vague non-answer (bc like. it kinda has to be imo. she doesn't control Conner's direction as a character or anything and... ya know) but like. Much to think about there with her blatantly drawing comparison to Steph & Kon's respective importance to Tim's history, ya know? Based on what she said that stuff was something she was certainly aware of when she wrote this:

(Batman: Urban Legends #5)

...and she also had made a parallel between how Tim feels/has felt for Steph & how he feels for Bernard in her Polygon interview

(source)

So there's... things you could extrapolate from that if you tried. It'd be putting words in her mouth to try to make any specific claims and you shouldn't really do that, but it's not unreasonable to see some sort of connection in there.

but anyways, to kinda do a tldr to this whole post: I don't think there's nearly enough evidence to say 'timkon is a sure endgame thing' but I also do think it's not an unreasonable thing to hope or want for, and I could see the groundwork clearly there if the right opprotunity came along to tell the story. I just personally, from things i've seen, don't think it's an active thing DC is planning and purposefully building towards right now (frankly I feel like they just aren't thinking far enough ahead with Tim or Kon as characters for something like that), but I think it's fair to say there's people at DC probably rooting for it and that maybe someday it will get it's chance to happen.

[resinatingbeauty]

A 'Witch Shop' Owner's Plea Before Casting That Love Spell

I don't personally offer many spell kits, mojo bags, etc. In my shop and avoid selling my 'Craft', as in, I don't advertise or list spell casting among my offerings, though I have had a couple of customers specifically ask if I could perform a spell I offered as a kit on their behalf for whatever reason. This is because I personally believe that the journey is just as important as the destination in witchcraft and many of the spell kits / spells I do offer are designed in such a way to soothe, relax, release, and heal throughout the process. Honestly, in addition, I really don't want the responsibility associated with performing magick on someone else's behalf for many reasons. The strength of my intent is not going to be as strong as yours, for example. Even if I effectively channel your energy, creating that personal connection between the beneficiary and the intent or purpose of the spell work is incredibly difficult at a distance. I'm always wary of other shops advertising this type of service- the sad truth of the matter is our little niche has been permeated by scammers, con artists, and frauds looking to take advantage of anyone looking for a solution to whatever it is that has them at this low point in life. I will tell you, more often than not it's love spells that the customer is after, and they are apt to find many options on Etsy, the platform I primarily do business on, and beyond.

I distinctly think of one potential customer who had contacted me one night obviously very upset. My heart went out to her immediately - I could just tell by what she was saying and how quickly she responded to me that she was in a state of panic and extreme emotional distress. She isn't the only one, but she stands out from the others as her desire to win back her ex lover was so strong it was evident that she would do anything and (potentially) pay anything for a chance to get things back to the way they were in her love life.

I am a human being. I have been given this amazing opportunity to pursue my passion to share my creations and spiritual / metaphysical knowledge with the world through my work. I understood a long time ago that this also meant I had a responsibility to do my best to help those in need and never knowingly harm, much like a doctor commuting to the Hippocratic oath. This may make me a flat out horrible business woman, but I would rather not sell someone on something I don't believe is going to help their situation. In fact, love spells usually make things worse. I'll get to that momentarily.

"Is there a spell to make her see what she has done wrong and to make her love and want me again?"

I allowed this customer to explain to me the situation and took the time to hear her out after telling her that I'm sure that she could find something like that elsewhere and someone else willing to sell her a spell kit or cast that spell, but I urged her to take a deep breath and talk to me before she did something that she would regret.

Thankfully, she spent the next hour or so explaining her situation and elaborating on everything that has happened in her relationship. It was one of those on again / off again things that so many of us get trapped in. Understandable, considering once you establish that strong bond of love, whether one sided or not, it's incredibly hard to cut that cord and move on especially if you're so emotionally invested (and maybe even financially invested) in this other individual who has had your heart for so long you can't imagine giving it to anyone else.

