#if I survive work that is but WELL

[nattravn-art]

Thy timeth is nigh!

[incoming-wormhole]

the temptation to make stargate rings to go on my wheelchair wheels for Basingstoke is so high rn....

[stars-obsession-pit]

Due to issues with Jack’s fertility, the Fenton kids were both conceived using donor sperm. The donor they ended up receiving wasn’t anyone special; just a random chemical engineer from Gotham City by the name of Jack Napier

And perhaps things could have ended there. Perhaps in another reality, they did, and Danny never had to pay more than a passing thought to his genetic father.

But in this world, Jack Napier faced one extraordinarily bad day, and it broke him. All he could do in response was laugh at the utter meaningless of it all. And by the time his cackles subsided, the man he had once been was dead. In his place, only the Joker remained.

Yet despite how suddenly everything changed, neither of them knew the truth of things right away. The Joker had never even known he had a son, since the service didn’t inform people if their donations were used. And though Danny had known Napier’s name, he had no reason to pay enough attention to the man to notice his disappearance.

That ignorance couldn’t last forever, though.

All it took was a few medical tests from Danny before the automated database systems made the connection.

And that certainly didn’t go unnoticed by those in Gotham.

It looks like it’s time for Uncle J to pay his kid a surprise visit! Ooh, maybe he could break out the ol’ electroshock kit and bring back Joker Jr too, make it a proper family reunion!

[damianito]

They are canon your honor

| Commissions open | [Click to help Palestine]

[artgletic]

case study of the self-identified god

[silverfoxstole]

A few of the photos from the Paul and India interview in this month’s DWM, plus a couple of snippets:

[saturnniidae]

I think Astrid Hofferson has a bad case of the 'my childhood was wasted, I grew up too fast for something ultimately proven pointless.' Syndrome and that she deserves to get to do silly things she missed out on and take up new hobbies, even if she's not particularly good at them–it's purely for the experience yknow, and learn to finally breathe no longer needing to be on constant high alert and get to be truly happy

[lenodrysalad]

"Eddie said he's straight! Buck said Eddie was straight! Buck said he's not in love with his best friend! They shut down Buddie in the show it isn't happening ya'll are delusional! Queerbait! Queerbait! Blah blah blah"

I feel like I'm going insane. I'm sure we're all tired of people shouting "media literacy" every five seconds, but like... Yeah, develop some media literacy, please.

I'm saying this as someone who doesn't usually like romance, despite being subjected to it in basically every piece of media. As someone who doesn't generally look for love stories. As someone who loved Buddie but didn't consider any serious possibility of it becoming canon before season 7/8, who refused to believe Buddie was truly happening until I couldn't deny it anymore: this episode is loud.

Please understand how narrative arcs work. How character arcs work. How character development works. How serial broadcast television works. Understand how writing works. Consider context; take the whole episode, the whole season, and the whole series into account instead of treating things like they exist in isolation.

I'm too tired to go through the step-by-step details of the episode to prove why these, "they said it on screen, therefore..." takes are shortsighted and ignorant; plenty of people have done that already.

But that episode, even if we do take it in isolation, is textbook. Do people really take everything characters say at face value? Do people not watch other character's reactions? Listen to what else is being said? Watch what is being shown? Consider the implications? Themes? Narrative devices?

Consider that maybe, just maybe, characters can be unreliable narrators, or believe something to be true only for that belief to change later. These things don't happen in one episode. There's such a thing as set-up, foreshadowing, the starting point of a plot. 911 is a serial drama, therefore it is going to have A) long-form story and character arcs, and B) drama.

Characters are not going to move in straight lines, or talk in therapy speak, or solve every problem in an hour. They are not always going to be right, or self-aware, or truthful, or rational. Direct dialogue does not equate to honest dialogue.

Also, saying, "well in real life, people do this, I do that, their feelings would be this, yadda yadda yadda" means nothing. Your experiences are not universal, and more importantly, this is a work of fiction. Realism is whatever the story says it is; it's going to do whatever creates the most dramatic, interesting, developmentally beneficial, or emotionally satisfying story. Whether you like that story or not is irrelevant to the fact that stories are not going to cater to all your expectations or real-world experiences.

To people pointing to Tim or the actor's interviews as "proof" they're shutting down Buddie: again, please understand how broadcast television works. They are not going to tell us everything that's going to happen before it happens. They are going to play the neutral zone, the "wait and see," the "will they/won't they." They are going to lie. That is television production 101. You can compare what they've said in the past with canon and list all the contradictions, misdirection, and twists you didn't see coming because they didn't spoil it for you. Watch the show. That is the canon.

