#idk i loved their parallels and i loved the exploration of the doctor as a parent

[txttletale]

(Other than the really weird bit about "Male presenting Doctor") what were your thoughts about the specials?

pretty mixed bag, pretty messy, but good overall. i think they were very obviously a nostalgia trip for people around my age lol and it worked! i loved seeing tennant and tate back onscreen together, their chemistry hasn't aged a bit, and honestly just watching doctor who that wasn't written by chris chibnall was a breath of fresh air. they weren't boring, like seasons 11 and 12 were, and they didn't go too far off the other end into nonsense like flux did. characters want things again! the show can let itself just be silly! i was literally cheering out loud when donna and the doctor were just saying random scifi gobbledegook at each other for like a solid several minutes during the star beast.

the structure of the specials kind of baffles me. i love wild blue yonder--i think it's definitively the best of the specials as a standalone, it's absolutely fantastic, creepy and atmospheric and bringing things around to RTD's strength, which is well-written characters interacting with each other and letting good actors just act. but at the same time i dont understand why it exists? it feels like...idk. imagine if you watched the star wars original trilogy but instead of the empire strikes back the middle film was just a feature length film about luke and han surviving on an ice planet with no reference to anything that happens in the last film except the two characters' relationship. and then the next film was still return of the jedi, unchanged. it felt like that

i liked all the weird campy silliness of the star beast and the giggle, and they were both very fun! neil patrick harris gave a fantastic performance, there are a lot of very memorable sequences from the giggle, but it's very very all over the place. so many threads get kind of picked up and go nowhere. the toymaker's haunted house dimension goes nowhere. RTD's eyerolling social media commetnary goes nowhere (thank god tbh but yknow im illustrating something here). even the toymaker kind of goes nowhere, after ncuti gatwa shows up he's bascially an afterthought who loses by dropping a ball. obvious parallels to david tennant's first episode with that ball scene could be made, but just... aren't. it feels like load-bearing sectikons of the plot and themes were cut out to make room for a backdoor pilot for the stupid fucking UNIT spinoff

oh and it goes without saying i fucking hate all the UNIT wank in the star beast and the giggle. i hope space nine eleven 2 happens to their stupid fucking avengers tower i cannot stand kate stewart who is constantly a murderous bonehead (in the giggle alone she gets two pepole killed by not listening to the doctor and assuming that this teleporting godlike entity could be restrainted by Two Guys) who is both in and out of universe just a boring nepo baby with no merit of her own

um. i still dont know what happened with the regeneration. i think the implication is that when david tennant dies hell time travel back to become ncuti gatwa inside himself--at least the rehab dialogue seems to make that implication. but it's not really explained or explored? baffling. i do think that fourteen getting to settle down and live a peaceful life with his friends is cute.

oh yeah and the ask said other than that but goddd there was some good stuff in the star beast and honestly with the state of the UK media i will take any perspective on trans people that includes baseline human erespect but some of those lines made me cringe so bad. anyway overall i am cautiously optimistic for the future of the show--oh ncuti was fucking great did i mention that i instantly bnought him as the doctor he owned the scene, the moment he was there it was clear he was the protagonist, and i liked the church on ruby road well enough too--i am cautiously optimistic but i worry that a big UNIT-shaped tumor will devour huge chunks of it and it'll be annoying. also russel t davies is like 60 and i just dont want to hear what he has to say about twitter so im not looking forward to dot and bubble

[clockworkcheetah]

*shaking your shoulders* hiiiii tell me everything about your thought process behind writing your incredible bangfic the bad dog nerves, inspiration characters writing EVERYTHING it's so good tell us more

hiii getting to talk about my creations!!! ahhh

ok so cause its been a couple of months and my memory is nothingness aka im a little hazy on some stuff. buuuuuut i distinctly remember several things that heavily inspired TBDN im just gonna run my thoughts as they come so i apologise if its incoherent. i am also putting this under a readmore for the sake of everyone. and because spoilers for the fic

first inspo was deathmark2 cause it got its english translation earlier this year (i love deathmark but ill say everytime i talk of it its very difficult to recommend cause it needs so many content warnings). im very much the kinda person who can and will mash fandoms together- ill make those parallels. god cant stop me. basically dm is what got the ball rolling for me- spirits and possession and influenced moods. its only inspired pretty loosely by dm- very much the general concept/brainrot for both fandoms kinda deal. also more horror elements in dghda yes pls

another thing that inspired it was the doctor who ep 'midnight'. that ep was chilling- i think about how you can tell ten is fully awake and aware during his possession and it stuck with me- a+ acting from david. its a fear of mine being fully awake/aware whilst having no control of your body/immobilised and you cant do anything but wait for the inevitable. granted todd leaned more towards anger, or like the five stages of grief, than fear. but that felt more him also cause it went on longer than a few hours (or rather he expresses his fear through anger/lashing out) but i wanted that ugly rawness of it- hes nervous like a bad dog ay ayyyyyyy

(i sorta wish i went harder with it at the end with his scene with dirk, but alas he was burnt out and healing)

also tbh i just love scenes like that in media too. the character is right there! its so close and nobody is helping them so they gotta save their own ass and be a bitch about it

also i just kinda wanted more fics where dirk just fucks up?? like theres no hoops being jumped through to make what he said right (im not exactly a fan of this fanon!dirk where hes this saint who does no wrong/is always right/everyone else is to blame) so that was a goal in mind when writing this- dirk mostly, but also amanda to an extent of being wrong (not like in some horrible malicious way just. you made a bad call. u gotta live with it). also why todd was quicker to forgive farah (or at least be on better terms with her than the others- i really wish i included a convo between them aw well) granted these arent really specific to this fic- i like to have it in other fics, i need those two to fuck up. as well as todd getting to be angry/upset without this notion that he cant cause he did bad things therefore can only be bad, undeserving person forever cause thats how it works obviously (look if i wanted content of todd fucking up id watch the show lemme have something else with fics- ok ill stop being salty now asdfghjkl;)

i also really wanted the aftermath of what happened to be explored (i love the concept of possession/mindcontrol but shows kinda brush it off after the character is freed. like??? youre telling theyre all sunshine and fine now??? no way, theres gonna be a recovery period. aka todds body being weak from literally having zero nutrients, miru not taking care of the body, also learning to have control of his own body again

with the characters or i guess specifically project miru, she wasnt inspired by anything specific. i really like tragic but unsympathetic characters in media so wanted to have a try at it, and to explore the whole riggins' favouritism towards dirk and how the other projects may have felt. idk how well i pulled it off but i had fun writing her interactions with todd even if it was mostly them being dicks to eachother and being a dick to everyone

ok my brain is starting to run on empty so ill close up this haha.

im sure this is universal but when i got the idea of this fic i had the immediate The Scenes™️ for it. they were: amandas confrontation and realising that oh shit it isnt todd the whole time that scene was vivid in my head (also fave scene to write!!) and the other is the final scene with dirk and todd and todd breaking down. todds kinda the 'strong' one of the two (to dirk) and the caretaker- so someone takes care of him and lets him be upset with everyone

but yeah!!! some of my thoughts behind the creation of TBDN 💖🥰🧡 theres stuff i wish i included in the fic and ideas i had after i had already posted but im happy with it regardless. at its core i just wanted some sweet sweet todd whump i wanna traumatise that little man

[empressawesomecoolness]

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Speedrun Marathon - Series 1 (2005)

Eccleston as the 9th Doctor seems to be a big fan favorite, including among my Whovian friends, so I was especially excited to start his era. Needless to say, I was very impressed! This series really brought Doctor Who out of its ‘80s era funk and into the modern age, so its importance deserves the praise, which I’m about to give in truckloads.

General Thoughts

Right out the gate, Christopher Eccleston was the perfect actor to take on the role! From what I’d heard of the 9th Doctor before watching this series, I assumed he’d be very serious, edgy, and overall just a grimdark take on Doctor Who. The early 2000s was ripe with franchises and reboots like that, so I was pleasantly surprised to see just how three-dimensional he was! I was mainly familiar with Eccleston from the 2010 TV movie Lennon Naked, which he was fucking awful in, so to see him so perfectly embody the Doctor gave me whiplash ngl. He does have darkness in him, which comes out in relation to his Time War PTSD and his hatred of the Daleks, but he’s also really lively and snarky in most moments. Such a great character all around! If Paul McGann makes you fall in love with the Doctor’s personality, Eccleston makes you understand it.

I assume the tragic backstory 9 mentions throughout this series (regarding the Time War, the destruction of Gallifrey, and him being the last of the Time Lords) was a retcon made for this series in particular, since the 8th Doctor was on his way back to Gallifrey at the beginning of the ‘96 TV movie. Maybe he was just visiting the rubble idk. I could be wrong, but I include this just to mention that I assume lore retcons will probably be rampant from here forward, so I’m cool with that.

Moving onto this Doctor’s companion, there’s a few. The main one we follow is 19 year old Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper. I was familiar with Piper as Brona/Lily in Penny Dreadful, which she was great in, so it was cool to see her again in a very different role. Rose starts out really wayward and flat, but over the course of the series and her adventures with the Doctor, she grows more involved with the world and becomes happier as a person. It’s a cool development that really cuts to the core of what the Doctor represents as a traveler and explorer of all things exciting and hopeful. Dr. Grace Holloway gives her a run for her money as my favorite companion so far, but Rose is really interesting and overall just a great human protagonist for us to tag along with.

Along with her, there’s also Mickey (Ricky?) Smith, played by Noel Clarke, and Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman. With Mickey, I assumed he’d just be a throwaway character, as a teenage boyfriend Rose leaves behind for good to move onto greater things, but he comes back again and again, with a lot of development that really surprised me! He grows from a pretty flat and lame guy into a character with a lot of agency and intelligence. His angst over Rose leaving him for time/space adventures was also really sad :( I felt bad for him honestly, but he grows beyond his need for Rose and comes into his own right

Captain Jack was really fun too. Reminded me a lot of Firefly. I expected him to be one-off character too, but he sticks around and is really fun to follow. It’s cool to have another snarky space/time adventurer around for a little bit. He’s also a bi king so that’s dope as fuck

Back to the 9th Doctor himself, I really liked the parallels drawn between him and the Daleks. This might just be a coincidence, but I think the interior walls of his TARDIS look a lot like the outer shell of the Daleks. Just thought that was a cool detail.

