#is it explicitly stated somewhere in the comics or is it a word of god situation

[transingthoseformers]

I don't know how close to canon the idea of Rodimus and Megatron actually being close in age is, but!!!!

I NEED Rodimus to know that btw

[brucie-baby]

also could you talk more about the violence as language thing for the batfam? I'm very interested in that and still new to the comics so I don't think I've picked up on it yet

Absolutely, I can!! It's pretty explicitly stated at one point, actually. I can give a couple examples.

Bruce hits Tim in #71, and this conversation happens in #81:

[Bruce says: "It was a message. Part of their training. A language. I teach them, when we spar, how we can communicate through blows. In case someone's watching. We were in plain sight. The blow told the bat-family to go quiet, to switch to other, more secure comms. In the meantime, I pursued Bane, knowing I would be defeated. I wanted them to break me, to see me broken. So that I might discover a way to defeat them outside of their watching eyes."]

I don't recall the language being explicitly mentioned at any other time but another example of this that I love is in Batgirl #50:

[Barbara says: Then why? Why in the name of god did you put yourself and Cassandra through that?" Bruce says: "Because she needed it. We both did." Barbara says: "What? Are you saying it was all some kind of screwed-up therapy session?" Bruce says: "What other therapy would Cassandra understand? She grew up with no other contact apart from violence. Fighting is her language, Barbara. The core of her being... of her soul. She had things she needed to get off her chest. And so did I." Barbara says: "You're crazy." Bruce says: "So they say. But it works."]

The thing about with these two is that violence is Cass' first language and Bruce's chosen language. It draws a lot of parallels between not only Bruce&Cass but also Bruce&Cain (but that's a post for another time).

I think it plays a big part in why Cass and Bruce click so well, because they both speak violence. It's a part of them. Bruce just doesn't always understand that while they're similar in this regard, they are not the same, and so he sometimes misunderstands what exactly Cass needs.

Also, I may be remembering this wrong (someone please correct me if I am), but there's a point in Batgirl (2000) where Cass is essentially like 'kill me because dying would fix me', and she's right. It does help her.

There's also this, from the Bruce Wayne - Murderer? storyline:

[Dick, attacking Bruce: "Aren't you even going to try to hit me? Acknowledge me! Damn it, Bruce!"]

I could go into real detail about these panels but honestly I think it's better to read the whole story yourself (very much recommend Murderer/Fugitive, love it). One thing I will mention, however, is that this is after Bruce is like 'Bruce Wayne is a mask, I'm Batman' and Dick is like 'Okay well if that's true then who am I the adopted son of? Who raised me?'

I just think the different ways you can interpret this fight are so interesting. Is it just Dick's anger? Is this Dick trying to prove that Bruce Wayne is not a mask, that he has people he cares for? Is it Dick trying to see how far gone Bruce is? Is it Dick being so used to speaking through violence with Bruce that this is the only way he can talk to him right now? Is the violence so normal that hitting Dick would prove that Bruce is still in there somewhere, still feeling, or would it prove that he truly isn't Bruce anymore? I have my own thoughts on this, but like I said, I recommend reading the whole thing for yourself and finding your own interpretation (it mostly depends on the version of Bruce in your head, to be honest).

The only thing that's definitive here is that the fight is a conversation. By the end of it, Dick has reached a conclusion. It's an argument and a heart-to-heart and a lecture and a vent all in one.

Overall, Bruce finds it easier to speak through blows than words. Maybe this is because he was exposed to violence at a young age, not raised by parents but an employee who allowed him to find himself through fighting and training and discipline. Whatever it was, the violence as a language started with Bruce and was given to his children. Bruce sees this in Cass and finds a kindred spirit. Bruce may not like violence, but he thrives in it.

[gffa]

Hi!  I’ve found that a lot of this depends on how you want to handle things/how your group of people is putting these things out there.  Like, I’m not going to reblog the posts I see in the tag that have like six notes saying “the Jedi told Anakin to repress his feelings and so it’s their fault he fell” (which is exhaustingly common in the tag but I know where my scroll button is), but if someone comes onto my posts, then I’m free to point out, no, here’s what canon actually says/does. So, a lot depends on the people you’re surrounded with--is bringing this up going to get you somewhere that you’re happy with?  Then, by all means, I have some receipts for you!  But if it’s just going to make you mad to argue with people who aren’t going to change their mind (or vice versa!), then it’s better to just let go usually.  It depends on you and what you want! There are two ways to handle this (if you’re going to get into it--and, remember, you’re not obligated to spend your time on this!): 1.  Ask them what scene from the movies or show specifically makes them believe the Jedi were shown to kidnap kids.  Or ask them, why do Jedi like Yoda and Mace and Obi-Wan, classic “true faith” Jedi, show emotion all over the place if they’re supposed to repress them?  How does that square with Obi-Wan telling Anakin that, say, romantic feelings are normal and of course they’re allowed in TCW? 

2.  Or point out that there’s no evidence that the Jedi kidnapped kids in the movies or TCW, but there is evidence that they don’t: - In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon can’t just take Anakin from Watto, he has to go through a whole huge entire scheme to get Watto to agree to give up Anakin, which shows the Jedi can’t/don’t just take kids. - In “Children of the Force”, Cad Bane poses as a Jedi to try to kidnap Wee Dunn and can’t just take the child, he has to come up with a whole plot to hypnotize her into agreeing to give the child over, which says that the Jedi get permission. - In “The Disappeared”, the Bardottens labeled the Jedi as kidnappers and the Jedi’s response?  They stopped going there.  The scene is deliberately framed as the Bardottens misunderstood them, but the Jedi respected their refusal and so they didn’t adopt Bardotten kids anymore. - They have a list of known Force-sensitives in the galaxy, why would they even need a list if they just took the kids? I have often found that reframing the Jedi Order adopting children makes a big difference for me in terms of arguments against them.  Jedi don’t get a choice about being raised in this culture?  Neither did Leia when she was adopted into Alderaanian culture, is that bad now, too?  Children are raised in their culture, that’s just how raising children works. With the Jedi and the emotions thing, they have never said to repress your emotions, they instead say to control your emotions, because they are psychic space wizards with powers directly tied to their emotions.  A Force-users’s interaction with the Force is based entirely on their own mindset and what they bring into it--if they use the Force in anger, they get blasted in the face with their own dark side feelings. We further see this in the way influential Jedi (like Council members or Jedi we know are generally good representations of what the Jedi are like) express emotion all over the place:

These are all Jedi who are on the Council, the Jedi who would most embody what they’re trying to achieve and yet, look?  Emotion all over the place! A lot of the “the Jedi suppress emotion” is because Anakin goes overboard, coming from understandable places, but that he takes it too far.  He murders children (the Tuskens and the Jedi) because he’s angry.  Whatever happened to cause those feelings, however understandable or not they are, when they are tied directly to the murder of children, no, Anakin was not right, he took things too far.  He lost control of himself. Further, Depa Billaba (Council member and Mace Windu’s former Padawan) directly says it in the Kanan comics:

”Those emotions are valuable and should not be suppressed, but you must learn to rule them, Padawan, lest they rule you.” Often, also, is the argument of “attachment”, like it’s treated as the same thing as “love”, when Star Wars as a narrative isn’t using it in that way, it’s directly tied to “possessive” and “selfish” forms of love, and George Lucas has said so directly and explicitly. “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith Love and attachment cannot be the same thing because “they should love everyone, but they can’t form attachements” would then be “they should love everyone, but they can’t love” and that doesn’t work. Some more posts to read, if you want: - Jedi and emotions - Attachment, greed, and the dark side - The Jedi co-exist with many other Force-users, they do not try to monopolize the Force - What the Jedi actually say/do about adoption in canon - Attachment is not the same thing as love - Big giant meta of what is canon/word of god for the Jedi People are, of course, allowed to hold whatever opinions they want, but I have found that canon paints a pretty positive portrayal of the Jedi Order and how a lot of accusations just don’t wash for me and are instead pretty directly contradicted by what’s actually in the movies and the TV shows and what George Lucas has said about his intentions for them.  People aren’t obligated to take word of god commentary into account if they don’t want to, hell, they’re not even obligated to take canon into account if they don’t want to!  But if we’re arguing about the actual narrative intentions, then this is what they actually say and do! AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, THEY ARE TRYING THEIR BEST IN A REALLY SHITTY GALAXY AND THEY LOVED SO DEEPLY AND THEIR MESSAGE IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD ONE--DON’T LET YOUR FEELINGS RULE YOU, BECAUSE THAT DOESN’T ACTUALLY LEAD TO GOOD PLACES.  ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR FEELINGS (like the Jedi design their tests around, the children going to Ilum have to face their inner fears, acknowledge them and let them go, before they can move forward, the Jedi are actively seeking that out in the canon!) AND THEN WORK PAST THEM, THAT’S SO MUCH HEALTHIER FOR YOU. I mean, look at the characters who most embody the ways of the Jedi and were elected to their High Council and we spend time with them--Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Depa Billaba, Even Piell.  These are all deeply caring, deeply good people who went through so much shit, shit that would have knocked many people out for the count, but still rose above it and kept their balance.  That says a lot about who the Jedi are right there and what their most faithful people are like.  AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I COULD BARF RAINBOWS ABOUT IT.

[randomsnakesimp]

Okay. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take the leap and say: Phobos is the victim (sorta).

Quick disclaimer: I am going to abuse plot holes and cartoon logic for my cause in a very nitpicky way. If you dislike that, I can completely understand, and I hope this warning will save you a lot of reading.

Also, this won't go into just headcanon territory, I'll put those in a separate post. Everything here I'll try to keep based on actual information from the comics and what I made of them.

That said...

Let's take a look at this scene:

(for a quick translation of the important part, the mother says: "No, Phobos, Meridian is meant for your sister. That's the law. The crown is hers.)

What we can see here are a few very important things:

1. Phobos is at most 5 years older than Elyon.

2. The name "Phobos" is not an edgy nickname he gave himself. Five-year-olds don't go around calling themselves Phobos. So his parents, for some reason, gave him that name.

3. His mother is very adamant about him not even touching the crown and reminding him of his sisters' birthright.

So, after establishing what I would call more or less facts, what else can, relatively savely, be deduced here?

- Since Elyon never noticed anything weird about herself, she can't have aged slower than earth children. So neither can Phobos. This would mean that, as she was kidnapped after her mothers death as a baby, he would have been five. So, he either tried his best to rule at age five, or the council we see as Elyon rules stepped in for him for a while

- this would then mean two things: we need an explanation as to why Miriadel, Alborn and Galgheita fled explicitly from Phobos (I'll give my explanation a bit further down) and second, Phobos' reign of terror wasn't even thirteen years, and a lot of that time he was a child/teen and could not even have been mature enough to rule.

- This also means that Kandrakar pulled up the veil when Phobos was at most five, likely younger, and that the so called "Seal of Phobos" also existed at that time, as both the veil and the seal are seen in the flashback depicting Elyons abduction. For Kandrakar, this, too, I will try to explain soon, but as for the seal, I find it most plausible that the theory @ror-witch used in their fanfiction, of the seal being a royal heirloom and named after each ruler, is true.

- His and his mother's relationship was neither as bad as some assumptions go, but neither was it that good, probably, or at least it wasn't in his perception. See how his memory is of her cradling the baby the entire time and talking more about his sisters birthright than about what he has/can do? Yes, it's only a short memory, but I think it's clear that it's a summary of what he remembers of his mother.

- Phobos desire to rule Meridian does not stem from something deeply sinister, but rather from a childish spite. Five year old Phobos probably just wanted the crown cause it looked nice and shiny, and he was fabulous even back then, but after his mothers words, he sulked and decided to show her. That's his motivation.