They're also not catering to fandom--people they already know are devoted to the show, familiar with Buddie, and consistently tuning in. They're introducing the idea of Buddie to the general audience, people who likely haven't considered the possibility before. The GA has to see that Buddie is an option, so the show needs to manifest it as if it's a brand new concept. This episode pulled the pin on that grenade in a very obvious way; the idea that Buck could be in love with Eddie and that Eddie could not be straight has been planted. The next seed will be Eddie's feelings. Now the show needs to water it and let it grow.

One last thing. Been seeing a fair amount of hand-wringing and condescension over people interpreting this episode differently. As if this is some sort of "gotcha" for bad writing, baiting, or people being stupid. Listen, genuine complaints about this show's writing aside, different interpretations or inferences are completely normal. This isn't unique. That is how people interact with stories, through personal biases, experiences, emotions, and expectations. That isn't inherently a bad thing. It's totally fine to have your own views; media is all about interpretation.

However, it is also true that just because you have an interpretation, that doesn't make it true. Not all interpretations are equal in their validity, evidence, or warrants. The show has an intention, it has a story in mind. If you don't see it, sure, that could be a failure of the writing, but it could also very well be a failure of your analysis, especially when the show hasn't finished telling the story. Looking at one thing in isolation and forming your whole conclusion based around that makes for poor critique.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see who's right.

[turtleblogatlast]

“Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)” from Steven Universe works so ridiculously well for Leo

[corviiids]

i get the lines blur but there IS a big difference between media which doesn't explicitly tell/show you precisely what happens in the end but does point pretty clearly down the intended road vs legitimate open endings where you're supposed to decide what happens completely on your own and multiple interpretations would be supported

[sea-changed]

"The Brutalist manages to eschew the architect-as-mad-genius trope not only by way of this continuous thread of work (and the omnipresent threat of that work not being available), but also because for Tóth, architecture is not necessarily about changing or reshaping the world. It is primarily about survival—personal and material. [...] It is clear that Tóth’s overinvolvement in the process of building the Institute is a way of asserting not only his authority as an artist but, more important, his humanity in a situation in which he is constantly exploited."

Kate Wagner, "Nothing Is Free: The Brutalist and the work of architecture," The Nation

[barksbog]

i'm home but will take another week off to sort out paperwork and heal before getting back to work

i can't put into words how happy i am to have made it here. i genuinely thought i never would and just wanted to thank yall for supporting me and my silly little plush business. idk if I would have made it here without you!

[canisalbus]

Machete has parents?? I'm not familiar with their actual lore, so I've been imagining Machete as a desolate victorian orphan boy

Everyone has parents, he didn't materialize out of thin air (or evolve from a crumpled napkin).

But he lost contact with them early on and doesn't remember much of anything about them. Machete was a sickly kid and his family was going through a rough patch at the time, they were constantly struggling to find the time and funds to care for him. Child mortality was high and it was starting to look increasingly likely that he wouldn't make it. He was around three or four when they left him at the closest monastery that accepted foundlings and he hasn't heard of them since.

[smile-files]

authority has only found me appealing because they've always known i'd make a great cog in the machine

[lizasweetling]

This is so subservient I almost hesitate to accept that it's a form of loyalty at all

like, for one, they completely failed to either stop the evacuation, contact an appropriate supervisor to get orders, or enforce the evacuation order- any of which would have been more competent if not (??) more loyal (??) than just waiting at their master's abode for him to return like the fusion between housestaff and loyal puppies...

because sitting there in the line of fire on the assumption that if you were supposed to move someone would have told you is... well a really exasperating logistical burden but also an easy way to be an impediment???

and even what we're doing now: is this loyal?? he wasn't commanded to fix boilers by someone with actual authority- just a random bozo that appeared!! if the evacuation and explosion orders had a good reason (that we assume exists) then he should absolutely not be helping the cast here!!

and if we say it's fine because Gil by way of Boris commanded this group to come here and control the situation- that's a bit of a loose comand structure...

and can we please touch on the distressing lack of value in that probably-a-joke(?) understatement that "[he has] been rather worried about that"??? because I do not like what that implies about how they value themselves as individuals or even their collective. because being willing and cooperating, even with some misgivings he chooses not to act on, with his own probable death just kinda rubs me the wrong way.

for both those reasons I think the Lackya need a figure like the Jagergenerals- someone to help smooth silly logistical oversights like this one both to protect the Lackya from being accidentally cooperative with treachery and to protect them from accidental communication oversights like 'I would've thought it obvious that you should evacuate when literally everyone else is"

[tbhshaped]

who in arcane would actually survive squid game