Speaking of his TARDIS in general, the more industrial look contrasts with the 7th & 8th Doctor’s warm homely TARDIS. The spindly concrete pillars and the shiny metal walls/floor are really striking. It’s like a modern-art exhibit. It’s both very 2000s and very classic looking.

Favorite Episodes

Aliens of London

World War 3

The Empty Child

The Doctor Dances

Dalek

The End of The World

Favorite Moments

“You would make a good Dalek”….. omg chills

Rose being there for her father’s death was really sad and moving. That whole episode was great, but that last moment was especially effective

“Kill yourself.” lol

Charles Dickens having his own sort of Scrooge-esque arc was really nice. A bit sad knowing that he would die a year after the episode is set, but still bittersweet and nice.

The Doctor’s joy after realizing everyone finally gets to walk away okay in episode 10 was great! It’s an amazingly emotional moment for someone who’s gone through so much loss and grief, and Eccleston plays it perfectly. Everyone lives!!!

Rose getting super glowy TARDIS powers was cool as hell for her development into a hero in her own right, as well as being dope as fuck overall. I’m gonna assume/headcanon that the “Heart of the TARDIS” that appears in the finale is the same as the Eye of Harmony that appears in the TV movie.

That final regeneration scene… So cool! I’ll miss Eccleston, but he made the most of his time as the 9th Doctor. The way David Tennant also makes his appearance uniquely his was super funny. Just kinda commenting on his new teeth and then shrugging it off.

Alright, that’s it for Series 1, as well as the end of Eccleston’s run as the 9th Doctor. It was a fun ride and an amazing start to this fresh new beginning to the franchise, but I suppose it’s time to move on with him. Now, onto Series 2, with David Tennant taking over as the 10th Doctor.

[sallysellsseashellssundays]

The Waters of Mars Rewatch

I've already ranted about this to @witchofthemidlands but just need to write down my thoughts after rewatching The Waters of Mars yesterday

When you write this episode, Rose, The Parting of the Ways/Bad Wolf, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, Smith and Jones, Partners in Crime, Midnight, the entire S4 ending, THE END OF TIME you can have as many Slitheen fart jokes as you'd like Mr. RTD *bravo*

Also, I'm losing my mind as to why Ten went to Mars specifically, could it have been b/c Jackie and Donna always said he was from Mars?? And he really was making an effort to leave initially and not affect history...it's fascinating to see his final response as more and more people die compared to, for example, Voyage of the Damned. He's really at a point in his life where he's been broken down enough that he loses it completely

This SHOULD have been a two-parter episode there is so much to explore with the Mars crew and I even see parallels between them and the crew from the Impossible Planet two-parter it would have been wild to see the end of this episode paralleled with that storyline. Roman is like Toby, Yuri and Mia maybe like Danny, Ed definitely like Jefferson, Scheffi is like Scooti?, Adelaide like Zach etc. idk but I see a lot of parallels

My absolute favorite tiny detail is Ten expressing dislike for the robot but as soon as Roman talks about robot dogs he goes "actually hold up a moment" lol he will be loyal to K9

Adelaide is a badass I love her so much and I find the contrast between her and Lady Christina just one episode prior to be fascinating, I think Adelaide is exactly the type of person that Ten needed in his life at that exact moment

The Doctor speaking Martian...it's crazy how easily it could have turned into a Midnight 2.0 situation for him, I think Adelaide is the difference here she exudes so much authority

The fact that they took the time to focus the camera on Mia and Yuri holding hands, like 1 second only, but I go insane for that recurring theme in RTD's era especially considering how much that relates to timepetals and how distraught Ten is after losing Rose again and Donna

Speaking of Donna I love the Pompeii reference I could write essays about that as well as the mention of the Journey's End storyline with Adelaide as a child, RTD isn't hitting you over the head with it but you can definitely see all these links between what Ten lost in that episode and the Pompeii situation and his mental state in this episode aaahhhh what a masterpiece!!!

DT's acting in the final scene gives me CHILLS, he literally feels like an entirely different character as soon as he steps off the TARDIS, I feel the hairs on my body stand with the look in his eye. I am not a huge fan of Joan in the Human Nature two-parter but I think that was an interesting set of episodes and I also think it works solely b/c DT can very convincingly make you feel that John Smith is different from the Doctor even though there are some remnants there, same here in this episode. It's the Doctor but there's something there that is very un-Doctor.

[blackidyll]

@qserasera i'm sorry for how insanely long it's taken me to properly comment on and express my love for this fanmix, but as promised, writing up some of my thoughts and feelings on your excellent choices. i hope you enjoy this because i love this mix so so so much

first though i have to say i love that this is both based on jingheng's canon relationship, and that it spans their backstory and their relationship progression after the ambrosial arbor crisis. i just love all aspects of their relationship so much and this mix feels so complete with how it explores their rather complicated and long history with each other; seeing that reflected in your song choices has been really fun and also insightful <3

also thanks for introducing me to a new fancy word i had to look up what analemma means

(read more because you know how wordy i am)

死生不怨 is such an amazing start for this mix (as an aside i love how many chinese songs you have in this mix because absolutely yes all the luofu vibes). the melody, the lyrics; this song actually gives me strong -dan feng in the shackling prison- vibes, which actually feels rather appropriate because dan heng's beginning is with dan feng's end. can't quite decide if this song's from df or jy's pov, tbh (that one lines about -who lights a lantern for whom- really catches me all the time when i listen to this song) but either way the wistfulness and regret is strong with this one

the vocalists for Never to Return is so good? that ethereal echo-y quality of the voices. that high note -repent- is soooo chilling. this song is definitely the preceptors attempting to brainwash dan heng when he was still trapped in the shackling prison for me, but also the -never to return-s call to mind his banishment.

the vibes for 阴 is.. wow. i mean other than the super appropriateness of a song called yin. this song really reminds me of the vocals of all the three battle HSR songs when fighting Phantylia. coupled with The Light. Pt. II... just makes me think of jy finally succeeding with commuting dh's sentence into banishment and setting dh free in the same move.

ngl Unstoppable caught me offguard hahahaha i was not expecting techno chinese rap but i kind of love it? because HSR is like space tech scifi fantasy and once we get off the luofu? heck yeah we're getting chinese techno rap. i really like the contrast with 萧綦进城, because of course jy is still back on the luofu.

oh man Lost Times. her voice is just haunting. -you did what everyone told you to do. now what? there's got to be more- and -how long can you go before you make a change-. this song and 云之泣 give me similar jy vibes, but i'm screaming more about 云之泣 because "weeping of the clouds"?????? "within the moonlight, too many worries, and too little dreams"??? yelling screaming throwing up idk how you keep finding songs that are just so spot on.

i've already yelled at you at the 我爱的这个世界 -> The Lion's Heart -> Rough Seas transition, but now i get to yell about it more. you said that you imagined 我爱的这个世界 as dh's transformation back into his imbibitor lunae form which i absolutely agree with, but also this is such a romantic song? definitely encapsulates all my feelings during jy and dh's interactions during 1.2. and then The Lion's Heart? 100% jy during the battle with phantylia. also the music at 1.22 onwards kept tickling my brain and i kept trying to think of what it reminded me of, and i finally got it: the build up is very similar to I Am The Doctor, Eleven's theme from Doctor Who. which yeah, i can absolutely see the parallels between the way jy operates as general and the way the doctor usually handles universe ending crises.

i love Rough Seas so much omg. i could listen this song on repeat for days, on it's own it's such a great song but in a jy/dh context i just really like that this is them finally coming together after all the heart break and nostalgia and wistfulness because on their own they can survive but together they're so much stronger and they'll thrive.

Eye of the Storm, Mahogany and 云之羽 are definitely them working through their history and it's tough and there's so much history to reconcile and there's still the aftermath of the crisis to work through.. but there's an element of hope there. i really like these -in between- songs a lot. but goodness, the amount of pining in 云之羽 though ahhhhhh

we're back with the space jams with 爱情把戏 and Heavy and hehe this makes me think of dh going back to trailblazing again, but then we have jy occasionally visiting him on the express and them just finding themselves on firmer feet around each other. and like they're definitely feeling a connection to each other but like, neither of them are actually going to put it to words so they're just circling each other and everyone else is just watching them and making bets on when one of them is actually gonna say something aloud and eventually someone's going to snap (march probably, where's a closet when you need to shove in a couple who won't admit they're a couple) but in the meantime the UST is strong lmao

i internally screamed with Hopeless Romantic because it's such such such a jy song omggggggg. the quiet pining forever. the first time i was listening through this song i was actually saying my replies outloud to the lyrics like it was jy actually singing it ("i know i fell in love again" me: awww "but maybe it's just a phase" me: NO IT'S NOT "you might be gone someday" me: NO HE WON'T "but here's hoping that you'll stay" me: THEN ASK HIM TO STAY)... ya.. a very jy song...