This PSA goes out to the broken hearted of all walks, as this is a universal experience for anyone who has been in love. There may not be someone to stop you from pursuing what you think will fix everything as I did for her, but I'm hoping if you read this, you'll think twice about acquiring and performing love spells or any magick in hopes that it will provide a quick fix to any situation.

•Beware the Opportunistic Con / Scam

Our field is flooded with scammers, con artists, and frauds that exclusively cater to those in this sweet girl's position and anyone who is vulnerable due to emotional distress or panic. Whether you need a love spell like she did to win back her ex or a quick fix to get more money in the bank or what have you, beware those that have used spiritual advisory and witchcraft as a means to peddle you their high priced garbaged. This is a tough one, as you may have a hard time deciphering what is 'legit' and what isn't, but there are some signs and facts you can look for when browsing these shops / websites.

-They promise / guarantee results within a specific or unrealistic time frame

Magick takes time to manifest and the true story is that nobody has a 100% satisfaction guaranteed spell book. More often than not, when spells come to fruition, it often isn't quite the way you would expect it to, either. Anyone promising a quick fix to anything is most likely just trying to take advantage of you when you are vulnerable and you better believe there will be no money back guarantee if said garbage doesn't work for you. OR, they like to do one of these:

-"Oh, your situation is worse than I thought. You're going to need this and this, with a huge $$$$ price tag."

This starts a never ending cycle of you pouring money into this scammer who will make you believe that it is necessary to do so. That maybe if you did throw them an extra $500 for their thingamajig that you will get what you want. This is only the beginning, as when THAT doesn't do it for you the way you would like, they will claim some other interference, maybe you're cursed or under psychic attack, and need something else even more expensive and elaborate to take care of that before you can even get to what you went to them for in the first place. Anytime someone proposes this type of thing, stop while you're ahead and don't provide them with a guaranteed cash flow that you aren't benefitting from at all. Also, be wary of ANY seller who makes outrageous claims- overnight changes, curing cancer, etc. Are unrealistic expectations.

•Understand What You Truly Need

Maybe it's time to consider an alternative path. The customer I spoke about DID ultimately purchase a tarot spread, which I was much more inclined to do for her than some love spell to win back this girl who has repeatedly broken her heart over the past few years and obviously got a kick out of it, the way she told it, as it was ALWAYS her doing the breaking up and blocking, starting all the drama. I told her I would much rather give her a spell to find her twin flame / soul mate than to win this person back who has perpetually been hurting her and taking advantage of her kindness.

Sometimes it's time to cut the cord before more damage is done. I understand it isn't easy to move on from someone you have loved and cultivated a relationship with over a long period of time, regardless of the negative energy that has invaded the relationship, we DO tend to focus on the positives, which leaves us a bit biased and blind to what we could have and deserve to have.

Take a moment if you are in a relationship situation like this, are beginning to question your current relationship, or are considering taking the next step in any relationship. Sit down with a pen and paper. On one side of the paper, write down all the things you love about that person. All the ways you think they have been the light in your life (be honest and give credit where credit is due!). Now on the other side, list the negatives or cons in your relationship. If one list is noticeably longer than the other, depending on which side it is, it may be time to consider breaking it off, giving things another shot, or taking things to the next level. Ask yourself;

-Do they support me in what I do, even if they don't understand or necessarily agree with it? (So long as it is something healthy -obviously if they're supportive of a bad habit or detrimental behavior, this is more like enabling and not a good thing)

-Do they have my best interests at heart more often than not?

-Do they show that they care? Even in the smallest of ways?

-Could I call them my "best friend?" Am I honest with them?

-Are they honest with me?

-Do they lift me up more than they put me down?

-Do you want the same things in life / have similar priorities?

-Is our relationship valuable to them the same way it is to me?

