#in case anyone sees this as shipping

[wanderingmind867]

A story idea I had recently:

Professor Hugo Strange is testing a new machine, designed to put his brain inside of Batman's body. But just at that crucial moment, The Joker breaks in (the reasons aren't really important right now). Meanwhile (high in the distant night sky), the demoness Tala spies Hugo Strange and Batman, and she decides to use them as pawns in a new competition against the Phantom Stranger.

She uses her magic to make the machine backfire, and she helps it rewrite reality to match her vision. She also surrounds gotham with a magical barrier, so their "game" wouldn't disturb all the other mortals. The Joker and Batman have swapped identities. Only Tala and The Phantom Stranger seem aware of what's going on, as Tala tries to use this game to prove (once and for all) that darkness can triumph over the light!

So…now I need to explain how things changed regarding Bruce Wayne and Jack Napier on this earth. So let me try my best to explain all of that. I'll go through each of the two of them, and I'll explain how their lives changed and diverged on this world here.

The Joker (Bruce Wayne): In this altered reality, Bruce Wayne lost everyone that night in Crime Alley. Alfred and his parents were all shot, and then the Falcones had his Uncle Phillip snuffed out too. With no remaining living family, Carmine Falcone adopts Bruce Wayne. And under Carmine's tutelage, the Waynes are kept firmly within the corrupt family business.

But Bruce Wayne can't be corrupted that easily. By the time that he's a teenager, he's realized what the Falcones and Hills do for a living. He wants no part in it. He starts making friends with reformist public figures, like Harvey Dent and James Gordon. Angry that he's betraying the family, Carmine Falcone drugs his adopted son with sleeping pills, and then leaves his men to dispose of Bruce's body.

In the end, Bruce's body is thrown into the abandoned chemical vats at Ace Chemicals. He's left for dead, seen as a lost cause. But he lives. The chemicals completely break his sanity, but he lives. In the time he's recovering, Falcone and Hill ruin Dent and Gordon's careers, so in retaliation, "Joker" kills Falcone and Hill, setting himself up as the boss Mayor and head of Gotham City. And from here onwards, we pretty much just have a world where Bruce Wayne is The Joker. But what happened to the real joker, one Jack Napier? Well…

Batman (Jack Napier): Jack Napier was a down on his luck comedian, currently writing for a brand new sitcom starring actor Basil Karlo. Jack was one of the lower level writers on the show, but at least he always had a home to come back to. His wife Jean and his son Mark were the pride and joy of his life. As Gotham went to ruins at the hands of the Falcones and Hills, the Napier family was getting by. And Jack Napier was even beginning to slowly make a name for himself.

In Season Two of the show, ratings were beginning to dip. Turns out Karlo wasn't as good at comedy as he was hoping he'd be, so they need a new comedic character. So Jack comes up with the idea of a weird relative of the family, who comes to stay and live with them. Jack is given a chance to play the character as the show gets retooled, and people love it. He slowly begins overtaking Basil Karlo in popularity, but Mr. Karlo doesn't mind (especially since it means he gets to go back to dramatic acting). The Basil Karlo show does Four seasons, and then it gets a spin-off all about "Jeffery Cesar Richardson" and his family.

The Richardsons becomes a hit tv sitcom, written and created by Jack Napier himself. He finally has total freedom. His wife and son finally get the life that they deserve. But one night (shortly after filming the premiere episode of season 2), the studio is held hostage by burglars. Nobody wants to stand up to them, but Jack manages to think of an idea. He sneaks away to his dressing room, works out a stunningly haphazard costume, and then tries to intimidate the burglars into leaving. Through pure coincidence, he manages to defeat them all bare handed. Now being billed as "Batman", Gotham has a new masked man of mystery to protect them.

So now the pieces are all in place. Tala has her Joker, a rich and ruthless madman with all the cunning and trickery of the original universe's Batman. Meanwhile, Jack Napier is a clumsy fool who stumbled into superheroics by accident, and would really much rather be a TV star. Can good and light triumph over darkness and evil, even in this world where the odds are stacked against them? With The Phantom Stranger's aid, anything is possible.

In the end, The Phantom Stranger and Jack Napier win the bet. Tala bitterly undoes her magic spell, turning everything in Gotham back to the way it was. The only thing left for anyone to remember anything by is a photo The Phantom Stranger managed to hold onto underneath his hat, a photo of Jack Napier smiling with his wife and child. He gives it to the Joker, then fades back into the mist to which he always returns. The Joker keeps the picture, though. He doesn't know why, but he does.