Altar yooo 👀 the religious imagery. "I'm running up to the altar, drink from the water 'Til you show me some love, I am waiting". there are so many directions this can go

永安 is so beautiful... the lyrics.. but why are you two still pining omg this is a very them song.. the whole -i'm willing to endure/sacrifice/do everything so you're safe/happy/smiling-... it's very jy with his whole "dh is like a fish returned to sea, it's enough for me to watch him from the shore" but i also believe dh 100% feels the same... could you two.. not ahhhhh

i do love that you ended this mix with Moonlight Sunrise because it's such an upbeat song i like to imagine that they FINALLY stop pining like maybe march succeeded in shoving them into a closet and they finally figured out that they do love each other and want to be together and now they can go dating at aurum alley and it's sweet and kind of awkward but they're both incandescently happy about it (also i see what you did with "i'm your moonlight you're my sunrise" because that's themmmmm)

all in all i love this mix so much, you captured so many flavours of their relationship and i am here for every moment of it. thank you so much for this ahhhhhhhh 💚🧡💚🧡💚🧡

analemma; a dan heng x jing yuan fanmix

the stars move, and your eyes follow; distance, separation, reunion, longing

a gift fanmix for @blackidyll

Songs 1-12 approximately follow Honkai Star Rail canon backstory and later events; songs 13-20 are for relationship progression

{{LISTEN ON SPOTIFY}}

Song List below

{01 死生不怨 - 慕寒 | 02 Never to Return (ft Ashley Barrett) - Pyre OST | 03 阴- The Long Ballad OST | 04 The Light, Pt. II - Roc Chen | 05 Unstoppable -十七草 | 06 萧綦进城 - Monarch Industry/Rebel Princess OST | 07 Lost Times (feat Lambert) - Anna Ternheim, Lambert | 08 青玉案 - 云の泣 | 09 我愛的這個世界 - Till the End of the Moon OST | 10 The Lion's Heart - Audiomachine | 11 Rough Seas - Some Velvet Morning, Paul Jones | 12 Eye of the Storm - Ivy and Gold | 13 Mahogany - aeseaes | 14 云之羽 -Jason Zhang | 15 爱情把戏(BE MY LOVER) - Lambert凌 , 阿达娃 | 16 Heavy - Powers | 17 Hopeless Romantic - Pluto Koi | 18 Altar (Radio Edit) - machineheart | 19 永安 - Yong'An Dream OST | 20 Moonlight Sunrise - TWICE }

[variousqueerthings]

About Daniel & Miyagi & Grief’n’Stuff

I commented underneath this awesome gifset that paralleled KK3 and Cobra Kai about some interesting depth of feeling that so far has only been hinted at in the latter in relation to Daniel. 

Lots of people are watching the tv show first and either going back to watch the films (like I’ve done) or deciding to get the story purely from CK, so there’s a small tangent where I mention that I think it’s some pretty cool writing that means depending on what you’ve watched when you understand the story differently, which is just neat meta storytelling (there’s Daniel’s side, there’s Johnny’s side, and there’s the truth).

Spoilers for the Karate Kid movies (but they’re 30 years old, go watch’em)

I mainly focused that little comment on Cobra Kai and Daniel’s trauma, which never really seemed to be about Johnny himself, but rather his presence bringing back unpleasant Cobra Kai memories, but there’s something else I found having watched the three movies after watching the show and it’s sort of related to that and sort of related to Miyagi and sort of related to Daniel’s need to honour his memory perfectly - mainly it’s that Daniel probably needs help processing some grief and guilt + some Moments from those movies that I hope to see in coming seasons.

when I was watching the show (even with a knowledge of the trajectory of the films) I had a sense of Daniel as an avid student of Miyagi’s whose life was deeply affected by his presence in it. Clearly emotionally attached to him and his teachings, but still very much in a mentor/student space, with an allegory of fatherhood attached to it - this did start shifting in season 3 after Daniel returned to Okinawa, but there were still some pieces missing that I needed to actually see their interactions to get.

After watching the movies, I now understand that Daniel was actually very textually Miyagi’s adopted son in everything but name (and that he probably feels like he’s failed him and can never make things right, because he’s dead now and that’s yet another interesting parallel with Johnny in terms of his mother) and that makes every decision he makes in relation to Miyagi slot into place in a much more heart-breaking way.

 - the intensity of his devotion to his teaching style (even though it’s not actually a natural fit to his own temperament and in some ways might be a detriment - there’s a not-quite-tangent here about how combining elements of that style with elements of Johnny’s is what both of them need), his bitterness about Cobra Kai (in tandem with the events of the third movie), his not-at-all Miyagi-like response to the attack on the dojo and theft of Miyagi’s medal of honour, his emotions upon returning to Okinawa, even the more “slanted towards a bit of humorous white people don’t get appropriation” stuff like the scene with the fish and Kyler etcetc. (Although idk how Miyagi would feel about the karate-ads)

Miyagi was his father. Not just a father-adjacent, or a metaphor for fatherhood, no, he just straight up considered Daniel to be his son. And that sentiment was returned. No wonder Daniel’s emotionally compromised when it comes to anything that might tarnish his memories of him.

There are a few scenes in particular that I’m interested in whether they’ll show - 

1. First movie Miyagi gets drunk and speaks to Daniel about his past - while he was fighting in WWII winning his medal of honour, his wife died while pregnant in an internment camp, because she didn’t have access to a doctor (which... there is so much within that little piece of backstory). Daniel tucks a now sleeping Miyagi in and studies the medal, realising that his presence means as much to Miyagi as Miyagi’s does to him. He bows in respect before leaving for the night.

2. Second movie (while they’re building a room for Daniel to stay in at Miyagi’s instead of going with his mum to Fresno, which is unbearably cute. We see him living in it in the third movie) Daniel makes a frame for the medal of honour as a gift - Miyagi isn’t exactly dismissive, but there’s that overtone of how it connects to one of the most painful moments of his life. Still, he’s happy that Daniel took the time to do this for him, even while using it as another teachable Moment about bravery. - in the third movie the frame (same frame as in the tv series) is hanging on Miyagi’s wall.

3. Later on, while they’re in Okinawa, Miyagi’s father dies and he goes to sit at a spot that looks over the sea to mourn him. Daniel finds him there and sits down with him, telling him about his own father’s death, about how he felt guilty as a son that he couldn’t do more for him, but the most important thing was that he was there, held his hand, and said goodbye (cries for the 100th time).

4. Third movie. Before realising that Silver has deliberately manipulated him Daniel’s basically suffering a mental breakdown, comparing himself to a very special Bonsai tree that had earlier been destroyed, describing himself as “broken and twisted” - Miyagi takes him into the garden to show him that he fixed the tree and tells Daniel that he has strong roots and I... cry...

5. In general during the third movie we see Daniel pushing Miyagi away several times (one time after which Miyagi is standing alone with tears in his eyes, fuck ooooffff), because he thinks he’s let him down, while Miyagi is just worried. For his son. And yeah, we have them training again and replanting the fixed Bonsai tree and there’s a sort-of catharsis in that, but it never feels like the core of Daniel’s anxieties in that film are dealt with in the text. 

We know the Bonsai Tree Shop (which Daniel gave his college fund for and was meant to be Miyagi’s retirement) failed. We know that he was terrified of Silver until the end. We know he was beaten half to hell, even if he did win his match in the end. We don’t know what happened to Silver or Barnes. We know that Kreese is back and that Silver at least is likely about to come back.  

Daniel towards the end of that movie feels like he failed Miyagi and the show hasn’t really stated whether or not that feeling ever went away - from the clues so far, I’d say not. 

Quite apart from the fact that the acting in these is fucking stellar (the first of them earned Pat Morita his oscar nod and the third is just... wow. Probably my favourite out of all of the scenes in the franchise), they speak so much to the depth of their relationship and respect for one another and to the theme of parenthood and chosen family that the series later expands upon. 

In a story of terrible fathers, Miyagi was a great one, and with Cobra Kai back - and likely to get worse from here on out - the lack of Miyagi’s presence weighs pretty damn heavily on Daniel, especially if he never dealt with any of these things - of course, now he has Amanda and Johnny, if only he’d ask (Manifests For Season Four). 

The series has so far skewed more towards Johnny, which makes a lot of sense, since there were more unknowns about him to play with going in and it’s at first about building him into the more fully-realised character that Billy Zabka had in his head (+ he’s delightful), but with Terry Silver almost definitely coming into the picture, and Daniel and Johnny finally in the position to really start maybe sharing more of their inner selves with each other, I just really really hope that we get to see these moments as framings for Daniel’s story, not just for Johnny’s perspective of him to start opening up, but so the audience can see and/or remember where Daniel’s coming from. 

This show is very good at deciding when we get to see whose perspective and  the creators are interested in exploring more of that aftermath + have used the medal of honour within the plot already + love Silver as a villain, so all of this is my vague... not really prediction, more of an excitement. 

Daniel’s journey is partially one of realising that Miyagi was always proud of him and that the lessons he taught him mean he’ll always be there to protect him, and I’m just excited for Daniel to understand that.

He’s not as alone as he thinks he is.

[iamdeltas]

5, 11 and 12 for Who. I think I know most of them but regardless

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you? Interestingly... I don't actually think this has happened for me with the Doctor Who fandom? There are certainly popular ships I dislike (*cough cough* Doctor/Rose) but even say the many OOC fanfics I've seen for certain pairings haven't really made me hate them.

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Does 13 count? I mean, YouTube certainly gives that impression. Other than 13 though, IDK if the hate for her has died down yet, but Martha Jones. She's great and never deserved the hate she got from fandom. I admired her intelligence and her strong ethics. And I loved her exit and her realizing that she deserved better than how 10 was treating her. Also, I think Clara might count as well? I think she's still a pretty divisive character. I genuinely enjoyed her arc as well as how fucked up she could be 😂

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Three words: The Timeless Child. I love how many cool avenues for exploration it opens! It's also fascinating to analyze using historical parallels with colonization (which also fits because Gallifrey is basically the space version of the British Empire) and unethical experimentation of people of color throughout history, further reinforced by how many regenerations of the Child were girls of color. Also, anyone claiming it's a "chosen one story" doesn't actually know what the fuck a chosen one story is, and that's that on that!

Ask me to dish out all the fandom salt!

[aclosetfan]

21

(ask game) thank you so much for playing the game!! you’re the best (per usual)!!

Helllll yeahhhhh 21 is the DUMBEST STUPIDEST fic I’ve ever made and I lovvveee it 💚💙❤️ it’s the “Vampire Zombie” one i mentioned in the original ask game post 😂😂

So glad someone picked the number!! Background to keep in mind: do yall remember when there was just a shit ton of Vampire fics on FFN?? Idk about ao3, but for newer fandom members this was TOTALLY a trend in the early 2000s on ffn, and I was like why the fuck are all of these here??? And like, why is it constantly a predator-prey relationship between the rrb and ppg??? So I was like wait…okay, but this could be funny and decided to write a story making fun of these super cringey stereotypes.