So, now let's go a bit further and look at some other things we can deduce from the rest of the comics:

- Phobos has a huge dungeon, a wall of roses that turn people into more roses if they touch it and his plan for the annihilation of Meridian is "Well, Cedric and I hide in the castle and...we'll see". He hates the people of Meridian, but he doesn't seem to have it in him to directly attack anyone until Elyon is there and even here, when he has her knocked out in their duel or locked up as Endarno, he isn't unnecessarily cruel. He's not evil in nature, he's more of a very dangerous child throwing tantrums. ( Cedric is kinda similar, and they both start losing it toward the coronation, but I sincerely believe that before that, there would have been a chance for them to come around )

- The only person he ever tortures or even hurts directly is Cedric. Because one, he likes Cedric and so gets more extreme emotions around him, and two, Cedric never says anything, and just plays it of afterwards, so I don't know if he even fully realizes what he's doing, like a child hitting someone. If Cedric ever just said "Stop it, you're hurting me", Phobos would probably need an entire week to process that input.

- Phobos is VERY reclusive, and he doesn't want anyone to have even pictures of him, and while that could be a God complex, I get some highly insecure vibes out of it, in a vulnerable narcissist kinda way, in that he is massively overcompensating. I gotta admit, though, that I cannot put my finger on why, so maybe take this with a grain of salt and decide for yourself if you agree.

- Kandrakar never orders the guardians to help Meridian in any way, just to make sure nothing oozes out. They likely pulled up the veil for their own protection, so Phobos wouldn't be able to spread far enough to become a real danger, rather than to protect innocent people, as clearly the Meridian people mean shit to them

- while the guards are widely feared in Meridian, Cedric seems to be viewed as... not very frightening or important, as some random merchant feels comfortable clinging to his cape (and rightfully so, apparently, as Cedric just tells him to piss off and doesn't care any further). This further leads me to believe that Cedric is rather unhealthy devoted to Phobos and his tantrums while their shitty ass reign leaves a lot of free space for unsuited people to become guards and tyranize the people.

- the King and Queen seem to have died in rapid succession, and shortly after the scene shown above, yet she looks perfectly healthy in that scene.

Now, what do I make of all this?

I believe the line of events to be as follows:

I don't think Phobos traveling back in time is a viable theory for mainly two reasons: I think his mother would be less chill around him if she saw/heard about his reign herself, and I believe that it would have been mentioned somewhere along the way if that were the case. Instead, what I believe happened is that the oracle had a vague vision of Phobos nearly taking over Kandrakar. Deciding in their random mood swings that today was a day of action, they had the people of Meridian informed that the next male born to a queen would become a dangerous tyrant, pulled up a veil and set their guardians to make sure nothing oozed out.

The veil, of course, made the people of Meridian feel trapped and a horror of the unborn prince who would ruin their lives spread.

So, when Weira gave birth to that prince, a full blown panic spread, so much so that she, in a fit of hysterical emotion, named him after that boust of panic. Of course, people tried to kill the prince basically from the moment he was born, and he was met with barely concealed resentment.

Soon after, Weira and her husband died - whether they were killed, or fell ill, or died in an accident, I have no idea, but I wouldn't completely rule out an assassination either aimed at Phobos and accidentally hitting them or the strain making at least one of them fall terminally ill.

Either the people rioted and Phobos' magic panic reaction or the leftover loyal guard was enough to fight them back, or the people succumbed to their fate at this point, slumping into the state of despair seen throughout the comics. But in the end, five year old Phobos had to be handed the throne. I assume the council still had some say at this point, but he did manage to get all pictures of him destroyed - this order was likely due to the fact that they were mostly caricatures.

So he grew up with the very volatile combination of a shitton of power and no one able to tell him if he was being stupid on one hand, and feeling unloved and unwanted on the other. He withdrew, likely also due to countless assassination attempts or things he perceived as such, and went into a negative feedback loop of being unable to mature and take responsibility, therefore being a shit ruler, therefore being hated, therefore having no one to help him, therefore being unable to face and grow from his mistakes, rinse and repeat.

So, Meridian was plunged into chaos, yet he seemed fine more or less just sitting in the new playroom he made for himself in the gardens, sporadically giving out an order or two and having generally no idea about anything that didn't directly concern him.

Enter Elyon. Now, she send him of the rails, as she was a danger to his lifestyle AND a reminder of all the sentiments he'd be drowning in alcohol if he wasn't too much of a recluse and education denier to know of that option. He doesn't even try. He just lets Cedric, the one person he trusts, handle her, like everything else, and somewhat plays along sometimes, when he feels like it. This is where he passes the point of no return and starts actually trying to kill people, culminating in him creating an army to wipe out Meridian. I still believe that even at this point, in his head, what he's doing is just throwing a nice toy out the window just so his sister won't have it.

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #307

Wed Feb 9 2022 [11:25 PM] Wack'd: Reed, Sue, and Franklin are leaving! [11:27 PM] Bocaj: Bye Reed, Sue, and Franklin! [11:27 PM] Umbramatic: SO LONG SUCKERS [11:28 PM] Wack'd: There are some goodbyes but they're mostly just folks recapping the plot at each other [11:28 PM] Umbramatic: as one does [11:29 PM] Wack'd: Crystal is gonna change back into her old FF blues but Sharon will be keeping the Ms Marvel getup until she feels she's earned her place on the team [11:30 PM] Wack'd: Everyone is very concerned about how tightly wound Sharon is. Thought bubbles regarding her as a bit of a ticking time bomb. Some early 60s "Ben has anger issues because he's a monster now" vibes coupled with good ol misogyny [11:31 PM] Umbramatic: geez [11:31 PM] Bocaj: 😐 [11:32 PM] Wack'd: Diablo is in the hospital because he was beaten half to death, but once his doctor and his police watchman leave it turns out he put "elixir of rejuvenation" in his hair before the fight so he's fine now [11:33 PM] Umbramatic: he put it [11:33 PM] Umbramatic: in his hair [11:33 PM] Wack'd: He says he "impregnated" his hair with it, yeah [11:33 PM] maxwellelvis: He what?! [11:33 PM] Umbramatic: i was imagining like slathered like shampoo but that's worse [11:34 PM] Wack'd: I wonder what commonly-used word choices comics use now that'll be a source of fun in twenty years [11:34 PM] Bocaj: In Busiek's Avengers it was mentioned that he soaked his mustache in potions [11:34 PM] Bocaj: So he just does stuff like this [11:35 PM] Wack'd: Anyway he recaps his backstory--wealthy aristocrat, found better living through alchemy, became a lord, got on the wrong side of a peasant uprising, was entombed for centuries until the Four came to his castle on holiday and he mind-controlled Ben into busting him out [11:39 PM] Wack'd: So Diablo has broken out of the hospital and is going wild with transmutation [11:39 PM] Wack'd: Turning furniture in Ben and Alicia's apartment into dragons, turning the city streets into tentacles, etc [11:40 PM] Umbramatic: somewhere, somehow, the elric brothers get fucked by this [11:40 PM] Wack'd: And so the babysitter becomes the babysat

[11:41 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile Reed, Sue, and Ben have moved to Stamford, Ct, but upon arriving overhear a radio news report about the Diablo stuff [11:42 PM] Wack'd: So Reed asks Franklin to project back to NYC and check it out [11:42 PM] maxwellelvis: The boy is not a drone, Reed [11:43 PM] Umbramatic: reed with franklin [11:43 PM] Bocaj: Ha [11:43 PM] Wack'd: One! One giant castle in Manhattan! Ah ha ha ha 🌩️

[11:43 PM] maxwellelvis: There's one already in Central Park! [11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: Diablo! [11:44 PM] Bocaj: There are more castles in New York than you'd expect [11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: What's wrong with Belvedere Castle? [11:44 PM] Bocaj: So many people decide to move an entire castle from Europe to the states [11:44 PM] Bocaj: Black Knight did it. Count Nefaria did it [11:44 PM] Bocaj: Xanatos did it [11:44 PM] Wack'd: Reed is like "we've got to go back" and Sue is like "uh. we explicitly decided this wasn't our problem anymore" [11:45 PM] Wack'd: And Reed, to his credit, chalks it up to instinct and apologizes [11:45 PM] Umbramatic: i love glob franklin in the corner there [11:46 PM] Wack'd: *cough*

[11:47 PM] Bocaj: Well [11:47 PM] Umbramatic: b a l l s [11:48 PM] maxwellelvis: We've got 'em [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Thank god someone's getting as fed up as I am

[11:50 PM] Wack'd: And so Diablo is defeated and forced to fix the city. And arrested[11:50 PM] Umbramatic: hooray![11:50 PM] Wack'd: The new Fantastic Four give themselves a well-deserved pat on the back and even seem to be getting along[11:50 PM] Wack'd: And Franklin returns to consciousness to report that all's well that ends well

[9worldstales]

MCU The Avengers - How did the fandom came to believe Loki was tortured by Thanos? (aka when God, Saint Paul and Dante seem to say the same thing)

Everyone has probably heard how there are people who say that, after falling into the Void at the end of “Thor”, Loki was tortured by Thanos and then sent to Earth. Of course every time this story comes up there’s a debate because this is not explicitly shown and some say it’s just a theory (word of Dante), some say someone involved with the work said so (word of Saint Paul) and some says the creators, be it Marvel or Joss Whedon or another director/scriptwriter said so (word of God).

Well, the truth is a collective chat about the three.

But first...

SOURCES MENTIONED:

Movies: “The Avengers” (2012), “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2″ (2017), “Avengers: Infinity War”

Series: “Loki” (2021)

Comics: None mentioned

Direct-to-video animated film: None mentioned

Motion comics: None mentioned

Books: “The art of The Avengers” (2012)

Novels: “Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: The Avengers” (2015)

Webs: The official Marvel web

Others: Interview: “‘Thor: The Dark World’: Tom Hiddleston on boom times for evildoers”, Interview: “Tom Hiddleston - live on stage Q&A: Popcorn Tax.i October 8, 2013, Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney”, Interview: “Tom Hiddleston THE AVENGERS Set Visit Interview”, Interview: “Joss Whedon told Comic-Con the question he doesn’t want us to ask ever again”, Interview: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ director explains why a major death had to happen so early in the movie, Script: “The Avengers”, Interview: Secrets Revealed in Joss Whedon’s Avengers DVD Commentary

Let’s start with...

WORD OF DANTE (aka fancanons)

Undoubtedly fans noticed some suspicious things in Loki which has brought them to draw certain conclusions.

1) At the end of “Thor”, when he control Selvig, his face seems to be bruised, as if he had been beaten. It’s easy for fans to assume if he seems to be beaten maybe... well, he was?

2) When he arrives, in “The Avengers”, in some scenes he seems unsteady on his feet and in poor shape as if he’d been beaten and, in one scene, he seems unable to stand straight. Same as above, Loki will prove through the movie he’s very resistant. If something made him unsteady on his feet... well, this can mean someone beaten him.

3) The Other threatens him and keeps him under surveillance, as if he’s controlling him somehow, both during the movie and in a deleted scene, which seems to imply Loki is working under coercion more than willingly.

THE OTHER: You will have your war, Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can’t find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain. [The Avengers]

4) Some wondered if Loki could have ended up being possessed as well by the sceptre as the sceptre could control minds.

5) Some noticed how Loki’s eyes appear as blue in “The Avengers”, a characteristic of the possessed guys, while in “Thor” they seem to be green was a hint Loki was possessed, same as Selvig and Barton.

6) Some wondered if Thanos might have tortured him to force him to cooperate as Thanos is known for having tortured people working under him. We saw him torturing Nebula in both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” and we also have those bits:

Gamora: He’s not my father. When Thanos took my home world, he killed my parents in front of me. He tortured me, turned me into a weapon. [Guardians of the Galaxy]

Nebula: You were the one who wanted to win. And I just wanted a sister! You were all I had. But you were the one who needed to win. Thanos pulled my eye from my head… and my brain from my skull… and my arm from my body… because of you. [Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2]

Gamora: All my life, I dreamed of a day... a moment when you would get what you deserved. And I was always so disappointed. But now... you kill and torture... and you call it mercy. The universe has judged you. You asked it for a prize, and it told you no. You failed. And do you wanna know why? Because you love nothing. No one. [Avengers: Infinity War]

7) Others assumed that, if Thanos didn’t do it personally, another of his children could have done it for him. We saw Ebony Maw torturing Stange in order to get the stone for Thanos.