[tedkaczynskiofficial]

I love Zutara as much as the next girlie, but I think people romanticizing Zuko catching Azula's lightning in the Final Agni Kai are doing Zuko's character a massive disservice. He would have done that for anyone. Not just anyone in the Gaang, anyone.

He did it for the division he ended up getting burned over. He did it for his subordinate that was going to fall to his death after the ship was struck by lightning. He did it for Lee, when he was kidnapped by Gao. He did it for Iroh, when he confronted his dad and tried to break him out of prison. He did it for the whole Gaang at the Western Air Temple. He did it for Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda at the Boiling Rock.

His whole character revolves around saving everyone else first. Hell, he tried to save Zhao of all people! There's no way that would have gone well for Zuko if Zhao had actually taken his hand. He always does what he thinks is right first before considering his own safety.

Zuko always saves other people. Even if, especially if, he can't save himself.

[ihavesomejays]

text transcription:

Many springs ago, I perceived a sea of flowers upon a lake. I thought to myself that those fleeting colors held indescribable beauty.

The next time I perceived those colors was many years later, when the medic’s tent had blinded me to all but red. The radiance of that shining star was lost on my eyes.

Now, my eyes no longer perceive the subtleties in the colors around me.

But I am content.

For I can now see the most brilliant colors in my universe.

anyways yeah why did they fucking do that to jiaoqiu bro

the planning for this experimentalish comic is under keep reading

[hauntingofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[shkika]

her facility is literally color picked from the bi flag i am not joking trust me, i painted a whole shitpost about it

[fidgetspringer]

This is going to interest exactly no one except myself, but still.

We've all seen the chaos that is the Flight Radar right?

That's a lot of planes.

But are you ready for the insanity that is the Ship Radar?

Because it's nuts.

(Red are tankers, green are cargo.)

And if you watch for long enough you'll start to realise some vessels do some weird things. Like this tiny tug boat that has been doing exactly this for going on three days straight.

You good??

[xjackjackx]

An Analysis of Chosen and Dark's "Friendship" (And Why I Don't Like ChoDark)

This is frankly something I've felt and wanted to talk about for a long time, so here it is: my ramblings about Cho and Dark's relationship (based off pure canon on-screen) and why ChoDark is, in my opinion, a pretty bad and uncomfortable ship.

The biggest issue with ChoDark is that a lot of the foundation for their relationship is either outdated or straight-up false. Whether it be that they were friends rampaging for seven full years before Chosen got remorse halfway through, or that Dark wanted to impress Chosen or anything.

AVA 11 kinda threw that out of the window by revealing Newgrounds was in 2011. At most two months since they met.

The first thing to note is that Cho and Dark's friendship was formed strictly out of Chosen's sympathy and Dark's opportunism. Chosen has always held more mercy for stick figures (except AIM cause fuck that guy apparently), so when he saw Dark begging for mercy he gave him a chance at friendship. Dark - who, as we see later, is a coward prioritizing himself above others - immediately jumps at the opportunity without a second thought (which, in hindsight, should've warned Chosen about the man's loyalty to others). Their whole relationship began with Dark using Chosen's kindness for himself. The first thing they do together is to start destroying everything in their sight; whether it was Chosen or Dark who started it, it doesn't matter.

That's where most of us thought they spent all the seven years rampaging together with Cho taking a while before he grew a conscience. But then AVA 11 revealed that Newground was in 2011. In what was at most two months, Dark became a maniac focused on destruction while Cho began to feel sorry for what he was done and wanted to stop. It's implied he mostly stuck around and didn't stop Dark because he had poor social skills/was afraid of Dark, as he seems pretty uncomfortable around him (Flashback implies he tried to plead and reason with Dark, but that was most likely Cho twisting around his memories to make himself look better; not the first time he would've been selfish). Meaning it was seven years of Chosen alone with a guy he didn't actually like who, as we learn later, never knew the real Chosen.