The story would be a multi fic and I have zero idea how to explain it concisely, so basically below the cut is just me laying it all out for you srsly I’m just bearing my soul to you:

For the girls’ birthday, the Professor tricks out the simulation room they train in to be a VR game room b/c the girls had talked about VR once (and only once), but the Professor thought it was cool and ran with it. The Girls can create a world of their choosing and explore. They admit the idea is pretty cool and eventually start arguing where they should “go” first. Blossom suggests a historical era like the Victorian era/Bubbles suggests something romantic, where she hints at vampires/Buttercup doesn't like any of those ideas, but the vampires reminded her of all of her zombie videogames she plays and she ends up suggesting something like that instead/ To prevent arguing the Professors says he’ll combine all three ideas into one!

[[how does this machine work??? IDK in the spirit of early 2000 fanfics, anything complicated and confusing is only vaguely explained—which has in story effects that drive Blossom INSANE! Idk how it would work technically, but my choices as the writer on what is/is not describe and purposeful grammar mistakes has story implications] [ill explain this more later]]

The Professor loads up the “game,” but something malfunctions. He tells the girls (Buttercup) not to touch anything. She doesn't listen and ends up plugging something into an entirely different device against Blossom & Bubbles protest. The device is that old “time machine” thing the Professor made in one of the OG cartoon (the one where the girls meet the Young Professor). It turns out that whatever she does (again still don't ask me how) fuses the basic concept of the two machines together and creates a device that transports them to a parallel universe that matches the specifications of the “game” they wanted to create.

[[Throughout the story, i want to include little video game gags, like bottomless bags for storage, or random bullets laying around, little things like that. (they've lost their powers/ but BC keeps finding all these random guns/knifes so they're good) I also give the girls the “ability” to read the dialogue I write. So, when I mess up a comma (i.e. Let’s eat Grandma! vs Let’s eat, Grandma!), Blossom will look at the “character” they’re talking to and be like, “WELL, which is IT!?”] [I know it’s stupid, but I think its so fun!]]

So, because of the video game “glitch,” the girls think for the longest time they’re actually IN a video game, but when they “go to sleep” thinking that’ll save the game and they can quit, per Professor’s instruction, they find out they can’t. Cue freak out. After the calm down, Buttercup’s like okay, listen we probably just have to beat the game! Too bad they don’t know what the game’s objective is exactly. They just know they’re dressed in Victorian Era clothes and their “Professor” is the town’s doctor? Their mother died (tragically). It’s all a bit dramatic. They start searching for clues. Eventually, they find out that the Town has a zombie problem (THANKS BUTTERCUP!), and Blossom figures if they can cure that, they beat the game. Unbeknownst to them, they are actually stuck in a stupid vampire love plot there just happens to be zombies. [Like, you can’t have one supernatural creature without another and I wasn’t going to write about werewolves.] No one in town seems to care about the undead problem. Buttercup keeps “leveling up,” Blossom’s on the verge of a breakdown, and then, finally, Bubbles meets Boomer.

Boomer swears up and down Bubbles is his fated mate. Bubbles—who is definitely interested—is like ooo so you’re a vampire, cutie? He’s broody about it. She’s like so do you sparkle in the sun?? (I absolutely love sparkles, she says). He’s like, wut?? She’s like, do you sparkle???? He’s like, uh no, the sun kind of burns my energy tho. She’s like, oh. Okay. I see. You don’t sparkle. Sooo, well, haha, okay you seem like a really really sweet guy with the whole eternal devotion thing, but I don’t think this is really going to work out between us. He’s again like WUT. Boomer gets broken up with because he doesn’t sparkle.

Vampire Butch is flat out scared of Buttercup. Like he fully admits he’s sucked infants dry of their blood; he’s why people should fear the night; he’s not a “good guy”; but BC is a force to be reckoned with. In the Victorian era, I’m guessing they had little to no experience with the modern day “bro” and BC is full on bro. This doesn’t mesh well with Butch’s broody, dark, vampire thing he’s got going on. She’s too vulgar for a Victorian lady, she wears things called “Chacos,” and she has a gun??? Multiple guns. And He. Has. No. Fucking. Idea. What. She. Is. Saying!! No! He will not “dab her up!” No, he “doesn’t lift.” This wasn’t his mysterious, tough (but still a damsel, mind you) mate he met one fateful evening, this was some heathen creature (and this is coming from a vampire), so please, please, please, can he kill her?????  

Blossom’s like I don’t like to be touched and I’m a lesbian, and Brick’s like one) I think I respect you more than the old Blossom; two) the zombies just appeared, stop asking; three) you need to now help us find our mates before their eighteenth birthday or we’re all screwed.

Ready to kick ass and fight sexist stereotypes with their new “bros,” the girls set out with their new objective, hoping beyond hope that once they find the missing girls they’ll be able to go home. The girls find out that their parallel alternatives went disappearing a few days ago, so their “return” had been a relief to the whole town. [[Blossom’s like why did no one question our clothing?!?! Why are there zombies?!?!]] ugh and then, I don’t know what happens :( really. I never really ended it. They girls just constantly shit on the boys being broody vampires and kick zombie ass, like idk what else a gal could want out of a story. I feel like they end up finding the other girls. And I think that I was going to bring HIM into the mix, but it’s still just regular HIM. It turns out that HIM likes jumping dimensions to make the Girls life hell in every lifetime and has cursed the three girls living in the vampire dimension. (“I’ve got a life outside of just you, ya know.” HIM huffed, “What are you three doing here?”) It also turns out that out of all the dimensions, our Girls as Superheroes are the best at beating HIM and saving the day, so he’s extra pissy that they’re ruining his carefully crafted “historical romance vampire soap opera.” Blossom loses her shit because the historical inaccuracies are too high to now ignore, Bubbles is pissed because HIM didn’t make good enough vampires, and Buttercup’s like honestly, not a bad game, ngl. Everyone ignores her.

[[They beat HIM, free the other girls, return home, and BC obsesses over their stats sheets. Back in Vampire land, the boys are like wait a second the relationships we are now stuck in suck.] [The zombies are still not explained]]

[billpottsismygf]

Okay, so that was an episode. I'm still feeling shook from the "special announcement", but I liked that. I wouldn't say I loved it necessarily, but it feels like one that will grow on me.

I will say I was quite disappointed that the Doctor got out of prison so quickly and so easily. All the promotion implied she'd be in there for the majority of the episode, and I found it a bit underwhelming that Jack just broke her out without even breaking a sweat. I was thinking we'd see a lot of the Doctor introspecting and monologuing, perhaps a little like Heaven Sent, and instead that just got completely undercut.

Since I've mentioned Jack, god I love him. It was wonderful to see him back. In some ways I feel like he was underutilised, but I can't really articulate why. Him being in prison for 19 years to rescue the Doctor doesn't get dealt with at all, nor really the Doctor's decades in prison. On that note, I loved that Yaz was angry with the Doctor for leaving them, but it stung that she didn't even ask how long it had been for the Doctor.

Speaking of Yaz, her consistent characterisation throughout her time on the show has been that she completely idolises the Doctor. She's the best thing that ever happened to her, the best person ever, and I was only thinking last night how much I really want to see the pitfalls of that explored. We definitely got that a little bit in this episode. The companions all being unnerved by Jack's casual mention of his deaths and Rose's exile in the parallel universe was good, as was the justified anger and hurt. I also really liked Jack's conversation with Yaz about how it hurts after the Doctor has left, but I'm not sure it was explored enough.

Obviously I don't know where the show is going after this, but I really want to see Yaz's unhealthy idolisation dealt with. She doesn't necessarily have to become completely disillusioned, but idk I want to see it properly explored, which seems like it will be harder with a new companion aboard.

Speaking of John Bishop, he's a very interesting choice. I'm really intrigued to see where they go with his character. He started off as a stand up comedian, and I've greatly enjoyed his comedy, but when he branched out into serious acting, the little I've seen him in really impressed me. I'll be interested to see whether they go more comedic or serious with him - not that any character has to be only one of those things, but I don't get the impression he'll be a Nardole-like comic relief character.

Graham and Ryan's exit was fairly well done, especially Ryan's. It was a natural continuation of the doubts that were first voiced in Can You Hear Me, made worse by 10 months of living normally again. I loved him confronting the Doctor because she was once again trying to keep things from him. That's definitely been something missing in the current era, companions calling the Doctor out on their bullshit. I was hoping for some kind of Martha in Gridlock moment ("I'm not moving until you tell me the truth") and this was a nice way of doing that. I do like how much Ryan has clearly matured over his time in the show.

Graham's decision to leave with his grandson also makes perfect sense for his character, given that family and time with the people he loves are his character's primary driving force. I found the gifting of the psychic paper a little strange, though. She didn't hear them saying it would be handy earlier in the episode and no other companion has had it as a parting gift. It seems like Graham and Ryan are going to carry on fighting aliens freelance (Martha and Mickey style), travelling around the world to do it, but that doesn't make sense to me, given Ryan's desire for a normal life at home.

Oh also, Grace appearing at the end was really weird? It was obviously meant to be an emotional moment, but it was just bizarre that some sort of apparition appeared to both of them out of nowhere... What was meant to be happening? I don't think that worked at all. It's such a shame, as a reference to Grace could have been lovely, maybe Graham looking down at a frog necklace or something idk, but instead such a potentially moving moment fell completely flat.

God, I've written so much and I haven't even spoken about the Daleks once. They were cool, I guess. It was nice to our old pals the bronze Daleks again, I've missed them. The Doctor's plan to bring them to earth to kill off the impure ones was extremely reckless and honestly I can't quite believe her plan worked with as few consequences as it did.