Ebony Maw: You’ll only wish you were dead. [Avengers: Infinity War]

8) Since Thanos was willing to kill Rohan should he fail to bring back to him the orb, Thanos would have killed Loki if he hadn’t brought back the Tesseract so Loki was working for him under coercion.

Thanos: I shall honour our agreement, Kree. If you bring me the Orb. But return to me again empty-handed... ...and I will bathe the stairways in your blood. [Guardians of the Galaxy]

Ebony Maw: In all the time I’ve served Thanos, I’ve never failed him. If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan with the Time Stone still attached to your vaguely irritating person, there would be... judgement. [Avengers: Infinity War]

9) Loki’s willing cooperation wasn’t needed if Thanos had the feeling Loki could do it. He had blackmailed Gamora into giving him the location of the soul stone and he had killed Tivan to get the reality stone.

World of Dante is, as usual, very charming but if not supported by anything else it can’t ascend to canon. This doesn’t mean it’s false unless Word of God ends up stating the opposite, but this doesn’t mean it’s true either. Just possible but unproved.

So is there someone else that’s a little stronger than fan theories?

Enter...

WORD OF SAINT PAUL (aka what Tom Hiddleston says)

For start that he has blue eyes and, from the way he speak, apparently he was never made wear green eye contacts.

Loki is a sexy villain, but that’s not part of his ambition, is it? He doesn’t seem to be interested in love or sex but he has this sexuality about him, maybe it’s his lust for power. What do you think of Loki as a sexy beast? [Laughs] That’s the first time anyone has ever used that phrase about Loki. It’s fascinating isn’t it? I don’t know because it’s not a part of the conscious construction. I take relish in playing him. I think there’s a physical self-possession about him, a self-acceptance. Of course I’ve been very exacting about his physicality. You know, I was born with very blonde, curly hair, and a mixture of Scottish and English genes, and my complexion is very ruddy and healthy. In making him with this raven black hair and blanching my face of all colour, it changes my features. Suddenly my blue eyes look a lot bluer, which lends a severity to my face. And even my own smile has a distorted menace to it. Whatever comes through me naturally is distorted. It’s almost like a filter on a light. [‘Thor: The Dark World’: Tom Hiddleston on boom times for evildoers]

This disproves Fan theory point number 5. You might have noticed though that the theory about Loki being possessed by the sceptre is point 4. You’ll see later why I hadn’t placed those two points together.

And now let’s see what he has to say about what happened between “Thor” and “The Avengers.

In your opinion, what happen to Loki when he fell in to the void? Like, what did he experienced? HIDDLESTON: “You mean at the end of Thor?” “Yeah.” HIDDLESTON: “I think he went like with everything else to… Joss Whedon and I discussed it, to a sort of… hum… as… It was like the worst place imaginable. I think, he went to sort of all of the darkest recesses of the Universe, you know. I’m sure he had a brush with… with... with... several brushes with death. I think he ran into the shadiest characters you can find in the Nine Realms. I think he had to rely on his wits to protect himself. Hum… It was really, really, really unpleasant, I think. Umm… and all I have to, you know, I don’t have any frame of reference for that, really, except for imagining what it might be like to be… I don’t know, to be kidnapped by sort of a terrorist cell or something. And have to survive very very frightening and precarious existence. But whatever it was, it was important when Loki came back for the Avengers. Whatever compassion he had left, was absolutely kind a shrivelled to a minimum. Because of the experience he had. Harrowing, I think, and scarring for life. In a way that Odin and Thor, and Frigga find very, very difficult to understand. It’s a good question. Happy Birthday.” [Tom Hiddleston - live on stage Q&A: Popcorn Tax.i October 8, 2013, Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney]

How different is Loki in this film when compared to how he is in Thor? I think that he comes into his own power at the end of Thor. Is he just very angry and bitter in this film? HIDDLESTON: Well, what can I say here? I swear to you that in that building over there, there are sniper rifles. [laughs] I think that what was interesting about the journey of Loki in Thor is that he went from second string and damaged prints to being the God of mischief and God of evil. I think somewhere between the end of Thor and the beginning of The Avengers, Loki has been to the Marvel equivalent of the 7th circle of hell. At the end of Thor you see him let go. He lets go of the spear, he lets go of Asgard, and he lets go of the need of his brother and father’s affection and approval. He has bigger plans now. [Tom Hiddleston THE AVENGERS Set Visit Interview]

HIDDLESTON: “At the end of Thor, Loki lets go of that spear and falls into a wormhole,” Hiddleston said. “And the question in the audience’s mind, one hopes, is what happens to Loki in that moment? And in the time between the end of Thor and the beginning of The Avengers, Loki has explored the shadowy highways and byways of the universe – and he’s met some terrible, terrible people and probably has some awful experiences, which he has survived and overcome. So by the time he arrives in The Avengers, he knows the extents of his power – and he’s unafraid to use it. And more importantly, he’s unafraid to enjoy it.” [The Art of The Avengers]

There’s actually more but I think I’ll stop here.

Overall Tom Hiddleston seems to be a big supporter of something terrible happening to Loki, something equivalent to being ‘to the Marvel equivalent of the 7th circle of hell’* evidently at the hands of someone, the ‘shadiest characters you can find in the Nine Realms’, ‘some terrible, terrible people’.

Basically he says ‘I don’t have any frame of reference for that, really, except for imagining what it might be like to be… I don’t know, to be kidnapped by sort of a terrorist cell or something. And have to survive very very frightening and precarious existence.’

[*7th circle of hell: For who’s curious the 7th circle of hell in Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia is where are punished those who had committed violence against others and against themselves (suicides). Loki committed both sins. For Dante people who committed violence against people is immersed in a river of boiling blood with centaurs shooting arrows at those who try to escape while suicides are transformed into bushes and trees, gnarled and thorny, fed upon by the Harpies for all time. Likely that’s not what was done to him but anyway that’s not a nice place to be.]

Yes, Tom Hiddleston never said it was Thanos and his men who ‘kidnapped Loki and put him through the equivalent of the 7th circle of hell’. He’s very vague on this but we now Tom Hiddleston is careful not to give information which could constitute spoilers.

He also never mentions Loki being mind controlled as far as I know.

So we need an even higher source.

We need...

WORD OF GOD, or, in this case the WORD OF GODS, plural, because in the Marvel world there’s plenty of people who can claim authorship for the stories of those characters.

Whedon avoided speculating about his future plans, claiming he had too much on his plate to think about what will come next, but he did reveal that he’s bothered by a bit of unresolved backstory for Loki. At the end of Thor, Loki was emotional conflicted, but at the beginning of Avengers, he’s a demented villain, with no qualms about unleashing alien hell on Earth. Asked about how happened in between, Whedon said: “Well, I can’t tell you exactly what went on because it’s this dark, dark secret that I didn’t make up yet. But, the other day, I had trouble with that because he had this very passionate Shakespearean tragedy thing going on in Thor and then I needed a villain who’s not only capable, but ready and willing and anxious to take on all these heroes. For me, he just basically went on some horrible walkabout… That was pretty much as far as I got.” [Joss Whedon told Comic-Con the question he doesn’t want us to ask ever again]

God confirms what Tom Hiddleston said, Loki went through something terrible... but he had no idea what because he still had to work on it. He didn’t want to establish what. But, as I said, Marvel has plenty of Gods willing to talk.

After Loki fell in the wormhole... where did he fell?

Arriving at the Sanctuary through a wormhole caused by the Bifrost, Loki met the Other, ruler of the ancient race of extraterrestrials the Chitauri, and Thanos. Offering the God of Mischief dominion over his brother’s favorite realm Earth, Thanos requested the Tesseract in return. Gifted with a Sceptre that acted as a mind control device, Loki would be able to influence others. Unbeknownst to him, the Sceptre was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth. [MARVERL official web]

So no, after falling into the wormhole Loki didn’t go on a touristic trip through the universe, met someone bad unrelated to Thanos, changed and then met up with Thanos.

He straight out ended up at the Sanctuary and met with the Other who worked for Thanos.

Yes, they don’t say he got tortured in this bit but they confirm the sceptre was influencing him, ‘fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth’.

There’s some more that comes from Joe Russo and Stephen McFeely.

If you’ve watched every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you shouldn’t have been too surprised Thanos killed Loki. His death has been a long time coming since 2012’s “Avengers.” You may not recall, but it was Loki’s job in “Avengers” to secure the Tesseract and deliver it to Thanos. Loki never made good on that promise. It was only a matter of time before Thanos came after him to collect. Co-director Joe Russo says Thanos ultimately murders Loki “for disobedience.” “Remember, he [Thanos] had a relationship with Loki, even if it was off-screen where he entrusted him with a duty in ‘Avengers 1’ and Loki failed,” pointed out “Infinity War” screenwriter Stephen McFeely. “He’s [Thanos] making him [Loki] pay,” added Joe Russo. “Thanos has a long memory,” McFeely concluded. [‘Avengers: Infinity War’ director explains why a major death had to happen so early in the movie]

And then... then there’s something that’s even above World of God.

So finally we have...

CANON, aka what the movies say, and they say the weirdest canon lines in this regard if I can say so.

Thanos: [Walks over and drops Loki’s body in front of Thor.] No resurrections this time. [Avengers: Infinity War]

Loki: Is that the only reason you brought us here? To kill us? I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been killed, so go ahead. Do your worst. [Loki Ep 4]

How all this translates? (aka Word of Dante comes back because God and Saint Paul are just too obscure and canon is no better)

If Loki after falling into the wormhole ended up straight to the Sanctuary, the ones who played the part of the terrorists and lead him to an experience similar to ending in the 7th circle of hell where he had many brushes with death where either Thanos or his men.

Do your pick if the Other took care of it personally, if Thanos did the job or if he let the pleasure to Ebony Maw and what they did to him, if they forced him to fight with others same as Gamora and Nebula where forced to do, with the loser also losing a body part or if they just beat him.

The fact that Loki, in the “Loki” series say he has been killed so many times he lost count and that Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War” says there will be no resurrection this time seem to be connected.

That Loki as far as we know only attempted suicide by letting himself fall in a wormhole once, and Thanos couldn’t know Loki was given up for dead in Svartalfheim so the idea that Loki was killed many time and that Thanos know he had been resurrected should be connected.

How? That’s beyong my understanding as, as far as I know, no one in Thanos’ group has resurrecting powers. Can the mind stone do it? This would open up another theory.

As for the sceptre controlling him ‘fuelling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth’ what does that mean?

That he’s clearly not completely brainwashed as Selvig and Hawkeye.

So which is his level of brainwashing?

Very likely it’s at the same level as the one of the Avengers when they are in the same room and start arguing and the discussion degenerates to the point they seemed about to go at each other while the gem in the sceptre starts to glow, which is something both the script and the novelization reference...

[As the “team” argues, they don’t realize the BLUE GEM on Loki’s sceptre is glowing brightly.] [“The Avengers” Script]

None of them noticed when the gem set into Loki’s sceptre started to glow. [“Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: The Avengers”]

...and that the visual remark, turning the scene upside down as the gem is in full focus.

The novelization describes them as arguing without even knowing exactly what they’re arguing about.

Tony and Cap squared off over an argument that they couldn’t remember starting. Tony was still mad about the last thing Cap had said to him... whatever it was. [“Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: The Avengers”]

We also see Bruce picking up the sceptre without realizing, something that’s referenced both by the script and the novel.