Then comes S2, where Dark plans to destroy everything and everyone with the ViraBots. This is what finally gets Chosen to stand up to Dark and try to stop him. While he has to get physical, nothing seems to imply he wants to outright harm Dark until he gets an entire fireball thrown at him. Which is another thing I want to point out: I've seen many people accuse Chosen of "betraying" Dark, but... he tried to talk things down, used small physical action (when you take in the fact both of these guys are gods, being thrown on the ground is basically nothing) and didn't even seem to actively hurt Dark, just make him stop. Dark tried to fucking kill Chosen with that fireball, or at least heavily injure him. Dark was clearly the traitor between the two and I frankly won't be hearing otherwise, especially since this lines up with his earlier characterization of immediately selling out Alan and later info about his wristband, we get to that in a minute. Cho is a morally gray person but he's fully in the right and the victim in this specific moment.

But regardless, the two continue to throw hands. The big thing here is the Vira-Band. It's not just a generic power-up, it specifically grants Dark immunity to laser beams.

This is way too specific of an ability to be brushed off. Dark specifically created a weapon against Chosen. And unless we're arguing he made something so powerful in the 10-ish minutes that Chosen was gone, he had it made in advance. Combine that with Dark quickly turning on Alan and how he easily he decided Chosen needs to go, it becomes clear that Dark was actively planning to betray and kill Chosen. Or that, at the bare minimum, he was ready to kill Chosen if they ever turn on each other.

So, combining all their screentime and knowledge together, we get this:

Chosen spared Dark out of the genuine kindness in heart, but very quickly changed his mind upon calming down following his post-Alan rage and realising Dark's fucking demented. Despite this, he never made any attempts to stop Dark, the implication being that he either still saw good in Dark or was too afraid of him to stand up. And when he did, he put in all he had to stop him, and currently little implies he misses the guy.,

Dark first joined Chosen out of personal convenience, and thought of him as an ally he can destroy with... while apparently planning to betray and kill him. This is admittedly a bit contradictory, but given all the information we have, it's safe to say Dark saw Chosen as more of an extension of himself, someone who shares all his beliefs, and when Chosen proved independent he got angry and tried to remove him from the equation to continue uninterrupted.

And this is where my main issue with ChoDark lays (ignoring the possibility they're siblings since hollowhead relationships are confusing af). To clarify, I'm far from being against Foe Yay/shipping enemies together together. The issue is that a lot of what I heard about ChoDark just... isn't there. It's, for me, a ship built primarily out of outdated interpretations that are contradicted by the release of AVA 11, and fanon moreso than canon. They didn't spend seven years destroying as friends, Chosen spent seven years together with a man he was uncomfortable around and couldn't stand up to despite seemingly wanting to, to the point his likely-false memories show him pleading with an ignorant Dark. Dark didn't want what's best to Chosen/to help him, he wanted to spread personal destruction for himself and tried to kill Cho the moment he stepped out of line; hell, he was seemingly planning this for a while given the Viraband's existence. Chosen, at least from the very limited information of his post-Showdown, doesn't seem to miss Dark all that much. And why would he? It seems like he never liked the guy, at least not anymore. There is nothing to miss, at least from the actual canon content.

A lot of the content for ChoDark revolves around ignoring what's seemingly their canonical characterizations and dynamic for a fan-made one, which also involves frankly ignoring Dark's canon personality for a fan-made one... at which point are you shipping Chosen with Dark, or an OC with Dark's name and face? That's moving past the argument ChoDark is glorifying a toxic relationship, as there really is no other way to describe "Guy hangs around with friend he's uncomfortable around because he can't stand up/has no one else, and said friend is only using him".

So yeah. This is my personal analysis of Chosen and Dark's relationship/"friendship" and why I'm personally very uncomfortable with ChoDark as a pairing, platonic and especially romantic. Their canon friendship, based off what I see at least, was based off Chosen being too kind/submissive for his own good and Dark exploiting that while preparing for the moment Chosen stops being fun. Something that makes for an awful and fake friendship, let alone romance.

KingCho is superior anyway and deserves its own post btw

[salsflore]

hii ★ made a uquiz for selfshippers: answer 10 questions and i’ll give you a date with your f/o!

[shriggy-the-rat-king]

Ianthony priest/demon AU because it's been on my mind since that promo was released. Yes, I'm still trying to write a fic about this but in the meantime i made art :3c

This was a bit of an experiment as it's a bit different than my usual style. I'm also trying to learn to use Clip Studio, so it was a fun exercise. Alternate version without the bi lighting under the cut!