There was a high body count in this episode. I liked Leo a lot and was genuinely sad when he got killed off. I definitely wasn't expecting the prime minister to get killed off so soon into her plan; I thought she was going to have a far more active role in the story. I also feel like the defence drones (just the AI, creature-less ones) didn't get explored properly for the horrifying concept that they are. They were used in that protest near the beginning, but the true horror of these tanks being deployed not only against protesters (already horrifying) but just out and about on the street etc. was completely overshadowed by the fact that the Daleks took control of them.

Honestly, I would have been more interested in the story if the creatures had never been cloned. The Doctor realises they are just AI designed by humans, but they're still awful and need to be stopped. Perhaps that would have worked better in a more sci-fi setting, because it wouldn't necessarily work for the Doctor to just bring down the UK government on modern day earth (then again, The Christmas Invasion...), but I still think that would have been a more compelling story and would have properly utilised this quite horrifying concept that does feel very real, prescient and possible in the current world.

I think those are my main thoughts for now, but I may think of other things at some point. A lot of this sounds quite negative, but I should say that I did have a great time during the episode, and I feel like I will enjoy it upon future watches. We shall see, though!

[nowhereclosetoit]

Pippa and Theo’s Relationship in “The Goldfinch”

(Or: Why Theo believes he’s in love with Pippa when he’s not)

I really enjoyed writing my last shitshow of an essay so now here’s another overly long essay on Theo and His Issues in “The Goldfinch”.

It’s 3,000 words so...good luck!

Pippa and Theo have a close bond, there’s no doubt about that, however, Theo misconstrues this bond in his head. He ends up perceiving the bond he shares with Pippa, on his end at least, for that of romantic love. Interestingly enough, this is not the case – Theo is not in love with Pippa, despite his belief, and Pippa herself understands this too.

One reason as to why Theo may be mistaking their close relationship (even though it’s never that close really) for romantic love is because of the similarities in each of their childhoods. There are many parallels that can be drawn between each of their childhoods, ranging from the death of a parent or guardian to their shared traumatic experience of the museum bombing.

Pippa’s mother, like Theo’s, is dead, as well as her legal guardian Welty (her uncle), who died in the museum bombing - Already they have some common ground through this which is the only established knowledge they have of each other on their first interaction in Hobie’s flat.

Pippa also stays with an adult (Hobie) who genuinely tries his best to take care of her until, right when things start looking up, another, estranged family member shows up to take her away from New York (Her Aunt Margaret who subsequently takes Pippa to Texas, then sending her to the school in Switzerland for “troubled girls”). This reflects the way that Theo was taken away from the Barbours by his father and Xandra to go and live in Las Vegas.

They are both also physically and/or emotionally abused and scarred from this event:

Theo, through his dad (and Xandra) who neglected him and also physically abused him.

Pippa through her Aunt emotionally manipulating her to make her stay at Institut Mont-Haefeli, and the school themselves for not having her best interests at heart.

In the film, Pippa states whilst at a restaurant after seeing a Glen Gould documentary, that “Welty was only with me that day because I was making him take me to an audition”, depicting her guilt – still as an adult – over the death of her uncle.

Theo makes it clear many times throughout the novel and the film how he feels it was his fault his mother died. (If you want an example check the excerpt above.)

How did they deal with it? Why is this significant in understanding their relationship?

Pippa’s grief manifested itself through her physical injuries which had lifelong lasting effects. Her injuries were extremely severe, reflecting the severity of her grief and guilt. (Hobie in Chapter 4 – Morphine Lollypop: “She’s had a bad crack on the head, a skull fracture, to tell you the truth she was in a coma for a while and her left leg was broken in so many pieces she came near to losing it. ‘Marbles in a sock,’ ” he said, with a mirthless laugh. “That’s what the doctor said when he looked at the x-ray. Twelve breaks. Five surgeries. ”)

Contrastingly, Theo was not as physically affected and internalised everything he felt. This illustrates itself through his lack of eating and sleeping due to his dreams that were plagued with nightmares of the day and his loss of his mother (firstly at the Barbours and also depicted in Vegas) and eventual demise into alcoholism and drug addiction (Vegas + the rest of his life dude’s fuckin popping pills – or crushing the pills then snorting them, I guess).

How Pippa and Theo’s grief manifested itself is significant as it foreshadows the later scenes in the narrative and how they each cope once they’re adults and should no longer be grieving. (I say should no longer be grieving as it’s clear that Theo only really lets go of his grief and guilt once his mother visits him in his dream in Amsterdam after the murder - in the book anyway.) By physically showing her grief to the world – by choice or not – Pippa illustrates a healthier way to deal with grief and negative feelings – getting it out there and receiving help. This also allows us to understand, whilst Pippa also never fully recovers too – See: her crying in the restaurant over the Glen Gould documentary - that she was able to deal with it significantly better than Theo did. She even manages to have a somewhat normal and healthy lifestyle as an adult. As we’ve already discussed, Theo’s grief internalised itself as depicted through his physical injuries/symptoms, or lack thereof. Theo chose, though whether he solely can be fully to blame for this, to internalise his grief and guilt through taking drugs and drinking alcohol. (I personally believe he isn’t fully to blame for ending up addicted to drugs because anybody who cared or was supposed to care about him offered him some form of drug or medication and said it would solve his problems, See: Mrs Barbour – sleeping pills, Xandra and Larry – pills for the plane, Boris – literally any drug they did together over the course of the novel.)

Mini Conclusion (for this part): The ways grief was expressed and dealt/not dealt with by Pippa and Theo explains why they behave the way they do, e.g: Theo internalises everything and never deals with anything fully or properly, Pippa on the other hand is better at reacting to things like an actual person as she was able to deal with her grief and guilt.

Why does Theo believe he is in love with Pippa?

I believe that there are four (4) main reasons as to why Theo mistakes his feelings towards Pippa as romantic love.

1. Pippa is the only remaining link Theo has, bar The Goldfinch, to his mother and before the bombing. He desperately wants to return to before the bombing happened - before his mother was killed. Theo met Pippa only moments before the bombing happened which irrevocably links her to Theo’s “Before: When life was perfect and beautiful” view of his life. This is explored, albeit briefly, in the following excerpts:

With Pippa being depicted in the same way as Theo’s mother, we get the sense that Theo associates her, unconsciously, with his mother, and, consequentially, sees her as a link to his mother, thus feeling no romantic love towards her in anyway.

An example of parallels between Audrey and Pippa is through how both of them had to go and live with an Aunt, with whom they did not have an enjoyable time with, in the South. 

Chapter 4 - Morphine Lollypop: Theo was thinking about “my mother after her parents died and she had to go live with her aunt Bess, + the mention of horses in this excerpt and how "the horses [were] sold”.

2. Theo also links Pippa with helping lessen his grief.

E.g: Soon after he first visits Hobie and Pippa, his appetite starts to return,

Theo relates Pippa to easing his feelings of anxiety:

With Pippa helping Theo ease his grief, whether realised or not, she becomes a caring figure for him, this could relate to a motherly sense of caring – which the novel could suggest so with my previous point, but hey, maybe I’m grasping at straws, idk.

3. Theo’s personality is obsessive and all-consuming which is depicted through literally any relationship he has had with anything and anyone for any considerable amount of time within the novel. 

This is depicted through the obsessive amounts he is able to recount about people and the minute detail in which he does so.

It can also be shown through the act of the years’ worth of letters he wrote to his mother after she died, as well as his relationship with The Goldfinch (obsessed with keeping it as it had a link to his mother and his heart etc).

4. (Again, maybe I’m grasping at straws here) He could be mistaking his love for Pippa as romantic as a result of compulsory heterosexuality (Once again, I’m using compulsory heterosexuality in this case as an LGBTQ+ individual feeling that they have to have romantic feelings/relations to people of the opposite gender/sex, and subconsciously forcing themselves to do so - due to the heteronormative society we live in). This can be found within his romantic relationships with women never fulfilling him and his constant depiction of them as cold (See: Kitsey quotes earlier in essay compared to the way he describes Boris in general) + We all know this motherfucker is queer af, if you don’t believe me check my essay out ;)

In conclusion, I feel like Pippa is able to realise that she is not in love with Theo/differentiate the love they have between them from that of romantic love as she is more aware of her issues and has dealt with them more than Theo has. Pippa managed to remove herself completely from a situation that was causing her pain (New York) and is able to see more clearly from doing so, whereas Theo didn’t. Theo was unable to remove himself mentally or physically and is stuck in the perpetual grief he feels for his mother’s death. The only time we get some sense of closure and complete removal of grief from Theo is after Amsterdam. (In the book this is after the dream he has where he can finally face his mother, and in the film, this is once Boris tells him that “[his] bird is back in the world”). Due to Theo being unable to fully receive any sort of ability to even attempt solving his problems, his judgment is clouded and he believes he is in love with Pippa.

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 1X10 Asylum

Hello hello hello we back at it again

featuring potential rpg googling cuz this is the only chill time I allow myself regularly

Also Idk anything about this one so wheeeee

oho it’s gonna be like silent hill I see

and I’m trying to figure out an urban fantasy Jane Austen thing

That isn’t like...steal from pre-existing idea cuz that’s wrong, so I’m not gonna look at that google page anymore

we could theoretically use the same races+modifiers, it’s just the items+classes that get fucked

heh some kiddos hid in the asylum

OPE AND it’S HAUNTED

so the items likely depend on the class, and so now I gotta figure out the classes

Nobility, middle class, lower class and ~vague army thing~ seem like good bets

OH AND GROUNDSKEEPERS/SERVANTS

OH N O he has a wife AND HE’S POSSESSED

PUT YOUR HAND AWAY FROM THE GUN

HAND AWAY FROM GUN

ok this one was good intro, I like it a lot

and they’re angsting about their dad again

ThE mAn cAn BaRelY woRk a ToaSter heh

Dean’s hope/desire for approval + Sam’s cynicism HDOFASIHA

...I kinda wanna see a like....ball+locked in+murder one by one thing

ha Sam and the acting is KILLING me

I do love the “Everyone pick on Dean” thing it’s quite funny

OOO ACTUAL DETECTIVE WORK

OHO AND THEY JUST CREAK APART I LIKE THAT

dOn’T aSk Don’T tEll 

the imagery is genuinely creepy, the vibe is very good, very spook

I can’t believe I had to google how to spell genuinely

this argument hurts me I sWEAR TO GOD

Dean follows orders in hopes of getting praise + Sam’s given up ALFHISDASIH

I genuinely cannot say this enough but fuck John Winchester

heh Sam needing to do actual therapy to the get the deets, good, finally some good came from these fucking cases

Look, I understand ghost hunting is Cool and Hip but for fuck’s sake if murders and bad stuff happens, WHY WOULD YOU GO TOWARDS IT

ESPECIALLY THE OLD CREEPY THING, UNLESS YOU’RE TRAINED FOR G O D ‘ S SAKE

THE FLASHLIGHT THING+SILHOUTEE AHIDHFPS

I am too tired to google how to spell that

OH THAT CUT TO THE GUY IN THE STRAIGHT JACKET I ACTUALLY JUMPED

FU CK I’m genuinely scared/suspensed(idk if that’s a word who cares)

THIS IS WHY I NEVER PLAYED SILENT HILL I AM ~TERRIFIED~

JESUS THERE ARE MULTIPLE ASFIPS 

OHO? There’s LAYERS? A psycho killer killing the others?