BANNER: You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm? [BLACK WIDOW and Fury have their hands down to grab their guns.] STEVE: Doctor Banner... put down the sceptre. [BANNER LOOKS DOWN AND IS SHOCKED TO SEE HE’S HOLDING LOKI’S SCEPTRE. The computer beeps. They all turn to it.] [“The Avengers” Script]

“Dr. Banner,” Cap said. “Put down the sceptre.” Bruce looked down. He hadn’t even known he’d picked it up. He looked back up and saw Natasha’s hand on her sidearm. Fury was also ready to draw. The others were drawing back from him as well. Even though he could see what was going on, the hostility in the air was still tick enough that Bruce didn’t know wherever he could back everyone down... or wherever he could back himself down. He could feel the tension rising inside him. He could feel the monster trying to get loose. [“Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: The Avengers”]

The implication is that the sceptre is influencing them, pulling out their worst feelings and competitively and whatever which matches with what it did with Loki, it fuelled his hate.

It’s interesting how, when Loki arrives on Earth, the gem is glowing...

Also, the stranger held a kind of spear in his right hand. Set into its head, a gem glowed the same icy blue as the energy that had spilled from the Tesseract. [“Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: The Avengers”]

...and he also looks at the sceptre as if he hadn’t realized having it in his hand.

“Sir,” Fury called as armoured S.H.I.E.L.D. agents closed nearer, “Please put down the spear.” The man looked at the sceptre as if he had only just noticed he had it. Then, slowly, he looked back up at Fury, and a vicious smile spread across his face. [“Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: The Avengers”]

It’s worth to mention though, in that scene in which the Avengers argue, none of the Avengers has his eyes turning blue, although they weren’t themselves any longer.

So, it’s possible this is the distinction, Clint and Selvig have completely lost their will and are subjugated to Loki’s will, and as a result they’ve the blue eyes, Loki and the Avengers instead only had their mind warped by increasing exponentially their negative feelings to the point they might have started losing focus of the situation and only operate on negative feelings... if that’s make sense. They’re still themselves but their perception is warped so they’re acting in a way that’s not normal for them.

On another note it seems that in Joss Whedon’s Avengers DVD Commentary he said that

Hawkeye’s blue “possessed eyes” were added in post very late in the game, to make it more obvious that he and Eric Selvig were under Loki’s influence. [Secrets Revealed in Joss Whedon’s Avengers DVD Commentary]

This means that originally they weren’t meant to turn blue.

In the novel there’s no mention of it, in the script they’re described just as glowing black and then nothing more.

LOKI: You have heart. [Loki places the tip of the spear against Barton’s chest. Barton’s eye glow black, and he stops resisting. Loki begins controlling other agents around the room. Fury sneak up, grabs the Tesseract, and places it in a briefcase, trying to sneak out.] [“The Avengers” Script]

In the movie instead they turn all black for a moment and then settle on blue.

It’s an unnatural blue though, where Loki’s normal.

But again, this too is a fan explanation. A fan explanation based on canon, but still a fan explanation since God didn’t bother to explain further and at this point I’m afraid he’s not even interested in explaining it since the “Loki” series could have dug on this and instead expressed 0 interest in digging into the past movies.

Sometimes we’ve just to accept that fan theories are all we have and that we can like or dislike them.

And that’s all. Thank you to who remained till the end of this long post!

[quetzalpapalotl]

Is there somewhere where it is explicitly stated or strongly implied that Dominus was the creator of the Ambus test, and not another unnamed member of House Ambus? Just curious if there were comic panels where they talked about it or if it was a word of god thing or what

Indeed there is! In chapter 12 when Dominus is first introduced as a character via Chromedome telling Tailgate about Rewind's "number one", he explains that Dominus created the Ambus tests to determine sentience and based on that Zeta granted disposables rights

[geejaysmith]

Wolf 359: A running list of things I have a heightened appreciation on second listen, pt. 2

Part one here. 

SEASON 3:

Pan-Pan: Still a little miffed they didn't explicitly do the "we have to huddle to conserve body heat" trope. Yes, it's corny, but also shut up, let my touch-starved space disasters cuddle.

So Eiffel stopped Hera and Minkowski arguing in season 1 to address an emergency, and now with Eiffel absent, the team starts arguing again. The fact he doesn't exactly have much Pride In His Own Self-Sufficiency to get in the way of "hey! Guys! Remember, imminent death? More important priorities happening?" tends to defuse situations like this aaaaaand now he's absent.

"Cutter will send a squad of psychos to come up here and kill us faster!" ...she's not wrong.

"Pick a corner and relax! Hop to it!" I just like this line delivery.

"The entire station is a SPACE YUKON and this thing is overheating!" I know, it's like it's symbolic or something.

Episode 29: "we all feel responsible for losing Eiffel and are lashing out because we're scared and sad and grieving and fear getting backlash while we're vulnerable if we admit we need help, and we don't know what to do but keep going because the alternative is breaking down and possibly never getting back up again." Alternatively:  "It's Metaphors All the Way Down."

Mayday: Eiffel's frustrated screaming.

Brain Ghost Minkowski showing up like "Yeah, we know I'm a hallucination, or Weird Alien Shit, or maybe just a clever metaphor representing the abstract process of thought, but who gives a crap, this is more interesting than listening to you talk to yourself for an entire episode."

BGM: Hi, I'm your thought processes externalized using a face and personality that you subconsciously think you need to hear from in this situation, possibly because you think so little of yourself you need to hear it from somebody else first. Eiffel: Oh hey cool, this is just like this one web comic I kept up with sometimes back on Earth- BGM: Not another word.

Eiffel getting slapped by Brain Ghost Lovelace, who is a projection of his thoughts.

What is that whispering in his head that reminds him of the Hermes' name supposed to be anyway? Score one for my Weird Alien Brain Shit theory. Having Lovelace's alien juice in your system comes with such fun side effects.

"I dunno, I only know what you know." "Shut up, don't go meta on me." / "Hilbert wouldn't know that word! He's never even heard of Empire!" Yeah, toldja: it's Brain Ghosts.

Brain Ghost Hilbert may represent the realist in Eiffel and the brutal, calculating reality he doesn't want to confront, but Brain Ghosts Minkowski and Lovelace are his cooler head and ingenuity, working him through staying calm and devising a way to survive, and Brain Ghost Hera, who appears when Hilbert tells him it's hopeless, telling him that against all the odds he will be okay, is his stubborn determination to never, ever quit. They're all his determination to live when Doug might want to just stop trying. They're the better parts of himself, reflected in the voices of his friends.

And Hilbert. But I digress- HOLY FUCK, I just realized the brilliance in the one-two punch of the Brain Ghost Brigade contrasted with the previous episode's Stress Fracture Argue Crew, it's The Sound And The Fury all over again.

Paging the Wolf 359 incorrect quote blogs: "Save my friends! And Zoidberg Hilbert!"  

Sécurité thru Don’t Poke the Bear: Maxwell! I've missed you! (':

"And I build pretty awesome battle drones on the weekends." ...Does Maxwell have her own souped-up version of one Jamie Hyneman's Blendo?

Eiffel, realizing he's starting to sound like Minkowski: My god, what have I become.

Eiffel mumbling to himself in general. "This is hell and I'm in it."

Is it just me or is Kepler's pig story not as agonizingly drawn out to listen to the second time around?

A Matter of Perspective: Funzo: 12 different board games, three of them TCGs and maybe at least one TTRPG, all tossed in a blender, because Pryce and Cutter are psychopaths.

The Funzo manual is the size of the actual Bible and don't try to convince me otherwise.

How into the game the girls all get.

Headcanon: Minkowski and Lovelace are both the types to get stupidly competitive over any kind of game regardless of their initial level of investment.

Eiffel keeps a photo of (it's implied) him and his daughter taped to the underside of his console...

"He looks so... happy." shUT UP

"I had no idea Eiffel had a-" daughter. Was it "daughter" you were going to say Minkowski. Well, no one else knew you were married til you brought it up, so turnabout's fair play.

"You think you know me? You know the artist formerly known as Warren Kepler, you've met my job. Aside from that, there's no one left for you to know." In light of the series finale, I, uh... I don't if I like this, Scoob. Also, stop reminding me all these people are human persons underneath all the desensitization to horror and violence.

"Happy birthday, Eiffel." They remembered! Hope this one is less traumatizing than the last, Doug.

"Happy Kwanzaa!" "Lovelace."

"Long Story Short, that's the last time I saw Maxwell's feet" wh. What. What happened involving Maxwell's feet. What's. why-

And to make a long story short, that's where my "Maxwell has hands for feet" headcanon came from.

Need to Know: Minkowski's dreams, apparently, include both creating musicals and commanding a deep space mission. She's gotten the latter way the hell off the bucket list, somebody with actual songwriting skills want to get in and write the former with me?

Lovelace overindulging on painkillers for her broken arm after losing Officer Fisher... "It was a difficult time." ):

Aaaand serious implications of the above are immediately headed off by Lovelace quacking aggressively at Jacobi.

Fire and Brimstone: where is my fanfiction about Lovelace overseeing Minkowski during her solitary confinement?

The Backstory Episodes: Zach Valenti wrote all the backstory episodes! I just find that kind of sweet.

Once in a Lifetime: Small detail I only noticed on my second listen, after a fanfic put the thought in my head: Minkowski's parents are only referred to in the past tense. Oof.

"Thank you for coming in on such short notice. We had a hiccup in staffing for this upcoming quarter."  So... according to the wiki's timeline, the launch for the second Hephaestus mission was some time in late March 2013. The beginning of this episode (and Eiffel's) states it takes place in 2013, with 3 months of training, meaning they were probably brought on board in January and the whole thing moved *ridiculously* fast. Everything points to them wanting to get people up in space as quickly and with as little fuss as possible, giving the newcomers no time to think it over or do additional research. Once they start the training program, they're probably too busy to look further into Goddard's deep space missions, and are likely in an environment where Goddard Futuristics can cut them off from other information sources. The people they select are relatively isolated (Minkowski and her husband being an exception) - the easier to make them disappear. Even Lovelace has been stationed at "a lot of very isolated, very quiet outposts", the implication being her superiors wanted her somewhere out of the way. Kind of makes me wonder about the rest of the Hephaestus 1.0 crew...

Greensboro: Nice ominous foreshadowing you've got there vis a vis Captain Lovelace and "are you an alien?"

Decommissioned: "We're not about to force anyone to do something they don't want to do!" ...Marcus Cutter deserves to have his trousers ablaze constantly.

All Things Considered is still a bit confusing (because I somehow keep listening to it while doing something else) and I'll need another listen to figure out what probably actually happened, but it is also hilarious.

"Eiffel had engaged the machine, but that's why I build in extra safeguards. My mistake, clearly, was to assume that would be enough to stop the slapstick routine."

“All Things Considered”: Did you have fun with this over-the-top romp of hilarity and and hijinks, dear audience? Good! Because that was us burning off our comedy quota for the rest of the season. Get ready for six whole episodes of nonstop emotional gut-punches!

MEMORIA.

Just... Memoria.

Putting this quote here because of Reasons: "Three years... Three and a half years... I've had this thing in my head breaking me, and making me think it was all my fault, that there was something wrong with *me!*"

So Memoria is still one of the best episodes and the last five minutes fuck me up in a special little way.

Time to Kill: "Or the one outside is the real Jacobi... and the alien is already in here with us." The funny thing, Maxwell, is that you were half-right and didn't even realize it, and you *were* just speaking to Lovelace.

So... do alien duplicates only get reloaded from the singular "snapshot" of the person, or does getting flare-scanned once give them a continually updated source of info? What I'm getting at is: if another Jacobi shows up post-finale, would he need to be filled in on events between his horrible, terrible death and the present?

Persuasion: Maxwell switching to First Name Basis to get Jacobi to be honest with her.