•LOVE SPELLS NEVER WORK THE WAY YOU WANT

This is the cold hard truth about love spells. Forget the warnings in movies and books, as it is hard to believe them or even take them as a legitimate warning when you haven't had the displeasure of experiencing what a love spell can do for yourself. I have, so you don't have to. This is MY story:

Of course love spells are very appealing when you're a young and naive teenager. I had a strong crush on this guy I had low key been stalking since middle school. I don't know why I liked him so much. Part of it I'm sure was the way he looked (hey, I'm being totally honest!) And how he came across to me. We had absolutely no interaction with each other outside of passing each other in the hallway. He had no idea who I was.

I had just borrowed a copy of Silver Ravenwolf's 'Teen Witch' (which is honestly a fantastic book for teens and young adults just starting to delve into Wiccan practices, which she follows exclusively) from a friend of mine and thought I would try the super simple love spell in the book figuring I had nothing to lose. All it consisted of was focusing on the subject, your intentions, writing their name on a piece of paper, folding it up and placing it under your pillow. I would sleep on that paper for months. I was in middle school just about to go into my freshman year of high school when I performed the spell and would forget about it up until the day it worked, a few months into my freshman year of highschool, when my crush was in the graduating class of that year- literally my last chance to make an impression.

I had gone to a local band's concert that was performing at the school's auditorium one day after classes and was just about to leave when my crush randomly approached me and started talking to me. It was like the whole world just stopped right there. I couldn't believe it. The thought of that spell crossed my mind briefly as we exchanged phone numbers.

Over time and getting to know him, he admittedly wasn't exactly my type. He was still someone whose friendship I valued, but not someone I could really put any effort into dating. About the time I realized this, his personality took a complete 180° turn for the worst. He was stalking me. Blowing up my cell phone (which was a prepaid piece of junk at that time I really couldn't talk on for more than a minute without paying a fortune), so much so one evening when I was at Jukido Jujitsu practice that I came home to something like 32 missed calls and 17 voicemails from him, each one showing gradual frustration and anger. This scared me. I knew I had to confront him about it and break this off before it got worse.

I caught him in a populated area of the school the next day before homeroom- more like he came up to me out of nowhere like he knew I would be passing through that part of the school that day- and I confronted him about the calls,attempting to gently explain to him that I wasn't interested in a relationship and I would like to continue being friends. He blew up at me and threw me against the brick wall of the school, trying to kiss and touch me in front of every single person that walked by. I wish I was making this up.

Thankfully a teacher came and pulled him off. Nothing much else was done. I did my best to avoid him and cut him out of my life entirely from that point on.

I don't know if it was the love spell or if this would have occurred anyways. All I knew was that what had been originally a very sweet, big hearted guy that was soft spoken with low self esteem became a monster in a matter of weeks. The take away from this and what I have personally seen with other's experiences with love spells is that they tend to bring out the worst characteristics of the person they are cast on and you have to be really careful what you are actually asking for when thinking about 'desire' and 'passion.' This intent can quickly lead to stalking, obsession, and not in a good way. Another customer of mine who originally came to me for my Forgiveness Spell Kit and had the desired results also, unbeknownst to me, had someone else perform a love and desire spell in addition to it. The guy that she was reverted into an obsessed jerk who decided to spread rumors about her on social media and beyond, blocked her on all platforms, and would get her friends involved in his quest to make her life miserable. Her story reflects and embodies so many I have heard over the years from others who have dabbled in such spells. When they work, it's just never quite what you had in mind.

So if you came to this blog post in search of a love spell for your personal situation or came across it when you have maybe considered one in the past or know someone who has, please take a deep breath, consider your options, and don't do anything that you may regret down the line. Remember that you are deserving of all the love, respect, support, and happiness one could give another. Do not settle on someone who offers you less and expects more, no matter how much you have invested in them, no matter how many years you have spent with them, as they do not appreciate you for the amazing person you are. I can promise you, however, given some time to heal, you WILL find someone who does.