FINALLY DEAN WITH THE COMMON SENSE WHY WOULD YOU GO INTO THE HAUNTED PSYCHO HOSPITAL

Look I’m aware that the psych ward is overdone but the imagery is effective for a reason 

I am genuinely scared rn, probably the first time since the pilot

Not that the other eps were bad, they just were more intrigue and interest and lore than actual horror imagery

WHY DO I KEEP WRITING GENUINELY I CANNOT SPELL IT TONIGHT

OH MY GOD HE’S BEHIND HER

Yes once again it’s the girl in danger, but whatever, ok, fine, we’ve established the misogyny 

Ok that’s a cool plot, the haunted patients trying to tell them something and them being too scared to listen

“Dean he’s your boss” “No” why do i feel like that Meant something, yk?

if it’s the doctor, paralleling all the horrible shit he did to the patients that are clearly in physical pain when they died....ohohoho

horror cliche? yes. But again, effective for a reason

especially for me, cuz I haven’t seen a lot of horror movies

Girl with shotgun feels like it’s set up to be joke, but I kinda like implication of girl needing to learn protection while guy did not

Am I reading into it on my own? probably, idk, I’ll choose to keep that in my head

hell even the filter’s coming in clutch this episode, it makes everything a bit extra Grunge

IHAPSFIS DOCTOR MAN AHIFSADPFAS

Is...Sam’s esp gonna kick in now? some Demony powers? 

HA SHE SHOT DEAN ok near him

EVIL DEMON SAM OH N O 

ASIFUSAPI THE DRAMATIC IRONY

OH MY GOD IT’S POSSESSION OH MY GOD

AND OF COURSE THEY HAVE BEEF THE SPIRIT CAN USE THIS IS WHY YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR EMOTIONS

Look I feel it says something these assholes have only had deep raw conversations whEN THEY WERE BEING POSSESSED OR SOMETHING IN THAT VEIN

ONE EMOTIONALLY SANE PERSON! O N E 

DEAN YOU SELF-SACRIFICIAL BASTARD It’s literally left to interpretation if Dean wanted to see what would happen or if it’s a trick fsaoidfjlhas

EWEWEW HIS MUMMFIED BODY

NO NOT THE FLASHLIGHT

HE TURNS TO FUCKING STONE IN FRONT OF DEAN THAT’S SO METAL

Sam: Tries to have a Talk 

Dean: nah, we don’t need to talk, no sharing, no caring, n o p e 

Dean he nearly killed you

AND WE END ON A DAD CLIFFHANGER

fuck that was horrific oh my god ok wrap-up

1. Good character dynamic exploration, good exploration of the brothers’ relationship, good good good character work

2. COOL SETTING! COOL STORY! I WAS ACTUALLY VERY SCARED

3. YES I KNOW IT’S CLICHE BUT IT WORKS OK 

4. the filter? rly rly worked for this story. Actually, most of everything worked for this story, I truly liked this episode

5. and now we’re gonna get John I’m so excited to hate him on main for ages, god I hate how much he fucked up his kids I hate him so much

6. and one last thing, the idea of the ENTIRE psych hospital being ghosts, and all of them being eternally tormented by the doctor man, and so they had to kill the source of unfinished business was Really quite cool and played on the general misery all around of those things and how that can spread. Am i reading too much into it, maybe, but GOOD LORD THAT WAS FUN.

This was literally so fun, so good, I enjoyed it a lot. WHEEEEEEE

[theskyexists]

Last word on the companions

Look, I‘m gonna say this one last time in an attempt to slide into the acceptance stage of grief and STAY there. Kill all hope because hope hurts.

Chibnall may have some cool plot and meta stewing and all but he does not care one fucking BIT about the companions and that is his fatal fucking mistake.

I maintain that he’s carved both hearts out of the show and made it impossible to care truly wholeheartedly for either the companions or the Doctor - which is pretty fucking stupid considering those are the characters that experience all the cool shit he’s got planned.

What was that post? An audience learns to care for a character by how the character cares? Idk.

There is ZERO connection between the worldbuilding - the stakes of the plot - the Doctor’s story - and any of the companions’ stories. The Doctor and the companions are not affected by each other. And if they are, it’s only in inconsequential ways. If they’re not affected by each other then that means they do not care much about each other. This should be a damn ping pong match!

The thing that has characterised Doctor Who throughout the NuWho episodes and I’m counting Eight is that the Doctor LOVES his companions. Instantly, sometimes desperately, and yes, often flippantly, but. But he loves them wholeheartedly and - he shows them. He tells them. He falls IN LOVE with them on some level - not romantically - but with that sheer intensity. It’s charming - it’s wonderful - it’s a total fantasy and it makes the audience love HIM in return - like the companions love him in return.

Thirteen does not fall in love. The companions do not fall in love. Yaz might be the only one but her feelings are never relevant. The audience does not fall in love.

I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a problem that she doesn’t hug, or touch - though it’s different. It’s that they don’t make a point of it. Now if they made a point of Thirteen being touch-averse - sure that could be interesting. It was interesting with Twelve too. I’d be super into that. It might still happ- NO! no hope!!! What I’m saying is - they don’t explore how Graham and Ryan and Yaz develop in RESPONSE to that. There is no back and forth in consequences for everybody’s own personal development. There is no interest in that. It’s never the focus, it’s not relevant.

There was so much potential. There are so many wonderful parallels between Graham and the Doctor - there is such an interesting potential parental dynamic between Ryan and the Doctor - and NONE of that has been touched upon and now they’re leaving. Their relationship with the Doctor developed by ZERO. When they came onto the ship and when they leave - it’s essentially the same - we’ve seen so very little of what the Doctor means to them personally - how they actually care about her or how she cares about them. They share nothing. Their individual relationships are barely defined. The companions are only affected by the adventures - not the Doctor as a person herself. Graham and Ryan leaving now is evidence that Chibnall had reserved no last-minute focus for them. HE HAS NO INTEREST IN THE COMPANIONS.

The fact that they are NEVER involved in any of the plot/the Doctor’s story - is the most damning. They are NEVER relevant to her.

Basically what I’m saying is, Doctor Who, ironically, should be the companions’ stories - all of em, if you’re going to have three - and it’s not been, and it won’t be. And that’s devastating to formula of the show and every single aspect. It affects the stakes, the emotional depth, the impact of the speeches, the moral quandaries, and the sense of pacing and suspense and scare-factor.

[shyheartx]

i was just tagged by @leatherandfrackles to do some q&a’s so i guess you should get to know a little about who’s running this blog 💕

1. Do you make your bed?

Yeah I try to every day

2. What is your favourite number?

Hm. I don’t have like a lucky number or anything cause I’m not superstitious at all but let’s say 147. I was in year 2 and I guessed the amount of jellybeans in the jar on a whim and ended up taking the massive jar home with me that day.

3. What’s your job?

Ah. I’ve been thrown around so much this year. It’s been so stressful and fucked since i left school but I just landed a job doing outreach calls for an auto dealership company.

4. If you could, would you go back to school?

I had fun in most of the classes and human bio was my favourite and it was nice seeing my boyfriend every day and giving him a kiss next to our lockers every morning. I had a good bunch of friends but wasn’t super close to anyone. I won every art award and finished top of english. I’m doing my own thing now but i do miss it. I left uni after a semester.

5. Can you parallel park?

Ewwww haha I can but I’d avoid it!

6. A job you had that would surprise people?

I just finished working in a daycare so probably that one !

7. Do you think aliens are real?

Yes of course but I have a feeling we’ll never come across them in our lifetime or while we look like this. There’s only so far we can physically explore the universe

9. What’s your guilty pleasure?

Probably some cheesy 80s music like Starship. I go off to Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now and I just finished performing in the Rock Of Ages musical so not only can I sing the harmonies along to cheesy 80s music but I’ll do a whole routine now.. Musicals are also another guilty pleasure and Heathers is my favourite one ! Our theatre is doing that next year and I hope I get casted as Heather McNamera :D I also love cheese. A lot.

10. Tattoos?

Nope

11. Favourite Colour?

Probably pink !! 💗

12. Things people do that drive you crazy?

When people don’t clean up after themselves when out eating and stuff, when DVDs are put in the wrong case / empty DVD cases, dirty bathrooms, dirty floors..

13. Any phobias?

Probably parasites and funnily enough, doctors, although I’ve been working on that and made a lot of progress compared to when I was younger. And Alzheimer’s :(((

14. Favourite childhood sport?

Tennis and Taekwondo! 

15. Do you talk to yourself?

Not that much haha but I sing and hum and drum the table / the air all the time

16. What movie do you adore?

There’s a few I love, I couldn’t just pick one.. Heathers, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Into the Spiderverse and Call Me By Your Name are a few that come to mind :)

17. Do you like doing puzzles?

Depends what kind. I’m not very good at maths so visual or word ones are better

18. Favourite kind of music?

I like a lot of different kinds. Indie stuff is what I listen to the most and I really only listen to alternative radio or classic rock stations.