I always forget until the scene after that Hilbert is totally setting up the Space Telephone to manipulate her, but of all the ways he could've gotten Minkowski around to "we are disposable and need to act *now* before these people decide they're done with us", it still kinda touching that this is the method he chose.

Desperate Times/Desperate Measures are just a blur of "oh god oh god oh god" and it's just as nailbiting the second time around. One thing I love about this podcast is how comfortable it is with (for its medium) long stretches of silence, which can feel a LOT longer when you have no other forms of feedback except dialogue to know the first gunshot was just a warning.

So you really *do* feel Minkowski breaking out into laughter when Eiffel tries to invoke Air Force code is a release of the tension that's been building for multiple episodes. Like he's finally gotten through to them just how far this has all gone and how much further it could still go. I keep saying this: when the situation starts to threaten violence, he's got an amazing gift for keeping the rest of the crew in touch with their common humanity when the rest get far too used to a world that runs on self-interest and subterfuge. Hell, he even gets Hilbert and *Kepler* opening up over the course of the story (presuming Kepler is being honest when he talks about being a shell of himself, but even though he was trying to manipulate Eiffel, that doesn't exclude there being a kernel of truth in those words).

Speaking of Kepler: he's definitely riding the adrenaline high of the situation and it turns him into a monster with a manic streak. It makes Jacobi's and Maxwell's relative calm all the eerier by contrast. Those two really do make you forget that all of this is... pretty horribly routine for them.

Until they meet their match, that is, when the women of the Hephaestus refuse to stand down, and each of them is unspeakably badass in their own way. What Kepler didn't account for is that they're ready and willing to die together rather than sacrifice one another for their own survival.

Although again, the irony of the situation is that just dropping the station into the star could have let them avoid, /gestures at season 4. BUT I'm not gonna rain on the Badass parade here.

Bolero, aka "The podcast kicking me in the feelings while I'm down."

The way Minkowski orders everyone else out of the room before Brain Ghost Lovelace conversates with her.  ...did she pop up in the middle of that conversation, I wonder? And all this when psi-wave radiation is spiking, apparently. Coincidence?

Oh come on Hera, war is no reason to end a friendship- Look, I came here from Metal Gear. I see folks dunking on Hilbert and I'm just over here like "he's still not as revolting as Huey Emmerich."  

Listen I've seen enough of Warren Kepler and Marcus Cutter in this fandom to know y'all aren't above liking a bad guy, you just prefer the ones who're having fun with it.

"You're gonna come to my funeral! And you're gonna like it! ...I mean you're gonna feel really sad! And cry! And stuff! GOT IT??" Ah, good ol' Eiffel.

THE COMPUTER ALSO HAS BRAIN GHOSTS

"If I'm not your doctor, then what are we?" "We're... complicated?" Listen, Eiffel, if you're not careful, I'm going to start shipping you and Hilbert ironically For The Lulz, and we all know where shipping things ironically always leads.

Errybody gets brain ghosts this episode. Again: I accept that this is a device that's more interesting than an alternative method of expressing these same ideas, but the ambiguity of a Watsonian explanation (is it all in their heads? Do they really see an apparition of some kind?) lets me do my Weird. Look, I once wrote in a joke in a fic about Death from Discworld complimenting a Quirky Miniboss Squad member from Metal Gear Solid 3 on his taste in interior decorating arena design, and that spawned entire subplots in projects for two different fandoms, and eventually roped in a third fandom to elaborate further on their now-intertwined cosmology. Do not underestimate how much I can give myself to work with.

The last ten minutes of Bolero also fuck me up in a special way, partly because We Are Dealing With the Hard and Unavoidable Fact of Death but also the aliens are about to throw a curve ball that'll... alter that last part a little.

Like, words cannot describe the "Dead Man's Curve in the wet" hard right turn of going from being in mourning for several beloved characters (including my favorite) to SURPRISE, SHE'S BACK! I love it.

I'd have to check the scripts to be sure exactly because some words got lost in Lovelace's respiratory spasms but I do like to imagine the her head wound closing up in front of a horrified Eiffel and Minkowski, with a side order of glow-y shit. I've drawn too many Homestuck god tier revivals I guess.

Update: I DID check the recording script's stage directions to see just how disgustingly physical the whole event is and okay, so no weird glowing shit (I reserve my right to depict it that way anyway) but I'm delighted to report that the gross anatomical-ness I was picturing? It's worse! It is so much worse!

The goddamn AGONY that is the Special Episode being TWO HOURS LONG when it comes right after the BIGGEST CLIFFHANGER IN THE SERIES.

You have NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF TEMPTATION IT WAS TO SKIP THIS AND COME BACK TO IT LATER

LOVELACE 1.0 I LOVE YOU BUT ALSO I WANNA TO SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING TO FUTURE-YOU RIGHT NOW

Change of Mind: love the framing device placing this episode as within Lovelace's mind during her successful cranial reconstruction saving throw.

"Buncha nerds, gonna crash my-"

Just how familiar she is in this place, with these people... Hera was installed in her sister's grave (as another post put it), but Lovelace lives in the gutted cadaver of her home.

Zach Valenti's Lambert voice *does* sound like a bad Minkowski impression.

"I have a physicist to put the fear of *me* into." That's my girl. She kind of was more of an ass pre-Total Party Kill, though? Like come on, Isabel, how necessary *is* all this arguing with Lambert?

Fourier's voice is very nice, also. Very soft, very easy on the ears.

I'm now appreciating how it sounds like Fisher is the older and calmer mediator among the crew.

Also the image of Isabel just floating out in space and listening to some chill tunes is sooooo good.

Hey Doc, did it turn out Fisher was too perceptive to live. Was getting caught outside in that meteor shower really an accident. Hey. Hey Hilbert. Answer me. 

Also goddamnit, has EVERY character in this series has read Harry Potter?

Did the Fishers always differentiate each other by audio channel? I had to rewind the scene when I realized Lovelace's questions in my right ear weren't getting an answer.

"Say you're a big pink elephant!"

*gunshot* *gross biological dissolving noises* WHY

"Just because somebody made you something doesn't mean that's all you're going to be - you can be more!" I wrote this line down prior to the end of the episode's confirmation that it's a Big Thematic Point.

Aaaand we're back to the framing device, and with that, season 3 wraps. Or maybe season 4 kicks off? Either way, hell of a way to kick it off.

Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs had a hand in writing this episode? Aw... that's sweet...

So, yeah, headcanon: Alien resurrection does the weird glowy thing to close any obviously fatal maladies, then the gross biological viscera part kicks in, hence Lovelace sounding like she's trying to hack up her lungs as soon as she starts using them again.

Listen, sometimes the gross biological viscera parts are my favorite parts, okay? Okay.

[kiruuuuu]

Blitz/Rook oneshot in which Blitz would like their relationship to stay secret and Rook... doesn’t. - for @magehir and her adorable second hand embarrassment ❤ :) (Rating T, fluff/humour, ~2.2k words)

.

“Oh I’m sorry, what was the question?”, Rook asks, a sickly sweet smile on his face and voice raised to make sure everyone in his close vicinity can hear him – though it’s painfully obvious he’s doing it for the benefit of one special someone who shows no outward reaction but struggles not to draw his brows together or even roll his eyes.

Ash grants the Frenchman a weird look and repeats herself at a normal volume: “I was just wondering whether you’re seeing anyone at the moment. You seem so chipper lately.”

“Sadly, no. There’s no one like that in my life right now, though I wish there was. Someone with whom I could hold hands in public, you know?” Ash nods sympathetically and opens her mouth to reply but Rook isn’t done, not by a long shot. “I bet he’d make me ridiculously happy just by being there when I wake up or by being the last thing I see before I sleep and I’d want to shout out to the whole world just how glad I am to have him.” The redhead is looking increasingly confused now at all the unnecessary detail yet is clearly too polite to interrupt. “Believe me, if there was someone, I’d want everyone to see how disgustingly happy we are and to listen to me gushing endlessly about how wonderful he is and -”

“Sorry to interrupt, Rook, but do you have a minute?”, Blitz chimes in after turning towards him with a fake smile. “I’d like you to take a look at my pistol, I feel like its accuracy is going down but have no idea why.”

Rook mirrors his vaguely pained expression perfectly and chirps: “I’m sure your gun is working fine, Elias.” They stare at each other wordlessly, neither of them willing to back down, while Ash just judges them silently. “We were just speaking of relationships. How would you show your significant other how much you love them?”

He’s ready for this one. “By respecting their boundaries and accepting compromises without complaints should it come to a clash in personal values”, he replies evenly.

The boyish face before him darkens considerably. “The accuracy is getting worse, you said?”, Rook grits out and grabs his sleeve, proceeds to drag him away from an entirely bemused Ash and down the nearest corridor, into the closest room that’s unoccupied. It’s resembling a typical interrogation room, the only furniture being two chairs, a cheap table and a large mirror on the wall – and isn’t it ironic that they’re going to have this conversation in a place like this. Blitz doesn’t miss how Rook purposefully positions himself with his back to the mirror so he doesn’t have to see his own angry expression.

“You’re being too obvious”, he states and it was undoubtedly the wrong thing to start with since Rook’s temper flares.

“Oh yeah? First you explicitly forbid me to talk to you, now I’m not allowed to talk about you? It was implicit, she didn’t have any idea what I was on about -”

“Which is exactly my point, she’s going to wonder until she looks more closely at what you said, maybe mentions it to Jordan whom you told that your ‘ideal type’ is someone your height with dirty blonde hair and an accent and oh, who could that be?”

“You’re being paranoid. They have better things to do than to gossip, do you genuinely think they compare notes or something? Why the hell do you even care that much whether they know or not? Jäger is gayer than the two of us combined and no one talks shit about him. Except for Bandit, but he badmouths everyone.”

Blitz heaves a sigh and rubs his forehead in an attempt to tidy his thoughts. It’s far from the first time they’re talking about this yet it always seems to drain him, leaves him weary and oddly exposed. “I’m not ashamed of you”, he says quietly and breathes a little more freely when Rook’s annoyance softens, “really, I’m not. You’re great, I’m insanely lucky to have you and I don’t tell you this often enough. But I just need some time. Alright? Just a bit more. Please.”

The young man seems appeased but it doesn’t mean much, he appeared satisfied the last time they had this argument. “How long? You keep postponing it, every time I ask it’s just ‘a little longer’. What if it’s ‘a little longer’ for a year? Give me something, mon cœur, just so I know you mean it.”

“I promised you I’d work on it, right?” A nod – of course Rook remembers. “It wasn’t empty: I told Seamus earlier.”

At this, the Frenchman’s eyes light up. “Did you really?”

“Yes. He was very supportive, promised not to pass it on and wished us all the best. I couldn’t have asked for – why are you looking at me like that?”

Rook is suddenly beaming at him full force, all traces of his earlier ire vanished into thin air and he’s almost bouncing with joy. “That’s – thank you. Why didn’t you tell me right away? Oh, I thought -”

He cuts off abruptly and Blitz can guess effortlessly what’s going on in his pretty head: “Seriously? You thought I’d never tell anyone and dump you without anyone ever knowing we’re together? Julien, please. Come here.” He pulls him into a tight hug that’s reciprocated just as eagerly and strokes his back reassuringly. Even though he knows his lover can go overboard with his emotional responses, the fact that Blitz must’ve given him reason to worry makes him feel guilty regardless. “I’m sorry”, he murmurs against Rook’s cheek, “I shouldn’t have waited so long. You’re worth so much more than my pride.”

The man in his arms draws a shaky breath but manages to pull himself together and when they separate again, there’s a genuine smile illuminating the sparse room. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for pressuring you. I really should respect your boundaries.”

“It’s alright.” Blitz strokes over Rook’s cheek on an impulse, relishes the soft skin under his fingertips. “If you want, we can tell Emmanuelle next, maybe even today. You said you’d like her to know and she’d also not tell anyone.”