[stabby-pal]

I’ve gotten so tired of the “Shadow the hedgehog is 50 years old 🤪” jokes because people use it as an excuse to draw porn of him, so I’m swinging violently in the opposite direction and saying there’s more evidence pointing to him being the youngest member of the cast then there is evidence that he’s an adult.

1: to get this out of the way, he was in STASIS for 50 years, so he did not age physically or mentally in that time.

2: in his Sonic Generations dlc we see that when shadow met Maria they both appear to be the same age, this implies that when shadow was “born” he had both his current mental age and his “teenager” type body.

3: Maria does not (at least visually) age between her first meeting with Shadow and when she dies on the Arc.

So with this information in mind Shadows actual age is based solely on how many years he had with Maria, which all things considered could be less than 1. There is a real tangible chance that the reason that he’s so unstable in SA2 isn’t just because he’s still mourning the loss of his best friend/sister but because she’s all he ever knew, he know her since the day he was born fully conscious, then she’s just gone. On top of that his entire world changed, if I lived in an environment with a complete lack of ambient noise and basically nothing but sterile empty halls and was suddenly on a planet with constant noise and bugs and weird smells I’d consider destroying everything, and that’s without the factor of still being in mourning.

Shadow may have the physique and mental fortitude of a 15-16 year old but clearly would not have any experience up to that point. This also explains why in the Shadow the Hedgehog game he’s so easily manipulated and influenced after losing his memory, he’s been set back to square one, he’s basically an infant.

Now this may have spawned as a “fuck you” to people sexualizing a fictional child but this explains so many quirks about him that I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more people talk about this or play into it in fan works, Shadow is basically a toddler in the body of a 9th grader given the power of a god, sure he’s smart enough to make decisions for himself but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s huge gaps in his knowledge still even after living on earth for as long as he has.

In conclusion, let Shadow be a kid and stop making excuses to be creepy about him.

[jeremy-heere]

chapter 99: two birds

[merry-death]

I have my final tattoo session today, so once again I will be Blazing pictures of my cat and hoping the notes on the post are entertaining while I sit motionless for a few hours.

Here's the little lad on an adventure yesterday:

(He was promptly brought inside after that last picture because while Calvin is normally good on a leash, I didn't want to test that with potential prey swooping just feet overhead)

[smoshingatut]

I'm kinda tired of dungeon meshi fans blatantly misinterpreting Kabru's goals, motivations, and character so they can ship him with Laios...like obviously it's awesome if you enjoy Laikabu but can you nooot twist Kabru's intentions for involving himself with the guy who constantly triggers his monster trauma and pisses him off so bad he gets brain damage so that he turns into "the guy who wants to suck Laios's dick" as his entire character? I've even seen people cut off Kabru's words to make it seem like he is admiring Laios because it would disrupt that narrative

[fanfic-inator795]

So people are apparently shipping Max Goof and Bradley Uppercrust III from Extremely Goofy Movie.

While idk what prompted this, the ship itself doesn’t surprise me as it’s your typical rivals to lovers that, I’ll admit, can be pretty fun to indulge in on occasion.

But while I don’t mind the ship itself, shippers gonna ship and all that (especially when it’s two pretty bois with tension) I have to wonder what exactly Goofy would think in this scenario.

Obviously Goofy, being the Best Dad Ever, is gonna support Max regardless of whether he’s straight, gay, bi, etc. but like… Bradley straight up tried to seriously injure Max at the X Games for the sake of winning.

Even if Max is able to forgive and forget that little cheating incident, I feel like Goofy would have a VERY hard time doing the same. He’d be civil for Maxie’s sake, sure, but you can bet he’d be keeping an eye on Bradley and would likely have a “you sure he’s the one, son?” talk with Max, just to make sure he isn’t being manipulated by Bradley like Goofy himself was.

Honestly, even if I’m not into the ship itself (imo that Max/Yakko Warner ship people were indulging in a couple years ago was way more interesting/amusing), I wouldn’t mind reading a comic or fic where Goofy and Bradley have to have That Talk - that “you’d better not do anything to hurt my son” serious Goofy voice talk.

[househeritageposts]

i saw a fic once where it was foreman/chase/cameron and now i can't stop thinking about them

new rule: if you mention a fic in an ask, you legally have to send me the link. the duckling polycule Compels me...

[fiona-fififi]

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