19. Tea or coffee?

Coffee but I’m bisexual don’t make me choose between things :D

20. The first thing you remember you wanted to be when you grew up?

Palaeontologist! I’ve always loved natural history and still do!

21. Kinks?

Cardiophilia mostly, but not resus or anything dark. I like the cutesy / medical stuff a lot. But I like some stuff in gentle femdom too. What men are expected to do and what women are expected to do in the bedroom doesn’t concern me at all. I like to just do what feels good in the moment idk..

22. Biggest fantasy?

Oooh I think I answered this a while back but I’ll say it again haha it’s not very realistic. It’s being a patient and just being.. thoroughly monitored while I’m being told what to do or controlled. A doctor that’s firm but sweet and maybe a team of med students there to keep an eye on me. EKG, stethoscopes, the whole shebang.. nothing too crazy though remember I like it soft! It doesn’t even have to be a sexual thing. Just being in that position and being vulnerable sounds enjoyable and fun on it’s own..

23. Your best feature?

My kindness and artistic talents probably. And i guess it doesn’t hurt to look at me either haha

24. Favourite age you’ve been so far?

Idk I’m still really young and figuring life out. I remember being like 11 and 12 and just loving life without much of a worry and being really passionate without caring what other people think and that was so nice

25. Life motto?

oof sorry I can’t think of one D:

you guys feel free to continue ! (but dont rb) tagging @favoriteheartbeat though :p sorry mate

[joanofarchetype]

liveblog of the swamp thing pilot under the cut !!!!!!

Let me say that they gave Abby a solid introduction. It really tells us who she is not only in terms of her skillset (speaks French, high emotional intelligence as well as all the books smarts associated with CDC training) but it tells us how she wields her authority and that she's unorthodox and willing to take at times stupid risks to do the Right Thing.

Also this show very casually gives us a gay Asian CDC doctor in the first ten minutes who appreciates Abby's stupid risks and doesn't throw the rulebook at her, so we see her respected in her field and know she can form attachments

I like how they paid homage to Abby Arcane's classic outfit (red shirt, blue denim) but in the muted toned befitting of a modern paranormal horror, which is their slant for this show.

(That said, while it works for Swamp Thing because...swamp, I would love more idk, colorful horror tv shows? Stuff that's not necessarily bright, but maybe not so desaturated and cool-hued.)

Oh no I love Alec and his dumb cargo shorts

Everybody STOP there is a dog named Garou

He's sCRUFFY

Alec is a NERD he's so excited and also uses corny 80s mystery references?

Have I mentioned before how I'm really really glad Abby is the main character in this show

Sorry but this takes place in the small town of Marais, Louisiana, which I would just like to point out means SWAMP

In some parallel universe there's a sultry series of pulpy mystery paperbacks called The Thing from Marais

I can't get over Alec's fUCKING CARGO SHORTS AND FLIP-FLOPS???

Wow I love me a man who is brave even in cargo shorts — although one might argue that the act of wearing cargo shorts in 2019 is, in and of itself, quite brave.

Getting flashbacks to Children of Men tho with the flip-flops

Liz Tremayne is a black woman and I'm getting strong sapphic vibes

Virginia Madsen truly is at her best when she's playing antagonists, Witches of East End proved this

Not a spoiler btw, you knew the moment she was cast she wasn't gonna be playing nice with Abby

Crystal Reed is so incredible at emoting through restraint. Saw that in Teen Wolf and it's why I was so excited that she'd been cast as Abby Arcane. Didn't dream they'd give us this much Acting in the pilot tho

Sidenote I have to say I am genuinely verklempt over the elements of southern gothic utilized correctly? Like the aesthetic is perfect but they're already setting up the sociological elements like poverty, ecological exploitation & my guess is there's going to be some strong parallels to Cancer Alley in the works. And then this show gets genuinely GROSS which is my other favorite thing about southern gothic and Swamp Thing in general, and it's something DCU has shied away from in the past. One of the reasons I firmly believe Constantine on NBC got cancelled despite its perfect casting with Matt Ryan is it pulled its punches and gave us too much filler. It was at its absolute best when it just WENT for it, balls to the wall. Swamp Thing's pacing is great. This is a good pilot.

OH MY GOD

idk why my bitch ass is surprised I knew what I was getting into

GOD I love the elements of ritual sacrifice inherent in this mythos and how they're being extremely explicit with them. It's foreshadowed so perfectly early on.

it's already setting up all the themes of small town poverty and how that gets exploited first and foremost thru ecology? like the relationship to the earth itself as metaphor, which is very apropos for any exploration of sacrifice along the lines of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough.

i'm getting the sense there's gonna be a lot of parallels to Cancer Alley which is GOOD because it’s a problem and we need to talk about it put it in all the tv shows make the issue inescapable so ppl are aware and we confront the fuck out of it and every instance of corporations poisoning the water supply and getting off scot free (i.e. Flint)

it makes me think of the Zora Neale Hurston quote, “Real gods require blood.”

i also did NOT expect to be so quickly invested in their relationship, but they're both so well acted and they made their quick bonding moments realistic with even minimal dialogue/exposition and tbh alec is just so charming

Verdict: WATCH SWAMP THING

[themyskira]

Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol 2 - Part 1

I’m going to break this into a few parts, because it turned out I had a bit to say. I’ll start with my overall impressions, then dive into the spoilery recap.

General thoughts: Next verse, same as the first.

Grant Morrison purports to want to explore Marston’s ideas, but he’s more interested in the kooky, kinky trappings than the sentiment behind them.

Marston was radical and progressive in his time. Writing in the 1940s, he told his readers that women were men’s equals — and even superiors! — in every way. He told young girls there was no limit to what they could do. His stories promoted love over hatred, peace over violence, rehabilitation over retribution.

If Morrison had taken that bold sentiment and reimagined it through a lens of modern society and feminism in 2018, he might have had a compelling story to tell. Instead, he takes Marston’s ideas as he understands them and transplants them wholesale into a time in which they’re no longer radical and progressive, but rather backward and out-of-step with modern intersectional feminism, and then proceeds to ask such deep, incisive questions as “yes but realistically could we actually replace all world governments with a matriarchy?????”

He never truly deconstructs any of Marston’s ideas, just parrots phrases like “submission to loving authority” a lot and raises questions without ever making a decent attempt at answering them. To be fair, part of the problem is that he’s simply trying to do too much at once: juggling parallel stories in Themyscira and Man’s World, an interrogation of the Amazons’ philosophies and the introduction of three new antagonists and the tensions they cause, all within a limited page count, Morrison is unable to devote the necessary time to properly developing any of them. It’s no wonder the result is so half-baked.

But hey, just throw in a bunch of vagina planes and a dusting of kink and watch as everyone crows over how subversive he is.

Yannick Paquette’s artwork is still beautiful. His page layouts are still dynamic and expressive, and his character designs are still lovely. Diana in particular gets a variety of very cool outfits, including a beautiful modest costume for a trip to the Middle East.

But he still can’t shake his tendency towards drawing women’s bodies in weirdly-contorted poses with bizarre pornfaces. Wonder Woman shouldn’t look like she’s orgasming as she’s leaping into battle, ffs.

Oh, and the series is still being edited by noted serial sexual harasser Eddie Berganza. HASHTAG FEMINISM!

Let’s get into the recap.

Content warning for some skeevy mind control content and general discussion of the gender essentialist, body-shaming, TERFy attitudes of Morrison’s Amazons.

The story opens with a flashback to 1942, with Paula von Gunther leading a Nazi invasion of Themyscira, and god I’m already so tired.

idk, I mean, I get that Nazis were a major Golden Age antagonist, and Morrison is harking back to that. But there’s a broader historical and cultural context to consider. Cartoonish Nazi villains in patriotic WWII-era American comics carried very different associations than they do in 2018, in the midst of a presidency steeped in white supremacy and hate speech, on the eve of a midterm election in which a record number of neo-Nazis are standing for office, at a time when hate groups are surging, when migrant children are being separated from their families and held in detention camps— just. Not a time when I want to be reading about cartoonish super-Nazis, personally.

And I don’t really see why they necessarily need to be this story? The battle serves to illustrate how Amazons combat and… “rehabilitate”… their adversaries. Paula ultimately serves as a plot device. Couldn’t that maybe have been achieved without Nazis?

Anyway, Paula announces that she is claiming the island for the Third Reich, and Hippolyta is like “lol no”.

Okay, that part I like. Evil army storms the island, backed by guns and warships, surround a half-dozen barely-armed women… who all but roll their eyes. ‘Pfft, children. Fine, if you want to play this game…’ And the evil army can only gape in bewilderment as the women proceed to take them apart in minutes.

But this is where it gets weird.

The Amazons fire a purple ray at all of the Nazis, which… makes them all drop their weapons and start screaming “YES!” orgasmically?

Hippolyta tells Paula that the soldiers “will be taken to the Space Transformer. They will be transported to Aphrodite’s world where Queen Desira and her butterfly-winged Venus Girls wait to purge them of their need for conflict. They will be taught to submit to loving authority. They will learn to embrace peace and obedience. They will be as happy as men can be.”

Paula attacks Hippolyta, rips off her magic girdle and heaves a great boulder over her head— wait, were we supposed to know that Paula had superpowers? That seems like something that should have been flagged.

She effortlessly takes down the Amazons who rush to the queen’s defence and takes a moment to cackle villainously. “Behold the pride of Germany! The ultimate daughter of the thousand-year-empire of Adolf Hitler!” To which Hippolyta— okay, I like this part, too.

Hippolyta calmly gets to her feet and puts Paula in a stranglehold. “We are the Amazons of myth, my dear! I am Queen Hippolyta eternal.” She swiftly and efficiently brings Paula to her knees.

But, welp, never mind, it’s about to get fucking creepy again.

Hippolyta forces Paula into “the Venus Girdle”, a device that “charges every body cell with vitalising currents and harmonises the brain, encouraging obedience.”