-Samantha

(Owner /Chaos Witch/Designer)

Blursedbaubles.etsy.com

[theangrypokemaniac]

There's a sneering attitude that the dub is inherently inferior solely for being a dub, and when I say 'dub' I mean the American one. No one attacks the South American interpretation, funnily enough, or the variety that exist globally.

Why not if foreign languages are so abhorrent?  Do you think it's kewl to hate America?

That's so original you know.

If the moan centres on the dub changing certain things, well that's a pointless stance, because it's impossible to do otherwise.

What's accepted in one country is not always permitted elsewhere, so either you make those alterations or it's never shown. I'd prefer seeing a slightly toned down version rather than have it never reach the West at all.

This is without considering the technical obstacles that a direct translation brings. The words do have to fit the mouth movements, and if they don't, truncation must follow.

America and Japan are different; the population of the former are not going to comprehend the references to the latter's history and culture, which necessitates some divergence from the original to give it mass appeal.

Anime is a branch of entertainment. It has to attract the public's good will to stay in business. If impenetrable, it'll fail, with all the resulting unemployment and finacial losses that brings.

Those in charge of dubbing understandably think they're on safer ground promoting familiarity rather than the strange, but that's not to say Pokémon was stripped of its identity. On the contrary, it was like nothing I'd ever encountered before.

I may have watched Western cartoons then, but the idea of doing so now is silly. I won't give time to any modern animation unless it's Japanese. Growing up on the dub has not produced an ephemeral fan less serious or 'true'.

The 4Kids dub had wit, humour, deep emotion, suggestive comments and flights of fancy. The voices fitted the characters well.

Unlike the current one, where everyone sounds on the verge of vomiting, but then they're clearly working with substandard material on a miserly budget. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear after all.

Dubs can be bad, but the very state of being a dub doesn't confer worthlessness automatically. Considering the work gone into them, attempting to gain your favour, it seems rude not to appreciate the time and energy spent in production.

Knowing a little about history, sub-only fanatics remind me of the kind of folk who opposed an English Bible, because it was too good for the oiks to read the word of God.

Of course it was alright for them, rich enough to be taught Latin, but not so much the ordinary man.

It amuses me how dozens dismiss the dub, but see no hypocrisy in using its evidence to further their ship or anti-ship arguments, so it can't be that revolting.

It's also bizarre that so many hold sacred the sub of a series currently in a frenzy to shed every aspect of its anime and Japanese origins, leaving a vague, rootless ghost, supposedly making it easier to slip down the gullet of the masses.

Pokémon I've seen referred to as a 'gateway drug', as in the anime that introduced a generation to the entire concept. This means the dub. You would not have got enough kids in the late Nineties to read a screen rather than watch it, and even today most would lose interest rapidly.

Where would you be without that dub? Unless you're Japanese, your first experience of Pokémon will have been a dub, and if not the American, the one where you live, which was only made because there was the funds available.

You may have then progressed to watching the sub, but only because that dub stirred love in your soul.

Where would the franchise be without that dub? You think Pokémon would've grown to be a world-wide obsession raking in billions by itself? No, it'd still be a solely Japanese phenomena, and most likely never lasted this long.

Its decades of supremacy rests on the quality of that dub. It sold games and merchandise to kids by the ton, giving an incentive to keep the series going. If you're not a fan from the first wave, then your favourite era would have never existed had it not been financially attractive carrying on.

The team who wrote the first film actually preferred the dub, moved to tears by its emotive use of music, therefore they aren't so precious as the fans.

Where would anime be without that dub? Pokémon brought it to the West. A handful slipped through previously, but made minor impression.

To those who would dismiss Pokémon entirely in favour of more 'worthy' output such as Studio Ghibli, I would say that Pokémon, first the games, then the programme they inspired, must have an integral quality to have caught on in Japan, which isn't exactly short on similar concepts.

To have gained popularity in a crowded market, and so fervently a dub became an option, can only have come about because it held a certain magic.