“Yeah. That’d be nice. Let’s do it together.” And just like that, Blitz’ heart is singing again. Relief and fondness are making him light-headed, making him cherish how they seem to have overcome an obstacle in their way and only grown closer in doing so. He leans in and Rook’s eyelashes fanning out as his lids fall shut are the last thing he sees just before their lips touch. It’s simple and short at first, nothing more than a brush, only then Blitz realises he’s far from done and repeats it, catches Rook’s top lip between his own, tilts his head the other direction and then they’re kissing properly.

Almost chastely, their mouths slide together, work against each other, up to the point where Rook’s tongue darts out, politely asks for entry that Blitz grants generously and it morphs into something more than just an affectionate gesture. It’s addicting and lovely, still sugary sweet and slow but now it kindles a fire in Blitz to taste his lover more, more deeply and more intimately. He pulls their bodies flush, starts toying with Rook’s tongue in earnest and wonders when trading spit with someone, with another man became this desirable, this all-out attractive to him. He can probably accredit it to Rook and Rook alone, he kisses like a young god and is always patient enough to adapt to Blitz’ pace.

When they break apart again, both of them are smiling at their shared secret that would persist even if everyone else knew they care about each other – because no one could possibly understand how much. Blitz’ hand is in the nape of Rook’s neck and though one of his rules was that nothing would ever happen at work, he still pulls him back in and invades his mouth nonetheless, allows the strong legs to walk him backwards until he hits a wall. They fuse together, hips moving against each other more out of habit than need yet Blitz feels himself grow hard; Rook smells delicious and the way he nips at Blitz’ lip is nothing short of magical. The atmosphere has shifted completely, turned into something warm, playful, intimate.

“I bet this isn’t the gun Ash thinks I’m inspecting right now”, Rook murmurs and drags his fingers over the bulge in Blitz’ jeans, both of them grinning good-naturedly.

“We can take care of this when we’re done with work, hm?”

“Yeah. You said you wanted to get out more, right? We can take Mark’s car, I’ve got his keys, just drive out into the countryside somewhere and make love on the back seat.”

“I’d rather not soil his upholstery”, Blitz responds with a chuckle and grimaces while trying to adjust his crotch without actually using his hands. Rook notices what he’s doing and simply reaches into his trousers and underwear, grabs the half-hard shaft and pulls it into a non-incriminatory position, not without giving it a few light tugs for good measure.

“There you go, you’re decent now. Don’t talk to Bandit though, he’s probably the only one who’d both stare at your crotch creepily and unnecessarily and comment on it.”

Blitz just agrees with him and, with a final kiss and a quick squeeze to Rook’s buttocks, they step away from each other and out of the room. “What would I do without you?”, he asks rhetorically, gets a bright grin in return and then moves to walk back just as Jäger rounds the corner with what looks like a bowl of popcorn in his hands. As soon as he spots the two, his eyes widen comically and he seems to fight the urge to run away immediately.

“Oh! Uh, hi”, he greets them awkwardly. “I was just – do you want some popcorn?”

His teammate just stares at him, uncomprehending, until a terrible thought crosses his mind. He looks back at the door from which they’ve just emerged, then at the door next to it, thinks of the large mirror and the interrogation theme of the furniture and dear God please no. He prays for the adjacent room to be empty but the way Jäger involuntarily twitches as soon as he grabs the handle already tells him unambiguously it’s not going to be.

Blitz is greeted with entirely too many pairs of eyes who stare at him decidedly too entertained – the small chamber is cramped with people, he sees Bandit, the entirety of the SAS, Ash and even two of the Russians. Past them, he has an unobstructed view of the room he and Rook have just left and it’s not hard to imagine what in the world happened. As if on commando, at least five pieces of paper jump up, all of them labelled with a number and it takes Blitz a mere second to understand they’re fucking rating him as if he’d just ice skated competitively.

“Oh my fucking God”, he says because there’s literally nothing else he could say.

“You missed the crotch grab”, Bandit addresses Jäger over Blitz’ shoulder with a gleeful glint in his eyes, “don’t shake Rook’s hand unless you want to get a handful of a different German cock for once.”

“Beautiful”, Kapkan adds and pretends to wipe away a tear with his note that reads a solid 9.5. “You two are ready for the stage, it had everything: conflict, reconciliation, passion and romance.”

Blitz can’t believe it. He’s just standing there, thunderstruck, and gapes at the audacity. “How long -”

“Originally, Marius and I wanted to fuck in here”, Bandit explains helpfully and with a shit eating grin, “but then you two came in and I figured others might appreciate the show as well, so I gathered an audience.”

“I’m revoking your rights to my car, by the way”, Mute butts in and holds out his hand. “For obvious reasons.”

Rook seems surprisingly fine with the whole situation, quite the opposite to Blitz whose face must’ve adopted the colour of a tomato by now. He steps inside and drops the keys in question into Mute’s palm. “That’s fair enough. But why the fuck do we only get a 3?”

Bandit looks at the number he wrote and shrugs. “Neither of you moaned like a bitch, so it can’t have been that good. Or is that not normal? Is that just something Marius does?”

“Kill me”, Jäger mumbles and expertly expresses Blitz’ mood in those two words alone.

“I, for one, think you two make an adorable couple”, Smoke raises his voice and earns unanimous and very vocal agreement, especially from Thatcher who’s holding an impressive 10. “And there’s nothing you need to worry about, especially because you’re both so embarrassingly obvious that most of us knew already anyway.”

Ash just snorts at that. “Yeah. Gun inspection. Really?”

And when Rook starts arguing with Glaz about the fact that he awarded them a measly 7, Blitz’ mortification coupled with an increasingly strong death wish take over and he shuts the door once more, locking out the incessant voices and at least some of the teasing. He turns to Jäger who’s watching him with a sympathetic expression and says: “You know, I suddenly feel like getting very, very drunk.”

His teammate looks down at the popcorn he’s still carrying and nods slowly. “Yeah. Sounds good. The first round is on me, mate.”

[deprofundisclamoadte]

Hi. So I'm super new to the DC fandom. I've only watched Justice League. I love the Daveed Diggs fancast of Clark Kent. Can you tell me why so many people think Clark Kent should be Jewish? Is it something in the comics?

Hey there! Sorry this is a bit late! 

(Disclaimer: I’m not Jewish, so if I get something wrong, please let me know)

I don’t personally know if Clark has ever been explicitly acknowledged as Jewish in any version of the comics (by saying “I’m Jewish,” or wearing a Star of David, or celebrating Jewish holidays, for instance). He might have been, but I too am unfamiliar with a lot of the comics. The reason a lot of people interpret Clark as Jewish is because he’s coded as Jewish. He was created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who are both children of Jewish immigrants. They created him in the 1930′s, which was a time when… well, we all know the realities Jewish people faced in the 30′s (and still face now). And Kal/Clark’s story has echoes of Jewish diaspora, of losing your homeland and being displaced in a foreign country and disconnected from your roots. Additionally, the word “Kal-El” is actually a Hebrew word that means “voice of God”. 

DCEU Clark has drawn criticism because his storyline has parallels to Jesus Christ, and he is explicitly Christian in the films. He visits a church and seeks advice from a minister in Man of Steel, and his sacrifice, death, and subsequent resurrection in Batman v Superman is a very Christ/Messianic-like allegory. This post goes into more detail about the specifics of Jewish faith.

In fairness to the DCEU, because I do generally like the movies, and don’t want it to seem like I’m singling them out, I will say this:

The screenwriter for both MoS and BvS, David S. Goyer, is a Jewish man, and went on record stating that he based Clark off of a combination of Old Testament and New, as well as Moses (here).

A lot of Clark’s struggles in BvS are parallels to the struggles of immigrants and refugees in this current political setting (here, which was also confirmed by director Zack Snyder somewhere on the internet that I can’t find).

The “death and resurrection of Superman” arc is an infamous one originally from the comics back in the 90′s, so they didn’t just pull it out of their asses.

The DCEU movies aren’t the only ones to have used Christ allegories when writing Superman. The tv show Smallville apparently put him on a cross. I’m not familiar with many other media adaptations of Superman, so I can’t say with certainty how they handled religious allegories, if they did at all. And none of the other major actors who have portrayed Superman over the years (Christopher Reeve, George Reeves, Brandon Routh, Tom Welling, Dean Cain, Tyler Hoechlin) have been Jewish, so it’s not just Henry Cavill. I’m not saying any of this is necessarily good, but if we’re going to criticize one version of Superman, it’s worth extending the same scrutiny to other adaptations.

So yeah, I think that’s it. It got a bit rant-y at the end, sorry for that. But yes, basically Superman was created by two Jewish men as a parallel to the struggles of Jewish immigrants, has a Hebrew name, and in this political climate, Jewish stories and voices are in danger of being erased and ignored, creating a desire for a Superman who is visibly Jewish. Thanks for the message :) :) :)

[cerberosthehellguard]

Oneshot #18

Rating: T

Relationships: AkaFuri.

Characters: Akashi Seijuurou. Furihata Kouki.

Wordcount: 2000+ words

Tags: Incubus/Human AU. Fluff. Crack. Based on this comic.  

Summary: Akashi summons a rare and powerful incubus. Only, accidentally.

Author's note: What better way to start the new year than with a sizeable helping of sap and drama? Anyway, this is the last of my oneshots. I will be making a separate post about the future works and general gushing about my lovely readers soon but as of now, my oneshot collection comes to an end with this. THANK YOU AND ENJOY!! 

AO3 link right here! 

Mayuzumi was going to die.

A very explicitly gruesome death, Akashi predicted.

They were in college for god's sakes. Wasn't bullying supposed to stop with high school? Apparently not as the grey puffs of smoke grew bigger and bigger, engulfing the room with its force, enough to blur his eyes and make him difficult to breathe, throat constricting with every second that passed by. He had been thrown on the floor at the impact of the smoke, the suspicious book the cause of all this lying somewhere nearby and the room plunged in complete darkness even if it was only midday.

Akashi balanced himself on one elbow, covering his mouth with the other hand and coughed, trying hard to inhale something other than the pungent fumes and blinked rapidly to clear the tears pricking at his eyes when a strong scent of cinnamon, honeydew and chocolate washed over him.

The clouds of smoke began to dissipate slowly and a form appeared from within, looming over the fallen Akashi. Afternoon sunlight began to stream in from the windows again after the brief spell of blindness and the strange human-like form swished closer to him. With a lazy wave of its hand, the fumes evaporated, as if they were never there and the soft rays of the sun formed a mystical halo around it. 

Pitch black cloak resting on its shoulders that flitted to the floor like a long cape, lean sinewy body like a dancer's, long chestnut hair that wafted down to its slim waist, two tiny black horns protruding from beneath its messy bangs, glittering gold jewellery adorning its wrists, ears, neck and hips, pointy chin, pert nose, a smirk both mischievous and innocent at the same time and eyes glimmering like honey from pools of milk stared at Akashi as if he was the prize that had been greedily coveted.

It looked like pure unadulterated sin.

The being crouched in front of him, inching in close and tilting its head in contemplation as intelligent eyes roved over Akashi slowly, taking all the time in the world. "Hello."

The smooth, cautious and soft, velvety voice matched its form, Akashi mused. It could make people melt under its spell and become putty in its hands, to be played around like chess pieces. It slid a hand over Akashi's arm, feeling the bunched muscles there and leisurely undid his tie with the other.

"Hmm. You are quite handsome, aren't you? I have never seen anyone with hair that colour, it looks good on you."

The spirit licked its lips, running a pierced tongue languidly over its sharp pointed teeth, eyes gleaming bright as they watched Akashi's every reaction, every jerk, every blink, every breath, unblinkingly.

 What had Mayuzumi got him into?