Paula: Let me go! What is that? What are you doing? Hippolyta: The Venus Girdle? It charges every body cell with vitalising currents and harmonises the brain, encouraging obedience. A dainty thing, is it not? Paula: I won’t— I won’t— You can’t control me— you can’t— can’t make me— make me... oh… make me…

Paula: nmmuhhh… What’s happening? My Nazi ideals— slipping away— they— they don’t make any sense now… I— I thought— I thought— I was strong. What’s wrong with me? I’m so weak— I must be weak to wish to serve weak, cruel men— like— like Herr Hitler— I— I— Hippolyta: If you truly long to be a slave to the ideas of others, well… we can find a loving mistress to help you explore your desires in a healthier context. Paula: Yes. Yes! My queen— [sob] —how can you ever forgive me? How wise of you to know— to know this is all I ever wanted! Hippolyta: Devote yourself to me by following the Amazon Code. Go with out sweet Mala to Improvement Island. There you will come to know yourself until the Venus Girdle is no longer required.

Paula: But all I want is to serve you, my queen! I love you! Please don’t turn your back on me!

Basically, Hippolyta forcibly uses a mind-altering device on Paula that alters her brain chemistry to make her placid, compliant and suggestible, then immediately washes her hands of her.

So… let’s talk about this, because I think it strikes at the heart of the problems with Wonder Woman: Earth One.

Queen Desira, the Venus Girls, magnetic golden Venus Girdles that “harmonise the brain” — all these things are drawn from Golden Age Wondy comics cowritten by Marston and his collaborator Joye Kelly. Marston played with mind control a lot in his stories, and not all of it came from the bad guys.

Morrison’s bold, subversive approach to these story elements is to export them wholesale into the present day and force us to feel uncomfortable about them.

In other words, he’s taking some of the weirder and more fucked up story elements from a collection of comics that are widely agreed to be very weird, and then plonking it before your readers and asking, ‘hey guys, have you ever considered… that this might be weird and fucked up???’

There’s nothing clever or insightful about that. And there’s certainly nothing groundbreaking about a cis white male writer imagining a fictitious feminist dystopia where women strip away men’s free will.

Like, if you really want to be subversive with Marston’s Wonder Woman, how about you start by hiring a woman to write it? Why not see what this iconic feminist hero conceived by a cis white man in the 1940s and written almost exclusively by cis white men for over 75 years might look like if she were reimagined and reinterpreted by LGBTI women, by women of colour? By the women left out of those original comics?

That would be subversive. Morrison is just being a smartarse.

So yeah, Hippolyta turns her back on the helpless, brainwashed, lovesick Paula and walks over to Diana, who’s defied her mother’s orders and run down from the palace to get a glimpse of the action. She’s full of questions; Hippolyta brushes them off with the usual (for Morrison’s Amazons) ‘men are shit’ line.

There’s a moment where Paula and Diana meet eyes from across the beach, and each asks, “who is she?” Diana is simply curious; Paula is instantly lovestruck.

Paula: That girl… the image of my queen.

This looks like foreshadowing, but spoilers: it goes absolutely nowhere.

Sidenote: If the Amazons deal with invaders by brainwashing them, why did they want to kill Steve Trevor in Volume One?

Cut to present-day America, where a room of faceless men discuss the threat posed by the Amazons and their superior technology, which they assume extends to deadly weaponry. The only in they have with the Amazons is Wonder Woman, and to get through her defences they’ve called in “an expert in female psychology”, aka a misogynistic monster.

Doctor Psycho: Gentlemen. She may be strong and tough and smart and beautiful… but she’s just a woman. I never met one I couldn’t break.

Oh, goody.

Cut to a cute splash page of Diana playing baseball. She gets a lot of great outfits in this book.

She’s also clearly making an impact in Man’s World; her face is plastered across every magazine, and people flock to hear her speak.

A Q&A sessions serves as a thinly-veiled opportunity for Morrison to answer some of the criticisms of the first book. His response leaves something to be desired.

“Amazon training can make any of you into a Wonder Woman,” says Diana. We teach a system of physical and psychological health and vitality. The grace and beauty of Aphrodite, the skill and wisdom of Athena.”

Woman: What about Wonder trans women? Is there room for people like me in your utopia? Diana: There’s room for everyone. The Amazon Code was evolved by women over thousands of years and outlines a progressive, pacifist way of living and thinking that anyone can follow.

I’m sorry, but that’s a fucking bullshit answer. It’s a weak, superficial gesture towards inclusiveness that conspicuously fails to express any real support or solidarity.

And depressingly, this is 100% in-character for Earth One Diana, because Morrison’s Amazons? are absolutely TERFs. As with the mind control content, Morrison has exported Marston’s 1940s binaristic gender essentialism unchanged into the 21st century in order to ask searing questions like ‘hey but what if??? the idea that women are genetically more suited to ruling??? is simplistic and flawed?????’ But the most he’ll engage with the genuinely insidious implications around the exclusion of trans and nonbinary people is a smiling noncommittal, ‘Are trans people welcome? My friend, everyone is welcome! No further questions!’

Morrison’s Wonder Woman displays a profound disregard of context. He ignores not only the cultural, historical and individual contexts that shaped the original 1940s Wonder Woman, but also the contexts of the time in which he’s currently writing and the cultural space that Wondy has come to inhabit today as a feminist and LGBT icon.

Removed from context, Morrison is simply taking a hero who traditionally hails from an advanced utopian society, taking another look at the views that society actually espouses, and reframing her as a well-meaning but naive hero from an advanced but deeply flawed and unsettling society.

In context, he’s doing exactly what Brian Azzarello did in turning the Amazons into murderous man-hating monsters, just with more kink and vagina planes.

Woman 2: Umm, there’s a lot of stuff on social media about how you dress provocatively and promote an unrealistic body type, which is basically setting a bad example for women. I mean, the stuff you do is amazing and all, it’s just… does any of the criticism bother you? Diana: I don’t think there’s any such thing as an ‘unrealistic’ body shape. My own body is the result of diet, exercise and… um… sophisticated genetic engineering. Otherwise, I dress as I please.

Volume One made it clear that all Amazons have the physique of supermodels, and when they encounter the diverse body types of the women in our world, they are disgusted and respond with body-shaming insults. Here, Diana again avoids voicing any actual support (she doesn’t say that all women’s bodies are beautiful and valid, she suggests that her body type is not unrealistic), while also throwing out eugenics as a reason for the lack of body diversity among the Amazons. Oh good, I was hoping we’d get more Nazi parallels!

Finally, a militant white feminist stands up and observes that if the Amazons are capable of half of what Diana says they are, then they could dismantle the patriarchy overnight — so why is Diana wasting time giving philosophy lectures? “You can control people’s minds with that lasso of yours. Like you did with that dude on TV— so why can’t you put a lasso ‘round the whole world?”

Afterwards, talking to Beth Candy, Diana’s like, ‘gosh, Beth, I’ve never seriously thought about world domination before, but maybe it is time to consider stripping all mortals of their free will, dismantling all nations and compelling everybody on the planet to bow down before Amazonia.’

Then Diana gets on her mental radio and calls her mother, confessing her doubts about her mission.

It was around this point in the book that the Amazons’ dialogue began to grate on me. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was at first. Every line read like a ceremonious pronouncement. They used antiquated syntax and words, like “whole systems … must o’erturned be” and “she did, without due caution, this, her island home, depart!”. Even Diana would become infected with it whenever she was speaking to them. It felt like they weren’t so much conversing as they were reciting… 

...verse… 

oh my god, that motherfucker.

Surely he hadn’t.

I scanned the dialogue again. I double-checked it.

He had.

Grant Morrison, that obscenely pretentious wanker, wrote all of the Amazons’ dialogue in dactylic hexameter.

For fuck’s sake.

After finishing her call with Diana, Hippolyta learns that somebody has vandalised one of the temples with the symbol of “a backward-turning sun”, i.e. a swastika. Unseen by everybody, Paula breaks into Hippolyta’s palace.

[catelyngrant]

😈🧠💻

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate? I definitely can go down dark, no-happily-ever-after paths. I've only written a couple of fics that are really "no happy ending possible" stories but I write a lot that are bittersweet, heavy on the bitter. I don't know why that feels like the most natural route for me a lot of the time!

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet? I've got a couple, always. On the romangerri front I've got an entire spreadsheet lmao but the main two that I a) spend countless hours thinking about and b) will absolutely never write are, right now, the Damages/Succession crossover and the AU where Gerri delicately extracts herself from the 2x04 phone call and their relationship doesn't go down a sexual path (at that point), and imagining how that partnership might develop in that world and how it might impact late-s2 and s3.

From a Hacks perspective, I really like the idea of using the email as a throughline that explores Deborah's growth. I initially imagined it as a gifset (paralleling the lines from the email with moments that show the opposite, like the line about being a shitty mother contrasted with a sweet DJ/Deb moment, or the line about Ava's asthma attacks paralleled with Deborah threatening the doctor in 1x06), and I would still love to see that in gif format, but as s2 has progressed I've thought more about having each section be a little drabble. It's still pretty vague, though, and idk if I'll get to it. If someone wants to give it a shot, please do!

💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done? Does reading fic count as research? I wrote ghosts in the attic when I'd seen a grand total of maybe a dozen complete SVU episodes, but I'd read SO much fic at that point that I think I pulled it off decently in terms of characterization (though I definitely think I'd change some things now that I've seen 1.0). And then I definitely did a bit of minor research for most of my canon-set ASOIAF fics, just things like herbs meant for first aid and the meanings of flowers and things like that. The Kindness of Strangers, which centers Lysa Tully and is still my most popular fic on AO3, involved digging a little deeper into the ASOIAF world in general - it's so massive and I was very familiar with some pieces of it, but that involved writing several characters I knew a lot less about (and it originally included a couple of sections that involved a lot more character research and I ultimately scrapped). Overall, though, I'm a handwave kind of gal when it comes to anything too complicated!

Thanks for asking <3