It was the dub that smashed a hole in the cultural barrier, setting free the tidal wave to engulf the world. In Pokémon's trail followed Digimon, Cardcaptors, Monster Rancher, Yu-Gi-Oh! et cetera.

Without Pokémon, I doubt they'd have been translated, and definitely never broadcast on mainstream television. That came about as channels desperately hunted down anything Japanese to serve as the next craze.

I really appreciated the effort made by 4Kids in converting every aspect of the series to suit American tastes, including changing text on signs, letters and books into English. I assumed this was standard practice until I watched others.

I could never be as involved in them as I was Pokémon because of that block. It was like being denied access to the deeper waters, fenced into the shallows, and implied a rushed dub, with little care shown but to chase the same crowd and money.

If personified, the dub 'n' sub wouldn't be one human being, but rather identical twins: the same to a casual observer, but easy to tell apart by the more attentive.

It's like the games: Red and Blue are versions of a single adventure, but not totally one. Take the dub and the sub the same way. They are parallel dimensions running on separate rails, and beyond reconciliation, and that's before we consider that, sub and dub alike, each generation has only a faint relation to its predecessor, working on its own whims.

Everyone has a favourite, or can like both, and there's nothing wrong in that, but so many are proud of the fact they hate the dub, as if it conveys a revered status of supremacy.

When Disney films are shown abroad, they too are translated, and I'm sure references and jokes are redesigned to make sense to the locals. It's no use selling yourself as a comedy then being surprised when the audience refuses to laugh, having no idea what you mean.

If people prefer that one, for being what introduced them to Disney as a whole, or as a fond memory of childhood, then so what?

I don't mind if their view of a character is minutely at odds with mine, having seen the original, because what they think is canon to their version, so can't be wrong.

I don't go round declaring every Disney dub to be pathetic by its nature, that viewers of them are of a lesser breed of fan for preferring their own tongue, even though more of the world's population understand English than they do Japanese.

If you enjoy one tailored to your country there's no crime in it, just as I like one at least comprehensible to mine. It's not even my culture, but I pick it up mostly.

The choice must be made on which to follow, and this blog runs on dub canon, as that has a claim on my heart. Just because I don't acknowledge what takes place in the sub doesn't mean I'm unaware of it, but it has no bearing on what I write.

The idea that the dub alters things willy-nilly without rhyme nor reason is also mistaken. Often it does it because the original does not make sense.

In the sub, I know Nanny and Pop-Pop are just a couple of old duffers taken at random and dropped in to a castle, supposedly as James's far away nannies.

Oh yeah, that's a cushy position. You doing a lot of child care from miles off?

Mind you, it used to describe 'em as 'caretakers' on Bulbapædia, as if Nan serves as housekeeper whilst Pop tends to the garden.

That's right. Ma and Pa finally got some work out of this pair of freeloaders.

They're not related, remember? No, no, absolutely not, no way. Of course their style reflects that. They just gave Pop a 'tache, thick eyebrows and a bigger nose, and Nan got a bun and lines in her hair, but there's certainly no connection. Oh no. Such a thing is ridiculous.

They're NOT family. No. Yet Hoenn James still panics they might learn he's joined Team Rocket, spending the whole episode trying to hide the truth.

Why? Who are servants to criticise the son of their employers? Why should their opinion be of any consequence to Hoenn James, especially when his parents, fianc��e and butler are cognizant of reality?

Children of aristocrats are usually brought up by governesses, thus develop a stronger attachment to these figures rather than their parents, but that isn't the case here.

James lived with Ma and Pa, not the codgers minding the castle. He would have very little contact with distant employees compared to those who waited on him daily, so why seek out their approval?

Hoenn James apparently was permitted visits to Nan 'n' Pop, which is strange considering they're not relatives. Why them and not any other house-stters?

That's right, Ma and Pa sent their son to one of their properties without them, entrusting him to the care of two shrivelled pensioners of his size that he barely knew, and who could keel over at any minute. There are no other servants present. Apparently Nan and Pop clean an entire castle by themselves.