 "So, what will it be, human? It must have been quite a heavy thirst to have summoned me. Reveal to me, your deepest, darkest, filthiest fantasies and I, will fulfil them with this body of mine." It was almost straddling Akashi's hips and bending down to seductively whisper in his ear, elucidating every syllable. "I will make you feel like you have never felt before, I promise. After all, your kind's blood tastes the best when you have absolutely succumbed to your desires."

Akashi noted dully that its fingers were starting to lazily undo his buttons with expert ease and that its hair smelt heavenly of chocolate through the frozen state of his mind at the words the spirit had crooned.

 Mayuzumi Chihiro was going to die a very painful death.

He was going to burn all of his light novel collection right in front of his eyes before Akashi even got around to torturing him.

 An incubus? Really?

He thought he had been dared to call upon a spirit of a dead person not a death sentence, for fuck's sake. Mayuzumi was going to pay. Dearly.  

 He jolted to awareness when the demon - demon! - licked the shell of his ear, its piercing feeling like cool steel against the warm skin. Akashi shivered.  

Gently but firmly, he pried off the long fingers one by one as he sat up.The demon protested as Akashi started to redo his buttons and his belt. "Let's do this now!!!"

Akashi cleared his throat. This was going to be difficult, to say the least. It was a dangerous demon, if the complexity of the spell was any indication - he had to explain carefully and hope it would see reason. "There....seems to be a problem. Pardon me...but I was simply testing to see if the spell worked and summoned you by mistake. I apologise for the inconvenience."

The demon stilled for a full minute before recovering, grabbing his hands in its and shifting to seat itself more comfortably on his thighs. "Oh that's okay! We can still play, though!"

Akashi sighed and shook his head delicately, not looking away. He gripped the hands in his and met its eyes levelly. Crimson against hazel. "Um.....I am not interested."

"What?!"

"I said, I am not interes-"

"AAARGH! I HEARD IT CLEARLY THE FIRST TIME!! You don't have to insult me! What do you mean you are not interested?? Why would you dabble with the forces of darkness and successfully summon me, ME" - pointing to itself as if they were of great importance that Akashi didn't understand the gravity of, the being lashed out - "if you don't want me to get into your pants?"

Akashi scratched his cheek, feeling sorry for both of them. They had been tricked into this embarrassing situation, even if Akashi was at fault for falling for the dare. And going through with it impulsively, without being aware of the consequences. He never did that. And the one time he had been goaded on to do, he was stuck with someone who could easily kill him with just a flick of their wrist, sitting atop his lap with arms crossed over their chest and glaring at him, scornfully.

"Well, I was challenged to do so because you were the hardest and the trickiest to call among the spirits but I was......conveniently uninformed as to what you were. I apologise deeply and-"

"This has got to be a joke. You can't be serious! Oh my god. Are you playing with me? Are you playing hard to get? Is that what this is? If so, I am more than okay with-"

"No no." Akashi put his hands on its shoulders, shaking them a little. He shook his head and took a deep breath. It was going to be so disillusioned. But there was no helping it. "Really. I don't want to have sex with you."

The demon looked like a child who had just been told Santa wasn't real. It was just two seconds away from bawling. Akashi had to think quick, he had brought this on himself, no matter how much he blamed Mayuzumi for getting him into this mess in the first place.

"But there are other things we can do." Hazel eyes sparkled at that. He himself felt his voice becoming chipper as he saw the gleam. "Such as.....watch TV, play basketball, go to the library?"

The demon's eyes widened as if positively mortified at the suggestions and threw itself off of Akashi's arms and backed into the far wall, all the way across the room. Quivering hands draping its robe around itself, shivering slightly and cowering as if to hide itself, the being stuttered to voice its thoughts.

"Yo-yo-you can't be serious!! You are asking me, ME, the one who refused to bed mortals - even nobles and kings! - that didn't qualify my standards, for platonic affection? ME??!! I will have you know you cretin, I rejected from using so many of your pathetic kind for blood simply because I wasn't interested! It does not happen the other way around! This simply is not happening!!"

The demon screeched, rapidly gaining control from its momentary lapse and letting out steam at being insulted. It was understandably indignant about the whole mess and Akashi waited for it to finish its rightful rant. 

It calmed down to mutters and grumbles before stilling like a statue and slowly turned to face him, shock written all over its beautiful features and whispered, "Does this mean we have to do....those things?" 

 Things?

 "Cuddling up on a sofa, watching movies about cats? Disney? Cooking breakfast together? Spooning in bed? Staying up late to talk nonsense at unholy hours of the night? Massaging with clothes on?! Scandalous non sexual acts of affection?? ME?!!! Are you serious?!"

"....I honestly hadn't thought of that but, yes. That....that does sound lovely."

The demon proceeded to blush furiously and sweat and tremble, eyes blown wide as the enormity of what it was expected to do, sunk in; holding its head with its hands as if an earth-shattering truth had been revealed.

Akashi tilted his head, regarding quietly. He could spend a few hours and study about ways to free the being from the uncomfortable situation he had put it in. "You...don't seem to be liking it. I could just-"

"No no! I mean ye-yes! I-I just need some time to emotionally prepare myself, ha ha!" It raised its hands as if in assurance that nothing seemed to be the problem, its disposition saying otherwise. "This is-I have-I have never done something like this before, so please give me a moment to come to terms with it...."

 Akashi nodded and stood up, offering a hand to the demon. "You can stay with me, until you choose to leave. Please, don't force yourself to please me. And. Akashi Seijuro. Nice to meet you."

The demon peered up at him, from underneath those long eyelashes and blinked. Akashi felt himself smile reassuringly at it. It really was a gorgeous creature. It slowly moved to stretch its hand and reach out to his while standing up.

Funny, they were both the same height, Akashi noted. Interlacing the warm fingers slowly a smile started to bloom on its face, nearly blinding Akashi with its beauty. "Furihata Kouki. It's nice to meet you too, Seijuro."

*

 Furihata couldn't believe his fate.

Even after three weeks of living with Akashi, who surprisingly cooked only with average expertise and had a strict sleeping regimen and other such funny quirks just like an old man instead of a twenty-year old, he couldn't believe it.

Reo had been so happy when he had been summoned. He was the pickiest of the lot. He was so finicky about who was calling him that he granted only an hour of two of his time before draining their life source, enough to last him a century or so. Reo was always mad at him for finishing so quickly and not enjoying the courting and not engaging himself with the human world more.

And now, this stunning redhead, who had been interesting enough to have successfully called upon him on the very first try, when bestowed with more than an hour of Furihata's time, had openly rejected him and all of his advances. Him.

He was this close to pulling out his hair.  

 Wearing a bright orange oversized sweater, gripping a mug of hot chocolate in one and another arm wound around the human, watching some dumb movie from a sofa too small for the both of them, Furihata lamented at how things turned out to be. 

That's it. He was going to label this as foreplay. Foreplay without the sex. He shall emerge victorious in draining the blood off this mortal. Soon. Furihata Kouki was nothing if not, absolute.

 Akashi snuggled into his chest a bit more and curled his legs up onto the sofa. Furihata immediately reached forward to fix the blanket, so that it covered them both sufficiently. Smiling into Furihata's sweater and nodding off to sleep, Akashi mumbled. "For what it's worth, you are doing a great job, Kouki."

 This vile tempter!

 Akashi didn't play fair, Furihata complained mentally. 

Heartwarming smiles and innocent sugary words all.

Sighing to himself, Furihata leaned back, tangling his legs with Akashi's underneath the blanket and planting a kiss atop the cherry red hair before taking a sip of the delicious brew, opting to watch the dumb movie.

Of all the lovers he had had in his existence, Akashi was by far the most riveting. And, honestly speaking, Furihata was in no hurry. Seduction after all, was a waiting game. He might as well make his stay pleasant here, as long as it lasts.

[roguetouch-blog1]

For various reasons, Gambit #16 is a controversial story. Nicieza's original plan was to have the various developments of Gambit's relationship with Rogue spanning a number of issues as a subplot. Due to editorial pressures, he was forced to condense his plot into a single comic, which has been both criticised and praised for its mercurial changes of focus and mood. As a result, in a single issue, Gambit and Rogue's relationship went through more changes than it usually did in a year....

Told in a series of flashbacks that were supposedly passing before Gambit's eyes at the moment of his death, the first memory was unadulteratedly positive. That is, he remembered kissing Rogue when she meets him at the airport on his return from Symkaria (and the past!). Naturally, she was more than a little surprised:

ROGUE: WHAT?! HOW?!

GAMBIT: The "what" is called a kiss, chere. The "how" is more complicated.

Although never explicitly stated, it was implied that Sinister's "tinkering" with his powers in order to allow him to return from the past had the added benefit of allowing him complete protection from Rogue's powers:

GAMBIT: Roguey, we spent so much time worryin' about your powers keepin' us from havin' a real relationship when all it took was a bit of... tweakin' on my powers instead!

ROGUE: Details!

GAMBIT: Well, while I was stuck in th' past with Courier -- an' thanks for helpin' out Sek, she tol' me what happened -- we found out th' only way we could get back home involved stretchin' my biokinetic chargin' abilities a bit. Exactly how... is like I said... complicated.

However, ironically, his enhanced, extended powers were now able to hurt her. She, first, noted a static cling (which he joked was his electric personality) but soon was being burnt by his kinetic charges which were raging out of control. In other words, they were back to square one, unable to touch for fear that she would be hurt. (It is debatable how... far they got physically before then!)

Unfortunately, more sparks than merely kinetic ones were flying between them as being able to touch did not solve the real difficulties between them. Rogue still was uncertain whether she could trust Gambit and he was still angry about Antarctica:

ROGUE: Somethin' you not tellin' me, Remy? I can read one of your "woe is me" moods a mile away. No more secrets between us -- remember?

GAMBIT: You're right. Fair is fair. No more secrets, so... what's your real name, Rogue?

ROGUE: . . . So what happened in New Orleans, Remy?

GAMBIT: Everyone's always on me about tellin' th' truth, but it never works both ways. Never stops people from keeping secrets from me. . .

(...)

ROGUE: Some things... they have to stay personal...

GAMBIT: Who decides that then? Xavier? Storm? You? When am I allowed to make those decisions for myself? All I've ever done since joining the X-Men is everythin' I've been asked to do -- an' I've done them well. You'd think the least I could get is a pat on the th' back, but the least I got was being left to die in a frozen wasteland an' I know you apologised for that, Rogue, but I never said I accepted that apology, did I?

This argument has been a cause of controversy and debate between fans. The one camp believes it was about time that Gambit expressed his anger and bitterness at what had happened to him in Antarctica and at the hypocrisy of the X-Men. They also argue he was picking a fight to avoid answering Rogue's question, deliberately choosing her sorest spot either to infuriate or upset her. The other camp notes that Gambit has a doormat complex, that he usually blames himself for the sins of the universe, that he has not expressed anger when the wound was fresher. Both sides make a strong case for whether Gambit was acting in character when he vituperated Rogue, but everyone seems to agree that his last speech in the book where he breaks up with her "for good" was cringeworthy:

ROGUE: It was like a good dream, wasn't it, Remy? Like God wantin' to give us a few weeks of happiness for all the pain we've been through.

GAMBIT: Yah. I'm sorry 'bout how I been -- th' usual, we push each other away when we're scared. Guess it was my turn. Tag, you're it.

ROGUE: I don't wanna play the game anymore. (...) It's not fair! We were... almost happy.

GAMBIT: You really think so? I don' think we even took five steps down the road toward knowin' what happiness really is, much less actually bein' happy.

(...)

GAMBIT: At the end of the day, Rogue, you know what always kept us apart? We did. Because both of us have been runnin' away for so long that to run into each other would've meant confronting and dealing and accepting everything that happened in our pasts. Neither of us is ready for that. Two stupid people too afraid of life! I'm reading to change - to move forward - but I know I can't do it with you... Not until you're ready t'do it for yourself. So the carousel stops an' it's time to get off, chere, for both our sakes. Maybe somewhere down the road we'll be ready to ride the carousel again... together. You were right. Last few weeks have been like a dream. Time to wake up and face a new day...