Oh, and they run a makeshift Pokémon sanctuary, but since it's not their home it has to be done with Ma and Pa's blessing, who also have to pay for it, but they're eevul aren't they?

The idea that somehow Nanny and Pop-Pop have not cottoned on to James's occupation by now is risible.

Servants gossip about their masters. I bet the entire household of his home know, and so in turn does the county. That Nan and Pop remain oblivious proves how isolated they are, for no one's thought to inform them.

When it came to dubbing it, they were made his grandparents, removing all the above nonsense. Of course he visits his nan and granddad, it's their gaff and their money funding the place, and it is likely his mother or father would keep James's job a secret, for fear the shock would finish 'em off.

It should do really. If they're not bothered by it that's a sign of where his rapscallion ways were inherited.

They aren't facially akin to Ma and Pa, but display the same additions, so if staff it's bloody lazy, as if nannies have to resemble your parents, but inventing a blood link excuses the slothful characterisation.

Every reference I've seen on Tumblr relating to the coffin-dodgers calls them Nanny and Pop-Pop. Apparently the dub decision is met with universal approval. It does have redeeming aspects then.

Now the sub writers, rather than ignore this development, took to it too. They aren't exactly bursting with ideas these days and are probably grateful for the lifelines offered.

Remembering James had parents, they forced a likeness between them and Nanny and Pop-Pop. How else do you explain the inexplicable ageing, even when Sinnoh Ma and Sinnoh Pa are younger than Ma and Pa?

I've also known for years that the sub has this woman as Jessie's foster mother, not Ma Jess, but that's stupid.

I can grasp the idea that Jessie and Ma might have endured extreme deprivation, considering that's what Team Rocket has brought to Jessie anyway, and that they may have lived at the bottom of Mew's mountain prior to Ma's death.

What I find difficult to take in is that social services (or as they're known where I live, the S.S.), however notoriously awful they are, would give a child to a mad bitch in a shack with no running water.

Come on, they have to at least pretend to be concerned for Jessie's welfare.

As Jessie is very young, bereavement can't have befallen her in the distant past, so how can she be happy this soon after becoming an orphan? How could the grieving period be a cherished memory?

If that woman's creaming off the money, why hasn't she fixed the place up by now? Where do the payments go, sniffing glue?

Then there's the depiction. If this is just some daft bint never to be mentioned again, why do they conceal her face? Who cares what she looks like when she's unimportant?

Here's another figure from Jessie's past. She isn't disguised, and why not when she too briefly appears and is then forgotten?

Who was she?

The only sort of characters they tended to hide were other members of Team Rocket:

During the early scenes featuring Giovanni, he was enveloped in shadow, adding both intrigue and a sense of menace.

Madame Boss also got this treatment, even though there was probably no intention to ever feature her in the anime. What's the use in keeping an appearance a mystery if it'll remain masked?

With that pattern, it implies this woman is in the same category, like Ma Jess.

When it came to animation, it definitely was intended to be a foster mother. Not her real one. No.

What did they do?

They gave her Jessie's skin tone and purple hair hanging down her back!

You know, like Ma Jess?

Any colour would've done. Any at all, and being anime I do mean any colour, but no. The choice was made to give her the looks of the exact person she's not meant to be!

Is it that surprising the dub simplified things?

I don't mind if you like the dub, sub, both, or any from around the world, but I'm tired of the smug condescension, as if we all agree the sub is the only one that counts, and that dub fans are grunting troglodytes, or not 'proper' aficionados.

None of us would be here were it not for the dub. Pokémon would not be here. I think it deserves some respect for how much of a difference it made, to my life and to yours.

[snicketstrange]

Daniel Handler duplicates events to confuse you

This is Part 4 of Strange Interpretation by Jean Lúcio From Brazil.

To understand this text, it is necessary to read my first and my second texts in the links below. And my third, too.

The next step in understanding my theory is to understand a Daniel Handler mechanism to confuse the reader. Daniel Handler uses duplicates. I believe most people have realized this in one form or another. The plot involving The Triplets Denouement is a classic example of this. But in addition, Daniel Handler creates events with several similarides, despite some diffences. In my first text I showed an example of this. Lemony Snicket was kidnapped twice. Once when he was a baby, and again when he was a child a few years old. In the letter found in chapter 1 of the UA, Lemony highlights the small differences between the facts reported in the music the Litte Snicket Lad and his own memories. Even the name of Lemony's father is different in music. While Lemony believes he was kidnapped only once when he was a child of a few years, there is a photo that confirms that Lemony was really a baby who fell to the ground and crawled out when he was kidnapped. In addition, Lemony's "mother" was surprised to find a picture of when Lemony was a baby. She soon wondered, "Who took this picture?" The "13 Shocking Secrets" pamphlet confirmed that Lemony was kidnapped when he was a baby, and this makes me believe that Daniel Handler has created two similar events separated by a few years from each other. 

I believe that this example found in chapter 1 of the UA was a hint of Daniel Handler. He wanted to show how investigations should be on the chronology of the ASOUE universe. Readers should assume that there may be similar events that occurred at different points in time.

Five of these events stand out in my theory.

The first one is the embarkation of Lemony on the ship Prospero to flee to the outside of the country.

The second of them is the publication of the death of Lemony in the Daily Punctilio.

The third is the existence of two Masked Balls sponsored by the Duchess of Winippeg specifically quoted in ASOUE, one of which happened before Kit's death, and another masked ball that happened years after Kit's death.

The fourth duplicate event is Schism. In fact this event was tripled. There was VFD's Great Schism, which happened when Kit was about 4 years old. This Schism divided VFD on two sides. One side was against all forms of violence, which completely abandoned the use of weapons, and devoted itself to reading and good deeds. Ishmael decided to support this side, and abandoned his weapons completely. Kit, Jacques, Lemony, and Olaf were taken to this pacifist side. The other side of Schism decided to fight fire against fire. This side was very violent, and probably believes that all evil must be fought with violence. Everyone who participated in this Schism has an ankle tattoo. Hence, just before the cancellation of Lemony's marriage, there was Olaf's Schism, when Olaf became a "freelancer", and decided to use his troupe to destroy VFD. But for this Olaf allied with the old enemies of VFD, that was the incendiary organization resulting from the first Schism. Between one Schism and another happened the events described in ATWQ. At these events we realized that Lemony disagreed with the totally peaceful methods on the side he was in VFD. Shortly before finishing his theoretical training in VFD, Lemony made a revolutionary speech. He also sent a letter to Beatrice about a preemptive war. While in Stain'd-by-the-Sea, Lemony said that he believed that it was necessary to use evil to fight evil and eventually killed Hangfire. When Lemony was an adult, Lemony fought using machetes along with Jacques and Kit. In addition, apparently Lemony, Kit, Beatrice and Bertrand participated in a plan to kill Count Olaf's father or parents. Thus, Lemony and his associates believe that from time to time it is necessary to fight fire with fire, but they also believe that only noble and well read people can make a correct judgment and then use violence from time to time to do away with evil. So Lemony created a secret organization within a secret organization. I call this event a Lemony's Schism. It is interesting that Olaf speaks of Shismes in plural when he is imprisoned on the island. Thus, during the ASOUE events there are 4 groups relating to each other. A pacifist side, a fire-fighting side, Olaf and his Troupe, and Lemony and his associates who are officially part of the pacifist side but who are willing to use violence secretly to do away with evil. In a future text I will explain this whole concept better by citing the references, but I believe fans should know which parts I referred to in this paragraph.

The fifith duplicate event is the survival of a person to a fire inside a secret tunnel that connects that person's home to another building. One of these people was Quigley and the other person was Beatrice.