At the time and on hints from Marvel, people believed that this speech marked the end of Gambit and Rogue as a couple and, when Claremont first entered the scene, that certainly seemed to be the case...

[x] source

[irregularwebcomic]

[Irregular Webcomic! #1609 Rerun](http://ift.tt/1nuXeiM)

Normally when I receive complimentary e-mails I dash off a quick reply and then delete the message. (My mind still exists in the "keep your mailbox tidy because it'll eat up all your disk space otherwise" days of the early 1990s.) But recently I received one that I've been unable to bring myself to delete. The reader writes, in part:

I don't usually write to any of the myriad of webcomic authors whose work I read; even if their work makes me laugh I'm just too lazy. But, I just had to tell you, your IWC is the BEST original work I have ever come across. [...] your dedication to casually spreading advanced scientific knowledge and post-religious morals is truly inspiring.

I came across your stuff last night around 11 pm and read the entire archive. So many wikipedia tangents, so many browser tabs. So many WTF it is the next morning now? When I read about the mercury poisoning in Japan I became so angry I yelled at my computer. Your explanations of complex physics and math have an elegance at least on par with that of any popular scientific writers. I could go on, but in short, you win. You have redeemed Teh Intarwebz.

Now obviously this is pretty high praise and the sort of thing that would swell anyone's head. But two bits really got me. The "mercury poisoning in Japan" sentence. I've already discussed this, and you can go back and read it again if you wish. I remembered the tears in my eyes as I wrote the annotation to that particular strip. So many people suffering, absolutely pointlessly, amidst corporate and government apathy. I remembered being horrified when I first learnt about that terrible episode of human history when I was in high school.

It brought back memories of other things too. Also in high school, my English class read The Diary of Anne Frank. I remembered groaning when I was given the copy of this book with some girl on the front cover and being told it was her diary, and we had to read it and write essays about it. As background work we were also given assignments to research and write about the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust. I recall vividly the awful photographs I uncovered in the history books in the school library. The mind-numbing numbers of people killed, and the heartless ways in which it happened. It was gruesome, but fascinating.

In my recent trip to Germany, I made it a point to visit the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Because of Anne Frank and those assignments I was forced to do at school. We need to know what depths of depravity humanity is capable of descending to in order to understand what we can do to rise above it.

Which brings me to the real showstopper in that e-mail:

your dedication to casually spreading [...] post-religious morals is truly inspiring.

That has to be one of the most wonderful things anyone has ever said to me.

I wasn't even aware I was doing any such thing. I write these comics because it's a creative outlet for me. I'm not after fame or fortune (certainly not fortune!). I could probably grow my audience by a factor of two or three simply by submitting my site to a few webcomic indexing sites - but that's not what I'm about. I like to think I still have a small core group of people who come here every day to get a slice of something that will perhaps make them laugh, perhaps make them smirk, perhaps make them groan, perhaps make them think a little. I want to feel like there's something personal here.

So the comments I write here in these annotations are merely an extra way to get something from my mind across to you. Now: "post-religious morals"?

I like to think of myself as a moral person. I'm sure most of us do. And, while I don't think I've explicitly stated it at any point, watchful readers may have deduced that my religious beliefs fall into the realm of atheism. I'm willing to give some ground if God (or a god) manifests in front of me and does some miracle stuff, but failing that, my working assumption is that the Big Guy doesn't exist.

I've seen some very disturbing arguments made by some religious people (of more or less fundamentalist persuasions) to the effect of: If you don't believe in God, you can't be a moral person. I've never understood this, and it has always bothered me. How can people even make such statements? I don't believe in God, yet as far as I know I'm not a criminal, sociopath, drug dealer, axe murderer, or anything like that. I happen to think I live a pretty respectable life and have done vastly more good in the world than any of my few ill-considered rash actions that I promptly regretted soon after.

As far as I usually see it, the argument goes like this: God tells us how to behave morally. If you don't believe in God, you have no moral guidance, therfore you must be immoral.

A few weeks ago I saw a blog somewhere - I forget where. Anyway, there was a post and a series of comments about whether we possess free will or not (it was around the time I wrote this poll question). The discussion centred on the thought experiment of "would you shoot an innocent person, given no extenuating circumstances"? For the vast majority of us the answer is, instantly and incontrovertibly, no. The application to the free will question then is that if you are incapable of shooting this person, perhaps you don't actually possess the free will to actively decide to shoot them. Of course this invites the argument that, "Well, actually I could decide to shoot them, I just wouldn't." At which point the argument can go in circles for as long as the arguers enjoy it.

Someone raised the question, "Well if you have the free will to decide to shoot, but never actually do shoot, what's stopping you?"

Someone answered, "God."

"And what if God doesn't exist?"

"Well then I guess I'd shoot the person."

Wait a second. How does someone who believes in God and God's moral code and is a moral person, come to the conclusion that if God did not exist then God's rules would simply not apply and he would be able to bring himself to shoot a completely innocent person?

He's literally saying that he's only a moral person because God exists and lays down the law. He said, right there in black and white, that if God didn't exist, moral laws would cease to apply and he would go around casually killing people.

Now one conclusion you could come to is that this guy is a complete nutter and should be locked up in an institution somewhere. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, because clearly he is not actually going around murdering people, and (because of God) he actually thinks that killing people is a bad thing to do. But the really scary thing is that this is not the first time I've seen such an argument. Over the years, in various places, I've seen many religious people make the statement in more words or less that if God wasn't around, there'd be nothing to stop people doing any antisocial, violent, evil thing they feel like whenever the whim takes them.

I've never understood how religious people who are basically good can think like this. It seems clear to me that the vast majority of atheists (thus with no religious moral code) are basically moral people, extremely unlikely to swing at people with axes when the fancy takes them. If they weren't, the world would be a seriously dreadful place. How can the people who believe this sort of thing not see that?

So this has always puzzled and disturbed me. Until a few days ago when I raised the topic in conversation with a friend of mine. And he had an explanation.

Atheists, he said, need to find a moral direction from within. We need to examine our own values and beliefs in the context of human society, put some thought into them, and behave in ways that accord with what we decide is the moral way to act. There are various expressions of moral codes that work in this context. A simple one is "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." You don't need to believe in God to think about that and decide that yes, if everyone lived by that simple maxim, the world would be a nicer place. You don't need God to be nice to people. You don't need God to have morals.

Strongly religious people, on the other hand, get moral direction from the authority of God. God tells them how to behave, and God is the most important thing in their lives, so there's their moral code right there. They never have to think about their morals, because they are decreed from on high. They never have to go through a logical argument with themselves to decide that they should be nice to other people - they're just nice to people because that's what God says to do. If they never have to internalise their values and derive their own moral code, then it's not even something that they realise can be done. When a person like this looks at an atheist, they don't realise that the atheist has probably spent time (more or less consciously) to produce a moral code that they endeavour to live up to. All they see is someone without the moral code of God. They don't realise that there are other ways in which one can be a moral person. So they conclude that the atheist has no morals.

This is why religious fundamentalists are so scared of atheists. Everyone who believes is okay, because God will keep them in line, but those atheists, they'll probably stick a knife in you as soon as look at you. This is the problem with religious fundamentalist morals.

(I should stress at this point that I'm talking about the more extreme sort of fundamentalist. As with any word there are different definitions, and I know some readers of this comic describe themselves as "fundamentalist". As long as you don't believe that I'm an immoral potential murderer, I'm not talking about you.)

Richard Dawkins recently released a book titled The God Delusion. I have not read this book (yet), though I am interested to pursue it relatively soon. As I understand it, the book is a scathing attack on religion and the belief in God. Dawkins is apparently on a mission to discredit religion of all stripes and promote atheism as the solution to the world's problems. Atheism does not need a champion like Dawkins. Sadly, I can see that all his book will accomplish is to inflame religious opposition.

What we need is an atheist spokesperson to sit down with religious people and discuss issues with them. To point out that atheists are not scary people with no morals. That we have moral codes and are good people, and to describe how we have become moral people through our own introspection and thought. To point out that deep down we're really the same - people on a small planet, mostly trying to live good lives and do our best to find our way in a world that has enough dangers without us making more of our own through misunderstandings.

How do we develop thoughtful morals in people, as opposed to God-given ones? We educate our children. We teach them the history of the world. The bad bits as well as the good bits. We show them what happens when people treat each other badly. We get them to think about what is right and what is wrong, rather than just telling them. If you tell people something as an edict from authority, sooner or later they're going to question why. It'd be nice to have answers that lead to essentially the same conclusions, rather than an emptiness that can lead people to think morals can only exist in a world with a God, or in people who believe in a God.

When I first received that e-mail, I was taken aback by those words: "post-religious morals". I had to think for some time about exactly what that meant, and in what possible way I could have come across in the previous 1600 comics as conveying anything of that ilk to my audience. And honestly, I can't recall any particular instance of me expressing a moral opinion, other than that mention of the Minamata Bay tragedy that had already been brought to my attention. I suppose there must have been others, if this reader had seen fit to comment on it.

I suppose if you try to live a moral life, it just rubs off on people somehow. That's a good feeling.

I've received an overwhelming amount of feedback to this annotation. I don't have the time to reply to it all, but most of it is welcome and I thank you for writing.

Almost all of the response has been positive, both from atheists and religious believers. The response from religious people has generally been along two lines: (1) Yes, I agree, it's a shame that some atheists and theists find it necessary to fight or simply misunderstand each other so badly. (2) Thank you, you've given me some food for thought.

I've received criticism too, from both directions. Some took me to task for attacking Richard Dawkins. I confess I based my conclusion that "Atheism does not need a champion like Dawkins" on a lack of research on my part. I reserve judgement until I become more familiar with Dawkins' work on promulgating atheism. And some believers asked me to consider some points that I hadn't mentioned.

One particularly interesting one is that what many theists find scary about atheists is not that they don't understand where an atheist gets his morals from, but that an atheist's morals, being based on introspection and thought, are liable to change under different circumstances, whereas God's morals are absolute and provide certainty of action. I can see that this line of thought would be potentially disturbing to a theist, and I thank those readers who pointed it out. (I would argue that theists who hold this belief are discounting the very real notion that someone following God's moral laws can also change their mind under different circumstances, and also that the same moral law clearly does not lead to the same moral choices by believers - just look at how many believers of any given religion disagree on various issues.)

I've also received some scathing attacks from religious believers, stating that my arguments are full of logical holes and that either, yes, by declaring myself an atheist I am indeed immoral, or that I may have morals, but they were given to me by God and I'm just too stupid to realise it.

Interestingly, I hadn't received any such strongly negative comments until five days after this strip appeared, when suddenly several landed in my mailbox. I suspect someone has linked to my strip from some religious forum somewhere and is stirring up people to send me hate mail.

My question is, how is writing to viciously attack me moral behaviour?

2017-08-26 Rerun commentary: The funny thing is that I do now have a link advertising the availability of the first Irregular Webcomic! book. Still no T-shirts, though. I don't have anything to add to the long annotation above, except to mention that this year I started volunteering to teach primary school children ethics (which is not exactly the same thing as morals, I know), as part of the Primary Ethics program here in New South Wales. I currently teach a Year 4 class[1] once a week. I would do more, but I need to take a 2-hour slot out of my working week every week during school term to do this (lesson time plus travel time), and make up the time with my employer by staying back later. This has reduced the time I have available to make comics and engage in other hobby and leisure pursuits, but I think it's worth it. [1] That's children about 10 years old. I currently have 19 kids in my class. They can be a bit of a handful at times. If you ever want to appreciate how hard teachers have to work and how underappreciated and underpaid they are, try actually teaching a classroom full of kids some time.