Let's start by talking about what makes me believe that Lemony fled abroad on the Prospero ship twice, and that Lemony's death was published twice in the Daily Punctilio newspaper.

Look this excerpts from UA chapter 1.

Lemony Snicket, Autor of A Séries of Unfortunate events, the purportedly true chronicles of the Baudelaire children, was reported dead today by anonymous and possibly unreliable sources... Mr. Snicket became a fugitive from justice  and was rarely seen  in public... At least, the Baudelaires' story, and his, appears to be over... A burial maybe scheduled later this year.

Notice in these excerpts that Lemony is called the author of ASOUE. Even the newspaper in question being unreliable, the publishers of this newspaper would never have imagined that Lemony would one day become the author of ASOUE if these news had been  written at the time Beatrice canceled Lemony's marriage. In fact, by the time Beatrice canceled her marriage to Lemony, Beatrice had no children.

So when this news was published, at least some of the ASOUE books had already been published in Lemony's universe.

But not all 13 books had been published. The reason why it was explained in the paper that the books of ASOUE would stop being published was not the conclusion of the work by Lemony Snicket, but it was Lemony to have died before completing the work.

Now read below an excerpt from Lemony's personal notes regarding this report.

"I have arrived early at the harbor and still have a few minutes before the Prospero os scheduled to appear so I thought I might jot down a few notes concerning the news of my death, which was alarming but not true. I'm, as of half -past four this afternoon, still alive, and I was most certainly alive the day I sat at Cafe Kafka with my afternoon tea and read my obituary in the newspaper. 

The Daily Punctilio has never been a reliable newspaper: not when I worked there as part of an under-cover assignment, not when that terrible reporter to write about the Baudelaire case and not when they advertised a sale on three-piece suits a few days ago, at a store that turned out to sell nothing but Indian rugs... The only thing that turned out to be true about my obituary was the last sentence, and this morning I had the curious experience of attending my own burial. To my astonishment, quite a crowd showed up for the event - mostly people who had believed the EARLIER stories about me IN THE DAILY PUNCTILIO and wanted to be sure that a notorious criminal was indeed dead. That is why I am waiting here at this fogged-in harbor, in order to ... The Prospero has arrived, so I ill stop writing and file these notes with my letter... It make me sad to think that my whole life, from the cradele to the grave, is full of errors, but at least that will not happen to the Baudelaires.”

Please note that these personal notes were written following a report in the Daily Punctilio concerning Lemony's death found in chapter 1 of the UA.

Thus, these personal notes were evidently written after Lemony began publishing his books with the current editor. When Lemony was writing these personal notes, he was waiting for the Prospero to be able to escape to the outside of the country. By this time, all the major events narrated in ASOUE with the Baudelaire siblings had already occurred. Remember, since book 2 of ASOUE, Lemony already knew what had happened to Klaus years later.

However, as shown in ASOUE and Chapter 6 of the UA, Lemony had also fled abroad on the Prospero shortly after the cancellation of his marriage. At that time he fled in disguise as a sailor. At that time Jacques Snicket was still alive,and Jacques who advised Lemony to flee in this way. And also at this time, the Daily Punctilio reported that Lemony Snicket had died. According to Lemony on TGG, the Windershins showed this story to Beatrice, and this led Beatrice to marry Bertrand. It is interesting that in the personal notes of Lemony in chapter 1 of the UA, Lemony wrote that many people came to his "burial" to confirm if this time Lemony had really died. Most of the people who were there had been people who believed the first reports about Lemony, among these reports there was evidently one that related to Lemony's death.

 In that time that Lemony passed abroad he did not publish any book of ASOUE. In the next text I will write about it, which is what I call The Great Hiatus Theory. It is grounded in the R letter to Lemony found in chapter 2 of the UA and in the letter to the editor found at the end of TWW. Therefore, I will need to confirm the authenticity of the letter of R, or at least show that even if the letter is a fraud, it still confirms the Theory of the Great Hiatus. Until the next text.

Please comment!